"Welcome to the Celestial Twelve!"

♣

Chapter Twenty-One ♣ This Isn't So Bad

"First," Charles shoved a long list of chores in Valeriana's hands. "You need to dust all the surfaces in the whole dormitory. Second, we expect you to clean the storage room and place everything in proper order. Third, put away the old carpet in the hallway and sweep away all the dirt under it, then roll the new carpet which you can find in the storage room. Fourth, remove all the spider webs. Five, wipe all the portraits in the dormitory clean and don't leave a spot of dirt."

The poor girl almost fainted as she listened to Charles enumerate all the tasks being expected of her to accomplish. She stared wearily down at the long list of chores he wrote down for her and sobbed quietly to herself.

"You expect me to do all of this?"

"We expect nothing less." Charles answered. "Though that list goes on, you'll be happy to hear that you aren't required to finish all of that today. Those are the main tasks you need to finish this week. If you don't, Corvan and I agreed we'll kick you out."

"Ha . . ." She laughed. "I'll be happy to go back to my first room."

"Unfortunately, that place is back to being a dump."

When he broke the news, it took all of the girl's willpower not to scream. "No freaking way! I cleaned that up for hours!"

Valeriana felt blood rushing to her brain. She was so pissed off getting told to do this and to do that. The way they acted was getting on her nerves. They seemed to be enjoying it, though.

"They're probably used to have someone serving them." She rolled her eyes.

She irritably washed the dishes in the sink. She didn't even know that the Celestial Twelve possessed an incredible building to themselves. When Brindon said there was a 'room' for their meetings, he probably meant to say that it was the lobby where everyone in the circle mostly hung out. Other than that, they had their own kitchen, den, and all sorts of rooms that satisfy their own hobbies. They even have their own yard where they train for their individual skills and luxurious rooms to sleep in.

Still, she didn't get the reason why she had to do everything.

"Valeriana! I need the new installment for this series!"

"Can you get another glass of juice for me, please?!"

"Damn. My. Life." She grumbled indignantly.

When she was dismissed, she was already worn out. Tamara showed her the way to her new room and patted her shoulder.

"Enjoy what you're about to see." Tamara grinned. "You deserve it."

As she was about to leave, she seemed to have remembered something and turned back to tell her. "By the way, the whole floor is yours."

"The whole what?!"

She then left her standing in front of the door to the room in the floor that was apparently supposed to be hers.

Sighing, Valeriana clamped a heavy hand around the knob of the door and turned it. Carefully pushing it open, she stepped inside with her eyes on the ground. She lifted her gaze and felt her jaw dropping at the sight. She quietly closed the door behind her before letting her eyes feast on the view.

"This may not be a bad idea after all." She muttered, dazed.

Valeriana removed her boots and placed them in the shoe-rack by the door. The floor was carpeted so she figured she needn't wear any shoes inside. The floor was fluffy and was a bit ticklish on the soles of her feet, which made her giggle. The first thing that caught her eye was the bed with four posts. The bed was made and the crimson sheets looked simply silky. Squealing like a little girl, she ran towards it and jumped, doing the 'superman' pose in the process.

"Oh yeah!" She cried before landing on the soft mattress. She buried her face on the comfy sheets and inhaled the sweet scent that it emanated.

She lifted herself and used her elbows as support, brushing the strands of hair that wandered on her face. Looking around the room, she spotted a neat fireplace on the other side. There was one armchair that was seated just a little away from it. It looked like a decent place to read books on or to relax.

Valeriana stood with a sigh and allowed her eyes to further scan the room. End tables were placed on either side of the bed. They were decorated by fresh flowers and some antique lamp as well. She did a complete three hundred sixty degree turn and was amazed to find the walls decorated with traditional paintings and a few weapons.

"This room is simply amazing." She gasped.

She had her own shelf of books and an armoire, which held the weapons meant for real combat. She also found a door that led to a balcony outside her room. No words would probably be enough to describe just how splendid the room was.

She stood there sightseeing for a while until she felt the weariness catching up. She was already tired after a long day. Her lids felt heavy, yet all of her exhaustion was drained away when she saw a familiar object standing a few steps away from the bed. She rubbed her eyes, thinking this was some sort of hallucination she was having because of the hardships she had gone through today.

"Is that my luggage? That's my luggage, right?"

Standing up, she reached out and brushed the tip of her fingers against the zipper and flinched back. When she realized she was being delusional, she smacked her head in frustration before excitedly grabbing the bag and throwing it to her bed.

This was her travelling bag, the one she often used when she and her family would go somewhere far away from home. It was unexpectedly heavy, too. It looked like it was filled to the brim.

When she opened it, the first thing she saw was her clothes and her personal things. She withheld the scream that was on the tip of her tongue and started taking them all out. As she did, an envelope fell out and landed on the floor.

Valeriana, noticing the letter, placed her clothes on top of the bed and bent down. She clipped the letter between her fingers and eyed the words scribbled on the surface of the envelope. It was her mother's handwriting, addressed to her.

She felt an overwhelming sensation bubble from her chest and tears started welling up from her eyes. She started to feel nostalgic, so she chided herself not to feel so weak and cry. But she couldn't coerce herself. Her emotions were impossible to contain.

She shakily tore the top of the envelope and fished out the letter folded inside. As she straightened it and raked her eyes through the words, a sob ripped through her chest and a fountain of tears began streaming from her eyes.

'To my dearest little baby girl,

So you found a very nice academy where you can study in. Honestly, Val, you shouldn't go along with people you hardly know! I don't care if their offer sounds legit! Who knows if they're actually fakes? I was worried sick when you didn't come home. I thought you were going to find a part time job. I feel so betrayed, Valery.'

Valeriana could imagine her mother sighing to herself as she wrote the last letters of that paragraph. She was an overdramatic woman when she was composing letters. She wouldn't blame her mother, though. There she was, jumping to different conclusions. She shook her head as a smile curled on her lips. She brushed her tears away with the back of her hands and continued reading.

'In any case, you don't have to be so hard on yourself. I'm not asking you to shoulder all the burdens. Share some with your brother and me. We're all in this together, right? You take after your father so much it's so scary-acting like the strong one all the time. You don't have to feel responsible for every single mistake you do. You're overdoing it. Worrying for those small things would only make the problem bigger. Leave me, your mother, to handle it.

I always tell you this, Valeriana. I guess that with you having such a thick, stubborn head, it's impossible to say it once. I already said over a million times, yet you can't shove it into that skull of yours. I'll say this one last time, 'Act like your age, act like your gender'. Besides, you're too mature. You know what you want, and when you set your mind to it, there's no stopping you. You can't even act dependent-you do everything you can on your own. I guess you inherited your father's attitude more than mine. There's no helping it, though.

I know that when we lost your father, the aftershock of knowing that he's gone has affected you in a greater rate than it did to me. Yet even when knowing he was gone, you were the one who acted as support and helped us get back up to our feet.

Finally, before I end this letter. DO NOT FORGET THAT I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR LEAVING HOME WITHOUT TELLING ME! YOU READING ME, YOUNG LADY?! YOU AREN'T EVEN AT LEGAL AGE TO DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!'

"Damn, she's angry." Valeriana muttered to herself.

'I asked a special favor from that Aeron LaVallene guy and that headmaster of your school.'

"I wouldn't want to ask how she did that." She shivered.

'I'm so happy they agreed to let me send you your things. Otherwise, I would've thrown a fit. Did you know how hard it is to get in touch with them? It's almost like you've gone into another world or something.'

"You've hit bulls eye, mom."

Valeriana did not know if she was going to smile or sigh. Her mother could be really scary when she liked it. She wasn't the type that would back out from something she wanted. She wasn't a pushover either. Her daughter began wondering what she did that made the Court Leader accept that kind of request.

"Gosh, mom. You're seriously unexpected. You should've gotten me out of here instead of encouraging me to stay."

'I've put all the things you need. Try to change and finally become the girl I want you to be. I also placed your laptop and other gadgets there. If you have internet, try to send me a message. Or is a dead spot in there?

And as much as I want to say this personally, I am guessing that the chances I was given had already slipped by, so I'm giving this to you now. Under those pile of clothes, there is a small, antique-looking box. Before I gave it to you, your father owned it. He specifically told me in his will that I should give it to you when you step on your eighteenth birthday. But since I don't know if I'll get to see you at that time (since your school is apparently strict and does not allow the students' parents to visit them unless they are invited or something) I'm going to give it to you now. But you must not try opening it until the time your father intended to give it to you. Seriously, I never even knew your father possessed a girly stuff like that. I'm guessing it belonged to his mother. But now he's giving it to you.

I guess that's all. Be safe, baby girl. Make sure to send a letter back to me if you can.

With love,

Your mother,

Lily.'

Curious of the mentioned box, Valeriana rummaged through her bag and sniffed. Her nose became stuffy from crying, and though she took half of the time pausing to wipe her nose, this did not stop her from gingerly taking out all of the clothes from her bag. She even encountered her laptop, and IPod. Could she even use them here?

"What the . . ." All the clothes she took out seemed like dresses with cute shorts and tops.

She was grateful for the effort of her mother, but she wasn't sure if she would even have the chance to wear them here. She would be wearing her uniform every day, but maybe it wouldn't hurt if she wore her pajamas when going to sleep.

After losing herself into deep thoughts, Valeriana's knuckles brushed against a cold metal. She looked down slowly and ran her fingertips over the surface of an antique-looking box with engravings of roses on each sides, especially at the top.

Taking it into her hands, Valeriana felt a warm feeling emanating from it. It was somehow like it was more valuable than it looked. All she knew right now was that it probably held a mysteriously important object, knowing that her father considered giving it to her on her eighteenth birthday. Come to think of it . . . her birthday was only months away. But it would've been more dramatic if he were to give it to her personally.

She scrutinized every side of the box and found no key or lock. When she tried opening it, she couldn't either.

"How the heck am I going to open this, then?"

She didn't want to give up so soon, but weariness started to take a toll on her and she sighed. She ultimately decided to continue this tomorrow and shoved all of her carefully folded clothes inside the dresser of her room. She placed the box on top of her dresser in front of the mirror and ran her fingertips over the surface, feeling utterly nostalgic.

Still, she was happy to receive a package. She had to thank the headmaster and Lord Aeron for this.