The Warrior of Avelyn

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Hazel kept glancing around, waiting for Clara to show up.

But she never did.

Squeezing her hands together, Hazel kept pacing around, her mind drifting to the worst possibilities, worried that she may have been harmed by the people who were so against her lately. Or maybe she was too heartbroken after saying goodbye to Julian.

All the women were growing worried; used to Clara always being on time. She would have let them know if she couldn't make it.

Something was wrong, and Hazel was determined to find out what.

First she made sure to ask one of her friends to watch over Lila, to which she agreed easily, seeing as her own daughter was good friends with Lila. With one less thing to worry about, Hazel made her way to the castle in hopes of finding Clara there.

To her surprise, the castle corridors were quiet. Empty; with only a few workers passing by doing their job as usual. The guards were nowhere to be seen, and it sent another wave of worry in Hazel's mind.

Walking to the training grounds, she furrowed her eyebrows, trying to keep her nerves at bay once she saw that it was empty as well. With nowhere else in mind, she started to walk to Victor's chambers.

She was suddenly stopped by Alan as he ran to her, calling her name to grab her attention.

"Alan!" She exclaimed, walking closer to him. "Have you seen Clara?"

"She's gone." He said solemnly. "Follow me, the king wants to see you."

"What-"

"Hurry!"

Hazel finally understood what Clara meant by saying she felt as if there was a hurricane going through her mind. As the two ran the corridors, heading for the council room, Hazel could only think about Alan's words.

She was gone.

Her thoughts pulled her to the darkest depths of her mind and tears pooled in her eyes. She couldn't be gone. She didn't know what he meant by her being gone, yet she was too afraid to ask him.

Instead, she followed him into the room as he pushed open the doors frantically and all eyes turned to them.

"What happened to her?" She didn't care about interrupting their conversation, nor did she care about their ranks at this time. "Where is Clara?"

"She left." Rowan was the first to speak, faking disappointment as he sighed. "I guess she didn't care enough about our kingdom to stay."

Hazel's glare at the man could rival Clara's own deathly stare. Perhaps they were around each other too much and she started to adopt some of her habits just as she had with her.

Alan put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down before she did something that would get her arrested. However, she shrugged off his hand and walked even closer to the table which had the council members seated around it. 

"She would never leave Avelyn." She spoke, her glare burning into the man. "She cares about our home more than you ever will."

"Watch your tone, servant." He glared back at her before he threw her a letter. "Read for yourself."

Taking the paper from the table, she read through it, easily recognizing Clara's handwriting...but something was different.

"Is that her handwriting?" The king asked calmly, looking at her worriedly, glancing between his son and his brother. Victor's eyes never left Rowan throughout their meeting.

The king watched as her eyes roamed the paper in her hands. He figured she'd know her best, and would recognize if this really was her handwriting. His eyes traveled to his son's as he finally stopped glaring at his brother and instead softened as he looked at his friend, her tears visibly pooling in her eyes, a single drop falling when she blinked.