Engraved In Fate

18. Enlighten Me, Kaia

Traipsing on the Eternal Garden in the summer town of Astorasia named Ardelle, I noticed the royal carriage in which Rhea Remington, a girl of six was sleeping peacefully. She was a beauty back then too.

My vision strayed to the creek at the end of the garden. The foreboding sense of intuition plagued me, for I already knew what was happening.

Increasing my pace, I tried to reach there before things went wrong. I had to save her!

But alas, I was too late.

Gazing at Aunt Kora in her younger days, my vision switched to the young brunette girl who was sobbing on the grassy land. Her scraped knee and her open hairs whipping wildly in the air due to stormy winds, reminded me why she didn't wanted to be called princess.

"That's what you get, princess. Now that you'd be lost here with no means to go back, you'd realise what a burden you are to the throne and Astorasia." Aunt's sinistrous voice echoed in the air.

"I am not a burden. My parents love me." The girl sobbed, her voice barely incoherent. But I knew what she wanted to say.

"No one loves you princess. You are just worthless. My daughter deserves the throne much more than you." Aunt gripped back the hairs of the girl painfully. The girl cried out loud, begging for help.

She was a mere child of six. Dressed in the bright yellow princess dress that remained soiled now, her condition looked pitiful.

Wiping the tears out of my own eyes, I walked in closer.

The Aunt released her hairs and she fell down to the ground. Afterwards, the Aunt moved towards the carriage with a satisfied smile, leaving the girl behind in a town unknown to her.

Rocking herself back and forth as the tears flowed freely, the girl repeated her Aunt's previous words.

"No one loves me. I am a bad princess."

I felt a painful pinch in my heart. Wiping the trails of tears left behind on my own cheeks, I crouched myself to the level of the girl.

I tried to tame her hairs that were covering her face. But my hands just passed through her, slicing through the empty air.

Her knees were bloody from the earlier fall and her emerald green eyes, glassy from the tears. Sitting beside her on the glistening grassy ground, I too rocked myself like her.

Her despairing sobs were making it impossible for me to prevent the old wounds from being opened. Her hands clutched the grass as she tried to push herself off the ground.

I knew what she was doing. She was trying to get to the royal carriage that was meant for her, but presently occupied by just her cousin and aunt.

"It's too late for that, Kaia." I told her but she couldn't listen.

Falling back to the ground because her knees were too injured to move, she sobbed harder. She didn't deserve this. I didn't deserve this.

I was aware of the fact that she regretted coming here with her Aunt to visit the town of Ardelle. She wished she waited for her parents to be free enough to take her on the trip.

Knowing that there was nothing I could do, I just waited patiently. For him.

And he didn't disappoint. He never did.

"Good heavens! Is that blood? Do you need me to call a healer?" The boy's concerned yet sweet voice sounded over the wind.

I grinned at the tone of his voice. That scandalised voice on seeing the blood.