Trinity had tried everything she could to get her legs to move, one step at a time. Her legs felt like they were gonna give away at any moment, but she had to continue.

“Hey, I know you're scared, but calm down,” Apurva said to Trinity. “It'll be over soon.”

Trinity started to calm down a little when the people in front of them said, “Alright, the three lords will be here soon. They know where you are, so just stay here.”

They left a few seconds later. All three of them were just left in a random room with paintings, swords, armor, and lots of weapons.

“We’re supposed to be here.” Apurva said quietly to themselves.

“How do you know that?” Arkanos asked them.

“Something that the newspapers never said is that the royals are allowed to see their families. My aunts, uncles, and cousin would tell me all about it Just for holidays. The newspapers are accurate, but sometimes hide stuff.”

“Well thats-”

Arkanos was cut off by the sound of doors opening, and the sound of footsteps.

` 3 people came in. They had the same dress, same eye shape, same body type, the same hairstyle, which was a high ponytail that went down to their waist. Only difference was the dress color, hair color, and eye color. One was red, another was yellow, and the last one was blue. They were about 8 and a half feet tall. The 3 royals knew exactly who they were.

“Welcome, new royals!” the red one said. “I can tell you all are nervous, but you don't need to be!”

“Oh, yes, Apurva Christensin.” the yellow one said. “Second cousin of the last royal, we all liked him, pity he died.” They bent down and put a pale finger on Apurva’s wrist, making them flinch.

“Oh, wow. 7% Iraklis blood. The majority of the Iraklis bloodline were royals, not surprising you've been chosen.”

“You should take a look at this one.” the blue one said, who was inspecting Arkanos. “13% Aiolfi blood, pity he wasn't a knight, what an amazing one he would be.”

The red one went behind Trinity and put their hands on her shoulders. Trinity winced at how cold their hands were, they were as cold as ice. She flinched when they touched her wrist.

“Oh, my, this ones the daughter of Seher Aohina. She tried to kill us once, did that woman? Oh, and she's friends with a pure Nakano, who will be an amazing knight. Well, nothing special about her blood.”

Trinity was too scared to say a word or even move. She was having trouble breathing, and her body was as stiff as a rock. The only thing moving was her eyes. She hated to admit it, but they were beautiful, and she couldn't take her eyes off of them.

“Oh yes, I remember her.” the blue one said. “If it wasn't for all those protests, she would still be in jail. We just wanted to not start a war.”

“She was pretty and very confident” the yellow one said, “No wonder almost everyone liked her.”

The blue one continued, “Anyways, I don't see anything wrong with your bloodlines. Step onto the white circle right behind you and you will be teleported to your bedrooms.”

The three new royals stepped onto a big empty white circle where they said it was, and soon felt air of different temperatures blow in different directions on them, along with seeing a blinding white light. Soon the wind stopped, and the light dialed down, and they were all in a whole other room. It was a royal and luxury bedroom, with a bunch of giant beds and golden chandeliers.

“This is… nice.” Arkanos muttered quietly but loud enough for Apurva and Trinity to hear.

“That was scary,” Apurva said, “why do the overlords have so much power?”

“I don't know.” Trinity said.

“Well, anyways, according to what I've heard, we’re allowed to sleep, but tomorrow will be a big day because we’ll be shown to the rest of the castle and have our pictures taken for the newspapers.”

“I'm tired,” Trinity said. “I don't care that it's-” she looked at the clock “-almost 9. I'm going to sleep.”

“But-”

“Shut up. And don't wake me up until morning, I'll kill you before the overlords can.” Trinity went to one of the beds, didn't bother to change her clothes or even go under the sheets, she just flopped onto the bed and closed her eyes.

“Wow, talk about being rude for no reason.” Arkanos said.

“Maybe she's just most comfortable showing anger.” Apurva said. “But then again, she just found out her mom tried to kill the overlords and never mentioned anything about it, she's probably going to be mad.”

“Fine, but do you know what happens during the rest of the night tonight?”

“I'm pretty sure 1-4 grey rings will show up.”

“Great, when will they show up?”

“I don't even know if-”

Apurva was interrupted by the sound of harsh air blowing. She and Arkanos turned around and saw three people standing in the teleportation circle they came in with. One had on a long maiden dress that came down below the knees, and was tall with dark blue eyes and black curly hair. Another person wore the same dress but was a lot shorter and had black eyes and short straight purple hair. The last one had on a formal suit and had brown eyes with bright orange hair.

The tall black haired person in the dress spoke, “Hello, we’re here to serve you from now on. I'm Luiz Rostami, the purple haired girl is my partner, Jokela Paviel, and the other one is LIuc Snider.”

“Hi there!” Apurva said. “You know, you don't have to be so formal.”

Jokela started to speak “Royal Christensin, it is ordered by the overlords, we have to be polite to royals.

Lluc spoke up, “If we don't, bad things will happen.”

The 2 royals realized how uncomfortable they looked, and started to feel bad for them. They had to act like a person they were not, or else they would have bad things happen to them. They had just started to understand how horrible the overlords were.

~

The next morning the 3 royals had all woken up and were soon going to be ready for the newspapers. Half the time, Apurva was telling them what was going to happen to Arkanos and Trinity.

The overlords had ordered them to change their clothes to something more suitable for the front cover of the newspaper plus the entire castle. They had given Trinity something she was expecting, a long dress the same color of her ring, and had a hoopskirt, tons of petticoats, detailed designs with fabric, and a corset. Apurva and Arkanos had been giving something similar. When she put it on, she felt strange. She felt like she was going to step on it, despite the hoopskirt, and that the fabric and jewels were going to fall off.

They were at the main opening of the castle. It was like the other entrance, it was a tall arch with knights in front and behind it, the only difference was that there was a door, and the arch was even taller. Both the royals and overlords were going to be pulled in self- driving carriages, cameras were going to be pointing at them for the newspapers, and the newly- selected knights were going to see the new royals for the first time.

“We’ll be in the carriage in front of you, you just have to smile and wave, it's that simple. The selected knight will be in the stands around you, so dont feel uncomfortable if they look at you, obviously they want to see the new royals!” the overlords told them.

They all got into their carriages, the overlords in front of the royals. Trinity was once again anxious. Her heart was pounding so loud she could hardly hear anything else. She could see and feel the carriage moving on the paveway, but she couldn't hear the sound of the wheels. She saw all the knights in the stands to the left and right of her, wearing their armor, their faces and a bit of hair sticking out. She remembered what the overlords said and lifted her arm to wave, but her arm felt like a million pounds. Then she saw a familiar face.

It was Chloe. Trinity could recognize their face and that purple hair anywhere. Suddenly her heart calmed down, she could hear again, and her arm was lighter. She could hear the camera flashing and people talking.

This had been going on for so long, Trinity had started to get bored. Her arm felt like it was going to fall off, and her mouth hurt from smiling. Soon it was finally over and they got out of their carriages.

“Over there, is another teleportation circle, you will be back in your rooms.” the overlords said. So then the 3 royals stepped onto it, and felt the air on them and saw the blinding light, but when the light disappeared, Trinity didn't know where she was. What was worse, Apurva and Arkanos had disappeared. What was around her was a big hallway with bookshelves and vines all over the walls. She ran down the walls looking for an entrance, the vines getting thicker. Soon she saw a door covered in vines, but when Trinity tried to open it, it was able to open. When she opened it, she saw a beautiful garden. One section was full of animals she had never seen before, that were on fire, but lookee dlike they didnt mind, along with some plants that needed fire to survive, but she didn't want to know what they were. Another section was animals and plants that were flying on their own, another section was a giant glass tank with a bunch of sea creatures and sea plants. The last section was a normal area, with grassy lands and normal animals.

In the grassy section she saw a woman with a long flowy white dress that had long angel sleeves and lace, along with long wavy red hair that went down to her waist and had a golden wire-like crown with leaves and flowers twisted around it, along with a bright white ring. Trinity could tell by her dress and her crown that it was a mage. She was bending down next to an animal Trinity had never seen before. It looked like a sheep and a pig merged into one, like a wooly pig. The mage was feeding it something that was white with green things in it. Trinity ran over to them, lifting her skirt slightly over her knees, not wanting to ruin her dress. The woman turned around, and Trinity got a better look at her face. She had light brown soft eyes, and freckles all over her face.

¨Oh! You must be Royal Aohina!¨ the woman said, taking a deep bow. Trinity felt scared when she heard that. It was her worst nightmare ever since she found out about the past royals constantly dying.

¨My name is Asteria Flamefist.¨

¨You don't have to be so polite, Lady Asteria¨ she said, saying Lady like it was a slur. ¨My name is Trinity.¨

¨Oh darling, its ordered by the overlords, we have to be polite to the royals, especially if they just got selected.¨

¨Well, what is that animal, what are you feeding it?¨

¨Oh, you've never seen one of them? This is a porvium, and im feeding it with a health potion, so they won't get sick.¨

¨You can make health potions?¨

¨Yes, I can, that's one of the things mages can do with their earth powers!

¨Earth powers?¨

¨Yes, mages have powers with all four elements, i'm sure you know them?¨

¨Yeah, its earth, water, air, and fire.¨

¨Because of that, usually the most powerful ones are assigned to work in the farms, because it can help the animals the most, but they are forbidden to use fire anywhere other than the fire section because it could hurt the animals and crops.¨

¨But those powers are a part of you, why does everyone follow the stupid and unfair rules the overlords say?¨

¨Royal Aohina, if you don't follow the rules they give, you could be executed!¨

¨Call me Trinity, Lady Asteria.¨ she said.

¨But Royal Aohina, it is ordered by the overlords, we must say this!¨

¨Trin- Royal Aohina!¨ said a familiar voice.

Trinity turned and saw Chloe once again.

“Chloe!”

“You’ve met Lady Asteria too? She's one of the most powerful mages in all of Pantaleone! She's so cool!”

“Thank you, Chloe. Why are you here, Royal Aohina?”

“Well, I was supposed to be in the bedroom, but the teleportation circle broke, and now I'm here.”

“I’ll take you.” Chloe said.