The Prince's Mate

The Prince's Concubine

“Her tears are golden?” Someone whispered, and the hall full of shadowed characters became loud when one side started shouting that she was a heretic while the other side started defending Cecelia, never before had they seen someone cry golden tears, but for those who knew of the oldest tales, especially her interrogator; this was something unbelievable that he never imagined being alive to witness in the flesh.

“She is a witch, we should decapitate her now while she is incapacitated and burn her to ashes; her and her demon offspring!” The same man who had called for her execution from before called out louder than all other voices once again causing Cecelia to flinch, it was not that she was a particularly jumpy person, but she was completely defenceless, if anything at all was decided it was out of her hands to protect herself, whoever these people were, and wherever she was, she knew the moment that she saw glowing tears float from her cheeks that she wasn’t in Red Cross Cambridge anymore, and she immediately suspected that she wasn’t even alive, or if she was this was some strange out of body or otherworld experience.

Whatever it was though she didn’t like it and she wanted out.

“Your excellency, please lower your tone,” The old man turned his gaze from Cecelia to her son and then to the man who had been shouting louder than a howler monkey. “If I may; your Majesty,” The old man lowered his head as he addressed the elephant in the room, and upon doing so everyone went deathly silent again and watched the man stand and walk forward, casting just a bit more light on himself as he nodded, giving the old man free space to speak as he pleased and possibly take action. “This young woman, there is definitely something we could learn by keeping her alive, killing her now would be the same as throwing away a perfectly good book because we never bothered exploring the contents.”

“I am fully aware, but the fact here is; we know not what she intends to do,” The king responded calmly as he folded his arms behind himself and pushed out his chest in a show of authority. “If you can keep her under constant supervision-”

“Father, please allow me do it.” Lucas stepped forward instantly, volunteering. “It is evident that she is not some monster, at least on the outside, she is possibly a spy, but not a monster, if we bind her as a slave we can have her confined to the castle with no way of reporting anything to the outside world, she will be kept safe and us here as well and you old man will have all the time you need to conduct as many experiments as you please, safe experiments.” Lucas turned to the old interrogator to take her as one of his own.

“Yes, yes that is a brilliant idea,” The old man turned to Lucas and then back to the king who had an unreadable expression, in truth he had his mind on other things and this entire situation aside from the golden tears didn’t seem to have needed his attention after all, so he was agitated and ready to leave as soon as possible.

“Do as you please.” The king turned and left without another motion to anyone else while they all stood at attention until he was out of the hall before they once again erupted in debate about what they should actually do with Cecelia.

However, with one of the king’s sons already taking claim of her the conclusion of their conversation had already been decided, especially since the king had left; it was a gesture saying that all matters had been resolved.

“What exactly does this mean for the future of Morhaven, or the entire Zendith kingdom on a whole?” A young woman with a tiara on her head asked, and everyone went quiet as she spoke. “She could either be a threat of future disaster or a beacon of hope right?” She asked again, and the hall fell into even deeper stillness.

“We will discover this soon enough, sister,” Lucas looked down at Cecelia from the corner of his eye, wondering about her and the truths she probably had concealed. “At any rate, this meeting was over the moment our father exited the stage, the rest of you should also leave,” He glared at everyone else daring a single one of them defy his words, and after his order there wasn’t even a rebuttal as the hall was quickly cleared of warm bodies leaving in its wake a cool chilling wind that passed through.

She wasn’t paying attention to much as she was still much more focused on the fact that her tears glowed, but Cecelia’s attention was drawn when Lucas cleared his throat right before her. “Woman.” He called, and she blinked several times before she realised that she wasn’t being forced to remain still by some invisible force anymore. “Come with me.”

“What about my son?” She asked, and he turned his back and began walking toward the door she had been pushed through.

“He will be in my care,” Adel held out her hand to Dylan and waited as he clung to his mother. “Come little one, there is no longer a need to worry about being killed," She spoke kindly to the child as if the threat of dying was common even among children and then looked at Cecelia next. "I am still very sceptical about you and your intentions, but the Prince has granted you mercy, and as such I will give you the benefit of the doubt,” She glared daggers at Cecelia and then back at Dylan as his mother pressed her hand against his back and slightly nudged him toward the her while she took him by the hand and began walking.

“Do not waste my time.” Lucas stood at the door with the old man at his side while the guard from before came and opened it from the other side.

“Are you actually a prince, like a real prince?” Cecelia asked and the man looked back at her with a raised brow. “You don’t dress like one, and you don’t have a crown, and you seem too crude...”

“You; a woman who knows not when to speak or how to speak, behaves rashly, and has no manners to anyone, dare call my attire and behaviour crude?” Lucas asked with a frown as they exited the hall, and Cecelia looked to her feet as she thought about how she had been behaving, but it was broken into her from a young age to never let anyone take her for granted, and so she confidently pressed on now knowing she was no longer in immediate danger.

“I am not the one who is royalty,” She pouted and tried patting down her blouse, but it was dirty, and her skirt was also torn, there were many things wrong with her attire, her hair was a mess, her makeup was ruined, her stockings were full of holes, and she was missing a foot of shoes, she hadn’t realised how bad she looked, and soon after noticing she became self conscious of her appearance, especially after she noticed that she looked worse than anyone present, no wonder they had called her a witch. “Have you really never heard of earth?” She looked at the old man again, and he stared at her as she peaked his interest by asking something he was curious about.

“That is correct, there is no place named as such on Atla.” He replied as he slowed down and matched her pace behind the Prince who continued walking ahead of them.

“Earth is not a land or country, sir... Earth is an entire planet, with over two hundred countries, seven great continents, seas and oceans and the lot...” She gave him a confused look, "It is impossible to...” Cecelia took a pause in her stride and then looked to her right where there was a bright light coming from a window, and her eyes went wide in horror. “Am I, am I dead?” She asked, and waited for an answer but she found none as everyone stopped and looked at her staring out; there were two moons, two massive moons so large they seemed to be touching the horizon, and so detailed that she could even see what looked like potential vegetation on them, she had no idea they were moons though, and thought they were planets.

“What is a planet?” The old man asked curiously as a word he never heard graced his mind and confused him yet again.

“You are clearly alive woman, stop dawdling-” Lucas came and stood beside her, but then paused when he saw the look of fright on her face, for a second he thought she was going to die of some spell but then she took in a breath and backed away from the window. “What?” he asked.

“This is not earth.” Cecelia responded. “Where am I?” she looked around at her son who though small could definitely tell that something big was amiss.

“Atla.” Adel responded while everyone else was looking at her confused.

“So your earth does not look like this?” The old man asked as he too came and stood at her side. “Earth is somewhere else?” He asked again, and Cecelia diverted her eyes and looked at him.

“Earth has a singular moon, so far away it looks like a marble in the sky, that's the closest celestial body to us, what the hell are those?” She whispered before she stumbled backward again, only to be caught by Lucas, who had for a second a look of disbelief and concern on his face. “This is not earth.”

“But you speak our language,” The old man groped his tall beard and dragged his fingers through it. “Curious,” He mumbled and then gestured that they keep walking, and like a robot, Cecelia complied, she had too suddenly been delivered a shock that was too much for her mind to comprehend in a single moment, they obviously were human, but this wasn’t a foreign land or country, it was a completely different world. “I will need to know everything you know child, what is your age?” He asked and she looked at him with a dead fish stare as if staring alone could kill.

“I... am twenty-four years old.” She responded quickly.

“...and your son?”

“Seven years old.” She responded immediately.

“Young.” Lucas looked down at her head with tilted eyebrows, in his mind the proper age for children was somewhere between twenty seven and thirty five years of life, and he himself was her age as well, maybe it was because of her state of disarray but he thought she was older than that, not to mention she had a child she claimed was hers.

“Master Flock, could it be possible that she has come from the heavens, and this earth she speaks of is a plain beyond our comprehension?” Lucas asked the old man, but before the man could even manage to answer Cecelia opened her mouth first.

“No.” She answered in place of the old man. “Earth is no higher plain, it isn’t even as beautiful, it is an overpopulated world full of stupid selfish beings who think nothing of another life and only look out for their self at all times, fighting wars... killing each other-“

“Atla is no different.” Flock shook his head... “But it does appear you really come from another world.” He ran his hand through his beard again and sighed as they passed yet another window where Cecelia slowed down to see what outside held before she sped up once more.

“How did I get here?” She asked as she looked at her hands... “Why am I here?”

“That is a question better reserved to ask the ones above,” Adel responded as she looked at her from head to toe several times over. “You are filthy, kept, but filthy.” She admitted as she took her by her hand.

“Yes, she is.” Lucas replied with a stare in Cecelia’s direction. “Get someone else to look after her son, and take her to the baths clean her up and get her ready for the seal.” He ordered the woman, and as he did this Flock swung his hands and vanished in a flash of golden light while the guard slowed down to Cecelia’s pace. “When she is ready, take her to my quarters, I will be waiting there.”

“Yes, come this way.” Adel pulled Cecelia along and she complied without so much as a struggle as she looked up at the maid worried.

“What does this ritual do, will I lose my senses, or die in a specified time?” She asked, and the maid looked at her seriously.

“You will be bound to the Prince, it is an honorary thing and many have killed or done worse to be granted audiences, since you are a woman, rather than a slave it would be better to say you will be his concubine, you will be unable to say no to him regarding anything at all and you will be unable to leave his side to a certain extent.”

“Oh, and what about Dylan?” She asked next. Causing both Adel and the guard to look at each other, they were sceptic of ow well he seemed to be taking this in, or rather she had the expression of someone who had just received too many shocks and was droning without an awareness of herself and her actions.

“He will be taken care of, as you are going to be someone of significance in a short while he will be assigned a bodyguard, someone his own age capable of defending him against every and anything, I say all of this but there is a risk so prepare yourself Cecelia, you might not survive the process at all, but if you are indeed someone of importance then you will be more than able to, whatever life you had from whatever world is over, you will shortly belong to Prince Lucas, third-born to the throne of Jakhar, so in the end, you are more than lucky, consider yourself blessed by the heavens.”

Cecelia looked behind herself again as they turned a corner leading to a large golden door and huffed through her nostrils. “Do I have a choice?” She asked, and the guard slammed the spear in his hand to the ground causing a thundering echo through the halls. “Thought so... I got shipped off to another world where I’ll likely live my days from now on as a Prince’s plaything,” She held her forehead and released a long sigh. “I have no other option other than death... so I can’t even complain, is there even another way to take this other than strides?”

“Mom, what does Con-cu-pine mean?”

“Eh...”