The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I froze, trying to catch my breath and realizing that I got caught red-handed. After a few moments, I brought myself to turn back and saw lady Iris standing next to a tree in an elegant white dress. Her blonde curls were falling freely to her waist and her skin seemed glowing in the darkness. She smiled at me and I didn’t know how to react to this. She definitely saw my magic right now and she definitely was clever enough to know that no maid in the castle should possess power like that. Not to mention how rare light magic was. Mostly, only people of the White Archipelago had it with some rare exceptions like me.

“L-lady Iris,” I mumbled, standing up, “Do you need help of any kind? I’d be happy to…”

I really hoped that we could just pretend that she saw nothing. It was probably stupid but the hope was always dying last.

“It’s all right,” the girl chuckled, “Your secret is safe with me. Kara, right?”

“Yes, my lady,” I still didn’t know how to react to everything that was going on.

“Be at ease, Kara,” Iris came closer and looked me up and down, “I already had a feeling that you are not just a regular maid. And I don’t plan on using this information in any way. So, no worries.”

“Th-thank you… my lady,” I mumbled, playing with the fabric of my dress.

“Just call me Iris,” she touched my hand, “At least when we are alone and it doesn’t look odd.”

“All right… Iris,” I nodded. She seemed to mean well but I still was a bit wary of her. Trust didn’t come easily anymore.

“Light magic, huh?” the lady smiled, “Rather unusual for these lands. You are far from home, Kara.”

“I am,” I agreed, “But it’s a long story…”

“Maybe one day you will tell me,” Iris chuckled, “At the moment I scare you more than help you, right?”

“No, it’s fine. I am just startled a bit,” I tried to explain my stiff behaviour, “I did not expect to see anyone here at this hour.”

“And I couldn’t sleep,” she sighed, “This Dark Selection is… a bit too much for me. I probably shouldn’t have accepted the dark mark.”

I looked at her chest where the black gerdian sign was. This mark was appearing only on the skin of the chosen girls, the ones who could accept dark magic into their bodies and give birth to future generations of gerdians. Only those girls could take part in the Dark Selection. I also heard that this was how gerdians marked their wives. One day Demir would mark someone just like that… And that someone wouldn’t be me…

“You look sad,” Iris noticed, bringing me back to reality.

“It’s nothing, really,” I tried to reassure her, “I am just really tired. Lady Gianna is…”

“A lot,” she finished for me and giggled lightly, “Yes, you were not lucky to get her as your master. But soon this all will be over…”

“Yeah,” I tried to force a smile and decided to finish this awkward conversation, “I need to go, lady Iris. Thank you for your kindness.”

“Don’t mention it, Kara,” the blonde picked up her dress, preparing to leave too, “I’ll be seeing you around in the castle.”

“Of course,” I nodded and turned around, only wishing to escape as fast as possible. But when I was already far enough, I heard her voice again.

“Kara,” she called me and I looked back at her. She was standing with her index finger rubbing her chin, “Did you ever hear of seraphim?”

“Uhm, no,” I answered honestly, “Not really. Why?”

“It’s nothing,” Iris shook her head, “Just read about them if you ever have time. Might be interesting for you. Just trust me on this.”

“Will do,” I shrugged and kept walking. I almost ran through the corridors and passages of the castle and soon reached my room and locked the door.

I did not want to think about what happened. It was too much on top of everything I already had on my plate. So, I just took a quick bath and after drying my hair, got one of the books that Sean Sarn gave me and got into my windowsill with a blanket. This was how I tried to calm myself down every night.

I tried to concentrate on reading even though I was exhausted… The last weeks were hard… I looked at the moon from time to time and wondered if he was looking at it too this very moment. I wondered if he still remembered me… If he still longed for me the way I longed for him…

I didn’t notice how I fell asleep and for a moment there it seemed that he was in my room and caressed my cheek. But when I opened my eyes in the hope to see him again, he was not there… It was just a dream. A simple one. Not even a special one…

In the morning my cheek was swollen from yesterday’s slap and I still had to tell lady Gianna that her dress was ruined. Bracing myself, I stood before her door when I heard noises inside.

“Please!” Gianna wined, “Don’t do this!”

Not thinking twice, I entered without permission. I was expecting anything – a gerdian lower, a burglar, a murderer even… But what I saw was just lady Fiona with Gianna at her feet on the floor. Just what was that?

“Ah, good,” Fiona smiled, “And there is walking proof of your aggression!”

I stumbled. Were they talking about me? Why?

“Did you complain about me?!” The lady of the South threw an angry gaze at me.

“No,” I shook my head honestly. I had no idea that was an option.

“She didn’t have to!” Lady Fiona stepped between us two, “The handprint on her cheek was proof enough against you.”

“What if another maid hit her?!” Gianna seemed angry, “And you are blaming me for something that I didn’t do!”

“Unfortunately for you this time there are witnesses of your misbehaving!” Fiona said coldly, “One of the ladies, Iris, saw you mistreating your maid more than once! She filed an official complaint against you and judging by your previous record here, we decided to let you go.”

“No, please!” The southerner started begging again, “You can’t do that! It’s not supposed to be like that!”

“You’ve been warned after what happened to your previous maid. But it did not help. You have no one to blame but yourself!” The coordinator of the Dark Selection was staying strong, “Unless…”

“Unless what?” Gianna grabbed that last chance, “ Unless your maid decides that we should keep you and give you one last chance. Everything is up to Kara now.”

They both looked at me – one expectantly and the other with hope in her eyes.

I did not like Gianna. I did not. But over the past weeks I found out one thing about her – the Dark Selection was all she had. She couldn’t possibly return to her homeland without a gerdian husband. It would be too humiliating and she’d hardly be able to deal with this kind of humiliation.

And for the first time, I felt sorry for her. She was a hostage of her situation. And although she wasn’t a good person, she probably wasn’t the worst one in the world either. I did not want to ruin her life. I felt already bad enough for all the troubles I caused to others.

“Please, Kara, please!” She fell lower on the floor and I… I felt sorry for her.

She was always so arrogant, she always behaved as if she was above everyone else. And now she was ready to beg a mere maid for help. All to become a wife of a man she didn’t even love. She wasn’t even sure whose wife she may become… She was… pathetic and I only felt pity towards her.

“I would like it for lady Gianna to stay at the Dark Selection,” I said firmly and for a second there lady Fiona seemed surprised.

“Is that your final decision, Kara?” She asked.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Very well,” the strict lady looked at the southerner, “It seems that the luck is still on your side. But remember that if I see at least one new scratch on your maid, I am not even going to ask her where that came from! From now on your most important task here is to make sure that nothing happens to her. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Gianna nodded quietly, “Thank you for the second chance.”

“That’s your third one,” lady Fiona corrected her, “And also the last one. See you at the next event.”

She started walking towards the door, where I stood, and nodded at me right before she was out. It was a little gesture but it gave me a lot of confidence.

So when the door was closed behind her, I walked calmly to Gianna and helped her up. She looked at me through her long lashes and opened her mouth to say something but closed it fast. I smirked and shrugged my shoulders – I knew far too well that she didn’t have it in her to simply thank someone. But it did not bother me at all.

“Let’s go,” I told her, “We need to fix your makeup. Most of it is gone from al the crying.”

“Yes,” she agreed quickly and then remembered, “Where is my dress for The Ball of Portals?”

“Oh, it was ruined,” I confessed easily. Now that I knew she couldn’t do anything to me, I felt so much better about it, so I added, “You’d better choose something else. Fast.”

She clenched her fists and there was so much rage in her eyes. But I only raised my chin higher and looked her in the eye. Judging by her facial expression, she had an inner fight going on. But when a forced smile spread over her face, I knew I just had my little victory.

“That’s fine,” she squeezed out of herself, “I have many dresses.”

“That’s fine,” she squeezed out of herself, “I have many dresses.”

“Great,” I smiled at her, “Then I’ll help you choose one as soon as we are done with your face and hair.”

The atmosphere in the room was awkward and Gianna started talking about random subjects. I nodded to her from time to time to show that I was listening even though I wasn’t. There wasn’t anything new there. She was discussing her next gerdian targets. Also known as potential husbands.

She was rating them and creating new lists of pros and cons. And I held back a laugh when she assured me that at the Ball of Portals they will all see her on the other side. That was unlikely, but I decided not to tell her that.

“Shame the Duke is not here anymore,” she sighed, “What a man!”

“Indeed,” I kept braiding her hair even though she just stabbed my heart with another mention of Demir.

“I wonder why he is gone from here,” Gianna continued in the meantime, “That’s probably because of that war at the gerdian border…”

“A war?” I looked at her in shock. I wasn’t aware that there were any wars.

“Yes, they say that some bird people tried to attack them!” the lady of the South rolled her eyes, “Idiots! I don’t know what made them do it!”

But I knew…

A pain in my heart wasn’t dying down even when I left her that day.

Was Demir fighting Gideon this very moment? Why would Gideon attack the Empire?! I sent him a letter before I left where I explained everything! He shouldn’t have done it!

Or… maybe he simply did not believe me?

In my room, I wrote a new message for my brother, begging him to stop and letting him know that I wasn’t even in the Gerdian Empire anymore. I explained my decision with precise details in the hope of his understanding. Maybe not at once, but over time… Gideon will understand…

There was no other way to send this message to my brother other than with the help of magic. I knew there were special spells for that. It wasn’t like there was a special delivery service that could take a letter from Akyria to the White Archipelago. So, there was no choice, and I went to the castle’s library in search of books that could help me.

The library wasn’t too big and I bit my l*p remembering the one that Demir had back at his palace. The shelves here were mostly filled with romance books. That was probably what they expected the ladies at the Dark Selection to read.

But I started digging deeper and after a while found a few basic magic books. In one of them, there was an easy spell to pass a letter. I also found a track-destroying spell just in case, so that Gideon couldn’t find me easily. I didn’t want him to start another war with Akyria. And I still wasn’t ready to meet him after everything that became known to me lately.

I was about to leave when I remembered Iris’ words from last night. Seraphim. She told me to read about it whatever it was. So I started looking but to no avail. There were no books on it in the library to my disappointment. I was even more intrigued now…

The days went by slowly. Sometimes it seemed to me that the time here was frozen. Events between the girls and the gerdians were happening almost every evening and. Couples were forming. Not for everyone though. Gianna still was struggling, playing with two men at the same time. Some other girls did not manage to attract anyone. And some distanced themselves from their admirers. One of those to my surprise was Iris.

The day of the Portal Ball arrived and I prepared Gianna the best I could. I was going to leave to my room and have some rest when lady Fiona approached me all of a sudden.

“Lara, dear,” she addressed me by my real name to my surprise, “I have something to ask you. I am down some regular servants due to flu. Would you be so kind as to work at the Ball tonight? Nothing hard – I just need someone at the wine table filling all those goblets. Do you think you can do this for me?”

“Of course,” I smiled. I owed this woman a lot and this was a little favour.

“Great,” she said, “I already send a dress to your room. Change into it, please.”

“A dress?” I looked at her in shock.

“Yes,” she nodded, “It’s a ball and everyone has to look nice. Even servants. Don’t worry, it’s modest and pretty. Nothing special but not this ugly uniform.”

“All right then,” I agreed, “I’d be happy to help.”