Chapter 10

I thought I had left everything behind me, but apparently not...

Sebastian's aunt hosted a tea party today. His aunt, the grand duchess, loved parties. After taking Sebastian's medicine, I felt much better, so I went to her party as planned.

It was a nice tea party and Sally was there, so everything went pretty well. I had fun talking with Sally, listening to her fun anecdotes about her life in a foreign court.

Amid all the fun, I forgot something, something really important...

It had something to do with Lady Sarah's cousin. Her cousin, Rosa, is from the country. She came to visit her aunt's family this summer, her aunt, in the hope of finding a nice match for her, asked Sarah to bring her to different parties. Rosa met new people in every party she went to. She was a nice and friendly girl, everyone liked her. If there was one misgiving then that would be her tendency to show off her power.

Something similar had happened in my previous life, it had been such a farce, it had became the laughing stock for at least a season. Nevertheless, I forgot about that. Totally. That's when tragedy struck.

For some reason, in this life I sat very close to Rosa and her new friends. Unlike in my previous life where I had sat all over the other side of the garden. When Rosa once again showed off her power, the same thing happened.

Her power was fire. She could shape fire into any shape she wished. This time she said she could shape fire into the flower just right by our side.

She shaped her fire, placed it next to the bush with the flower. Guess what happened? Of course it caught fire. Everyone with a brain (or those without) knew fire plus wood caused huge fire. But now the fire was out of her control.

When I saw the red flames licked the bush, when the smell of fire burning wood reached my nose, things I didn't wish to remember reappeared. As vividly as if I was experiencing right there. The flame dancing outside the castle, inside the throne room, the flame finding its way onto the throne I was sitting. Pain all over me as the fire and heat reached me. I started trembling, I could not move. I was trapped. I was transported in time.

I was going to die. Being turned into ashes. Together with this kingdom. My pathetic life was going to end there. Pain. Pain all over my body.

That was when a cold hand covered my eyes, a cold calm voice whispered into my ear.

"Liana, do you remember that time when we went to the sea? That time with my mother and yours? You like the sea, don't you? Let's go together again. The sea is in front of you. See?"

Sapphire blue water. Cool wind breeze. Sand. It felt like I was on the beach all along. The beach? Of course I was on the beach all along. If not how could you explain the cool and salty breeze brushing on my face, or the feeling of scrunching sand in my feet, or the deep blue sea in front of me? And then I lost consciousness.

That's right. I fainted again. For two consecutive days. I was not part of the swooning ladies club. (If you think they swooned because they felt shy, you're wrong. When you fainted, you became the center of attention of everyone. Was that something a shy and timid girl would do? Of course not.)

Therefore, as part of the shy and timid girl club, I never swooned. Apparently I was wrong.

I had a dream when I was unconscious. I dreamed about that day Sebastian talked about. When I was eight, Queen Henrietta wanted to go to the beach. She dragged the King, her son and the entire court to the summer castle which had not been in use for years (as the current King did not like to travel over long distances). My family of course went along (as the entire court was over there and more importantly Mother's best friend).

I dreamed about that day. That day when Sebastian and I were thrown together again by our mothers. I believed that was one of the last times we met before Queen Henrietta passed away. I was very excited to see the sea. A whole body of water. As a water elementalist that was like paradise to me. I remembered playing in the water. After a while, I wanted to build a sand castle. But do you think a sand castle is easy to build? Of course not. I started to get frustrated after a while. That was when Sebastian stooped next to me. And then a castle appeared out of thin air.

Scene changed. I was back to that day. That day in the throne room. Just like that day, Sebastian grabbed my hand and pain left me. But this time, when I opened my eyes, I was standing on the same beach with King Sebastian next to me, holding my hand. Something nagged at the edge of my brain. This scene seemed really familiar, like a memory to me.

Then I woke up.

Dreams, as people said, were nonsensical. Maybe because it was Sebastian who saved me from the fire today. That's why I dreamed about him... That must be the case... right?