After the coronation, the celebration which I was hardly a part of because I was lost in my thoughts, I sat there and smiled so much my cheeks hurt but it didn’t change the fact that I knew or rather, felt that something was brewing and a storm was coming.
“You seem distracted my love.” Arius kissed my hand as he removed his gaze from his people, some who were dancing, others eating, mingling with smiling faces. Not a lot of nobles were invited but the ones who were took most of the space in the room.
“We might be Yama and Alal but it doesn’t change the fact that nothing has changed between us.” I returned to him absently, noting his sister. Silana looked positively happy, like she was the mother of the bride at the wedding or something while his youngest sister Eliana was smiles but reserved. She was the only one in his family I deemed as redeemable, the rest would learn after they had been punished one too many times.
Themis and Orel were on the fringes and looking like they would soon make an escape and I needed to do the same too. I was thinking about ways to make my excuse sound because somehow I knew that as the celebrant, I was not allowed to leave this early.
A silence envelopes the crowd slowly, and it spread closer to us as a lone figure walked towards us.
Arius body went tight beside me while I gaze at Faye approaching figure with disinterest. Her words no matter which ones she would want to spit out will not hurt me, the highest she would do was to embarrass Arius and her. I had not seen her for about two weeks, since she lost her child. She had been keeping her head down and had turned into a recluse. Losing a child will do that to anybody and I guess that her being quiet stage was over.
“Faye.” Arius said as Faye stood before us, the music was considerable lower as people paid attention to us while trying to pretend like they were not.
“I am not here for you Yama, I request to speak to Alal.” She clipped out and I turned my gaze to her, telling her to go ahead without saying any word.
“I am sorry for the hurt which I had caused. I am sorry for acting out of turn and trying to harm it. I would like to say it was not my intention but I would be lying.” Faye continued.
I was still silent but this time not in disinterest at what was happening around me but her words, she shocked me with words which I didn’t expect from her.
“I will be leaving for Magelyn to settle with my parents tomorrow and I will not be back. I want to thank you for your accommodation.” She added as she wiped the eyes in her eyes.
I stood up from my chair when she became choked, unable to continue, I walked down the dais until I was right before her and then I hugged her. “Go well sister.” I tell her.
“I am sorry for your loss too.” I added and then she flung her arms around my neck and started to cry. I patted her back as I looked at Arius who was staring at the two of us in shock.
I knew he was not a man and he didn’t mean for this to happen but I felt angry with him for a second, He broke the girl in my arm. I hope she gets to find peace.
******
After that teary event, I had begged off saying that I wanted rest and nobody had stopped me. Stepping into my room, I could tell that something was different, everything was still in the same place I had left it but the room changed.
I didn’t think much about it until I changed out of my clothes and moved to lay down and that was when I noticed the glowing.
I didn’t feel anything that pertain to me being in danger so I moved towards the drawer which was glowing. It was one of those permanent fixture in a room that was always locked anytime I tried to open it.
I had asked a kitchen Nisse about it only for me to be told that as long as anybody could remember that the drawer had been stuck and they couldn’t break it open because that would damage it and it looked so ancient that it would be like destroying an artifact from days of old, not the mention the contents within so it was left alone.
I wouldn’t have approached if it was not glowing because I already knew the story behind it but I did and it opened when I just barely placed my hand on the handle.
“Strange.” I mutter as I opened to door fully to see stacks of scrolls inside the drawer. Picking up the one at the top of the pile, I unrolled it only to see an account of someone’s life, a queen, it would seem.
Reading through it, it didn’t take me long to discover that these scrolls were from the time before the Northshore was Northshore, the queen referred to her kingdom as another name but still her descriptions where the same with the few ones I have heard about the forgotten world.
At the end of that scroll, she mentioned how her husband was the perfect person for her, someone whom she was not sure she wanted to live without.
I was reading the story of a queen and her husband, hundreds of years after it had happened and yet I felt like it was an intimate moment that should remain between the two of them and not privy to someone else eyes. Yet I couldn’t help but feel nostalgia, I didn’t have that.
The closest I had to experiencing that was with someone which I knew it was never meant to be.
Knowing tomorrow will be a busy day, I kept the scroll and closed the drawer, hoping to look at it some other day, but not before I saw the queen’s name by the side of it.
Queen Trisha, the golden queen.
Couldn’t it be a coincidence? I couldn’t help but wonder. I removed the thought from my mind when a yawn came out of me.
I would close my eyes and rest for this night. Tomorrow, I face the world as the Alal of Northshore and the possible reincarnate of the golden queen.
When I opened my eyes, it was to my door banging. Groaning and standing up, ready to snap at who was knocking the door. I opened only to see Orel looking at me with frightened eyes.
“Thank God you are okay.” He said as he yanked me into a hug. “I thought I lost you too.” He said into my hair.
Orel don’t do hugs of this type or this long without complaining and he had never initiated one.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“I thought you will end up like her, the palace is in an uproar.” Orel said, clearly still not making sense to me.
“Like who?” I asked frowning and when he looked at my eyes, his voice went soft.
“Gwenn, Faye is dead. She was murder last night.”