My Most Precious Human

Sariel showered me with sweet kisses. He wasn't trying to arouse me; instead, I think he wanted to make me feel loved, and that was how I felt that night. We were lying naked in each other's embraces yet did nothing but gently caress each other. We kept smiling, as if we had found ourselves inside a magical bubble that kept us away from reality. My heart was at ease during those couple of hours, allowing me to sleep soundly.

The sound of Sariel getting up from my bed woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes, trying to focus, and saw Sariel getting dressed. I looked through the window. It wasn't even dawning.

"You are leaving already...?" I asked, and immediately all yesterday's pain came back.

Sariel glanced at me while buttoning his shirt. "I cannot leave Elora alone for too long..." He suspended his voice as soon as the words sounded out.

"Wow..." I laughed bitterly, "Now I really feel like the mistress..."

My ribcage tightened, squeezing my lungs. I could barely take a breath.

Sariel stopped putting the shirt on and sat on the bed beside me. "You know, I didn't mean it that way."

"No... That's the whole problem. I don't know," I sighed heavily. "How would you feel if I spent most of my time with Alpha Draven?"

"That is not the same thing."

"Is it?" I said while tears filled my eyes. "I'm having a very hard time staying here. I am even unable to go to your chamber officially. I cannot contact you whenever I want. You don't tell me anything..." I paused feeling that my voice was about to break.

He put his arms around me and then pulled me close. He smiled faintly at me, and then his hand landed on the back of my head as his lips aimed for mine, but his caresses didn't stop my tears from falling. He broke the kiss and brushed off the wet lines on my face.

"Do you think I enjoy putting you through this, Lilith?" he said as seriousness painted his expression. "Elora is up to something. She spent years trying to gain the Royal Army's loyalty, and now she was almost unconcerned by the fact that the Royal Army acknowledged you. I try to eliminate Elora's supporters in secret, and only by being close to her I can get more information on who is helping her."

"I don't like the word "close" in one sentence with Elora..." I grunted.

"Lilith, this is the only way to get a hint on her crimes. Elora is arrogant and egocentric. That is why she trusts that I would never choose you over her. I have to use that fact. It's the only way to eliminate her," he said.

"What if it's not the only way?" I looked deep into his eyes. "What if I found her secret messages that could reveal her previous schemes?"

"What are you talking about?" he gazed at me suspiciously.

"Someone brought me her diary... I don't know who it was. I suspect a young maid since I saw someone like that running out of the east building..." I explained hesitantly.

"A diary?" he sighed, with a hint of mockery. "It can as well be fake-"

"Kanan confirmed that it is genuine," I added before Sariel's words sounded out.

"Even so... do you think that someone like Elora would write off her crimes in a diary?" he asked in a doubtful tone.

"Well... not in the diary itself, but there were coded messages hidden inside it," I said, awaiting his reaction.

"Can you read them?" he inquired.

"N-no... not yet. But... I'll work on it. Kanan and I will work hard to decode them... So please..." I put my arms around his neck and whispered, "Give me some time... a few days. I don't want you near her..." I pleaded.

"I will avoid her as much as I can," he chuckled and kissed my forehead.

I wasn't sure if he believed that I could do it or that those messages would become the evidence he needed, but that was all I could do. I forced myself to smile at him, swallowing the arising anxiety within me. He stroked my cheek and then finished dressing up and left through the passage door. I exhaled, trying to silence my concerns, and went to the bathroom, hoping that the cold water would wake up my brain cells.

I committed myself to find that damn keyword and reading every coded message I found in Elora's diary. I took out the encrypted notes, turned on my laptop, and inhaled slowly, as if I was trying to absorb something that would help me solve the problem. It would be nice to find another supergene within me, and this time it would be nice if it worked as a brain cell booster... Of course, that didn't happen. That was why I decided to stick to the more boring and much more time-absorbing method. I took out an English dictionary and started entering every work that, in my opinion, might have been the keyword, starting from the letter A. I only prayed that Elora and whoever she got those messages from hadn't used two or three words to create a code, and it would be a nightmare to decode a message encrypted by some sentence or a long quote...

I didn't even touch the breakfast Martha brought. I only drank coffee, lots of it. It took me five hours to get to the letter N. I stood up to stretch and my head started to spin so fast I needed to get back to my seat in an instant. As much as I wanted to have this message decoded already, I had to take a break. My brain was overheated to the point where I was unable to recognize words I typed into the decoding program. I wore a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a jacket, and decided to go for a walk.

Unknowingly, I started walking towards the maze garden by the west wing, but as soon as I realized where I was heading, I stopped. I had a strange kind of luck to bump into Draven there, and meeting him at that moment would have been the last thing I needed. I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Lilith! Wait for me!" I heard a familiar voice coming from behind my back.

I turned around and saw Kanan running towards me. The sight of him put a bright grin on my face. I could use talking to my "partner-in-crime" and a friend. For a brief moment, I genuinely thought that it would help me get my mind off of the Sariel-Draven matter. Well, it was a very brief moment...

"I heard about that Alpha being your mate. That must have been a huge blow for you," he shot me a lopsided smile.

"You have no idea..." I sighed, "but I beg you not to talk about it."

"No problem," he said with a chuckle, "Are you going somewhere specific, or..."

"I'm looking for a secluded place. My brain needs recovery." I glanced at him, hopefully.

Certainly, Kanan understood the meaning behind my gaze.

"Follow me," he smirked, going towards some narrow passage between the center and the west building.

"Where are we going?" I asked, entering something that looked like a claustrophobic tunnel.

"You'll see," Kanan snorted, and pulled me by the hand.

As soon as we passed the tunnel, I was blinded. It was as if the sun had suddenly become ten times brighter than it was a few seconds ago. Only when my sight adjusted after a short while, did I realize what I was looking at.

"Wow..." I gasped.

We were standing in front of an amazing fountain with multiple cascades that sprinkled water, making it look like an enormous pile of sun-reflecting crystals. The fountain was made of white marble, gold, and silver, with beautifully sculptured ornaments that gave a romantic mixed with Louis le Grand kind of vibe. The fountain stood in the middle of a green grass field, surrounded by high wild-rose bushes. The place was magnificent, and yet, except for us, there was nobody there.

"Come on, Lilith. Have a seat." Kanan pointed to the wooden bench next to the fountain.

"This is amazing..." I mumbled.

"Enough to make you feel relaxed?" A proud grin popped out on Kanan's face.

"Just what the doctor ordered," I chuckled, sitting comfortably on the bench.

"So, what made your brain fry?" he asked curiously.

"Decrypting."

Kanan moaned painfully, hearing my reply. I could immediately see that I wasn't the only one killing my neurons on Elora's coded notes.

"No progress, I assume?" he tossed, gloomily.

"Nope," I grunted. "I typed half of the dictionary, counting on my luck, but nothing I found made any sense."

"You can say that again," Kanan gritted his teeth, "I started using the names of Elora's old servants. I even used my mother's name, Nura, and still nothing."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "We will find that fucking word, Kanan. After all, Elora must have collaborated with people commending physical strength, not knowledge or wisdom. I bet that the keyword is something elementary, but we are too focused on complicated things to notice it."

"I hope you are right. I'm getting tired of no results," Kanan sighed.

We sat on the bench, whining and mocking ourselves while staring blankly at the fountain for about an hour. It helped. I expelled all of my frustration from my system, and my life forces reappeared. My brain fixed itself and was ready to upload new words from the dictionary. Kanan and I thanked each other for the mutual therapy, and we both went to our chambers, hoping to get some new, better ideas on how to decrypt those messages.

I turned on my laptop and flipped through dictionary pages to the letter O. I typed all kinds of random words that made any kind of sense in my head, but after typing the potential keyword number four hundred, I felt like I wasn't even getting closer. I made myself another coffee and turned to words starting with P. I took a short break to enjoy my coffee and flipped a few pages forward. Suddenly, my sight caught one meaningful word. I smirked, thinking that it couldn't be that easy, but decided to type it as a keyword anyway. I pressed enter.

"No way..." I muttered before my jaw finally dropped.

I took a deep breath in, then out. I closed my eyes and opened them just to confirm that I wasn't imagining things. I slowly looked at the encrypted message I typed at the beginning, then at the keyword I picked, and at the decryption results. A shiver of excitement spread across my whole body.

The message said, "The poison will be delivered as Princess requested. It is deadly, even if you use small doses. Nura will be dead before she conceives."

I had to read it three times before I acknowledged that I actually decoded Elora's first note. I wasn't able to tell who had written this note, but I finally got something. I burst out laughing as I couldn't understand why I didn't try such an obvious keyword sooner. After all, it was this one word that described Elora's dreams and desires in the most accurate way possible. The keyword she used was... POWER.