"Do you know that there is a saying that if you smile at the sky before bed, the moon will give you beautiful dreams?"
"I never heard of that.." he whispered as he smiled at her.
Evanora is a young witch who lives in exile all by herself after her f...
"I did, thanks to Sir Arthur. If it weren't for him I would have died of boredom but instead, I got to hear all kinds of stories about a young reckless man."
"Don't believe everything he says, he likes to exaggerate."Rokan sighed, "Do you want to get some fresh air in the gardens?"
"That would be nice." she agreed.
The two left the almost empty hall and headed to the gardens. They walked quietly side by side until they reached the open balcony.
"Arthur said you spent a lot of time in the castle since you were a child, your father was one of the old king's counselors," Evanora spoke in a calm voice. "The last time we were here, you said this was your spot. Was this often your playground?" She asked.
"I used to hide here. My dad was not always happy to have me around." Rokan kept quiet for a while before answering her.
Evanora looked at him with worried eyes and waited for him to continue. Slowly, Rokan inhaled the cold breeze and started telling Evanora about his childhood.
He told her how his mother had died giving birth to him and how his father became a drunkard soon after. The way he blamed him for his mother's death and kicked him out whenever he got drunk and anger took over him. Slowly, their family, or whatever was left of it, started falling apart due to his father's scaling issues.
Rokan struggled between the guilt tearing him from the death of his mother and the building anger towards his reckless father. As a young child, he was faced with too many situations where the only thing he could do was run out to the royal gardens and hide there.
"I met Arthur for the first time here." Rokan smiled bitterly for a second, his eyes reflecting the small light coming from a lamb clearing their path. "He saved me and I owe him my life."
Then Rokan spoke about the way Arthur made sure he got the education he needed as his father turned his back on him, how he was the first one to teach Rokan how to yield a sword, the first one to see the potential he had.
Evanora felt her eyes welling up with tears and a sudden urge to hug him filled her chest. She ended up hugging herself tightly as she thought about the hardships Rokan had to go through.
She had a relatively happy family compared to him, she could never imagine growing up without the bond she had with her mother or her sisters, while Rokan had to face a very tough life so early on without both of his parents and yet he managed to stand tall as a king today. A part of her felt proud of him.
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It was the second day of the festival, and the castle was busier than ever before. Helena had explained to Evanora the day's events, which included a hunt and a river tour on boats for the nobles. Although Evanora was invited to all the events, she chose to lock herself up in the library and only join everyone else during dinner. She didn't feel comfortable around the other guests and felt out of place. Therefore, she decided to wait for dinner and stick with the three knights she knew.
When it was time, Evanora got dressed and headed to the dining hall. The moment the doors to the hall opened and she walked in, her senses caught a weird energy floating in the room.
She slowly scouted down to a corner and watched everyone around her till her eyes fell on a familiar face, it was the same man she noticed looking at her last night. The menacing energy was radiating from him. He smiled at her and Evanora felt a shiver run across her body when he started moving closer to her.
"Evanora, the great witch, the next savior of the people of the Kassi kingdom." He said as he stood towering in front of her.
"I'm sorry but have we met before?" Evanora tried studying his face now that he was closer and felt her throat tightening.
"Do I look familiar?" He chuckled before asking, and Evanora hesitantly nodded.
"Maybe I started resembling him after hanging around together for so long.." He spoke as if to himself.
Evanora's eyebrows furrowed and he gave her another sly smile before answering her unspoken question.
"Your grandfather."Her eyes widened in surprise.
Evanora stopped in her tracks and felt danger creeping in on her the moment they took a turn toward a dark alley.
"I would like to know where you are taking me and who you are now." She said carefully." I have been following you for a while and you have promised me to explain everything once we are alone."
The red-haired man she was following took a few more steps ahead of her and then turned around.
"Come on, we are almost there..." He sounded irritated.
Evanora crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows at him in defiance. She had decided that she wouldn't take another step further before she got the answers to her questions.
"Fine by me." He muttered as if to himself before pushing his cloak to the side. A yellow light shone around his eyes. Evanora quickly realized what he was doing, she worked her way to casting a shield spell in time to block his attack.
"What are you doing!" She shouted at him in disbelief but the man smirked and launched another attack.
Evanora kept stopping his consecutive attacks and was pushed to take a few steps back as she felt he was using more and more power with every strike. The red-haired man, however, kept increasing the power and frequency of his spells until another person emerged from the shadows behind me.
"Enough already, Klaus. You are cousins." The man said, Evanora couldn't see him clearly as he never stepped into the light.
