Not A World We Know || Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

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“My King, surely you can’t be serious. This is a most preposterous question.”

“There’s no need to sugarcoat the truth, Elana. They should have an idea of what they're dealing with.”

“But...”

“It hits too close to home right?” Xander grinned. “It’ll be fine. Begin the test as soon as the sun hits its peak.”

Elana let out a sigh. “Yes, my King.”

“Step aside. I need to search you first,” The burly guard said as he glared at me.

“And why would I let you do that? There’s no lady in here to do that. What sort of messed up place is this anyway?”

He placed a muscled hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I winced in pain and resisted the urge to yelp. “Watch your mouth, Lady.” Satisfied with the look of abject hate on my face, he grinned. “Now step aside for your searching. That’s the only way you’ll be able to smell the inside of these walls.”

I decided there and then that he was going to die. Maybe not today. But someday. Without a word, I stepped aside for him to search me. I dared him with my eyes as his hands patted my body to get all grabby. My knees were ever ready. Unfortunately, I didn’t carry a dagger with me. Or was that a good thing?

Soon he was done and opened the Palace gates for me to get in. I took a deep breath and tried to be steady as I took in the magnificent building. So, this was the place where the great massacre happened. I gulped and pushed the horrid thoughts from my mind as I hurried to where the applicants were directed.

I navigated my way to the hall with the help of the servants I saw scurrying about. Once I entered, I gasped. There were fifty people at least. Were they that many intelligent people in Zyra? As I searched for an available waiting stool to sit on, I hoped that the test or whatever screening we had to go through would be simple enough for me to pass and difficult enough for others too...

Was that mean? Okay. I’ll quiet my thoughts now.

Barely fifteen minutes later, a tall, lanky woman walked in, with about ten servants with bent heads at her heels. She stood in the middle room and boomed with a voice that seemed too loud for her gaunt frame.

“I am Elana and I welcome you to the Jade Palace. You are here because you have acclaimed yourself to be intellectuals and now you will take a test to prove that. There will be only one winner so I wish you all the best. Like a flipped switch, the servants behind her produced stacks of paper that I hadn’t noticed before and began sharing them in a flourish.

Once it had gotten to the last person, Elana boomed again. “Let the test begin.” I opened mine and looked around to see if they had the same astounded expression I had. But most of them were already writing furiously on their papers.

What’s the best way to cure a lunatic?

What was this tomfoolery? It was supposed to be a test of intellectual prowess not a test of clownery for goodness sake. In the front of the room, Elana boomed that they had only five minutes left.

Damn, I needed to think. But how did anyone cure a lunatic except he was from the heavens? When Elana announced that one minute was left, I quickly scribbled something and left when the servants scurried again to retrieve the papers. As I walked back home, I began to think of some other means to get into the palace. Whoever was grading was going to have a lot of fun at my expense reading what I wrote. It was worth a try anyway.

Somewhere in the confines of the Palace, someone was truly guffawing at Karla’s expense.

“Be so insane, the lunatic would at least know he isn’t alone? Who says that Elana?” Xander said, wiping a tear from his eyes.

Elana looked at her King in astonishment. It had been ages since she saw the king laugh at all, let alone in this magnitude.

“I’m glad you find it amusing, my King. But I do hope you’re not considering-”

“I am indeed doing that. I’ve made my choice. She’s the one.”

“But my King she made no sense, besides you haven’t even looked through-”

“Elana.” He said quietly. And that was enough to silence her. “The lunatic has made his choice. Bring her to me.”

Jhymi🖤

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