Chapter 18: Alura

                                                                               𝕬𝖑𝖚𝖗𝖆

Queen Alura stood on the waving green grass and let her eyes stare down the dried eyeballs of men who stared back from the other side. Their skins had turned pale and their heads scabbed with blood. While their hair, all different from one another, still maintained a normal look.

She never liked looking at dead things, animals or men. It made her feel something she didn't feel often...fear. She felt the inevitable creep up on her which made her turn her head away from the stakes. "Take them down immediately and tell the people not to worry."

Imil bowed his head slightly as an answer before clutching his hands together behind his back. "I think they would prefer to hear it from your own lips your Majesty." He cleared his throat and looked around at all his men who followed behind him with their hands securely on their swords, ready for anything to even try and touch their beloved Queen. "The Witches and Terrors from the Blood War remain as horror stories for much of the people."

Alura didn't say anything as she let her attention turn downwards to the grass they were standing on. She could see the mud tracks from her darling girl slipping during the night, she let her blue orbs dance around the clues as she followed them down the hill to where she could see it happening in her own head. It angered her to know Antonella had slipped from her sight to see something she shouldn't have but it upset her more to not know how she found the deceased heads in the first place.

What persuaded the girl to wake from the dead sleep she was in to walk into the rain, unprotected from the evils beyond the castle's walls and over the hills to find a line of something that was actually very well hidden from most eyes? Something about the way the mud tracks slid to a puddle where she could tell the girl fell made her thin her eyes and take a breath. Alura never failed to question the integrity around her but it had come to her attention that the girl she was so soft on had never been tested. Not in a way that was pleasing to the Queen.

"I've gotten word the Maddox's are traveling for Wellbourne."

Alura snapped her head to look at the dark man who stood straight and proper. "Are they?" She smiled with a simple lip twitch. "How exciting." She was about to say something but she stopped to examine Imil's face which was full of words being held back. "Spit it out."

Her eyes dared him to speak so he tightened his jaw. "The council is still not on board with whatever it is you are planning with the Marquees my Queen." He held his breath while the sounds of his men throwing the stakes and heads into a wagon played behind them. Imil had been in countless wars and had fought hundreds of men, but the way the Queen used her own voice and eyes as a tool frightened him in ways he couldn't explain. The most powerful woman in the kingdom stood in front of him and no one ever knew what was really going on in her head.

"I appreciate your concern Lord Shanbert." She waved her finger for him to follow so he did willingly. Carefully he held her hand to keep her from falling in the mud and started escorting her through the grassy plains, behind them the mountains laid out a beautiful landscape that the Queen never got tired of, she looked out at it while he waited impatiently for her to say something more.

"I do not mean to disrespect when I bring up these concerns my lady."

"Of course." She stopped before going into the door and let the small amount of wind blow into her face. Her smile was gone but not forgotten as she looked up at the few clouds. "There are times I feel burdened by my status Imil." He gulped but watched the Queen as she looked back at him. "But there are also times I enjoy it."

"I do not under-"

"I am Queen on Pentad Imil." She interrupted, her still gaze burning into his dark black eyes as he furrowed his brows. "The council is a wonderful gift but their jobs are solely to advise. Any decisions that become final become that way from my words." She stepped towards him gracefully leaving only a few inches as he looked down at the woman who he could tell was holding back. "I have spoken my dear old friend. Antonella will be my wife and we will wed before sunset."

He immediately bowed to show his understanding as she simply tapped her finger on her own hand as an implication the conversation was over. Alura felt that was all she needed to say about that subject, many would keep asking but her answers would only get shorter, and some had enough dignity to not ask at all. One of them was the high priest Vastor, he was stowed away in his own house writing commandments for the church. He knew her not to be truly from the gods but what she said was written as a text for the followers of a religion that had been around for decades. One she had to falsely follow even though she knew herself to be smarter than any words written by a man.

Rounding the corner to go to a room where no one else would be, she closed the door and took a deep breath in. She enjoyed every single second she could spend alone and not have to be the person everyone wanted her to be. She locked the bolt and immediately began grazing the collection of books with her fingers.

The wedding would be small compared to most kings and queens but she knew the night to be big. A night where she and her Princess could become one in ways that no one else would ever understand. It excited her to think about the possibilities but she also realized how much fighting Antonella must be having in her own mind. She was going to be something completely different before and now she was marrying the Queen, she left her family and everything she had known and was in a constant state of learning. Alura thought it was only fair to find a book she might enjoy and practice reading when the candles were lit and the voices were gone. They could read together and be close like they should always be.

"For someone so lonely, you are hard to get alone."

The Queen turned to a hooded person sitting in the window seal at the corner of the room, she furrowed her face trying to make out the person but she couldn't think of anything other than the fact that she was a woman. Alura tried to think of something to say but she decided not to as she let her fingers fall from the spines of the books to turn to face the mystery.

"I believe I will be someone of importance to you." The woman's green eyes met the blue confused ones. "You can feel my magic as well as you can feel Nible's can't you?"

The Queen stood straighter, her face not full of freight or concern but of curiosity. "You are from the forest?"

The woman laughed. "We are basically related."

"I am not from the-"

"Don't humor me Alura." The Queen raised an eyebrow at the fact someone else interrupted her. No one ever dared to do such a thing but the woman under the hood didn't seem afraid as she looked around at the titles. "I know who really are and I know what you want your Majesty."

The blonde woman was intrigued by her words so she went to the wooden chair by the window seal and gracefully sat down with crossed legs curiously, the witch thought it odd for the blonde to sit and make herself smaller. Everyone who she appeared to, who held any amount of power, made themselves bigger in any way they could to overcome the fear they tried to hide. But the Queen didn't seem to feel like she had to prove her power. "Then tell me...What do I want Onoris?"

"Ah you do remember me." She smiled before looking out the glass-stained window to the mountains. "You want to have a child with another woman." Her smile dropped as her gloved hands mimicked a tear. "You and I both know Nible's magic is not strong enough to conjure a baby inside Antonella's belly."

"And you are?" The Queen let her lip curl as she crossed her arms to match her legs. "How is your magic any different from hers?"

The witch said nothing as she simply glanced down to the floor and back up leaving the Queen to say nothing back. The people thought her to be from the gods themselves. Packaged in a factory of angels and sent down in a ball of white energy to save every human but she deceived everyone who turned her way. Her mother a child of the forest somehow married into royalty, Nible never mentioned much but she knew magic well and she knew the type Onoris referred to was something not to be taken lightly.

"I am not one to just hand out favors." Onoris stood up and walked to the Queen, her white neck had to stretch to stay on her green eyes. "But to you, I bring an offer no one else will. An offer to let you and your darling bride make a natural child with one another. Carry on that fake bloodline that everyone believes so confidently."

Alura was an educated woman who had learned the ways of trickery and politicians but this was something she was unfamiliar with. "What would they want in return?" She asked her voice quieter than usual.

"They will come for their payment when the time comes." Onoris bent down to her knee in front of the Queen like a commoner would and tilted her head waiting for a reaction but she never got one as the blonde woman studied the hood. "Have you no answer?"

"Your Gods play this kingdom like a game, if you came to me that means they have something very sinister in the works."

Onoris was quick to respond, "Perhaps they do." She placed her hand on the Queen's knee but was quickly slapped away as she stood.

"Remember your place witch." Looking down at her, Queen Alura raised her head slightly and tried to get something more out of the green orbs that looked up at her with the same amount of curiosity. "My answer will come when I am good and ready."

Onoris stood up slowly with her brows furrowed underneath the hood. "They are not patient."

"They will learn to be." Turning the blonde woman opened the door leaving the witch alone to wonder who was really the intimidated one in that situation.

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