The pantry in the Golden Pace was located at the bottom of the stairs at the end of a long corridor leading from the kitchen to the storage area.

  It was a deliberate choice to build it underground as the hot Aelian summers made it quite difficult to store food for longer periods of time.

  In the past, the problem was solved with the use of magic, but ever since a near apocalyptic event caused by mages, that was no longer an option, which forced the people to seek more down to earth solutions.

  As the result, the Princess was forced to face a dark staircase leading to the basement where the horror resided.

  "Hold my hand," Valeria stepped forward and reached out to Oriana.

  The Princess looked behind, a single thought telling her to run back evaporating the second she got a glimpse of a dark, cold and unsettling corridor that she would have to go through alone.

  She took a deep breath and took Valeria’s hand, letting her guide her downstairs.

  They were walking slowly, each step bringing them closer to the source of the wailing.

  Oriana was certain that her heart was pounding loud enough to let the monster know that they are coming, and she wasn’t feeling very ecstatic about facing a supernatural ambush.

  "Maybe we should turn back?" The Princess whispered.

  "We’re almost there, don’t worry," Valeria kept pressing ahead unshaken by the situation they were in.

  "I know we’re almost there, that’s why I’m saying we should go back while we still can!"

  Valeria giggled.

  "We can’t just leave. What if someone else encounters this ghost? Besides," Valeria looked at Oriana over her shoulder, "you may be quite surprised at what we’re going to find there."

  "That’s assuming I’ll even have the time to feel surprised before it eats us," the Princess mumbled while walking down.

  When they got there, the door to the pantry was wide open. The eerie wails were almost deafening, being this close to the source.

  The girls exchanged a look and braced themselves for the confrontation.

  "Who’s the—" Valeria didn’t have a chance to finish, before a voice roared from behind her.

  "I have a weapon and I won’t hesitate to use it!!!" Oriana yelled. Eyes shut tight and her outstretched hand holding an impressive wooden dle.

  Valeria looked at Oriana in confusion.

  "When did you even get that?"

  "When you were looking around," Oriana answered, still in her combat stance.

  She was ready to give an extensive argument over why a massive wooden dle could be used as an effective blunt weapon against a supernatural being, but instead of a rebuke, Valeria reached out and positioned the spoon in her hand at an angle and pointing away from her.

  "This way you’ll be able to deflect and block attacks. Also keep your legs apart and slightly bend your knees. It will help you keep bance. Most importantly, don’t close your eyes. You need to see your opponent," she instructed with a straight face, then turned to face the Ghost. "Fabia? What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

  The sound of her name snapped the maid out of the shock. She looked at Valeria with eyes wide open then, her face started contorting like she just had a piece of the most sour lemon in the world.

  And then she started crying again.

  "…that’s when I saw him with another woman," Fabia finished her story trying to restrain another wail. After so many hours of crying she was close to dehydration and losing her voice.

  She took a long sip of the warm milk Valeria made while Oriana was calming her down.

  As the events unfolded, what the Princess took for an extremely vocal banshee, turned out to be a brokenhearted maid, who decided to drown her sorrows in cheese and ungodly amount of sausage.

  Oriana cupped the maid’s hand with her own.

  "He doesn’t deserve you. You can do so much better than him," she said firmly.

  "Can I really? I’m not that young anymore. I’m not pretty or rich. I don’t have any special talents. Why would anyone be interested in me," she squeezed the handkerchief in her hands trying to stop the tears welling up in her brown eyes from falling.

  Fabia never considered herself anyone interesting. She came from an ordinary family with two other siblings. She was the middle child—not the oldest to enjoy the undivided affection of her parents and not the youngest to be in the need of more attention.

  Nevertheless, she loved her siblings. She felt proud to know that her older sister got a job in an adventurer’s guild while her younger brother was preparing to enroll at the Academy. Both of them treated her well, but each had their own life and their own set of hurdles to overcome, so the time they could spend together was few and far between.

  Unlike the other members of her family, she didn’t have any useful abilities, so she became a maid at a private house. With a bit of luck and the Ten’s blessing she was recommended to work at the Golden Pace. That in itself was, in Fabia’s eyes, the furthest her career could go.

  In all of her long thirty-five years in this world, she learned to be content with what she had and realistic about what she could hope for. That being said, it never silenced that tiny feeling in her heart, the yearning to be seen, to be noticed by someone. To be someone special for someone.

  And then she met him. The son of a low noble in Lucetta. Handsome, charming, successful. A dream come true for every maiden and bachelor who weren’t part of the royal family. Someone completely out of her reach.

  Yet, against all odds, against all logic, he noticed her.

  At first it was like a fairytale. The way he treated her, cared for her, for the first time she felt that it was alright to dream, want more. And being forever his was something she wanted more than anything. Those days they spent together talking for hours and ughing like they had no care in the world were for Fabia the first time she felt alive.

  Their first kiss was more magical than any kiss in any book she ever read.

  Then something changed. He started becoming distant, started visiting less and less and even when they met he would avoid looking her in the eyes. As if he couldn’t stand to look at her face anymore.

  Soon after, Fabia saw him walking around the park, holding hands with another woman.

  When she confronted him about it, he cimed to have no choice, that his father was forcing him to marry the daughter of a baroness to save his family from debt. The biggest pain came right after, when he asked her to be his mistress.

  Fabia inhaled sharply, her heart split in half.

  "He even gave me this ring," she brushed her fingers against the smooth surface of a tasteful sapphire ring, "he said it was a promise that his heart will always be mine… And then he went and broke that promise right away," heavy tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Oriana clutched the dle, that she was still keeping next to her, prepared to offer the man in question a healthy serving of beating.

  "But maybe," Fabia continued, "maybe I shouldn’t have said no. He did say he loves me once. If he does, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be his mistress. At least I could still be with him in a way…"

  The kitchen fell silent.

  Oriana struggled to find the proper words to give to the woman. After all, she didn’t have that much experience with love either.

  Or rather her first and only experience was sitting across from her with an unreadable expression, so infuriatingly unapproachable and attractive at the same time.

  "If he loved you," Valeria suddenly spoke, her voice soft yet filled with unexpected willpower, "would he really want to see you like this?"

  The Princess and Fabia both looked at the Commander, surprised by her sudden willingness to discuss the matters of the heart.

  "Love isn’t about possessing," she continued, "it’s about wanting to make that one special person the happiest, even when you’re not the reason. It’s wanting to protect them and shield them from all the bad things. Wanting to see them flourish and succeed. It’s not giving up even in the face of the overwhelming odds." Valeria paused, weighting the next words dictated by her own heart. After a moment of silence, she looked at Oriana and said, "Love is this unstoppable force that will drive you to take all the high roads and fight until your st breath, because the thought of losing the one you love is worse than the death itself."

  Oriana’s eyes met the molten silver of Valeria’s gaze. Determined, unwavering, the kind of gaze that seemed to be saying ‘Remember my words, because they are meant for you.’

  And the Princess took each word and stored it safely in her heart. The strength behind them gave her hope, made her feel that, perhaps, everything can be alright.

  Because she could rete to everything Valeria said. The feelings that were stirring inside her for so long, had been just like that, just the way the Commander painted them. It was like she held a mirror to her heart and Oriana saw her own reflection.

  In that moment the Princess understood, that this love was something she could never forget.