SLEEPING WITH THE STARLIGHT FILLING MY ROOMS FELT LIKE I'D BEEN MISSING SOMETHING MY ENTIRE LIFE.

When I woke up around noon I felt better rested than I have since I was a young child. Back pain; eliminated. And of course, I checked my phone to find that Chrissy sent the finer details of her plane ticket to Volterra. She would be arriving around six in the evening.

Slipping into the clothes I found inside the suitcase placed inside my room already, I got myself ready for the day.

My wear was of nothing more than a simple t-shirt and shorts built for the summer weather. It dawned on me after I exited the room that I stood out like a sore thumb. The people roaming the halls wore black; head to toe in midnight darkness. It felt nearly impure for them to do so, like something was genuinely wrong with them.

But I said nothing about it aloud. The guard stationed outside my door, Afton, made no regards to me as we walked. I didn't know where I was going, and that must have been obvious as I went in circles almost five times before I saw anything new in the corridor.

Yet what I saw wasn't all that interesting to me. Just a few paintings I'd seen before in museums all over the United States. They have their own flair when you're looking directly into their souls, but I'm not bothered with the arts these days.

Another weird thing about the people in the halls: they don't seem to notice my presence at all. When I mean don't notice, I mean they can't seem to perceive that I even exist in the same corridor as them. Which is strange, considering that yesterday the world and people around me seemed hypersensitive to my very existence. Every step, every uneven breath. Now I feel invisible.

I roamed for another hour or so, guessing that it was good enough exercise for the day, before heading back into the comfort of my new (and soon to be old) room.

To my surprise, when I came back into the area there was a little black velvet box sitting on the edge of the finely crafted nightstand. A letter protrudes from under the trinket-holder; freshly placed.

Having some semblance of manners kept from my childhood, I open up the letter first.

𝑲𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒆. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈.

- 𝑨𝒓𝒐 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒊

Quick and straight to the point. Hastily, I unlocked the velvet box and took out what appeared to be a necklace. It was a golden crest in the shape of the letter V with black... diamonds... layered into the metal. How much had this thing cost?

Nevermind. There's more important things to attend to. Like waiting for Chrissy to get here. She knows where to find me in here, I think.

Light filled my eyes as I opened up the window again. The sun beamed down into my oversized bedroom, spreading across the silk sheets and shadowing the wall. I giggled as I played around on them. I couldn't help myself. They were too comfortable.

A knock almost exactly the same as last night knocked me out of my inner world.

Instead of coming inside uninvited, however, whoever was outside my room waited for me to open up the heavy door.

"River," a man greeted me cheerily. The dark-haired man, Aro, kissed my hand in a traditional greeting. I blushed scarlet, heat rising to the tips of my ears. "How are you this afternoon? Afton says you woke a few hours ago."

How would he- I thought, but cut it off short. It didn't matter.

"I'm doing fine." I took in a deep breath. Small talk isn't my thing. "Just waiting for my friend to get here. Yeah, I wake up late when I can." When I'm not waking up from nightmares.

"Splendid. Would you let me show you around the castle?" Aro asked. I gave him a small nod. "Wonderful. I wouldn't want you getting lost again. The clocktower is only one part of the building. We have three sections. Just make sure you don't go anywhere near the East Towers."

I hadn't realized that. Three sections, three supposed rulers... have I walked into a cult? Maybe. Wouldn't put it past me. I'm not the best at sorting out danger, I'll admit.

Taking my hand for just a moment, Aro led me out of the room. Stationed there as usual, Afton gave him a nod before we left. His face was so still, I'd think he were a statue if I didn't know better. The urge to touch it, feel it under my fingertips.

Abnormal is so tempting.

"Most of the castle was built over five-hundred years ago, but we're still having sections added due to reaching capacity many times with our staff members. Modern construction has allowed us to add plumbing, electricity, and many other things that older generations of the towers couldn't dream of," he said with a beaming smile.

I responded with a quick nod, allowing him to take me through the various places inside the ancient building. Well kept over the centuries, I'll give them that, with no visible cracks that one would expect with old architectural styling. Particularly old sections had tapestries and renaissance works, as well as stained glass murals scattered throughout. 

When we reached a floor that required a few too many steps to get down to, Aro opened the door to thousands of pearls, jewelry, and regalia fit for a storybook.

"What do you think of these, cara?" He asked, tapping his foot lightly on the wall with his right hand. 

"So you're not just rich like 'I have a castle 'cause I'm old money', you're 'I'm up to par with Gates and Buffet and I'm basically made of money'?" He laughed softly before ushering me inside the room. The crowns alone must've been worth millions, and they were all in prime condition. "I can't tell if you're fucking with me right now. You're not fucking with me, right?"

"I would never." Aro picked up one of the many crowns. The same V-type symbol was all over it, and it had to have been made with pure gold and the finest of rubies. A crown built for a king. "This one is my favorite. It's an older one, many would call it gaudy, but it was made before this very castle was built, and holds more history than one could even imagine."

Before I could resist, he put it down and placed something else in my hand. A tiara made with the same gold, but the jewels were diamonds and onyx stones. 

"Have this one, it matches your eyes." Aro motioned for me to put it on, smiling like a child.

I shook my head a few times, my jaw dropping to the floor. I couldn't possibly take this? Or wear it.

"Come now, it would look wonderful on you. Simply bellissima," he insisted. 

Against my better judgement I put on the tiara (with a stupidly childish look on my face as I did so), reveling in how light it was upon my head. Picking up an ornate mirror with a fanciful number of sapphires embedded into it's silver frame, I looked at myself. 

"You could make a king fall in love with you, wearing that." Aro chuckled darkly, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled back at him, trying to push away the emerging blush that threatened to taint my cheeks. His hands were so comforting against me, a pure kind of pressure keeping me in the moment. And such kindness from his eyes, the same color as the onyx stones in my tiara.

"I don't think any king's exist right now." His smile didn't falter. "That aren't in their 80s or something," I added.

"My River, always having something entirely off-putting to say to such an adoring sentiment." I blushed in embarrassment. "Though I can't say it isn't adorable," he placated.

"You think I'm adorable?"

Now it was his turn to look embarrassed.

"Keep the tiara, regina delle stelle," he said as his hand, to my torment, left my shoulder. "Your friend will be arriving shortly. When you greet her at the airport, give her the same reminder that I gave to you at the start of this outing:

"No matter the circumstances, she is not to enter the East Towers."

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TRANSLATIONS:

cara - dear

bellissima - beautiful

regina delle stelle - queen of the stars

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Another shorter chapter, but how can you blame me? I'm cooking up the next one, don't worry! Before my trip (where there will be no updates for about a month, as I'll be somewhere without electronics) you'll get another update out of me.

I wrote this and was just squealing because Aro and River are so cute and flirtatious it makes me gush. Call me a fanboy, I don't care, I'm on board with this ship 'till the day I die.

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