Chapter Forty-Six: The Night The Raven Lost Its Wings
1418 Words
“Your highness, it's time to wake up!”
My maid Lilo sang from the door.
“I was up twenty minutes ago…”
I replied in the sing-song manner she used, but a frown crossed her face.
“My lady, insomnia is nothing to brag about.”
I chuckled at her quipped response; for as long as I can remember, she has been my only light since I turned nineteen and was forced to move into Étienne’s palace in preparation for the wedding.
“What is on my schedule?”
“A press meeting at eleven a.m and a publicity appearance at the Royal Academy.”
I frowned at her response.
“That’s it? Don’t I have more planned? I mean, for goodness sake Margret Hyle has a tea party scheduled in the afternoon.”
“Oh..uh-,”
Lilo flinched then twirled her thumbs repetitively on the white linen sheets dressing my bed.
“I was not invited, was I?”
“Yes, your highness, you were not.”
‘So much for being the crown princess.’
Still, try as they may, this incident could not be choked up to my blood, rather, unfortunately, to my oh so public fallout with the angelic saintess.
Étienne, that skeevy little weasel, gave Regina his first dance on our anniversary.
By the end of the day, I threw cake at her and insinuated she resembled a harlot.
Of course, the incidences were not interconnected.
Before throwing food at her, she asked my maid not to forget her place.
So I threw chocolate lava cake at her white dress.
How dare that b*tch wear a bridal colour, dance with my fiancé, then reprimand my maid for taking a break when serving during balls is exhausting.
Why was it that Lilo should not forget her place while she pranced around lecherously with someone publicly engaged?
In any case, Étienne took her side. Of course, he did, so rumours of our engagement failing grew, and I was the one to blame.
Naturally, fewer and fewer nobles wished to grow associated with a discarded game piece, making this the result of my efforts.
‘It’s fine; it is not my spot anyway.’
Despite how often I chant the words in my head, I couldn’t help but feel my chest prick at the constant rejection.
I called some of the nobles now rejecting me, friends.
We laughed together, danced and even gossiped together as allies, but now, none will even take a quill to reply to the many letters I have sent.
‘I wish the leads were kinder about their love. I wish I didn’t have to get hurt by it…I wish…’
‘Perhaps I am wishing for too much.’
‘But…is love supposed to be that…hurtful to the by-standers?’
‘I have no problem with their expressions in private; however, why make it public when I ask you not to? I swear that was all I asked. Étienne! I dared not even ask that you should try to love me despite the beating of my heart, just that you…’
I turned to the mirror then sighed.
‘No…after all this, I know that what I feel cannot be love. I dare not harbour something so hideous within me.’
‘It is Arusei’s body, Arusei’s chest and therefore Arusei’s heart. I am Hafsa and shall remain so until I escape this madness.’
All I need to do along the way is protect my people.
That is all
*
It took an hour for Lilo to finish dressing me up; by the time I arrived at the dining table for breakfast, all the food had been cleared, and brand new dresses in all sorts of colours were littered on the table and dining chairs,
Étienne was seated with Regina in his arms despite the numerous seats available.
Even in the place I was meant to call home, they would demean my authority by caressing each other before the servants. It won’t be long till they can no longer associate me as their master.
Some had…there were times when my food had more hair than soup. Perhaps I should be grateful they did not put something toxic.
I mean, they did once, the former butler, an imperial enthusiast who could not fathom for the life of him why I intended to corrupt the royal bloodline.
Étienne, for some reason, went out of his mind.
After viciously attacking the butler and his aids, he slept holding my hand while whispering sweet nothings…eyes crusted shut by tears long dried.
That is what confuses me about him.
Why only embrace me when I am unconscious, when I cannot remember?
Then again, it could have been a false memory, a hallucination induced by a mix of primitive desires long unsatisfied.
‘Yes…false.’
I took a deep breath then met Regina’s aquatic eyes.
How the Marquis’s daughter got to the breakfast table before I, who lives here, is beyond me.
‘Hah’
‘Is it? Simplicity is key when it comes to such nonsense.’
By the Queen's orders, we had a conjoined room to share weekly because our wedding neared, but after the first night, when he spun tasteful tales and opened up about God’s only care whose childhood story he shared, we haven’t used it since.
Nine days ago, when Regina visited, the sheets were laundered, then again seven days later, on our anniversary.
‘I am supposed to be the villain, and villains are meant to be reclusive…why do I feel shittty??’
“Oh! Sister, morning!”
Regina said chipperly.
The blue of her eyes glimmered in the genuine interest of my morning.
How stupid could one be that they do not see anything wrong with the scene before them?
‘Gods, I even feel shame calling her out publicly. Am…am I wrong for feeling this way?’
“You there! Maid.”
Étienne called to Lilo, who was beside me.
“Can’t you see your master has just woken up! Go get her some fresh ju-.”
“I’m full.”
Étienne stopped mid-sentence, then turned to face me.
“What? Nonsense! You just woke up.”
“And yet I am certain that if I eat with either of you, I will throw up.”
Étienne slammed his hand hard on the table, eliciting Regina's sharp intake of breath.
“Arusei! I am warning you.”
“I merely mean that I will not be able to hold more in my stomach on account of being full. Did you imagine I would throw up for another reason?”
“Are you-!”
He began furiously, but Regina clasped Étienne’s chest to calm him.
“Étienne, it is alright-”
“I wish to be with you; it is torture that we cannot even show our love in public.”
Étienne interrupted her to whisper, yet everyone in the room heard him.
“Tell me, which dress did you choose for the Hyle tea party?”
“I was thinking the peach and lime green? I look good in bright-,”
I sighed when they continued their conversation, then turned out of the room.
“Come along, Lilo.”
I wonder what Étienne’s gaze resembled when I called her name.
I wish I had seen it.
Perhaps I would have prevented the tragedy that followed.
But all I could think of at the time was that I had less than a month to leave so that I could leave Arusei’s world behind.
Because stupidly…
I believed them.
I did.
And that was my greatest sin.
*
*
*
*Present Time*
Arusei Evergreen
My fingers twitched in the pitch blackness surrounding me.
‘I shouldn’t have closed my eyes!!’
Still, finally! Finally, I could escape this nightmare.
I must have jerked my hand too heavily because the next thing I knew, I was falling.
“Whoa whoa, lassy!”
A cheerful voice said, then a warm hand held me that I did not have to feel what I assumed would be the cold ground’s embrace.
“Whose there?”
“Well, of course, you cannot see with your eyes shut.”
“Great.”
I snapped my fingers, and vines twirled around what I thought was the outline of the man.
“Everyone’s a goddamn comedian.”
There was a low grunt, then finally stifled laughter following my brave response.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with these tiny sprouts.”
Right, the mana reduction.
F*ck.
- Writer
