I couldn't sleep on that very same night that the events had occurred. I decided to wander out, while lost in thought, "the reason he had invited us over was to watch me get killed by none other than my very own siblings, not because he had missed mother and I". He was a mad man, why else would he purposely change the traditions forged and followed by our ancestors for a millennia. He changed the rules of battle of successor as he pleased just because he wanted to see his children fight and kill each other like wolves fighting to be alpha.
While going back to my room, I could see Xanthe standing at the door, I could tell that she was hesitant to knock. "There you are, quickly follow me !", she said as if she had been waiting for hours, what freaked me out was that my body started moving on its own, I don't know if it was fear or happiness that made me move. We shortly arrived to the destination, her room, a very huge portrait stood out way more than anything in that room.
A portrait that left me shocked, it was a portrait of mother or was it. She looked way too different, she was in fancy garments, with a crown on her head, she had the same red hair and hazel eyes as Xanthe. The mother I knew never wore such clothing, she had vibrant blue eyes as my own and brunette hair. "Shocking isn't it?", said Xanthe with a smile, while also staring at the portrait. "But that's my mom and not Rhea", she said before apologizing. She said she felt the need to apologize for not telling me sooner about our relations and for completely ignoring us.
The reason Xanthe never said a word about being my sister was because she never thought that he'd call us over, but I don't blame her and truth to be told I knew very well that he wanted nothing to do with us, if it wasn't for this battle of successor he was planning, we wouldn't be here. For the reason she acted like it was our first time meeting was because it was an unbroken rule that we, the children of the successor were not supposed to get attached to one another in anyway, as it could make it harder to kill during the battle of successor, apparently it was tradition.
She also had layed blame upon herself for getting mother and I involved. Her mother had been sick for a year, she believed that she had been poisoned by one of her sister wives before passing. Xanthe was 7 then and it was about the same time that mother had just started working as a servant at the castle. Because mother was a doppelganger of Xanthe's mom, Xanthe immediately found comfort in her. Father was very fond of Xanthe because she was the daughter of the woman he had loved more than anything in Caelum, after her mother passed on, he spoiled her rotten, giving her anything and everything she ever wanted, unlike her other siblings. After seeing that his daughter found comfort in a woman that looked like his first love. Not wanting Xanthe to lose another mother, he had to have her, making mother a concubine of his and that resulted in them having me, the cursed and the bastard son of the mighty Titus. The truth being, he never once loved my mother.