Valerie Sinclair sits down on a luxurious, black, leather chair. She closes her eyes, crosses her arms and taps her foot on the marble floor, her black wedges clacking with each tap.

  The chatter of the whole family gathered in one of the Sinclair house’s branches could be heard from the lounge room she sits in, despite the distance.

  A sigh escapes Valerie’s lips, tilting her head to the side as her eyebrows furrow slightly.

  Her eyes open when she hears footsteps cascading down the halls outside, until they come to a halt in front of the door outside, gentle knocks follow before the door opens wide.

  A woman with hazel eyes and hair, and a rather tall figure, walks into the room, wearing a dress of differing brown pigments. She takes a glance around before her eyes land on Valerie.

  “Valerie! I’ve been looking for you left and right!” She says with furrowed eyebrows, pacing her words to leave a moment to catch her breath.

  Valerie looks at the woman with her deep red eyes, “Clearly,” she says, as she rises to her feet, fixing her black dress, accented with red fabric.

  “It’s time, isn’t it?” Valerie inquires; she raises an eyebrow.

  A smile appears on the other woman’s face and she claps her hands together, “It is! Isn’t it just exciting!?”

  Valerie looks off to the side, “I wish I could say that, Rosaline.”

  Rosaline’s smile disappears and she sighs, “Come on now, Valerie, just relax a bit, it’s a big thing, but it’ll pass... It’s just one time.”

  Valerie’s eyebrow ticks a bit, “Rosaline, you know that’s not the reason... Becoming the Scarlet Maiden is my best chance to know what happened to my mother, and you know that too.”

  Because in this world, at least the world I’ve succumbed into, you can’t get anything without power, can you?

  Rosaline looks at Valerie, her eyebrows drooped down, “Valerie...” she called out, her voice even below a whisper.

  Rosaline exhales, looking towards the door, “Well, it’s time to go now, it’s time for your Awakening,” she says, looking back at Valerie.

  “Right,” Valerie replies, walking towards the dull green painted, wooden split door, exiting the lounge room.

  Rosaline follows from behind, and they walk side to side in the well-lit hallways, their feet underneath red carpeted floors, rooms and doors on the left side, and windows overlooking the vast gardens of the house in the darkness of the night.

  Valerie glances outside the window, watching the stillness of nature. Until she sees movement in the stillness of it all, black figures that cannot be made out in the darkness of the night, they were stationed around the house as far as her eyes can see in the darkness.

  Valerie raises an eyebrow, “You know, time has passed so quickly, I remember when you were young so vividly even right now,” Rosaline says, looking forwards.

  Valerie turns towards her, flicking her brown, curly hair behind her—her attention is redirected towards her.

  “You sound like an old lady, Rosaline,” she replies with a blank tone, and sighs.

  Rosaline laughs, “Now come on, as your Valet and caretaker for 13 years? I would say that’s true, maybe youth has simply been good to me.”

  Valerie smiles faintly as she looks forward and tilts her head.

  The sounds of chatter from the ceremony chamber become louder, Valerie and Rosaline take a right turn into a long, dim hallway with a door at the end of it and white and brown tiled floors, Rosaline turns towards Valerie.

  “Hm, I won’t go past this point, but I wish you good luck, Valerie... And hopefully, you will become the Scarlet Maiden,” Rosaline gives Valerie a bow with her hands together in front of her.

  “Right,” Valerie nods, her fists clenching.

  Valerie walks through the dim hallway, her wedges clacking with every collision with the floor, the sound echoing through the hallway as the sound from the ceremony chamber gets louder as she approaches the door at the end.

  She stands in front of the big door of the ceremony chamber. She waits, her fingers sinking deep into her palm, she takes a deep breath.

  The door opens abruptly, making Valerie almost jump back in surprise.

  A tall woman, with luscious, black hair; purple eyes—a voluptuous figure covered by a black dress, she looks down at Valerie and smiles, putting her hands on her hips.

  “Valerie! It’s been such a long time apart!” the woman says, dragging her words.

  “Aunt... Lilith...” Valerie says, her jaw clenches, the rest of her body following and becoming tense, her eyebrows furrow slightly.

  “Times, pass so quick, everybody’s discussing their expectations on you becoming the Scarlet Maiden today, exciting, right!?” She says, she raises an eyebrow, awaiting an answer. Her smile turns into a slight smirk.

  “It’s not guaranteed whether I’ll-”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “But I won’t anchor on expectations too much, I wouldn’t want to stay... Disappointed, right? It really would be a shame,” Her smirk widens.

  Valerie’s eyes narrow on her aunt, her eyebrows furrow together, “It, really would,” she says, her voice below a whisper.

  “Well, let’s go now, we wouldn’t want to stay here for too long,” Her aunt says, opening the door wider for Valerie and turning back into the ceremony chamber, the light from the room illuminates the dim hallway Valerie is in.

  Valerie takes a breath, before taking a step into the ceremony chamber, into the light, into the start of what could be the journey to the truth, only if she becomes the Scarlet Maiden—the power she needed, and the resolution to her problem.

  Inside the ceremony chamber, many people are gathered, standing in every spot of the room, each one a member of the Sinclair family. She walks along a dedicated walkway, with her aunt leading in front, its boundaries marked by black stanchions with velvet ropes.

  The ceremony chamber was illuminated by the dazzling, artistically crafted chandeliers that hanged from the high ceiling of the chamber, held up by the white painted walls and the high, slim, vertical windows.

  At the end of the walkway was the family prism on top of its pedestal, clear and shining, glowing faintly in the light of the room, the artifact passed down for generations in the family.

  Behind the prism, around two meters away; is her father, Orion Sinclair, staring at her blankly with his purple eyes in his black suit, hands behind his back.

  She reaches the stairs up to where the prism is, her aunt stands aside and Valerie goes forward, walking up the tiny black stairs of the platform.

  She stands around a meter from the prism, and stays there—waiting. The crowd goes silent knowing what is about to happen.

  Her father looks around the crowd, waiting until everyone is silent, and when they are, he looks towards the prism and extends a hand out towards it.

  “The light guides our path, and brings us to our ultimate destination, whatever yours may be, may it be well with you,” he says.

  Nothing happens for a moment, until Orion shoots out a shining, white beam of light that dims the surrounding from its light.

  The prism absorbs the white light on its black pedestal, and for a while—nothing happened, the prism’s glow only gradually intensified. Then suddenly, five beams of light shoot out in all directions in a seemingly random order.

  The five beams of light—Red, Blue, Green, Indigo and Violet, shoot out into the room, and then come to focus on Valerie’s torso.

  The sensation of the beams of light of her were sickening, they aren’t just light beams, they are waves of energy that gave Valerie an energy rush, it feels like her body will rip apart from the amount, but she has to endure it.

  Her body absorbs the rays, seeking for compatibility with one of them, each ray a variation of the Sinclair’s full ability. The violet ray reflects off of her, then shortly after, the Indigo follows.

  And then, only the red ray remains absorbed, the rest of the rays reflecting off into the chamber’s space, the crowd applauds, for she is now the Scarlet Maiden.

  They were faces of joy, others of excitement, jealousy, and others.

  Valerie felt like she could hop around in place, she had to hide her brewing excitement, her fists clench.

  I can do it now; I might have the chance I need.

  She turns around, watching her aunt come up the stairs and give Valerie a smirk, she gives her a curtsy, and Valerie does so too, but deeper.

  She takes a breath, standing firm, and looks at the crowd. They all quiet down.

  “I... As Valerie Sinclair, and also currently, the Scarlet Maiden, swear my loyalty to the Sinclair family, that I will uphold the family name and honor using the power I have and will cultivate to serve us and our purpose to the best of my capacity.”

  The crowd applauds once again, and Valerie turns back, exhaling.

  She looks towards a window, still seeing the black figures outside, they’ve moved nearer to the house, moving closer like a predator waiting to catch its prey.

  Valerie walks towards her father and stands at his side, looking forward at the window.

  “Father, I’ve come to notice some mysterious figures inside the premises of the house, and they seem like there moving closer even as we speak,” she says.

  “Yes, that is true,” he crosses his arms, tilting his head.

  “Is that... Not concerning?” Valerie raises an eyebrow, looking at her father with the corner of her eye, her eyebrows furrowing just slightly.

  Orion smiles faintly, not even reaching his eyes, “No, not at all.”

  He starts to walk away, but halts in his step, turning back at Valerie with the corner of his eye, “I assume you’d like to skip talking to the guests?”

  Valerie nods, “Yes, please...”

  He nods and continues walking, “Very well then...”

  Valerie walks through the hallways after exiting the ceremony chamber, reaching an open, spacious lounge room in the house, a chandelier in its middle with eight, four-sided pillars placed symmetrically around the room.

  Valerie leans on one of them, she brings her hand up to her view and moves it. She feels superhuman, like the power of the world was in her fingertips.

  Just a little feel of this power and this is how it is, I definitely have a chance to find about Mama, what really happened to her.

  “You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” A voice says, as if reading Valerie’s thoughts.

  Valerie jumps at the sudden voice, she turns to see Rosaline approaching her.

  Rosaline stops in front of Valerie, “Well?” she tilts her head, awaiting an answer.

  Valerie sighs and pushes herself off the pillar, looking down at the ground before glaring at Rosaline.

  “Don’t try and stop me, Rosaline...” she says, her sharp red eyes staring daggers at Rosaline.

  I’ve waited for this chance, and I’m not going to waste it...

  Rosaline looks at Valerie, whose eyes slowly look the other way, Rosaline’s eyebrows droop slightly, “You do know the consequences if you are caught rebelling, don’t you?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

  Valerie stays silent.

  Rosaline sighs, and her eyes also drift to the side, “Hm, of course you know, you always knew after all, didn’t you?”

  “You’re dismissed, Rosaline,” Valerie says.

  Rosaline’s eyes widen slightly, before she smiles faintly and nods, “Oh, right... Well then, I wish you luck, I’ll see you in the morning then,” she says, as she bows with her hands together in front of her.

  Rosaline leaves, leaving Valerie by herself. She sinks down to the floor, crouched in a ball and she sighs.

  Just what am I doing?

  She thinks, but only for so long, she feels a vibration move through the floor that sends a tingle through her body, before a sound ruptures through the air, a big bang which—at the same time, a force moves through the place, shattering the lights and shakes the ground violently as objects fall in the distance, and some of the pillars in the room collapse.

  Valerie is launched off her feet from the force of the explosion that went off, and on to the ground, letting out a sharp shout.

  Valerie starts to get up slowly, looking around at the now dark room, she could tell the place was surrounded in dust now from how her nose tingled with each breath she took and how irritable her skin felt now.

  Oh no.

  “’Not a problem’, father said, and now there’s this...”

  Just what is happening?