The Devil's Cursed Witch

After sending Draven away, Ember spent her time inside her chamber reading books. It would have been an enjoyable time spent in leisure if not for her body pains.

Some time later, Clio knocked on her door. "Miss, pardon for disturbing you, but there is something we wished to ask you."

"What is it?" Ember asked as she closed the book of magic in her hands.

"All those gifts His Majesty bought for you, how would you like us to arrange them?"

"Gifts?" Ember asked in confusion.

"Yes, Miss. Apologies for the delay as after that day things kept coming that kept you busy," Clio said.

Ember was still confused, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. "What gifts? When did the King buy me gifts?"

Reya popped behind her cousin. "Did you forget, Miss? The day we went to the festival in Nimer, the eve of the full moon in White Tiger Clan territory."

This only made the girl more confused. "I didn't see him buying anything..."

"Miss, you are so adorable. You forget His Majesty's status. He only has to say a word and the merchants would happily deliver their commodities to the palace. There are so many gifts that one cannot even think of carrying them along, even with Erlos' spatial magic."

Ember knew that the young elf had a type of space magic that allowed him to transport objects. He boasted about it during their trip to Honeyharbor, especially mentioning that the books currently shelved in her study were books he carried from the human kingdom that way.

"That many?" she said in awe.

"Yes, Miss. Even we were surprised when Erlos told us that His Majesty asked him to get everything that you touched that day."

This was insane. Ember could not even remember what things she had touched in those stalls. As she recalled, she had been curious about almost each and every item.

She felt speechless. "I will check them when...I...can walk and move around freely." She felt embarrassed about her own situation.

"We understand, Miss. You have many empty rooms in your wing in the palace, so we used three of them as a temporary storage room for them."

'Three rooms full of gifts?!'

For a moment, she forgot she was mad at Draven, finding his gesture excessively silly but sweet. It reminded her about the first thing he gifted her, her adorably naughty pet Ray. There was also her swing in the garden... and then, wasn't there another? Something which belonged to her but she thought was lost, the token Gaia said to be the proof of her identity.

'My identity...'

Ember had never thought much about these two words after her nanny died. Ever since Draven gave her a name, she had decided to put aside her past and embrace her new identity as his mate. But now that she was reminded of her identity token, she felt herself growing curious about her past.

'What is my identity?'

Back then, Gaia refused to tell her anything, and she respected her nanny's decision to keep her ignorant. But now...

She looked at her servants. "Where is that gift, the wooden box His Majesty gave me before the night of the full moon?"

"I have kept it inside the side chamber along with your other accessories, Miss."

"Can you bring it to me?"

"Sure, Miss."

Reya returned with the wooden box, carefully carrying it in her hands, and she passed it to Ember. "Here, Miss."

Ember opened it and saw the familiar token placed inside the cushioned box. She pulled it out, delicately holding the pendant through the beautiful white lace tied to it. When she lived in the mountains, Ember had been ignorant about this type of jewelry, but after living in the palace and becoming exposed to luxury, she could now recognize that the gemstone in the middle was made of jade and it had delicate engravings on its surface.

The girl touched the cushion out of curiosity, wondering perhaps if there were other items inside the box, only to realize the cushion was in fact folded velvet cloth. She was surprised as she had never paid much attention to this box before. To her, its existence was lesser than the other things inside her cave related to her survival.

She unfolded that velvet cloth and smoothed out its edges, recognizing that it was a cut in the form of a handkerchief. She found a symbol embroidered on the lower right corner and lightly caressed the image of the downward pointing celestial sword with its crossguard shaped into fierce-looking wings.

"Do you recognize this symbol?" she wondered and then looked at her servants. "Can you tell?"

Clio got that handkerchief from Ember and the pair of cousins studied the symbol. "Miss, it might be some kind of family or clan symbol among humans. Even in Agartha, the people use different symbols to represent them, some as members of a clan, some as a statement they belong to a certain group or as a status symbol. For example, this bracelet in my hand. It has this silver moon symbol hanging on it which represents Moon Elf Clan."

"Yes, Miss. See, I have this necklace too." Reya showed the moon-shaped silver pendant hanging on a silver chain around her neck. However, she soon furrowed her brows. "But how do we determine which human family or group  this symbol belongs to? There are countless humans on the continent!"

"Silly, of course we will limit it first to Miss Ember's own kingdom," Clio berated her. "Looking at this crest and the quality of the handwork, not to mention the value of the cloth, I do not think this is something that is owned by an ordinary person. Such quality is common among us who can use magic, but for humans, this must be made by a highly skilled artisan. Maybe it represents a noble family or a wealthy group."

Reya looked at Ember. "Miss, the kingdom you lived in, are you aware of the noble houses that are maybe famous for using the sword? "

"I have no idea. I was always on that mountain. Forget about the names of nobles, I don't even know the name of the nearest village. All I know it was called as Kingdom of Valor."

The two servants felt bad for their master as she had lived a life worse than even an animal. Just then, Reya spoke to cheer up Ember, "Miss, there is a way to find out."

"What is it?"

"A map."

"A map?"

"Miss, from what I remember, most human noble families rule a territory. That was why in maps, the crests of their families are used as symbols to indicate which region belongs to them. If this crest is truly that of a noble house, maybe we can check if we can find this crest in the map of your kingdom."

Ember felt excited to hear such a vital clue. "W-Where can I get that kind of map? Do we have one in the library?"

"In His Majesty's study, Miss. What you need is a map that covers the land outside Agartha, and most books and maps we have do not care about humans. I heard from Erlos that His Majesty loves to travel and he makes maps of the places he had visited. According to Erlos, their details are far better and up to date than the other maps in the kingdom."

No matter how excited Ember was, it disappeared the moment she heard that she had to ask Draven for it which she was not going to do. She said she wouldn't talk to him and even sent him away without even letting him see her.

'I have my own pride!'

The solution? She had to go to his study once again to get it herself.

She could not ask her servants to steal--no, borrow the map without permission, as that would make them receive a punishment. Only she could do this extremely important albeit dangerous task.

Sadly, going today was not an option as she could not even afford to walk a few steps.

"Tomorrow, I will get it myself," Ember said with a determined glint in her eyes.