Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Aella was reading a book in the library when a maid came in and approached her, "milady you were summoned by the duke... the royal advisor have arrived and requested your presence".
Aella frowned in confusion as she marked her book and stand up "whatever does that sly fox want with me... we're not even acquainted ". The maid just shook her head helplessly as she followed the young miss downstair to the living room.
As Aella arrived in the living room she saw her parents with a serious face as they talked with a long haired raven man, who is talking to them with a smirk. They turn to Aella as she approached them.
Aella greet all of them with a curtsy. "Greeting to dear father and mother and greeting to his highness Marques Symon".
Marques Symon lights up as he look at Aella up and down, laughing in amusement. "I can see why his majesty fall for you in first sight, heiress Roubell you are a beauty indeed! the most beautiful lady in the kingdom! ".
Aella blushed at the compliment before realising what he said "his...majesty sir?".
The marques smirked again "why yes.. that what I was talking with your parents. Our honorable king had request for your hand in marriage".
This sentence struck her like lightning "w-what... no no..his majesty and I never even met! " she wave her hand in denial.
"true... but his majesty had seen you before when you were horse riding with your friends last time.." he answered as he sip his tea. "You know it's an honour to marry our king, you'll be his queen. Your parents agreed already and your marriage will be in the end of this week! "
Aella felt tears on the corner of her eyes as she looked pleadingly at her parents before running upstairs to her room. Locking herself immediately. Persi came out from her cat cove to see his owner crying in the middle of the room and jumped down to sat on her lap and pawed her face as if comforting her. Aella smiled a little as she looked at Persi and headbutted him.
She stayed copped up in her room that day, not willing to open her door to anyone including her old maid Nina and her mother. All of them give up after 5 hours of coaxing and decide to leave her alone.
Night came and old maid Nina quietly enters Aella's room using a spare key, she crepts up and saw the tear-stained young miss sleeping with Persi on the bed. The old maid wept a little at her young miss sad face and fix the blanket so that it cover both her and Persi before opening the balcony door and putting off the last candlelight in the room causing the roon to go dark. "Goodnight milady... sleep well" she whispered before going out.
After her footsteps receded, the usual black cat came from under the bed and glance at the door with a sad eyes before glancing up to Persi and meowed which he immediately response to. The black cat went out of the balcony and dissapears into the town. Meanwhile the figure of the sleeping young miss flickered like a glitch before settling back to normal.
On a dark alley at the town the black cat went behind a tower of crate and came out as a lady. She wears a black cloak, beneath the cloak is a white blouse with a black outer corset, she was wearing a black glove, a black knee length skirt paired with a black legging and knee length boots. Her face was adorned with plain black masquerade mask. It seem that everything is black except for her blouse.
The lady lift up the hood of her cloak to conceal her face as she walked out the streets. Everyone who sees her smiles discreetly at her while some people near guards patrol wilk try to pry the guards attention to them to make sure that they didn't see her. She walked casually among the crowd, blending in despite her black cloak standing out as she head out to a half-lit alley and went to a door at the end of it.
It was a small bookstore with an old lady at the counter. The old lady was reading a book when she sees the cloaked lady came in,
"welcome back my dear Ai, the others are in the back. My daughter had made you all cookies, do enjoy" She said in a gentle and fond voice.
The lady take down her hood and smiled at the old lady "Thank you mrs. May, do tell Alicia that we appreciates it, her cookies are heavenly after all" giggling at the end. Ailorous, as she was famously known as, went to the back of the store where a door was hidden in the shadow of the bookshelves and enters it revealing five masked people huddled around a table. All of them look up when they hear the door closes and smiled as they saw Ailorous.
"Ai my dear! you're finally here! " a blonde pixie cut girl squeeled as she saw her but instantly quiet down when she saw the grave look on Ailorous face.
"what's wrong? " the only man in the group ask in concern, his blonde bangs falls to the side and cover one of his eye as he tilted his head.
The pixie cut girl and the man goes by the name of Fairy and Kratos. An albino lady called Aurum next to Fairy and a red haired lady called Firefist was next to Kratos. Altogether they were known as the Guardian. To the people in the kingdom they are their heros, but to the king and his men they are criminals.
Ailorous sighed before sitting down on a chair and take off her mask revealing Aella soft face, the other grew more concerned as they saw her take off her mask as they know she only do that around them when she's frustrated.
"I'm going...to marry... that evil king... this week" She said with a gritted teeth before throwing her mask to the ground in anger. The candles in the room blazes up for a moment cause to her sudden power instablility. Her power fluctuated in her body as her emotions was unstable. The ladies in the room gasped in shock and Fairy went down to take Aella's mask from the ground.
Kratos who had clenched his hand tightly due to anger asked again in a leveled tone "why?"
Aella look up at Kratos expression and went angry "don't look at me like that, it's not like I was the one who wants to marry him! that stupid king saw me on his excursion around the kingdom one day, horse riding and-and fell in love with me!" she spat out the word 'love' like it's a vile thing.
"I can't do nothing about that now, he's the freaking king! the only way I can do it by opposing him with my powers but that would reveal my identity which! will harm my family!" she gripped her hairs as she shout out in anger. Fairy and Aurum went up to either of her side and hug her, trying to calm her down.
Kratos exploded in anger this time "well if you just stay at your manor all day and not prance around with your lady friends-no offense FireFist- he wouldn't have saw you!".
"Kratos don't blame her! she feels frustrated enough as it is! " Aurum warns him.
Firefist being the sensible one sighed and spoke up for the first time "okay everyone let's talk about this after you two calm down, if you two didn't calm down, this bookstore will be on fire and some of them probably will explode due to both of your power outbreak and we'll be exposed and Mrs. May and her daughter might lose a house and will probably went to jail for harbouring the so-called criminals of the kingdom". she grips Kratos arm tightly that he can feel pain.
Kratos went silent at her word and try to calm down while Aella breaks down and cry in anguish with Fairy and Aurum hugging her tightly. Although her emotions was still unstable but her powers are stable again. It took 15 minutes for Aella to calm down and Kratos sighed after he sees her wiping her tearful face "I'm sorry Aella, Aurum's right it's not your fault, I wasn't thinking rational earlier" coming up to her and hug her close to his chest. Aurum and Fairy just looked sadly at them.
"Okay now that we're all calm.. let's talk this out, clearly we can do nothing about this marriage without risking our identity so I'm sorry Aella you have to stay strong being with that king. Try to be very very secretive whenever you want to go out on our missions, we can't risk it which means that we also cannot approach her in our real identity-well except me of course-not that we can casually meet her anyway since she's technically going to be queen at that point" FireFist explained to them.
Aurum snap her finger in realization "oh! since you're going to be queen maybe you could sabotage his plans secretly! ".
"I don't think so... she needs to act obedient or else he might hurt her! especially since she can't defend herself without exposing her identity as Ailorous" Fairy reasoned, stressing the word act and exposing.
Aella look up at Fairy as she separates from Kratos "like hell am I going to act obedient, I'm going to make him regret marrying me with my sharp tongue... I'll be obedient when I need be but I'm not staying as an obedient little doll around him! "
FireFist nodded "so Aurum's idea might work then"
Kratos grip the back of the chair as he heard this "I still don't like this... is there really nothing we can do??"
FireFist shrugged "well we could have you 'kidnapped' Aella on her wedding day but that would make the kingdom go into a state of emergency and they would fill the streets and forest to look for her" doing the bunny-ear hand movement when she said 'kidnapped'.
"No... I just have to accept this and marry him, I don't want to risk my family. Of course I'm not gonna be obedient and meek about it but I have to endure it-and maybe sabotage his plans" Aella sighed, taking the mask from Fairy and wears it back. She took a cookie and eat it "let's enjoy this delicious cookies now, I'm going to miss Alicia's cookies".
Evryone smiled at her in sympathy and then joins her eating.
Kratos feels his heart ached as he stare at Aella defeated figure.
It was 3 am when they all separated and went back to their respective home. A black cat can be seen jumping from the tree back to the balcony before going inside, appearing back as Ailorous. With a wave of her hand her clone in the bed disappears and Ailorous went inside the other room which is the bathroom to change her clothes and hide them. Aella replaces the hero and she went to her bed, wearing the same nightgown as her clone and went to sleep holding Persi close to her side.
Three days later, the wedding day, the whole town is filled with decorations in white and royal blue, the bell tolled many times that morning signaling a joyous moment. The people of the kingdom had a bright and happy faces although inside they feel sympathy for the bride-except for the young ladies as they feel jealous of the bride instead, wishing they were the bride-to-be. The castle and the church was filled with grand decorations, everyone running around detrmined to make it perfect. The house of Roubell was in the same state especially in Aella's room.
Aella was standing on a pedestal with a beautiful and grand white dress, it skirt flares around her and a thin cape flow from her shoulder to the floor, it flowery patterns had jewels attached making it glitters now and then. Aella's makeup was done in a natural tone that further enhances her beauty and her long raven haired is in a waterfall braid with flowers tuck in some of the fold.
Although Aella looks very much like a queen in the wedding dress, her expression was that of sadness. Her mother the Duchess Nayla who was busy fretting and complimenting the dress went silent and tearful as she watched her daughter unhappy expression.
She caress Aella face gently "I'm sorry my flower... I'm such a bad mother, I wish I can do something to end this wedding and make you happy".
Aella quickly wipe her mother's tear and wearily smiled "It's okay mother... I wouldn't want you to risk yourself by disobeying the king, maybe it's my fate... so I have to accept it. Now don't cry mother or you'll ruin your beautiful makeup".
The duchess chuckle and hold her daughter's cheeks "you've grown to be so beautiful, it's feels like yesterday you were in my arm amd running around the manor creating mischief as a child and now here you are! a beautiful woman in a beautiful wedding dress, I can't see the mischievious little baby anymore. You look like a goddess!"
Aella carefully hugged her mother to prevent her attire from being ruined and giggled "I will always be your little baby mother, that's a position that I'm not willing to give up... no matter how old I am".
They were laughing happily when there was a knock on the door. The duke had enter and approach his daughter with a sad smile "just your mother's little baby? how about my little baby? ".
Aella went up and hug him too "don't worry father... I'm your and mother's little baby"
The duke kissed his daughter forehead fondly then his smile fell a little as he remembers his reason for coming. "The royal carriage had arrived, It's time my sweet child"
Aella smiled sadly again and hug her parents before she straightened her composure while sighing in resignation "let's go father, mother... my soon-to-be husband...is waiting" the word husband seems like a poison in her mouth.
They all headed out with a couple of maids following Aella to hold her long skirt and cape. Another maid is not far from them with old maid Nina holding Aella's veil while Nina holds Persi the cat who was sitting obediently in her hold. Aella went inside the main carriage herself while her parents and old maid Nina went to the second carriage. the veil holder and the couple of maid that was holding her skirt and capes went on a carriage that was prepared for them.
With that, they are off to the royal church. Aella humms a song on the way in attempt to keep herself from crying as she waits for the moment she been dreading for.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone