“That’s for sure,” scoffed Tessa. “Nothing compared to the payback those wretches will receive...”
“C-Counselor Yamino,” said Cessi, “c-could you and C-Counselor Yassim g-give us a few minutes? We will c-clean th-this up.”
“What? Clean this? You should report this, my lady!”
“N-no. I d-don’t want t-to g-give them the sa-... sat-tisfaction. We will t-take c-care of it our way.”
“We will clean it up for you, my lady,” said Nupia, stepping forward. “My siblings and I are–”
Before she could finish her sentence, Tessa was holding her sword’s blade pointed at her throat, her dark eyes glaring at the young servant. Nupia froze, her eyes down on the blade, visibly scared. Tessandra’s movement had been so quick and swift; it was as if her weapon had come out of nowhere.
“You and your siblings are not taking another step into this room,” she hissed. “I don’t trust you any more than whoever did this.”
“But–”
“G-get out,” Cessilia ordered.
Her tone was just as calm as her cousin’s and as cold as ice. No matter what, it was clear the two women’s thoughts were aligned. With a sullen look, Nupia stepped out. Yamino and Yassim were still baffled by the scene and barely moved to let her out. As soon as the servant was gone and the doors closed behind her, Tessa lowered her sword. Cessilia’s expression too seemed to relax a little, although her eyes were still down on the disaster at her feet. She let out a faint sigh but didn’t seem as perturbed as one could have been by this sabotage. For a few seconds, a strange silence befell the room, and the two Counselors seemed at a loss whether to go now or not until Cessilia spoke up.
“C-Counselor Yassim, c-can I ask you s-something?”
“Anything, my lady.”
“Why d-did you choose to g-go to the D-Dragon Empire?”
Of all questions, this one seemed particularly out of the blue, but Cessilia’s green eyes as she looked at him were clear. She wanted an answer, now. They hadn’t seen Yassim since the previous day, but since she had seen Ashen, and gotten a glimpse of his complicated relationship with the King, Cessilia was eager to know. Tessandra frowned.
“Right... You said the King wanted a queen, but he obviously had many options here already. Why did you come specifically to get one of our Empire’s princesses?”
Tessandra could tell there was a special relationship between Cessilia and the King, but just like her cousin, she was suspicious of Yassim’s involvement. It was a long journey for the old man, and he obviously risked his life to bring Cessilia back here to the Eastern Kingdom. They knew he had lied, but that didn’t explain how he had known that choosing Cessilia to come here as a candidate would spare his head from the King’s wrath... and make her a plausible candidate.
The old man, clearly defeated, nodded slowly. He looked tired from his short time in the cell but did his best to stand straight in front of the Princess.
“I once again apologize for my duplicity, Princess Cessilia. In fact, my visit to the Dragon Empire was guided by my own suspicions about King Ashen’s past. ...You see, all of our citizens know the King disappeared, seven years ago.”
“Right before the fall of the previous King,” Nana nodded. “I remember. There were claims he had been killed by his father’s enemies... It made a lot of things worse because many also suspected the Princes were trying to kill each other, and those left were violent and ruthless. We didn’t want them to become King... but Prince Ashen was good to the people, and many were upset about his death.”
“Exactly, Lady Naptunie. However, an old man such as myself knows best about half-truths. I believe all the people in this room will be able to keep this secret, but... our King didn’t exactly die at that time. In fact, he was very close, but miraculously, our master survived his fate long enough to escape those who wanted him dead. I know this for a fact, because I myself helped our King escape this very castle, and Aestara, back then.”
Cessilia and Tessandra exchanged a glance, both surprised.
Yassim had saved Ashen from death? If that was true, it didn’t seem like the King was holding a lot of gratitude toward his savior. From the start, it was clear the King was mad at the Counselor for something, and he had already banished him even before Yassim had brought Cessilia and made his anger worse...
“So... your King didn’t really die back then? But he was gone for two years, wasn’t he?” asked Tessandra.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save the Prince’s life and bring him to safety myself. Truth be told, I was only able to help him leave the Capital before our pursuers found me. I was captured, put into a cell just like today, and left there with no idea what had become of the young Prince. Even when rumors grew of his death, I had no way to confirm it for myself.”
“So you helped him flee, but you didn’t see him die. And then...”
Tessandra tilted her head, and in her eyes, it was clear she had understood too. The old Counselor nodded, a faint smile on his lips.
“You’re a very smart lady, Lady Tessa. Seven years later, when our Prince came back, talking about gods who had trained him, wearing scaled armor, I began to wonder about what had really happened to him, seven years ago. The good and young boy I had desperately tried to save had returned as an angry seventeen-year-old, a man ready for war and battle, with unparalleled strength and skills. That led me to wonder if... if the young Ashen had really met gods, the same gods he claimed had trained him for those two years.”
Tessandra’s eyes went to Cessilia. The Princess was perfectly calm and composed, not surprised at all by Yassim’s assumptions. Everything indeed made more sense now.
“Sadly, the more I asked questions, the more upset my King was with me. In fact, I realized that my King was desperately holding on to that story, but refused to have any of it even discussed. He refused to talk about what had happened to him after we separated, and threatened to imprison me, torture me, or kill me several times if I kept going on with my questions, or discussed it with anybody else. Eventually, as my suspicions grew, my master banished me from the Capital... So I took one last, insane, and insolent bet, and I made the journey to see if my assumptions could possibly be correct.”
He smiled faintly, while looking at Cessilia. Thanks to his meeting with the Princess and her mother, Yassim had been able to come back and keep his head. In fact, the old man didn’t care much about dying. What he wanted, however, was to free his King from a lie that seemed to torture him in several ways. It wasn’t just about knowing the truth behind King Ashen the White’s legend. What Yassim truly wanted was to understand what had happened to the good-hearted, fifteen-year-old boy to turn him into the tortured, violent, and ruthless King he was today.
Cessilia’s presence felt like incredible luck, or perhaps an inevitable twist of fate...
“Th-thank you. ...C-Counselors, we will m-meet you at d-dinner t-time,” she simply said.
This was a polite but decisive way to ask both old men to leave them for a while. Now that they knew why Yassim had made his journey to the Dragon Empire of all places to find Ashen’s prospective bride, Cessilia didn’t want to discuss this any further. Her cousin still had eyes on her, but Yamino and Yassim didn’t discuss it, and both men bowed. They felt a bit reluctant to leave the young women to deal with the mess; however, Cessilia and her cousin had just confronted the King and freed a man without his approval... Surely, it was safe to leave the young women to deal with this much. Hence, the two elders left, although Yassim cast one last glance toward the Princess, gratitude in his eyes.
Once the doors closed once again, a faint silence installed itself. Tessandra kept staring at her cousin, but Cessilia didn’t say a thing and turned back toward the mess, calm and resolute.
Meanwhile, realizing she was the only one who had been crying, Nana quickly tried to wipe her tears, and walked over to start cleaning up the mess. She was in a bit too much of a hurry. After a couple of seconds, she grabbed a dress that had also been tattered, and let out a sharp cry of pain.
“Nana!”
Tessandra and Cessilia both ran over, to find their friend’s hand bleeding.
“I’m sorry,” said Nana, starting to cry again. “I didn’t see the shards...”
It wasn’t her fault at all. In fact, Tessa’s expression darkened as she discovered the numerous little glass shards spilled all over the fabric. This was no accident, there was nothing in the room that would have matched those pieces of glass before it was broken. Someone had deliberately put those there, with the intention of one of them getting hurt. Cessilia, who was observing Nana’s injuries, came to the same conclusion at the same moment, and she frowned as well. She brought Nana away from the mess to rinse her hand quickly and get rid of the smallest shards, but her head turned to the balcony.
“K-Krai!”
