I Finally Had Time To Sat Down And Read This Series - Tumblr Posts

notmyfaultbutours

1 year ago

the bedroom hymns ● chapter iv

⟶ Chapter summary | The time has finally come for you to finally depart from home. You have no idea what to expect from the upcoming journey, but knowing how peculiar the circumstances have been, you probably should have predicted that this trip would not be an average one after all.

chapter iv. in bloom

It is finally time.

It still feels quite surreal to think that you are going to leave the palace, to finally escape this heavenly-like prison where you grew up in. It still seems unfathomable to think that you are going to be in another place before the next morning arrives.

But here you are now, standing at the courtyard where the royal carriage is going through its final preparations, with the King standing close by as he is giving his final instructions and commands to the driver of the carriage and the guards who are going to travel alongside you. On the corner of your eyes, you can see Marc and a few guards loading up all the luggage into the carriage, with a couple of other guards making sure that the carriage is safe and secure by checking every detail closely. Meanwhile, you can see Nanny Abigail and Miss Pippa getting busy setting up the seats to make sure that it would be comfortable for your journey, all while fretting about the lack of pillows and blankets to keep you warm inside.

Aside from Miss Pippa and a small group of guards, you see no sight of any other palace staff around. Not even the advisors or the men who would often work closely with the King. Knowing that your father had intended to keep your departure as a confidential matter, you can only assume that he may have relieved everyone in the palace out of their duties. Except for the people who matters.

As much as you are anxious about leaving, you are also excited for it. To be able to feel a bit of freedom regardless of why you are being sent out of this place, and when it feels like your prayers had been heard—to be given the chance to venture deep into the Elcester Forest and see for yourself the secrets hidden in its gloom. The only apprehension that you have about this trip is the fact that tonight would be the eve of Lemmus Rising—the sacred night that should give more reasons to stay away from the deep forest, where it was said that the souls of the dead would appear once the night has fallen.

You did wonder the reason why the King would choose this specific evening for your departure. Until you realise that there would not be another night like this one.

During the evening, everyone in the capital city and the surrounding districts would be paying more attention to their rituals and staying clear from the dark places around the woods, opening up the chance for the royal carriage to make its trip across the Coyne River and into the forest without drawing too much attention. There would also be the thick mist, the fog which would be able to conceal the royal carriage’s movements across the borders until it descends into the deep woods.

You look up to the sky, watching as the signs of the Lemmus Rising begin to unfold. The bright daylight has been rapidly fading, melting into the warm shade of burnt orange that is dancing across the horizon as the sun continues to descend. Right down below, a thin presence of mist has begun to rise, crawling slowly across the cobblestone-covered ground. You watch it swirling around the wheels of the carriage and passing between the horses’s restless legs as if it has come alive.

While you are closely observing all the movements around you and the changes that are happening as the day turns to dusk, His Majesty finishes his instructions to the driver and the captain of the guards. It draws your attention away from the sunset when you hear the King’s deep voice saying, “I entrust you to do your best to make sure my daughter’s safety.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty,” you hear the driver speaks. “I will make sure that Her Highness will arrive safely at the home castle by sunrise without any harm.”

Something that he says draws your curiosity that you quickly turn to look at the driver, just in time to see him bending his waist down to bow at the King. You never paid much attention to the driver when he first arrived with the royal carriage, so you didn’t quite get a good look at the man until now. The driver looks tall, and there is something in the way he presents himself which reminds you of the pub-keeper, Sir Elias. But while he has similar broad shoulders and a pair of arms that look almost as strong, his body is leaner. It makes him look a bit taller than he probably should have once he straightens back up to his height. You cannot tell wether he is old or young, with half of his face covered in a layer of dark, thick moustache and beard, but there is quite a sharpness in his gaze and soft lines appearing around his eyes when he smiles that are showing you that he may not have been that much younger compared to your father.

You barely have a thing to say when the driver is dismissed, and King Aneas comes to pull you away briefly before letting you go. Once you are in a safe distance away from the other people around you, he surprises you by asking, “Are you armed?”

“Yes, Father,” you answer him with a low voice. You signal to him the presence of the dagger that is hidden under your dress, tied up to your thigh with the leather-made garter belt that you created with your own hands during one of your crafting lessons. “I carry with me the golden dagger you gave me, and prepared a bow and a substantial amount of arrows. I have them all set up together with my short sword under the seats earlier with Marc’s help.”

King Aneas, who is known to always hide his expression in front of others, smiles proudly after hearing your answers. “Well done, Princess. I hope that you won’t have to use them during the journey as you will have the guards coming with you to keep you safe, but it’s always good to be prepared,” he says. There is something in his eyes that makes you wonder if there is something else that he may want to say to you, but the look disappears completely as he straightens himself up. “The driver to the carriage is someone who is familiar with the territory and he will take you safely to the home castle. He is also trained to defend himself so you will be safe in his hands. But always stay alert, no matter what.”

“Father, what—”

Before you can have a chance to speak, your father immediately adds, “And don’t forget. Never take off your necklace. Make sure that you keep it on you the whole time you are away and never to lose it.”

Despite the voices nagging in the back of your mind, you choose to keep your questions to yourself. “I promise,” you murmur softly while absentmindedly reaching up to grab your necklace. Pleased with your answer, the King regards you with a nod and begins to usher you towards the awaiting royal carriage.

“It’s time to go, Your Highness,” the driver calls to you, and with Marc’s assistance, you step into the carriage carefully and settle down in your seat. While the driver and the guards prepare themselves for the departure, you continue to look out the window, unable to look away from your father.

As the carriage begins to depart through the gate on the south side of the palace, the part of The Citadel which is cleverly hidden from the common folks’ eyes, your eyes remain on the King. His Majesty remains to stand there on the side threshold of the palace, watching you closely with his unwavering gaze. As the carriage continues to drive further away from him, you almost believe that the mist which has been swirling on the ground begin to rise, growing thicker and denser until it almost makes it hard for you to see him, just as much as you are sure that the royal carriage is being concealed. Your gaze remain on your father’s shadow as you look through the back window, until the moment his sight disappears completely with the distance and the obscuring mist, and that is the last you see of him until the palace’s gate is closed behind the departing carriage.

You finally draw your eyes away from the palace once you notice the carriage slowing down on the bridge passing over the Coyne River. Beyond you appears the short drive towards the woods from the bridge, with the road disappearing between the thickets. Before the driver sets his horses off towards the forest’s borders, he opens the small window separating the front box-seat to the passenger car so he could speak with you and Nanny Abigail.

“It is the peak of the summer still, so the night will be short. We will still have some sun as we enter the forest, so you’ll get to enjoy the view for a short while before the sky gets dark. Please be aware that it will be mostly pitch-black once we are deep in the forest, but there will be no need for you to be worried. I’ve put up some lamps inside the carriage as you can see, and they will light up once the sunlight is gone so you and the governess can see just as well on the inside,” he nods his chin pointing to the side of your seats, where a couple of lamps—much similar to the regular oil lamps that you have seen uses back at the palace—are hung right by the windows.

Just as you begin to wonder how to light up the lamps when there are no sight of the oil canisters around you, the driver speaks again. “We do have some fog around us aside from the dense trees, but we should have enough moonlight, so it should be enough to help see around us better,” the driver reassuringly says, as if he can sense how anxious you feel about being in the dark.

“I can assure you that the sky will be bright once again when we are out of these woods, as I predict that we will be able to reach the home castle at the break of dawn,” he continues, before lowering his voice a little when he adds, “As long as there is no trouble coming in our way, of course.”

Not knowing what to say, you simply grow silent. Thankfully, Nanny Abigail—who is sitting right across from you and much closer to the driver’s window—takes over by saying to the driver, “Thank you kindly for the assurance, Sir. We are trusting our safety in your hands.”

The driver nods at her with a grin on his face, and then does the same to you, before closing the window shut and facing forward again to lead his horses, and the carriage steadily moves faster towards the forest’s edge.

It takes a while, but as soon as the steady sounds of the horses’s foot galloping on top of the cobblestone road fill the air, you begin to grow calmer. Before long the line of trees appear ahead of you, and your agitation soon turns into excitement.

Once the carriage drives past the borders and into the thicket, your heartbeat picks up rapidly, still in disbelief even as you are surrounded by nothing but trees. The cobblestone road that continues from the palace carries on for a while longer once you are in the woods, with lines of trees standing on either side of the road which seem like they are passing by quickly as the carriage drives past them. It doesn’t take long before the road breaks out into a path covered with gravel, and the forest begins to open up for you to see a lot more from what lies within the grove.

As you look out the window, beyond you lay endless rows of trees, with a dense layer of foliage formed by the high grass and wild bushes. Through the small openings that you can find between the trees, you get to see the sight of the green sloping land which is adorned with steep hills appearing here and there, all covered in a spread of green grass. There are small hills in the distance which are adorned with clumps of trees crowning each of their tops, and since you are still close to the edge of the forest, you can see the rare sightings of orchards and farmhouses peeking not too far away.

Everywhere you look, spread a variety of bright and soft colours that are easily drawing your attention. The beauty that comes from the colourful fresh fruits growing from the top of the evergreen and the blooming petals materialising from the shrubberies, all seem to glow under the warmth coming from the setting sun.

Soon, the darkness will fall, and these colours would no longer be available to your eyes. So you allow yourself to relish on the view and in the moment, until the carriage gets deeper into the woods, just in time for the sun to disappear completely in the horizon. As the sky finally gets darker, the mist around you seems to grow thicker and reaching higher above ground, and the bright colours which you have been admiring is slowly being replaced with dark shadows. The gloom doesn’t have a chance to enter the carriage, however, as the lamps on your side walls suddenly light up out of nowhere, and a gentle glow fills the car immediately as soon as the world outside is covered by the gloom.

Surrounded by the darkness, the silence within grows almost as thick as the dense trees outside, and that is when your mind becomes louder. Loud enough for the questions that you were forced to silence earlier to come to surface, leaving you wondering to yourself—

If The Citadel was supposed to be your home, then why do people keep referring this new place of solitude that you are heading to as the ‘home castle’?

“What is happening?”

The journey has been going on without any disturbance for a while, until you finally notice how restless the driver seems to be. With the curtains on the driver’s window left open, you can see it when his demeanour begins to change—he seems distracted by something and starts glancing and turning to his right, looking out into the distance beyond the trees, and his commands sounds more like a mixture of firm shouts and soothing words, as if he is trying to calm his horses while making them march with more haste. Then you look out through the window as two of the guards on horses separate themselves from the group, and another guard leads his horse to ride closely to the carriage so he could talk to the driver.

Moving on instinct, you jump across your seat and slide open the window just in time to hear the guard’s voice speaking through the loud noises of the horses’ rapid steps and the carriage wheels, “It’s those nosy boys from the Brotherhood of Jorn. They noticed the carriage entering into the forest and are following us close.”

You hear the driver cursing loudly before asking, “Can you do something about it?”

“We’ll drive them away from the carriage and apprehend them to find out what they’re up to. In the meantime, focus on getting Her Highness out of here. Fast!” the guard quickly says, before leading his horse towards the trees, as he joins the other guards to chase away the rebel army with a couple of more guards following him.

Once they departed, the driver looks over his shoulder, looking straight at you with a grin. “Hang on tight, Your Highness. We’re going to have to have a sharp detour right ahead if we want to stay away from the melee,” he yells out, and both you and Nanny Abigail quickly take hold onto the seats to avoid falling as the carriage swerves to the left, just as the gravel-covered road branches out into three different lanes.

The driver leads the carriage to continue a bit further before he slows down a little, taking his time to make sure that he has taken you away from where the brawl may occur. He looks back through the window, apologising for the crisis at hand before explaining, “Our journey right ahead is going to be a long and exhausting one with us using a different path to be safe. But rest assured, that even in the absence of royal guards, Her Highness’ safety is accounted for. Regardless, we may still have at least two guards with us following in the shadows.”

You take a quick glance out the window after hearing this, just in time for you to see the shadows of the guards following you from beyond the trees, their horses barely make a sound as they try to match the carriage’s speed. “I shall see it for myself to send Her Highness and the governess to the home castle safely.”

As you turn back to look and keep your eyes on the driver the whole time he is talking to you, something odd seems to be happening. For a moment, you almost believe that you are seeing his beard glowing faintly with a shade that looks almost blue, and his eyes glimmer in the shade of silver. But they all vanish as quickly as they appear, and the man appears to you as normal as he was before when he smiles at you. Since it is dark around the road, with limited moonlight falling on his face and only the small lamps illuminating inside the carriage, you chalk it all of as nothing more but a trick of the moonlight.

You don’t have any more chances to make clear what you are seeing, as once the drive is done talking to you, he pulls down the curtains and closes the glass window separating the driver’s seat to the passenger car, covering the whole front of the box-seat as if to make sure that you would no longer be disturbed by his presence or any other incident that might happen.

The next thing you hear is the sound of his whip cracking in the air, right over his horses, which soon start their steady run once again and the carriage sets off to move along the gravel road. With it, you soon lose sight of your worries and what was possibly a part of your vivid imagination as you continue to take in the scene that you are seeing through the windows as the carriage carries on its journey across the Elcester Forest.

Never before you truly realised just how far and wide the Elcester Forest was until you are deep within its territory. The journey feels endless, and even if you have let yourself be distracted by the glorious sights around you until the moment darkness fell around you, it feels even more abundantly clear how deep the territory is now once the moonlight is hidden by the tree branches reaching over the road like dark, extended canopy. You see nothing but the eerie shadows crawling between the trees and the gliding mist. Not a sign of this journey ending anytime soon.

As the evening falls deeper, the air grows colder. Very cold, as a matter of fact, that you feel it piercing through your thick coat even the windows are closed shut.

“See here, Your Highness, cover yourself with this blanket,” Nanny Abigail says as she hands you a blanket which she pulled out from the storage box beneath the seats. “Best to keep yourself warm until we arrive and catch some sleep, so when you are to see His Royal Majesty, the King father, again, you will be all healthy and well rested. Let us draw the curtains to give you some peace of mind.”

Taking the blanket in your hands, you simply spread them over your lap while you glance back out into the darkness just as Nanny Abigail starts pulling the curtains to cover most of the windows. “How much longer will this journey take us?” you wonder out loud. “I never knew just how far this forest is spread. Are we even still in Smotia?”

Nanny Abigail gives you a small smile. “My best guest is that we won’t be able to tell until we arrive at dawn, or at least once we’re out of the woods. We might get there a bit later than what the driver promised us if this road leads us through a longer path. Which is why it would be best if we rest through our trip. Have some shut eyes while we can so we can face whatever it is waiting for us on the other end with fresh minds, don’t you agree?” she continues to convince you, though you can still sense the uncertainty in her words. She might still be rattled after the previous crisis, no doubt, so you choose not to say a thing to deny her.

Nanny Abigail soon falls asleep, curling on her side with her head resting against the cushioned armrest under her side of the window. Meanwhile, sleep eludes you, leaving you wide awake even when your body is filled with exhaustion. Still, your mind is loud, still too restless to allow sleep to come and your senses are too high alert for you to relax. In the quietness that falls in the carriage, you can hear nothing but the sound of the soft breathing from Nanny Abigail, the steady pace from the racing horses and the occasional sharp commands coming from the driver. The sounds should have been enough to distract you from your anxiousness, to help your mind to feel at ease, and when they fail to calm you down, you choose to distract yourself with your other surroundings instead.

After dimming the lamps a little, you pull open the curtain to your side just a little bit to allow you to have a peek of the forest and the one at the front window to be able to see what the driver is seeing. You notice that there are some changes happening with the trees outside, just as there are more bumps on the road and some odd stillness in the air. You may have gotten even deeper into the forest, yet the trees no longer seem as dense as they were, even though they look even more eerie and intimidating with their presence in the gloom. With no more branches reaching over the road, you now had enough opening above to allow you to look up at the sky, and for the moonlight to illuminate through.

You marvel at how the twilight seems to merge into the dark void formed between the gloom of trees and thickets, which would oftentimes swallow the carriage as it drives through the valleys running deep between the spurs of the hills. The mist have grown high enough that you can see it from the window, and it seems as if the fog keeps coming apart around the wheels and crawling closer to engulf the carriage as it drives past.

Captivated by the sights you are seeing, your hand instinctively reach up to take hold of your necklace, seeking comfort from its presence.

With the tip of your fingers, you trace along the sides of the pendant—a ruby stone shaped as a heart, with a golden frame holding it together, and gold embellishments made in the shape of a smaller heart placed right at the center of the ruby and little curls that almost appear like ancient scriptures circling around the stone and its surrounding frame. You had questioned the meaning of the prettily made twirls to your father once, yet he simply told you that they were nothing but a simple artwork that your mother had designed herself, and she had been wearing the necklace ever since the night of her debutante ball where they first met.

But just like your father, King Aneas, you have been keeping secrets of your own, and one of them has everything to do with the necklace that he had made you swore to never take off wherever you would go.

For a long time, since the day you received the necklace, you had always admired and loved the beautiful craftwork even as a child. One day, not too long after your twelfth birthday, you had accidentally dropped the necklace while you were playing alone in your bedchamber, accidentally breaking the golden frame holding the stone at its center.

You remember being so hurt by it, knowing how important the necklace was for both your father and your late mother. But most of all, you were terrified of your father’s wrath if he should find out what had happened. So you locked yourself in your room that night, and tried your best to fix it before you would have to wear it again in the morning, only to find that the necklace held a secret of its own.

The framed ruby stone was a disguised locket, with pictures of your mother hidden inside. On one side, was the image of the young Queen, your mother as a Princess who was no older than you are now today, posing in a lovely dress with a small tiara placed over her head. Just like the one you wore during your debutante ball. On the other side was the image of the Queen once she was just a bit older. In her arms was a small baby who you recognised as yourself from the pictures that you found in your bedchamber.

You had never told anyone about what you found that night, afraid that your father would take it away if he should find out, just like how he had taken down all the pictures and paintings of your mother from the palace—except for the one he kept in his chamber. You have never truly known the reason why he would do this, so you had kept this necklace close, cherishing it privately as it becomes the only thing that you have left that carries the memory of your mother. That was the true reason why you had been so willing to follow His Majesty’s command to wear it at all times, because it has made you feel closer to your mother while wearing it around your neck, and its presence gives you warmth and comfort whenever you would need it.

Just like always, you feel a deep longing of your mother’s presence each time you think about her, so you shake away your thoughts before you start getting too emotional and distract yourself by looking out the window again.

Outside, the night continues to grow deeper, while the carriage travels far deeper into the Elcester Forest where the trees are shaped oddly and menacingly than they normally would, and you start noticing how the driver has been making haste. You cannot understand the reason for the sudden urgency as you are unable to see things too clearly in the dark aside from the stars above. And so, at first, you simply reckon that the darkness itself is the reason for the rising speed, assuming that the driver simply wants to get out of the forest quickly as you are lacking guards keeping you secure.

That is, until the moment you begin to see it.

For a while longer, you see nothing but the deep dark forest, with the shadows of the trees flashing by at the windows. All the wonderful colours which you had seen by dusk have long disappeared along with the sun, which perhaps becomes the reason why your eyes are quick to find the new colours coming out of the darkness.

It begins with a faint flickering blue flame emerging through the thicket, a distance away from the road and out of reach from the advancing carriage. At first, you take it in assumption that your eyes are deceiving you. That after straining your eyes to look out into the dark forest, you are beginning to imagine seeing lights and colours appearing against the gloom. You also wonder if you might be dreaming. That sleep has finally come and you have lost the ability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

But soon you can tell that the driver is seeing this at the same time when you can hear the excitement showing in his command as he controls the horses, swerving to start heading towards the source of light. And only then do you finally realise that this is not simply a figment of your imagination, knowing it would be impossible for the driver to know what might be inside your mind.

From one small flame, another appears on the other side of the road, both flickering from a fair distance from one to the other, then more of it begins to emerge, alternating between the left and right side of the road. You have no idea what to do, or think, as the carriage carries on driving between them while the flames continue to emerge here and there. You wonder if this has anything to do with the Lemmus Rising, and if these blue flames are what the townsfolk has believed to be the souls of the elders, especially when you can see the mist moving as if they are avoiding the flames, crawling away from where they seem to be emerging from.

Surprisingly so, instead of driving out of the road and away from the shady phenomenon, the driver continues leading the carriage to continue the journey by following and turning rapidly towards where the blue flames are rising as if he is using them as a guide to know just where to go.

The flames continue to emerge more frequently from then on, slowly forming two lines of blue flames on either side of the road and appearing as if they are getting closer and closer while the carriage continues to pick up its speed. Their presence make it seem like the path is growing a bit brighter, yet despite the close proximity, you feel no warmth nor heat inside the carriage. The cold remains strong, and so is the fog that has somehow risen around you, the thick fog dispersing around you as the carriage drives past before gathering back together over the tracks.

This pattern continues for a moment longer, then what happens next seems to you like a strange optical effect taunting your exhausted mind. The flames suddenly seem to be dancing as the carriage drives past them, while the air ripples around you in a steady current that you almost think of it as being in water instead of a rapidly pacing carriage going through the woods.

A shout comes from the driver while you are wondering about what might be happening. His unsteady voice startles you, but it does little to worry you when the excitement seems to remain in his voice. You look to the front to see what the driver is seeing, and your jaw nearly drops when something seems to emerge right beyond your eyes.

Right in the middle of the road ahead, the pair of lines of blue flames unite and form a tall pillar. A massive, roaring blue inferno rises from the ground, as if cutting the end of your journey with its threatening blaze. Once again, the driver’s actions startles you. When seeing this, instead of avoiding it and coming to a halt, the carriage speeds up, as if the driver has every intention of driving the whole carriage and its passengers right into the heart of the burning inferno.

And that is exactly what he does.

Before you can react, the driver sends the horses diving straight forward, carrying everything and everyone along with them into the roaring blue pillar of flame.

On the other side of the forest, Yoongi is awakened by a ripple of strong aura that seems to be passing through the air. He wakes up completely alert but cautious, as he tries to identify the source of this queer force and find out where it is coming from. Just as he pulls out his amulet necklace to help him as a guide, Ansen barges into his tent, his unkempt hair showing that the poor man has rushed his way here after the magic force had awakened him at the same time it did with Yoongi.

“Your Highness!” Ansen nearly shouts at his Prince with a strained voice. “Did you feel it too?”

“Yes, I did,” Yoongi says, still feeling obviously astounded as he raises his amulet to see that the black crystal is glowing as it also senses the powerful force reverberating through the air. Yoongi’s brows are furrowed when he realises that the glow appears to be in a shade of iridescent blue, something that seems impossible to happen, not in this realm, but it does help him recognise what kind of magic this one would be. “It’s an ancient magic, an old spell. Seems like someone has gone across the realm.”

“But—how? How was it possible?”

Before Yoongi can answer him, Yijeong slips into the tent just then and answers for him. “It feels like a portal to me. Whoever it was, they made it across by going through it.” He falls silent, while Ansen seems to be lost in deep thought, until Yijeong openly questions his Prince, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Your Highness?”

Wearing the amulet around his neck, Yoongi slowly nods. “Yes, there’s only one person who can use such a powerful mana to create a portal and send someone away even without him having to be present.” He looks up to his companions with a grim look on his face. “This is his magic. It’s been his magic that we’ve felt all along.”

There is no need for Yoongi to explain further, as he and his men had been dealing with these old spells for some time now without understanding how it would be possible for such magic to exist in the territory of Smotia. Now that the source of magic has finally shown its true self, they finally have the answers that they needed.

“He really was here the whole time,” Yoongi says, voicing out exactly what the others are thinking. “And I think he knows that we were on to him.”

Once again, the blue glow shimmers brightly from his black crystal, as if agreeing with him as Yoongi mentions the one name that he hasn’t been able to say out loud for a long time.

“It’s Bluebeard.”

Tags :

i finally had time to sat down and read this series *i need to calm down* if he doesn’t go to different realms and searching for you 😔 does he really love you 😞😔😣😖 this was such a good read i just love everything about this fic skdhhdkska fic:yoongi

158 notes View Post