Vera's Story(To Love and To Lie)

Chapter Two

Vera woke up when Damon got up, and she silently minded her own business until he was ready to go.

"See you in an hour or two. You don't have to wait up for me, you know," Damon told her.

"It's fine, see you in a couple hours."

Damon left.

She remembered her dream, every piece of it.

*No one has ever said those things to me, and I don't believe those things.* Vera told herself sternly. *There's no reason for me to believe any of that, it's not true, no one expects me to be any of that. Besides, I can do all of that perfectly.*

Returning to her normal lines of thinking, Vera pondered the things Damon had told her the last few days, but the only new information she had gleaned that seemed at all important, was that Damon didn't like the people he was going to see.

Despite having changed the subject in her own mind, Vera's thoughts kept drifting back to her dream.

Vera was sure that no one had ever actually said anything like that to her. In fact, people had always told her it was okay to fail at things as long as she did her best, and that it was okay if she didn't learn as quickly as others. The only person who thought Vera needed to be perfect was, well, Vera herself.

Having reached this rather uncomfortable conclusion, Vera proceeded to bury that thought as deeply as she possibly could into her mind and went to read a book while she waited for Damon to come back.

The next night Vera was extra tired, the late nights were starting to get to her, so she was grateful when Damon told her he wouldn't be going out tonight.

"I've got a bit of a break, thankfully. I think the people I've been meeting with must have noticed my exhaustion and that's why they gave me some time off." Damon explained when Vera asked why he didn't have to go today.

"So you mean you won't be going out at night at all for a few days?" Vera asked hopefully.

"A whole week," Damon affirmed.

Vera wilted a little at that, sighing sadly. "Only a week..."

"Vera, you could just go back to sleep when I leave, you don't have to wait up."

"It's too cold without you, I have to wait for you to get back so I can borrow some of your warmth."

For a moment, Damon looked a little uncomfortable. "A-ah, yes, well... Oh! I left my hat in the courtyard!"

"So what? It won't be damaged by staying there overnight," Vera said, confused by the abrupt change of subject.

"Y-yes, well, it looked like it was going to rain, so I'm going to go get it." Damon grabbed his coat and shoved his feet into sandals.

"In your pajamas?" Vera asked.

"Yes."

"...Let me come with you," Vera said, standing and putting on her own sandals.

"There's no need for you to come," Damon assured her, raising his hands as if to fend her off.

"No, no, it would be nice to take a little walk before I sleep, and besides, I don't often visit any of the courtyards, so I'm curious about why you would've been in one." Vera insisted, and Damon didn't do anything else to try and stop her.

The guards didn't even twitch as they passed.

"Hey, uh, yesterday, before you woke up, you sort of..." Damon started, seeming conflicted about what exactly to say. "You seemed to be having a nightmare, and, you spoke out loud a little bit."

Immediately remembering what she had dreamed about, Vera felt her ears grow warm. "...what did I say?" Vera asked, hoping it wasn't anything too embarrassing."

"Not much, but you sounded upset. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! It was nothing, just a bad dream. And not even that bad of a bad dream either. I rarely have bad dreams ever, do you have bad dreams?" Vera rambled a little, trying to drive the conversation away from her dream.

"I have nightmares, sometimes. But I don't dream very often at all. My brother says I don't talk in my sleep, snore, or really move at all when I sleep."

"I can concur. Wait, your brother? I didn't know you had a brother!" Vera exclaimed, grateful that she had successfully changed the subject, and curious about this new detail about Damon.

"Ah, yes, my brother." Damon immediately looked like he regretted having said anything.

"What's his name? Is he older or younger than you?"

"His name is Beckett, he's older than I am,"

*I'm actually thrilled he's telling me anything about his family,* Vera thought. In all the time Damon had been in Duria, he hadn't said anything about his family at all. It seemed now that he had let something slip, he was willing to let a few more things slide. "Were you close?"

"Pretty close? We shared a room, anyway. He is a good swordsman, and I used to train with him." Damon offered.

They were traveling through a part of the palace that didn't have torches or candles lit anywhere. Apparently the courtyard Damon had visited was in a less-traveled part of the palace.

Vera tripped over something in the dark and almost fell on her face, but Damon grabbed her arm and waist quickly enough to stop her. Releasing Vera and then taking her hand, Damon had her wrap her hand around his arm.

"This way if you trip on another carpet-edge you can hold on, then we don't have to rely on my less-than-perfect instincts." Damon told her, and Vera nodded.

Vera was about to ask another question about his family, but Damon spoke up again.

"Ah, there's the entrance to the courtyard,"

They took a sharp right turn and Damon opened a heavy set of double doors.

The courtyard was full of vibrant flowers and trees and shrubs of all kinds, and Vera could see why Damon would've wanted to sit out here. It would have been fairly cool during the mornings due to the shade from the trees and the high surrounding walls, and it was a truly lovely garden.

"Wow," Vera said out loud as she looked around. "I can't believe I've never been here, this place is beautiful."

Damon, who had immediately released Vera's arm and gone over to fetch his hat from the low bench in the middle of the courtyard, looked over his shoulder at her, a rare smile on his face. "It is,"

Vera walked deeper into the garden, it smelled amazing, too.

"So, why were you here? Other than that this is a beautiful garden, of course. Did one of the officials want to talk to you privately or something? You know we have rooms set aside for that sort of thing, in much less out of the way places, too." Vera asked, coming to a stop next to Damon.

"No reason, it's just a nice place to sit when I have a little free time." Damon answered, "In Wistera, our growing season is very short, and the flowers I've seen have all been short lived. It's nice to see a garden like this, and the gardeners say that there's always flowers blooming here, no matter what time of year it is."

"Do you mind if I visit here too? Whenever I have free time, I mean. It's a nice place."

"Of course, it's not my garden,"

"Do you want it to be?" Vera asked, immediately regretting her words and looking away from Damon who had looked at her weirdly. "I mean, I could gift it to you, I'm sure my father wouldn't mind, and you could plant whatever you want in it, do whatever you want with it."

"Uh, no, that's okay, I can just keep visiting it," Damon told her, smiling again, "Thanks for the offer though. Let's get back to our room, I think it's high time both of us got some decent sleep, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah,"