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After that night, Vasilias started looking into who she was and found out that she was the girl Symon had told her about. But when her grief-filled words echoed in his head. He wasn’t convinced that she had that kind of plan up her sleeves.
“Ryan.” He called his guard.
“Your Grace!” He bowed.
“I will be visiting the empress.” HE said in a plain voice.
Ryan who had never dared to not look directly at VAsilias lifted his head with shock. His face had a dumbfounded expression. “You...Your Grace! Are you planning on visiting the Empress? All of a sudden?” He asked. Vasilias glanced back at him. “Can’t !?”
“No! I mean yes...It’s just that Your Grace has never once visited her in the past 6 years, so I thought…”
“If I didn’t visit her in the past six years does that mean I will not be visiting her at all?”
“My Apologies! Your Grace,” He lowered his head again. “I will send a message to the empress right away.” HE added.
Just when Ryan left, Vailias walked up to the window and looked out at the blue sky, Though it was still dull, his eyes had started to differentiate between colors. His senses were slowly coming back.
“Is the curse fading away?” He murmured to himself,
Chaos had broken out in the Empress’s palace, The maids had lost color to their faces and they felt like their feet had swollen all of a sudden. They dared not move after they heard the news of the Crown prince’s arrival.
The Empress was known to have an incurable disease that made her unable to move around or meet people usually but as the guest was Vasilias she too had to greet him like a proper hostess.
In the hallway, all the maids and servants stood with their breaths sucked in. They dared not breathe as they didn’t know what might annoy the crazy prince, that would make it their last day on the face of the planet.
Steps’...
From the farthest part of the hallway, they heard the sound of people heading towards them. The maids gripped around their skirts with trembling hands, while their heads hanging as low as possible. There was silence even when more than a hundred servants were standing in the hallway. Vasilas walked past them with his head high up. He was wearing a tailcoat with a mantle hanging down his right shoulder, it dragged him as he walked. Golden aiguillette attached to the epaulette hung down from his left shoulder. He was wearing a black uniform covered with golden embroidery matching his hair. He looked like a piece of art but nobody dared to praise him as they were too scared to even look at him directly. His guards followed him closely until he reached the empress’s room.
The guards were at a fair distance from the door. The guards that were guarding the door pushed it open and let Vasilias walk inside.
On a sofa at the far end of the room sat a sickly figure. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyes had dark circles around them. Her violet hair seemed to have lost its color while her yellow eyes seemed drowsy to the point where she would seem to pass out any moment. But when she saw Vasilias enter the room she quickly stood up and bowed.
“Greetings to the Sun of the Empire.” She said, Vasilias kept on staring at her blankly.
“You don’t look great.” HE said with a plain voice. He sounded least interested in her as she was just a woman his father married after the death of his mother. Not that he was mad by the fact that his father decided to remarry but he was just not interested.
“Thank you for your concern, Your Grace. I feel like I will be able to recover faster now that you have shown up.” She tried to give him a motherly smile.
He ignored her and walked up to the sofa opposite her and sat comfortably.
“Take a seat, I don’t want you to die like the previous Empress.” He spoke those cruel words in a wintry voice that made the Empress shudder.
She sat obediently and asked. “What brings Your Grace here?”
Vasilias kept silent, he was aimlessly gazing into a corner with vigilant eyes. Hiraeth was getting anxious because he wasn’t saying anything after visiting her like this after six long years. It was not that they had any kind of interaction before that but they would usually bump into each other at banquets but a few years ago Vasilias stopped attending the banquets and the Empress’s health too deteriorated making it impossible for them to bump into each other.
Hiraeth was just like everyone else, she was afraid of Vasilias because he was an unpredictable child. Even the King wasn’t able to tame him. Her hand was trembling because of the cold atmosphere around them and she quickly hid it behind her so that Vasilias wouldn’t notice.
“I came here to ask you a question.” He finally spoke.
“hUh?” She looked up at him dumbfoundedly.
“You were the youngest princess of Kingdom Brasil before you became an empress...Right?”
Hiraeth gulped in her uneasiness and gave a short nod. “Why is His Grace asking that all of a sudden? Wasn’t that a long time ago?”
“It was...That is why I am here to ask you something.”
He looked at her with his blazing cyan eyes.
“What Is it that you want to ask?” She gripped her dress tightly and looked down.
“Have you ever wished of running away?”
“Huh?” Hiraeth looked up with horror. Her forehead showed signs of cold sweat when she heard him say that. “Why would you ask me something like that?”
“You are an empress, you have the whole kingdom under your hand...but what I am asking you is, would you risk your title if you get a chance to run away? Would you go back to your homeland?” He elaborated his question. His tone was filled with curiosity.
“Is...Is your grace afraid that I might commit treason?” She shuddered.
“Tsk…” Vasilias clicked his tongue, he was annoyed. “I want a simple answer...Would you go back or would you stay?”
Hiraeth saw the displeasure in his tone, he sounded impatient. She breathed in deeply and parted her lips. “I would choose to…”
Vasilas waited for her to utter the last words. He knew the answer but he wanted to confirm.
“I would run away.” Said the Empress and lowered her head. “I would run away even if I am to be killed the next moment.” she gulped in painfully.
VAsilias’s face showed the expression of surprise, Her answer was not what she expected. She didn’t say that she would stay, as he thought. Rather, She said she would leave even if it meant that she would die.
“Why?” He brushed his hair back from his forehead with his hand and rested his back against the sofa. “I thought you married the king because you loved him...will you leave him for freedom?”
Hiraeth looked at him once more, but this time her gaze didn’t shiver. She looked confident. “This world doesn’t understand us, women, THough love is a precious emotion. It can never surpass freedom...there were times I wished I was a maid or a commoner so that I was free.” Her eyes shined with a tear. VAsilias’s mind drifted to the words that Arcane had uttered. Both of them wished for the same, They didn’t want the money not the title. They wanted freedom.
He stared at Hiraeth intently,
“But why is your highness asking about such things now?”
“There is someone I want to understand. Someone who is just like her name...Arcane (Understood by a few)” HE muttered. Hiraeth’s lip slowly lifted. “Arcane… Do you mean the princess? I think the EMperor too has taken a liking to her, I would like to meet her someday.”
Vasilias got up without answering her, He took a few steps towards the exit but stopped.
Hiraeth stood up to see why he had stopped. Vasilias looked around and walked over to her.
“Is there something you need?” She asked.
Vasilas had black gloves on. HE smoothly pulled out of them and lifted his hand slowly. Hiraeth stepped back in horror at his action but VAsilias closed up his hand towards her cheek. He touched her warm skin with his cold hand, Making her shudder. But soon a warm feeling wrapped her body.
A blue light emerged for Vasilias’s hand. “You are sick… Rest more, I will visit you again...Mother.” With those words, he removed his hand from her cheek and wore back his glove, and left the room. His eyes a while ago were lifeless as always but looking at them closely would see a slight shine in them.
Hiraeth was in a state of shock because Vasilas had just cast a spell on her that made her pain vanish almost instantly, Vasilias could use magic but not many knew as he was always a mystery.
“HE...He called me Mother…” She covered her face with joy and a tear slipped out of her eye. For so long because of her weak body, she couldn’t give birth to a child and now out of nowhere, the person she least expected called her mother.
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