CHAPTER THREE

“Leave me alone!” Morrigan threw a porcelain water jar that was used by her servants to scoop water from the pool to help her take a bath. The servants around her were startled as the young queen started to throw a fit. No one knows what to do, what to say, and how to make the young queen calm down. Ever since the day she took over the throne a lot of things have changed in the palace and with these changes comes eccentricities. Morrigan did not only allow servants to touch her and there are more guards outside the palace walls than inside. There are more rules one has to comply with and the young queen employs more guards. 

 At night, the queen was often heard throwing things around her chambers, breaking expensive vases or unsheathing decorative swords. And by the morning servants and guards will see her in one corner beside her bed, fresh wounds and dried blood on her wrist and arm. More often the queen was heard screaming asking someone to go away from her when no one was even allowed to enter her chambers once she’s in it. Everyone within the palace walls is full of questions on why the young queen acts this way, and some servants observe that an imperial physician looks after her every week with a new concoction to drink. A lot of them speculated that the queen is going out of her mind.

The once young cheerful princess usually runs around the garden is gone. The princess who likes to wear bright colorful dresses turned into a queen with a grim look plastered on her beautiful face. The contrast of the young princess who used to wear bright colored dresses to the queen who wears nothing but monochrome colors of grays and blacks, sometimes red, as if her already grim face is not enough to make one’s hair rise. Her beautiful chestnut-colored now void of life. Her routine was to go to court meetings and trials, talk about the economy and crisis of the kingdom and after that send officials to check for her people. Sometimes she will personally visit her people but no one will dare go near her, even her people are scared of her. 

If she wasn't in the courtroom she’ll be found on the training grounds practicing archery or horseback riding. Sometimes swinging swords but often shooting with bow and arrows or with her crossbow. She grew fond of these things and started to collect swords and daggers that are usually left on display in her courtroom, sitting just beside her throne, but noticeably what she brings with her is the dagger that was passed down to her since the day she was born.

“Your majesty, please calm down…” the head servant coaxes her but Morrigan didn't listen instead she threw what her hands could get into. She shook her head violently, staring at the people in front of her in disbelief. Reaching out for her dagger that was sitting on a nearby rack.

“Get out of here!” Her authoritative voice was mixed with fear and hesitation. No one from the servants dared to move but deep within them, they were all shaking in fear, scared of what the young queen might do not just to them but to herself. She unsheathed the dagger and stood beside the pool, pointing the dagger to them. “Get out of here!” Morrigan screamed at the top of her lungs. The servants tried to walk near her and coax her but Morrigan took a step back and pointed the dagger on her throat. “Leave or I’ll kill myself here.” The servants were stuck where they were. Morrigan slowly walked back to the pool. “Leave. Me. Alone.” She said with full conviction.  

Morrigan laggardly walked into the pool farther from the servants standing there attempting to stop her from walking further while holding up the dagger she was pointing at her neck. Her servants watch in caution, their breaths hitched as they watch the young queen’s body slowly submerge in the water. The water continues to rise from Morrigan’s hips to her waist, then to her chest as she walks further. Morrigan looked up when a familiar silhouette of a shadow cast over her. Their hearts pounding loudly, everyone wanted to go near her but with a dagger, she’s holding on her neck might hurt her anytime.

Morrigan’s a few feet near Fiachra’s statue that stands in the middle of the pool and also serves as a marker. When Morrigan felt that no one would dare come near her, she slowly let her dagger go, slowly sitting down by the edge of Fiachra’s statue and letting her silk robe slide down her shoulder. The servants watched her from the surface finally heaved a long deep breath as they watched the queen calm down. Watching her scoop the water and throw whatever her hand can get over her shoulders. Her hair is dancing around her as it stays afloat in the water. Morrigan played by the edge of the statue as she kicked the water and watched the ripples of water under her feet travel to the shallow part of the pool. 

The room remained silent, the servants remained watching her till one servant fell on the hard marble floor, came another, and then another. All of them now soaking in their own blood that is pooling under their bodies. And even before the other servants could call for help they were all put down with arrows piercing either their heads or their hearts. It happened all of a sudden no one was able to act quickly and call for the guards outside. The coppery smell of blood slowly overpowering the scent of lavender in the bathhouse.

When Morrigan noticed this, her heart started to race fast but even before she could act on her own someone pulled her down the pool. The dagger in her hand slipped away from her. She screamed for help but she’s already pulled into the waters which resulted in her drinking some of the pool waters. Her heart pounds louder as her eyes widen when a pair of gray eyes stare at her with malintent. A dagger in one hand and a crossbow on their back. Morrigan tried to swim up to the surface, struggling to keep herself afloat in the water. She doesn’t know how to swim. 

When she managed to keep her head afloat she screamed at the top of her lungs, struggling to keep herself floating she breathed and screamed all she can but again her perpetrator pulled her down the water. Her perpetrator knows she can’t swim, that’s one thing she is certain of now. She’s now cursing herself for going to the deep parts of the pool and for not being able to hold on to her dagger tightly. She kicked her perpetrator away from her trying to give them a safe distance. 

Dancing underwater with death in two levels first is with her perpetrator, and second, with her inability to swim she still managed to make it to the surface. She took another deep breath but a sharp pain on her back registered in her system when the dagger in her perpetrator's hands pierced her. She let out a welp and she was again pulled underwater. Air bubbles come out of her making it even harder for her to breathe. She can feel herself sinking further and as she struggles there is nothing helping her to keep herself afloat. When the dagger again went deep on her shoulder and was pulled out immediately. She let out another gasp and a mouthful of water flooded inside her mouth. She’s drowning. She can already feel all the air she tried to gather earlier slip away from her. 

All she can do now is to scream for help in her mind but still, no one is coming to her aid. No one came to help her. She already accepted the fact that this could be her last and let herself sink down the water. Despite all her struggles to keep herself afloat she remained sinking down, no more air can be salvaged from her lungs and the stab wounds behind her hurt her to her bones. Her blood mixes in the water, leaving a contrail of it as she sinks down. 

She has already given up, there’s no use to struggle anymore, she decided to let the last air she can sustain escape her lungs and close her eyes. The end of her life was already flashing in front of her eyes. But before she closed her eyes a figure in black inner clothes dived in the pool, she can remember the distinct ginger hair of this man and his lean physique. She can remember how his arms circled around the small of her waist and his hazel eyes, that was the last thing she remembered before she passed out.