"This is impossible, everyone was killed. Every single one of the Narakhi house was killed in the culling"
The queen said as her entire body went into rage, the fear and confusion growing in her eyes was evident of the growing unease she had for those words which came out of Mari.
The queen's guard clutched their previously retracted swords once again, but this time with Mari's throat as their target and they had no plan to stop. The sight of their queen's demeanor change from calmness which could terrify feral beasts was now that of a refusal to accept a painful truth was more than enough for them to understand the severity of the situation.
Realising the loss of her calmness and the sudden change in her guards willing to strike him down if he so little as moved made her take a deep breath and slowly gain back her composure. Then with her commanding voice
"Stand down all of you. The boy should not be harmed,"
She breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment of silence and then did some calculations in her mind and focusing on the now. She said
"Tell me young man, are you here for revenge? Have you come to break the oath your house took?"
He smirked hearing that
"No your highness. I have no such intentions. I had no plans of this ever happening. All i wanted was for Mea to be rescued thats all. And speaking of Oath isn't it your husband who broke it and declared the culling."
He replied with a calm voice. The queen saw as the scaredy cat in front her change into a terrifying lion with a lack of fear. A feeling of guilt crossed her mind as she heard his last sentence. The memories of the past clearly haunted her.
"So you came to rescue her. So who is she another one of Narakhi?"
"No your majesty, all that I know of her is her name is Mea and that she was paraded around like a trophy whereever the prince went and that she waited for someone to save her."
His words brought her a sense of relief. But she has to be cautious for this man could be dangerous.
"Anyway how did you even get in?"
She asked as her gazed averted to his frail body and the swirls of violet an evidence of his toil and the work of the poison in the Agatha ores.
"You couldn't possibly have scaled that high of a wall and then came to her with that poisoned body of yours let alone not get caught or be able to carry her away above all of it."
He looked at his body and covered the swirl in his chest.
"I have gotten used to these, ever since your husband, the king's handiwork, this has been my life. Toiling away in the darkness of those mines."
He said an answer but not the answer to the queens question. Her gazed sharpened on to his. He knows that he has got caught. But she didn't press on to the matter.
"I dont know, your story is not convincing, to think that one who was scared like a spineless being to have the courage to pull that off. Either you had someone's help or you had something else up your sleeve. And the insignia is definitely not your trump card. To anyone other than a handful it holds no value so what is it. This time answer my question, tell me the truth."
Mari lifted his gaze and looked at the queen, his forehead was scrunched up, his fingers curled up to a fist and he took a step forward.
"You kill my father, my mother, my whole family and destroy the entire house and relish in the fact that my house holds no value. And question my bravery when i choose not to take revenge."
He said as his blood boiled and his anger evident in his grunted and loud words.
"How dare you raise your voice at the queen"
The queens guards temper was lost and unsheathed her sword preparing to teach him a lesson. But he chuckled at her words
"How dare i, haha how dare i, can't you see, look at me!. My youth is ruined my family gone and I cannot even talk back to those who burned it all and took it from me.-"
His voice boomed with anger and for a moment even the naga felt a chill in her spine.
"Even after all that is done i am yet willing to forgive and forget. And you ask me how dare i. !"
The air got thicker, tension rose up and all of them felt this boy's pain, pain of loosing everything he loved and had, and that too at the hands of thoose who he once trusted the most. He continued
"I could have gone back, raised an army on my pursuit of revenge. Hell i could've spread the news of what happend. Sure that will kill me but so will you, the king and your beloved son and daughter. I had the power to bring down this whole country and I chose not to, not out of fear, but out of respect for my father and the promise I gave to him. To the man who all of you so dispised."
Anger has blinded Mari making him forget for a moment that he was in the presence of the queen. His yelling put strain on his poisoned body causing him to fall on his knees and cough blood. Although the poison was gone, his body had yet to recover.
The naga let go of her anger, sheathed her sword and stepped back. The queen couldn't help but feel guilty or was she calculating rethinking her decision, should he be let go or killed. She decided not to.
Then with the warm voice of a mother trying to calm down her rebellious kid,
"Very well, I believe you. You can leave once the dust has settled until then-" she waved her hand and then her maid came and picked him up giving him a rag to wipe of his face. And then used another to clean the blood of the floor.
"Take this boy and that girl to your dorms, they will stay get refreshed and then once the commotion has settled-" turning to Mari "you can go, Son of Bellator."
Mari bowed his head again calming himself, and went back to his bed. To Mea.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to let him go, your highness."
The naga spoke as Mari and the maid was out of their sight.
"I know that you must take me for a fool, but this is for the best. That boy is dangerous but killing him would be a terrible mistake. If he is alive then his brother must also have survived. And if he is alive then killing his younger brother would mean that all the dirty work would be public knowledge and that will burn the entire country. Civil War will break out, the houses will rebel and the Lada of today might not even exist."
She said as she looked down and in her mind memories of the time before the culling came back. That's when she noticed it.
"The swirls on his body, hiw many were there?"
"46, your highness" said one of the queen's guard.
"That is an unusual amount. He should be dead by all accounts." The naga said with confusion and in disbelief.
"His father and his family was always an unusual bunch all of them had incredible power. Maybe if not for that he could have still be happy and with them. Bellator you did a great job raising him like this. If not for you, your son would have been responsible for this country's doom."
"His body is frail so I still have a hard time believing that he got in alone"
The queen said as she pondered upon the young mans frail body, hearing the words of the queen made the naga pondered upon who it could be, all of a sudden the news of the theif and his escape came to her mind,
"My queen there was news about a thief who was undergoing punishment after they found him for stealing from a merchants house, who had escaped yesterday night. Also there were sight of him snooping around the castle walls, maybe he could have got help from him."
" You are right it could be so. Search the entire palace for any evidence and be carefull. The guards must already be searching for those two, you shouldn't be who they catch."
"Understood your highness."
She said before she vanished into the darkness.
The queen waved her hand and two of the other naga stepped forward.
"One of you keep an eye on the both of them, and the other search for why they weren't noticed as Mari got in"