Hate or Love

A Tale of a Human King

Victor ran.

And again, he ran.

The way to the chambers his twin sister, along with her wolf mate were standing, felt longer this time, never-ending even. Or maybe it was the fear inside his heart, the fear of what he would find when he faced her that made it felt longer.

Victor did not remember the last time he had felt this terrified. Maybe in the trial, but even there he didn't let it show. At least, that day he knew he and Arthmael would protect her no matter what, but now? Now that he could do nothing to protect her, now that he felt completely powerless and little, this feeling was terrifying.

Only when they were in front of the closed door of Evelyn's bedroom he did stop and looked at Estelle, as if looking at her beautiful, innocent face would give him the power he needed to push the door open hopefully have his little twin sister look at him with nothing but happiness in her eyes, identical to his.

Estelle felt the lump she had deep in her throat, but forced an encouraging smile on her face instead when she saw the haunted look in her mate's face. All she wanted was to replace it with the same lazy smile he had had the last few days when he was with her. She would do anything for it. Maybe the realization would scare her another time, but now she knew, and now, she didn't care one bit.

"Y-Your Majesty." One of the physicians was out of the room before Victor had the opportunity to enter.

"How is she?" The voice sounded foreign to his ears as well. Weak and desperate. "Tell me she's alive. Please."

The old elf male looked down at the floor. "Yes, my King..." he hesitated for a bit, not hiding the fear behind his voice. "But the Princess is suffering. The infants are powerful, they're sucking the magic off her body."

Tears pickled Victor's eyes as he looked away, fighting the tears back while walking past the physician and trying to get inside the room again.

"Your Highness, please, you cannot enter." The words made Victor narrow his eyes deeply, making the poor elf shiver. "I-I mean, the other physicians cannot work with you inside as well, you know they fear you... killing them if the Princess..."

"Oh, they do?" Victor grabbed him from his collar, lifting him from the floor with one arm only. "They better do, they better save her or all of you won't see the light of dawn. You tell them exactly this."

"Victor," Estelle whispered to him, softly, trying to make him see logic. "Let him go now."

Victor held the physician for a few other seconds as well, seeing as he struggled to break free. And other tears made their ways to his face, this time running down his cheeks slowly.

Desperately, Victor let go of the old elf, who ran inside the room as fast as he could, leaving them alone in the dark, empty hallway.

Estelle's heart broke for him. He looked so fragile and desperate and in agony.

"Victor," she called him softly again, after a few minutes in silence, not sure what she was going to tell him to make this all better.

Evelyn's screams coming from inside the room were torturing to hear. It was so hard now to be strong. So hard to tell Victor she was there for him when all she wanted to do was curl into a ball and start sobbing herself.

Evelyn was her best friend. If she left her too...

"Victor." The desperation on her voice finally made him look at her.

There were a few second of silence, only looking at each other, but the words weren't necessary. They could talk with their eyes only.

"If she dies―" Estelle didn't let him finish, instead she wrapped her arms around Victor and felt as he leaned his forehead on her shoulder and flushed her to his body even closer. Like he had needed that so much. Like only having her in his arms made his world better.

"She won't," Estelle reassured him, wanting to believe her words as much as Victor did. "Evelyn is the strongest woman I have ever known. She has gone through so much, she won't leave us now."

"You don't understand," he whispered weakly, the tears soaked her shoulder. "Our mother died exactly like this. Because she chose us. If it comes to that, Evelyn will choose the babies too, I know her."

Estelle looked up at the ceiling, praying, as she kept stroking his hair softly. "It will not come to that. They will all be alright, trust me."

Victor didn't answer, but he didn't let go of her either. He wanted her to do this all night long if it was necessary. Just stroke her hair and reassure him things would be alright.

"Arthmael might be losing his mind," he said after a few other minutes.

Suddenly her heart broke for Arthmael as well. "I know," she simply said. Because she knew exactly how much her brother loved his wife. And this was exactly what Estelle feared the most. People left. They always left, exactly when you needed them the most. She shook her head instantly, letting go of the thoughts. "No, she won't leave him," she said out loud. "Not after everything they have been through, they deserve to be happy."

Victor raised his head from her shoulder, his face tear-strained but somehow his eyes looked even more beautiful when he cried. They were like oceans. And this was how she got drown.

Estelle took his hand in hers and gave him a weak smile between tears, leasing him to sit down on the couch in front of the door. "We will wait," she told him. "We will wait here until the good news come, just you and me."

Instead of sitting down, he laid down on the couch, leaning his head on her lap as he kept his gaze on the door the whole time.

Her heart skipped a beat or two, but she gently played with his hair instead. They were soft and silky, and Estelle was reminded of how much she had wanted to always do that. Get those perfect hair messy and run her fingers through them as much as she wanted.

"Tell me a story," Victor requested, closing his eyes and letting the feel of her touch soothe him. He sounded like a small boy but right now he didn't care.

And it made Estelle smile somehow. People really didn't know the true him. How soft and endearing he was at heart. How it was the world itself that had turned the young elf boy into the scary, arrogant King.

"Alright," she agreed, immediately thinking of one of the tales her mother told her and Julian when they were little, in their bed before sleeping. "There was this King," she started telling the story in a soothing voice, admiring his features in the meantime too. "This human young King. People used to love him before. Not only his people, people of every other kingdom as well. Everyone looked up to him, everyone adored him. He had stopped the wars all over the human world. He had helped thousands of homeless people."

Victor heard the pause on her voice, and half-opened his eyes. "And what happened to this human King?"

"They blamed him for killing another royal family, another one more powerful than him," Estelle told him. "Of course he didn't, but no one believed him. Everyone started hating him, calling him names, calling him a murderer everywhere he went. The other Kingdom's people organized a war as revenge, but since this young King was more organized than a Kingdom without a royal family, he won the war. So they blamed him for this too. For wanting to invade their lands."

"That's horrible, he never wanted to do such thing," Victor suddenly protested, almost upset, and it made her happy that he was so into the tale that he had forgotten for at least a few minutes the pain he was feeling.

"It is, but as I said, no one believed him, not even his own council," she explained. "One day, there was this young homeless woman that asked him for his help. She had nowhere to go and he took her inside, like he always did... But she was the Princess, wanting to revenge her family." 

Victor's eyes widened this time, but he closed them one more time. "Did she kill him?"

"She tried." Estelle chuckled a bit, thinking of the time she had thought she would kill Victor for what he did to her. "But she couldn't... She fell in love with him."

The smallest of smiles crept in his face. "Did she tell him who she was?" Victor asked.

"She did. When she had a dagger on his throat, trying to kill him but she started crying when she realized she couldn't. And she told him everything."

"And he explained to her he wasn't the murderer and she became his Queen instead."

"No," Estelle said. "She didn't believe him, so she ran away, and took her throne instead."

"Oh."

"What she didn't know when she left though, was that she was pregnant. So the first thing she did after becoming Queen was take a man and pretend the baby was his. But of course she wasn't happy with him. He was an alcoholic and a gambler too." Estelle took a deep breath. "The baby grew up into a beautiful young woman. She looked a lot like her father, and people had started to secretly question it. One day, she accidentally met her true father. She knew right away she was his daughter, and so did he. He told everything to his daughter, and she took him back to her palace. In that right moment, her husband was trying to kill the Queen and take her position instead. Of course the King saved his love, and told her that he had loved her this entire time. She had loved him too, of course, she had never stopped."

"This time they lived happily ever after, right?" Victor questioned, the same one Estelle had made the first time she had heard the tale from her mother.

"No. Her husband had poisoned her before dying himself. She died telling the King that she believed him now and she loved him."

"What happened to the King?" Victor asked this time, somehow feeling sad, sadder than he should have.

"He died too, because of the pain of losing his love. His heart just stopped." One tear escaped her eye and she didn't know why. She had heard the tale from her mother dozens of time when she was little, but she didn't figure it would made her cry even as a woman. "The daughter told everything to the world. The whole truth. She united both the kingdoms in one and lead them with her love, and so did her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren after her. And no one of them married for power and politics. Everyone married for love."

Victor studied her face for a few seconds, trying to read her eyes. Would she marry for love too? Or would she follow the human Princess' example and marry another man she would never love instead?

All questions left his head, however, when he heard the door open almost furiously.

"Your Majesties!" The same physician exclaimed, his entire face radiating happiness and relief. "The Princess' alright! She's alive and the twins are alright too. It's over now. They're all fine."