Alec opened his eyes and looked around. He was shocked since he was not in the arms of the girl anymore and they were not in the carriage.
It was a large empty room. When he stood up, a maid came forward to help him but he cowered. He did not know if she was going to help him or take him back to the orphanage.
"Do you need some water?" asked the girl with a smile but Alec still shook his head and took a step back with fear.
"I.. where am I and where is the lady who was holding me?" he asked with a panic as he tried to look for the door to leave but the room had many doors.
The room was large enough to cover the whole orphanage where he used to live. He felt dizzy just by looking at it.
"She is with his highness. But you must not worry, we will take proper care of you." the maid assured as she took out some chocolates from the drawer and passed it to the child. "Would you like to eat some sweets? They are the best in the whole of Nyrfyre."
The chocolate did look enticing but he shook his head and did not pay any attention to them. He remembered the knights telling him that she was going to get punished by the lord for causing havoc in the orphanage and kidnapping him.
What if she was going to prison because of him? The thought immediately frightened him and he started crying loudly, shocking the maid who was sure chocolates work on every child.
"I want my mother. I want to meet her. She is my mother. She had not kidnapped me. The knight was wrong. He took the wrong woman.'' He started to shake his head and cry loud until he turned hysterical but he was still not ready to stop.
The maid looked around at a loss for words. She was sure the lady was not blamed for stealing or he would not have been assigned a room but even if she told him that, he was not believing her.
"No! Take me to my mother. I want my mother." he only kept shouting that at the top of his lungs. The woman could not bear it anymore.
"Alright! Alright. Come with me. I will take you to your moher." The moment she said that, he finally stopped crying and stared at her with his blurry eyes.
"Are you sure that you will take me to my mother?" he asked again with a dubious look when she nodded, affirming to him that she was going to take him wherever he wanted her to.
"Will you come with me now?" he wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded his head lightly as he held her hands and they started walking out of the room.
Though she had promised, she did not have the right to approach the duke without his permission. She bit her lips as she took dreaded steps towards his office as slowly as she could but the child kept urging her, asking her again and again if they were going to the right path.
"There, can you see that room? This is where your mother is with the lord. Now you can stand here and wait for…"
Before she could complete her sentence, the child let go of her hands and ran towards the room with his heart trembling.
But before he could walk in, the guards held him in their arms.
"You can not go in, child. What are you doing here?" They asked him in a cold voice that he flinched when the maid came forward and took the child from them and stood there with a sigh.
"I want to go and meet my mother. She is inside with Your Highness." he said in a soft voice with his eyes watering again.
He looked so helpless and cute that the knights did not know how to react. But more than that, the child has a striking resemblance to their lord, shocking them.
.....
In the room,
"You are saying that you are an oracle?" they looked at her with disbelief.
"Yes, I am a seer! Whether you believe it or not, I can see the past, present and future but it is not in my hands. The vision comes and goes as per the choice of god." she said in an ambiguous tone as she tried to behave ethereally but Cassian was taking none of it.
He stared at her as if she was a fraud when she frowned.
"I know that you did not believe me. But I can prove it."
She assured as she raked her brain to find what she could tell them to gain their trust without creating more trouble for herself.
"I know that you have still not found the body of your wife. And you are never going to find it so give up on your search." her words only boiled his blood and he took out the sword when she jumped back.
"You insolent character! I have brought your son back and yet you are behaving rudely to me. Ha! Fine, then I will tell you what you will believe instantly! When your wife was leaving for her journey when she was pregnant, you told her that she had to return before the maple leaves change their color.
You want to spend the evening with her and see the scene in her arms while holding your child."
"....." she smirked looking at the disbelief in his eyes when she continued,
"Your wife had kissed you the night before and told you that she had a strange dream and she did not want to go but it was your uncle who forced her to come with the excuse that the promise with the god should be fulfilled or trouble will befall on everyone."