Chapter 10: Stones

Elsie screams as someone suddenly grabbed her hand, quickly turns around and sees it looks like a man, with wings, but that's not a head of a human.

She gets scared even more as she sees it, being cowered with stone, and having a grotesque face scared the little girl.

"Stop screaming you'll wake some of the plants"

says the stone man with a rough voice that sounds like it hasn't spoken for years.

She regains some of her composure seeing Nirav still there, but why didn't he do anything, wasn't he supposed to protect her.

"You buffon do you know how to do anything, other then being a muscle head, you are tasked with protecting her and she almost died just now, if she touched the Pink Martyu she would have died, she is just a human girl, you idiot."

After he yelled a bit at Nirav, the stone man turns and looks at Elsie.

"My apologies Lady for rudely grabbing your hand, but I couldn't just watch you touch that flower while carrying my Lords mark"

He says with his rough voice as he bows down, which makes for a interesting sight with his giant wings.

Elsie stands up still a bit scared of the stone man with an ugly face

"It's fine" she says as she dusts her self off

"Pardon me for my late introduction my lady, my name is Pragya, I'm one of the head Gardners at this mansion." He says trying to sound polite.

"No worries" answers Elsie as she looks at the flower that was supposed to kill her standing there looking all innocent.

"You said that touching that flower would kill me?" She asks trying to get some confirmation, not really believing him

"Yes Lady Elsie, that's the Pink Martyu, a simple touch to humans is enough to kill, it contains a deadly poison which can easily bypass skin and enter your body, it's a valuable plant, and if you came prepared to take it with sufficient preparation without consent, it would have ended badly for you anyway. This is His Lords mansion every Stone statue you see here is alive and serving this garden, protecting it. "

Elsie starts believing him a bit more and asks

"Why is it so important?"

"That I can not answer, as it is not my place to answer, just know one thing, do not try to take anything from the garden, that Shadow is strong but is no match for some Stone Man present here"

With that he turns around and returns to his podium and go back to acting like a statue.

"This is just a house full of wierd things, the less I spend here the better it is for my mind" Elsie turns and looks at her knight and says

"Carry me to the gates then put me down there"

'Did he mean Nirav, why did he call him a Shadow, are there maybe more things protecting me from the shadows or?'

"Hey big guy what did he mean by shadow, was he referring to you or something else"

As usual Nirav keeps on being quiet.

'Why did I expect him to answer now'

And so they continue to the palace.

When she arrives near the palace, the whole palace is in chaos, evryone runing around doing something, you can see a bunch of silver knights leaving the palace and going into the surrounding places.

I rush to my fathers study and ask him.

"Father what happened" I ask him

"Ahh there you are my dear Elsie, it's not good your seventh brothers Life rock has turned black and broke, I sent out the silver knights to try to find his body, and to figure out how he died, this is a sad day for our kingdom, losing one of our princes."

The king says with a sad look in his eyes, he wasn't the best son, but he nevertheless cared for him, not knowing how he died and whereabouts of his body, is making the king suffer.

Elsie is surprised 'What, how, how is it possible for a kingdoms prince to die inside their own birth kingdom'

She turns to Nirav and says "Go find his dead body."

Niravs eyes flashed blue a bit but that's it, he stood still, just as she was about to explode from anger, 9 shadows pass over her head heading out of the palace, she was barely able to see them.

The king is even more surprised, shocked

'What times have come first a prince dies in his own kingdom while at peace and now my daughter can order around The Black Moon Order, one more surprise like this day and I might need to find a successor faster then I expected.

I look at her arm and there is it, the Lucifers mark, someone that has been branded by him.

The king jaw drops as he see her bracelet.

"Elsie hh-ow ddid youu geet that braaceleet" I ask her barely able to keep my emotions in check "

I look at me father weirdly, what happened to him, I answer

"Lucifer gave it to me"

'It true, it really is true, from our ancestors a vital piece of information has been passed on, Lucifer would sometimes grant a part of his authority to some people, and they would carry this bracelet, before when people still haven't forgotten about noone would dare to touch one who has been branded, but now I doubt anyone even remembers anything about him, maybe there are some ancestral teachings left behind mentioning it in other kingdoms'

"Do you know its meaning my daughter?" The king asks still barely able to keep his excitement in.

He does not know how much authority she's has or what can she order, but having that bracelet is proof that Lucifer won't atleast abandon their family for a couple of generations.

Then 9 shadows rush the air, stop near Elsie, carrying a body, atleast what they think is a dead body, it does look like Timmoty but his skin is all pale, his face is scratched out, there's a giant cut, bite mark on his neck, his lower jaw dangling down, eyes black without anything white, but he is still moving, trying to bite and scratch one of the black knights. The black knight seems unfazed by the dead body attacking.

The king is shocked seeing his son in a state like this, what kind of black magic is this, as he tries to approach his dead son, it lounges at the king but is quickly caught by one black knight.

The king falls on his knees and tears start rolling down his cheeks, who did this to his son.

Elsie is heartbroken seeing her father act like this, not knowing what to do she gets near him, hugs him and tries to help atleast a little bit, but at the same time the palace shakes a bit, and you can hear a sound of an explosion coming from the North side City gate.

She quickly looks out of the window and sees smoke coming from there and people running away.