Awaken His Eyes | The Awakened Book One

Chapter 9

As the morning sun rose over the bay, Maeryn watched from her balcony as she always did. Clouds had rolled in during the night and the sun was struggling to warm the air through the gray blanket. The skies over Bastul only lightened to a hazy purple. It made everything look drab, which seemed fitting to Maeryn. It had been weeks now without any word from Adair. She feared the worst—that he was dead. Nothing except death would have kept him away for so long.

It only complicated her emotions to be sharing a house with Lemus. The more time she spent with him, the surer she became of his mental instability. He had the look of a starved and unpredictable animal. After showing him around the mansion and answering hundreds of his questions, Maeryn tried her best to avoid him, spending most of her time on the balcony, staring at the city below. On days when Lemus stayed close to the house, she would go with one of the servants into the city and help shop for food and other supplies.

Tears began to well up, blurring her view of the city below. There was bitterness growing inside her. To be honest, it had been there for some time. It was the Empire and its stranglehold on their lives that angered her. When she first met Adair, he had taken refuge in her parent's barn, having been wounded in a battle that took place a short distance from her home in the north. She nursed him back to health with her mother's help, and in time got to know him. The two of them fell in love, and when it was time for Adair to leave, Maeryn's father begged him to take Maeryn. It wasn't a difficult decision for either of them. Maeryn was the most beautiful woman Adair had ever seen, and Adair was a kind and respectable man who offered a life apart from the harsh conditions in which Maeryn had been raised.

But Adair was a soldier, and she knew what kind of life came with marrying a soldier, though Adair's love blinded her from that reality for a long time. He was a man of genuine character. The confusing part was how he could be so kind and still function as a soldier. Didn't soldiers need to be rough and crude by nature in order to do what was required of them? When they were first married she used to worry about his safety for that same reason. However, it wasn't long before Adair's reputation on the battlefield made its way to her ears. Everyone said he had a way with people. He was a born leader. People listened to him out of respect, without having to be ordered. He inspired others by being ferocious in the face of enemies and he instinctively knew where and how to move on the battlefield. Slowly, his reputation earned him higher and higher positions of authority. Eventually he was granted the position of colonel, and with it the governorship of Bastul. But the enormous responsibility became a weight around his neck. And it wasn't just Adair; Maeryn felt it as well. They started to feel trapped. Now Adair was gone. The probability of his death created a loneliness in Maeryn's heart that went deeper than anything she had experienced before. She was bitter that their lives always had to be in accordance with the goals of the Empire. The good of the nation always outweighs the good of individuals. She was tired of living a life dictated by others.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

The voice behind her was startling.

"The Southern Jewel is what they call it in Orud." Lemus was staring past her and looking at the city, which surrounded the bay and sprawled into the foothills of the mountain range to the east. If he realized he had startled her, he wasn't showing it. He seemed to be reveling in his newfound power.

Maeryn wasn't sure how to respond and only managed to nod and smile.

"Now, what do you have to cry about?" he asked in an almost believably caring tone, noticing the tears on her face.

She just looked at him and couldn't manage to find any words. If he was dense enough not to realize, then he could go on wondering for all she cared.