Chapter 3: My soul

“ Hey, princess, please be careful.” Rowan quickly helped her lie properly.

‘ What's wrong? What's going on? Why does my body feel so weak and heavy?’

Her chest beats faster but when she remembers the beating.

‘ That must've been the reason.’ she thought to herself and her face slowly dropped. Her chest tightened, her teeth ground against each other.

She looked away with tears welling in her eyes.

It wouldn't leave, the image of Theodore's smile, Maribel's evil smirk, and above all, Caleb.

Their betrayal.

Their words.

“ Why are you crying, princess?” Rowan asked worriedly.

“ Can you please stop calling me that?” She snapped her head toward him in frustration, sniffling. “ If I am I don't think I'd have suffered such…”

She shut her eyes, swallowing her words and sobbing.

“ I'm sorry. I'll take my leave.” He stood up slowly, bowed, and walked out of the room.

The moment he was gone, she sank into the bed and wept bitterly.

She rolled to her side to bury her face into the pillow when her eyes caught the image in the mirror.

She paused and looked back.

It was a huge standing mirror staring at her.

Her face wrinkled.

Tears stopped as she sniffled once before pulling herself up and slowly getting down from the bed.

“ Ah.” She winced. Every part of her body aches, like she's been stucked to one position for a long time.

She dragged her feet to the mirror and when she was finally staring back at herself, her eyes slowly widened.

She looked back, saw no one, and turned back at the mirror.

She has the same blonde hair, black eyes, and body figure, but.. a different face.

She moved her hand to touch her face. Delicate, smooth, even her palms were so soft.

Everything paused for a second before Sera let out a deafening scream.

“ Ahhhhhhhhhh, who is this! This is not me!”

A lady barged into the room in panic, dressed like a palace maid.

“ Princess,” she shouted in worry, “ Are you okay? Did something happen? Are you feeling pain anywhere?”

She was checking Sera’s body with worry while she just stood still, tensed with shock.

“ Who are you? No, this is.. the afterlife right?”

“ Huh?” The lady paused, stared at her for a second before bursting into tears. “ What are you saying again? This is not the afterlife.”

She shook her hand as if pleading for her not to be crazy.

“ No, no, this has to be. Why else will I be staring at another face in the mirror and why else will I be here, I died.”

The lady burst into tears louder. “ Stop saying you're dead, what about me? How will I live without my master?” She wept profusely.

Sera felt a pang of pain hit her chest, her face softened but her doubt, fear, and confusion remained tangled. “ Then, where's this place?”

“ This is the palace of the Aurerhia Empire.”

“ What?! Au-Aurerhia? That's the human world.”

“ Of course, it's not for the dead.”

“ Then, I'm..alive?” She turned back to the mirror and touched her face. “ But not me.”

“ What are you talking about? You're you.”

“ Pinch me.”

“ I can't.”

She looked at the lady crying in confusion. “ Why?”

“ I can't bring myself to cause you pain. You're already in enough.”

Sera slumped right to the floor.

The lady jumped in panic and quickly rushed to her side but Sera just sat there with slumped shoulders and a blank expression.

“ The last twenty-four hours of my life doesn't even make sense.” She shook her head. “ Aurerhia? The most bloody Kingdom?”

“ Huh? Where did you hear that?”

Sera chuckled bitterly, tears laced in her eyes. She looked back at herself in the mirror, trying to make sense of everything.

‘ If this is real, and I'm here—in another body, then where's the owner of this body?’ Her brow furrowed as she thought to herself.

“ Is it ever.. possible.. to be in a body that's not yours?” She asked in disbelief, turning to the maid.

The maid sighed in exhaustion. “ You're always talking about it.”

“ I am?” Sera turned properly to get, fully invested.” What do I normally say about it?”

“ Princess!” She called cautiously. “ Please stop believing in the impossible.”

“ Just..” Sera cut in. “ Stop lecturing and just tell me the damn thing I do say about it.”

The maid pulled back in surprise.

The princess never talked like that.

But just then, she slumped with tears in her eyes. “ You call it soul swapping.”

“ Soul swapping?”

She nodded. “ You've always believed in the impossible, like ghosts, wandering souls, swapping souls…”

“ That swapping souls, tell me more about it.”

“ You said that's when souls swap bodies, whereby one person's soul wakes up in another body.’

“ That's it! That's exactly it!” Sera clapped her hands and pointed. “ Is there a way for it to be reversed if something like that happened?”

“ Yeah.. you do say it's reversal, you said it depends on fate, as long as one of them is not dead.

‘Does that mean the owner…’ Her hands trembled, pulse racing, gaze darting at the maid.

“ What do you mean?”

“ If one of them is dead, then the other will be stuck in the body.”

“ Let me get you straight. If someone who died entered a new body and the owner of the old body…”

“ Will go to the dead body and died and the one in the living will be stuck there.” The maid explained.

Sera turned pale instantly. ‘ Does.. does that mean.. the owner of this body is dead, and I'm stuck here?’

“ Did she say anything else? About why or what will happen later?”

The maid shrugged. “ It's you who knows, but you do say it's heaven offering a second chance, I don't really know, and please, Princess, can we stop talking about it? You shouldn't be sitting on the floor, let's get you to bed.”

She tried to pull Sera up but she wouldn't budge, still sitting in shock and confusion.

“ What's your name?” She asked.

“ What?!” The maid looked at her in shock. “ You.. don't remember my name?”

Before Sera could answer, she burst into tears and wrapped her arms around her. “ Oh my princess. What would we do?”

Sera opened her mouth but she felt lost for words with no energy to choose between consoling or explaining.

The maid pulled back, wiping her face clean. “ Don't worry princess, I promise to help you bring back your memory.”

She forced a smile and said. “ My name is Ivy.”

“ Ohh, Ivy. And my name?”

Ivy started getting teary again and before she answered, she burst into another round of tears.

Sera’s shoulder dropped again. ‘ Is she always a crybaby?’

“ You don't even remember your name?” She wept. “ It's Princess Zaria.”

“ Princess Zaria,” Sera muttered her new name.

‘ What a beautiful name.’ she looked back at the mirror and saw how beautiful and delicate she looked, as if she had never done any hardship in her life.

A pang of guilt hit her chest. ‘ I'm sorry.’ She muttered internally, staring back at herself. ‘ I..’

The sudden push of the door interrupted her thoughts.

Their heads snapped towards the door and a wealthy-looking woman stepped in, she had a cold aura that immediately swallowed the hair.

Gold drips from her hair to toe.

Ivy quickly helped Zaria up, whispering. “ That's the queen mother. The biggest devil and witch.”

“ I heard you're awake.” She said in a harsh and cold tone.

“ Hm.” Zaria nodded.

“ And you don't know what next you're supposed to do?” She asked, anger laced in her voice.

“ I'm sorry, Queen Mother, I should have brought her to you the moment she woke up.”

Sera(will be called Zaria from now on) furrowed her brow as she looked from Ivy to the queen mother.

“ Is there a reason for that?” Zaria asked curiously.

“ What?!” Everyone exclaimed in shock.

“ How dare you?” The queen fumed.

A thunderous slap landed across Zaria’s cheek the next second.

Her vision blurred instantly.