A new beautiful dawn was reaching the horizon over the Obelia Empire, birds already taking flight.

     "The Empress has made her move." The Emperor said as he gazed out of the window of his study. The imperial then recalled the words of the late Julian Drusus. His jeweled eyes narrowed in thought. 'If correct, it seems like its starting .... the 'dictations'.' Then he spoke to his aide in the study, "send a sum to the second prince's palace."

"As you wish, your majesty."

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Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

"What ... is this? Where .... am I?" Her heavy eyelids lifted and she found herself surrounded in complete darkness.

Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

"Is that the sound of gears ... moving?" She questioned herself, confounded from the situation she was in.

Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

Ga-chak.

And just when she thought, she would continue to hear the movement of the gears, she suddenly heard a voice that seemed familiar call her name.

"A̶̯͐́̆̈́̓͋a̶̡̟͂͂͐͠͝l̴͈̺͔̗͇̍͐̈͒i̷̢̛̤̘͔̙̤͗̀͗̀̾̚͝͝y̷̧̜̦̞̲̮͕̱͖͔̆̀͒͊̈́̐́͐̑̕a̴̡̖̭͖͇͚̝̞̳̍̏h̸̢̡̟͕͉̻͓͇̼̜̅̿̈́́̈."

Then there was suddenly light in the darkness in the form of numerous glowing white threads that surrounded her as if she was entrapped in some room surrounded by security lasers.

As the child gazed at the glowing white threads, her pupils dilated as she felt her mind go blanker. For some reason, it felt ..... like the threads were beckoning her to them .... wanting her to touch one of them. As if too opposite poles of two magnets attracting each other, slowly the girl's hand raised and she touched one of the threads.

Instantly that thread grew brighter and brighter to a terribly blinding degree.

Then she felt her consciousness starting to slip. Before she completely blacked out she heard something. Another voice. One of a young man with some noble background.
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"Your Majesty. It seems like the late Viscount Drusus did indeed have a child with his first wife." He paused for several seconds then continued. "Her name was suppose to be Aaliyah Drusus, but she didn't make it out of the first Viscountess' womb 

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alive."

      Aaliyah woke up with a sharp loud gasp, instantly throwing her body in a sitting position on the bed. She felt ice cold sweat trickle down from her hairline as her heart clamorously pounded against her ribcage, echoing in her ears. Clutching the soft fabric of the white nightgown that covered her chest, she slowly asked without much thought. ".... I am .... suppose to be .... dead?"

      One of the doors to the adjoining room of the infirmary opened. With a concerned face Jason asked, rushing over to the child. "Is everything okay?! Are you alright?! "

     Meeting the medic's gaze, these words naturally fell out of her mouth without thought. "Grandpa Jason, why am I still ... alive?"

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      After preparing herself for a brand new day and having breakfast with Jason, Aaliyah had seen a still worried Jason out. It had taken him a while to leave, because he was concerned about that 'frightening' question as he had described it, that she had asked.

     He didn't even wish for her to alphabetically organize his medical files that she was suppose to due today, wanting her to just rest. But after she had convinced him that it wasn't going to be tasking at all for her, he had reluctantly agreed.

    As Aaliyah sorted out the documents and placed them into differently marked and color-coded folders, she thought about that puzzling dream that she had. She had never had a dream that strange before.

    At first, she had pondered if that dream had been something her subconscious had thrown together, completely random. But she couldn't with the feeling she had received, she couldn't believe that. 

     The sounds of the turning gears. The name of her current self. The glowing white threads that she had felt so naturally allured to. Then lastly, the voice of the man that had said she had been born dead.

     'If it isn't just some random dream, how are they all connected?' Her movements stilled for a bit as she looked at the document in her hand. 'The last bit my dream with the voice that seemed to be from a young nobleman, he said 'His Majesty'. He was likely reporting that to his ruler.'

     Aaliyah sighed as she became more confounded as she tried to connect them. She decided to put that dream in the back of her mind for now and finish the task at hand.

     She had something to be more concerned about - about how she was going to strive for the best life she could as she worked in the imperial palace. No matter how beautiful and opulent the palace looked from the outside, that was just a front for the ugly and deplorable things that went on inside of it.

    "687." The child counted. This was the last document she had to file.

    Then all of a sudden a breeze blew from out of nowhere, quickly carrying the document out of the window.

   As Aaliyah dashed out of the infirmary to chase after the file, she took one quick glance back to the window. 'I am sure it was closed and locked.'

     Following after the document, every time she was in close reach of, the wind picked up and pushed it further out of reach. When it had happened once, she had thought nothing of it, but it had happened two more times. Aaliyah was sure that this wind wasn't natural. 'Is this ... magic? Is someone playing a prank on me? Or....' She stopped, her amethyst eyes narrowing in thought.

    She knew that in this world there was the existence of magic and magical beings. Someone using magic to control the wind was something very plausible.

    'Is someone trying to lure-' Before this thought could be completed, an adorable energetic child-like voice rang in her mind.

【Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！　

Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！　

Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！！】

    "..." Aaliyah's eyes widened. 'Okay, now I am hearing voices in my head.' First that strange dream, now this strange voice in her head .... maybe she should had taken Grandpa Jason's advice to just rest.

【Ｃｏｍｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！　Ｃｏｍｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！　Ｃｏｍｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！！】

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     '...uh....who are you? Can you hear me?' The seven year old questioned within her mind.

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    Even after waiting for several seconds, she got no response.

【．．．．　Ｙｏｕ　ａｒｅｎ＇ｔ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ？】

     The child-like voice now had a different tone. The child-like voice sounded really dejected when she asked this.

    For some reason Aaliyah felt a slight twinge in her heart at the sound of this sorrowful voice. Maybe she would had followed if the voice had just answered her question. 

    Aaliyah had first guessed that someone was trying to lure her out from the infirmary. But what she didn't know if the person who was trying to lure her did or did not possess malicious intentions towards her. This was the imperial palace, after all. She had to be vigilant.

    But once she had heard the voice, in her heart she had felt like the owner of this innocent and adorable voice would do her no harm. She didn't know why she had felt that way. She just did. Now, she was feeling an ache in her heart, because the voice in her head had sounded so glum.

   Aaliyah decided to trust her instinct. 【Ｉ　ａｍ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ．】

【Ｙｏｕ＇ｒｅ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ！　Ｙｏｕ＇ｒｅ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ！！　Ｙｏｕ＇ｒｅ　ｃｏｍｉｎｇ！！！　ＹＡＹ！！！！！】

A small smile settled on Aaliyah's face.

【Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！　Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！　Ｔｈｉｓ　ｗａｙ！！！】

And she followed.

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     Soon, the girl found herself in a rose garden filled with roses that had she had been to before for a short period of time and had yet to blossom.

     But this quickly changed as the red roses' petals elegantly bloomed and the wind picked up, carrying the red flower petals off into the distance along with their beautiful fragrance.

    She held her long hair that was being trifled by the wind as she gazed upwards, watching the picturesque scene take place.

【Ｉ＇ｍ　ｈａｐｐｙ！　Ｉ＇ｍ　ｈａｐｐｙ！　Ｉ＇ｍ　ｈａｐｐｙ！　Ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｙｏｕ！！　Ｗｅ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｓｏｏｎ　ｍｅｅｔ，　ｐｒｏｐｅｒｌｙ！！！　Ｌｅｔ＇ｓ　ｈａｖｅ　ｆｕｎ　ａｎｄ　ｐｌａｙ　ｗｅ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｄｏ！！！】

   The document that had flown out of Aaliyah's hand back at the infirmary descended to her from above into her hold once more.

【"Ｓｕｒｅ．　Ｗｅ　ｃａｎ　ｐｌａｙ　ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ  ｗｈｅｎ　ｗｅ　ｍｅｅｔ．"】 Aaliyah replied aloud.

The voice cutely responded. 【Ｉｔ＇ｓ　ａ　ｐｒｏｍｉｓｅ！】

     After she felt that presence of that voice disappear, from behind her she heard.

"What language was that, the one you just spoke in?"

       Aaliyah turned around to see a young boy with blonde hair and cerulean blue jeweled eyes who looked to be around her age. She instantly knew who it was. The child before her was the first prince, Anastacius de Alger Obelia.

    She curtsied, "blessings and glory upon the Obelian Empire." Then Aaliyah thought about his inquiry. 'Did I  speak in another language?' She bowed her head, "please forgive me your highness, but I am sure that I spoke in our great Obelian language."

    '....strange.' Anastacius thought. The girl's voice was very clear and he was sure that she hadn't told him lie. She wouldn't, a girl in her position, but he was also sure that he had heard some type of ancient language flow out of her mouth.

    He had been close by when he had seen her enter the rose garden and if welcoming Aaliyah, the roses had flowered and the red petals had danced lovely in the wind as the smiling girl's hair and the skirt of her lavender dress fluttered. As the sunlight had reached her pale whitish azure blue hair, it had resembled the sparkling shallow waters of the ocean during summer. 

     At first, the prince had thought she wasn't human, but a little flower spirit from fairytales that had been read to him when he had been younger. But as he had observed her, he had realized she was likely to be Aaliyah Drusus, the daughter of the late Julian Drusus. No, he was sure. She had fit the description.

    And lastly, as he drew closer to her, as if she had been talking to someone, he had heard her speak in some mysterious ancient language. His question had left his lips naturally.

    'Could it be that she did know that she spoke in a different language, herself?' That must had likely been the case. Anastacius smiled, "then, I might have heard wrongly, because of the distance and the wind. Even though, you already know of my identity and I of yours, is it only proper if we introduce ourselves. I am Anastacius de Alger Obelia, first prince of the Obelian Empire. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

  "I am Aaliyah Drusus, first daughter of the late Viscount, Julian Drusus. I have been assigned to work as a personal maid of the second prince. And the pleasure is mine."

   A gentle breeze picked up, swirling between these two. And more rose petals soared.

    💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠
Aaliyah and Anastacius met first. She would likely be meeting little Claude in the next chapter.
Hope you guys enjoyed!