Warning: there is some mention of blood and murder/suicide in this chapter. It's not graphic at all, although if you want to skip the most descriptive parts (which aren't too descriptive), it starts at 'The entire room looked like it had been through a hurricane' and finishes at the page break. You might miss some plot but Eden will catch you up on it at the end of the chapter ;)
"Sorry about this," Eden muttered to Benicia as two other members of the royal guard escorted her to her quarters. "We'll figure out what's going on. For now, though, the palace is on lockdown - we have to make sure there's no additional threat, especially to you and the Everaerds."
"It is all right," said Benicia reasonably, looking remarkably unfazed by everything that was going on. Then again, Benicia had always been the most effortlessly dignified of all the young royals at the castle. "Take as long as you need to. It is your duty to ensure our safety, after all."
Eden watched Benicia go, until the sound of an argument reached his ears. He looked down the hall to the source of the commotion, raising an eyebrow when he saw a skinny figure with a mop of brown hair in the middle of it.
"Prince Aurelien," Eden's fellow guard said in a somewhat desperate, despairing tone. "The palace is under lockdown. For your own safety, we must ask that you go to your quarters and remain there until we tell you otherwise."
Aurelien opened his mouth to retort angrily, his arms crossed defiantly across his chest, but before he could say anything, Eden cut him off.
"You're taking this security threat seriously, Aurelien, I hope?" He called, crossing the hallway to stand by the youngest royal, vaguely pleased to note that Aurelien still hadn't quite hit a growth spurt so that Eden still towered over him. "Go to your quarters and stay there until we tell you it's safe to leave. We already have guards stationed there."
Aurelien set his jaw stubbornly, glaring at Eden. "Whatever," he snorted. "You're just a soldier. You can't tell me what to do."
'First of all, I'm the Captain of the Royal Guard," Eden muttered under his breath. "Aurelien, this isn't a game, you know," Eden said louder, his voice hardening. Aurelien had never particularly liked him - most likely because Ophélie didn't, which was most definitely because Romain did. Eden had never particularly cared, unlike Romain - which, he supposed, made sense, seeing as Romain was unfortunately related to the little brat - but there were actual lives at stake at the moment.
"Aurelien?"
Eden had never been so relieved to hear Ophélie's voice. She had apparently just returned from her ride out through the castle grounds, just like Romain - her normally pale face was slightly flushed from either excitement or exertion, but her eyes were as cold as ever. "Captain," she added formally, glancing at Eden, who resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He'd known her since she was a precocious seven-year-old, acknowledging that he had a name would have been nice - but then again, Ophélie didn't really do 'nice'. "I trust that you've informed my brother about the situation?"
No, I've just spent the past half hour after being told that the Russian princess was found dead getting my nails done. "Of course," he said aloud, not able to hold back the sarcasm that crept into his voice. Both of them, he added silently. Though, as you can see, one of them is being a lot more difficult than the other.
"Come then, Aurelien," Ophélie suggested. "We'll both go to my quarters." She met Eden's eyes coolly, as if daring him to argue. Aurelien scowled, but vocalized no objections, apparently satisfied to go with his sister.
Whatever, the security threat is more important than dealing with rebellious teenagers, Eden thought. "Double the security around Princess Ophélie's room," Eden snapped at the guards around him, who rushed to obey, accompanying the two royals to Ophélie's quarters.
That's all of the Everaerds, and Benicia, he thought, mentally running through a list of the castle's inhabitants and starting to make his way to the Russian princess' room. Then all we have to do is reassure the Selected -
He stopped in his tracks. The Selected. Dammit, he'd missed a royal.
"Where's Prince Xiumin?" He demanded of the guards around him.
"In his provided room, like the rest of the Selected," one of them replied. She seemed about to say more, but Eden had already left, cursing under his breath, to find Prince Xiumin's room. There was only one guard stationed throughout the entire hallway - not for the first time, Eden wondered furiously why the King and Queen refused to hire more guards, it was their damn safety at stake - who saluted Eden as he nearly sprinted past him and knocked insistently on the door.
Eden held his breath anxiously when there was no immediate response, letting out an exhale of relief when the door opened to reveal a confused-looking young man wavy hair as dark as Eden's, but much longer, and half-lidded hazel eyes. "Captain," he said in a soft, slightly hesitant voice. "Is there a problem?"
"Not exactly," Eden admitted. "But the royals in the castle are our greatest concern at the moment." He ran through the positions of all his guards throughout the castle, resisting the urge to swear in front of the New Asian Prince when he realized that he couldn't safely move any of them from their positions to guard Prince Xiumin's door. That left two options: either leave the prince as he was and hope that he didn't die, or move him to a place of greater security.
Ophélie's room was out - no doubt either she or Aurelien would torment Xiumin to no end if he stayed with them. Benicia would most definitely not appreciate having a foreign prince that she'd never officially met before in her private quarters, though it was a better option than sticking Xiumin with the King and Queen. Still, though, that left only one reasonable option. I might as well help Romain along with the Selection.
He relayed this all to Prince Xiumin, who mumbled something so quickly that Eden didn't catch it, though he doubted he would have understood it even if he had. "I have no objection," he said in English, only marginally louder. It was probably a bad idea to literally lock the clearly quite soft-spoken Prince and Romain, with all his fumbling awkwardness, together in a room, but at this point Eden was exasperated enough with the terrible state of security in the palace that he no longer cared.
"Fantastic," Eden said, realizing a little belatedly that he probably shouldn't be so informal with foreign royalty. He made his way as fast as he could to Romain's room, up on the next floor, Prince Xiumin following a few steps behind. "Romain!" He yelled, as the guards by his door parted to let Eden pass, the four of them looking at Xiumin curiously. He waved Xiumin in as soon as Romain opened the door, the latter looking utterly confused to see the two of them there. "He'll explain, see you later, don't get up to anything inappropriate!" He called over his shoulder as he ran back down the hallway, leaving behind a spluttering Romain.
All right, everyone that's in any sort of immediate danger has been returned to their rooms. Time to investigate, Eden thought to himself. He really hoped that no one had been let into the room already besides the guards who had discovered the body and the doctor, although he knew not to expect too much. Few of the guards had been trained in investigative procedure; even fewer had actual common sense. Eden had to wonder where they were getting the guards from nowadays, with how incompetent they were becoming.
From the doorway of the princess' room Eden could see corner of the bed, but not much else. He was about to enter the room when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway - it was one of the Selected, looking a bit lost and very concerned.
"Are you okay?" He asked, stepping away from the bedroom. Eden was fairly good with names, but the sheer number of Selected meant that it was impossible to remember all of them. Besides, that was Romain's job, not his. He was just there to manage security with his team of incompetent guards.
"Yeah, I - I just heard what was happening, and I was told to go back to my room, except I think I got lost. I don't need you to take me back, but maybe you could point me in the right direction?" Her dark brown eyes were wide and earnest.
Eden would have preferred to start going through the evidence as quickly as possible, but he had an obligation to help. "Of course. What's your name?"
She stared at him for a second before answering, almost as if the question didn't make sense. "Oh. Valentina."
"Great. I'm Eden. If you just follow the hallway back the way you came, turn right and then go through the dining room, there should be a staircase leading upstairs to your rooms." He started gently steering her away from the bedroom and towards the end of the hallway. The last thing he needed right now was for one of the Selected to find the crime scene and start rumours about it with the others.
Valentina still seemed distressed by something, though, and she stopped abruptly before they turned the corner. "Eden? Is the palace still safe?" She asked quietly.
"Yep, we're just taking precautions right now," he said, though it was mostly a lie. An extensive search of the palace grounds had turned up no evidence and no suspect, meaning that whoever did it - if there was a killer in the first place - had either escaped, or was still in the palace.
Neither possibility was very comforting. There was either a flaw in their security large enough for someone to slip through unnoticed, or there were criminals hiding right beneath their noses.
"Precautionary measures," she repeated slowly.
"Just securing the premises. Nothing special; we do that before big events too, like the garden party you were at."
Valentina nodded. "How about Prince Romain? Is he okay?"
Eden wondered if the Selected were supposed to be this concerned about Romain already, especially considering his less-than-charismatic personality. "He's fine. Like I said, it's all just precautionary measures."
That answer seemed to be enough for her. "Thank you," Valentina said, giving him a quick curtsy and vanishing around the corner.
By the time Eden returned to the princess' room there were two other guards outside, waiting for his orders. He had one of them wait outside the room and prevent others from entering, while the other one would help him out inside the room.
Eden glanced at the badge clipped to the guard's waistband, looking for a name or rank. Of course they'd designed the things to be as impractical as possible - a last name in tiny letters and a huge royal seal, and absolutely no other information. "Do you have any kind of training, Grayson?"
"...I went through some basic crime scene training?" He said. "It's been a couple years, but I think I remember most of it."
"Great. Just don't touch anything, okay? We're just going to do a quick walkthrough of the crime scene." Eden slowly pushed open the door to what had been the Russian princess' rooms.
The entire room looked like it had been through a hurricane. The chairs were overturned, glasses were broken, and dozens of papers were scattered on the ground. The desk was the worst off - an inkwell had been tipped over, staining the table and the nearby carpet black.
"Wow." He exhaled. "This looks a lot worse than I thought it would." He approached the bed, careful not to step on any broken glass or spilled ink. There were bloodstains on the sheets - two clusters of them, as he would expect from a gunshot wound. A large group of small stains were on the left side of the bed, while a more significant pool was on the right. Someone had come in and removed the princess' body, but he could still see the indentation on the bed where she had lain before being discovered. The first guard to enter the room told Eden earlier that he thought it was a suicide; it had certainly looked like it at first.
"Is there anything that might be missing from her room?" He asked Grayson.
"I would say the murder weapon, but it's still on the bed...she carried this bag full of papers around with her a lot. Is that still here?"
Eden glanced around the room, spotting the briefcase on top of a dresser. "Is that supposed to be open?" There were no papers inside, just a few pens and a broken watch. "Grayson. I know I told you not to touch anything, but I need you to check the papers on the ground. See if they're important."
The guard did so, carefully flipping over a few of the pages. He stood up and shook his head. "They're all blank. Probably for taking notes."
That meant the documents were missing, probably stolen. "That's not good," Eden said. 'Could you start letting the guards know that we have to keep an eye out for any documents with the Russian coat of arms on it?"
Grayson nodded and ran out the door, leaving Eden alone in the room.
Eden stepped carefully around the mess on the floor, staring around the room with eyes narrowed in suspicion. Of course, it would be easiest to declare a suicide and have done with the whole thing, but something about the situation just seemed off. The princess had been a reserved person, it was true, but she was nothing if not determined and regal. Granted, it wasn't really Eden's place to start making assumptions, but she hadn't seemed like someone to suddenly kill herself, especially not without at least leaving a note or telling someone like the Tsar.
And, speaking of which, Eden had his own rulers to report to. He took one last, lingering look around the room and stepped out, making his way to the King and Queen's guarded sector.
"If the documents were stolen, it was most likely a rebel plot to assassinate the Russian princess," Eden said. Neither the King nor the Queen looked very impressed by what he was saying. "But the fact that the gun was still there and the autopsy indicates a suicide, or a very unlucky accident. None of it makes sense, to be honest."
The King looked at him for a moment, likely contemplating what to say next. "Have the official report say it was an accident."
"Your Majesty, we're not even sure that it is yet -"
"Do you know how bad this looks if we declare it a murder?" The King interrupted. "The Russian princess dead in our palace, days before we secure an alliance. And when they ask for the documents back, we have to tell them that we can't find them. It looks like we offed her, stole the documents, and pinned it on some convenient rebels. Do you understand?"
Eden tried his best to keep his expression neutral. "Yes. I'll have the official report changed."
"Good," the King said, looking more tired and weary than Eden had ever seen him. "I don't like it either, but that's how it has to be."
That's what he always says, Eden thought, bowing one more time before exiting the room as the King and Queen started to talk in low voices. He paid them no attention; his mind was still reeling after his realization of what today's events implied.
A threat to the palace from the outside was easily fixed: he could demand for more guards to be stationed here, and the King and Queen might have to conscript more citizens, but that was a simple enough solution. But the fact that the documents were stolen, in the short time that it had taken for Eden to ensure the safety of the royals and the Selected could only mean one thing: that there was someone within the palace who had at least wanted the deal between Illéa and Russia to fail.
But what if that was only the first step? Could it be possible that this was only the beginning to a larger, more sinister plot, a plot that might have been conceived to destroy Illéa herself?
A delicate rose can be nurtured, sheltered, and grown to seek the light. But when the petals begin to fall, what can we do but watch helplessly as it perishes?
Hey guys! As an apology for taking so long with the last update, I've managed to write another chapter for all you lovely people. Shout out to everyone who managed to guess that this chapter would be Eden's POV (not that it was particularly hard to guess). Thanks so much to everyone who keeps reviewing, and for understanding how hectic the life of a student can be!
- Brenn