"What should we do today?" Arya asked Aston as they sat in one of the many sitting rooms in the mansion. Now that it was just the two of them Arya and Aston had to slightly reschedule their plans for the day as their previous ones had involved Cedric.
"I had wanted to do some more sword fighting with Dad." Aston sulked. He was still upset about his fathers' early departure the day before.
"You can practice with Sir Aaron instead." Arya said in an attempt to cheer Aston up. Aston looked at Sir Aaron who was standing in the corner of the room at attention. He smiled when Aston looked his way to let him know he was happy to train with him. Aston frowned.
"But he's not dad." He stated.
"Yes, but he is a commander of the imperial knights he is one of the strongest knights in the empire after your father." Arya tried to convince him.
Aston gave her a skeptical look.
"Come on." Arya said as she caressed his face. "Give him a chance okay?
With it being Aston's last day before he had to go back to the castle to continue his studies as crown prince, Aston was a little irritable. The day before he was grumpy about Cedric leaving and you could see he was still upset about it.
"If you keep on sulking you won't enjoy your last day here either." Arya added.
Aston thought about it for a moment. "Fine." He answered. "I'll do it with him."
"Fantastic." She enthusiastically said. "Susie take Aston and get him ready for practice."
Susie who, like Sir Aaron, was standing at another corner of the room ready for her next order was brought out of her thoughts. "Yes,my lady." she responded to Aryas' order and left with the room with Aston. She had been staring at Arya and Aston as they interacted.
A few days ago Susie learned her new mistress, Duchess Varez, was the former empress of the empire. She secretly ran the mysterious of Rinova and apparantly every month the Crown Prince and sometimes the emperor would come to visit her. At first Susie thought Arya was was running the town and not living in the castle because she and the emperor had gone their separate ways.
"I can tell what you're thinking." Sir Aaron commented as he took the towel from Susie. "If the emperor and the duchess are close why isn't she in must be a horrible mother not being there for her son."
Susie's gave reddened in embarrassed "No I could never have such dishonorable thoughts."
Then try not to look such an open book. He said "Word of advice, often times us servants will never understand the world of our masters, the lives they live, the decisions they make. It's best not to think much about it and accept it."
The guilt was starting to eat away at Arya. Aston seemed really upset about never having enough time to spend time with either of them. She tried to think of a number of ways to cheer him up.
Later that night Arya and Aston were playing a game in a drawing room on the ground floor.
Arya was still contemplating Cedrics' offer and what would happen if she accepted it and went back to the castle. Curiosity got the better of her and she thought to ask Aston something.
She wasn't sure how to ask Aston the question. He was a child and had to be careful what words she used. "Aston," She started slowly, "Have you seen Daddy with another woman?"
He looked up at Arya confused. "What do you mean? "
He looked at the table thinking deeply for a second "You mean the lady that comes up to me saying she wants to be my mummy? Yes sometime I see her talking to Dad." He told her.
Arya was shocked...was this woman Cedrics' lover? If she went back to the castle would she have to deal with her?
"She's kind of annoying so I always run away from when she tries to find me when I'm not having lessons." Aston stated. "If you were there maybe she would stop coming." He then added quietly.
"Mum, why can't you be in the castle with me? I know daddy wants you in the castle too so why can't you be there?" Arya's eyes widened at his confession. "I know Dad is always busy ruling the empire and he has to be away but why can't you be there atleast?"
First Cedric asks her to come back and now Aston. It was too much at once.
Of course Arya knew with Aston getting older it was only a matter of time before he was going to start asking questions about why they had this kind of arrangement.
They never explained to him why because he was still too young to understand the situation that had occurred. The problem was she didn't have an answer for him when the time came for him to ask questions. He was a child who didn't know nor understand what had happened to her all those years ago. He just wanted to be with his parent.She really could go back to the castle. Should she take up Cedric on his offer and become empress once again?
Aston waited for his mother to give him an answer but she never did. Frustrated, Aston ran from his mother from the varender out onto the estate gardens.
"Aston wait!" Arya called out to him as he got further and further away. Arya was troubled Clearly Aston had had enough.
Sir Aaron please go after him, make he's safe. she ordered.
"Yes, my lady." Sir responded as he went after Aston.
Arya was slowly following from behind conflicted. She had already told Cedric she didn't want to be in a relationship with him and said she didn't want to go back to the castle. What should she do?
She still didn't actually want to go back but for Aston.... she was beginning to reconsider. Some changes were going to have to be made to their arrangement.
Sir Aaron eventually found Aston, he reached the end of the estate grounds near the forest where they had gone horse riding. There Aston knelt down as he cried.
Sir Aaron approached but didn't get to close he didn't want to scare him off. He turned to see Arya coming towards them not far behind.
Aston looked up from his knees and saw his mother coming and immidiately stood to run away however, Sir Aaron caught him.
"Let me go! " he shouted flailing in his arms.
"Aston stop!" Arya called out to him
Sir Aaron was watching the two as they talked and then suddenely he felt it was too quiet it reminded him of when he was on the battlefield whenever he and his men were about to get ambushed.
He tried to figure out what was bothering him listening carefully keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, the bushes the trees...there.
"Duchess! Aston! Get down!"he yelled as he ran toward them ion order to protect them. "We're being ambushed!"