I concealed myself in the shadows as I traversed the shrine courtyard. It must have been sometime in the night when the morning begins to descend. The shrine stood still and quiet with the frigid sea winds wailing outside the shrine walls, accompanied by the murmur of the waves crashing tirelessly on the shore.

It was such an odd hour that it was safe to expect everyone asleep. I had returned at the right time because no one was there to confront me yet. I could go to bed straight and fall asleep, wishing I'd never wake up. My whole body was aching from travelling continually for two days. The way back was more prolonged and more tiring. I was dreading my return, but I had no choice. I had no other place to go.

As I walked through the empty shrine halls, an emptiness stretched in my chest. I might have heard a few birds chirping somewhere in the distance, signalling that the sun was about to come up, but I didn't pay heed to them. I headed straight to my room as my eyelids grew heavier than my soul due to sleep. I was feeling numb— both physically and emotionally.

I didn't remember what happened after I went to my room. All I remembered was collapsing on my bed before dreams came to steal me from this realm and hold me captive until the sunrise.

The sun was up in the sky, sizzling when someone attempted to wake me up. I didn't respond first, but when a bucket of cold water was poured on me, I sat up with a jolt, heaving. I was about to curse out loud to whoever it was, but I swallowed my voice as soon as my eyes locked with the pitch-black ones of the Matriarch. A shiver ran down my spine, and it was not because of the cold water. I looked away instantly. It always made me feel uneasy whenever I looked into the Matriarch eyes.

I didn't know why it was so. Maybe, it was because she was the Matriarch, or maybe it was because no whites were left in her eyes anymore. I shivered again just by thinking of her dead black eyes.

"It's noon, and you're still in bed. We thought you couldn't get lazier," She remarked, setting the bucket down.

"I returned early in the morning and was tired—"

"The high priestess is waiting for you. Hurry up and come to her office. We haven't got all day for you," she snapped and left. Meanwhile, I sat on my bed shaking with cold and anger. The rage that I had been feeling yesterday filled me again.

I would not let her walk over me today.

Quickly, I changed into a dry set of clothes before leaving my room and headed towards the High Priestess' Office. It was at the very back of the shrine, facing the Lagrafiri volcano. I always found its location odd, but a priestess dreaded going to the High Priestess' Office wherever it was. I was angsty about going there, but the rage that had suddenly surfaced had overpowered it.

I took the last turn of the corridor and came face to face with that massive wooden door. I took in a deep breath and knocked on it briefly. Without waiting for a response, I pushed the door open and walked in to find the Matriarch and the High Priestess talking in hushed voices.

"Do you think she knows?" The Matriarch had asked in a hiss.

"If she knows, she knows," Vittoria answered clearly before raising a cup to her lips. I didn't know who they were talking about. However, as soon as they exchanged a look after sparing me a glance, I got a hint at me being the subject of their conversation. For a moment, none of us moved. I stood at the door, watching the two while the two of them sat around the huge granite slab of a table, watching me. There were two teacups and a teapot on that table—nothing else.

Vittoria's office was just how I remembered it when I first came here. The colossal window which dominated the office mise-en-scene perfectly framed the Volcano and the other holy mountain where the dead priestess' lived. The other three walls were covered with shelves and shelves of books and other enchanted things that Vittoria often used to impart her duties to the shrine. Just like the last time, I didn't miss the scythe resting against one of the shelves. Its sharp blade slightly glinted as the sunlight sneaking into the office flirted with it.

"You're here," Vittoria smiled. "Sit," she nodded at the seat opposite to her, just beside the Matriarch. I gave the two mystic women a lingering look before I carefully stepped into the dreaded room and sat on the floor beside the Matriarch.

"Would you like some tea, Theresa?" She asked me with phoney politeness.

"No," I replied curtly.

"Great, we have two cups only," she shrugged as she poured herself another cup of tea. Meanwhile, she spoke, "I'm sure you're aware of the reason we've summoned you here,"

"Yes,"

"Then start speaking already," She ordered. I looked at her. She sat calmly in her place, sipping from her cup. Her dark doe-like eyes lazily rested on me, with a crushing weight of a boulder. Her dark curls were cleanly arranged into a bun at the top of her head. The ceremonial headpiece— part of the Head Priestess' attire was currently missing from her head. Without it, she looked like an ordinary innocent girl. She could be easily mistaken for one if she ever stepped foot on the mortal land in regular clothes instead of her white satin ones embroidered with threads of gold.

No one could ever fathom she led an institution so ancient, mystic and rich like a benevolent tyrant. I clenched my fists and answered, "I went to my brother's place but Herren—"

As soon as I took his name, she stopped midway from putting the teacup to her lips. This mere action of hers picked up my heart. She might look like a mere girl, but she was far from it. Behind her dark, seemingly innocent doe eyes lived the most wicked things. I felt Matriarch tensing up beside me as well.

She was an older woman. Far older than all of our ages combined, yet when it came to Vittoria, sometimes, even she withered.

"Who?" She asked calmly. Her voice was a whisper but with an undertone of authority laced in it.

"Herren, one of the senior Nobles," I reminded her. I was well aware that she didn't need one in this case. Nonetheless, she nodded and sipped from her cup but with her eyes still set on me, without even blinking once. "I met him instead. He wouldn't let me see my brother and threw me out,"

A deafening silence prevailed in the room as I was done speaking. The Matriarch seemed to grow tenser beside me as the silence stretched. Meanwhile, Vittoria appeared serene on the exterior, taking her time to finish her tea before putting the cup aside gently and finally facing me.

"He sent you back, and you returned?" She asked, "Just like that?" Her voice remained low and steady.

"He threw me out of there, Vittoria," I gritted.

"You're the Emperor's sister," she reminded me.

"He threatened to punish me for pretending to be the dead princess," I told her. I already knew where this was headed, and it wasn't anywhere good.

"And?" She provoked.

"I tried my best, Vittoria, but he threw me out of there,"

"Do you ever hear yourself talking? You sound so pathetically impotent and worthless,"

"Vitoria, Herren is one of the senior most Nobles. I cannot do anything against him like that—"

"Shut up!" She finally snapped. Her calm slowly frayed away. "Just shut up with all these excuses, Theresa,"

"These are not excuses," I snarled back. The previously felt rage was slowly starting to come on the surface. "I tried my best to see my brother. After Herren threw me out of there, I snuck back into my brother's wing, but he wasn't there!" I snapped.

"And?"

"And I looked for him at the court, but he wasn't there as well. I knew Herren had warned him of my presence,"

"Just because you couldn't find your brother, you returned?" she enquired grimly, drawing out the last word so slowly, carefully, venomously that the word in itself sounded like an omen of death.

I returned—this might in itself be my ultimate end, but I reminded myself that I had come here with the resolution not to let her walk over me ever again.

"No, I returned," I stated, holding her gaze sternly, "because I have realized he's not going to listen to us like this. You need to find a new way to make him listen,"

Vittoria raised an eyebrow and pinned me with her eyes for an eternal minute. She looked calmer than a sea cucumber, but the air around her sizzled like the heat of the afternoon tropic sun. I could feel it manifest into the Matriarch who had been sitting beside me quietly, stiff like Vittoria's office door.

"Are you trying to suggest...," Her voice returned to its calmer inflection, and she leaned over the table, "that I don't know what I am doing?" Her voice was further reduced to a chilling whisper as she asked that.

"No, that's not what I—"

"Or are you suggesting that my way of doing things are futile?" She questioned, preserving her composure, but the gale in her eyes was already threatening to encapsulate the whole room. My heart hammered against my sternum as I sat there, holding her malevolent gaze. If anything, it fuelled my vexation.

"The latter," I provoked.

"Then tell me, Theresa," she said, placing her elbows on the table, stacking her hands on each other and placing her chin over them whilst she tacked me with her unblinking, murderous eyes, "how should I do things? It appears that from now on, I might have to seek your advice and supervision before conducting important affairs as you ought to know more than us,"

"I never meant that,"

"Oh, I know very well what you mean," she smiled wickedly, "After all, a year is insufferably less amount of time for healing wounds so deep. Vengence must keep you awake all night,"

I clenched my jaw.

"You're mad... mad at all of us, and it shows. But at this rate, it would take you an eternity to see that you are mad at the wrong people," She slammed her hand on the granite with surprising strength and leaned over the table until our faces were inches away.

"Never forget," Her voice dropped to a whisper as she started, "that took you in the day they were going to get rid of you. brought you here; Igave you a new place to live, gave you clothes to cover up whatever dignity you were left with, gave you a new life to live. Questioning my ways is questioning whatever leftovers you've been bestowed in the name of a second shot at life,"

The Matriarch sighed deeply beside me while I felt like a volcano about to erupt. I was shaking with rage. Vittoria leaned back slowly and poured herself another cup of tea.

"I'll send you—" before she could finish speaking, I stood up and left.

I was blinking angry tears as I stormed out of the High Priestess' Office. Her words felt nothing less than a stinging slap across my face. It made my skin itch with humiliation to the point I wanted to shed it like a snake.

My rage had blinded me to the point I didn't see where I was headed. I merely remembered stepping out of the office thence the shrine building and thence storming somewhere downhill, still blinking the angry tears and shaking with fury.

The sound of the waves bashing the shore became louder and louder as I descended the stairs. However, these weren't the stairs in front of the shrine. These didn't take one from the beach to the shrine.

No.

These stairs were the different ones. They led one from the first mountain on which the shrine stood proudly to the bottom of the next mountain where the dead priestess' lived.

_