Maria looked different. Very different.
She was wearing a dark purple gown that was spilled with ash ink. The spill was everywhere, and somehow it formed this bizarre drawing all over the dress. Her hair that was always tied in a bun was let down, cascading down her back in its thickness and striking beauty.
Her face looked a lot more mature than what Raziah remembered. Unlike the crybaby maid everyone knew, the woman before her was oozing with pride and dominance. She had her legs crossed over each other, and a languid and satisfied smile as she cherished Raziah’s expression danced on her lips.
Raziah was stunned to no degree. How could this be possible? Why did this person look so much like Maria? It can’t possibly be Maria. The Maria everyone knew was harmless and calm. She was sweet.
"How dare you?" Raziah burst out, her eyes red with fury, "How dare you take that appearance?!" She was shaking with anger.
Maria cowered all of a sudden, then tears began streaming down her eyes. Her face turned into that of fear and panic, and she stumbled on her seat as if she were trying to get away from Raziah, "Why are you yelling at me?" Tears went down her eyes, and she sniffed.
For a moment, Raziah was caught off guard and the urge to comfort Maria had her calming down, almost struggling to move closer to her when Maria pursued her lips with twinkling eyes and burst into a heap of laughter.
Raziah froze again.
"You can’t be evil and dumb at the same time. Common! I can’t believe you fell for that again." Maria rolled her eyes, the tears drying from her eyes, "I wouldn’t blame you though. I have perfected my skills for many years, so it’s hard to differentiate which is real, and which is fake. I’m the best actress you could ever ask for. The weak, feeble maid by the day, and the Tarquin Seeress at night."
Raziah almost screamed. How...
"Is it so hard for you to see?" Maria walked up to her and bent over so their faces were closer, "I didn’t take up Maria’s face, Princess. I am Maria."
A heartfelt joy rushed through Maria when she saw the disbelief in Raziah’s eyes turning into belief. Of course, Raziah would recognize if it was Maria or someone else had done something to her. Raziah was always able to sense the presence of anything apart from humans, and the woman in front of her right now wasn’t any of that.
She was purely...human.
She was Maria.
"Now, you clearly see me," Maria said.
"Maria..." Raziah cracked, still trembling from shock.
"You got that right," She reached out and caressed Raziah’s face, "Even though I was so good at acting, it’s hard to keep it up. All that crying was seriously annoying. But it was so worth it! You all fell for it blindly."
Then it dawned on Raziah. How could the enemy know so much about her if the enemy wasn’t close in the first place? Raziah never suspected any of them because she trusted them wholeheartedly. She failed to see that the enemy had stood so close to her all this while, and even though Maria might have left some clues that she was the one behind it all, Raziah had turned a blind eye to them as she had never suspected her.
Now that she thought about it...back then in the kingdom of Sabaean when the archers had shot at her, it was a little suspicious how perfect the angle had been, and how Maria was the one that first saw them. When Caius had gotten kidnapped, Maria had gone missing too but everyone had been too focused on Caius’s absence to notice.
"Maria...Why?"
"Why?" Maria fell back on the snow and chuckled, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, "Are you seriously still asking me that?!"
Raziah tightened her grip around Malcolm’s hand, waiting for more.
"You were responsible for everything. Kaneria, our lost kingdom from ten years ago. You brought it down to its knees. And, you killed Savannah,"
Raziah felt like she had been burnt even though the cold was heavy, "What are you... talking about?"
"You’re asking me very stupid questions. Why are you pretending you do not know what you’ve done? It angers me, Princess." Maria’s voice was calm, yet deadly. Every word sliced through the thick air.
The look on Raziah’s face didn’t fall. It increased, and then she lowered her head as the guilt ate her inside.
"That’s it. You know what you did. Your stubbornness and disobedience led to all this. You were reckless, and never thought for a second what your actions could lead to. You led a disgraceful life, and who ended up paying the consequences? Savannah."
Raziah couldn’t look up anymore. Right now, the guilt was so heavy. It’s never been this heavy. Maybe it was because it was Maria who was reminding her.
"You had your mother, your father, Malcolm, The villagers, Savannah. Your actions ended up killing everyone. If I were at Kaneria then, I’m pretty sure I would have been dead too. Tell me, why did you survive? Why do the evildoers live longer? It’s not fair now, is it?"
"I’m sor..."
"Shut up, you shameless thing. After all that what were you supposed to do? You killed everyone, you should have killed yourself too. Imagine the shock on my face when I found out you lived and were living like nothing happened. You found yourself a new kingdom to live in and got married. You even had the audacity to fall in love and have a child? Do you seriously think your generation deserves to live on?! Your blood is cursed!"
Raziah sobbed.
"It’s all on you. I want you to remember this. It’s all on you. Whatever nasty plan you have for your revenge, it’s all on you. My only regret is that I wasn’t patient enough to wait and tell the world that you survived that night. The whole story and how the future turned out to be is so hilarious!" She laughed again, falling back on the snow, "I wish I could see your face when you finally found out. I can literally see you going back to life just to watch the person die over and over again till it sates the cold vengeance you’ve been harboring for years!"
Raziah kept crying. She was terrorized. Horror filled her lungs.
"Unfortunately, I was too powerless to do anything so I had those puny witches and Vampires do the work. Once I promised them their heart desires, it became so easy to manipulate them. For example, Your so-called brother from Naria is an example. In exchange for him messing with your head, I had Rex turn him into a Vampire and tell him you’ll be his after everything is done. He fell for it faster than a fool would. Messing with your head before delivering the final blow was uplifting. I loved always throwing things at you and watching you struggle through the pain and hate. I was so happy when I watched you twitch like you were gonna snap at any time. While you struggled to heal me, when I threw that spear and you tried to stop it from hitting Caius. Every single time you were at unease, which was basically all the time, I loved every moment of it. It brought so much warmth to my heart. Your pain became my happiness, and I played with it as much as I desired,"
Raziah squeezed her eyes closed.
Maria was cruel. That innocent maid she once knew had turned into a heartless monster that spared no one. And whose fault was that? It was hers.
"Savannah...was my sister," Maria looked down, sadness and guilt pouring from her eyes, "She was everything I had. When I found her corpse lying there, I just knew she had sacrificed herself for you to escape. Savannah didn’t do anything wrong! Why didn’t you stop her?! My sister died, and you lived on." Her hands were visibly shaking, "And my hometown crumbled into pieces. The three of us right here were the only survivors...how could you?!"
Raziah understood Maria’s pain. It’s the same she’s carried on her back for years, forging her path while waiting for the right time to have her own revenge. Savannah and Maria had been very close, losing their parents to an illness while they were young. In the end, they decided to volunteer and work at the palace.
It was hard for them.
With one hand on Malcolm’s, Raziah reached out and gently placed the other on Maria’s leg. Maria flinched back and scurried back from the Princess with a disgusting grimace on her face.
"What’s that you’re drawing?" Raziah asked, referring to the painting Maria was working on a while ago.
"What? So you could take it away from me again?"
"What can I do? We are...dead,"
After a heavy silence passed by, Maria walked over and picked up the painting. A beautiful and intricately drawn face of Savannah sat there, and she was smiling brightly. Her hands were also visible, and they were moving magically as she waved.
And that image of Savannah brought Raziah all the strength she needed, "I want to live," She bawled even harder, "I might die soon, but I want to live as much as I can. Savannah didn’t save me for nothing. She didn’t give up her life to watch us do this to each other. It’s...not fair to her,"
Maria narrowed her eyes, suddenly feeling alarmed, "There’s nothing you can do. You’re dead. Malcolm is. I am too. You can’t bring the dead back to life,"
Raziah wiped away her tears, "Just a few months. That’s all I need. At the very least, I want to reach my time limit before I die. Let me get there,"
"W...what are you doing?!" Maria fell back in shock as a blinding white light began growing from Raziah’s Palm which was Still connected to Malcolm’s hand.
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