His throne,her war

Questions in the Quiet

Questions in the Quiet-

The world I woke into was still, save for the soft rustling of cotton and the gentle creak of wood beneath my shifting weight. My eyelids fluttered open to a room lit only by the warm amber hue of morning sunlight trickling through half-drawn curtains. It smelled of old parchment and lavender.

I sat up slowly. The ache in my bones had dulled since the last time I awoke—though the heaviness in my chest remained, unmoving.

Emylia was there.

She moved quietly through the room, placing folded linens in a wooden cabinet with practiced grace. She didn’t look at me right away, but I knew she had sensed my gaze.

"You’re awake," she said, turning toward me with a smile so gentle it made my throat tighten.

My mouth parted, then closed. I had questions—so many—but none that I knew how to ask. Instead, I looked around the room.

The room was… crowded. Not with objects, but with the weight of rumors. The space itself was too clean, too quiet for someone like Kael. The cold man everyone feared and loved to dispise , The framed traitor. The supposed villain of the north. And yet, there I was.

Alive. Warm. Treated gently.

Emylia approached with a basin of water and a damp cloth. She knelt beside the bed, dipping the cloth and wringing it with delicate fingers before reaching for me.

"May I?" she asked.

I nodded, unsure what else to do. Her hand brushed against my cheek as she began to clean my face. The touch was impossibly soft. It wasn’t just physical—it was emotional. Deep.

A kindness I didn’t understand.

Why isn’t she afraid of me?

The question clawed at the inside of my skull. She had to know who I was—or who the world believed I was. Surely, she had heard the whispers. The ones that painted me in blood and shadow. The ones that said I was dangerous, unhinged, wrong.

She was supposed to recoil.

But she didn’t.

"You don’t have to do this," I said, my voice hoarse.

She didn’t flinch. "But I want to."

"You know who I am," I pressed.

"I know what they say," she replied, her voice never losing its sweetness. She met my eyes. "But I know what I see. And I see someone hurt. Someone human."

My breath caught. I turned my face away.

She continued wiping the dried sweat and dirt from my brow, her hands steady. And still, I couldn’t understand.

She didnt question the fact that im a girl...

It was a truth I hadn’t spoken aloud, not here. But Kael’s secret—Kael’s heart—wasn’t hidden to someone like Emylia. She wasn’t just indifferent to it. She was… accepting.

Why?

Why wasn’t she horrified of kael-of me? Why didn’t she leave when she saw the truth of who I was?

My mind spiraled. I remembered the eyes of the soldiers who looked at me with veiled disgust. The court’s venomous stares. The silence that greeted my victories, and the outrage that followed my failures.

Even in my past life—as Yume—I had never known such ease. Never known kindness like this, especially not after the world had made up its mind about me.

Only in childhood. A vague, fading memory. The feel of a mother’s hand stroking my hair. The warmth of a sibling’s laughter. Before it all turned to ash.

Emylia pulled back for a moment to study me. Her smile softened even further.

"You looked lost in thought," she murmured.

I blinked, realizing I was staring.

"Sorry," I mumbled, looking away quickly. A warmth had crept into my cheeks. I didn’t know if it was embarrassment or… something else the warmth i unknowingly craved for....

Her hand reached out again—not with cloth this time, but simply to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

I flinched, then stilled.

She didn’t move away. Instead, she said something that made the breath in my lungs stutter.

"I owe you more than you know, Kael."

That snapped me from my spiral. "What?"

She smiled, just a little. "You probably don’t remember. But years ago, my brother was stationed at the northern border. He was supposed to die there. But your army held the pass. You saved them. You saved him."

I stared at her, speechless.

"They don’t tell that part in the stories," she said. "They don’t speak about the good you’ve done. But I remember. My family remembers."

Silence swelled between us.

I didn’t know what to say. Kael had fought so hard, so long, expecting no thanks, no recognition. To hear her say this—to hear that someone had remembered something good—was a c***k in the armor I didn’t know I still wore. I wondered what the real kael would feel like..hearing this....

A silence passed, and then, without meaning to, I whispered, "Thank you."-which i said in place of kael and also me....my true self...

She just smiled, as though the words were unnecessary.

I looked down at my hands—bruised, healing, and foreign. These weren’t mine, but they were. They were Kael’s, but I lived in them now.

I was no longer Yume. Not in body. I accept my fate....my fate as kael...i may not be her...but ill do my best to live this life....justice...the one thing kael disserves.

But somewhere, beneath all this—beneath Kael’s name, Kael’s armor—I still was her.

And Emylia saw that.

Maybe… that was enough.

"Thank you emylia...thank you for not treating me like a cold person..."

*i smiled softly-that smile on kael's face shone brighter...and emylia's eyes widened slightly...*

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End of Chapter 5