The Bastard Princess

84.

-HER-

"They were right about you," She spoke with a sickly sweet and chilling voice, "You look so much like me,"

I was left staring at the infamous enchantress in front of me. She seemed no less than a madwoman and a vile thing. I've had heard so much about her but none of those urban legends or stories did justice in describing the vile thing she really was.

I could feel the evil in her presence. It could make anyone's skin crawl.

"Who're you?" I asked. My words were almost a whisper, laced with fear and terror. I already knew the answer to the question that I had asked but I was still finding it very hard to believe that I was finally meeting her.

Her grin painfully widened at my question. I was able to see her dark red gums illuminated in the light and it made me sick to the stomach.

"Don't you really know me?" She asked as she took another step closer to me. The tips of our noses were brushing at this point and I could smell her bad breath. It smelled like a corpse, making me wonder what she fed on. The thought didn't help me whatsoever.

I shivered and goosebumps surfaced by the skin as her cold and stale breath blew over my face before she answered, "Why? I am your mother. I birthed you,"

"I don't have a mother," I whispered in return while trying my best to press my back more and more against the cold wall to put as much space between us as possible. She being up so close to me made me sick and terrified.

My heart was about to dig its way out of my chest. My statement made her frown before she roared in my face, "Yes you do and it is me!"

Her red eyes darkened and intensified with anger slowly while the tension in the air rose.

"Then where were you all these years? Why did you abandon me?" I questioned her while trying my best to sound stern and powerful. All of a sudden, I felt all those emotions that I had buried deep in my heart when I was a little girl and Trypahena had told me everything about me and my mother.

She stared at me for a couple of seconds before holding my wrist, "I will show you why I had to leave you!" She told me before she started to drag me out of that place.

We walked down a long corridor of darkness with the smell of death thick in its air before climbing several flights of stairs. At one point, I had lost count of them and I was just left staring at her blood-red hair with teary eyes. Her hair was darker than mine and there was something about it that screamed death. The more I stared at it, the more I understood why the redhead was burned.

She was the legend behind it.

I let her take wherever she was taking me because I was suddenly submerged into my pool of thoughts. There were so many questions in my mind regarding her. Why did she come for me after so many years? What could she possibly want from me? What did she think about me?

Something about her told me that my questions would remain unanswered.

It felt like forever after I was able to see daylight. When we finally climbed to the surface, the first thing I noticed that we were in an old palace. It was too old and just falling apart slowly.

I also noticed that it was snowing outside the old building. The building oddly seemed familiar. It felt like I had been here before because the structure and the old and broken designs on the wall looked so familiar.

She didn't stop and continued to take me to walk me through the ruins of the palace. While we were crossing a ballroom, I noticed some very old pictures on the walls which were starting to fade. A particular painting instantly caught my attention.

I could recognize those silver eyes wherever I saw them.

It made me stop and look closely at the huge portrait on the wall collecting dust but I was still able to see past it. I concentrated on the eyes and they reminded me very much of Ares. I was left staring at them for some moments when my mother tugged me too forcefully, making me cry out in pain. She continued to drag me away forcefully while my eyes remained glued to the silver ones that stared back at me from the painting.

Just when she had dragged me past the painting, I realized that the painting was of Arles!

It both surprised and bewildered me. I wanted to make sure that it was truly his painting or not but I was being dragged away by my mother. Although, my suspicions were confirmed after I saw several of his other paintings there and even one of his statues.

I was sure it was Arles because well, Ares had a striking resemblance to him but the fact that he was wearing the crown really made the difference. Arles was the king while Ares was yet to ascend to the throne.

This made me wonder where were we and what was this place? Could it be that it was Zaeris? My instincts told me it wasn't. The place felt more like a mortal land.

It was when she finally stopped dragging me, I snapped out of my daze and looked around to find myself in what seemed like an old courtroom. It was strikingly similar to the one in Zaeris where I was presented after I had broken and tried to kill the queen of wolves. It instantly reminded of the day when Ares and I were banished.

Oh, so terribly I was missing him and hoped that he would find me soon.

It took me some moments to finally notice the big black hole on the floor of the courtroom. It was active and spinning, sucking in whatever managed to get closer to it.

"What is that?" I asked her.

"This is what kept me away from you! I spend so much time into mastering to open the way to the griever of Ooscoz!" She chirped sickly. Just by listening to her, knew that she was not up to something good. I soon got the answer to my previous question.

She got me here to make me a part of whatever evil thing she was going to do. She wanted to use me.

"What does it do?" I asked, looking at the hole which was slowly swallowing everything near it. It made me a chill run down my spine.

"What does it do?" She repeated, looking at me with a look of disbelief on her face. "Ooscoz, the greatest evil of the dark realm had given me the opportunity to serve him," She bowed very low before the hole and continued, "But before that, I must prove to him that I am worthy of being his follower,"

A grim silence followed as she finally raised and faced me, "And to do that I must sacrifice my blood to the griever of Ooscoz,"

My blood ran cold as soon as those words fell out of her mouth.

...

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