Epiphany

⇞ agony ⇞

"The room was empty and I had no one to seduce." I retorted surprised at my own courage and sarcastic tone.

"So you sleep here?" His glare deepened at my sarcasm.

"It was warm," I mumbled slowly.

He inhaled sharply and threw his sword on the ground.

"Get out now." He yelled and I didn't wait for him to repeat and started to rush out.

But when I was near the gate, his hand caught my arm and my heart leaped to my throat.

"Ermeline, I am warning you. You don't enter this side of the palace, never walk in my room again or I will take that you are interested in sleeping with me." He threatened, his coal-black eyes with a fleck of fire burning with rage.

I nodded vigorously and waited for him to let go of my hand.

But a frown formed on his face.

"You have a temperature." He said more like a thought to himself.

"For a week now," I answered letting him know that I was unwell and he should show mercy.

But his lips curled into a smile, "Then how about taking a rest in the hillside today?"

The smile was sinister and made me wary.

It was not a solution, it was another problem he had for me.

"As you wish Your Highness," I said in a small voice.

"See you in the evening at Ermeline." He said in a tone that made me fear what he was thinking.

➻➻➻

I was being sucked into the memory again as I was taking bath in the healing water.

This time I was not that surprised or in pain. It was just like being sucked into a hole and loose air for seconds.

Prince Nazereth was sitting beside a lake with a girl I saw earlier, the pretty lady with warm brown eyes. He had the most adoring look in his beautiful fire-like eyes that made me want him to look at me. His lips lifted in a soft smile that I had yet to see on his face.

The girl smiled at him and gave him a soft kiss.

"Dalia, you said I should behave before the wedding. You are supposed to help me keep in check and not kiss me." He spoke in a light tone, his forehead free of a frown.

"This is for helping the families of soldiers who died in the war." 

I realized at that moment that he was bashful and didn't accept compliment well. He nervously scratched the back of his head looking away from the admiring gaze of a girl named Dalia.

"Look at you being shy." She teased him and he pretended to be offended.

The scene broke suddenly and I was in his room but this time the wooden cabinet was opened. Everything was trashed and blood splattered on the wall. From inside the cabinet he pulled out a piece of jewelry, covered in blood as well and cried. My heart squeezed in pain for his cries and loss. He looked miserable, heartbroken and it was making me cry as well.

He was not silently sobbing, he was crying and his cries sounded haunting in the palace now filled with more dead than living. My eyes burned with tears and I kept blinking them away but it was aching to watch him that way right now. I just wanted to console him and bring back that beautiful smile on his face.

Suddenly he got up and curled his fist around that ornate piece of jewelry causing the sharp edges around it to cut through his skin and blood dripped too slowly on the carpet below him.