Chapter 3

“Left or right…”

Athanasia stands there, mumbling to herself with a serious expression on her face. She looks between the two before deciding.

“Let's go left,” she said with confidence in her voice, “I’m sure that's the right path.”

She started heading in that direction. As she got deeper into the hall, everything started to get stranger. The hall was now more furnished, all the candles were lit, and the once plain hall was covered with gold at every angle of each wall.

“This is weird, is this a section of the palace where only high-ranking concubines lived?” she asks herself in confusion.

As she moved deeper, she was able to see the end. Right at the very end was a large oak door painted white with many unique designs and carving on it, all made from pure gold.

“Wow, I wonder why none of the maids have robbed this part of the palace yet,” she said in wonder.

When she reached the door, she looked up at the handle nervously before grabbing it. ‘This got to be the exit.’ she thought hopefully before pushing the heavy door open.

Once the door was open, she looked inside and what met her was a pair of jewel eyes staring straight at her.

“Well look who finally came.” said the man sitting on the throne.

Athanasia's first instinct was to dash for the door behind her but was stopped when the door automatically shut itself closed. She launched her hand onto the handle and tried pulling the door open, but unexpectedly a dark shadow was now looming over her.

“You’re trying to leave when you just got here?” the man said in amusement.

She turns around shaking in fear as her eyes meet his. “No…” she replies nervously.

The man stands there looking down at her form with an amused smirk, before doing something surprising. He lifted her into the air before placing her securely into his arm.

‘What the!’ she thought, petrified as she sat in his arms.

The man then starts carrying her in the direction of the throne in a tight grip so she couldn't struggle free. Athanasia nervously looks around the broad room in curiosity before spotting something. Over on the side were two men being held down each by two guards, one of the men was the red hair general she saw earlier, and next to him was...Claude?

She blinked in disbelief, before looking up to the man carrying her. They both look the same, but something was different, yet she couldn't tell what it was.

As she was thinking to herself, she didn't notice that the mysterious man holding her had already stopped walking. She could tell that he was focusing intensely on the throne in front of him, but she was curious why. She turned her gaze to the throne and gasped in shock.

The throne that she was expecting to see was a sparkling chair made of pure gold and decorated in all kinds of pearls and precious gems. Yet what she was seeing was the same throne, but it was covered in a pool of blood. There was blood everywhere covering the throne that if anybody were to see it from afar it would look like the throne was the color red instead of gold.

The man then looks straight into her jewel eyes with his own, before leaning close to her ears, whispering with a wicked smirk.

“Do you wish to sit on it one day?”

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