“I wonder where Prince Archer would be. Maybe I should go inside the castle and look around,” Aelis said. (She started to remember what Azel said while crying “Wh-w-h-y d-d-oes she look like her? Why can’t I strike her? Just because she looks like her it doesn’t mean that she is her? Why? WHY?!”) The thought made her sad. While in an unhappy state, she asked herself “Have I not heard something similar to that.” Suddenly, she remembered something from the previous day. (She remembered Princess Aubery saying, “You just remind us of her,” while she and her twin brother were crying.) “That’s it!” She said with a loud internal voice. She started to speak out, “Princess- I mean Aubery and Adrian said that I reminded them of someone just like Prince Azel implied. And they all cried. Who do I remind them of? And why do they cry when they remember this person?” She quickly shook her head sideway for a while and hit her cheeks with her palms. “I should not be thinking of this.” She started to speak with a bit of confidence, “I should be looking for Prince Adrian. Maybe things will not go wrong with him!” She noticed that two people were approaching where she was. “Huh...” The two figures got closer to her location. She was able to make them out. She walked closer to them. She bowed down to greet the older looking figure.
She respectfully said, “Grandmaster Oudart, it is a pleasure to meet you here,” with a smile on her face.
“The pleasure is all mine,” the Grandmaster replied, with a much larger smile on his face.
She raised her body up, turned to the direction of the much younger figure, and bowed down again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” Aelis raised her body up after greeting her. “You must be a Princess. The last Princess that I would have to spend time with. Princess Annet, if I am correct.”
(“I guess father didn’t tell her,” Princess Annet said inwardly.) “You’re right. But how could you tell when I am currently wearing armor?”
Aelis responded, “You look like the King.”
“Oh,” Annet responded. “Also you can call me Annet and you don’t need to be formal with me. My older sister and brother told me that you used to talk to them very formally but they told you not to because they like it for you to talk to them like a friend would. I also want you to talk to me the same.”
“Okay, Princ- I mean Annet. I’ll speak to you like a friend.”
“That’ll make me happy,” the Princess said.
Aelis said, “Anyway, why are the two of you here if you do not- I mean don’t mind me asking.”
The Grandmaster responded, “Annet here is a very young knight in training. I make sure that I spend some time training her whenever I am free.”
“But Grandmaster, is she not young for knight training?”
“Sure, she is just ten years old. However, her skills surpass that of an ordinary knight. With her skills and hard work, it is possible that she could become a Grandmaster in the future. In fact, she could be the youngest Grandmaster!” Grandmaster Oudart said proudly while patting Princess Annet on the shoulder.
“I’m not that skilled Grandmaster.” Annet said, looking embarrassed.
Aelis giggled. “If Grandmaster Oudart of all people is saying such things about you then it is very true. Work very hard and become a great person in the Knight ranks”
“Alright. I will!” Annet responded happily.
“I want to watch the two of you train today, I hope you don’t mind?” Aelis asked.
Annet responded, “Of course you can!”
“If the Princess says so then I have no problem with that,” Grandmaster Oudart added.
Aelis responded with excitement, “Yay- I mean Thank you. I’m glad that you are allowing me to watch.”
“Don’t be formal.” Princess Annet said.
“Okay,” Aelis awkwardly responded. She moved some steps backward, summoned a chair with her magic, and sat on it in order to watch the Princess train with the Grandmaster.
“Alright Princess, today we would be honing your reflexes, intuition and ability to adapt to the situation. You shall not be able to use your weapon. There are times that a knight might not be equipped with a sword or any other weapon. In those times, they must rely on their own reflexes, intuition and ability to adapt. I shall try to constantly attack you from different distances and locations. However, I shall not fight like a noble knight would. This is due to the fact that during war, your opponent might not fight fairly. If you are able to pin me down you win and we start again. If I pin you down, you lose, and we start again. We shall do this until after sunset.”
Annet proudly said, “Okay, give me your best shot!”
“Okay then!” the Grandmaster responded. He pulled out many small daggers from his pocket and began throwing them at the Princess. The Princess dodged all of them while running towards the Grandmaster. She tried to punch his right arm. However, Oudart was aware of her intentions and jumped up to dodge her. He easily landed, rushed to the Princess and pinned her down. “You lose, try again.”
(“That was fast!” The Mage and the Princess thought.) This training continued from that time, which was around noon, through to a little over sunset. The Princess was barely able to pin down the Grandmaster a few times.)
After realizing that it had passed sunset, Oudart said, “Today’s training is over. We shall continue tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Princess Annet responded.
“You were fantastic Annet! Good Job!” Aelis said encouragingly.
Annet rushed to hug her. “I know I could have done better but thanks.” She started to cry.
Aelis looked troubled. She asked the Princess, “Why are you crying Annet?”
“You just remind me of someone, sniff”
Aelis received her hug and embraced her. (“I wonder who I keep reminding the princes and princess of.” She thought) After a while, they stopped hugging each other.
“I shall be taking the Princess back with me,” the Grandmaster said.
Aelis responded, “Okay. It was nice seeing you train Annet. I know you will get better and become a great person!”
“Thanks,” Annet said. “Here take this sheet of paper.” She gave Aelis the small piece of paper that she kept in her pocket. She was leaving with the Grandmaster and briefly turned her head back. “Bye bye Aelis.”
“Bye Prin- I mean Annet.” They waved at each other.
“Oh no I forgot! I was supposed to spend time with Prince Archer and it’s already been about an hour past sunset!” She looked at the piece of paper that was given to her. “Go to the room with the dahlia flower drawing attached to it. It is the last room on the first floor of the castle. Archer is waiting for you there” she read. “Well then, looks like I know where I am supposed to go now.”
Aelis went into the castle and walked toward the room she was supposed to go to. She arrived and saw the door with the cute drawing of a dahlia flower attached to it. She lightly knocked on the door. “You can come in.” Aelis heard the voice of a child respond to her knocking. She gently opened the door and went in. She saw a chair ready for her beside the young Prince Archer and a curtain in front of where the Prince was sitting. “You are here mage.” She looked into the Prince’s eyes and saw that his description suited him. He looked dull and emotionless. “I shall only spend a short time with you as compared to the amount of time you spend with my other brothers and sisters. When it gets very late, you can leave.” He sounded like he had a monotone voice. Aelis was worried inwardly and wondered how her brief time with the Second Broken Prince would be like.
“So-o-o how are you going to spend your time right now?” Aelis asked.
“Let me be a hundred percent honest with you. I am going to do something similar to what my younger twin brother did to you. I was told that he fought you and tried to harm you physically. And you look like you had a fight with him. However, I shall try to harm you mentally and emotionally.” Although Prince Archer did not say this in a scary tone or with an evil face, his emotionlessness made it sound extremely menacing. Aelis looked troubled and a bit scared.
(“Whatever he has in store for me, I’m ready for it.” Aelis said, trying to prepare herself mentally.) “Okay then that means that we are mainly going to have conversations… So what do you want to talk about Prince Archer?”
Prince Archer started to speak, “Aubrey and Adrian - 14 year olds, I and Azel - 12 year olds, Annet - 10 years old.”
Aelis was confused. “Why did you just say the names of your siblings and their ages?”
The Prince responded in his monotone voice, “Tell me. How old are you officially?”
“I-I-I am 16 ye-ars old.”
“Are you sure about that. Indeed, you look 16 years old. But tell me, how truly old are you?” He said this looking right into her eyes. “Let me rephrase the question. How long have you lived? Speak the truth and only the truth.”
Aelis was ashamed to look at the Prince’s face. She looked downward. “I have lived for only 2 years.” Her voice sounded low and uneasy.
“Only 2 years? You look like you are in your mid teens, you act like you are a very mature adult, yet you have lived for only 2 years. So you aren’t human. You aren’t even a person yet you look exactly like one... Interesting.” He paused for a little bit. “Tell me then, what are you? Are you a witch, a spirit, a ghost, a phantom, a demon?” He sounded like he was purposely asking her these questions to emotionally hurt her. “You certainly aren’t human. You’re a faux. So what supernatural species are you?”
Aelis became more and more uncomfortable. She became very sad. She started to feel like she wasn’t who she felt was.
“You aren’t answering me. We are just at the first part of my little exercise and you already look like you are about to give up.” He sounded very unempathetic. “I already told you that I was going to hurt you mentally and emotionally. Or are you too ashamed to answer?”
Silence filled the room for a few seconds due to the tension between them. Aelis spoke, although she was hesitant, “I-I-I don’t kn-n-ow.”
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