For some reason, I couldn't sleep as I turned in the bed given to me. After the discussion with the Emperor maybe the day prior, I didn't see him as he had courtly duties to attend. I sighed and sat up, staring down at the finely made blankets and the decorated bedposts. Maybe it was because this wasn't my own room I couldn't embrace the darkness of sleep. It wouldn't hurt to wander the palace and get familiar with it would it?
My feet padded on the stone floors as I left the room, the sound minuscule. Guards were standing watch and I bowed my head to them before stopping and walking back for a cloak or a robe. This wasn't my home so who was I to walk around in just my petticoat? Stepping out again, a guard stood in front of my door with his arm held out, "My Lady, could you not sleep?"
I stared at his arm before taking it and nodding. He started leading me down the hall and I looked around, taking in the art of the guest wing.
"Might I ask your connection to the Emperor for him to treat you so well," the knight asked.
I patted his arm and gave a shrug. There was no way for me to talk unless I was in water. I wanted to tell him even I didn't know, just that he found my body. No one needed to know that he proposed and gave me a year.
"You're very quiet, My Lady," he sighed. "I guess it helps though." I scowled and pulled back, the knight letting me. "Please don't fight me, I need this money."
I held my breath and pointed at him, his face twisting in confusion.
"What," he asked. He pulled his sword from his waist and I turned and bolted down the hall. The clanking of his armor behind me told me the chase was on. Everyone was most likely sleeping, leaving me to fend for myself. How had I not noticed the guards literally moments before were gone?
The clanking drew closer as I rounded a corner, stopping short at the sight of the guards walking away. My mouth was covered quickly, my body pulled back by the grip to hide from the guards. The blade came up to my throat and my body began to tremble and my eyes closed, ignoring the defensive maneuvers my mind produced. The cold sting was there and then it stopped. There was a different cold now, one just as familiar if not more terrifying.
My eyes opened to the currents of the water yet my body didn't move. I glanced around, the world flowing as if there was a breeze. Plants that defied gravity, old sunken logs covered in the life that thrived underwater; was I in the river once more? I stared down, blinking at my feet against the ground. It was real, the soft squishing of the algae below the soles of my feet.
In a morbid sense, it was beautiful, light flickering from above even in the darkness. Stepping forward didn't disturb the sands or make murky clouds, my goal being the riverbank that the ground was sloping to. I managed to climb from the waters, the entirety of me dry as I stared at the tree line. The palace was off in the distance, one part of it with lit windows. My heart was still racing and I wanted to turn and walk away, to avoid explaining what had just happened.
I wasn't even sure myself yet I found myself walking back. The emperor had answers and he was willing to teach me. Wasn't he? My legs stopped and I grit my teeth before turning to face the river once more. If he couldn't tell me, I could figure it out from the water, couldn't I?
I stepped into it, keeping the water at my ankles as I gasped to make noise. It wasn't as cold now but pleasant to my skin. "Where are you," I asked softly. "Why did you do it? And why me?"
The silence was filled with the sounds of night creatures. No verbal response coming back to me.
"Please," my voice cracked as I felt a pressure in my chest. "I've lost my dignity, my honor, and I've shamed so many people. Why me?" There was still nothing but silence and I began to feel silly. Water wouldn't answer me, it wasn't a living thing.
I turned and went to step from the water, stopping as it seemed to suck me back into it. What felt like a hand ghosted over the back of my neck before wrapping around it and a sinister sounding giggle echoed in my ear.
"Normal people avoid what killed them, sweet. Just how much hope have you lost," the voice was sickeningly sweet and reverberated within itself. "Aren't you daring? Coming and speaking to me when you don't even know yourself; you should know better."
"Who are you," the question was meek and made me sound like a little girl. It only served to make the voice laugh as it moved its grip. I could feel my hair be moved before a dark, blue skinned hand passed into my vision. It's claws were long, sharpened and dangerous yet slightly transparent as if they could decide to pass through someone or skewer them.
"You're my vessel, I am your power," the voice cooed. "Can't you figure that out?"
"Why," I asked.
An indignant sigh came next as I was shoved forward, "You'll see." I stumbled and turned, nothing there besides the raging waters of the river. I grit my teeth and started walking towards the palace once more, fighting against the shrubbery and roots. There was a being that responded, even if those responses created more irritability. I pulled up next to the road, stopping short as a carriage zipped by me.
It stopped quickly, the door flying open to the emperor in n thing but a shirt and loose trousers. I couldn't tell if it was worry on his face or frustration as he got out.
"What happened," he asked.
I glanced around and put my hand to my neck, his eyes narrowing. I didn't know, but the wound was still bleeding, the blood as slow as a lazy creak spreading down the petticoat.
"Countess," he sighed. "Come, we need to have you looked at." He helped me into the carriage, glaring out the window as it started forward towards the lights. It was a silent carriage ride back and I started to be filled with angst. I couldn't voice it but why should I have even tried? I didn't know how he was.
He could be like the count and anger would fill him at even the attempt at a noise. He looked angry enough and my mind quickly traveled to the basement, to the whips and the punishments that normally awaited. Words would do little right now; why would he listen in the state he was in currently?
"Whoever did it will pay," he muttered finally. The phrase did little to ease my nerves as I sat straighter. That had never bode well and as words were lost on me I couldn't truly defend myself. The emperor glanced over his eyes changing from anger to shock, "Countess?"
I flinched when he reached out, his hand retracting. It was silent and not too long into it, the carriage stopped. He was the first to get out, his hand held out to me. For someone who appeared stoic all the time, he was very expressive now as his thoughts churned in his eyes. I let him help me out and went to pull away as soon as my feet hit the ground but his hand held firm.
He moved my arm under his, the hand over mine gentle as I stiffened, "You're not in danger anymore. The guards have apprehended the assassin."
There was no way for me to tell him it wasn't the man I was scared of but what he would do so I just nodded my response.
"Did you end up at the river," he asked.
I nodded again and pulled the robe closer to me. He hummed softly and then smiled, his hand patting mine just as gently.
"I see, you reacted on your own," he stated. "It'll happen when you feel threatened. I'll have a house built by it for you."
I quickly shook my head, my eyes wide. I didn't need anything from him and a house was too much.
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Did she know she was trembling so much? The feel of her delicate hand on my arm was like a leaf in the wind yet her face stayed blank as she looked forward. What had I said to make her shut down like this? I had no one to blame but the count for her reaction, didn't I? She could be described as almost pitiful in the state she was in.
I led her into the palace, the last guards to see her on their knees, waiting to be pointed out by the countess. Her step stuttered and her shaking grip tightened slightly as her eyes trailed over them. Those beautiful eyes that were now an obvious bright and icy blue to only me glanced at me from the corners before averting quickly. I could see the confusion and it made me frown at the reaction. What did she think I had meant back in the carriage?
I had never met someone so fearful of another's words to this extent. She had obviously been tip toeing around me as if not to make me upset or to raise any eyes since her stay to the point even the servants noticed. I had thoughts on it such as questions toward the count and his new wife, even her father about her childhood, but they were questions for later that morning. Both men were scheduled to pay separate visits; one to get a divorce and the the other for permissions to marry her. "Who was it," I asked bluntly.
The countess shirked away slightly, her eyes wide as they fell to the floor in her immediate response. Why would a woman of her standing be so submissive? It made me grind my teeth in frustration.
"Countess, I trust your eyes don't fail you," I puffed my chest a bit as I stared at the three. It was obvious what one it was. His sword was missing and his face was pale as the sea blue eyes locked onto the countess in wonder. The other two weren't sweating as much either, their bodies still while the other fidgeted with his fingers.
The countess slowly pointed and I smiled as best I could to her.
"Not so hard, was it," I hummed. I watched as her chest heaved in mere seconds at the phrase, fear filling that sharp gaze that would freeze any other man. For a water being to have selected someone, the person would have to be cold and calculated yet soothing to those around them. Helga barely knew the premises for being selected, the contradictions in character that had to exist for a human vessel to be selected. She had met them, probably had surpassed expectations as she had excelled in almost everything else.
It wasn't as simple as with his own being, the one that selected me. It didn't seem that way anyways. I had met only a few others and their standards were harder, more demanding. Maybe those standards had to come easily to the person like his own had to him. "Take him to be interrogated. We need to know who wants the countess dead," I ordered. The other two stood, their eyes never leaving the assassin as he was led to the lower parts of the palace.