CONTINUATION OF FLASHBACK…
THICK BUSHES covered the entrance of the hidden church. As Kosem watched Zeyn descend the stairs, a trail of blood and rain followed him like bait to death. She knew that Zeyn was dying, but his firm hold on Kosem's body never faltered even for one second.
Zeyn walked to the center of the church surrounded by the four grand columns. His labored breathing echoed inside the enclosed space. He pushed aside the enormous-looking table as he laid Kosem's body gently on the tiled floor. Zeyn tapped a specific tile, this caused the tile to flip and showed Kosem's miniature statue beneath the tile. Twisting the statue to the right, Kosem's lingering soul saw a golden casket being revealed by a great number of tiles flipping – showing a hidden tomb.
Kosem saw Zeyn smile. Though his pearly teeth were shown, the tears that fell from his lilac eyes shone like jewels amid the darkness. Zeyn turned to Kosem's body beside him, his tears now directly hitting her ice-cold face. Like a child, Zeyn cradled Kosem's body – rocking her as he hugged her cold corpse. "This tomb was prepared for the next sultan. It is supposed to be my final resting peace. But if they found our corpse, they will throw your body anywhere as they burned mine, and I can't let them do that to you... Kosem, you deserve the world." Zeyn's cold lips touched the corpse's forehead. "The five years I spent with you are the most glorious years of my life, Kosem. You turned me into Zeyn, just Zeyn. Not a Sultan with the weight of a nation, just a man who loves the world through your beautiful eyes. So, rest now, my queen. No one can hurt you now." Touching their lips for the last time, Zeyn closed his eyes as tears streamed down his face down to her cheeks. "I love you, my queen."
Zeyn wrapped Kosem's body before he laid her down inside the golden casket. Every time he placed the wedding decorative she wore before the Janissaries chased them out with arrows, a breath left his body. And with a trembling hand, he wrote inside the casket through his blood.
Kosem, Sultan Hazeyn Suleiman's precious heart.
The moment he closed the casket, forever sealing Kosem, Zeyn sobbed as he whispered. "If we meet again, please love me as you did in this lifetime. Please let me protect you as I failed to do so this time."
Kosem's soul hugged the broken man before her but failed to offer comfort as her corporeal form could not touch him. All she could do was watch Zeyn slowly die as he struggled to push back the gigantic table.
Zeyn fell lifelessly to the tiled floor – too tired to fight for his life. Closing his eyes, he envisioned Kosem's smiling face making him smile as a lone tear slipped from his closed eyes. He did not know that Kosem's soul lay beside him on the floor with him, silently crying as her gaze turned malicious.
END OF FLASHBACK…
TEARS dropped upon remembering her tragic end with the man she loved. She recalled the emotions from that night, but most of all, she remembered the feeling of helplessness. And she would do anything, to prevent that day.
"Four centuries passed by and now I am back to this timeline with two personalities – both from my first life as Kosem and my life as Clara," said Kosem as her peculiar eyes stared coldly at the canopy of her room.
"KOSEM, HOW are your studies going?" asked the smiling Grand Vizier. But Kosem knew that behind those benevolent-looking eyes hid a beast that devoured any thorn on its path. She knew and experienced it firsthand by dying from his command.
Kosem already mastered the art of hiding her ill intent to kill the Grand Vizier by acting sweet and naïve. Many were fooled aside from Torah who remained by her side even when she brought Torah to the fighting pit.
"Peace be upon the Grand Vizier Esad Fehrattin, Kosem Hanim greets you." Kosem curtsied by bowing her head ten degrees while touching her forehead with her right index and thumb. She showed in her curtsy that she learned a great deal after a month of adopting her. She wanted to tell him indirectly that she could be brought to the main palace where Sultan Hazeyn Suleiman resided. Kosem started moving by saving Macit's sister to earn his favor. With the way she wanted to live her second life as Kosem, she wanted to change the outcome of the future even if it would mean that she would mess up with the future.
With Macit as her personal Janissaries, elite guard, Kosem stayed in her room after classes to evaluate the significant events five years before she died. Learning lessons was just the pretext to hide her escapades outside the manor. After all, she already learned the etiquette fit for a Sultan's wife in her past life as Kosem.
"Oh ho! My dearest Kosem is learning well, huh." The gleam of greed and malice flashed in his eyes so fast that Kosem could think she was just imagining it. "Do you want to come with Grandpa to meet the young Sultan? He is close to your age so I hope you will get along well. Grandpa will be very happy if you become close friends with the young Sultan. I just worry for him who is lonely. You understand grandpa, right?"
'That's what you like in the very first place, right? You want to use me against the Sultan to shake his seat and his supporters. And it is also a warning for me. You are warning me in a subtle way that if I want to make you happy, I must follow your words. Really, you are a monster Grand Vizier Esad Fehrattin.'
"I am looking forward to befriending him for my beloved Grandpa." Kosem clasped her hands together as she showed him her huge grin, hiding the sharp glint of her eyes.
'But like what modern sayings, if I want to beat a monster then I must become one too,' Kosem thought cruelly.
"Good. Oh, I heard you already chose a fighter from the fighting pit as your own Janissaries. Aren't my Janissaries enough for you, my granddaughter?" His face was smiling but there was an edge in his voice.
'They are enough to guard me but they are loyal to you. Unlike me and Macit, he still has to settle his debt to me and until I declare him free from me, he will kill for me.'
"Grandpa, I heard from my deceased father that the best fighters are from the fighting pits. I want to try if even once since I heard that Macit the Slayer is a savage beast in the arena," said Kosem with her nonchalant childlike voice. Though her body was a fifteen-year-old girl, her stature, face, and voice were those of a kid – the starvation of Feraize affected Kosem's development.
"So you went to the fighting pit, Kosem?"
Tilting her head, Kosem answered innocently. "Can't I, Grandpa?"
Grand Vizier Esad Fehrattin stared at her for a while. Kosem could feel the fear radiating from Torah who standing at the wall. While Kosem did not blink as she maintained her childlike stance in front of the frosty gaze of Esad. "You can. What's mine is yours as well." His words were shackles hiding from the pretext of sweet promises.
Smiling in a reply, Kosem hid her murderous intent from the one person who was part of the reason for her demise hundreds of years ago.