Malcolm was getting the carriage outside ready as they were about to leave. It was almost noon, and Raziah was inside her room packing her stuff. There was nothing much to carry with her since she didn’t bring anything with her in the first place apart from her mask, and the sword King Eleazar had gifted her.
The mask has been sitting peacefully in her drawer ever since she had arrived, and as she stared hard at it she recalled the night she had gotten married. No one told her it wasn’t gonna be a masquerade party, but she didn’t care anyways. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
As she caressed it gently, the door opened and Gwen came in walking in with urgency. She was dressed in an even more voluminous gown than the last time Raziah had seen her, and her clothing also had the same emblem Aragon’s possessed. A falcon.
"Thank Goodness! I thought you had left already," She walked in with a sigh of relief and took a sit on the bed beside Raziah, "Ever since that crown touched my head, I have been very busy," she added.
With Acacia and Tati thrown into the dungeons and Aragon locking up himself with her, Gwen had been in charge, and being new in the system had to have been hard. But Aragon had given the order for both women to be freed.
"I don’t expect anything less," Raziah replied.
"Are you really leaving?" Gwen enquired worriedly, "The King didn’t change his mind? I thought he was... Why would he do this?"
Only Raziah knew the answer to that now. Everyone else was just confused because the King was a man of his word, and the announcement had come out of nowhere. No one would have predicted such occurring, "Well, The King has always been a man of wonders,"
"Everything is happening to me so suddenly. I was instantly married, and now I’m carrying a whole kingdom on my shoulders along with my own problems too. It’s moving way too fast!" Gwen seemed to be having a moment of breakdown, clutching her head with both hands. That was when Raziah noticed how exhausted and depressed she was looking.
Yes, the marriage had been shocking and fast but the coronation had been even more rattling.
Why couldn’t Aragon simply divorce her? Why did he have to Crown Gwen as Queen too? It’s not easy to meet a woman and see her as a worthy person to assist in ruling a kingdom like Erandell. Gwen has always had potential from the start, but like she said, it’s all moving too fast.
"I do not know if I’ll always make the right decisions!" She threw her hands in the air, dread filling her eyes. It had Raziah recalling the last conversation she had with King Eleazar where he had asked her to watch over his daughter. Gwen was a Vampire, but she had her own demons she was trying to get rid of.
Raziah still felt no obligation to look after her, but if there was something she could do about it then this should be it, "Do you trust The king’s decisions about you? I don’t think any of those decisions he made were rash, after all, he would have to pay the consequences if they were. So, do you?" Raziah didn’t know how her mental state was able to stay calm as she placed a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.
"I don’t know what to think of myself," Gwen replied sincerely, locking eyes with Raziah’s. Gwen noticed for the first time the Strange Princess wasn’t exerting as much cold as she would on a normal day. No wonder she was able to sit next to her without feeling uneasy.
Raziah was calm today, A rare experience.
"Well, the King does. He made you all that because you’re capable. If you’re facing any difficulty in any aspect of your life, he’s now responsible for you. Trust his decision and open up to him. Let him know who his queen is, let him understand you. And if you’re lucky too, he might just open up to you about his own demons. For now, take that first step,"
Princess Gwenore swallowed hard, eyes swelling with tears. But the tears weren’t for her, it was for the woman next to her. It kinda felt like an advice Raziah would have taken herself, like the mistakes she had made being with Aragon. It was saddening, and Gwenore felt like they both needed the hug at that time.
Reaching in, she placed her chin on Raziah’s shoulder and pressed a hand to the small of her back. It had been short and not too many memories were made, but she would surely miss the strangest person she’s ever met. How disheartening for Raziah to have such great advice for Gwen, but never took it herself. Is she ok leaving like this?
Raziah was surprised to see everyone waiting outside to bade her farewell. The warriors, Uariel, Fabia, and Caius were all here. Raziah had spotted Tatiana on her way out, but the woman had maintained her distance. Felix and the others gave her a warm goodbye, and Uariel handed her some recipes he thought she would like to try back at Naria. Caius wasn’t happy at all to see her leave and was trying to hold back the tears, and Fabia wasn’t doing a great job hiding hers too.
Raziah had already been informed that Acacia was on her way back to the Amethyst Forest to ask one more thing of her brother, something that involved Fabia, especially Caius. Thinking Caius would be exploited too as they did her, it had been made known to her that it wasn’t the case. None of them were gonna be harmed and it was just a safety precaution.
Maria and Malcolm, Along with a guard that was supposed to escort them there stood outside the carriage waiting for everyone to say goodbye. As usual, Maria already had tears running down her eyes as she watched the scene. Soon enough, Raziah stepped into the carriage.
Her heart was in her throat the whole time, and she thought she heard someone else approaching the carriage. Her heart leaped multiple times in her chest, and she threw the window open to check who it was. The most downcast and disappointing expression filled her eyes when she realized she had just imagined it, and something bad and painful stung her heart as she closed it again.
All this while she thought she could hold it in. The unbearable pain had been clogging up her heart, and the tears had lurked quietly in a corner. She kept swallowing and staring at the apex of the carriage but the overflowing pain wouldn’t let her hide the sadness and guilt any longer.
A strangled moan tore out of her mouth just as the carriage began to move forward, and she bit her lips as hard as she could to hold the rest back till blood ran down her chin.
But the minute she turned to Maria beside her who had been watching everything with heavy tears running down her cheeks as if she could feel the princess’s pain, Raziah’s body shuddered and crashed altogether as she dived into Maria’s open arms, crying as silently as she could.
The last time she had cried that hard was when her mother had died, and her world had been ripped away from her.
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Golden Tickets, and I’ll have the next Chapter dropping!
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