How long had it been since she had seen the world outside? That man was true to his words. She had been locked in the dungeons and it was far worse than she had imagined. The howls echoed in the lonely corridors. She often heard footsteps that stopped at her cell but she was sure she was hallucinating. She had been alone for days now amongst the seeping walls. The walls reeked of moss, of decay. The chill got to her bone. She didn't even know when to sleep for there was no sunlight. She had to make up her own dawn and dusk. Her food came through a tray, slurpy porridge.
She wrote her name on the walls with the little of tile that came of. Over and over again, just to prove that she was real.
He was a sick man; heartless and ruthless. Her sanity hung by a thread as she looked on with hope. The smell had etched into her skin, the putrid smell of seepage. She rubbed it, for hours on end, to get it off. It only left her red and blotchy.
She heard those footsteps again. Clasping her ears, she did not want to face the deterioration of her mind.
"Madame, you must leave now."
Her eyes were tightly shut, fearing the unknown.
She felt a touch on her hand. It was him, Groca.
"Madame, we must leave now."
*
His wedding gifts were scattered in his room, there were so many too. Jewels, crockery, silk sets. His loving empire had so diligently sent them in. His temples still hurt from the ruckus she created. Stupid, moron, an idiot she was to have tried to run away. It had been four days and still the gifts kept on arriving.
"Groca slow down, slow down. I can hear your footsteps." Groca wore wooden shoes and they made little clattering noises as he ran.
"Sire.. sire.. s..she!"
Before he could ask Groca, he could see the causative of his bewildered state. She stood at the end of the alcove, a sunny yellow dress and a screwed up face to match.
"How dare you! How dare you marry someone else!" She shouted down the hallway as she made her dramatic entry. He should have known she would come knocking. Sooner or later.
"Delilah, a pleasure to meet you too!"
Groca was trembling as he served her tea. He had known her capriciousness, she was worse than his Master.
"What absurdity have you come to cook up now?"
"Absurdity! You got married!" She slammed her hand on the table, the tea spilling everywhere.
"Now, now. Even if I did get married, have you come here to deliver the gifts personally? Oh, how blessed I am!"
"Don't! Don't play your little act in front of me. I love you and you know that. How could you marry someone else!"
She was getting on his nerves now. He hated the very sight of her. She should have been the Goddess of Betrayal not Ferns. The High Heaven were certainly biased when they gave her the altar, even after what she did to him.
His mind wandered off into the period when times were good between them two, him and Delilah.
They first met when they were barely a thousand years old, he the elder by a year or so. How many adventures had they had together from feeding Celebath as a puppy to gathering the amoratia grass which when powdered made people laugh for hours on end. He remembered when they pranked the High God, Loratio with the same. He was dying to punish them but he just couldn't stop laughing. It brought a smile to his face, the lovely childhood he and Delilah spent together. But his smiles would soon turn bitter thinking of her betrayal.
Delilah was the daughter of the Goddess of Grain and Harvest, Mynx, who gave her followers love and grains to eat who ironically, was a very strict mother. Delilah would often be punished for their mischief alone because her mother did not dare lay a finger on the son of the Emperor of the High Heaven. She would sneak out behind her mother's back to go play in the lake.
That was all before he ascended to the position of the Crown Prince and they had lesser and lesser time to spend together. He did miss their time together but she had stained all of them now.
He remembered the day she came to him, crying and wailing.
"Mother.. mother's getting me married to Loratio. Please, help me! Marry me, please! Save me, Hazel!"
High God, Loratio was one of the few High Gods who remained unmarried even in their oldage and he was older than the two by thousands of years. Loratio was a strict man, he was known for his wrath. He could not understand why her mother would take such a decision. Seeing her dilapidated state, he announced to his parents that she was in dire need and that he needed to help her. With their approval, he had married her that very day.
Then her mother came fuming down his palace. He was still in his wedding attire, ready as never before to tell her that she could not get her married to that old geyser. Not any more.
But what she said tore his heart apart.
High Goddess Mynx came flying down the corridor,"What is she doing here? Why did you marry her? Why did I have to listen about this from someone else?"
"Aunt, listen to me! Don't get angry! She deserves better! You cannot get her married to High God Loratio! He will skin her alive!"
"What! Who said she was marrying Loratio! Are you stupid!"
"Aunt, but she came to me. She said you're getting her married. I can't let that happen to her!"
"You moron! I saw her letter today. She wrote this year she must marry you before your coronation. She doesn't want you whisked away by some Princess. She loves you and she knows you won't marry her. She lied to you." She broke down on his altar as he looked away in disbelief. Her mother had to beg his parents to forgive Delilah. She though everything would be okay once she were married but her mother had come early from her trip, spoiling her plans.
He couldn't believe it then, he couldn't believe it now. How he had begged his parents to let him marry her, he was willing to give up his position so that she would be safe. Where had the sweet child he had known gone? He never had romantic inklings for her but to gain him, she had lied. And that's what he hated most, lies.
His mind wandered back to the presence, her contorted face welcoming him.
"Are you even listening to me? I know what I did was wrong but this, this is not okay."
She was getting on his nerves now. "Come with me." He needed to shake her off now, he motioned Groca. Groca could feel the paper his master slipped in his pockets - 'Get her here. I will her grant one wish. You know what must be done."
Delilah was still the same - she still jumped the canon without thinking. "Hazelkar, do you still hate me?" He could see her eyes tearing up as he took her to his terrace garden. Handing her a glass of champagne, he wondered if he really knew his answer.
Down in the dungeons, Groca gave Auxi two options - to rot away in the dungeons or to play along with his act.
"The clothes are laid out in your room. If you say yes, my Master said he may grant you one wish. Think carefully, childe."
Auxillium knew if he was giving her this opportunity meant that he needed her to be there and hence had a lucrative order on the way. But she knew, when someone needs you, you need to ebb and flow.
"Yes, do take me there Groca." It was her time to shine. Her life was hanging by a thread and opportunity had come knocking. She looked back into her little cell, with her straw mat and the little mites, she wasn't going to come here again.
"You have made the right choice, childe."
Her eyes squinted as she saw the sun for the first time in the last week, it warmed her skin. Revenge is a bloodily bathed four letter word - love.
"Childe, your duty is to portray a loving relationship with Master until his guest leaves. Thereafter, if he is convinced, he might grant a wish."
"Is she here to meet me?"
"No, not particularly so." She knew it! It had to be a woman. No man was willing to go to such lengths if not for a woman - both to please or rile her. Was she one of his past lovers? Not that she cared. She let out a bright smile as she donned her dress. It was time to welcome the storm beneath.
The pale pink dress lay delicately on her shoulders, her collar bones proud. She had been bathed in rose water making the stench of the damp go away. But all of it was in a hurry. The maids were hustling about, rushing to get her the gold headdress. Strands of her silk hair lapped softly on her delicate structure. Even she felt she looked pretty. Her red lips, her high cheeks all looked as if they belonged on someone on the catalogs of Vogue.
"How do I look Groca?"
"Quite, quite well, childe."
Oh how pretty she looked! Her beauty could mesmerize.
"Childe this way." He led her to the terrace garden where only half an hour ago, he had seen his Master tolerating Miss Delilah's presence. How he loathed that stupid woman! A fox she was to try to trick his Master!
She held her hand out as she walked forth, she still had trouble walking in the heels.
"Sire, Madame Auxillium has arrived."
Even his Master looked slightly shook. Nymphs would bow before her for her beauty had no comparison - mortal or immortal.
"Darling! Where have you been? I have specifically made chocolate strawberries that you love so very much!" Auxi said squinting her face as much as she could as she ran towards him. He looked as confused as she did but it was finally time to let out her acting chops she learnt from watching all those dramas in the hospital.
She sat in his lap, squishing his cheeks,"Deary! You look so thin! Come with me! I'll feed you strawberries." She embodied the spirit of Charlotte from the Princess and the Frog. God did she hate doing that but he looked so close to puking it made her day!
"Oh I didn't notice you! You are?" She held out her hand to Delilah who was no short of steaming at the ears. "Darling, who is she?"
He looked so uneasy and she loved every minute of it.
"S..She is an acquaintance, De..Delilah."
"Oh poor you! Is she the guest Groca said had been troubling you for the past hour?"
Delilah looked like she would puke any second now. Oh how it brought peace to her blithering soul! Auxillium never had more fun in her life.
"Nice to meet you Delilah!" She hugged onto his neck, like a snake on a tree. She knew it could backfire later, but she already had planned for all possible outcomes.
"Nice to meet you too." Her voice a bare whisper, Delilah's anger seething sent her nose and ears red. But she wasn't one to back down easily.
"Did he tell you that we had been married before?" Delilah thought she could use this petty excuse to unravel her disposition.
"Had been, right? That's okay, it's your consolation. After all, you don't marry such a handsome man every day. As for knowing his past lovers, I don't think I can read a list as long!"
He could see Groca losing his composure, laughing as quietly as he could. This woman for sure could bowl anyone over. She went against his grains but when she came down to it, she was hard to beat.
"I will be leaving now." Delilah got up with the hopes of him seeing her out, but did he stamp her hopes out. "Groca," he said loud enough for him to hear for he was still laughing his heart out, "show Miss Delilah out, will you?"
Auxi could see her reach into her purse under the table. She took out a white object, polka dotted with black, like an eye. She understood her game but Auxi was no one to back down.
Auxi had never seen anyone walk as fast as her as Delilah walked out. Now they were alone, she on his lap, he waiting for her to do something. Since she came in shashaying, he hadn't been able to focus. At all. He went into autopilot mode.
"Come with me," she whispered into his ears as she got up looking expectantly at him. She held out her hand and he grabbed it. Did she like him? Had she fallen in love with him? He didn't know.
She walked with him to her room through the stone walled corridors. The maids looked shocked at the very least as they saw their Master walking hand in hand with a woman.
"Come in." She took him to her room, the sunset envisioning the room in a pink blaze. The slits in her dress showed off her elegant legs as she crawled on the bed motioning him to come to her.
He couldn't believe what was happening in front of him, he waited for her to call out her prank but she wouldn't.
As soon as he kneeled, she took hold of his neck, her back arching up. Her hands raced down her thighs as she brought out a dagger straight to his jugular - "Don't move."