"Are you dying anytime soon?"
Cladymor turned to look at his friend who asked a very strange question. He raised his silver eyebrows in question.
"You're asking like you don't know of the curse. I'm turning two centuries in less than a year." Cladymor scoffed, walking down the hallway of the palace.
"No, that's not what I mean." Rafal shook his head, his blonde hair falling over his face. "You laughed, Cladymor. Not just a chuckle but an actually full blown laughter. Are you sure you're not sick anywhere? Should I be preparing for the worst?"
Cladymor rolled his eyes. "I don't see why everyone was surprised about that. The girl was amusing and she made me laugh. That's that." Shrugging his shoulders nonchantly, he continued down the hallway.
"Oh, no, I know you, Clad." Rafal stared at him closely, his grey eyes narrowing ever slightly. "We've been friends for almost fifteen years now. There is no way you would pardon a slave for going against the rules of Bermuda."
Cladymor stopped in his tracks now and the handmaids and guards behind him paused as well with their heads bowed. "What are you trying to say, Rafal?" Cladymor asked, watching his friend intently.
A smirk came on Rafal's lips. "You have stopped taking your medications." Rafal deadpanned and Cladymor knew he couldn't lie to his best friend anymore.
Rafal was smart and observant, sometimes too much for Cladymor's liking. Cladymor was more surprised that it took him this long to figure that out.
With a flicker of his hand, the maids and guards took five steps backwards, giving the Overlord and his friend privacy.
"Yes, I did. And so what?" Cladymor gritted out in defiance.
"I never said anything." Rafal raised his hands in defense. "I am just concerned that you would do something like that behind the Queen's back."
"My mother doesn't need to know every little thing about my life. I am the Overlord and I can do as I well damn please."
"But you do know what that means, right? Without your meds, it means you can fall in love...and when you do--"
"I know, Rafal." Cladymor hissed, annoyed at his friend for spelling out the obvious. "I know what the curse entails more than you do."
"Clad." Rafal's tone was serious now. "The Queen would be devastated if she finds out about this."
"Probably." Cladymor huffed. "But I have never felt like this before, Rafal. So free, so...alive. And I think it's worth my mother's wrath."
"Is that why you pardoned the girl? Because you felt sympathy for the first time?" Rafal asked and Cladymor pursed his lips, pondering over his words.
Sympathy wasn't exactly what he felt yesterday. The girl wasn't even invoking any emotions of pity with the fiery and unremorseful look in her eyes. It was...something else.
Something bigger than his principle of punishing whoever broke the stringent rules of Bermuda. He wanted to see more of her. She actually did amuse him and he knew somewhere deep down that she wouldn't just remain a maid.
From the little he had seen from her, she was tenacious and ambitious. He could bet she would either try to run away from Bermuda to head back to the Outside or she would fight her way through and ascend the social ladder in Bermuda.
And he knew he would be entertained either way.
"Maybe." Cladymor mused. "Maybe not."
"Clad." Rafal furrowed his eyebrows now, and Cladymor could already get what his friend was thinking of. "Are you already--"
"Of course not, Rafal, be realistic here!" Cladymor slapped his friend's shoulder before resuming his walk. "Love is not as simple as that. I've only met the girl twice and both times, she was dirty as a skunk and at the brink of having her throat cut off."
"And you saved her life both times." Rafal argued.
Cladymor sighed. It seemed his friend wasn't willing to give up this debate anytime soon.
"I found out the girl was convicted of crashing into Bermuda Triangle on purpose. Her punishment is supposed to be instant death but guess what? Our dear Overlord pardoned her by reducing her to a slave."
"She confessed to her crime, Rafal. Aren't we merciful enough to pardon a remorseful criminal?" Cladymor smiled, knowing he was pushing it with Rafal.
No one in Bermuda knew him better than Rafal.
"We can but not you, Clad. Not you." Rafal opened the door to the tea room and stopped dead on his tracks.
Cladymor followed his gaze to see what made his friend freeze in the doorway. A scowl came upon his face when he saw the she-devil sitting on the sofa.
"Oh, good morning, Your Majesty." Alastra got up from the sofa and glided towards Cladymor.
She was dressed in a blazing red dress with golden designs on the fabric. Her red hair was curled and left to flow down her shoulders. As usual, her face was built upon seventeen foundations of make up.
Alastra reached forward to hug him but Rafal smartly pushed her arm away, acting like he was dusting dirt off her sleeve.
"Getting a little touchy before the engagement, Lady Alastra?" Rafal's voice was cheery but Cladymor knew his friend was already pissed with her presence.
If there was anything he agreed on with his best friend, it was their undying hatred and dislike for the lady in front of them. From the very first moment the Queen introduced her as his soon-to-be wife, Rafal had never once been on good terms with her.
"Getting a little bold, Rafal? You do not touch the Overlord's woman like that." Alastra gritted out.
"Overlord's woman, my foot." Cladymor scoffed under his breath, walking into the room to sit at his designated elevated seat.
"Where is my mother, Lady Alastra? I thought she called me here to have tea with her?" Cladymor asked.
His mother was getting rather cunning these days. She would always devise means for him to run into Alastra, and now, she even lied just to have him in the same room as the lady.
She might think this would help in birthing a relationship between him and the red-haired demon but she was only successfully kindling his dislike for Alastra.
"Yes, the Queen was called urgently by the Prime Minister so she had quickly step out. In the meantime, she asked me to keep you company." Alastra sat on the sofa next to him, crossing her legs like she owned the place.
Rafal remained standing close to the door and Cladymor didn't force him to join them. If Rafal had his way, he would murder Alastra and pay someone to serve his jailtime. The hatred was that severe.
"Typical Mother's trick." Cladymor rolled his eyes.
"Bring in the tea please." Alastra called out and the door opened up for the maids to step in with trays of cookies and cups of hot tea.
At the end of the trail, Cladymor saw her.
Hellaine.