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Talia
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Lex probably wasn't the only one in the room that had Mr. Amadeus's number, but Mom had asked him to make the call. It was probably because this was something that involved me, and Lex was my bodyguard. And if Mr. Amadeus saw the call coming in from Lex, then he was more likely to answer it, knowing that it was something that had to do with me, and therefore with my mom. I didn't know if he had my mom's number saved in his phone. Were people that were lower ranked like that allowed to have the queen's phone number? I wasn't up on that particular part of the etiquette of royalty. I didn't know if I ever would be, really. If we all survived, I would leave for the underworld as soon as I was done with college.
The call that Lex placed to Mr. Amadeus was answered on the third ring. That was quick for so early in the morning. Then again, he was a teacher and was used to getting up early. It was the weekend though, so I figured that he would want to sleep in.
“H..hello?” The voice that answered was thick with sleep and a little disoriented. So he had been asleep and his phone had woken him up.
“Mr. Amadeus, this is Alexio Ptolemy.”
.....
“Mr. Ptolemy.” It almost sounded like Mr. Amadeus sat up quickly and became alert in an instant. “Is everything OK? Is there something that happened to Princess Talia?”
“In a way, there is something that happened. She had another vision this morning, but something was off about it. Can you please hurry over here so that we can talk about this?” Lex explained to him in a hurry.
“Yes, of course, I will be there right away.” I could hear the man on the other end of the line getting out of bed, and the call wasn't even on speaker phone. It was just that easy to hear with my wolfish hearing. Was it somehow better than it had been before? Was I hearing better now that I had shifted? That was unexpected. “I will be there within half an hour. I just need to get dressed.”
“Tell him that we will have breakfast waiting for him.” Mom told Lex before he responded.
“Thank you, Mr. Amadeus. And I have been told to inform you that you will have breakfast waiting for you. We are sure that you won't have time to eat before you leave.”
“I do appreciate that. Thank you. I will see you all soon.” The call ended then and Lex slid his phone back into his pocket.
“I am guessing that I do not need to tell you all about that conversation. You heard it, I am sure.”
“We heard enough, yes.” Mom nodded her head. “We will be ready for him when he gets here. And I think that we all need some more coffee. Vincent, Shane, David, do you three think that you can go to the kitchen to order breakfast for Mr. Amadeus and coffee for all of us. We are all going to need a lot of it to get us through this morning.”
“Yes, of course.” Uncle Vincent nodded his head and rose to his feet, as did the other two that were going with him.
While they were gone, Uncle Gabriel was asking me questions about the vision. Not what happened in it, but rather if I had seen the men that were talking. The ones that were named Vogran, Olorud and Zarinog. I told him that I didn't actually see them, just that they were up in the sky where there were clouds and smoke. And that it was unnaturally dark in the area. It just didn't feel right all around.
He asked me follow-up questions that all seemed to pertain to the enemies in the vision. I didn't know what it was that he was thinking about, but it seemed that he and Lex were contemplating something as well. Only while Uncle Gabriel was asking me a lot of different things, Lex seemed to be brooding on whatever it was that was passing through his mind.
After about twenty minutes or so, Uncle Vincent, Uncle Shane, and Uncle David came back with the food and coffee among them. And Mr. Amadeus was walking behind them. He looked a little tired, and slightly disheveled, but other than that he was fine. I could tell that he had hurried to get here as soon as he could. And that he must have sped through the city or something to get here so soon.
“Good morning, Mr. Amadeus. Thank you for joining us.” Mom greeted him.
“Of course, I just hope that I am able to help in some way.” He looked around the room and saw me then. “Good morning, Talia.”
“Good morning.” I nodded at him.
“Here, Mr. Amadeus, you can sit here.” Lex got to his feet and offered his seat. “I need to talk to someone about something.”
“Oh, thank you.” They switched places and I watched Lex walk to the corner as he beckoned Uncle Gabriel over to him. The two were then talking so quietly that I couldn't hear what they were saying. “And thank you, Queen Trinity, for the breakfast and coffee.” Mr. Amadeus looked at the plate of food and the large steaming cup in front of him.
“It is the least that we could do. We did wake you early on your day off.” Mom gave him an apologetic look.
“I am happy to help. I know that we talked about visions recently, so I am happy to offer more input. You said that it was different somehow.” He looked at me then, posing the question to me.
“Yes, it was very different.” I said as I drank from the fresh coffee that Uncle Vincent handed me.
I explained the vision to him as well. Every last detail that I remembered, which thanks to my perfect memory was everything. I told him everything that happened from start to finish and how frightened I was. All during my explanation Mr. Amadeus ate his meal so that he wasn't talking and eating later. He finished the meal about the time that I finished my explanation.
“Well, Talia, that is quite the dream that you had, but I do not think that it was a vision.”
“Why is that?” I asked him with shock filling my voice.
“It is the way that you describe being pulled into it. That hasn't happened before, right?” I shook my head no, answering him right away. “That is what I thought. Now, the way that sounds is more mental manipulation. Had you already been asleep, I am sure that you wouldn't have noticed that something was different about that dream. And then we would never know until the time came. Does anyone else know about you having these visions before?” He asked like he was looking for suspects.
“No one outside of my family.” That was the truth.
“Hmm. Wait, you said in your last vision that the man said he knew you were there. And we established that you were sending your soul out in these visions. Perhaps that man told his superiors about your presence at the murder that he committed. If they knew about it and somehow had the ability to do so, they could send you a fake vision.”
“WHAT?”
“REALLY!?”
“HOW?” So many people started to exclaim loudly at one time.
“It is not an ability that humans would have, but people that are versed in magic would be able to do that without an issue. I mean, I am not saying that any witch or warlock could do it, but there are people in this world that are able to do things like that.”
“Alright, so it is probably safe to assume that the leaders of the Jaegan are not human. I mean, if they have magic, not just the runes but real magic, then they can't be human, can they?”
“I wouldn't know how to answer that, Queen Trinity.” Mr. Amadeus responded to what it was that my mom had just said. “I have not met these people, so I cannot tell you who or what they are. But I can tell you that they at least have help from someone that can use magic, and that, in my opinion, means that they are getting nonhuman help. Nothing is set in stone though, since I cannot tell you any of this with certainty. I do apologize that I cannot be more thorough with my explanations.”
“No, that is alright. You are being so very helpful to us right now. Thank you, so very much, for all that you are doing for us.”
“The pleasure is all mine, Queen Trinity. I am glad that I am able to be of assistance to the queen of my people.” Sometimes I forgot that my mom was the leader of all the magic users as well as all the shifters. The kingdom was so big that I often just forgot about things after a while. “This has been an honor for me.”
We all talked a little while longer about the differences that were in the visions that I had, and how Mr. Amadeus didn't think that what I saw this time was a real vision. I was still not sure if it was real or not, but I did hope that it was as he had said, that it wasn't real. If the dream was something that someone had wanted me to see and not a real vision, then I didn't have to worry about my parents dying. It was a cruel and sick joke that this person was playing on me and I would get my revenge on them one day, but for the time being I would be able to breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't going to happen for real.
