No! I cannot be tied to a man who will physically abuse me, I would rather die than be my mother. My mind screamed out but none of this showed on my face. What showed was the calm fury I was holding to with all my might. I cannot return to the scared little girl I was, who was afraid of my father return whenever he would travel.
Arius breathed out as his hand hanged in the air for a while before he dropped it by his side and not towards my direction as he had earlier intended.
“Why on earth will you try and insult the council? Do you have a death wish? They are the most feared group in this empire. Not even the warriors. They can make and unmake. They can break you with a thought and not lose sleep about it. You must have a death wish. There is no other explanation for your actions.” Arius gripped his hair in his hands.
“Do you think about the fact that I was not aware of this?” I defended myself.
“Then you keep your mouth shut and away from things you don’t understand.” Arius thundered at me and I flinched back from the venom he was spewing, I was not expecting this from him and I really didn’t understand why he was yelling at me like he thought I would be submissive and take the shit he was spewing. I would always come back swinging hard.
“You have no right to tell me when to keep my mouth shut.” I tell him but he advanced towards me with his gait slow and predatory but I did not move an inch, that would have shown that I was terrified of him and I refused to admit that. I was not terrified. I just needed to regain my balance with this new world that I find myself in.
When he was standing directly in front of me and I had to tilt my head back to look at him, he continued. “I might have chosen you as a wife but don’t you ever think you have a choice in matters that concerned my empire, especially when I will be seen in a bad light because of you. The only matter which you have a choice in is what route to take to make me look good. Now, why are you here because if I do remember clearly, you have no business being here since it is clear that you are not here to stay?”
I was tempted, seriously tempted to bash his head in about my duties as his queen but I decided that one of us had to be an adult so I decided to ignore. “I came here because Themis saw you being killed. If I had known that I would be almost slapped for my help and treated this harshly, believe me I would have steered clear and when the news of your death reach me, I would have said good riddance.”
“Gwenn, we both know that your reply to my death would not have been that so you need to tell me everything about Themis vision.” Arius said and in response, I raised my eyebrow.
“You are serious.” I frowned. “After insulting and raising your voice at me, you continue to order me around, you must think that you have huge balls.”
“Tell me the reason why you are back here and tell me everything.” Arius repeated.
This was the point where I would hit him or keep quiet but I didn’t have time to play this game with him. He was not on my side and I need him on my side because I need an army to march with me and he can provide me with that so for my goal and Dar, I swallowed my pride and I told him everything Themis said.
The vision about his brother killing him and mentioning about how he would fully kill their father. By the time I was done, Arius sat down.
“I am sorry, I know that you never expected something like this?”
“Yes, I didn’t expect that you would cook up such a farfetched story. I would have believed you if you had not mentioned my father. My brother loves my father, he would rather hurt than let anything happen to my father and not just anything but also for him to be the cause is laughable. I don’t want to say anything to you other than you need to get your lies straight and it cannot be true.”
“Choose to believe me or not, it doesn’t change that you are in grave danger, take that seriously.” I said, ignoring that fact that he was calling me a liar, I was angry that I had condoned a lot of things from him, things that if they came from another person would have had me reaching for my whip and whipping the person saying this senselessly if the person was from Dar.
“I will think about it.” Arius replied and his words made me realized that, I might have to remain behind for a little longer so that I can see to it that he takes my words seriously.
If Arius is going to die by someone hands, it has to be mine and it won’t be in a political bid but rather because he went too far in aggravating me.
I sighed. “The war has started. We need the help that was promised.” I added and Arius glanced at me.
“You mean them.” He corrected.
“No…”
“You are one of us now, don’t forget it outside. You are nothing but a kitten. Don’t give my people a reason to step on you, you will not survive.” Arius added.
“And that is why, I cannot think of them as my own people too.” I said, with my voice soft and when he frowned in confusion, I added.
“Because you already created this divide too, you referred to them as your people not our people. They will always be your people and Dar will always be mine.” I answered softly, taking some steps away from Arius not because I was scared of him but because I wanted a physical way of saying that we are from different worlds and those world will remain ours no matter the bonds that ties us together.
“Gwenn.” He started to say but I shook my head.
I came here just to keep him to be safe and he was not going to take my warning seriously, there was no reason for us to be talking right now. I don’t want to blurt out my insults to him.
“Can you show me where I am supposed to sleep and then who do I need to appeal to for the army and what am I supposed to do?” I asked.
Arius looked at me. “We don’t have a lot of rulers, we have just one and that is me, you don’t need to appeal to anybody else for the army. That was our bargain and I will deliver after some new terms and you are going to have a meal with my family today, you need to see how Northerners behave.”
I cringed, I forgot that other empires were not like Dar who had five rulers and five major sectors and my best friend and honorary older brother, Orel was the ruler of one of those sectors while his wife, Themis was the Prophesy seer, a strange girl with an equal strange power and temper towards me. Orel was smitten by her so by default, I have to like her.
“So I will have dinner with your family this evening.” I nodded and then I froze as I realized what his earlier words were and when I looked at his face, he nodded to my unspoken question.
“There is no way, you will introduce new terms now. Not when I have already gotten married to you. I will not accept that.”
“You are saying it as if being married to you is all rosy too. Because of your actions, I need to reconsider the terms because I didn’t get what I hoped for. And you are going to accept the terms or you won’t get your army. Themis is not here and I can keep you imprisoned here and tell them that you died. You will reconsider because there is no other choice.” Arius smiled.
I was spitting mad! And I knew he was right. I was trapped and have no way out. So in a burst of anger, I moved to him and punched him on the face, so much for being the adult.
I have been lenient with Arius, too lenient. The black eye he spotted was not enough to reduce my anger. I was not going to take trash from his sister! “Can you believe that this is the person who is expected to give us new heirs? What a joke.” Vala mumbled into her cup as Arius rubbed his brow but he didn’t say anything to stop her. “Yeah, you want to know what a bigger joke is? You going to be someone else wife and mother. What are you going to teach your children, how to leech off their uncles?” I asked, talking into my goblet too. At my words, the room went quiet and then exploded into a flurry of activities as Kastav, the brother I am worried about rushed to hold his sister, while his sister shrieked and gripped the table knife and came at me. “The next time you grip a knife to face me, I will take you up on that offer.” I stared at her in the face. “You think that you are amazing and that you
Noble women no matter what empire they belong to are nothing but thorns at the side of an outsider. I had watched what Dar women did to Themis who was not a complete outsider and heard stories too, I even joined in the disciplining of some of the errant women who were below Themis in status and still thought that they could circulate rumors to tarnish her image. Now if that was the same people I had to deal with here, I would not have minded. I would have breakfast with them while counting each snide comments and when we are done with our breakfast, I would have them whipped for each foul word that was said to me or about me. But I couldn’t do that to princesses, not when their brother who happened to be my husband will have my head if I hurt them. I got to the same room as yesterday, the one where the meal was held while silently cursing the fact that I couldn’t have meals with my escorts from Dar. It isn’t done, I was told by
I needed an escape so when I saw a garden behind one of the courtyards, I thought nothing about it as I hurried there. The serenity was amazing, I sat under a tree and that was when the tears started.Homesickness. I was just here for barely a day but I was already feeling home sick because this was not the way I had envisioned my life to go.I thought that I would be beside my brothers, we protect Dar and then after a while, I would settle down with the person who had my heart from Childhood, Baxter, the Master healer but it didn’t happen that way.You would think that after years of watching life present lemons for me, that I would be used to the idea that I should expect the worst from life.I thought the worse would be getting married to a weird set of people but it apparently is not. The weirdest thing is getting married to someone who is not your choice only to discover that
AriusGwenn was crazy, totally and completely crazy! When Faye distracted me from my sparring session with my brother, Kastav which Gwenn accused of wanting to kill me, I actually thought that maybe Gwenn was wrong about who was going to kill me, it was not going to be Kastav but rather Faye. Well that was my thought until she started to talk about my wife who have a death wish.On getting there, the brat with no self-preservation in her actually turned to greet me with a smile on her face.“Gwenn I know that you are angry but this is a little bit out of hand, don’t you think?” I approached her and the council members who were strangely not doing anything to harm Gwenn, I had been on the receiving side of their wrath once, although it was a long time ago, I still remember the hopeless feeling that arose from that experience and how my father waged a war on the council. Kastav mother, after being punished was sent away fr
Arius“You requested to see me, my king.” Soren, the twin to one of the sixteen commander asked after he bowed when he let himself into the hall which I used for official business. Each king decorates the hall to suit his taste but my father decorations were still on the wall. I was not going to do anything about it until it is declared that my father is no more and the people responsible for his demise are brought to justice.The king was wasting away, everybody knew it was only a matter of time before he dies.“Yes I did. You are second in command to your legion right?” I asked Sorens who nodded.“Yes my king, I am the one in charge now since the commander died.” Sorens explains.The right thing for me to do will be to promote Sorens to be the leader of the of his Legion so he would be a commander like his brother has been for the past two years but I am known fo
GwennI thought that I was ready for anything, I thought that I was ready to take whatever the oath was but I was ill prepared.“My queen, please wrap yourself up in this.” The Mareikura which was assigned to me said as she presented me with a thin like shawl.This Mareikura was respectful, I learnt that the trait of Faye was only a characteristics of her as a person, not her friends or the position she held which was a good thing because if there was more than one of Faye in existence at the castle… well when I return, let’s just say that a lot of maidens would have either lost their jobs or their lives. Depending on how annoying they were to me at first glance.“Okay.” I replied in a tiny voice as I took the shawl and wrapped it around me, not like it helped to hid anything since the whole of me was on display.The Mareikura, held me by hand into another chamber and this ch
It’s been two days since that weird pit incidence. Two days since I have been down but according to Arius who spent the entire time with me, I was recovering faster than any commander he has ever seen.He makes it so hard to hate him, who could hate someone who ignored his supposed mistress to take care of a woman who don’t like him, a woman who would do anything than to be in his company.He was being the perfect husband and I hated it because it couldn’t be real. I was not strong enough to complain about it, two days ago but I was certainly strong enough now.While lying on my bed, watching him as he goes about mixing the herbal drink which was created to make an individual gain his strength back, I grew more incensed at his actions.“Stop it.” I tell him.He glanced at me with question. “You don’t want it, it is the best way for you to gain your strength,
Returning back to Northshore made me think of the last conversation I had with my husband. Tingles break out on my skin and they were not the good kind. I was going to face Arius and try my best not to sink a dagger in his eyes when he looks at me and pretend like everything was alright in our world when it is clear that it wasn’t.“My Queen.” Soren’s horse came to canter beside mine as he smiled at me.“Hello Sorens, how many miles remaining before we get to Northshore? We are not following the usual road that leads there so I cannot tell.” I asked, I had being riding with them non-stop for days as we hurried to get back into Northshore. I might be one of them now but I could still feel fatigue. The major reason why I was doing this was so that my legion could return home to their wives and children not because I was in a hurry to return to my ungrateful husband even though he had requested for that.
24 YEARS LATER. Gwenn Pov “I want to run a sword through you so badly that the feeling is visceral. After all these years together I cannot believe you still are a bigoted two timing jerk.” I yelled as I stormed into the throne room, Arius behind me. “I am Yama, I cannot be seen as the fool being controlled by the Alal. It would undermine my ruling…” Arius tried explaining but he just made me even more furious than usual. “Your ruling… I am right and the whole kingdom is aware of that, the forgotten world should not be explored.” “It has been over twenty years. I know that you don’t want it to be explored and that was why I came up with the suggestion that I did. Let it be explored by a selected group of youth, freed from the machinations of the council and led by our children. But you had to spoil it by talking out of turn.” “Did you hit your head without my knowledge?” I asked surprised. Whatever makes
Gwenn Pov“You and Orel will soon be going back won’t you?” I asked. Throughout that day, I had caught Themis and Orel sent each other glances.“Yes. We have to, our work here is almost done and we need to go back.” Themis answered. She would have given me more information but I had a feeling she stopped because I was no longer their citizen. I was now a Northerner.So was she but her loyalty lies with Dar because she was married to one of the rulers.“Almost?” I asked her.“Yes we still have one more task to do. Your curse has been broken and Arius own also has, the empire is slowly flourishing and getting itself back. It has been just three months but the repairs are almost done. Northshorians certainly do not let anything keep them down for long.”I winced at her words.“We prefer Northerners.” I answered as she smiled. “But I stil
Arius Pov I cannot believe that I slept through the period where my country was hijacked and my brother was possessed by an evil spirit that eventually killed him. Kastav was not evil, all he was, was greedy. Maybe I could have prevented this if I had listened to Gwenn warning at first. Gwenn thinks the death of others were on her but she could not be further from the truth. They were on me.Gwenn was Alal, her role was to keep the peace, mine was to fight if the peace was threatened. She was a foreigner and she had no vested interest in saving Northshore but she still did. She had nothing to feel, no weight to carry.I was supposed to carry them all because I could have prevented the death of my sister and Sorens and my councilors too but I did not. I chose to ignore the words of a seer. My fault but now, things are strange and Northshore us not as we know it to be. Old records are being dug. T
Gwenn Pov“You have to stand up and stop moping.” Orel started. “You have been lying in bed for two days now, you don’t have the luxury of lying around, not when you have a kingdom to restore and a husband to find.”“Sorens is dead Orel. He died because of my order that he should protect the king, if he is dead than Arius also is.” I stated as I sniffled while holding on to Elison’s hand while he laid beside me.“But…” Orel started but I grew annoyed.“Only three council members remaining, my husband dead, Sorens dead and his siblings, four dead. These are only the deaths I am aware of, excluding a legion which is dead and you are trying to tell me that I am not at fault. If I never came here, this would never have happened. This is all my fault.” I screamed at Orel and when Elison face wrinkled as he ope
Themis PovI had appeared at the right time. Gwenn was in shock, staring at a body on the ground. Without looking at the body, I knew that it was Silana, one of the blind spots in my gift. A blind spot that might have saved the world.“Would you look at that, the same way I killed Sorens, I also killed that brat. The next on the list is you.” Kastav crackled as he moved towards Gwenn in a leisured pace.I could not allow that to happen, there was not much I could do except throw a dagger, which I collected from Orel, his way. I needed to get Gwenn to snap out of her mind and tell her what I learnt. She needed to tap into my gift so she could win.When the dagger met its mark, I ran towards Gwenn even as he grunted.“You.” He growled as he sent something my way but it never had the chance to reach me becau
Themis PovI was tired of falling. I have been falling for what felt like hours now because since Kastav sent us into the portal he created, I have not been able to stop falling. My only consolation is that Orel and my son has been on the same length as me, no one of us ever leaving the same length so we could keep each other in the same eyesight. That should have been the first marker for me but I had ignored it. We stopped shouting when the fall did not stop and even started conversing and that was when something different happened.“I wish this would just end soon.” Orel grated.“It should have ended because we are not of the same weight and yet we are still falling at the level of falling.” I voiced“My wife must be tired of viewing my face since she wants me to fall faster.” Orel replied wryly.“No, that is not it.
Catia povMy brother is possessed by a drude. That alone makes him unable to rule but I would not be the person to tell him that, not when the last few people who did, died. I now know why Silana said I was the biggest scum at Kastav side. I pushed him to this. If I had allowed him to be contented with his life when he was just a prince and stop his ambitions then maybe this would have never happened.And now I was on my way to see my favorite brother who killed three of my other brothers and made me his queen. The only time I was ever this scared was when Father became ill and even then, he was present to calm me down but who is going to calm me of my fear from him.“You took your time.” Kastav growled the minute I entered the throne room. A room that has become his favorite in the castle even though he hardly do anything in it.“I got the message le
I wanted to ask so many questions, so badly but I could not. My tongue was tied as I watched the entity that was partly inside me since. I apparently crossed the world of the living to their world. I had passed through a physical gate and landed myself here both body and spirit.“Am I still alive?” I questioned.“Yes.” She laughed. “Very much so. Oh how I wished that I could get to spend time with you and know you, my newer self but I cannot. Time has ran out and our world is in jeopardy. Both of our worlds. You need to defeat Mazikeen but for that to happen, we need to go back to the beginning because for the future to be safe once more, the genesis of it all has to be known. Are you ready?” She asked.I nodded my replied. I have been ready ever since I started this journey.“Mazikeen did not go out looking for power, he stumb
“What is going on?” Catia approached me the moment, I entered. I watched as our other siblings eyed us, my brothers especially. They must have guessed what was.“What mother wanted for me.” I replied my sister. I watched as Catia eyes farrowed as she tried to reason what I said. I saw the exact moment she understood. The joy in her gaze and then she hugged me.“I am happy brother. Congratulations.” She replied before she went back to our siblings.I walked to the throne, the direction which everybody was facing and in front of everybody, I sat down in the seat meant for Yama. Utter silence filled the room, regardless of the people in it. All eyes on me as they realized that this was me over throwing my brother.“Any questions?” I asked.“What about the king…” A Mareikura asked