We were escorted to the werten as Caleb stood beside my shoulder. "Have fun," he whispered in my ear, words which made me shiver down my spine."You finally came back. How did the meeting go?" Mitsuko asked as she walked beside me.
"It was all extremely uncomfortable," I replied.
"I need to breathe some fresh air," Robert said, running directly where Nathan was standing.
"What happened in there?" Mitsuko asked.
"I"ve never seen him like this, he started talking about Siobhan."
"Come with me," she said, pulling me to another room where there would not have been any indiscreet eyes scrutinizing us. "This is Siobhan," she pointed her finger to an old painting, I only knew her name and her face from their memories during the haras. I knew she might have been someone of substantial importance for him, but I did not know what her story might be, only a vague recollection of a past which I was not a part of.
"I saw her during the haras," I said.
"We thought you did. She was our king and queen"s beloved daughter, Jennifer"s sister and a friend to us all."
"You mean Jennifer is the king"s daughter?!"
"They were the daughters of our past royals."
"Mitsuko?" a girl shouted, trying to gain her attention.
"Hey, Yvonne you"re also here?" Mitsuko asked.
"Didn"t you know? Aria has been invited here, and Rafael is going to be the reity of-"
I did not care much of the peaceful discussion they were having. I kept staring at the painting, I could not take my eyes off of her knowing there was a past where Robert and I were not in the same picture. It seemed unbelievable, we have always been there for each other, but Siobhan might have known him. I could only imagine how painful it must have been for him, as he never spoke a word about her in front of me.
"Sarah, why don"t we go back to the werten?" Mitsuko asked.
"I prefer to stay here, without people a.n.a.lysing me like I was some unique creature coming from a whole different planet."
She nodded, and walked away with Yvonne, as I kept looking at all the paintings where Siobhan must have been in.
"They all died if you want to know. Those were dark times for us all. Every one of us lost someone that night," a guy said. He seemed to have made a sudden appearance, where did he come from? I was surely alone in here until a few moments ago. His eyes reminded me of bloodstones, they emanated an aura covered in mystery which magnetized me toward him, his smile dazzled my eyes while my brain was the only sane one, it shouted how dangerous he could have been for me, an alluring and charming one.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I heard your friend. She tried to tell you the story of the Drakoon family."
"And who are you? Do you normally eavesdrop on other people"s conversations?"
"Eavesdropping? Weren"t you the one who wanted to know everyone"s secret?" he grinned.
"I don"t want to know it by a total stranger," I insisted.
"Don"t you want to know more about the ring you are wearing?"
"Robert"s ring?"
"It has Siobhan"s royal emblem, the dragon. Everyone worthy of still being a part of this powerful dynasty died that night. Everyone but one."
"Jennifer?"
"People say she ran away from her sister cowardly, others believe she was saved because she was meant to be the next queen. I think she couldn"t have helped her even if she wanted to," he said.
"How did it happen?" I inquired.
"Your friend, like many others, believes he could have saved her, but n.o.body could have, not even her sister. Her death may have changed and clouded his mind, as it did with all of us in a way or another. The way they killed her was inhumane, and when a tragedy occurs, we all blame and point our fingers to the next person, until reminding us what if? It would mean we also were part of the blame, and the guilt hidden within us will silently eat us alive."
"But why would he hate her? If she couldn"t save her, why does he despise her so much?"
"Guilt and hate are intertwined, it is the easiest reaction to accept. If he hates her, then he can forget for one second it wasn"t his fault after all, even if it truly wasn"t," he said.
"What did they do to her which was inhumane?" I asked.
"War changes people, it begins when people seize more power for themselves, it won"t matter how many innocents will be killed in the meanwhile. They see a child as an obstacle for their insane dream of conquering their desires and if you don"t move, if you don"t fight back or if you"re too weak, you"re wiped out from this world. This is what happened, as it will continue in the future."
"But you didn"t answer me."
"I can"t answer you how she died, I"m in no position to tell you. If you want answers you need to ask your friends."
"You come here to tell me all this and you can"t even answer a simple question?"
"I didn"t know we had a curious princess, I already told you what you needed to know. By the way, this is a celebration, is it not? Let"s have a drink," he said giving me a gla.s.s of what seemed to be champagne? I took a sip out of anger and began to drink it all. The taste was sweet, it gave me a weird sensation as I wanted to drink more of it. Around me the room began to spin like a top, as my head became extremely dizzy.
"Are you feeling okay love?" he asked.
"I need to sit down. I don"t feel very well," I said.
"I think you need to sleep," he remarked as I felt my heartbeat slowing down and a loud noise kept thumping my eardrums, almost destroying them.
"I need Mitsuko or Robert. I don"t think I feel-"
"Don"t worry love, just go to sleep," he whispered.
My eyes were weighed down, it would have been useless to try and keep them open. I understood what was happening to me, but I could not do anything to ensure I would not have fallen asleep even if I wanted to. It was a matter of seconds; my brain was already shutting down.