A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.1****1The news spread like wildfire about Sun's recovery. The people outside the Palaces rejoiced and even some within. However, she's not accepting visitors yet. Only her servants. Not even her knight is allowed to see her.
"Your Highness, Her Grace Serafim sent this tea to you. She also sent her regards for your faster recovery. Would you like to try it?" Her head maid informed with the tea in her hands.
Sun did not even gave it a glance. "Throw it. Anything my family sends for me, throw it. Burn it. Tell them I liked it. Send them my appreciation."
"As you wish, Your Highness."
The head maid brought two servants with her to carry out their Princess's order.
Sun breathe in. She's calm; she's glad that her suffering has ended. It was hell. She will never be in that state again. The next time she sees her child, she will break him. She will break her. She will destroy them both.
"Get me a recovery potion. I want to go out."
The servants stopped from cleaning her room.
"Your Highness, I'm sorry but... Prince Izaac used most of our potions. The archmages are still making them and I believe it will take them at least a week to create a potent potion," a servant braved to tell her.
Sun sighed. And when she shifted her eyeballs to them, they froze and instantly went to their knees.
"Then find a way to get me one. I want it now. RIGHT NOW."
"Y-Yes, Your Highness!" The same servant rushed out to comb the whole city if she have to just to find one.
Prince Izylidas arrived with one in his hand.
"Poor maid. Don't scare them like that. People nowadays are quick to bite the hands that feed them," he told her meaningfully as he get closer. He threw the bottle to her bed and smiled.
"Recover and doll yourself up, Princess. You look ugly as fuck, like the devil drained the shit out of you."
Sun only gave him a dead stare before taking the potion. She twisted the cap open with little might and drink the yellow liquid until the bottom is up. It taste bland.
The magic slowly kicked in. It took its time to return the weight Sun has lost. Its potency is amazing for Sun could feel strength coming back to her limbs again.
Prince Izylidas sat beside her and brushed her lustrous hair aside to see her face. Sun let him do as he please.
"Much better. Let's see,"
His fingers caressed her cheek before turning her chin to his way. He checked her out. The servants could only communicate to each other with their widening eyes. He brushed his thumb on her lips.
"Stop. There are servants watching."
"Oh, I can just kill them if a word about this get outside. Nobody would suspect nor look for them. I heard there were Veils roaming around since the incident," he simply said yet it's threatening. The servants lowered their heads and gulped as hits of cold sweat form on their faces.
He let her go and left her bed.
"I must go. See ya', my doll. Have fun going 'round," he teased and vanished from their plain sight, just as when her knight shown his self.
Sun refused to meet his gaze and flipped the blanket that's covering her aside. She stand up and head to the bathroom.
But she left a notice for him.
"You're dismissed. Tell the head maid to gather the knights tomorrow at the grounds. I will select a better knight. Confiscate that one's insignia and kick him out. Call my brothers if he were to oppose my order."
She continued her pace to the bathroom and her maids followed her to attend to her. They took her clothing off and helped her soak her body in the scented and bubbly water of her bathtub.
She need him no more. He could have done something to lift the curse on her but he didn't. He left her to suffer alone. That just proves how he can easily dump her if he must. It's not even the worst yet but he already abandoned her. He may be the one who took her out, but that doesn't mean she's his puppet. She's the one with a throne and he's just a knight. She have the power.
With her pack of maids, Sun stepped outside the Heart Palace and stroll in the outdoor Hanging Gardens. The refreshing environment put her mind at ease. She stayed in the Gardens for a while and drink some tea while reading the newspapers.
"Princess, His Highness Prince Zephyrus wants an audience with you."
Sun flipped the page of the newspaper.
"Tell him I don't want to. If anyone comes next, tell them I want to be alone."
"Yes, Your Highness."
There's nothing much written in the newspapers but the incident. How it was written was vague. No definite truth but questions that still can't be answered. Even though Moon has passed, the gossip about her kept her alive. But soon, like her, the talk will die down and world will continue turning as if she never happened.
She closed the newspaper when a pair of eyes that are watching her spoiled her interest. She looked right where it's coming from and found Celia standing just outside the Hanging Gardens, plainly watching her.
Sun contest Celia in the staring game she started. The teacup she's holding gracefully fell on the table when she felt how her nerve weakened when Celia gave her the smile of death.
"Your Highness!"
Celia turned her back around and traced the path back to the Diamond Palace. She did not look back again and went on.
Now, Sun might probably need someone to dispose Celia before she does anything to her. She know little to none about Moon's maid but that she's from House Xirquit and that Watts Xirquit himself assigned her to be Moon's personal maid. Another is, if she remembered it right, they said Celia used to be the head maid of their house. That she's the right hand of the House's matriarch and patriarch, and that she babysit the two youngest lords, Spike and Watts.
There must be a reason why Watts Xirquit chose her to be Moon's only servant. Watts Xirquit is so loved by the people from their House that they relinquish their possession over Celia.
Just who is 'Celia'?
"Get me someone to look into that maid's whatever-abouts. No, summon Denise Dragunovv this once."
"We will see if the Duchess is here, Your Highness," and the servant left.
Sun waited and kept herself entertained with books. When she got bored of reading, she asked for a chess board and played by herself until the Duchess arrived.
"I greet---"
"No need to pay your respects. Just sit." Paying respects will only eat some of their limited time.
The Duchess sat in front of her. She doesn't see wary of Sun or anything. She's playing it cool, too composed and refined.
"This is an order from the Third Lady of Heart. I want you to look into Celia's information and relay everything to me. This stays between us."
Her black knight ate the white pawn.
"Excuse me?"
Sun raised her brow and gave the Duchess an annoyed look, "Did I not made myself clear, Duchess? I don't care whose side you're taking. If you tell anyone about this, you will be punished. As you can see, the people in power in this Empire are wavering, but I'm keeping mine strong. I'm tired of playing nice with everyone, so be wise and work."
The Duchess was astounded and couldn't believe what she's hearing.
She chuckled in disbelief, "How dare you?"
Sun slammed her hands against the bored before throwing everything on the table away.
"How dare me!? How dare you! Don't get into my nerves and do as I say!" She caught the Duchess by her neck and gave her a mark around it.
"Fail me and you'll taste the same suffering I went through. Bring me whatever you will find about Celia and if you tell anyone about this, just die. Do you understand!?"
She choked the Duchess harder until her eyes are turning white. She let her go when the Duchess is near to her death. Sun left her gasping and coughing.
Prince Izylidas, who's watching everything, laughed in amusement.
"How ironic. Moon's the one with the horns but she's actually the nice one. Tsk, Tsk. She's the real deal,"
Would he still say the same once he meet the real 'real deal'?
The sun is down, so the servants convinced Sun to return to her room. They went to the Diamond Palace where she tried getting in, only for the Diamond Palace to refuse her and forbid her entrance. And now, as Sun stride back to her room in the Heart Palace, she met the King.
The King stopped and waited for her to get close, "Princess---" he was cut off when Sun just passed him by. She didn't even gave him a glance.
The King remained standing there, looking back and watching his daughter's back walk away from him.
He looked down to forget their encounter.
It felt like the heartbeat of the Heart Palace has stopped.
When Watts flinched awake, he found himself lying on the table in his library. Seems like he fell asleep while sketching the monster that's bothering him. And just now, he woke up from the same nightmare but different scenario.
He was in a room filled with space decorations: hanging planets on the ceiling, the sun and moon in one as the chandelier, glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and walls, and more decorations relating to space. He also found a crib and a small canopy bed, giving him the idea that he must be in a nursery room.
"Was it your bedroom before, Zodiac?" He muttered to himself and palmed his sleepy face.
The nightmares began after meeting his son and knowing some of the truth about Moon's past life. Maybe it has something to do about him. He got a feeling that the monster is someone he knows. Was it a family member? Just the thought of it frightens him. He couldn't imagine any of them in the same shoes as the monster.
He crumpled his sketch of the monster and pulled the sheet where his incomplete painting of his son lies.
"My beautiful boy," it made him smile wryly.
When will they meet again? He doesn't want the fact that his son exists merely from his brief memory with him. The boy is beautiful. He possesses the gift of beauty that transcends the heavens, just like his mother's. He feel miserable. He probably failed to be a good husband and father. Otherwise, she wouldn't need to marry another man. Worst, his brother and friend, Prince Maxigaufeas. Not only him but other Princes, too.
But the thought of her having only Princes of great empires depresses him. He's not a Prince. Maybe, he's not entirely her standard. Only a Prince can ask a Princess for marriage. Maybe their marriage was a mistake. Maybe it was forced. Maybe there's no love between them.
'Why did I marry Watts in the first place?'
Is the question that's been bugging Azarese since it landed in her mind. As of the moment, she's in the middle of creating her son. She's molding him from clay. She is attempting to give life to her son based on how the myths of creation of man from Earth. The most famous is how the creator of everything mold the man with the use of clay, then shared the breath of life with him.
Since Zodiac is her firstborn, she is making him first. Bit by bit, part by part, limb by limb. She make him exactly as how she remembered him. Beautiful and bright. A copy of his father.
She dropped her heads and called her creation a day. Just then, Skadi returned without Celia. She brought the food she bought outside inside and ran to the bed and bounced on it.
"How's your mud baby? Is it alive?"
Azarese rolled her eyes on her and went to the bathroom to wash her hands. She stared at herself through the mirror. She truly prefer how she looked like now than her golden appearance. The horns and her color suit her most. Evil. The she-devil.
"So, why did you marry him, girl?" There goes the black thing's voice ringing inside her head. It's Krone, she named it.
"Forced him, maybe." She left her reflection and walked to the bathtub. She stripped and twisted the faucet open. As she wait for it to be filled, she walked to the whole body mirror and checked herself out.
The markings on her body...she liked them. But why vines?
She gathered her hair to one side and checked her back.
Letters from an unknown language we're written down to her spine. Each letter seem like they were gold plated. By her nape was a symbol of the moon and sun combined. And between the letters were a star. The vines stretches out to twine on her body from the stars.
"How beautiful, girl. Truly mesmerizing, you are. Like a work of art."
She is indeed a work of art. Whatever her appearance may be, horned or with a halo, her beauty is as mind-blowing as a bursting supernova. Whether she's Moon or the Sun's Daughter, only a liar would deny the fact that is beautiful. The Deities really took their time in creating her.
But no matter how beautiful she is, if she failed to make her family fall in love with her, then she's ugly.