Chapter: Green is the Color of Envy
Hello readers, did I take too long? If I did don't worry the next chapter should be faster! Poor Arden is being left in the dark that he is so confuse at what is the truth and is not no more! Again if you love Arden then please tell me how much you love him in the comment or comment what you think is happening in the story! Until then...which should be soon...see you later! Enjoy!
If the passing of men is as simple as forceful winds against brittle timber, then a brittle timber knows where to stand. Leo knew where he stood when he had chosen to become a Lord of Cavinglen. The title lord made him smile bitterly; it was a courtesy title because no one dare call him a mistress. Leo did not need the suspenseful drumming in the background when they came for him. Rather he was quite ready.
The day Arden disappeared, nothing save chaos and suspicion cloaked Cavinglen. When whole fleets of military horses died one by one, upon the appearance of the near-death Duke of Crowingale, to the first drop of blood in Patedor; he knew there was only two options when the guards came for him. One, we was to be executed immediately. Two, imprison until trial.
He did not know who to thank when it was decided that he was to be imprison until his sentence was determined by the Hsiva. And he did not know which god to blame for dealing him such a fate. This doors creak open, five guards came in.
“My lord.” Leo stood up, straightens his robes and stride out the door without the guards having to drag him out.
He had heard that Einarrys had won the war in Patedor. Leo did not shy away from expressing his relief to know that the man who imprisoned him was alive and safe. He was even glad to know that the Hsivana had returned back safety.
Leo was not Lindra but it did not mean he was immune to the whispering gossips in the cold corridors. Arden had returned safe only physically. For that, Leo was sorry. Lost in his thoughts, Leo almost did not recognize that he had walked through the open doors into the throne room. Seated at on top the throne of Cavinglen was Einarrys, his face is cold and bitter.
Leo notices a nervously trembling body sprawl on the floor. It was not until he kneels down in front of the Wolf Throne did he notice that it was Lindra. Unlike her normal lavish gaudy self, she looks as if she had been through hell. Bits of trees twigs entwine still with her unkempt hair and dirt cover her from head to toe. When she was lucid enough to notice Leo, she pointed her finger at him.
“He did it. Leo was jealous of both the Hsivana and me. He plotted it all. I knew nothing please let me go…please let me go.” Her last words were silent whimpers. Leo turns to look up at the man before him. In Einarrys eyes he could see that it was gleaming with anger.
“Do you want to say something?” Einarrys ask Leo. The kneeling man turns to look at pitifully guilty woman next to him before turning to look at Einarrys.
“Is there anything left to say? What is the truth is and what is not, you know well enough.”
Einarrys expression did not change as he stares at Leo. The other staring back as if he was searching for something lost within Einarrys.
“I am stripping you of all your possession and title. Your slave status is to be reinstated along with the branding of a murderer. From now and until the end of your life, you are never to step in Cavinglen.” All the blood drains from Leo’s face as he heard the sentence.
“Take her out of my sight.” Einarrys quickly add. The guards came forward and began to drag a struggling Lindra out. It was then when Leo finally realizes that it was Lindra’s sentence that Einarrys had just given out.
Amidst the struggling screams and begging from Lindra, a clear voice cuts through the chaos.
“What is going on?” Arden still dressed in black robes appears from the side of the throne room to witness the scene before him.
“Arden.” Einarrys calls out. Leo notices that the emotionless cold face on Einarrys quickly changes to worry from just the mere sight of the Hsivana. Arden did not care to look at Einarrys, ignoring the man completely.
The kicking Lindra pauses long enough to notice Arden’s presence before a hateful expression encompass her whole face, expressing the full extent of contempt she held for the man.
“Why won’t you die? I hate you so much!” Lindra spoke with venom and hatred to Arden. Without a proof of sympathy, Arden turns to meet Lindra’s livid eyes.
“Why?” Arden asks while walking to stand in front of Lindra. “Why did you have to hurt the ones I love? You could have come at me alone.”
Lindra jeers at Arden’s almost innocent statement before laughing in his face.
“Why? Why?! Why have you taken everything from me? I had everything, love, status and respect. If that damned Leo wasn’t enough, you had to come along. But even then, I was fine…I was fine.” She broke into tears at the last words of her confession.
However, her eyes did not wonder off, her eye stay glued to the necklace softly resting on top Arden’s robes. It was the prized treasure of the Waning West Tribe, Klamata-lekani.
“For all my life I’ve always been a slave. You people seems to forget that even slaves feel pain. But I was pretty; I was supposed to fly high and above the rest.” Lindra let out a harrowing laugh, mocking herself then turning to look at Einarrys.
“I was beyond happy when you accepted me as a Lady of Cavinglen. I was ready to lay my whole life for you. But, it wasn’t enough to move you. I wanted more yet I did not pursue it fearing you would hate me. But Neferrall was right.”
Leo did not let the emotions appear on his face; however, he could not stop to agree to Lindra’s words. Is both really life so different? No, in truth they were merely two side of the same coin.
“You never loved me right my Hsiva?” Lindra whispers, her voice gently pleading that Einarrys would deny her words and prove that all along it was her alone that was foolishly believing Neferrall’s words. Einarrys did not say anything.
“Please say you didn’t accept me because of Klamata-lekani. Please save you loved me at least once, when I was still innocent sitting in your tribute tent in the Waning West Tribe.” She begs to hear the three simple words once in her life from Einarrys, the only man she had ever wanted to hear it from.
“Is this the reason why you wanted to harm Arden?” Einarrys simple but direct reply crush all hopes Lindra had in her heart. Leaving her to just stare at Einarrys as the realization sink in her mind, the silence fueling the coldness in the room. Then she just laugh, each note lace with hurt and above all else, at herself.
“Yes. It was me. I would not stand for it when Neferrall told me you accepted me because you wanted the Klamata-lekani from my tribe for this damn prince so less.” Leo directs his malicious eyes at Arden.
“I was bitter that you love him and even made him your Hsivana. I hated that he was the Prince of FairFray. So I planned it all out. To get back at that bastard, I infected his tribute horses so you would blame him when Cavinglen’s stables began to get infected too. The prince of FairFray, so proud and noble, I wanted you suffer the life I had to live through and to blame it all on Leo.”
Arden stood there listening to a near mad Lindra confess and nothing made since. Ever since marrying Einarrys nothing made sense anymore. Who was Lindra to say Einarrys wanted the Klamata-lekani for him when they had never met before that unfaithful day in FairFray throne room. But was he any more innocent in her jealousy that finally drove her to such measures?
“Take her away.” Einarrys had heard what he wanted to know. His eyes held no pity for the women he once embraces gently.
“No.” Arden’s whisper contradicted Einarrys command. Everyone looks at him wondering, did he deemed the punishment insufficient and wanted to add more.
“No one will become a slave.” Arden’s words were soft but confident and absolute. “No one should have to walk the road of slave. Return her to her homeland as a lady of Cavinglen.”
“I don’t want you pity!” Lindra spat out. The guards turn to look at their Hsiva. Einarrys nods his head in approval. “No, I hate you.”
Arden comes closer to Lindra; the guards hold her place forbidding her from touch their Hsivana. With no absolute rush, Arden took off the necklace around his neck and places it around Lindra’s own. Then he leans close to her ears.
“You will accept my pity and sympathy Lady Lindra. That will be your punishment.” Arden whispers quietly to her ear. With that, Arden pulls away, leaving the guards to drag out a motionless confused Lindra out. Arden turns to look at Leo before walking out of the throne room.
Einarrys sighs, wondering who tip off Arden that he was sentencing Lindra. Leo watches the beautifully graceful silhouette walk off, deceiving the sadness that person held in his heart. As quickly as the smile appeared on Leo’s face, it disappears.
In the months in that Arden that stayed in Cavinglen, Leo wonders if this is ever the first time he finally sees the truth of the man Einarrys had fallen in love with. There was more than the arrogance façade the Hsivana puts on.
Leo turns to look at Einarrys. In this world he thought, there was ever going to be one person that could bring out such a pain appearance on the heavily feared Einarrys’ face by simply walking away without having to try.
“My Hsiva.” Leo’s strong resolution could be heard in his crystal clear voice. Einarrys had also plan to return Leo to his home country, to be precise he was going to return all the mistresses and consort in the East Wing. But sitting there on his throne and seeing that same pair of confidant eyes when he first met Leo in the Aureus Empire, he knew he did not have say anything.
“I have decided to return.” Einarrys nods in accepting Leo’s words. But in Leo’s eyes, Einarrys knew he would have to make a clean cut as he did with Lindra.
“Thinking back of our shared past, may this servant ask you a question?”
Einarrys thought back of their past. That day raining day when he arrived into the Aureus Empire with a clear mission on his mind and then meeting the handsome ex-prince of Aureus.
“Ask.” Leo bow in gratitude.
“Hearing Lindra’s confession, it made this servant realize that I too was not immune to the affections you hold for the Hsivana. It is true; you’ve always made it clear no one would be able to touch your heart. But this servant cannot help but wonder; what is it that the Hsivana have that I could not give?”
Leo looks up at Einarrys, not expecting him to answer that question.
“I let myself think that on that fateful day, the gods had let us meet. But I wonder, that day when I purposely approached you, did you already plan to take Aureus for the pills?” Leo waits for Einarrys to answer his question. Unlike Lindra, Leo was not seeking a sugar coated answer. To end everything now for Leo, what he wants most is the clear truth.
“I am sorry Leo. I wanted those pills, sacking Aureus was only secondary.”
That was the truth Leo wanted to hear, yet, he could not stop the pain in his heart when it all was done and said. He could not even shed one tear to ease the pain his chest.
“You wanted the pills for the Hsivana?” Leo asks yet in his heart, he already knew the answer but the last nail must be nailed for it all to end; Leo must hear it from Einarrys’ own lips.
“I’ve always love Arden. Whether it was fourteen years ago or to this day, he alone holds my heart in his hand.”
There was a dead silence hovering in the room before finally he met Einarrys’ eyes, his face beaming with a radiant smile.
“I am glad. If I had been me first fourteen years ago, I would like to think things would have been different between us.”
Leo let a moment in between his words to allow a chance for Einarrys to deny those words. There was no reply. And with those last words, Leo bows down one last time for the man sitting on the Wolf Throne.
As he walked out the room he did not expect anything from Einarrys, no sweet good-bye or warm embrace. Just as their path has easily crossed years ago, this is the moment where they would part destined long ago. Should they meet again, Leo prays there would be warm smiles gracefully on each other’s face having accepted the choices they’ve each made this painful moment.
* * *
On the third day after the East Wing had been empty, a calm silence engulfs the Castle of Dryden. No one had to say anything; the message resonated clearly through the silence. The Hsiva holds the Wolf-Throne in his hands but it is the Hsivana that holds the other’s soul and heart in his hands. Yet, strangely the palace servants and guards could not help but wonder why every day the Hsiva sleeps outside the doors of the Hsivana. The Dryden Castle was vast yet this strange marriage couple would rarely meet and when they did, the Hsiva would always be left with longing eyes and words left unsaid, caught up in his throat.
Arden played the fool, ignoring Einarrys’ silent begging to clear the misunderstanding between them, ignoring that fact that he knew every night Einarrys slept outside his door and ignoring the whispers among the servants. No one knew the dark secret he harbors inside of him.
The truth is Arden is confuse and above all most, afraid of the consequences when he admits the truth. The truth is Arden does not blame Einarrys for his uncle’s death. His uncle was a stubborn man, even if Arden had pry open the man’s lips, his uncle would have rather die than shallow the pill. In this life, everyone makes their own choices and everyone else had to live with it.
What he was scared of was how everything else around him no longer made any sense. That moment in the burning storage room he was sure he had died yet everyone is saying Einarrys saved him. The same story repeated over and over again to him as if everyone had been coached to repeat the same story to him.
“My Hsivana?” Arden snaps out of the daze he was in and turns away from the window to look at worried Starra.
“May this servant voice be impudent once?” Arden could see the worry and question in Starra’s pair of eyes. In this whole castle, maybe only Starra understood his confusion because she too was there with him. Arden nods his head.
“You must know that the Hsiva loves you.” Arden daze suddenly became clear and baffle, not expecting the words from Starra.
Do I? Arden thought to himself. This was what he was scared about too. It made him hated himself that although he acted like was above Lindra and Leo, he was just like them.
“Does he?” Arden whispers. Starra grabs her master’s quivering man and nods her head assuring.
“He does. Believe my Hsivana, the way he looks at you, I have never seen with anyone else. The whole world is saying he has become reckless and dumb, raging a war for just one person yet he doesn’t even flinch from those words.” Starra words made Arden give a small nervous laugh before a guilty face paints across it.
“I’m scared Starra…I’m scared.” Arden whispers as small tears slides down his trembling cheeks.
“Why?” Starra could not understand why anyone would be scared to accept when so much love is being given to him. Yet Arden could not stop his heart from shaking with doubt, to question is say it’s possible and to admit it is to say it’s the truth. Is Arden ready to know the truth?
“Why are you scared?”
There was a long silence as Arden stood there letting the tears he had been suppressing come out. He had been keeping all the confusion and fear to himself, but was it fine to let one person know.
“I…I’m scared because…he does not know he married the wrong person.”
“WHAT?!” Starra gasps confuse at how the Hsivana came to such a conclusion before she remembers that the treaty originally ask for a princess for marriage.
“There is no way the Hsiva regrets marrying you and not your sister.” At the mention of Elizala made Arden sob louder as he shook his head.
“No…the one Einarrys loves is my brother, Foran.” Starra was struck dumb.
“What?