My terrible night sleep is made even worse by a series of noise followed by eathquakes.
"Your Highness, Zyron is approaching rapidly and the Great Battle will be taking place today", startles me awake an arrow barging into my room. I thank and him and send him out to get the others prepared.
Looking outside the window I see a pilar of smoke being raised horizontally formed by a legion or soldiers and chariots. I force myself to regain control and in a matter of minutes I'm assembling my arrows to march towards them. There's a designated battlefield where the Battles take place which is further away form habitation but Zyron seems to be heading straight to overthrow the Palace. Having had an infiltrate I figure they must have studied their attack quite well.
"People of Arrow I beg you to drop your defence and hand yourself over to Zyron as this will end in defeat", speaks sonorously a woman on the front line, Zaffera not far away from her and I can see a staggering resemblance between the two.
I grit my teeth, in position to attack, "And why should we?"
"I am glad you asked... We have your Royals and are willing to free them in exchange for your Kingdom!" She spits out with such tenancy I wonder where Zaffera got her positive traits from. They might look like the carbon copy of the other but nothing alike in terms of character. Only after her actual words hit me like a punch right across the face as I see my guardians in dirty cloths, chained up by chariot advancing towards the front line.
Mother has never looked so pale, and they both show signs of malnutrition. I can't believe Zaffera allowed this. How could she be so kind to me, smile to me, while behind the scenes she was just playing me like violin. Tears well up under my eyes but I ignore my natural emotional response by advancing further and screaming 'fire' at the top of my lungs with such rage I've never felt before.
"FIGHT!", seconds me Klaus setting the cannons, an imperceptible crack in his voice. Though he's distant and I connot see him well I can picture well a few lone tears streaming down his face too. I expect all the arrows to painfully give it their all to get their royals back.
The Great Battle has been going on for hours now and as I notice my attacks lose accuracy I can see the arrows getting pretty wormed out too. In spite of that there's no sign of retreat from either side. I then notice Zaffera move away from the frontline and I mirror her moves. I'm rather confused as soldiers do get constantly swapped out during battles as they are long and tiring but those on the front lines are expected to be the leaders and withstand the battle. When I'm close enough to her I grab her arm and take her to the closest hiding spot to confront her.
"Hey!" she says in a loud whisper not expecting me, a dull look on her face.
"You knew they were alive this whole time and didn't tell me?! You were right last time... I don't know you. I didn't know there was such a miscevoius side to you." I scold her blinded by anger.
"I didn't...know" she says staring at the grass instead of looking up at me. Her shell is present but her life within is completely gone. I'd expect her to be stumping her ground yelling at me that it's just a big misunderstanding, instead she's doing that almost in monotone, "I only found out today, Queen Mother has never seen me as capable enough to know this type of stuff. If I had known I would have told you, you need to believe me."
I want to believe her, I really do. But the heartache I'm feeling because of her right now it's too much to bare. I'm conflicted between wanting to hug her so tightly and walking away and never talk to her again.
"I don't believe you." I stand up from my crowching position and walk away. I can hear her faint cry in the distance and I wipe away my own tears off my face.
'Time to get my guardians back instead,' I think but I'm held back by a hand that grabs me and forces to halt.
"I think I love you too Fenyang...", she says, "And I will go out there and tell my Kingdom if that's what it takes, because you matter more to me than my Queen Mother's approval." Her tone is quite convincing but I can't forgive her this easily, or can I.
I turn around to hold her hand back properly, "Then let's do it together."
It honestly feels like a movie scene in slow motion as we walk back to the battle grounds, about to confess our love for eachother to our rivaling Kingdoms.
I grab one of the shooting cannons used to decree a pause so we can make our announcement and in a split second the bullets and fire that were being thrown left and centre cease and still tightly squeezing my hand Zaffera speaks boldly: "We don't have to fight with one another, we can learn to love each other. Like me and Fenyang did. Queen Mother I'm sorry to disappoint you, but he isn't the enemy... He's the person I want to be with."
I look at her, unable to speak a word. All things considered she has never harmed me directly and if she truly didn't know about my guardians I have no reason to resent her for it. Besides I can see that she truly cares in all of her actions, from her bloodshot eyes to her standing here in the middle of the Great Battle declaring her love for me to the people.
The silence created doesn't last for long as the Queen snaps her fingers and orders to take her back to Palace. A set of guards comes and grab her, taking her away, far away from me. Then finally the people of Zyron begin retreating and to my surprise my guardians aren't taken away with them.
In a bittersweet moment, I run to them and hug them for the first time in over a year of hell that was.
"I thought you were dead", I cry sniffling Mother's lost perfume in a surreal moment. For once I truly have no idea of what will happen next, or if I'll ever even see Zaffera again.