The Queen narrowed her eyes. "But he does believe that he can still use you. And we can definitely use that to our advantage." she said.
Aria's eyes widened as she listened to this. Even she had not thought this far ahead. Amber definitely deserved to be the Queen of the water kingdom, she was a master strategist on top of being so strong. Though Aria didn't like the sound of being used, even for good reasons, she still had to admire the Queen's cunning.
Aria sat looking at the Queen, wondering what it all meant for her. Now that she had been dragged such strongly into the kingdom politics, would she be able to keep her identity hidden. She pushed these questions to the back of her mind upon seeing Amber turn towards her with an askance look on her face.
"Did he. . . . . " The Queen began, but her words trailed off.
Aria waited patiently. She could tell that whatever Amber was about to ask, held a lot of importance for her. Finally, after about a minute she gathered up enough courage to say, "Did he tell you about what happened between us? Or mention me in any way at all?"
The realization that the Queen might still be in love with Edmond Christo hit Aria like a brick. "I do not want to be in this situation!!!" she thought to herself as Aria pushed this to the back of her mind and focused on answering Amber's question.
But apparently she didn't really need to answer. The Queen saw the change in Aria's expression and understood. Aria felt really bad upon seeing her face go from hopeful to disappointed and heart-broken in a second. "I don't think he had . . . . " she began, but the Queen cut her off. She stood up and dusted off her dress as she said, "I shouldn't keep you out much longer. Miss Anhao will have my head otherwise."
Aria pursued her lips and didn't say anything as she was lifted in the air and flown beside Amber. The rest of the way to the recovery ward was silent as neither of the two spoke.
That night . . . .
Aria wasn't sure how much of what she had talked about with the Queen she was supposed to tell Helen and the others. She couldn't very well tell them about Amber still being in love with Edmond, as she hadn't told them about Edmond being the father of the lost princess in the first place.
But Aria told them about the other things they had talked about, like the Queen not believing her to be her daughter, her wanting to use Aria for their benefit, and some other things.
"So she doesn't believe you to be her daughter after all!" Helen sighed with relief as she finished. Aria nodded with a smile as Jacob spoke, a frown on his face, "I don't like the fact that she's planning on using you at all."
Aria shrugged and opened her mouth to reply, but apparently Joseph also had something on his mind. "You didn't tell her about Susan." he said, his words a statement, and not a question. Aria pursued her lips. She had actually not told the Queen about the incident with Susan. To be honest, with everything about Edmond, it had escaped Aria's mind.