Aeloria sat on the edge of the bed and watched the girl sleep.
Rya looked so small, so helpless, so fragile.
The sight dragged memories out of her like hooks through old wounds. Memories of how helpless she was under the cold gaze of Nyxelene.
***
A few years before Rya was ever born.
The colossal iron-bound doors of Runevale's throne hall were forced open with such violence that they slammed against the walls and rebounded. The sound rolled through the palace like thunder.
A young woman strode through the doorway, blood dripping from her chin, her hands, her hair. Her entire body was drenched in it, as though she had bathed in slaughter. Her travelling cloak hung in ribbons, soaked dark.
At the far end of the vast hall, upon the high throne of platinum and beaten gold, sat the queen.
She did not raise her eyes from the thick leather book in her lap. She turned a page slowly, calmly, as though a blood-soaked intruder had not just torn through the palace.
Aeloria had heard the whispers all her life: Nyxelene was rumored to be the most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. Seeing her now, even half-mad with grief and rage, Aeloria could only stare in stunned silence.
It looked as though several gods had worked overtime to craft their finest masterpiece and then placed it on a throne.
The queen wore a dark gown with intricate golden patterns, but the black dominated everything. Her skin was as pale as a corpse left in moonlight. Her hair was so dark it seemed woven from the fabric of night itself. The throne—platinum vines, golden lines, gems the size of a man's eye—was magnificent, but it paled beside the woman who occupied it.
Any normal ruler would have flinched when a blood-drenched woman barged into their throne room.
Nyxelene did not.
Any normal ruler would have demanded the intruder kneel the moment she crossed the threshold.
Nyxelene simply turned another page.
Aeloria had bitten and torn her way through the palace guard, leaving bodies in her wake. She had caused chaos in the dead of night.
The queen did not seem to care.
Aeloria stepped forward, boots leaving wet red prints on the marble.
She took another step. Closer.
The queen slammed the book shut.
A pair of crimson eyes rose and fixed on her—empty, cold, devoid of anything human.
Aeloria froze.
One word left Nyxelene's lips.
"Kneel."
It was not Šērēĺįťh. It did not need to be.
Invisible force smashed Aeloria downward. Her knees struck the stone floor so hard the impact cracked bone. Pain shot up her knees, but she could not rise. Could not even lift her head.
"Aeloria," Nyxelene said, voice soft and frozen, "tell me your reason for such commotion at night."
'So the rumors were true. She knew everything that happened in her kingdom. She even knew my name.'
Terror and fury choked Aeloria's throat, but the words spilled out anyway.
"So you knew. You knew one of the high-ranking nobles would ambush us on the road from the kingdom of Namesh. We were only out trading our stocks from kingdom to kingdom. They had no reason to harm us. You knew one of the high ranking nobles of Runevale was behind the attack and still did nothing. I was wounded, exhausted, pregnant. Do you know what it feels like to give birth alone in the dirt, with no milk, listening to your own child cry itself to death from hunger? Do you know how it feels to eat your own baby just to silence the screaming in your gut? To end their suffering?"
Her voice broke, raw and ragged.
"I ate my own child to survive. And you knew they were coming for me. Their target was me. Yet you let them slaughter all eighty people in the caravan just to be rid of one inconvenience. You monster."
Silence.
Nyxelene leaned her elbow on the armrest of the throne, rested her chin in her palm, and looked down at the kneeling, blood-soaked woman as though she were an insect that had wandered too close.
"That," the queen said at last, tone calm and conversational, "is a very strange way to blame your inability to protect yourself—and your child—on another person."
She rose from the throne with fluid, impossible grace, the black gown flowing around her like living shadow.
She descended the three shallow steps until she stood directly over Aeloria.
"You were unable to defend your caravan.
You failed to save your child.
You were too weak to even keep milk in your breasts."
Nyxelene took steady, deliberate strides until she stood directly above the kneeling, blood-soaked woman.
"What is yours is your responsibility to protect and nurture," she said, voice perfectly level. "Be it life, children, land, or gold. Failure to protect it lies with you and you alone."
Aeloria lifted her tear-streaked face, rage and grief warring in her eyes.
"What is the point of having so much authority if you cannot make the kingdom a better place?" she shouted, voice cracking. "If you had helped, my baby would still be alive!"
Nyxelene's expression did not change.
"Such hypocritical words," she replied, tone laced with cold disappointment. "I am deeply disappointed that you caused all this commotion tonight just to say such foolish words. The world does not revolve around a single person. Everyone is a significant character in this world, and no one is. You killed twelve guards on your way to force an audience with me."
She stepped even closer, the hem of her black gown brushing the marble inches from Aeloria's knees.
"One of them was named Nol. He has three children: two girls and one boy. His wife is pregnant with their fourth child, another boy. Nol was diligent, always on time for his shift. Every evening when he returned home, his wife and children ran to hug him. He brought them costly gifts bought with his hard-earned wage. But yesterday was the last time they will ever see him, because you killed him tonight. Bit him to death.
Another guard was named Ramion. He lived with his elderly grandmother and was the sole breadwinner. Soon she will die, because she will have no one left to take care of her. Many more of them had people relying on them to live. You may have lost a precious child but you took someone's father, husband, brother and grandchild."
Aeloria's shoulders shook harder. Guilt, sharp and sudden, cut through the haze of her fury. She had charged through the palace in blind rage, tearing apart anything in her path, never once considering the consequences, the families, the lives she was ending.
"I did not interfere," Nyxelene continued, beginning to circle her slowly, to the left, behind her, right, in front, left again. Each step measured, unhurried. "Just as I did not interfere when you were lost in the wilderness. Those guards failed to protect their lives exactly as you failed to protect the life of your child, Lira. Unless the results would endanger the kingdom itself, my interference would always be unnecessary."
The great doors burst open once more. A full squad of palace guards stormed in, swords drawn, shields raised.
"My queen, are you alright?" the captain shouted, eyes darting from the blood-drenched woman on her knees to Nyxelene's calm, unmoving figure.
Nyxelene paid them no attention whatsoever.
"Regardless of your situation," she said to Aeloria alone, "you still owe the kingdom a tremendous debt left on your shoulders by your family. The recent stocks you went to sell were a failure, which increased your debt by several folds. Your sudden commotion demands your execution as per the laws of Runevale." She paused directly in front of the kneeling woman and looked down. "But I will give you an offer. Join my army, Aeloria, and pay off all your debts."
Aeloria's head snapped up, eyes blazing through the tears.
"You really are exactly as the rumors describe," she spat, voice trembling with hatred. "You break the mind by blaming people for their own incompetence, then you offer them a deal like you're doing them a favor. After that you use them and discard them when they're no longer useful. You disgust me, Nyxelene."
One of the guards who had approached the scene struck her hard across the head with the hilt of his sword. Aeloria crumpled sideways, fresh blood trickling from her temple.
"Watch how you speak to your queen, you filth!" the guard snarled.
Nyxelene raised a single, pale hand. The guard froze mid-breath.
"You seem to misunderstand something fundamental, Aeloria," the queen said, voice soft and terrible. "If I want something, I take it. Deceiving a person is not something I do, especially not to vermin like you. Come to me after you have given my offer a logical thought."
She turned away, the black gown swirling around her ankles like liquid night.
"Take her away."
"Mom, I heated the water before bringing it so it took me a while." Enoch said as he brought a steaming bowl of water.
"That's so thoughtful of you, darling. Please pour it into this bucket." Aeloria said as she snapped out of her trance, pointing at the bucket beside the bed.
"I should finish this quickly and start preparing the rabbit." Aeloria said.
Enoch stretched out his hand, holding a white towel and grinned.
"That won't be necessary, it's already too late, it'll upset my stomach if I eat anything at this hour. Besides, I've already put the rabbit into the cooler."
Enoch explained.
"Well, someone is unusually enthusiastic. Is it because of her." Aeloria said, gesturing towards Rya who lay motionless on the bed.
"That's not it, we haven't had anyone before, I just want to help out." Enoch defended with a blush.
"That's nice and all but, will you be able to sleep on an empty stomach?" Aeloria asked, genuinely concerned.
"I'll just get some fruits from the kitchen. After that, I'll bring more warm water." Enoch said as he bolted off through the curtain. Aeloria smiled at her son in satisfaction.
"I'm sorry for not being able to provide you with a normal life. It saddens me that the only mother you'll ever have is a man-eating monster."