My Darkening Ember

Chapter Sixty - One

"Have you been enjoying the gardens?" The question was suggestible but I wasn't biting.

"It's been one of my desires to explore as far as I'm allowed." I asserted as I walked by Aleron's side down a corridor.

He clenched a smile, "Well I'm glad you feel safe enough to explore the grounds."

Again I didn't bite, "You said you'd tell me about my mother," I reminded him.

"Ahh yes, I wouldn't break a bargain." He smiled tenderly. "I'm sure Sarvin has told you some already."

He took the lead, walking at a slow pace as I joined his side.

He began, "I saw her for the first time in these gardens, helping the cook pick herbs for the evening's dinner. She was beautiful, graceful, and young. But I saw sorrow in her eyes, although she never spoke I could tell she was grieving. I learned later that she had suffered the loss of her parents. Then for her grandparents to be able to feed the rest of the family, Sakari and your uncle were sold to the palace. Your mother was a skilled seamstress and cook even if not many knew it. So she came here, where her skills could be used." He led me inside another corridor with windows so large I could still see the lake.

"Now your uncle was smart, too smart for anyone's good. He was employed as an apprentice at a baron's house. That turned out to be wealthy for him." For a second I heard spite in his voice but it was too faint to be sure.

"Your father, Emrys, hadn't been a man who loved. He was unpredictable, untamed, and eccentric. Everyone thought that once he became king his mature practices would fall into place." Aleron chuckled, grinning mildly. "But the opposite happened. The minute he became the one thing he feared most, he felt free. Not entirely, but more than he'd ever felt in his life. For the first time I dare say, he felt happy."

His eyes flickered, from grievous pain but he continued, "I never thought anyone would capture him, until the day he saw your mother." Aleron swallowed, "He courted her for months, having no clue why she never baited his advances. It was amusing watching him fall on his ass day after day, along with having to listen to his constant frustrating conclusions about why your mother never even blinked in his direction."

I smiled, even their love had been a playful game. I could almost imagine my father's face, daydreaming about my mother.

Aleron led me deeper into the palace. We were still on ground level but the air around us had gotten lighter and colder. The usual windows allowing the sun inside had vanished and bare walls surrounded us.

"He almost gave up, deciding to try one last time before we went to war by sending her 7 letters of love."

The war of great resolution. They taught everyone that it was what Emrys did during that time that made him the greatest king to ever rule. He brought resolution and peace to the seven territories and with it came the love of the people. That's what the books stated anyways.

The south had always been difficult to control, Edmund always said that it was because the capital allowed too much freedom to pass. Towns and cities had independent justice courts and laws. They never needed the north to help control their people or their resources. Officially the north was in charge but the seven territories were a country divided in two and not just by the deep edge.

"I was taught about the war. That it became Emrys greatest achievement." I added.

Aleron shook his head, allowing a short chuckle to escape him, "Eleonora, his greatest achievement was you."

My lips tugged. How strange it was to hear such a kind thing from someone who barely knew me.

"When we returned your father had been injured, not too bad though but he played it off as if he had not even a day more to live."

"Your mother heard and stormed the palace looking for him. Desperate, she broke down when she couldn't find him, believing he had died. I must admit your father's game was quite cruel, but apparently, it had been necessary. Because your mother only then admitted her true feelings for him. In the face of his loss, she suddenly realized she loved him. You can imagine how relieved she was when she found out, and how angry she became afterwards. But not even three years later he was gone." Aleron's eyes found mine again, in them glimmered his memories of the past. Gone was his wording, as if saying dead had been too painful.

"I had just become a man when your father got ill. He descended into madness, seeing things that weren't there, talking about his great treasure. I know now he was talking about you. I won't lie to you, he didn't go painlessly, but in his final moments, he talked about the future, and your mother. Those memories made him happy. It made him smile, until his last breath."

I swallowed the sudden pain I felt at hearing how my father had suffered. How alone he had been in his last moments.

Two huge doors with pointed tops halted our path. They were hand-carved from wood and bare. No stone or jewellery had been placed on it. 

No, their patterns lay within the wood. Star patterns of the eleven Gods and goddesses marked it, dancing around the edges, around the land, our land. The seven territories split where the doors greeted each other.

"I wanted to bring you here when you were comfortable." Aleron cut in, as the doors pulled open from the inside.

It was huge, and dark, lit by a thousand candles if not more, all lining up around any hollowing within the wall and any space around the room.

I felt his hand on my back as he nudged me inside. The ceiling was so deep and dark that I couldn't see the end. From it, hung crown chandeliers coated in melted wax from the lights that stood on top.

Pillars carved like ocean waves supported the ceiling and encased the main area where the altar stood, also surrounded by benches lined up. He had brought me to a chapel. It held no windows or any natural light.

"I didn't know if you prayed," he finally said, walking past me towards the altar.

Orange hues danced all around, bathing us in its warmth. He knelt, under the mighty dais holding eleven chalices of life. On small pedestals, placed in a circle and at different heights, stood silver cups with inscriptions of stories and songs, birthed from their respective god or goddess.

Aleron bowed his head before them, crossing his palms before letting them kiss his forehead.

I never prayed, never really believed, but even so, I could feel the spirit that the chapel held and the energy pulsating through the stone. I let myself approach, kneeling beside him, mirroring the prayer gesture. Crossing my palms I brought them to my forehead before letting them fall into my lap.

"I never really believed," I admitted then, my voice echoing on the walls.

"You were named after the desert goddess Eleonora. She is the one that brings warmth, and beauty but also holds thirst and hunger. Her chalice is placed amongst the three highest." He explained, "You have lived up to your name."

"Bringing thirst and hunger?" I asked flustered.

"There are many kinds of hunger and many kinds of thirst." He replied softly, keeping his voice on an attractive low. "Not all are of the physical kind." He said cryptically and I wondered if he could tell that my cheeks heated in this light.

"Do you pray for gratitude or redemption?" Daring question even for me, but the stories about him started to feel wrong. Was he cruel and cunning or was I still a fool?

One side of his lips tugged, "Both," he said and rose. I mirrored him.
We shared a look and his smile faded, "I do not wish for you to take the throne," he abruptly said and my heart sank, "Not for me, but for you. Becoming a ruler requires much more than most are willing to give."

"But you said Emrys felt free."

"And that was true, but that just says much about how it was living under his mother's scrutiny. No being a king, or queen is a sacrifice. A sacrifice of your life, of your loves. Freedom becomes distant and a dream."

"If you have the heart to trade all that to the devil while taking his role in war and conflict, your seat on the throne won't burn you."

His hands landed on my shoulders giving me the weight of all possible future burdens.

"But I do not wish for you to end the way Emrys did."

It sounded like a threat, the purest, softest threat.