All I Need ✔️

Chapter 54

Safania's POV

The lieutenant and I practiced every day. The erratic weather didn't deter us - we practiced in the frigid cold, and on one day, a particularly brutal snowstorm. Despite Ari's confession, there was shockingly little awkwardness between us. He was an excellent teacher and I tried to be a good student.

Any moment I wasn't spending with Ari, I spent with Cassius. I had foolishly hoped spending all my time with him would help get him out of my system, but quickly realized the opposite was true. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to stay.

Every day, Cassius asked about the training with Ari, and every day I told him Ari was an excellent teacher. The answer seemed to satisfy him. I know we had promised to not keep secrets from each other, but I didn't feel like he needed to know how Ari felt about me, and my hunch about Ari's hidden agenda was just that: a hunch. 

A week before my scheduled departure date, I woke up and immediately got dressed for training. I set out for the beach while the sun was still rising, which had become a habit. 

"No training today," Ari told me as I approached him on the beach. "The King has declared a day of mourning. I suggest you go back and change into mourning clothes."

"A day of mourning for what?" I asked.

"Princess Celine went into labor last night. The baby was stillborn. She's had a few miscarriages, but I think this one hit everyone especially hard because she had made it so far."

My heart sank. Even though Celine had never been nice to me, I couldn't imagine the kind of pain that she was feeling.

"Thank you for letting me know. I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked.

"Of course," he replied.

Once I arrived back at my room, I found Emalina already waiting for me. She was dressed in a black version of her uniform. "Have you heard?" she asked.

"About Celine? Yes," I said as I picked out the only black dress Emalina had the tailors make for me. "Can I visit her?"

"Dear God, why? She hates you."

"I didn't ask if I should, I just asked if I can."

Emalina shook her head as I put on the black dress. "You are so strange. I guess I don't see why not. No one is really with her besides maybe one of her maids. It's considered bad luck to be around a woman who gives birth to a dead baby."

"So she's going through this alone?" I asked, horrified.

"That's just the custom," Emalina replied.

"Well it's the custom in Eir for the village to pay their respects to the mother. Do you have some type of ceremony to help her grieve?"

"What kind of ceremony?" Emalina asked.

I sighed. "Do you have oils around here? And I'll need some water...maybe from the river."

Cassius arrived shortly after Emalina and I gathered the supplies we needed. "You've heard the news then, I assume," he said, noting our black wardrobe.

"Yes, your highness," Emalina replied.

"I'm going to visit Celine," I told him.

"No," he said simply.

"Why not?"

"It's bad luck."

"Are you serious? If infertility were contagious, the entire island of Eir would have been infertile, because we always look after women who lose their babies. But even if it's true, what does it matter? It's not like I need to produce heirs anymore."