The air in the chamber was heavy with the scent of herbs and the faint tang of blood. Zara knelt beside Erythian's cot, her hands trembling slightly as she pressed a damp cloth against the deep wound on his chest. The battle had ended and she had healed Erythian hours ago, but the weight of the aftermath still clung to her.
"You should keep to rest, Your Majesty," her court maid, Mirenna, whispered from the corner of the room.
Zara had stubbornly made her way back to Erythian's room to tend for him at the expense of her own well being because for some reason, she couldn't get herself to leave him alone.
"I can't," Zara replied without looking up. "He's still burning up. If I stop now…" Her voice trailed off as she dipped the cloth into a bowl of warm water and wrung it out.
Erythian's wound had been healed fully but the impact of the injury on him was large, he came down with a fever so bad and Zara was unable to heal because she had already been weakened, hence why she decided to tend to him with a bowl of water and a hot towel; Erythian's eyes fluttered open, He managed a weak smile.
"You'll make yourself sick, my queen," he murmured, with a hoarse voice.
"I'll be fine," Zara said softly, her fingers brushing his forehead to check for fever. "You, on the other hand, need to stop talking and let me work."
Despite his weakened state, Erythian chuckled, the sound rumbling faintly in his chest. "You're a stubborn woman."
Zara paused, a small smile tugging at her lips. "And you're an infuriating man," she shot back, but her tone was gentle.
For a moment, they sat in silence, the room was filled only with the faint crackle of the fire, Then, Erythian's voice broke the quiet.
"When I was a boy," he began, his gaze distant, "I used to sneak out of the palace gardens at night. My father thought it was reckless, but I loved the freedom of it. I'd run through the fields, barefoot, pretending I was just another boy and not a prince with the weight of other people's expectations."
Zara looked at him, surprised by the vulnerability in his words. "You've never told me that before."
"I've never told anyone," Erythian admitted, his eyes meeting hers. "I just want you to see me for me Lysandra, the real me. Not the man the council demands I be, or the king who's expected to wed a queen for political gain. Just… me."
Zara's heart softened, and she found herself seeing Erythian in a new light.
He was a man with dreams, fears, and a longing for freedom, but it still didn't explain to her why he had overthrown Alaric's government although she chose not to push.
Zara smiles wide but you can still see tiredness in her eyes, "I will learn to see you, Erythian," she said quietly, her voice steady despite the emotions swelling within her. "And I promise, I'll fight to protect that vulnerable part of you that you've just shared with me."
Erythian let out a soft smile "thank you for healing me", Zara's eyes sink and widen with shock and she takes a deep breath; before she's about to say anything, "I understand and I would keep it a secret too it were me" he said.
"Why did you heal me? I know you don't trust me, why would you risk your secret to save me?" Erythian asked Zara with a softer gaze.
She pauses for a little moment and speaks with a calm voice that almost sounded like a whisper "in that moment, all I could think about was how I couldn't imagine a life without you, I couldn't afford to lose you" she said.
"Do you trust me with your secret?" He asked.
"No…but I will learn" she says as she dabs his chest with a warm towel.
He lets off a weak chuckle.
"How do we explain how your battle wound is completely gone?" Zara asks Erythian.
"We'll make something up" Erythian says as he stared into her eyes, "we should stick together" he added.
The next morning, Zara and her entire army alongside Erythian and Mirenna rode back to Calithea and the moment she steps into the gates of the palace, Zara hurriedly walks into the throne room and stood before the council, with an unshakeable resolve.
"I demand a revote on my marriage to King Erythian," she declared with her voice ringing through the chamber.
The council members exchanged wary glances. Lord Davin, the eldest and most stubborn of them all, rose from his seat. "Your Majesty, we have already ruled against the union. Revisiting the matter is unnecessary."
"It is necessary," Zara countered, her tone sharp. "Calithea is vulnerable. Our alliances are fragile. I just stood on the frontline of an unexpected war against a babaric warlord from another region who got whiff that calithea was weak, and there's more of them to come; This marriage could strengthen us in ways that none of you seem willing to acknowledge."
"Are you certain this is for Calithea?" Davin sneered. "Or are your personal feelings clouding your judgment?"
Zara's jaw tightened. "My feelings are irrelevant. I am your queen, and I am telling you this is what Calithea needs, if you want to make the decisions around here lord Davin, you would need to become a woman, be a descendant of the Osborne family, become crowned queen…THEN I would bend the knee to your jurisdiction, in the mean time, what I say goes."
Meanwhile, in the shadows at a distant hall, while Zara fought for her marriage with Erythian, a group of cloaked figures huddled together. The leader, a man with a deep scar running down his cheek, spoke in hushed tones.
"Rumors say the queen might have powers of her own," he said, his voice dripping with suspicion. "If it's true, we can use this to our advantage, a monarch with abilities like that… She'd be both revered and feared. It would upset the balance of power."
"How do we prove it?" another asked.
The leader's lips curled into a sinister smile. "We set a trap. Something that forces her hand. If she reveals her powers, we'll be waiting."
"If she has powers and she's been hiding them from us, what else might she be hiding?"
Alaric stood on the balcony of his tower, the cold wind whipping through his dark hair. A raven landed on the railing beside him.
"What is it?" Alaric asked, taking the scroll tied to the bird's leg. He unrolled it, his eyes narrowing as he read the message. A scheme against the Queen.
Without hesitation, Alaric leapt into action, his wings unfurling as he soared into the sky. He would handle this threat himself to get back in good graces with the queen, despite how upset he was at her for the way their exchange on the battle ground had ended because of Erythian.
By the time Alaric arrived to the palace, the sun was setting, casting an orange glow over the horizon. Exhaustion weighed on him, but his determination pushed him forward, he needed to warn the queen.
But as he approached her chambers, he paused. The door was slightly ajar, and through the crack, he saw the queen with Erythian.
She was tending to him again, her hands moving with practiced care as she massaged his chest with a cloth dipped in hot water. They were laughing softly, their smiles were warm and unguarded.
Alaric's heart twisted painfully. He had fought for her, bled for her, and now she was here, tending to another man as if he were her entire world.
He hovered outside the balcony, his wings blending with the shadows. For a moment, he considered stepping inside, but the sight of their closeness stopped him. He felt betrayed, though he couldn't place why. She wasn't his, not truly. But it didn't matter.
Turning away, Alaric disappeared into the night, the ache in his chest growing heavier with each beat.
Zara was determined to push forward with the marriage, for Calithea's sake and, perhaps, for her own. But a nagging sense of unease lingered at the edges of her mind.
Outside, Alaric came back and stood in the shadows, watching the faint glow of candlelight from her window. His jaw tightened as he turned away, the bitterness of betrayal was still fresh in his heart as he watched Erythian softly grab on to the queen's face from her cheeks and they both stare so deeply in each other's eyes, his gaze softens and there's a faint smile on his face as he leans in closer to Zara about to go in for a kill, her heart palpitates harder and harder, all she wanted was to close the gap between them.
Alaric was furious, amongst many things that he wanted to strip off of Erythian, the queen was the number one and now, it seems he has been set back a thousand steps.
The storm was far from over.