The atmosphere of the Stargazer village felt different from the last time Andrea had visited, which was merely the day before. As she noticed heads poking out of windows and gazes following her more intense than ever, she recognized what the change was, the feeling attacking her as if it were a strong whirlwind made out of low, hushed whispers and stares.

  Tension.

  The villagers all vibrated with some kind of tension, as if something great had occurred, and it had raised their excitement – or was it fear? It reminded Andrea of a pot of water over the fire, in the split second before bubbles started appearing and the water started to boil. It was making her nervous.

  Seeing Orion, Gillian, Hazel, Sehun, Luhan, Tao, and 4 other teenage boys she’d never met before, standing in Hazel’s living room, contributed more to making her feel like standing on the edge of a cliff.

  10 pairs of eyes instantly focused on her when she walked toward them, the silence sounding so loud in Andrea’s ears. The way their eyes followed her every step… it was as if they were seeing her for the first time.

  “Sehun?”

  To her relief, Sehun’s lips broke into a small smile. “Hey, girly.”

  Orion, to her surprise, spun on Sehun and made a sound of unbelief. “You call her girly?!”

  “She said it’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay – “

  “Is everything alright?” Andrea asked, instinctively standing close to Sehun. “Luke… Luke said you called.”

  “Ah, yes,” Gillian replied, looking as if he had stepped out of a daze. “M-Andrea.” He stopped himself from bowing. “We are grateful for your quick arrival.”

  “No, it’s fine. I just love being called in mornings just to be stared at.”

  “The villagers know now,” Sehun said. “About who you are. It’s all Tao’s fault.”

  “Excuse me?” Tao shot up from the couch. “I didn’t – “

  “You practically ran around the whole village screaming ‘Princess Sabrina is alive!’ after Luhan told you I told him who Andrea was, Tao. What were you saying you didn’t do again?”

  Tao looked as if he wanted to stuff Sehun into the wooden cabinet beside him or throw himself back onto the couch. He did the latter.

  “What do they… think?” Andrea asked. “I mean, thank you, Tao, for now making me the target of their staring contests – “ she ignored the glare from Tao, “-but do they, I don’t know, accept it? Believe it? Even… want it?”

  Gillian chuckled. “They believe it, Andrea. Many has told me that they had suspected so ever since they saw the color of your eyes – the same violet as your father’s – and the way they couldn’t seem to take their eyes off of you, which is the same situation whenever your mother used to appear in public.” He smiled a fatherly smile. “You have inherited her captivating beauty.”

  Andrea didn’t know how to respond, and cringed as the image of one certain person staring at her as if she were the most beautiful thing ever existing appeared in her head. Even if I really am not plain-looking… it still can’t help me have the one I love. Her heart ached for a second.

  “And,” Orion suddenly said, startling her. “They are thrilled beyond words to know that a descendant of the royal family is still alive. It has brought back life to this once dead-like village, and it has given us hope.”

  Although he tried to hide it, Andrea could still see the gleam in his eyes and the excitement in his voice, and she didn’t like it. “Hope? For what?”

  There was a scoff. “You’re quite stupid for a princess, I must say.” Andrea spun around to face the speaker, who was a very tall boy with golden hair but eyes as brown as earth. The way he held himself showed that he was used to ordering other people around, maybe even the ‘people’ being the other boys on the couch.

  Luhan frowned at the boy. “Kris – “

  “It’s so obvious, but she can’t see it,” the boy who she assumed was ‘Kris’ said. The tone he was using spiked a fire of anger in Andrea; she didn’t like being thought dumb.

  “See what?” She demanded, trying to sound fierce. “If you’re so smart, do tell me.”

  Kris narrowed his eyes, and she thought she saw amusement flicker in them. “Your mere existence,” he said slowly, “is the hope of every Stargazer. It gives us the thought, the knowing of the possibility, that you will go and take back what had been your father’s – to take back what should now be yours.”

  He means the crown.

  It took a little time for Kris’ words to sink into Andrea’s brain; and when they did, when she realized what he was saying, she couldn’t stop the gasp from escaping her lips and the widening of her eyes. “That’s… that’s what you all want, isn’t it?” She scanned the whole room, absorbing the various emotions flashing in the eyes pf every single person present, mingling with their different eye colors. “You guys want a rebellion.”

  “No, we want a revolution.” Orion threw something onto the table they were surrounding, and she realized it was a dagger, vibrating as it hung firmly in the wood, stuck into a cloth with the drawing of the Byun family’s symbol on it. “And you’re going to help us.”

**

  “What do you plan to do? Charge into the castle with pitchforks and torches?”

  “I hate torches," one of the boys on the couch mumbled.

  “Minseok, no one asked you,” Sehun said.

  Gillian shook his head. "Of course not, Andrea; that is too irrational. This is Kang Dae we are fighting against; we cannot afford any mistakes again. Lives will be lost. So – “

  “Again?” Andrea asked. “So you’ve done this before, a rebellion?”

  “… No. It was smaller. Rather than a big revolution, it was an infiltration. Someone tried to sneak in and assassinate Kang Dae… but failed.”

  “Who – “

  “Andrea, we must not waste time,” Gillian said, cutting her off. It was obvious he was changing the topic, but why? What was there to hide?

  “We have a plan,” Orion said, saving Gillian.

  “Oh, good, at least you have a plan. What is it?”

  “… The decision of which plan we are to choose has not been made yet.”

  “So you have more than one? Great, even better.”

  Sehun slightly frowned, folding his arms. “Andrea, this is serious.”

  She gave him a look. “I know; can’t you see me beaming with nothing but sincerity? So what is – are the plans?”

  “First things first,” Kris said. “There is something that needs to be done before we elaborate on the details of the further plans.”

  “Yeah?” Andrea raised an eyebrow. “And what is that?”

  He looked her straight in the eyes. “We, are going to steal the Heritage Tree.”

**

  She blinked. “Oh.”

  “’Oh’? Did you hear what I just said? I said that – “

  “We are going to steal a piece of parchment. Yeah, I heard you.”

  “The Heritage Tree is not merely a ‘piece of parchment.’” Gillian sounded upset. “It has all the names of every royal-blood Stargazer ever existed, and still living. It is very powerful, for if you know every Name a Stargazer possesses, you have control over him or her.”

  “So if Kang Dae has it, it means he has control over all of us?”

  “Not all of us,” he replied with a gentle smile. “You have three Names, Andrea, when there is only two listed on the Heritage Tree.”

  She frowned. “Then why are we going to steal it, if he doesn’t – “

  “To be exact, we are retrieving it, not stealing it,” Orion explained. “Since it’s supposed to be yours, not his.”

  “And this event will just serve as a warning.”

  “A warning?”

  “That we Stargazers,” Kris smiled, “are going to start fighting back, because we now have someone worth fighting for.”

  He didn’t need to say it out loud for Andrea to know who he was talking about. “And… how are you planning to steal – get it back? It’s not like we could just waltz in and grab it and waltz right back out.”

  Hazel, who had suddenly appeared behind her, put her hand on Andrea's left shoulder. “I’ve got that part planned. A banquet is going to be held at the castle tomorrow night.”

  “A banquet? For what?”

  Sehun scoffed. “For celebrating the engagement between Baekhyun and his soon-to-be wife. I can’t believe he’s actually getting married. Did he tell you this, girly?”

  A sharp sting of pain shot through Andrea. “N-no… he did not tell me that.”

  “Oh. I thought you two were close.”

  We were, she thought, but everything has changed now. “Not… not really.” She cleared . “Okay. So we’re going to what, sneak in as a serving maid and steal the Heritage Tree while Kang Dae is having a splendid dinner with Baekhyun and Princess Celeste?”

  “And other royals from all over the world,” Orion added. “Yes, that is the plan.”

  “Sounds easy.” Andrea nodded. “I’ll go.”

  “No,” Orion and Sehun said at the same time. “No, not you.”

  That, made her feel extremely frustrated. “But why? I can – “

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “No one would see me, Sehun.”

  “But that’s just it.” He argued back. “The positions Hazel managed to get are a servant and a maid in the outer field: the dining hall. If you go, Kang Dae might see you.”

  “He doesn’t know who I am.”

  “Baekhyun might see you.”

  The mentioning of his name again made Andrea want to hit something. “It doesn’t matter; he thinks I’m a plain villager. It’s not like a villager cannot volunteer to serve as a maid in the castle. Besides, there must be hundreds of maids; the possibility of seeing me is very low. And, you need somebody who is quick, flexible, easy to move around. I can do it.”

  After a moment of silence, Gillian nodded. “She makes absolute sense, despite my not wanting you to go." He turned to Hazel. "My love?"

  “Yes, I will prepare her.” Hazel smiled. “You can count on me for that.”

  “Then it is set.” Orion slammed his hand onto the desk, which Andrea guessed was what bulky men like him was used to doing when making decisions. "The participants of the mission have been chosen. I will go notify the Miller boy.”

  “Luke?” Andrea furrowed her eyebrows. “Why Luke?”

  Orion turned around. “Because he is going in disguise of a servant with you, of course.”

***

  He was dreaming; that was certain, for the scenes around him kept changing and flashing as if he were staring at the center of a blazing fire, the color turning from orange to blue, back to orange, back to blue again. How ironic, for that was just what he was dreaming of: the Fire.

  But not just merely the Fire, when he had run from the meadow to the castle. He saw fragments of his memory, of the way the orange flames the side of the whole castle, burning it down into ashes, how his once best friend failed to survive it…

  Then the scene changed again, and this time, he was a kid, waiting in the garden in the castle for that one beastly-tall friend of his to come meet him. He looked up and squinted at the sunlight, but then in the cracks of the outside wall of the castle, he saw it: the one thing he couldn’t believe he had once seen and thought had imagined it, and couldn't believe that he only remembered this now.

  Violet eyes.

 The boy woke up with a start, cold sweat damping his bed sheets. He was panting hard, his hair messed up in wild ways, his eyes ablaze; but he didn’t notice it. The only thing on his mind, the only thing he could think of right that moment, with the feelings of unbelief, bewilderment and fear seeping into him, was:

  “It can’t be… Andrea is… her?”

[A/N] SCREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMSSSS OHKAI OHKAI SO OMG I AM DYING COZ I THOT A WEEK AFTER MY LAST UPDATE WAS TOMORROW my birthday OMG SOBSSS. I am sorry omg and bad news again... I can't update until October 6th. Yeah. Wailsssssss.

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMMENTING AND TELLING ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE STORY SO FAR!!! Seems  like you guys are enjoying it omg thank you ;___; /throws endless hearts/ And YES action is coming!!! OJGNPWIRNGPWIRBN HAHAHAHA <3 Thank you all for supporting this and hope you'll enjoy the next updates!