Let's move the time a little bit back to see what actually happened....
Everyone returned to their rooms but someone went outside the castle.
Casper headed out to the northern gate of the castle, then the other eastern, southern and western gates to check on his knights.
The gates were closed and 2 of the knights were assigned to be outside the gate and a guard was assigned inside to check inside and around the gate.
At the southern gate, a guard was keeping watch and saw Casper coming
"Ronald, did you have enough rest and are the shifts being done on time? "
The knight was shocked to see Casper here so late at night
"Lord, why have you come here so late, I heard you finally caught the remaining conspirator involved in the death of the empress , you must be tired my lord ."
He smiled patted the shoulder of the guard,
"It is my duty to do so, if you all are standing here for so long how can I take rest."
The guard was impressed by his words and was looking in awe.
"You did not respond to my earlier questions, ronald"
"Yes lord, I have taken adequate rest and the switch between the guards have been timely too."
"It is nice to see you all following the schedule. Now open the gates, I have to go outside and look at the situation outside too."
The guard opened the gates, it was mechanically locked with no magic required to guard. That was because the knights outside were a rank higher than the guards and the southern gate is usually treated as the back gate.
Okay, I will take my leave now.
Casper left and checked the other important spaces as well.
He did not go around with his horse either so as to not alert anyone.
Everything seemed normal, the knights were awake and doing their duty, the city was secure.
By the time he finished his rounds the sun had risen.
I guess I will go and wash up now, it is time for the meeting.
He went inside his room only to find out something was missing.
It was the ring...That ring was precious to him.
There was still time for the meeting to start, he went around and asked the maid if they saw someone coming inside the room while he was away.
Surprisingly no one entered , so where the ring could have gone.
He was puzzled.
He rushed downstairs to find dani, as she was the only one who knew about the existence of the ring.
He knocked at the door, but no response.
A maid then told him that she had gone to the downstairs but to which floor even she had no idea.
He quickly left from there and went to check the ground floor, it had the throne room made for the empress for the daily assembly which had been locked now and the butler and maid's general room.
He knew where he would find the answer about the dani who was not to be found anywhere.
He rushed to the general room to find butler Joyce.
"Butler Joyce, do you have any idea where lady dani is? did she inform you where she was headed as the meeting was going to start after we will have the breakfast ."
"Good morning Lord, she went to the chapel outside where daily prayers for the empress are happening. Then....yes , then she returned and told me she headed to the underground floor.."
"The underground??" , his eyes widened....because he knew underground meaning where she had gone."
He did not have an option but to head to the underground, as it was very important to ask dani about the ring.
This time he went slowly, there was no rush.....
He opened the door slightly, it was the first time he put his foot there.
He closed his eyes and moved forward bit by bit.....
He opened his one eye because if dani was present here, she would have talked to him or called him.
Since either of this not happen, he did think no one was there, he took a a turn and was about to leave.....
A soft, child like voice seemed to echo the hall..
"Casper....how could you leave without meeting Melania?"
He opened both eyes in shock and turned once again to the source of the voice.
"Lady dani, you were here, why didn't you let me know about your presence?"
"All that is not important, why have you come here if you are leaving so soon. And yesterday you even ran away from here without pitting your foot here."
He thought that he should ask her about the ring.
"Oh...I came to ask you about the ring, I had kept in the wooden box having the letter M engraved in a rare shiny metal. Did you by chance see it anywhere?"
"What are you talking about, I do not know about the ring."
Dani denied it completely....
Casper was going to give up at this moment, he had no choice. As the two of them only knew about it and it is the time of war now, how could he remove time to find the ring.
He was very sad and put his head down, while doing so he observed something
Casper then saw something shiny on the base of the higher steps.
The coffin was kept on a height with the help of a rectangular pillar and few stairs to reach it.
It was Dani, She moved a bit purposely from his field to vision to let him see the box.
He rushed blindly it towards to confirm what he saw.
There it was, the box precious to him.
"Casper, now that you have finally came here, you can talk with her, I will leave now but you stay here. I am so angry at you that I would have locked the door after leaving, but I wouldn't do so, I believe you have something important to tell her."
He did not even turn to look at Dani as he did not know what to say, but he understood that dani must have had to do something about the missing box.
He picked up the ring, climbed till the top, tears started to overflow. He lifted his hand and touched the transparent covering of the tomb where he could see her.
"Now, only I can speak, you can only listen .....Melania." he cried bitterly.
"It was always you who talked the most and I would just listen to you, our roles have changed."
"Rica, our friend was not whom we had met in the past. I cannot even stay near here, I am filled with hatred."
"Dani, is still the same, the childish person in front of us, but bold and confident while talking to others or giving orders or planing something about Memoria."
"Sarah misses you so much, she has become so filled with hatred that she would kill anyone who messes with our ongoing plan. Doing inquiry was becoming tough as she was about to kill deux too. We have to take more care of her."
"And Danver, he is still the guy obsessed with magical devices, with him our city is under protection again."
He wiped the tears which were flowing from his eyes continuously.
"I guess I have talked about everyone. What should I talk about me, I do not know. But I can talk about you the whole day."
"This ring must have really suited you Melania."
"I cannot forgive myself to let you die before me. Seeing you fall before my eyes helplessly, I....I coudn't do anything. I have failed both of us and Memoria."
"If I ever get a chance to meet you again, forget about me and do not forgive me. I am not worthy of your care and attention."
He leaned towards the coffin with both his hands as though hugging it dearly.
Previously he did not wanted to come here, now he did not wanted to leave.
What an irony....
He was there for quite a few hours, but left soon as it was important for him to be present for the meeting.
Inside the council meeting room, all the members were present.
Dani stood up with a big smile on her face," Firstly I am glad that the barrier has been repaired, all the credits goes to danver and the magicians who helped you. Now all the borders of the city are secured.
Danver couldn't express how happy he was to receive a compliment, he wanted to say something but couldn't say anything, but his happiness was evident on his face.
"Do convey my words to the ones who helped you to repair the barrier, all the magicians."
She continued..
"Now let me tell you the evidences we have already received....
Firstly we got to know the number of cruelmancers and their tier, which is a great news to us and next we got to know that they are not here Insaria. So let us move on with the idea of checking the whole of Memoria and planing our next move.
Its an urgent matter, if not here , they must be planing a big attack somewhere.
We have only got todays day to think, tomorrow we will put our thoughts into action and attack fiercely.
Memoria is not safe, till the time we eradicate those cruelmancers."
Now everyone got to their work, they instantly became serious and started to concentrate on the task dani had assigned previously.
A new chair was added, a new face, a new council member.
A person wearing thick glasses, middle aged human stood up from the chair.
"I would like to propose a brilliant strategy."