Between Dimensions- Chapter 8

“Great, now we have to dine with the bitch.” Becca hisses in Logan’s ear.

“She said ‘after the ball’. You can get out now.”

“But wouldn’t it look suspicious if we all disappear together?” Adrian interrupts them.

“Well yes, I hadn’t thought about that. So it is done. Rose will stay with me. You go.”

“What?” Becca exclaims, but lowers her voice when she realizes people and other beings were staring at them, “Why me? Why is it always me?”

“Becca please be reasonable,” Adrian frowned as she tried to explain everything to Becca, “We both can’t just vanish into thin air like that.”

“Then you stay here.”

“You are my fiancée,” Logan folds his arms and looks wary, “Just think about what people will think if I dance, not with my fiancée, but her cousin.”

“A scandal, that’s what people will think.” Becca answers without a moment of hesitation.

“And that scandal will focus more attention on us. Honestly Becca, don’t you know anything about courts?” Adrian looks exhausted.

“No, since I live in the 21^st century, not the 17^th.”

“Well we are in a court now. And I won’t waste any more of the precious time on this wasteful tittle-tattle.”And after saying that she walks away.

“Tittle-tattle?” Becca asks as they see her leave, “And you were saying something about a dance. Weren’t you?” She shoots a glare at Logan.

“Yes, of course we will have to dance.”

“Well I don’t dance. And surely not like this.”

“Are you saying that in your world people don’t dance like this?” he looks truly shocked.

“Well they do. But in marriages and that sort of formal stuff,” she replies, looking at the couples ball dancing, “And surely not in parties.”

“So what are your parties like?” Logan asks, wanting to start a conversation.

“Nothing like you could ever imagine,” she sighs, “(A) The venue is usually not this big, (b) there are a lot of people, most of them being uninvited, (c) there’s a lot loud music, like really loud, (d) there’s booze, (e) we don’t dance like this, it’s more like dancing when you lose control and you do whatever the hell you want to, (f) a lot of people start making out and (g) after the party’s over, which is in the morning, the place where it was held is a total wreck. Like you couldn’t even imagine that sorta wreck.”

“Wow, the points of differentiation were long,” Logan replies awkwardly, “And you enjoy it?”

“Yep. And don’t tell me you like all this.”

“Well I don’t. So anyway, tell me more about your world.”

“And what about it?”

“How you live, who your friends are and things like that.”

“Okay.”

And as Becca and Logan keep up their conversation, some distance away, Adrian is going around the castle, trying to find the only thing that could bring the Queen down. Like the party hall, the rest of the palace was extravagant. Since they did not have electric light, one would obviously expect the hallways to be lit with fire. But that was not the case in this extraordinary place. The walls were glowing. This, of course was nothing new to Adrian. She had been here. She had run through these same halls for her life. When she had first come here, she could not understand why everyone hated the Queen so much. True, she haughty, and walked around like she owned the world, which she actually did. But weren’t all rulers like that? She had gotten the answer when Doerian had told her about how she had overthrown him and seized the control of the whole kingdom. Thinking about it still gave her chills. And all of that had been validated when she had come here for the first time. Unlike this time, when because of Logan they were directly transported to the palace, last time she had to fight her way through.

During all of that she had seen what the common people went through every day. She had seen their misery, even endured some of it. The Queen did not do this because she had something against the people; she did it all to survive. Even though this world had magic, what the Queen did was unheard of. The darkness of her magic was frightening. Only Doerian and a few other people knew this, and he had made her swear she would not tell anyone. The Queen fed on the misery of the people. She survived on their agony and pain. All that pain made her even more powerful. And that was why she was so beautiful. Misery took away the commoners’ beauty and she took it. Consumed it. Their happiness and beauty was snatched away by the Queen.

Adrian skids to a halt as she comes to her destination and sees the guards posted on the entrance. The Queen’s chambers.