They deserve it all.

Chapter 31

"Are you ready to go?" We're outside, hiding in the bushes. I'm invisible as is he, we're both ready, or so I thought. I was very excited to do this, to finally do something of actual value again, whether I will get validation from it or not, I wanted to do something. Now that I get to do something, all I think about are the ways I will fuck it all up again.

"I ... I-" My breath is getting way too heavy again and everything is spinning around me, and as Larien tries to catch my attention, I try to focus on him.

"Willow, if you can't do it, that's fine. Don't try to be the hero, don't try to do something beyond your capabilities."

"That's it, Larien," I say, out of breath, whispering, my breath louder than my voice. "I know I can do this ... I just ... I can't mess it up. And there are no second chances so I don't get to do this again, it's now or never."

He nods and holds me by my shoulders. "Do you remember how to be quiet, how to walk, how to talk and when enough is enough?"

I nod. "Walk on your toes, never on your heels. Never focus on one thing alone, always look around you, be aware of your surroundings and do not touch anything that isn't to be touched. When it comes to talking, you don't, you don't talk, you wave, but not even a whisper is to get out."

I force myself to seem put together, and when I do, when I take a deep breath in and then out, I look at him and realize this is the moment that'll pave the path for me to a smooth recovery from almost 6 years ago.

I nod and we both wait and watch as the lights go out. I'm sitting here, my legs crossed, my breathing being the only thing I focus on. Larien taps my shoulder before when the last one is out, and so we go in.

The front door, however big and beautiful, isn't locked. The city is in general a very trusted place, in the Human Lands it wasn't, never would be, so seeing how a twist of the door knob opened it, it shocked me for a moment.

I had this whole plan in mind, we'd wait until the lights were off, until I saw one of last the kitchen maids leave and then silently, invisibly take the keys of not just the house, but the kitchen and the drawers and practically any lock there is inside those 4 walls.

But that isn't necessary. When we walk in, I notice all the art hanging on the walls, I notice the colors, the toys categorized in a box, blocks that are fire resistant, the dolls which are made out of sort of metal that is bendable when heated and can be adjusted in any way you wish, the small balls that can grow and shrink to any size and best of all, the plant I had a dozen of, all of them you could give anything, edible, inedible, no matter what it was, they'd eat it, even a fire blast.

I walk past them, still walking as softly as I can. The floor, luckily enough, are tiled stones covered with carpets, no creaking wooden boards like our attic has in the fourth home of Royal House on the East side of our Kingdom.

But besides the toys and furniture in this room, there is nothing else. I've checked the drawers and see nothing but books, all of them are written by Nobles, none by middle class workers, so it's only obvious. And the chance that the possible person she is having relations with is also a Noble, it's quiet small. I walk towards the stairs, but I can immediately see that though these may be stone, they're also covered in magic brown paint. Not just any paint though, I have this exact sort of paint slathered on my stair steps in my room.

You see, I have a bed in the middle of my room, but I also have another one. You'd have to find the lever of the secret stairs that are coated in a paint that can give the owner of the room or house a shock in their body to wake them up and have them be alert of what is going on. I had to for if the Grand Castle wasn't safe, which was rarely, but it did happen. If I'd have to sleep but the threat wasn't cleared yet, then they'd activate the magic sprayed in the paint and you wouldn't be automatically safe, but at least you'd be aware even when you were asleep.