Season Two premiere
"I would usually not have found myself so far from home and in a place as horrible as Zajey, but the desire for greener pastures led me to a rich farm that was fertilized by human blood and carrion."
Qaya squirmed as she read the diary.
"I had come to this place with hope, hope that thrived on the shattered dreams of others. First of all let me explain the workings of Zajey, not just for the sake of any stranger that may stumble on this book but for my own sake, so that as I see this laid down in comprehensible words, my own folly might be clear to me.
Zajey is the new name that was given to a once peaceful and humble town that stood on the threshold of civilization; they didn't use beasts of burden or any sensible form of technology because they were content with simplicity, something that would anger their captors. The stories I hear about this old town that unfortunately birthed this horrible place makes me feel like it would have been the best place to be, If not for Angus IV. Angus IV stands to his people as the benevolent king of Eastforde and the kind father of Alvrick but the king, Angus IV is much more than that. He is a mad man.
The past few years have brought to light different evil men and women who care only for profit and treat their fellow humans as commodity and for a long while I thought that they were the worst kind of people to exist. Alas, I was the most naïve person because at least those people were cruel enough to assign worth, but to King Angus, humans are below even the lowest of creepers. That man, so obsessed with longevity, believed that man was nothing if he could not enjoy the benefits he had worked for. That man did not want or believe in posterity, what he desired was immortality. That was what led to him invading the 'Zajey' town and turning those people to mere animals.
The time I have spent in this vile place has opened my eyes to know that Zajey primarily exists for one thing; to fulfil the mad wish of Angus IV. The person who propels this dream is none other than Twyford, an equally mad man. But Twyford is much worse than the king because he actually has the knowledge to execute his evil dream. He was a scientist after all, and those people are basically sorcerers. Twyford being the close friend of the king was the one who gave the idea of subjugating the people of Zajey to use them for experiments. These experiments were to find a way to be immortal but as the almighty creator would have it, such a thing wasn't possible at least not physically, Twyford found out that immortality was unachievable because the flesh would not allow it; the human body had shelf life. So he decided to go a different route; body swaps. Hence the experiments"
Knock knock
Qaya hurriedly closed the book and kept it under her pillow.
"Come in" she called out, when she was certain that the book was properly hidden
The door opened to reveal Morgan holding the queen's adopted son.
"Sorry for disturbing you, your highness but everyone is waiting for you"
Qaya chuckled in relief. She brought out the diary and walked over to Morgan; she took the baby from her and gave the other lady the book.
"there's no need to apologize, call a maid to help take care of my son and please help me take care of that" she hinted at the diary in Morgan's hands "I will get ready for the meeting, they should be able to wait a few more minutes for me"
The meeting that Qaya would be preparing for was a very crucial meeting. One that was important if she was going to stay in the palace with minimal qualms.
Qaya made sure to have her dress be simple looking and free, though she was just doing it to look good in the eyes of the people, because after all this particular yellow floral dress was very expensive. She walked into her court quietly and smirked when she saw that no one had noticed her step in. they all seemed to be busy chatting and guessing why she had called them in the first place. The court was a very huge place but somehow it was really full and it made Qaya worry that this much people worked in her palace.
"I was right after all" she calmly spoke as she settled in her seat, startling everyone. Everyone was quiet and now eager to listen to what she was saying.
"I am sure you all are confused by my statement so I will explain myself. I called this meeting as my first official act as Queen. I want to make this kingdom and its inhabitants great and I want to start working towards that in the soonest but I worry that the body responsible for that, I mean, you all, is a burden"
Everyone started mumbling, offended at her statement but she maintained her poise.
"While I was going through some documents yesterday I found this palace's building plan and blue print and I found out that this room that we are in, can comfortably house a hundred people, your numbers don't look comfortable. So either, the numbers in the document were wrong or you are well over a hundred. Does it not concern you that you people are so much, in fact, too much but yet achieve so little? Your productivity is so low, one would imagine if the Queen herself was doing everything herself. And I don't know about you but that sounds pathetic"
She paused to look at their reactions; some of them looked remorseful while some others seemed indifferent or even annoyed.
"So I have resolved to cut costs and increase the productivity of management of my workers, so I will be making a big cut and downsizing your numbers to a tiny sum of 25. I will pick the most productive people and everyone else will have to leave my palace but do not worry, any one that is removed from here will be moved to the other palaces and still receive the standard pay. But it will no longer be my responsibility."
Everyone started muttering and chattering among themselves. Qaya raised her hand and they kept quiet.
"A test will be conducted soon, so you people be ready."
Qaya smiled contently in her mind "be ready because I will thoroughly separate the wheat from the tares."
[Away from the palace around the Heris-Mariale mansion]
Marie rolled her eyes as her visitors left, they had come with gifts and greetings of congratulations, they could not stop talking about how lucky she was to be the King's mother-in-law. And everyone kept sucking up to her to win her favour, it was annoying to Marie that the people who had mocked her for being a commoner in the past, now adored her….because of Awin.
"Madam, I think you should return inside, the weather is a bit chilly" the butler spoke up but Marie shook her head.
"Get me a shawl or cloak; I want to take a walk"
"I can get a carriage for you, if you need to be somewhere"
"No, I said walk" she answered defiantly
"Then at least let us get you appropriate footwear and a purse"
"That is fine by me"
Marie's mind wandered as her legs roamed the street. Where everyone was envying her for such good luck, she knew that what happened wasn't something to celebrate, after all she knew the kind of man Awin was and she could not imagine even her enemy being with such a man, yet her daughter was bound in her lifelong marriage to that monster.
"Now that I think about it, I wish Dylan actually took her to occident coast that is far better than what my daughter has to go through" she mused.
When she finally took note of her surroundings she found out that she was right in front of the guest house that Dylan stayed. She chuckled wistfully and was embarrassed at herself. But she could not deny the fact that in this moment of weakness and sorrow, she needed to rely on somebody and Dylan seemed like the best person for that, she wasn't sure why, maybe because he was also Qaya's parent and would understand her pain but she wanted to see Dylan badly.
She hesitated a bit; "was I really going to go that man for help, the man that I declared I hate? That is too shameless" she thought to herself
She wanted to turn back but in the back of mind, she also wanted to know how he was doing. After all, he had left the house in a bad state and with the amount of guilt he was feeling, he might blame himself to for what happened. "I'll just check up on him" she managed to convince herself and take the first step towards the place when she saw Dylan coming out. She panicked and for some weird reason went to hide.
Dylan looked tired and even unkempt, his grey hair was messy and his eyes looked sunken, but what stuck out to Marie the most was that he was not alone; Dylan was in the company of lady Daluan. The lady seemed to be comforting him and even assuring him. She gave him a light pat on the back.
Marie felt a lump in her throat.
"What am I feeling? Anger? Surely it can't be that I'm jealous. that's irrational; I can't be angry because he is being comforted by another person" Marie did not know how she felt about the sight before her but one thing was for sure, she didn't want to continue seeing it so she turned back home. Her walk had come to an end.
As she struggled to keep her composure and quickly get home, she heard Dylan calling her; that only made her hasten her pace and pray that he didn't catch up to her, but alas that prayer wasn't answered.
"Marie?" he gently yanked her hand and turned her to face him "I thought that was you, I saw you leaving, did you come to see me?"
"…"
"How are you?" he asked nervously, but she just kept mute and turned away from him
"Is anything the matter? I'm certain you came to see me but something must have happened, am I right?"
"Just let me go, it's rude to keep guests waiting. So don't disrespect Lady Daluan"
Dylan let go of her hand and for a moment he looked annoyed or even irritated "what on earth are you even talking about?"
"I'm talking about how you say one thing and do the exact opposite, you say you want to make it up to me but then go and spend time with Lady Daluan"
Dylan scowled "can you even hear yourself? You're doing the same thing you're accusing me of. I don't know the idea you've drawn up in your head and honestly I don't care, I won't try to explain anything to you because I'm fed up of always trying to make things up to you only for you to belittle my efforts, I'm not married to you, so why would you try to guilt me for having female company"
Marie gasped in disbelief, she didn't even know that tears were now streaming down her face, but she knew that what Dylan said broke her and it even hurt more because he was saying the truth "yes, Dylan, I'm the one at fault. I should have accepted you whole heartedly after all the pain you made me go through, then, maybe we will be married and I wouldn't have to look like a jealous psychopath anytime I see you with other women. I get it. At my old age, I shouldn't have believed in fairytales like both of us could comfort each other. I must have been mad to think to come to you to comfort. I'm sorry I was just blinded by selfishness. I just…I just thought-"
She could no longer go on. Dylan looked at her sympathetically "how about we finish this argument in the guesthouse"
Marie let out a light chuckle and wiped her tears "I think that's a good idea"
They quietly walked back to the guesthouse and now Marie replayed her outburst in her head, she wanted to faint from embarrassment. Dylan's voice broke her from her reverie
"Lady Daluan is a close friend of mine and is a very important personality in my business and endeavours" he took a pause and turned to face Marie who seemed like she didn't know how to respond to that piece of information "but she cannot understand how I feel. This feeling of helplessness is something that you and I both understand, after all Qaya is our child"
Marie nodded "I came because I also wanted to know how you were faring, I don't want you to beat yourself up. Dylan you may have not been there in the beginning but in the short time, that you've stayed here, you've been so much help and you've helped so much, I see you constantly trying to redeem yourself and the only reason why I've been so difficult is because I was scared to be that woman that would easily give in and have you back in my life… I mean OUR lives"
They had finally gotten to the guesthouse and were now settling down on some chairs on the veranda.
Dylan tried to lighten the mood "what should I offer you? Tea, coffee, cake?-"
"Whiskey"
Dylan frowned "really?"
"What is anything the matter?" Marie looked at him quizzically
"you keep doing this, you drink when you feel any pressure, I don't know why but it saddens me to know that you have so little faith in your own strength, that you would use alcohol to try and ease your pain…"
"Where's this coming from?"
"I'm sorry if I sound judgemental, but I have seen firsthand how you get when you drink, you don't stop and then you act…you don't act like yourself. I just think that you're brave enough to face this trouble head on, and if things look too difficult you can come to me, I can comfort you."
Marie kept quiet for a while and her head was facing downwards. After a while, she sighed "I guess you only have water in this house then, you should have said that instead of that speech"
At first Dylan was a bit confused but when he saw her teasing face, ha laughed heartily.
"I apologize; I didn't have time to prepare for your visit"
To be continued
Side note:
Marie is in her late forties, rumours on the streets is that she's 43
Also the queen's court is not the kind for resolving legal disputes, whatever that is