I remembered nothing. The last thing I remembered was accompanying Nate in that horrible dream. I saw Nate's father dying. His real father that is. And I figured out the person that loomed over Terrence just before the dream stopped. It was a Nymph. The same Nymph that my ancestor handed the wooden chalice to and I know that I have to tell them. The sooner the better.
But the moment I woke up, my body was dead. By that I meant that my body would not move. A doctor came in and told me that I was temporarily paralyzed because I completely exhausted my magic. My aunt and the king were there looking worried but relieved that I was going to recover in a few days. Most that I actually did was sleep. I really wanted to tell them, but the most that I actually did when I'm awake was eat. Maids would pamper me in and out. I may be out of it but I could still hear a few conversations but I couldn't tell who was talking.
"...it's been 3 days. You think she'll be fine?"
"Of course she'll be tired. Two straight days exhausting her magic."
"Hopefully we can do something about it."
"What does she mean about asking my father?"
"That's what I wanna know too."
It's the princes. I want to move and tell them the truth. To tell them but my body would cooperate. Damn it!
Then one night, I felt someone slipping something on my wrist. I heard Custard making a sound. I heard the stranger shushing him and ordering him back to sleep. Then the warmth was gone and I could feel my energy coursing back through my veins. The next morning, I felt better and I was back to my very cocky self. There was a weird sort of charm on my wrist. A bracelet made of leather.
I was eating breakfast when the princes came to visit. The maids immediately placed a shawl over me before they allowed them inside. "Hey." I greeted and shoved a mouthful of eggs in my mouth. The yolk dropped and dropped from my lips and onto the white bed sheets. A petite maid immediately came to my side and wiped the yolk from my face.
The princes walked with a grimace on their face as they saw me eat. I mean, who can blame me? All I ate was soup and some porridge for the past few days. I deserve to splurge a bit with my appetite. I watched as the maids quickly prepared seats for them at the side of my bed. Ren was sitting the closest to me, next to him is Nate, and finally Ace.
"Slow down. No one is going to steal your food." Nate says as he watches me eat.
"Yeah." I nodded and pointed at Ren with my fork. "Except for teen wolf over here, who's eyeing my bacon!" I glared at Ren and moved my plate away from him. "Get your own!" I snapped at him.
"I-I wasn't looking at the food!" Ren blushed. What a liar.
Nate snickered beside him. "Care to share where you were looking at?" Nate bit his lips to prevent himself from choking. My eyes went wide when I realized what Nate just said and immediately pulled the shawl back to cover my bare shoulder. I pointed a glare at Ren. "And I thought Nate was the pervert!" I yelled. This time, Ren was the one who laughed while Nate who had a look of disbelief on his face.
"I wasn't the one who looked! It was this mutt right here!"
"Foul! Both of you." I whispered sinisterly at them.
"I swear every time you open your mouth a fucking argument starts." Ace sighed in his hands. "We came here for a purpose. You mentioned before about Nate's father-"
I gasped loudly. "How do you know about Nate's father?!"
"He told us everything." Ren said.
"What a scandal, right?"
"I know!"
"Can you both stop talking about me like I am not here?" Nate groaned.
"Yeah, right." Ren snickered and turned to me. "You know, this guy tried to leave because of that. He said that since he is basically a bastard son then he is not a prince. What an idiot." I looked at Nate with wide eyes. "You tried to leave? As in `quit?’ "
"I wasn't gonna. It was more like stepping out of the king candidate. And I am not a prince." He said solemnly and I gestured for him to come close. Nate got up from his seat and gave Ren a look. Ren nodded and handed me something from his pocket. I unfurled the white glove and slapped Nate's face. "Prince Terrence is your father and the king, even though he has a rotten reason for it, adopted you officially. Which still makes you a prince, you dumd*ss."
Ren snickered. "She actually got you there." Nate went back to his seat and pouted while clutching his cheek that I slapped.
"Are you guys finally done? Can we go back to the question why you told us to ask Nate's father?" Ace said while massaging his temples. I felt embarrassed at that moment for getting distracted again that I somehow focused my attention on Ace as I asked my maids to leave the room. I told them about the last thing that I saw in the dream. About the Nymph coming to aid Prince Terrence.
"So where is prince Terrence now?" Ace asked. He made sure that he would be the one talking so that the topic would stay on the right path.
"Uh..." I looked around the room for any sign of a ghostly and transparent image of Prince Terrence. Thank God there was none. "Nope." I shook my head.
"Do you have any idea how to get in contact with him?" Ace asked.
"I'm a tamer and not a spirit whisperer!" I told him. "If you want to go talk to a ghost then get a Ouija board or something." I waved my hand in the air.
"What is this Wija board?" Ace suddenly leaned forward as his eyes sparked with interest. I can tell that he knew that the item that I am talking about comes from my world. This fanboy is too interested in Earth.
"An Ouija Board. Not wija." I corrected him. "It's this rectangular board with a bunch of letters lined up. The material is similar to those of book covers."
"Does it flip and has this triangular shape stone with a circular hole?"
I gave Ace a look of both surprise and fear. "How'd you know that?" I gasped. "Are you secretly summoning undead spirits to join your demon army so you can become the demon lo-" Before I could finish, Ace was up on his feet. "Mutt, carry the princess to the library. Fangster, make sure the mutt doesn't do something funny."
"MY BACON!" I screamed and reached out to grab a few bits before Ren carried me. Ace tied the shawl securely over me and I had just put a bacon in my mouth when Ace grabbed it and the rest of the bacon from my fingers.
"No eating in the library!" LIBRARIAN Ace said before we moved out of my room with me screaming and yelling about my unfinished breakfast.
***
I can't believe my eyes. Ace actually has an Ouija Board! I knew it. He practices dark magic and summons evil spirits to curse us all! Maybe he is the reason that I have a lot of bad Juju!
"For the last time I never used this to curse people!" Ace slammed his hands on the wooden table. The Ouija board moved and the planchette flipped over. "I don't even know the purpose of it!"
I was sitting on the opposite side of the table with the board facing me. "Riiiiight." I nodded suspiciously, but my eyes never left his. I know this man is up to something.
"Will you show us how to use this or not?! Make your choice before I wrap that shawl and choke you!" I swear, we don't even need to summon an evil spirit. We have one here right now. One with large and pointed ears.
"Yeah yeah." I rolled my eyes and dragged the board closer to me. To be honest, I don't know how to use this and I could never do it in real life because I am scared as heck when it comes to ghosts. But I do know a thing or two about it from reading. That is, assuming that the sources that I read about it are reliable. "Grab this triangular thing like this. Make sure not to block the hole. All of you." I ordered them and showed them how to hold the planchette. The princes surprisingly were very cooperative that I can only assume that they really are not aware of the risk of this spirit mojo.
"Now what?" Nate asked. Good question! I also want to know what.
"Listen guys." I said very seriously. "Before we begin, I want you all to know of one rule. Once we start, never let go of this thingy here." I pointed at the planchette. "If you do, you will be possessed by an evil spirit."
"Nate's father doesn't sound like an evil guy. His real father that is." Ren pointed out.
"That is why when the glass starts moving, we ask the spirit of its name. They cannot lie." I answered.
"Why?" Nate asked.
I gave this a pissed off smile because I know that I will have to invent some b*llsh*ts again. "They respect the board, okay!? The board is magic like the floor is lava. Stop asking questions! Just don't release your old on the stone. And don't press too hard or the spirit won't be able to move it." I instructed and turned towards Nate. "Nate, you go and call your fathers' spirit. I bet he will easily answer you."
"How do I do that?"
"I don't know! Think of something. I can't be the only brains around here."
"I can't believe you have the audacity to say that." Ace replied and gave Nate a pointed look. "Hurry up and call your deceased father before I let you meet him. My way." He whispered the last words as a warning.
"Father? Hey, dad!" Nate quickly called out after Ace's warning. "If you are here then please. We need answers." We waited and soon, the planchette started shaking. "Father, is that you?" Nate asked and the stone started moving.
'YES'
Nate and Ren flinched while Ace and I remained stoic. "It works!" Ren said looking scared and I have to use my other hand to remind the wolf boy not to remove his hand from the stone. "Ren, do you want the spirit to haunt us by moving away?! Are you crazy?!" I hissed at him. "This is crucial! If we mess this up, then it is over."
"I can't believe it actually works to be honest." Nate whispered in amazement while Ace was fixing a look at me. I avoided his gaze as I continued to explain. "Now we can all ask a question from him. For example." I cleared my throat. "Is it true that a Nymph came to aid you?"
'YES'
"Are you really Prince Terrence?"
'YES'
"Am I really a powerful tamer?'
'YES'
"Is Princess Rose smart?"
'NO'
I blinked and looked up at Ace and gulped. He knows. He knows that I have been faking all this time while Ren and Nate actually believe that we are talking to Prince Terrence. Now Ace was looking at me and urging me to admit the truth. I looked away immediately.
"If I am not smart, then do you consider me a genius?" I asked and forced the stone to move.
'YES'
"Give us one word to describe the princess in front of us." Ace asked.
'P-H-O-N-Y' The stone spelled out the words on the board. I was pretty sure that Ace was the one who moved it.
"If PRINCE Ace becomes a creature then what sort of creature would he be?"
'G-R-E-M-L-I-N' Ace glared at me while Ren and Nate exchanged a confused look.
"Are...Are you really prince Terrence?" Ren asked.
'G-E-T-L-O-S-T'
"Oh my my my." I said through gritted teeth as I glared at Ace. "It would seem like an evil spirit is fighting with prince Terrence! Don't you agree, PRINCE Ace?" I challenged him.
"Well maybe the evil spirit is actually trying to stop a certain spirit from fooling around!"
"Hey, spirit." I said. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a d*ck is PRINCE Ace?"
'11'
"Who's the ugliest and stupid looking princess in the whole kingdom?"
'R-O-S-E"
"Who does Nora like more? Me or her brother?" I challenged. I should have known that this siscon considered it as an act of war when I mentioned his sister, because right now, we are fighting to spell our own name with the stone. Poor Ren and Nate were utterly confused about what was happening, but they were focusing too hard on the board as well.
"WHERE IS ROSE!?" The door to the library suddenly burst open and we all screamed. Our hands flew in surprise that the stone immediately dropped on the floor. Ren and Nate panicked about the fact that the connection with the spirit got cut off.
"We're gonna get possessed!!" Ren yelled.
"Father, please have mercy. I promise to talk to you every night, just please do not do harm to us!"
"Relax, you dolts!!" Ace snapped at them and gave me a look. The others followed his gaze and fell to mine. I flinched and looked away as I started patting my lap innocently. "It was her all along. She's moving the stone." Ren face palmed while Nate gave me a dead look.
"Hey!" I pointed a finger at him - PRINCE Ace. "You moved it too!"
"Only because you moved it first!"
"ENOUGH! How dare you ignore the presence of the queen!" My aunt said as she made her way towards us. The prince all bowed to her while I only looked up at my aunt. "Oh, you're here?" I said and when I saw her look I immediately added. "Sweet aunty! I missed you so muc-"
"Princess Rosalie Amber Stan!" She yelled at me and I had to flinch. Full name. I must be in trouble. She slammed a piece of paper onto the table. "Why did I receive a letter of complaint from the King of Vertez?! He told me you disrespected him and called him names. Even telling him to show you the deed to his own palace. You even threatened to sue him!?" Ace and Ren had a look of surprise on their faces while I sat there looking confused.
"That's a lie! I didn't even meet them while I was in Vertez. That lying sneaky son of-"
"Actually, it all happened when Rose was...drained from using too much magic. I couldn't stop her because I was emotionally in turmoil as well. I'm sorry." Nate bowed his head to the Queen and apologized.
"Prince Nathaniel, matters like this you should have told us sooner."
"Sorry, your highness."
I tapped on Nate's shoulder. "What else did I....do? I really don't remember anything." Oh God. I hope I did not do anything embarrassing again. Nate tapped his chin as if in wonder. "You littered some blue petals, yelled at the king to apologize to you, told my brother to burn my parent's wedding invitations, and you said you will welcome Adam to Eden?"
My head was spinning as blur images started to flood my mind. Some of what Nate was saying was starting solidifying in my mind like the raining blue petals and yelling at the king. I mean, the king is a douche but I might just have started a conflict or a war with the kingdom of Vertez for what I have done. "I guess that since Rose didn't do it on purpose then I'll just have to explain it to the king." The queen sighed.
There was a bark at the library door and we all looked to see Custard running towards us. 'Master!" It spoke urgently and ran hopped onto my lap.
"Alright." I scolded Custard the moment he was in my arms. "Where have you been, young man?" I demanded. Ren came to my side and lowered his head to see Custard. "He has something in his mouth." Ren grabbed to pick it up. Custard simply dropped the item on Ren's hand. It was the pendant that he found in Atla.
'Master, I found the pendant that you lost!' He said proudly and wagged his tail.
"Um...right. Good job." I said and patted his head. I wasn't even looking for the pendant, but Custard seems to have this idea that it is important to me or something.
Ren suddenly yelled and dropped the pendant onto the table. "Ghost!" Ren yelled and pointed behind Ace. We all turned to look but there was no one behind Ace. I looked at the pendant that Ren dropped. Come to think of it, I was wearing the pendant when we came to Vertez and saw Terrence for the first time. Now Ren touched it and claims that he saw a ghost.
I reached out to touch and grab the pendent before looking at the sport where Ren last pointed to. There, standing a few feet behind Ace was Terrence looking amused.
'Master, the pendant allows the holder to fully connect with spirits.' Custard says through our link.
Well NOW you tell me, Custard. NOW you tell me.