Emmelyn remembered when she was roaming Atlantea, she heard stories about the mysterious kingdom called Myreen that had disappeared for over a century. People said the kingdom was ruled by a very powerful wizard family.
The royal family didn't like living around regular humans from the neighboring kingdoms who were always waging wars, so they decided to go into seclusion and hid their kingdom from the naked eye.
But.. but, Myreen was just a legend, right? She thought it was not a real place...
And, even if it was.... what did Myreen have to do with her? Emmelyn had never been there, never met anyone from there...
This was too weird.
"I've heard about Myreen," Emmelyn said, to Bruinen's surprise. "But I have never met anyone from there. What does it have to do with my 'dark' aura?"
"What dark aura?" The king suddenly asked. He had heard about Emmelyn having a dark aura from Bruinen and now was interested in knowing what it was actually.
Mars' heart skipped a beat when he saw his father furrow his brows and looked at Emmelyn intently as if trying to see the aura that Bruinen mentioned.
Mars remembered the day when Emmelyn cried as she told him how Mrs. Adler saw her having a dark aura and said she would bring him bad luck.
He shoved it off and told Emmelyn that it was just an unfounded superstition on Mrs. Adler's part and that she shouldn't take it to heart.
Mars realized now Emmelyn must be bothered by the fact that Bruinen also said the same thing. He planned to talk to her about it later, and convinced her again that there was no such thing and that she was not bad luck!
However, seeing his father's interest in the matter all of a sudden, Mars decided it would be best to remove the topic from the conversation entirely.
He knew King Jared didn't like Emmelyn and was still suspicious of her. If the king heard that Emmelyn brought Mars 'bad luck', he might dislike her even more and treated her worse.
"Elmer, I believe we are here to talk about the witch that has bothered my family, and not about some unrelated topic, are we not?" Mars turned to Elmer, showing displeasure. The old wizard looked at Emmelyn and Bruinen alternately, then he cleared his throat.
"Bruinen, please focus," he scolded his disciple and then turned to Mars and apologized. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. My disciple here is a seer, but he still needs to train his skills better. I will see to him to not bother Princess Emmelyn again."
"I was asking Bruinen here, what dark aura?" Suddenly, the king spoke again. He looked straight at Bruinen and demanded an answer. "And where the fuck is Myreen?"
The queen was startled by her husband's words. She didn't think he was so easily agitated today. Perhaps, he really disliked their daughter-in-law, that even a little thing like Bruinen's remark could make the king suspicious.
"Your Majesty, let's not be rude to our guests and invite them to sit," Queen Elara quickly reached out to her husband's hand and grabbed it gently.
She smiled sweetly, like an angel, and tilted her chin to the beautiful chairs and sofa in the hall. She whispered, "I'm tired of standing for too long."
It worked like magic.
When King Jared heard his wife's subtle complaint, he nodded and motioned everyone to sit and make themselves comfortable.
They obeyed his order and took their seats. Emmelyn really wanted to smack the king for his attitude. Sometimes, she couldn't believe this man was Mars' father. They were so far different.
Not only Mars looked nothing like his father, but their personalities were also poles apart. The only thing that might seem similar was the fact that they both loved their wives so much.
And nothing else.
Emmelyn wondered how Queen Elara could stand this man for almost three decades.
Mars pulled her hand to sit next to him on the sofa, opposite Elmer and Bruinen, while the queen sat next to him, followed by the king. Emmelyn looked at him and smiled, looking grateful.
She knew what he was trying to do. It's weird how she could read him nowadays. Maybe it's because they had spent so much time together?
Or, maybe.. it's because he was always consistent with whatever he did. After going through so much together, Emmelyn realized that everything her husband did was done out of love for her. He never changed.
So, it was easy to guess the reason why he complained to Elmer about Bruinen, to change the subject so that Bruinen would stop talking about Emmelyn's so-called dark aura.
Mars knew how much Emmelyn was bothered by the prophecy and the notion that she was bad luck. That's why he wanted to stop any talks related to those things that would only make Emmelyn feel distraught.
However, the king didn't share his son's mind. He looked at Bruinen intently and repeated his question.
"You mentioned something about Myreen. I have never heard of that. Can you tell me where is it and what does it have to do with Emmelyn?"
This time, Bruinen could sense there was tension in the air. He glanced at Emmelyn and immediately felt sorry for her.
He realized, it was his fault, for bringing that up without considering how it would affect the people around her. He didn't know that this princess was not on good terms with the king.
What Bruinen saw as soon as he caught sight of Emmelyn was darkness around Emmelyn's body. It was ominous and reminded him of black magic from across the pond.
He loved reading, and a few years ago, he read something about people who were cursed by a particular family from Myreen. They would have this darkness surrounding them which would bring bad luck to them and the people they cared about.
It was the ultimate curse. If someone was cursed with death, they would just die and the problem solved. But seeing everyone they loved suffer and die one by one, was a punishment worse than death.
Many parents would rather die for their children than bury their children one by one. The helplessness and sadness were enough to make people go crazy or want death.
This princess showed all signs of being cursed by that family. And this piqued Bruinen's curiosity to know who she actually was, and what did she do to offend that family.
However, she clearly told him that she had never met anyone from Myreen. Also, the family had not shown themselves in the world for a really long time.
So.. maybe Bruinen was wrong?
"Your Majesty, Myreen is a small kingdom across the ocean, very, very far from here," Bruinen explained. "I only read about the family who ruled Myreen from old books. People said that the kingdom has vanished without a trace more than one hundred years ago."
King Jared looked interested when he heard Bruinen's explanation. "Is that so?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Bruinen replied.
Elmer narrowed his eyes and turned to his disciple. He seemed to know what Bruinen was talking about. He said, "The Leoralei family?"
Bruinen nodded.
Now, it was Elmer's turn to pay attention to Emmelyn. He looked at the woman from head to toe, as if trying to see the dark aura that Bruinen was seeing.
"Leoralei?" Emmelyn muttered to herself. She had never known anyone from Myreen and never heard of the Leoraleis either.