“Whew…” Breathing a sigh out in relief, Maire looked at herself in the tall stand mirror beside her bed. With her make-up wiped clean and her uncomfortable clothes replaced by a white nightgown with a beige robe around her shoulders, she felt like herself again. Although this was technically a bad thing, she needed at least one place to relax and thought it was probably safe inside her new room. Surely no one expected her to sleep like her sister right? In a very un-ladylike manner, she dived into the bed and rolled around in the soft blankets, enjoying her first taste of freedom after a very tiring day. “Alicia… I really don’t think I could ever get married.” She didn’t feel that she had made a very good impression on Prince Jules, and their conversations had been rather awkward throughout the day.

But now that she was left alone to her thoughts, feelings of doubt and homesickness began to sink in once more. “Ah…” Wiping away the few tears that began to well up in her eyes, Maire got out of bed and pattered over to the door. Knocking she gently called out, “Evan? Can I please talk to you for a moment?” Silence. She waited, but got no reply from the other side. “Evan?” Opening the door just a crack, she noticed that there was no one there. Alarmed, she opened the door wide open and peeked outside. The hallway was dark and empty, which was strange. Evan had said he would be standing guard outside of her room. Feeling incredibly insecure again, she wanted to go out to search for him.

Closing the door again, she ruffled through her belongings and brought out a comb and two ribbons. Remembering how her sister braided her hair to protect her curls at night, Maire made a side-braid along her right with one ribbon tied into a bow around the base of her neck and another tied at the end to keep the braid from unravelling. She frowned a little at what she saw in the mirror. Despite having copied her sister’s hairstyle at night quite well, it somehow made her seem even younger. She hesitated a few times, wavering between undoing the braid and keeping it. Finally, she took the lamp by her bedside and left the room.

“Evan?” Maire whispered out, making her way down the unfamiliar hallways. The lamp in her hand was not hot at all and a bit brighter than the traditional oil lamps. There were crystals inside the glass container made with alchemy that glowed automatically in the dark. She could hear her heart thumping inside of her ears. She was scared of being found by someone, she was scared that something could suddenly pop out at her from the dark, and she was very worried that she would not be able to remember how to get back to her room.

Fighting the urge to panic, she arrived at a large set of doors that were too big to be someone’s private quarters. “?” Hesitantly, she placed a hand on one of the handles and turned it. There was absolutely no resistance, and the door opened. Inside, her lamp revealed row after row of books lined in tall shelves. Further on in the darkness, she was sure there were even more literary works that filled the room. “Wow…” Perhaps it was because of how dark it was, but the private library here seemed even bigger than the one back in Brynmor. Impressed, she momentarily forgot about Evan and her fears and stepped inside.