Chapter 43: Distasteful Feeling
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At the Hilton Hotel, Cornelia was busy walking around in circles beside a simple-looking fountain, and stretching her arms as if she just woke up. Her butt felt raw from all that hours of sitting down in the noisy helicopter. Ulrich and she didn't even talk because of the damn noise and it was very warm inside. The air conditioner was a brilliant new breeze, though the hotel didn't look as fanciful at all, by her standards. Sure there were pretty creative things like an enormous fish tank that stretched till the ceiling with a dolphin inside, but Cornelia just didn't feel the luxury pull.

Ulrich ran back to her with a bellboy behind him. "Penthouse."

"Only?" Cornelia teased, gesturing the bellboy to her bags. "Oh. I thought you said that your family would be here?"

"They are," Ulrich smiled, taking her hand and ushering her to the elevator. "...waiting in the Penthouse as we speak."

"Oh great," Cornelia sarcastically commented as they entered the lift. The ride was surprisingly a short trip up to the hundredth floor, and Cornelia was just trying to compose herself with the correct manners and such. (Treat yourself like a representative of the Kingston family! The reputation of it, in front of the Princetons will be up to me!) Cornelia now no longer felt comfortable meeting the family at all.

A jolt zapped through her. Something didn’t feel right as they ascended.

However, as the doors opened, Cornelia just saw typical luxury furniture laid out. Everything was in place, in fact, quite untouched. But no sign of any other human being. Ulrich tapped her tense shoulder and pointed towards the kitchen. No one was there, but there was an half-eaten apple and a cut strawberry cake in a glass container. And just as she was about to approach the kitchen, Cornelia heard a small boyish voice behind her. "Brother!"

Cornelia turned around to see Ulrich embracing a boy about eight years of age. A couple, apparently rather quite tall, came behind and smiled warmly. "Welcome Ulrich, darling," the one whom Cornelia assumes is the mother, spoke. "You're half an hour late."

Ulrich chuckled, "Well, I wasn't able to get the helicopter to the academy first. Someone stole my parking lot."

"Nii-san!" the brother called back Ulrich's attention and pointed at Cornelia. "Who is she? She's very pretty."

"Oh yes," Ulrich stood up and gestured Cornelia. "Father, Mother, this is Cornelia Lily Kingston. She is a very close friend of mine. And Cornelia, meet my parents and Luke, my annoying brother who always steals my things."

"And vice versa!" Luke immediately rebutted, then bowed playfully towards Cornelia. "Nice to meet you, Cornelia-chan! Call me Luke-kun!"

"Ignore him," Ulrich pretended to whisper into her ear. "He's so addicted to Japanese anime that he is turning into one soon."

"My favourite is..." Ulrich's mother covered Luke's mouth before he could finish his sentence. Instead the mother just smiled at Cornelia and welcomed her as well. "A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Kingston. I've heard quite a lot about you recently."

"Oh! Really? I hope Ulrich didn't say too much," Cornelia tried to keep it casual, but it didn't sound right coming out from her mouth.

"He did," the father gave a low-tone laugh. Even though he had a rather musculine figure, he fitted into his suit perfectly. And Cornelia didn't quite expect a low-tone voice coming from him. Then she thought again, it's bad to stereotype. "Apparently, you have some kind of influence on my son."

"Well, I..." but Cornelia's words was cut off with the ringing of a phone. The father fished out his Blackberry and answered the phone. After a few words exchange, Ulrich's father hang up and gave a small smile.

"I'm sorry to break our conversation short but..." the musculine man spoke. "...it seems that our ride is here."

“Alright, then you better get a move on!” Ulrich pushed them towards the door. “You do not want those kangaroos cages filled up with many other tourists!”

And when they waved their goodbyes to Cornelia, Ulrich and her were left alone in the penthouse. Before Cornelia could ask, it would seem that Ulrich had read her mind. “They are going to the Zoo. Luke’s idea.”

“Oh!” Cornelia sighed a breath of relief that his parents were gone. Then something bugged her. “I want to bathe. I feel awfully sweaty.”

“Hey, me too,” Ulrich started to walk towards a turquoise door and tried to open it but it was unlock. “Strange, the toilet is locked.”

And after going to every three bathrooms, it seems that very one of them were locked. Apparently, the only one that wasn’t, was the one in Ulrich’s ‘appointed’ bedroom. “You bathe first,” Cornelia initiated and plunged herself on his velvet bed. “I’ll unpack. How long are we going to be here?”

“About ten days,” Ulrich fished out two hotel towels and dumped a bathrobe into the bathroom. “Are you sure you do not want to bathe first?”

“I’m sure,” Cornelia smiled, and waved her hand at Ulrich, still feeling the uneasy that she had before. “Now shuu~”

With a chuckle, Ulrich closed the door shut, leaving Cornelia slumped on the bed. She looked at the plain ceiling and just couldn’t shrug off the feeling. I must be imagining things. Cornelia fished out her iPhone and walked over to the balcony right beside the bed. Being at the highest floor, she looked over lots of buildings and the breeze was cold despite the season being Summer.

Then sizzling sound could be heard behind her, as if someone had appeared there.

“Kadic Knights, how ironic.”

The ring of that familiar voice made Cornelia jump as she turned around to see a distasteful face lying down on Ulrich’s bed. She hadn’t seen him for quite some time, and she didn’t expect him to pop up here either. Instead of answering him back, Cornelia just turn back to the balcony and pretended that he wasn’t there.

“Sorry, darlin’. But Xana told me to ‘keep an eye on you’ during your trip with Princeton-kid,” Artemis took an apple from the side table and began eating. “So, you’re not going to speak to me even though I took the trouble of coming here? I feel so devastated.”

The sound of the shower was loud enough for Ulrich not to hear, Cornelia thought. At least after Artemis got bored, he would quickly leave and hope that Ulrich doesn’t realize the one less apple from the basket. She then scrolled down her contact list to see Jason’s contact. A new message popped up and despite Artemis’ continuous babble, Cornelia started to draft a message.

“I know how to get you talking!” Artemis clasped his hands and the apple juice splattered from the impact. “Xana just gave us a conference, and he revealed every single juicy secret that each of you are hiding. And surprisingly, you’re keeping two secrets and both regarding Jason and David?”

Cornelia balled her hands into a fist that made Artemis laugh, “Yes! I knew it. Jason ain’t what he thinks he is and neither is David, right?”

She cancelled her application and finally turned towards Artemis. “How much do you know?”

“Everything!” Artemis spread out his arms as a gesture. He finally had her attention. “Xana told us everything, though I was quite surprised about David’s one. And here I thought he is already a monster. Does his mate know?”

“No, Kiara doesn’t know.”

“Then how do you know?” Artemis bent forward towards Cornelia and smiled gleefully. “What do you know?”

Cornelia sighed recalling that very moment when she was eleven and had first visited David’s house with her parents. She was entranced with the gardens and ran in first, but that was when she saw it, the horrific scene which ended just in time when her parents came to her. Only three people knew of that incident, and the other two doesn’t know that she knows and her parents didn’t see what she had seen. “It’s none of your business. And you do not have any right to know someone’s past if he or she is reluctant.”

“But that thing is a trademark of history!”

“I don’t care,” Cornelia folded her arms and frowned, not understanding what connection it had with history. “The fact is that he doesn’t show it anymore so it should be fine.”

“But it is not,” Artemis stood up and approached the guardian of Air. “And you know it. He’ll turn into it again. Bet on it.”

“Get out of here. If Ulrich sees you….”

“Ulrich is not a matter,” he whispered in her ear the same way Ulrich had done before he wanted to prove it to her that day. “Even if he takes you away, I’ll steal you from him.”

“Why?” she jerked her head to fully see his scarred face.

“Because,” Artemis smiled but by then his image began to waver as if he was disappearing. “I think I’m starting to fall for you.”

And by the time Cornelia gasped in surprise, Artemis vanished and the door to the shower opened. Ulrich stood at the mat dripping wet from his bath with a towel around his waist. He looked curiously at Cornelia, “I heard voices. Were you on the phone?”

“Oh yes. I was uhh…” Cornelia looked around for answers and saw the spilled apple juice on the bed. “…calling for room service. I accidentally spilled some apple juice.”

“I see,” Ulrich peeped at his soaked bed. “Alright. Take your time. Then tomorrow we can see Australia’s trademark of history!!!”

Cornelia stopped in her footsteps, hearing Ulrich’s words. But Ulrich didn’t notice her pause. Instead he walked over to the balcony and felt the breeze chill the water droplets around him. Cornelia felt a slight shiver, but it was probably because of the cold atmosphere in the bathroom. She pulled a clean towel from the rack and closed the door reluctantly as she shivered in fear.

★

Tiadora thought she was dreaming, but as soon as Herbert had opened the doors to Jason’s room, she thought that maybe she was!

Light practically shone through the crack when the doors flung open. As she stepped inside, her eyes widened in awe and her breath was caught in surprise. Jason’s room was a huge rectangle and in the middle of both lengths was one huge window from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling? It was so incredibly high that she felt as if it needed more than ten of her just to get up there. Two tall windows facing one another, but what entranced Tiadora even more was the rest of the walls.

There were no walls that shaped his room. It was all shelves and shelves of books from all corners of the room, and just like the windows, it stretched all the way to the ceiling. Filled with books, there wasn’t a single empty slot for dust. It was overwhelming. She hasn’t seen these many books since her time in the castle.

At each breadth of the rectangle was a staircase that leads to a higher platform. The platform right at the end had a grand bed with drapes on the side. An empty table and another shelves which from far, Tiadora could see, contain worksheets and files. “That is where Master Jason sleeps, studies and relax,” Herbert approached Tiadora from behind and explained. “There are balconies outside the windows. Jason normally does the business work there where he can have the cool fresh air instead of the normal air-con he feels in the room.”

“And on the other platform, which he insists that we put a bed there for your accommodation, he uses that to practice his instruments.” Tiadora turned around and saw the maids readying mattress and pillows. The platform which she was going to sleep at was nearer to the door from we they came in.

She then realized why Herbert had protested when Jason insisted on putting the bed there. It would mean blocking up some of the books from the shelves. Tiadora just giggled to herself and suddenly noticed something positioned in the middle of the long walkway in between the two ends of the room. There, positioned at a diagonal angle from the window, was a jet black grand piano and beside it, nearer to the window was a stand that held a glassed container.

Tiadora ran down the stairs and walked over to the shiny instruments. Enclosed in that glass container was a sapphire-shade violin. It wasn’t blue, yet it had that shine like how a gem sapphire does. It was intricately beautiful. She had seen performances at Kadic, but neither of them did Jason play in.

Trapped in her own thoughts, Tiadora didn’t realize the maids sighing faintly, and the footsteps behind. It was only when it was close to her head that she jumped at notice. “Admiring my room, I see.”

“Ah! Oh Jason, don’t scare me like that,” Tiadora sighed and tucked her fringe behind her ear. “And yes, you have an incredible room. It is practically a library itself.”

The guardian of Fire walked over to the violin stand, tapped two times on the glass such that the glass opened and gripped onto the blue violin. “This is my violin. I had it ever since I was very young, and it was given from my uncle. He is a famous violinist himself. And after I kept on telling how much I would like to play as well as him, he shut me up by getting me this.”

Tiadora just continued staring at the instrument as if hypnotized. “Your uncle has good taste.”

Jason laughed and held the base of the violin on his right shoulder. “Would you like to hear a song?”

“Can I?”

“Of course, but…” Jason then walked to somewhere near the window, pushed aside the curtains and revealed a green button. He just pushed the button and faced back Tiadora. “…I can’t let others hear the song if I’m playing for you.”

“Huh?”

“This button enables me to let the others in the mansion hear the violin playing,” Jason gestured for Tiadora to sit on the piano seat. “But this one is meant only for your ears.”

Jason held up the violin to his left, rested his cheek on the chinrest, fiddled his left fingers on the neck of the violin and let his bow slide down the upper bout to create a melody.

Tiadora closed her eyes and listened to the song. It was like a mixture of sad and drastic tones, as if the story of the song was based on a battlefield. She could picture herself, fighting against the previous guardians with the knights’ side-by-side, battling against Xana.

The melody then swayed to a calming pulse. As if it was the aftermath of the war, the tune tapped into a soft tone. Tiadora could easily picture a scene. She had seen this awfully too many a times after war, with the stained grasses and the polluted waters. All with the fallen’s blood. The melody sounded as if it itself was crying to the devastation of the bloodshed, and it ended with a little spring of the strings, sounding like hope still exists after tragedies.

When the song was done, Jason put away his violin back in the glass case and sat beside Tiadora at the piano seat. “How was it?”

“Like a battle,” Tiadora smiled as she pressed on a few keys on the piano. “You are indeed talented. It was a very beautiful piece.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Jason made a little tune on the piano. “I drafted that piece after I heard someone play it. That person called it ‘Knights of The Round Table’.”

“That is…”

“Sir,” Hebert’s voice drifted from the door. “I have brought Sephy with me.”

“Bring her in!” Jason stood up from the piano, and nudged Tiadora to do the same.

“Come. There’s someone I would like you to meet.”

Before Tiadora could answer, an animal ran in from the door and bolted towards Jason. But just as it got near to Jason, the animal stopped in its tracks and looked at the guardian of Fire. Something didn’t seem right in the animal’s eyes. Jason was confused too. Sephy didn’t hesitate whenever he came home. Why the sudden reluctance?

“Hey Sephy,” Jason approached the animal and tried to pat between its ears. “It’s me, Jason. You mean, you can’t remember me?”

At the familiarity with the tickle in its ears, Sephy barked happily, knowing that it was its owner who had come back. The dog licked Jason’s face over and over to catch his attention, and Jason was laughing all the way. “Tia,” Jason said after he calmed Sephy down. “This is my Husky. My dog. Her name is Sephy. Say hi.”

Immediately, the Husky went on twos and held out a paw towards Tiadora as if the dog was greeting like a human. But as soon as Tiadora shook Sephy’s paw, it pounced on her and licking her well on the face. “Ahhh!!” Tiadora screamed playfully. It was her first time seeing a dog, as she didn’t recall seeing any back during her time

“This is very…” Tiadora managed to say in between the lovely licks. “…unexpected indeed.”

After Jason calmed the white k-nine down, he crossed his legs and sat on the floor. The dog was bigger than Jason in size. It had the face of a grey wolf and a masculine body of fur. Tiadora, though still uncomfortable with the idea of sitting on the floor, she pat on the animal and gave Jason an ironic look. “What is it?”

“Oh yes, I forgot that your idea of a pet would be dragons and phoenixes,” Jason teased all pulled a cushion from behind the piano to let Tiadora sit. “This is a man’s best friend, a dog. Sephy here, is of a Husky breed, half-wolf and half-dog. She’s been with me ever since as long as I could remember. Ain’t that right, my sweetheart?”

Jason snuggled his nose against Sephy’s, as the dog made a little groan as if it really treated Jason as its true master. Tiadora smiled and teased, “I thought I was your sweetheart?”

His laugh echoed through his large room, as he gazed at Tiadora lovingly. “Of course you are. You’re my querida.”

And just as Tiadora was about to question, the sound of tapping shoes entering the room, interrupted their conversation. Hebert stood at the mouth of the brown doors with a long capsule in his hands. He uncapped one end, tilted it and out came a scroll. Composing his posture and clearing his throat, the scroll cascaded down to the floor revealing a whole list of words that was too far for Tiadora to see. “Master, here is the collation of duties that require your attention for the whole of this week,” Hebert mentioned as he read the list with his nose raised. “Tomorrow at ten o’ clock in the morning, there will be a meeting with the North American Branch regarding that stats of three hotels which are Trikata Paradise, San Diego DelHa as well as Lotus Flow. It is then followed by another meeting in the afternoon around 2 o’clock that Desmond Harten wishes to convey various feedback upon the implication of the several oil industries in Asia. On Wednesday, you shall begin early in the morning with…”

And the list just went on and on. Tiadora couldn’t help but feel incredibly dumbfounded at the amount of things that Jason needed to do within this week, and he only just came home! Details of what Hebert said sounded alien in her ears, but just knowing that Jason would be occupied for a whole day didn’t sound like a summer vacation at all. It’s only been two hours since they landed, and yet, he’s already been given work to do? Is this how it feels like being a Kingston?

She turned towards Jason, to see a reaction, but Jason was looking at Hebert, paying attention, as if he was trying to memorise every single detail of the tasks this week. He didn’t look overwhelmed or even surprised. It was more like as if he had expected it. There was only a tinge of disappointment in his face, but even that, he tried to hide it away in front of Hebert.

“…and on Sunday, Claire Tear Granarde will be coming to visit you, Master. She claims to have been looking forward to meeting you for six months,” Herbert finally rolled up the scroll and slot it back into the capsule. “Master, your parents have requested of you and your acquaintance’s presence at the dining hall in three hours time for dinner. You are to be present and be appropriately attired. End of command.”

“You are dismissed, Herbert,” Jason ordered as the butler turned away and tapped his shoes out of the room.

Tiadora stared at Jason, disbelief in what she just heard. Now, it wasn’t the overwhelming workload that had baffled her. Instead, Tiadora was more worried of seeing his parents! There was only three hours left to mentally prepare herself for the worst to happen, and she didn’t know how to address them since normally people always address to her instead.

She looked at Jason, who was busy thinking about things that now Tiadora was just unsure of.
Jason, realizing that Tiadora had started to stare questionably at him, put up a smile, stood up, and held out his hands towards the guardian of Energy. “Come. Let’s get you a dress, shall we?”