When they had all left, she sat on her throne and relaxed her head. She tried to settle her mind to enable her to think out a solution to the matters at hand.
After a while, she called out in a loud voice that required an urgent response.
"Squad!"
"Squad!!" She called the second time.
The four hefty beings appeared in her presence immediately, without wasting time.
"Long live, your majesty!" They all hailed the Empress in unison.
Without wasting any much time, the empress began to talk.
"This is to bring to your notice that all is not well. The state of things in this empire is seriously changing and if proper care is not taken, this empire would turn into something else and that would be so devastating, but may the moon goddess forbid."
She paused and looked at them to see if they're really paying attention to what she was saying.
When she realized that they were listening to her, she then continued.
"Just a while ago, the poor ma'am Eva cried into my abode with tears covering her face.
She brought to my notice that her one and only granddaughter of which was her hope for living is now missing.
That was not just that;
My informant - Sibraa in the same manner rushed in after a while and also made another complain of the same issue but it was his friend - Liamb that was found missing." Then, she paused a little while readjusting herself to feel more comfortable.
"What?" The squad said out of surprise while glancing at each other.
"Far from that," she continued…
The princess has decided not to do anything to help me and not even ordinary chores.
All her reasons are that she isn't a help and that she can't do them because they're tedious.
As a matter of fact, she had locked herself up in her chambers ever since Mira was thrown into the prison.
She's heck bent on getting her out of the prison before she would unlock herself as she wouldn't want to do anything tasking.
She had refused to give me a listening ear even after I begged and explained things to her to make her understand that it was a punishment that she needed to serve as it would teach her the lessons she had refused to learn in a hard way.
The last time I spoke to her wasn't funny.
It was as a result of my threat to her that pushed her to say some annoying words which she really meant.
In her words she said, "Your majesty, I don't care about your change of mind, initial plans and your recent decisions or whatever. All I want to hear is that the Mira girl had been brought out of the prison and that's all.
Again I want to see that what you made me believe is true when I come out of this place to check it out by myself."
These were the few words she said with an angry tone without uttering any more words.
So right now, I have a change of mind concerning Mira. I have decided that you release her from where she has been tied or whatever and bring her out of that prison.
I am doing this in contrast to my initial plans because of my daughter's sake. Else, I wouldn't have negated my decisions.
All I want you guys to do straight up is to go in there, unlock the prison and get her out of that place so that my daughter can be fine.
Go....,straight up!" She concluded in a command and authoritative manner.
"Your wish is our command, your majesty," they responded in unison and left immediately to the prison to do just exactly as they were ordered by the empress.
They hastily swam through the route that led to the prison.
On their way, they stumbled into Gilmore who was gathering some green veggies almost close to their farm.
They had wanted to use the veggies to prepare some sea worms that they had gathered earlier for their consumption.
As they swam by, Gilmore began to wonder what they were up to as they were headed through the direction that led to the prison.
Without wasting time, he dropped whatever he thought that might implicate him and started following them secretly and quietly.
He did that while hiding himself to avoid being caught by the squad.
They continued that way till they almost got to the prison.
It was when he was trying to dodge and manoeuvre his way across a sunflower that was blocking his path that the movement of the sunflower attracted the attention of one of the members of the squad.
At this point, Gilmore hid himself immediately to avoid being caught.
He prayed that the moon goddess will protect him and save him from being implicated.
It was their second in command that noticed the movement and at once suspected that someone was following them.
He quickly alerted others and they had to halt.
Their head - the leader of the squad turned and carefully browsed everywhere using his eyes and with the help of his fellows but they didn't see anyone.
They went as far as waiting for a while to see if the person that was following them would show up again but they still didn't see anybody so they continued towards the prison.
Gilmore quickly and quietly hurried out from his hideout and made his way towards the prison side, also.
When he got there, he realized that the squad were looking out for Mira.
He quietly peeped through From where he was hiding to see if they were really looking out for Mira and it was that time that he recalled how they took Mira out of the prison.
He began to shiver in fear at first but he later gathered courage to face whatever that might come out of it.
When the squad searched everywhere in and around the prison and didn't find Mira, they were surprised at the happenings.
"Where the hell is this fish!" Thundered their leader who was already angry at the happenings that were making him feel like he didn't know what he was doing.
"Who must have done this?" The second in command asked, squeezing his face like a rumpled cloth.
"Perhaps, she escaped from the prison," the third being added.
"And how possible could it be for her to escape from this enclosed area?" The last being questioned from the other end.
"And if truly she escaped, we will search for her and find her, and if we finally find her, it will be her end."
At this point, he paused and began to breathe faster and angrily.
"Let's move to the throne to let the empress know about the new development." He concluded and stretched out his right palm towards the direction that led to the Empress's abode in a way that directed them to get going.
As others swam forward, he looked behind him and browsed everywhere with his eyes.
He immediately followed suit when they had all proceeded forward towards the empress's abode.
Gilmore who was listening to all their conversations from his hideout was then thinking of the next step to take.
He didn't come out from his hideout immediately; instead, he waited for the squad to go very far away from that place so that he wouldn't be caught.
When he sensed that everywhere had become clear, he hurried out from his hiding position and made for his chambers to let his sister know what happened and to also know the next step that they would take.
On the other hand, the news of Sia - ma'am Eva's granddaughter's disappearance and that of Liamb had spread like a wildfire all over Crums.
No one knows what happened to them.
The empress was still contemplating whether to conduct a search for the other missing half humans or not but not until the news of Mira's disappearance came to her hearing.
When Gilmore finally got to his chambers, he hurriedly went straight to where Bella was preprocessing the worms to let her know the matter that was at point then.
"Why are you in a hurry, dear? I have not even started garnishing the worms, I am still preprocessing it. So, just relax, you're not late." Bella said looking at her brother who was breathing heavily.
"Far from that. We are in deep trouble now. I saw the squad swim pass me when I was harvesting some veggies. Then, I sensed that they might be headed to the prison to check Mira. I had to secretly and quietly follow them so that I could clear my doubts. Only for me to get there and discover that I sensed right.
I heard all their discussions concerning Mira's disappearance and the one that got me scared is the fact that they said that when they finally get hold of Mira, it will be her end." He said, shaking.
"I'm not even talking about the fact that I almost got caught following them but I was so lucky that the moon goddess saved me. If not, that would have been my end, too……."
He was still talking when Bella cut in.
"Then we have to hurry to the surface to meet Mira and then put our heads together to find out what we would do to save that being," she said, dropping all the items she was holding.
Without wasting any much time, they secretly made out to the surface to meet Mira and to inform her about the latest development.