EIGHT
Patience is a virtue.
Verēna told this herself for the last few minutes, but her will started to wane as the fuming woman before her continuously pressed her. She mentally groaned, eager to be done with the unexpected reconciliation that did nothing to console the dark pit in her mind. Not after she saw the Romulus' crest pinned on her right chest area over her neck-high body hugging teal garb that reached her feet.
The woman was still as stunning as the last time she saw her. Her much lighter shade of amber eyes complemented well with her general soft features and waist length wavy strawberry blonde hair which was a stark contrast to her jet-black locks. They were also almost standing at the same height, unlike the last time that Verēna only managed to reach the woman's ears.
A pang of sadness slammed through her chest as she kept her eyes glued on the woman who was an absolute replica of the woman who conceived her. Years did visible changes to both of them, and one of those was the small bump in the woman's belly where her slender hands rest. Verēna didn't miss the small, diamond studded golden band in her left ring finger.
Had this encounter happen in an entirely different scenario, Verēna would have been elated both for the child in her womb and for meeting her again after all these years she thought the woman was dead. She wasn't though. She felt utterly betrayed by her own flesh and blood. And though she kept her expression impassive as always, her inside weighed so heavy that breathing turned out to be a hard task.
Her mind drifted off to Lord Nuallan as she slowly pieced the puzzles together. That was why the grating lord seemed familiar to her. She had seen him around their manor before with this woman in front of her. Racking her memory, she only then recalled why. Her stomach churned in repulsion.
Lord Nuallan was betrothed to the woman then. To Lady Tauriel Lavine. To her eldest sister. To the woman whom she presumed dead when their manor was set on fire five years ago.
Except that she wasn't. And it seemed like the woman was happily married with the lord despite the involvement of everyone in the Romulus household to their family's fate before.
Another sick joke of Fates? Verēna was certainly getting tired of the ironies she encountered so far. All she wanted at the moment was to get a proper sleep after wasting a lot of time with the Elders, but looked what was brought into her way. Ah, she badly needed a warm bath after this.
Zoning out from the litanies of frustration coming from the woman, Verēna heaved a sigh and gave in to her whims. "Apologies, Lady Tauriel. While it was I who you claimed to be, I'm afraid the same blood we share holds no significance to my part in the present time. Whoever I once was has already been relinquished to the past the moment I surrendered myself under gods' servitude." She looked straight into the woman's eyes, not missing how her words stung her dearly. "Your demand is next to impossible. I owe you no explanation about my whereabouts for the last years. I don't answer to anyone, but the gods."
"You're still my sister." The woman's eyes glistened with unshed tears at her pleading tone.
Verēna, though, felt nothing but the onslaught of the woman's betrayal that numbed and trampled the last of her sympathy. "Like I said, blood relation is insignificant to me, my lady. Whatever baggage you carry for that one you insist to be your sister, consider it all water under the bridge. You'll gain nothing by telling me these things. Your grievances will only fall in deaf ears. Heed my words, and save your breath."
"You make it sound like inconsequential, but your eyes hold so much resentment in them," the woman spat.
Verēna stilled at her observation. Of course, her sister would see through her masks. They were inseparable before. Lady Tauriel knew her more than anyone else.
"Is it?" she taunted through gritted teeth. "That's strange. Are you certain you're not seeing things, my lady?" Verēna mustered a half-hearted smile for an added effect, but it only managed to annoy the woman.
"Stop mocking me, Hollis!"
Verēna's jaw clenched at the sudden ear-splitting outburst of the woman. It left a disconcerting static inside her ears, dampening her mood. Years might have been past, but Lady Tauriel's explosive temper hadn't changed.
"If concern tantamount to a mockery to you, then I think we got a serious problem here, Lady Tauriel. Like I said, please call me Verēna. The girl you insist to be me, exist no more."
"But you're here!" Lady Tauriel helplessly insisted. "At least tell me what went so wrong that you have to treat me with cold shoulders!" Tears started to fall in her eyes as she sobbed.
You're a traitor.
Mentally grunting and cursing her situation, Verēna just decided to make a run for it, refusing to utter another word that would make the woman feel even worse. She snorted at the thought. She still cared about the woman even though she betrayed their family. Her words and her thoughts were completely at odds with each other. Verēna hated it. She had to leave before the worst happened.
Too late . . .
It was a little bit too late when Lady Tauriel's delicate hands shot up to grab a hold of her arms. Utterly caught off guard, Verēna managed to take a quick leaped to her right at the last second, evading the woman, but not without repercussion.
The world whirled before her eyes as her feet failed to seek a better footing. The marble banister of the open hallway wasn't enough to keep her in place when her back slammed into it, throwing her over the other side due to the momentum. She caught Del's, who was still in her cat form, loud hissing and the frantic shouts of her previous name before ice cold body of water claimed her body underneath with a loud splash.
Verēna instantaneously closed her eyes and clamped one hand to her mouth while the other flailed, desperately seeking for anything to hold into. She found it in the form of a sleek jagged rock a little over her left side and wasted no time heaving herself up using it. She emerged into the surface with a sharp gasp, coughing out the water she swallowed in the process.
Briefly surveying where she fell off while catching her breath amidst the wild beating of her chest, Verēna noticed she'd fallen into a pond running along the side of open hallways where an open air space held a quadrangle garden within the inner most part of the household. Verēna felt like her energy was drained at the fall as she sluggishly edged towards the white rocks surrounding the pond filled with white and carnation hyacinths. Resting her forearms against the edge of the pond, she waited her breathing to become stable before getting off the freezing water.
She needed to. She had to.
Series of footsteps padded close to her direction. A delicate hand appeared into her line of sight and Verēna sharply glanced up to its owner with a deadly glare. Lady Tauriel stepped back at her stares' intensity, eyes widening as if she saw something terrifying in them. Verēna knew what it was. Her eyes must have been had its odd glow, corresponding to her heightened emotion aside from using her gift.
"You dimwitted piece of─" Verēna bit back the strings of profanities at the tip of her tongue.
More presence fell in behind Lady Tauriel, all apprehensive to come close to her thoroughly soak state.
"Jesus Christ!" A familiar feminine voice blurted out far from behind. "What─step back people!"
Through her buzzing hearing, Verēna felt the all too familiar rush of heat travelling from every inch of her body. Casting her head down, she bit hard into her bottom lip as she fisted a handful of grass under her arms, shaking not because of the gradually warming water but because of the muddled emotion she always kept at bay─now threatening to come undone . . . and explode.
Knowing all too well what might happen if she didn't reign back her composure, Verēna firmly shut her eyes, willing deep breaths, and silently prayed to the gods for strength. The grass under her cold grasp sizzled until she held nothing but mere dark ashes. The consuming sensation travelled forth out of her finger tips and gradually to her surrounding with the same eerie sizzling . . . and then nothing. Gentle breeze blew by carrying a pungent smell of cinders. Verēna needed not to look around to know where it came from.
Verēna wasn't sure if it were tears that trickled down her cheeks or the beads of sweat from restraining the malicious force from further leaking out her body. She choked a cry, nails digging deeper into her palms.
Amidst it all, a chilly presence breathe down her neck from behind followed by an ominous, taunting chuckle resembling that of a child; certainly only she could notice.
"R-ramé."
This definitely wasn't how she imagined her night would end. Everything about self-control that Kira taught her was near falling to naught. In her defense, she was outright caught off guard and it was a little bit too late when the onslaught rattled it awake.
"Vevee, hold it in!"
Miran's panicking voice outstood the little commotion going on far from behind her.
The thought that the Astreon was around somehow gave her off a sense of relief. That was good. If ever she'd gone out of control, Miran could easily neutralize her without causing much trouble for everyone around.
"Damn it, Vee! Control it or I'll be forced to hurt you! Deep breaths, you idiot!"
Deliberately ignoring the name-calling, Verēna did as Miran tell so, but to no avail.
"Vee! I really don't wanna hurt you, so please keep it down!" Miran's voice ran between restless concern and fright. "Think of happy thoughts!"
I'm fucking trying, damn it!
With another grueling attempt, she took a deep breath─inhaling into her nose and exhaling through her slightly parted lips. She repeated the process over and over again until her rigid body gradually loosened up. As it did, the malevolent force retreated back deep within to its slumbering state.
By the time the lingering prickling sensation left in her fingertips totally receded, Verēna's tightly closed lids remained as it were. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.
No longer aware of her surrounding, her arms slipped off the pond's edge, creating a loud splash as she submerged back into the lukewarm waters.
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