Ever After: An Amourshipping and OC Story

Chapter 12

Faraway from Lumiose Castle lies a dark, stone castle deep in the forest. Inside, Serena lies on a hard mattress with her legs wrapped in iron chains as she tries to rest inside her small, cold stone chamber. Her face is wooden as she stares at the wall with nothing to amuse her but the faint sound of the wind coming from the small window above her bed.

Suddenly, the wooden door to her room opens and one of Calem’s men enters carrying a bag full of swords.

“Let’s go,” He orders. “Boss has a job for you.”

Serena silently grumbles as she reluctantly gets off her bed and stands to face the man.

“What is it now?” She asks uncaringly.

The man smirks at her attitude before he hands Serena the swords.

“He wants you to take these and bring them over to the east wing,” he says.

“Why can't you do it yourself?” She grumbles bitterly. “And Monsieur da Xavier made it clear that no one is allowed in the east wing.”

“Then I guess it's your lucky day,” the man answers with a smirk. “Besides, he asked for you alone while he sent the rest of us home for the day. Now move it!”

On the outside, Serena keeps her hard glare on the henchman, but on the inside she is unsettled as it's clear that Calem is up to something. In the time since Hania sold to her former friend, Serena has been doing everything in her power to keep Calem at a distance. Every moment she sees him, he instructs her to simple yet demeaning chores while trying to persuade her to consider his advances. Day after day he tries to woo her with the same empty words of flattery and love that he used to give her at the marketplace only that they are followed by promises for her freedom and to be treated like royalty if she gives herself to him unconditionally, and day after day she stands firm and denies him coldly.

Serena suddenly snaps from her thoughts when the henchman slaps her hard on the face.

“I said move!” he barks

Serena glares at him again before she snatches the bag out of his hand and storms out with her chains clanking loudly as she walks. Her cold demeanour doesn’t leave her face as she marches to a tall door leading to the east wing. She stares at the door, secretly curious yet worried about what might be inside. Calem personally showed Serena every other hall and corridor in the castle from top to bottom, evidently trying to woo her to be his wife by the might and so-claimed majesty of his stone cold home, but he was abundantly clear that no one goes into the east wing but him. Serena doesn’t know what to expect any more than she knows what the purpose is to carry a collection of swords to this private corridor. Finally, she takes a deep breath as a means to keep herself together before she goes in.

She is only a few feet inside when she drops the swords and covers her mouth in horror. The tall corridor is full of Demoth armor, weapons and garments hanging or standing on display all over the east wing walls. Many of them are torn, bent, dented and still vividly stained with the dried blood of the people who once wore them. Serena’s stomach turns as she whimpers in terror and disgust at the sight. She can only imagine how Damlier and his family would react to just a heinous display against their people.

“Beautiful, isn't it?”

Serena nearly jumps out of her skin as she turns to see Calem sitting on a high chair and resting his feet on a footstool with a proud posture. He gives her an ever seductive look as his dark brown eyes are fixed on Serena’s bright blue eyes.

“Not that it's even close to being as purely beautiful are you are, you understand, but as a piece of art, as a collection of memories, as a significance of might against those savages, it's something beautiful in its own right,” Calem continues. “To be honest, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what I've collected since the war ended. I've made a lion’s share secretly selling these things to other people all across the eight kingdoms. It turns out there are many like me who would pay a pretty price for their own trophies of what remains of those animals. But what I've brought here I keep close to admire all the kills that have been done by my own hand; to admire how far I've come to become so well endowed and now to have you here in my home where I've wanted you to be since before the war began.”