27 Twenty-Seventh

Beyond the doors was a large room decorated with antique looking furniture and artwork, including grand paintings framed in heavy, engraved oak, ornate and intricately painted vases on top of dressers and tables, and expensive tapestries hanging on the walls.

The windows were large, allowing plenty of natural light to pour in from outside, which reflected off the marble floor and made everything feel warm and cozy despite the austere decor.

As soon as they arrived in the room, Emily immediately found herself wandering inside, mouth open wide in awe.

"Wow...!" She gasped.

She could feel the excitement build inside her as she wandered around the room, marveling at every object and feature. She'd already been in a palace, but this room seemed extra fancy somehow.

Her gaze focused on an intricate and extremely detailed tapestry that covered one wall.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" She heard the voice of Adrien saying softly behind her. "They say it takes twenty years for the finest craftsmen to finish one single tapestry of this quality."

Twenty years...?

"Oh. My. God!" Stella gasped loudly, grabbing the arm of another maid in an exaggerated manner. "Look! At! That! Jewel! Mirror! That's real diamonds it's made of, I think! My god, I just want to live in this room!"

The other woman chuckled lightly, leaning away from Stella just a bit, before glancing up towards Adrien.

"May I speak, your Majesty?" She asked softly, her voice sounding respectful.

"Certainly."

The woman smiled, appearing pleased with his permission to speak freely, before turning back toward Emily and pointing toward one of the large paintings hanging over one of the dressers. "This is an original painting that Queen Charlotte of Amatheon donated during her reign."

"Oooh..." Emily moved closer so that she could admire the beautiful scenery depicted.

While it was just a landscape, it looked absolutely gorgeous! The painter must've been incredibly talented to render it so faithfully. The colors were so intense and the details so intricate it looked less like a painting and more like a window.

"Isn't it lovely, Stella?" The maid asked eagerly. "It shows the Royal Palace in Amatheon. Do you want to know its story?"

"I do!" Stella jumped excitedly into the air.

For a moment, Emily worried Mia might forget her disguise and start floating, but fortunately the excited little fae hadn't lost quite that much composure.

"Many years ago, in the land of Amatheon, before Queen Charlotte's father had died, she secretly slipped away from the palace one night." The woman recounted as she sat down next to Stella.

"Why did she run away? Was it because she's scared of the ghosts in the castle?" Stella asked in an excited voice.

Making completely baseless assumptions as was apparently normal for her.

"Oh no!" The maid chuckled and shook her head. "Queen Charlotte simply wanted to meet a certain knight who had served her father during his younger days, but her duties prevented her from being able to spend time with him as much as she wanted."

"...Were they lovers?" Stella tilted her head and stared intently at the woman, leaning forward as if wanting to hear the answer directly from her lips.

The woman laughed again before nodding. "Yes! According to rumors, they fell madly in love when he rescued her from a kidnapper and ever since, whenever the knight was in the city, she'd always try to sneak out and meet with him."

The maid nodded to herself. "When the then princess Charlotte was crowned queen, they married, which resulted in a huge scandal."

"...Ahhh, that's so romantic!!" Stella squealed and clasped her hands together as she swooned dramatically. "Making a ruckus and a giant scandal right on your coronation day~!"

"...However, The scandal was so great surrounding their marriage, the newlyweds ran away from Amatheon, disappearing without a trace for two years...!"

She went on and continued telling the story with dramatic flair. "The people thought that the Queen might have been killed, or hid away among them as a peasant, and the nobles fought amongst themselves over who should rule."

While listening, Stella grew more and more excited, seeming to be greatly entertained by the tale.

The maid continued on with the story, much to Stella's increasing glee, unfolding a wild - and surely not entirely historically accurate - tale of adventure and dark magic.

Stella especially enjoyed it when the knight who'd married the queen saved Charlotte from some scheming evil sorceress who'd been using her magic to stir up unrest and trouble simply to get some kind of obscure revenge on Amatheon.

"Ahhhhh..." Stella sighed happily as the woman finished recounting the tale of Queen Charlotte's forbidden love affair.

"...And that was the end." The maid smiled and hummed in self satisfaction. "The two lovers ruled Amatheon together from then on."

"Wahhh, it was so touching..." The fairy squeaked, hugging the woman's side. "Thank youuu!"

The girl flushed pink and mumbled something under her breath nervously while looking at her feet, embarrassed by Stella's enthusiastic reaction towards the ending of the story.

Emily found it completely baffling how fast the fae switched from her typical behavior of mischief and chaos to her current sweet persona of an innocent girl. She even hugged that poor maid tightly like some adoring sister.

Apparently Mia really likes a good love story...?

Emily turned back to glance over her shoulder towards Prince Adrien. He appeared deep in thought. If he'd been listening to the story at all he showed no sign of it.

He did not notice her gazing at him for a brief moment.

Emily forced herself to avert her eyes back to the painting before she could be caught staring.

When she looked back at it, she stopped short.

The painting was...moving.

She blinked a few times, but the painting didn't stop moving.

Transfixed, she slowly walked closer to it.

As she drew nearer, the image that the portrait displayed itself seemed to change and morph into something else.

The colors blurred, blended, and transformed before her very eyes.

The painting suddenly swept out of her reach, as Emily found herself free falling downward, through what had moments ago been the floor. 

She had barely a moment to lift her hand and start to scream before everything went black.