It took a while for Iran's eyes to get used to the darkness of the room. However, as soon as he managed to see the shadow of the man sat in front of the closed window, he approached him, in solidarity.
He sat beside him, placing a hand over the lad's shoulder and smiled at him.
"Why don't you leave the room?" he asked. "The sun is so beautiful outside."
"I'm not used to the mask yet," said Cedric, in a low voice. "So, I'd rather stay here."
"It's not good to remain in the darkness, my son," he advised. "Take a walk around."
The silence that followed it showed how little interest the future King of Bran had to proceed with that conversation.
"We need to talk about your wedding, Cedric."
"I will not get married."
The harsh statement made Iran sigh, in resignation.
"I understand your pain, but it had been almost a month since Lady Lyn broke off the wedding. You need to move on…"
"No!" the interruption was stubborn. "I don't want to fall in love ever again…"
"Marriage isn't a bond that involves love, my son," Iran adjusted his body in the chair, in order to find a more comfortable position. "It's basically a political deal. A king needs a queen. You don't have to love her, just to marry the woman. And I have such a special mashian waiting for you…"
"I've already told you, no!"
"Cedric." His uncle left the chair and stopped in front of him. "Lady Lyn is already engaged to another man. She is moving on with her life and you should do the same," he said severely. However, he regretted it in face of the surprised look he received. Clearly, Cedric wasn't aware that his former fiancée was already with someone else. "I know you loved her," he tried to soften it. "But your feelings weren't returned in the same measure. These kind of things happen, even to a future king. However, tell me, do your people need to be punished by your heartbreak? I believe you agree with me: Bran's valiant people deserve a King and a Queen."
Silence. Nonetheless, that lack of response was positive, for Iran could sense the doubt filling the dark eyes of his beloved foster child.
"I've tried to convince your dad to marry a mashian," he lied.
Actually, Iran tried to convince Atho not to marry. No one. No woman. His jealousy and his possessiveness had tainted his best friend's life.
"However, he didn't listen to me because he was in love with your mother. In this moment, for all I know, you have no feelings for any branian."
Cedric lowered his head. He had, but Lyn, the branian in question didn't want him.
"It's our chance to unite the kingdoms, to make them brothers. Your son will be King of Bran and Masha."
"But the King of Masha will be Cael."
"May the Goddess forgive me, Cedric but, Cael wasn't born to be a king. And he definitely won't mind. He won an island from his maternal grandmother, far from Masha, and he will most likely settle down there as soon as he can."
The banning of his lawful son was in his plans for the future, but he didn't have the time and disposition to think about that right at that moment.
"The clergies against the marriage between different races."
"I know," Iran went back to his seat, realizing that now he could feel hope in Cedric's tone of voice. "The casheans, for instance, call the children born from a union of two different races as "unclean". Honestly, nothing in the world can be worse than being an unclean. However, we know that Masha and Bran were very close. Our religion mention many times how many times she used to sing for Bran and that Bran even gave her scent to some flowers in order to feel it."
Cedric faced him. A bond between mashians and branians had never occurred to him. Differently from what happened in Cashel, where their women would be frequently be raped by white men, giving birth to uncleans, such a thing never occurred between the white people. Mashians and branians respected each other deeply.
"I feel..." he mumbled, "that this is Bran's will. That this is Masha's will. For a long time I have the feeling that our people must become one."
Cedric took a deep breath and finally nodded.
"My son," Iran felt tears coming to his eyes. "My beloved son," he hugged him. "Finally the Gods will have their will fulfilled."
Later, when he left the room, although, his memories were far from the divinities. His sole thought was Atho.
"My beloved... Finally our bloods will blend into one."
It was symbolic, but it was worth a lot to him.
***
Randu crossed the door of the small rented room in an alley near the docks. Strong and tall, he managed to find a job as soon as he got to the harbor. To unload the packages of groceries from the ships that arrived there didn't look so bad. Used to the hard work, he performed his job with discretion and responsibility.
He didn't make any friends in those first days. He couldn't risk his sister's life. He realized that there were uncleans there, but they were all men. He heard through the small talk that the men, whose green eyes contrasted with the dark skin, were castrated in order not to have children.
"But how would you castrate a woman?" questioned one of the unloaders, laughing, while explaining why there was no unclean woman in the docks nor in the brothels. "Soon that plague would start replicating. So, it's better to kill then at once!"
He heard all that in a morbid silence, imagining what was he supposed to do with his sister in that place. Maybe it had been a bad idea, but… where else would they go? In which place in the world would an unclean be safe?
The unclean men had the advantage to have dark skins. Just that already helped them to interact with the casheans. However, unclean women were always born with a fair white skin. A sole attribute was enough to denounce them. With a blush, he casted his thoughts away, escaping from that weird way of thoughts.
He sighed, facing the clean space. His sister was sat by the window, looking through a crack in the curtain. Beside her, the sword and the spinning wheel, which seemed to have kept her busy through the afternoon.
"You've cleaned it all," he commented, trying to make a conversation, when he saw her turning to him.
"Twice."
Suddenly, she stood up.
"I can't live hidden in here, brother. I could go out, using my hood."
"When we arrived, no one noticed you under the hood for two reasons: first, it was dark. Secondly, because you pretended to be my wife and I was groaning to anyone who looked at you. The ladyship even thinks I'm a terrible husband who doesn't even allow his wife to see the sunlight."
Emerald laughed and he didn't resist, but laughed along. However, it was a sad laughter and they were both aware of that.
"I want to be free, my brother."
"I would give you the moon and the stars, if I could. But, as the stars aren't mine to give you, your freedom isn't as well."
She nodded, embarrassed. She knew that Randu did the best he could for her. However, she was tired. It had been some years since she completed twenty springs and her poor brother was almost a slave, living for her, supporting her in every way, protecting her like a shield. It wasn't fair. Randu deserved better.
As soon as he turned his back on her to get some water for her bath — since he bathed himself in the communitarian bathroom of the household — the woman sat down near the window again. Hidden behind the curtain, her emerald eyes sparkled. She needed a plan… and she needed it soon.
***
"They say his face is completely deformed," her cousin Adela laughed, making a face. "And they also say he got nuts. That he locks himself into his room, living in the shadows and never allow anyone to look at his face."
Rhianna raised her head, facing her cousin. The girl, two years younger than her, seemed to be extremely happy for her unfortunate destiny.
"Daddy told me he eats babies, since he gone mad."
Rhianna looked away, lowering her head.
"And now you will be his wife!" Adela screeched, clapping her hands. "What a fair fate."
"Fair?"
"For being beautiful, for stealing all my boyfriends... Masha never sleeps, I've prayed every night for Her to reward you for your envious and cruel soul."
Rhianna didn't answer that.
Her cousin, unfortunately, wasn't blessed with the beauty that mashian women shared. Too small, too skinny, with no breasts, no ass and not even an attribute — both physical and psychological — that could make her stand out, it didn't take her long to be despised by the men. As her family couldn't accept that it was the lack of qualities that prevented their only daughter from getting married, they soon found someone to blame for it.
Rhianna had lost her parents too early. Her mother, due to a fever, her father, in the War of a Thousand Days. Therefore, she was taken to her uncle's house. As soon as she arrived there, Adela's mother died in the labor of her cousin's younger brother, who didn't last much longer as well. They've cursed her, but didn't go back in the offer of sheltering her, for they were afraid of the hand of the Goddess, who was clear in stating in her parchments that no one was allowed to dismiss a relative in need.
She lived in the shadows, eating the leftovers of her relatives' table. She was like a small mouse, a hindrance, who hid herself in the corners for no one to notice her. However, one day she was perceived. Her cousin's pretenders saw and desired her. Many marriage proposals came, but Adela's father, revolted by the situation, promised that Rhianna wouldn't get married before his daughter.
Since no one wanted Adela, she became a single woman as well.
In that cruel world, what could be worse for a woman? The sole reason of their lives was to give birth and give children to their men. If they didn't get married, what were they worth?
Her destiny, nevertheless, seemed to change due to a letter from the regent. Iran, the King of Masha by right, had chosen her, among all women, to the Queen of Bran.
It seemed to be a dream, if it wasn't for the legends that circled around.
Cedric, they said, was a deformed king, hidden behind a mask in order to hide such a terror. The accident, which took away both his beauty and his fiancée, had happened a few months ago and, since then, he remained locked into his room. People said that, sometimes, he would show up in public using a mask, but the accessory only made people around him more embarrassed.
However, could any fate be worse than the life she had?
If Cedric of Bran were truly bitter, he wouldn't even ask for her presence. She wouldn't have a husband, in the real sense of the world, but she would be free to walk around the castle without worrying about not offending anyone just by existing.
Hiding a smile, she finally asked.
"When will they take me?"
The sound of steps made the girls stand up. A middle-aged mashian entered in the tearoom and watched them.
"Soon," he answered, showing that he had heard what she asked.
"Soon," Adela faced her, with enigmatic eyes. "Soon you will be devoured by that monster."