VERMILLION: The fall of Zaleon

Chapter 12

In the days where the world was merely a blur of people Zaleon, Crest had the highest population they had ever seen. It was a whole world on its own, with mansions for every category, entertainment centers, sculptures and statues of their greater ancestors and overall an overjoyed population. Within these lands species of all kinds were settling to their life, having accepted their fate as mateless, they enjoyed the freedom of choice. Some chose a partner they stuck to for the rest of their lives, and some chose to do immoral things in the name of love. 

Such had been the case for Belinda Vermillion, a young Vermillion Witch, living with her parents in an old corner of their mansion, getting poorer by the day. Was it even possible to get poor as a Vermillion? Apparently it was. Belinda’s parents had been in a constant state of troubles, from financial to moral to even criminal, and it didn’t help that Belinda wanted no part in their crimes. Why they needed to sin on a part of the planet that had been blessed with everything was absolutely futile, nevertheless, the woman had been stuck in a frenzy of trying to escape her parents as far back as she could remember. 

Leaving her house, she would run to the markets every day to escape their wrath, and would spend her time with the several friends she had come to make over years of escaping to the one place her parents would never show up. The market had been established on Crest from the beginning of time, and remained as glorious as always, receiving and welcoming people in bulks to feast their eyes upon all the magnificent items they had to offer, and people would empty their pockets before they even realised it, and would come out of their trance on the way home, when understanding that in fact, they had no money left to spend! It was a place of riches, and for the riches, and that is where the woman would go on a daily, seating herself by the stand of jewelry, where her friend Zaina, another Vermillion Witch would spend her days selling bewitched items to customers who were interested in the art of magic. Belinda would watch with amusement as her friend would sell her products, and a couple times had tried herself, though had not done great a job as her friend. 

Though, had she not escaped to the markets on a daily basis, she would not have been a sight for the eyes of Morco, a male Witch who often roamed the grounds of the market in search of riches for his parents. When his eyes landed for the first time upon a petite woman attempting to sell a piece of jewelry with her friend laughing in the background, he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. What was a creature as gorgeous as her doing in the markets in the first place? He had visited several times since, hidden of course, though attempting to sooth his eyes with such beauty, that one day he might be able to approach her. 

Lucky for him the man had less to do as the woman took note of it herself, and one day with all the bravado in the world, she approached him herself, with every intention of finding out what it was he wanted from her. Stopping right in front of him, he stood from his chair, silenced and amused by her boldness. 

‘Have you been following me?’ She asked in a tone much accusatory. He smiled at this, her voice sparking a hunger within him to have her. 

‘I could ask you the same question’ he responded, and her eyes widened, realising how true his statement was, yet she knew he was only toying with her. 

‘I come here everyday to spend time with my friend’ she responded, folding her arms over her chest, and he smiled even more. 

‘So do I, to have some tea and relax’ was his answer. She frowned at him, huffing her chest before deciding to give up her efforts and return back. 

‘Fine, but there’s no reason for you to be looking at me the whole time’ stated Belinda before turning around. The sound of his voice, however, stopped her right in her tracks. 

‘Oh actually, there is. You see, you are so beautiful, I can’t help but keep my eyes on you the entire time’ his words caused the woman to turn back around, even more shocked now by his directness. Without a word, she ran back to her spot next to Zaina, and whispered the entire conversation to her, at which Zaina giggled before carrying on with her job. She tried to ignore his gaze as much as possible, but it was hard to ignore him at times when all he would do is stare at her and smile. 

Everyday he started returning to watch her, and day by day their outfits began changing, then their hairstyles, until one day they had both certainly come dressed for the occasion. It had been hard for Morco not to approach her on a day she looked so very fine. He waited till she was on the brink of returning home before he approached her, and held her back. 

‘You must be hungry’ he commented, and she nodded eagerly, having waited all day for him to ask her. 

‘Starving’ she responded, and he took her hand, and led her down to a food stall, grabbing them both food before they began eating. 

They talked and talked for hours, the time going by in a rush before they proceeded to return to the mansion they belonged to. It was evident that neither wanted to leave each other’s company that night, and so as he dropped her to her quarter side of the mansion he lingered around for a moment. 

‘You look stunning’ he mentioned to her in the hopes that she would return the compliment, though Belinda did something better, something she had wanted to do from the very first moment he had called her beautiful. She reached up, and pressed her lips to his, and he wasted no time in grabbing onto her, backing her against the wall and lifting her up like she solely belonged to him. In their moment of heat in the darkness, they had forgotten that they were still in a very much publicly accessible passageway, until voices could be heard approaching them. They backed away immediately, and he grabbed onto her hand, leading her away immediately, straight down to his quarters. His family had all been asleep, and so he snuck her into his chambers, where they continued their nightly mating session and fell into a peaceful, deep slumber. The next morning the woman had reluctantly bid her new partner goodbye, before sneaking back into her own chambers and pretending to be asleep by the time her parents appeared at her door. 

‘Where have you been all night?’ Asked her mother, without a care in the world. 

‘Sleeping’ responded Belinda, pretending to want to return to sleep. The mother didn’t utter a single word before grunting and disappearing out of the door frame. True to her word, Belinda decided to catch up on her sleep, returning to the markets when she awoke. 

Of course, waiting for her as always, had been Morco, who this time decided to whisk the woman away in broad daylight, promising her that they would be far away from the gazes of either of their parents for a while. It was a mountaintop where he had taken her, and they had spent the day getting to know each other and their lives. Of course, there had been some intimacy involved, but for a new couple that was quite the standard.

They returned home earlier that night, eager not to get caught by their parents, and left the mating for other nights where they were willing to take the risk to make things less suspicious. 

One month had turned into two, and two months had turned into three, and the pair had mastered the art of sneaking around, or so they thought. In the midst of all their love, had been Belinda’s mother, who had taken a certain suspicion for the disappearance of her daughter. The market she usually spent her time in was now empty, and the fields that were her back up option had also been empty, until after a day of following Belinda’s mother learnt of the truth, and schemed a plan in her head so evil, it would break her daughter completely for defying her parents. 

It had come to the mother’s knowledge that the very man she had been with had a brother, close to his age and much hard working and less distracted then Morco. With a smirk she returned home to reveal the plan to her husband. 

‘I’m going to talk to his parents, and arrange a marriage between Belinda and Morco’s brother, Afir, I believe his name is. I’m going to make sure Morco is out on business and take Belinda to the venue myself, where I will get her married to Afir before anything can happen and anyone can interrupt. When she realises that she has married the brother of the man she is so in love with, she will love the surprise’ smirked the mother with not an ounce of shame left in her. Her father had no different of a reaction, and he remained silent as he simply nodded at the plan. 

She had enjoyed tormenting her daughter's life for as long as she could remember, and perhaps the reason for this was the fact that she had no life of her own at all. It was unfortunate that she had parents that cared not about her, yet Belinda had no choice but to suffer the consequences of her fate. 

That day before Belinda returned home from her endeavours with her partner, her mother had already had a chat with Morco’s mother about the union between Afir and Belinda which would take place the very next day. The mother had pretended to play dumb about Belinda’s affair and approached her daughter with nonchalance. 

‘I need you to come with me tomorrow to take care of some business’ she stated, and Belinda only nodded, not daring to go against her mother, whom she was frightened of, for good reason.

And so the next unfortunate day arrived too soon, and Belinda set off with her mother to attend whatever business it was they needed to attend. 

They travelled to their replacement of a holy place as the Galon had never been a right of the Vermillion, and so her mother pushed a suspicious Belinda inside, who had yet to catch onto her mother’s evil plans. 

‘What’s happening, mother?’Asked the innocent woman as they advanced inside, where a man and his mother had been present. 

‘Belinda, this is Afir, your husband’ she revealed, and the poor girl’s eyes fell out of their sockets at the news. 

‘What do you mean mother?’ She panicked, stepping back slowly to make a run for it. The mother grabbed a hold of her daughter and pushed her in front with much strength, where the poor man stood, silent and mute against his own mother.

‘You will not fight me girl, now stand up straight, you are getting married to Afir right now’ she yelled, and forced her daughter to stand in the spot where the ceremony would take place.

The ceremony lasted only a couple of minutes, and just in a couple of minutes Belinda’s life had completely changed forever. She had gone from being the lover of Morco, to the wife of his brother Afir, and she didn’t even know it.

It wasn’t until wordlessly Belinda’s heartless mother walked away from the scene without even a proper goodbye, and left her daughter in the care of another with no issue whatsoever. She had achieved her goal, and Belinda was left to suffer. She returned with her new husband and her mother to their quarters, and cried all the way, so much so that she forgot that she had entered the familiar quarters where her beloved lover resided.  

Afir, a good man, had no idea what to think or say of the situation, and allowed her to cry and take her time to recover. He had been the opposite of his brother, not romantic or loving in any way, a mere vessel carrying a soul, that’s all he had been. He disappeared from the chambers for a long while, until he returned to take his new wife to eat a meal with the rest of his family. She agreed reluctantly, and when she walked into the living room got a shock when her lover was sitting on the table. Before the pair could utter a word of shock to each other, Afir decided on doing the introductions. 

‘Morco, this is my new wife, Belinda, Belinda, this is my brother Morco’ he announced, and both their hearts broke, thinking the other had betrayed them. They said nothing to each other as they ate, and Belinda returned to the wrong brother's room for the night. She had barely slept, and stayed up all night thinking about her mothers evil plan. Did Morco know? Had he been raising her like a pig for s*******r? Why didn’t he come rescue her? Where had he been all day? Did he not notice her absence by the markets? A million questions ran through her mind as she sat still and thought, Afir sleeping deeply next to him. 

What would she do then? Confront him? Or ignore him? 

The woman, however, had no choice, as when she awoke the next day, her freedom had been stopped by her new mother-in-law, who had a question or two about where she was going. 

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ She asked strictly, and Belinda found herself shutting up to satisfy the woman. ‘We’re going to the market’ she announced, and a curious Belinda shrank back, knowing that she would most probably be seeing the love of her life there, waiting for her as usual.

When they got there, however, Morco had been nowhere in sight, and it pained Belinda to know her love had not been there for her in a time of need. 

In his mind, however, he had been cheated by her, and he believed that she only had used him to get to his brother. The pain had been immense, so much so that he refused to show up to the market, and instead spent his day drinking away his sorrows.

When he returned home that night, he was angry and loud, though no one seemed to care but Belinda, who snuck out of her room and stopped in the hallway as she saw him approach. 

‘You’ve been drinking’ she stated, and he pushed her out the way to keep going. She stopped him, however, deciding it was time to confront him, and in his drunken state there was not much he could do but let her guide him back to the safety of his room, where she undressed the man to put him to bed. 

‘What are you doing, you evil woman? Get away!’ He protested, and it only suddenly occurred to Belinda upon his words that he thought she was the evil one. This whole time she had been thinking the same of him. Then, it hit the woman like a tonne of bricks. It was all her mother, she knew from the beginning. This new discovery had cleared up the doubts for her, and she decided there was no time like now to talk to him.

Though as she turned around to have that conversation with him, she noticed the man had peacefully knocked out and had already fallen into deep slumber. Laughing it off, she decided she would approach him again the next night, and carried on with the same charade the next day, going to the markets with her mother-in-law, having to ignore Zaina and returning home to her husband and lover. 

Afir had barely uttered any words to her, and as they returned to their chambers that night, Morco had done the same, angry and annoyed at everything around him. He wanted to escape his house, but he also wanted his girl back in his arms, close to him, with him again. Luckily the odds had decided to work in his favour, because in the dead of night as everyone slept, Belinda crawled out of her bed and snuck into her lovers room once more to explain to him all that had happened and clear the misunderstandings. 

He had noticed her appearance immediately, and stood up to protest until she dashed forward and placed a finger on his lips, shaking her head violently. 

‘I promise you if you think I betrayed you I didn’t’ she began, and he let her continue. ‘My mother, that night when I returned from spending the day with you, she told me that the next day I would need to accompany her for some business. I didn’t question it because I didn’t think it would be this bad, I figured I would just meet you after and explain to you why I didn’t come to the markets. Though my mother took me to get married, I had no idea! Much less to your brother! I didn’t even know you had a brother! My mother did, however, and I think she knew about us, that’s why she schemed this entire thing’ she explained, pleading her partner with her eyes to show him she still cared about him, she still loved him. He delved deep into thought, thinking about that day, remembering his own mother had suspiciously asked him to go run errands that he would never run, and it all began clicking for him. 

‘My mother asked me to go run some random errands she never tells me to do that day’ he said, and it all began making sense to the both of them. 

‘They tricked us into this, and now we and your poor brother are paying the consequences’ whispered Belinda, tears streaming down her face. Looking up, she had only the final thing to utter to her beloved. ‘I’m sorry that you thought I hurt you, I would never deliberately hurt you, I love you’ she said, and instantly his lips were on hers hungrily, completely ignoring the fact that she was his brother's bride, and this was completely wrong. She had no protests as she indulged in his face too, wrapping her arms around him, and sticking to him like glue. 

‘I love you’ he whispered back, though before they could mate she knew there were things they needed to clear up. 

‘What are we going to do, Morco?’ Her question hadn’t mattered to the man much, all he knew was that his woman loved him, and she had not betrayed him like he had thought. 

‘Well, you live much closer now, so I reckon I could mate you every single day’ he whispered, and she shook her head. 

‘We need a plan’ she pushed, and he pulled back for only a moment to think about it. 

‘Do you wand to be with me?’ He asked, and she nodded eagerly. 

‘Of course’ was all she said, and he smiled. 

‘Then be with me. I know you’re married to my brother, but he will never love you like I will. Maybe one day we can talk to my brother about this, but for now this will have to do. Nightly sneak ups to spend time together, and in the day, a charade, pretending like we barely talk to each other’ he whispered, though she had one last concern. 

‘What if they catch us?’ She asked, and he thought. 

‘Then we will figure it out, all I know is that no one else gets to push me away from you. We will run away if we have to, ok? Just know that you are mine’ he whispered to her, and it had been enough to satisfy her.

‘What if my mother-’

‘She won’t hurt you ever again, I promise. If she even dares to come close to you again I will break her’ he responded, and she nodded, resuming her lips to his as he did to her. 

Their chests heaved up and down in the moment as they devoured each other like they had been craving to, and soon enough were mating like there was no tomorrow.

It was a process they would carry on with every night for the next couple of years, though the real questions remained: would they get caught? Or would they get away with it? What would happen with their love, especially with a war that was about to hit them and destroy most of their planet? Would they survive or die?