The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 235: The Bad News from Sky Castle

Chapter 235: The Bad News from Sky Castle

Annalise watched as the carriages finally disappeared among the tall trees that were the entire mountain. Despite her several tries for making her parents agree for staying at least one night at the castle, she didn’t succeed but at least, they stayed till evening to make her happy.

"If you miss them, you can always visit them. It’s not like they live very far from here." Leela reminded Annalise when she noticed the sad look on the latter’s face.

Annalise turned to look and Leela before nodding her head in agreement. She stepped closer to the Mer girl before taking hold of her hands. "Thank you, Leela, for all the hard work you put into today’s banquet. You and Marley did a great job and I’m really grateful for that."

A huge smile bloomed on Leela’s lips along with a blush on her cheeks that clearly stated that she was a little bit embarrassed because of the sudden compliment.

"Come on, let’s head inside."

The two of them headed straight inside the castle which was lit with hundreds of candles and lanterns that were arranged all around the building.

Leela left to head toward her room as she wanted to take a short break till dinner after a long day of work. As for Annalise, she headed toward the library where she previously saw Kenric and Valerius heading along with Elijah and Ezra.

When she entered, she found all the men crowded around a table as they seemed to be looking at something. The first one to notice her presence was Damien who was actually standing right behind her as he too just entered.

"What are they doing?" She asked him as the man came to stand next to her.

Damien turned his head to look at her before he answered her question, "How about you find out on your own?" And then he left her behind while heading toward his brothers and the other two men who also seemed to have noticed their presence.

"Since you are already here, come and join us," Valerius said as he signaled her to head toward them. Without wasting any time, Annalise did just as she was told since she too was curious to know exactly what was going on so mysteriously between these men.

As she approached the table, everyone parted and took their seats on the couches, leaving only Valerius standing there waiting for her. What she found on the table was some sort of... magical map. It had a certain area circled with red ink that was covered in some sort of fog.

"What happened?" She asked while turning her attention to Valerius in confusion. This was her very first time seeing such sort of map that almost seems like a moving replica of some place.

"The remaining wish jewels got stolen from the Sky Castle." Valerius dropped the bomb almost too quickly for her to even process his words on time. It took her quite some time to react properly to such shocking news.

"What?"

She could hardly believe what she was hearing. They did so much to save those jewels from whoever was after them and sent them to Sky Castle only to hear the news of them getting stolen just a month later.

"We received a message from Sky Castle early this morning and when I went to confirm the news, I found out that it happened sometime at midnight," Valerius informed her further on the issue.

Annalise had to settle down on the couch next to Kenric as her entire head was buzzing from the shock of the bad news. She turned her attention to Ezra as she spoke, "Please don’t be offended but exactly how weak the Sky Castle’s defense system is. This is the second time within two months start something like this had happened."

She didn’t want to be rude but she just could not hold herself back. She was still having a hard time believing that something like this had happened.

Ezra shook his head slightly as he responded, "There’s no reason for me to be offended by your words, My Lady, because even I’m too shocked after hearing this news. The defense of Sky Castle is really strong and it is impossible for anyone to break into the city through the wards and not alert the guards and royal family."

Annalise was about to ask him why the defense system didn’t work when Valerius answers her unasked question - "The defense system didn’t alert anyone because it was an inside job."

This new revelation only surprised Annalise more than she already was. "How can you be so sure that it was an inside job? Did they find anything?"

Valerius nodded his head as he flicked his fingers and the map disappeared into thin air. He then took a seat on the only empty couch left and answered her question, "During their search, they found one person missing from the palace. He was a concubine of one of the Consorts who entered the Sky Castle not too long ago. So far, he’s the number one suspect but they haven’t been able to find anything more about him."

Silence descended among them as they all seemed lost in their thoughts. Annalise was the first one to break the silence as she looked at Ezra and asked, "Are you going to return to the Sky Castle?"

Ezra nodded his head in answer before speaking, "Yes, My Lady. Both I and Marley will depart early in the morning for the Sky Castle. Crown Princess has asked for our return as soon as possible. We decided to stall for today because your parents were visiting."

Annalise nodded her head in understanding as she felt grateful toward the man for putting her parents above the much more important matter they had in their hands to handle.

"What are we going to do next?" She asked no one in particular but it was Elijah who answered - "We need to find those jewels as soon as possible."

Almost everyone seemed to agree with his words but Annalise was tge only one who wasn’t convinced. "What if we couldn’t?" She asked and suddenly everyone’s attention was on her. "What if we failed in getting back those jewels? What then?"

The silence filled the area for a couple of months before Valerius decided to break it as he spoke, "I’m sure the Sky Castle will try its very best to find those jewels, and if... by some chance they couldn’t..." His eyes shifted to every person present there before stopping on Annalise once again as he finished, "... we will have to stop our enemy from bringing the disaster that they are planning."

Once again, Annalise wasn’t really convinced with the answer she got. "How are we going to do that, My Lord?" She asked while looking straight into Valerius’ eyes which were looking back at her with interest and seriousness filling them.

Annalise shook her head to stop herself from falling into his deep ice-blue eyes as she continued, "How are we going to stop our enemy when we know nothing about them? And we also know nothing about what they are planning to do. Then how?"

She felt a presence behind her and the very next second, Damien’s hand was cupping her shoulder as he squeezed it lightly. "It’s alright, Princess. I’m sure we will find out soon, all we need to do is keep trying with everything we have got."

Though she wasn’t completely assured, his words still helped her in calming down to some level because he was right, all that they could possibly do at this point was to try their very best despite the fact that even their best could fail them.

"I have planned to send Elijah and Leela along with Ezra and Marley. Since these four have started working together and have been involved in this issue from nearly the beginning, they will be able to form a stronger team to investigate the lost wish jewels. As for the four of us, we will continue looking into the Portal Hall incident to find out about what really happened." Valerius announced and everyone nodded their heads except for Annalise who was still lost in her thoughts.

She was only pulled out of the train of her thoughts when she felt Valerius next to her as the man took a seat beside her on the couch. He took hold of one of her hands and covered it with his second one as he spoke, "Trust me, Annalise. We will get through this."

That was right, they would get through this! No matter how hard things were going to turn out for them, they would still find a way through all the problems and get things sorted before it would be too late.

And the first thing they currently needed to sort out as soon as possible - was to find out about the secrets of the Portal Hall Incidents.