Once more slowly life returned to its previous rhythm. An altar was raised in the name of the Holy Mother. Evin was the only one that knew the truth, and it remained so, at her express request after he'd insisted over the course of days that she should tell the people who she truly was, a queen. Their saviour. It didn't matter who she was, or who she had been in the past. What mattered was who she was at that moment. And it was neither of those things. Not a queen, not a saviour. Not even close to one.
Merely seeking redemption, forgiveness for those who had suffered, at her lacking capabilities to foresee the countless consequences of their action. The witch died, felling the people bonded to her by blood. Her inability to fight harder the first time around had set in motion a chain of events that nearly destroyed the northern part of the Seven Seas.
The lands reeked of death and isolation. Even if nature had prevailed, the sight of all those corpses spread on the citadel grounds still haunted her sometimes at night. When solitude became her only companion.
Days passed and a response to the urn she'd sent filled with the ashes of his army and the missive she had attached to it, had arrived the very same day as she was preparing to leave for Ironstone.
A wooden box, carved with skulls and bones was found near the border. No note attached to it. Though the box in itself was a declaration of war since it was filled with rotting eyes, ears, and fingers. A promise, Evin said, that the people of Redkite would be tortured and mutilated in ways that they would plead for the relief of death with tears of blood. It will not be given. They would wander in darkness, fumbling with their crippled fingers for the rest of their remaining days, as punishment for her disobedience. For having dared to challenge him, blood will be spilt. One worse than the other.
The sisters wickedly cackled in her ears, at the contents of the box. She felt her insides knot and turn in revulsion. Who had they belonged to? All those eyeballs, ears and fingers.
None deserved to be mutilated in such a manner. Most certainly the owners were prisoners, slaves, and criminals. The latter deserved to be punished, as for the other ones... It was an act of boundless cruelty. Life was cruel sometimes. But that....she shuddered as her mind began conjuring images of the same people living in the citadel, maimed.
Reluctantly, she closed the box and tossed it into the fire along with everything in it, and soon enough, her nostrils were flooded with an all too familiar scent of burnt flesh.
Grimacing at the miasma pervading her nostrils, she turned away from the fire and folded the bag she had prepared for her journey.
The sisters sighed in her ears, speechless.
" I shouldn't go," Iris spoke to them, and they finally made their presence known with a drawn-out hum.
" They will be safe," One of them candidly said, with no trace of the usual humour or wickedness in her voice.
" How do I know, I can trust you? How will you protect them?" Her angst trickled through, and her voice subtly trembled as she clutched the front of her ragged tunic, with her gaze fixed on the wall before her. She wouldn't know where to look when speaking to them, but they hovered in ether. A place where they could see everything, but they had been robbed of the pleasures of being able to enjoy the little things, to feel, to eat and drink. A punishment for their past transgressions. The gods were cruel when passing their judgment.
" The circlet," The same sisters said, her voice nearly a whisper. She paused when one of the sisters growled in her ear to keep her mouth shut, " Is more than that. There is something in it that allows you to control us better. Not fully, " She took a deep breath, " Put it on," She urged, in a tempered tone, " and see for yourself," Iris pulled the circlet out of the bag. She had been contemplating the matter for quite some time.
Placing the circlet on her head, Iris turned to look in the mirror. The golden shine, and the diorite stones, gleaming in the early light of the first sun took her breath away. And for once she could feel, the power settle to an even rhythm as it flowed through her veins. A relief from the daily struggle to contain them, when all they wanted was to lash out and wreak havoc in their path to satisfy their insatiable hunger.
" I'll take this as a sign of good faith on your part," Iris breathlessly whispered to the sisters, who hummed, slightly disgruntled. A secret had been revealed. She knew there was more but every time she asked. Her questions were met with utterly numbing silence.
" It is time to go, " One of them urged as she remained rooted to her spot, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Indeed, it was.
" I'm looking forward to seeing him," The other one hummed in lewd approval.
" You're looking forward to seeing the tree trunk between his legs. Who are trying to fool? Dirty whore," The other one retorted, wickedly laughing. A sort of banter between sisters.
" As if," The other one scoffed, " I saw drooling and eating him with your eyes every time he took his clothes off. If only you could, you would have stuffed your mouth, and yourself with him, the moment she laid her eyes on him," The other one laughed her head off as they bickered over who wanted him more, and spoke of his member as if they were speaking what colour should they choose for the table cloth.
Iris closed her eyes, and threw the bag on her shoulders while listening to the sisters lewdly speaking of Corvin and how deliciously decadent he was in all his naked glory.
The stables appeared, and she couldn't listen to them anymore. Hissing through clenched teeth, urging them to keep quiet, just for a moment so she could gather her thoughts. She mounted the horse with the sigh of the two sisters in her ear. One remained behind a decision not easily made. She had to listen to endless, exhausting long days of bickering over the matter.
Needless to say the sisters once more began arguing over who lusted more over Corvin. And soon enough they turned on their absent sister. The quieter one, out of the three. Surveying her surroundings with a keen eye, and desperately trying to drown out the voices in her ear, that at one point became so loud that she could barely hear her own thoughts.
She'd never thought of Corvin the way they did. Although the sisters were right, he was devastatingly handsome. So much so that sometimes she easily found herself tracing his features with her eyes. It should be forbidden.
Shaking her head, Iris spurred the horse with her heels, hoping that the wind would eventually drown out her sinful thoughts. She couldn't allow herself to think that way. Ian was her husband and had sacrificed himself for her, so she could live and in the end, join him thereafter. Live the life they never had a chance to, in the living world.
" Someone is in a hurry," One of the sisters cooed in her ear. She didn't bother to dignify that remark with an answer and hugged the neck of her handsome boy.
The only male who didn't give her any sort of grief. He obeyed her every command and offered her all the tenderness she needed, unconditionally.