The dream
The room that had once felt warm suddenly felt cold as Aristella laid in the pool of blood, her blood, with the knife stuck between her chest, her hair must of blended in perfect with the blood. Above her was the beautiful room painting of the 10 jewels of Kalin, the golden jewel in the middle, bold and outstanding. It must have been her own imagination to assume it would be her, all because she was the golden jewel.
A figure moved over her dying body,
"All you had to do was leave him with me! Look what you've done to yourself! This is your fault!" Screamed the figure, woman whilst pulling the knife from her chest and diving it into her heart. She blue eyes bright and filled with a sort of insanity and anger. Aristella softly wince, her lungs were on fire, snuffing the little remaining air in her. The 7 stab wounds on her chest took the last remaining bit of life in her. The pain she had felt...did she feel it? Perhaps not. She couldn't tell. Her body began to feel numb and cold. Her breaths fill with blood instead of air as she choked. The woman screamed again, leaving the knife in her heart this time, perhaps she thought 8 stabs would do the finishing job. She didn't have to do any more than she did now. Aristella silently took her last breaths.
Then she had a dream, yet the dream was one she lived. She had finally found her happiness, right？
'I did, right? I married the love of my life. , she thought. Memories started to flood her teary golden eyes. Her wedding. With the crown prince. Her love and her best friend, Tris Amrin of Kalin. After she had begged her family, it was finally happening. The smile on her face could buy the world itself. Her white dress was decorated in small golden jewel, with a golden crescent embroidered in the centre oh the dress. Her golden crown rested elegantly on her blood red hair, her light bronze skin glistened. The dress hugged her curves beautiful. The eyes of everyone where widened in awe at her beauty and grace.
Tus Stella Luciu Lunat Luxre,
the Golden Star of the Golden Moon, Aristella Lucius. She embodied her ancestry name effortlessly.
She's walked slowly to her groom who waited for her at the alter. His green eyes look at her with a faint smile on his beautifully handsome face, his tanned skin and black hair was neatly rested with his sliver crown resting on his head. He extended his hand to her as she stepped on the pedestal and faced the priest.
"Alutu meari farimal'è kest trûvas, the day meets night.."
she looked at her groom, he look ahead with a bleak face. Her heart skipped. 'It's ok, he'll love me. I know he will.'
The dream changed.
The dinner table was long , with 12 seats on each side and two head seats at each end. Aristella sat on one side while Tris sat on the other end, 24 seats away from her. The silence felt thick and heavy.
"How was your day today, Tris?"
"It was ok." He silently cut through his food.
"I met with the young noble ladies today, quite a number who of marriageable age. I think we should perhaps host a royal ball to...."
Tris stood up from his seat, light bowed and left, while his attendant Jass followed behind. Before he closed the door, he bowed at her an apologetic gaze. She bit her lower lips then took a long breath, stood from her seat and left.
The dream changed. A young lady in a lily purple dress walked with excitement next to the Emperor, Elliana? Was that her name, Aristella asked herself , barely entertained. Tris seemed to entice and indulge the young lady, she was a beauty of innocence, brunette long hair, beautiful blue eyes and a body that didn't match her innocence. She smiled brightly at Tris. Aristella continued on her way and headed to her room to change for dinner.
"This dress would capture his majesty's eyes, why not wear it?" Her ladies in waiting said as they picked out a ddress for her. It was a yellow silk dress with a low neck seam, simple yet elegant, with frills as the end of the sleeves. She got up and let her ladies in waiting dress her.
"Even if I were to wear this dress, I'd best believe his eye would not be available as his mind would be running with thought of the young lady of Count Niro. His majesty has no interest in me. He merely wishes to sire an heir with me then I ought have no use to him. Isn't that right," she turned to the door and there stood Tris silently, "Your majesty?"
Her ladies in waiting gasp and lowered their heads. Aristella looked him dead in the eyes, half naked and exposed. He cleared his throat, "I wish to speak with you in private. "
She waved her attendants and they all quickly left the room. She grabbed the nearest robes and dressed herself, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence? "
"It's it not a norm for a husband to see his wife?"
"Tis a norm you've come to learn after 5 years I must say."
"I wish to speak of the young lady..."
"I'll allow it. Make her your mistress. Make sure that she and I are in no relations whatsoever. Ahh, and I am in my week, best we get it over and done with an conceive a child so you may live freely from me."
"Would you please at least hear me..."
"Hear the reason? I do not wish to know, your majesty. Whatever title you bestow on her will be of your choice. I will bestow her in public. After all, you are he who reigns. I believe we have a dinner to attend. I shall see you then. We may discuss when we shall make a child."
Tris looked at her in guilt and no words. It broke her even more but she refused to let him bask in her pain. She was the empress. She would keep her pride. He left silently. Her naive self had long died and what was left was the shell of the young girl she had put in this place.
Not long after she conceived a child. She had hoped at least she would love her child and that the child would be her source of joy. Months into her pregnancy, Elliana joined the palace as the Princess of Hiarôs. It mattered not to Aristella. She had another joy awaiting for her.
She birth a son, an heir, her own joy. His cry filled the walls of the palace and her heart as she look at her son.
"His name shall be Acris, son of the heavens." She said with a smile on her face. Tris stood next to her, with tears and the most beautiful smile she had seen in years.
"You shall be my pride and joy,
Acris," he whispered and kissed his forehead then Aristella, "Thank you," he whispered.
The dream changed again. This time she stood still as she received the news of her dead brothers who had gone to fight the war in the north. Her hand felt icy cold as she blinked the tears away.
"They fought with honour and died a noble death. They shall be remembered as heroes who served the empire in truth and honour." The emperor said, his face sunked, his once beautiful green eyes almost dead with the stress and weight of the crown. His unshaved face made him look like a hopeless warrior who had walk out on war, with no victory. Aristella did not look any better herself. Her eyes had died of the tears of negligence and suffering, with the grand title of the empress of Kalin loose hanging on her shoulder as the war took more and more from the empire and her. The plague that had come with the war had affected the people, her parents and now her young son, her only source of joy in this world and no cure had been perdured. The physicians all seem to have the same stand still, merely prolonging the death of the unfortunate patient, one of those being the heir to the empire.
In the late night, Aristella sat next to her dying's sons bed, her eyes blank and dead as her son took the heavy breaths through his weak lungs. She wished to hear his voice again, his runs in the palace as he showed her his results in anything he did. His beautiful golden eyes filled with life and black curly hair still shining beautifully, his skin tanned bronze and warm instead of pale and cold. She would. She knew she would. They would find a cure for him.
It was quite.
It was quite.
It was...cold and quiet.
Something in her felt wrong. She looked at her son on his bed. He laid there silently. Breathlessly. She moved to his bed, "Acris?" She called out to him. "Acris, can you take a deep breath for mommy?"
Silence.
"Acris baby?!" She called out.
"Help!!! Acris please take a deep breath for mommy baby ok? Please."
His body laid motionless, the last of his warmth leaving his body, his heart with no beat. Aristella screamed and hugged her son in her arms. The doors busted opened and Tris walked in. He fell to his knees at the sight of Aristella wailed with their beautiful son in her arms limp and numb. The last light in his eyes died at that very instant. Acris Marlo Amrin of Kalin, the crowned prince had finally took his last breath, leaving with the little happiness left in their world.
Not long after, Tris followed their son, leaving her behind all alone. She sat in her quarters, dried of tears and emotion. The room was dark and cold, as if the ghosts her loved ones stood there waiting her. Just then the doors bursted open and Elliana ran towards her with something silver. She suddenly felt a pain in her chest as a cold sharp object pierced her skin. She winced, eyes widened. Then the pain again as Elliana pulled her arm away from her and returned it again.
'Right, it wasn't a dream. A nightmare. I must be dying now.' She thought to herself as she closed her eyes for last time.
'Is death this quite? Acris must have been lonely and scared. Mother and father will be sad. I hope they at least doesn't hear of my death. It's so quiet. And cold. It's my fault. All of it. So much of it was all because me. I don't deserve such a quiet death.
...I wonder..if i could change it all. I should have saved Phill and Luris, I should have protected them, mother, father, Acris. My beautiful Acris. I shouldn't have taken Tris' life. Elliana was right. It was my fault. All of it.'
The quietness seem to last long, then she heard a voice, if her younger self, ' Ari,' it said.
'Yes...little one,' Aristella replied.
'I had a dream... a nightmare.'
'What was it...'
' I married Trisy...'
Aristella opened her eyes. Trisy...a name she had long forgotten. Next to her, in the pitch black dark sat a young girl, 12 years of age illuminating the dark in her white nightgown. Her red long curly hair laid against her back, her beautiful face laid on her arms she rested on her folded legs. Her golden eyes blood shot and full of tears. Aristella teared up looking at her younger self filled with the same pain she felt.
'We married Trisy but we were very sad. I made mommy and daddy sad. And Phill and Luris died because of me,' she wailed.
'I was very sad. I thought we would be happy,' said the little girl.
Aristella hugged the little girl,' it wasn't your fault...' she whispered gently and her younger self cried in her arms.
'I killed you,' the little girl wailed.
' No you didn't, Ari. It was my fault for not protecting you. I should have saved you. I should have saved everyone I love. Im sorry. I'm so sorry. ' Aristella whispered in tears to the little girl in her arms.
'If you could, can you save them? Can you save mommy and daddy and Phill and Luris and Trisy?' She asked.
' I would do everything in my power to save them all. '
The little girl pulled from her and looked at her.
'Do you promise to save them all?'
Aristella looked at her and brushed her hair behind her ear,' I promise.' She replied.
The little girl stood up,' I'll go to sleep in your place and you will wake up. You must save them for me.'
Aristella looked at her in confusion.
'I don't understand. '
The little girl placed her forehead on her, 'Tell them I love them ok. I'll be here, sleeping but I will always be here.'
Aristella looked at her with even greater confusion.
'It's time to wake up Ari. Save them all.'
Aristella suddenly felt dizzy and sleepy. Could one be sleepy in death? It seemed so.
Her body heavy, which was odd considering she was dead. Or did she survive. She wished she hadn't. If she survived she would end her life herself. Was it when possible to survive such a death? What would happened of Elliana?
"Young lady..." a voice said lightly in the distance.
Surely such an act was deemed an act of treason to the throne, she must have been sentenced to death.
"Your grace..."said the voice again.
How much time has past since the attack. She didn't see the need for the physicians to save her life. She was sure that she would be handicapped forever with the injuries she suffered. How did they even save a bleeding heart? It seemed odd.
"Your grace...you hear m..." said the voice again, this time in fear and excitement.
Your grace? That was odd. She was empress, the correct title would be majesty, no? Or was she stripped from her title? Then she wouldn't be addressed in her old title.
"Your grace blink twice if you see my hand..."
Blink twice, Arostella was sure her eyes weren't open.
'Wake up...' whispered the voice of her younger self.
Then her eyes shot open, she took a deep breath the cough due to the now forgotten and foreign feeling I'm her lungs. It didn't hurt she raised her hand to her chest, no scars. And it felt...flat. She ran both hand on her chest and it felt...flat. Her once full chest was now empty. She shot up her bed and was encountered with a face she accident bumped into. She cried in pain along with the person who suddenly screamed," Your grace, you've waken! Madam Denatry!! Your grace!! She is awake!"
Lady Denatry? Her mother?
She looked around her and noticed she was in her old room, when she lived as the daughter of the Duke and Duchess Lucius. She blinked in awe on how it looked exactly as it was when she was 12 years old. She got out of bed and felt odd. She seemed shorter, very much so and her body had no pain whatsoever. That didn't matter she wanted to see the scars on her chest.
She ran to the mirror and as she looked at her reflection she feel to the ground. It must have been a good dream or a nightmare waiting to happen. In the reflection stood her younger self, 12 year old Aristella, Ari. Her eyes were as youthful as ever, reminding her of her son. She touched her hair, her red curly hair was in a mess and her skin was a beautiful golden light bronze with long red eye lashes and brows. The baby fat made her face look round and plump. She let out a breath, "What is this," she said then immediately covered her mouth. Her voice had changed, sounds so young and innocent. Her eyes widened.
Then the doors burst open, Ari turned her head and looked all her family members poured into the room, faces filled with worry but most of all, they all looked so young.
Her brothers who had once towered tall over her were no more than 10 year olds on tiny shoes and vigorous eyes. Her parents didn't look regal in age but rather as young as their late 20's. Ari didn't think her eyes could widened any further.
She looked in the mirror again and in the reflection, she was the 12 year old in the dream.