Was it wise to tell him my fears? Though Elise doubted he was so willing to have her dead, there had been a moment when he could have done it and drained the life from her when he had his hands around her throat, but yet he had stopped. It’s just because he needs the lands I provide. For his people to survive, nothing more. But yet it had felt right to tell him the truth of what was on her mind, there was only so much she could hide and considering it was starting to now show physically it was becoming more difficult to conceal it.
As the silence fell between them, she couldn’t help but wonder what her future really had in store here, was she forever going to be counting each day she lived waiting for the moment of her own demise. Perhaps I was a fool to offer him that branch, a stem of truth for one of his own. Keeping her eyes in front of her as they rode on, until she finally heard his reply letting her in on his own thoughts. “I think it comes hand in hand with being a King, not knowing who you can really trust.”
Frowning for a moment as he continued on about how it was not the first time someone had tried to kill him, she wasn’t really surprised it was natural for Royals to have high bounties on their heads to the power hungry or rebellious people, but it didn’t make it any easier about hearing it. “That’s awfully sad, to know you get used to something like that in time, having a target on your back. Enduring it, surviving it. Even as a child. I’m not really surprised, it’s only natural things like this happen and it was something I was taught as a child.”
Shaking her head slightly as she tried to remove the rather dark thoughts from her mind, that her life would always be surrounded by those she could not trust and those that would want to see her dead. Turning her gaze to the party that surrounded them as she used the silence again between them to see what the others were doing, Treville and his own men weren’t too far from her just watching out and not engaging in any conversations with any of the Formori. There were her ladies who looked to be in deep discussion with themselves and it didn’t look to be important, but she caught their smiles and laughter between one another, and she felt a pang in her heart missing that kind of feeling. To be able to laugh and joke with someone she could consider a friend, the closest she had achieved to that so far was Lady Cheldarine, but again was that a woman she could trust?
Hearing his next question, her body stiffened as she gripped the reigns harder, a question she had never expected from him nor did she expect to have the need to ever answer such a thing. Subconsciously without even realising her fingers brushed against the fabric on her right wrist, a scar that was and had always been perfectly hidden by her dresses. Meeting his golden gaze with her own bright blue eyes she kept the silence between them for a few more moments before she finally opened her mouth to speak, “This is… the second time.”
What harm can he do with my past?
“That’s not to say I haven’t seen plenty of death, there is more than I can count on that front, but personally. This is the second time I have feared for my own life.” As much as she knew the death of her younger brother had affected her it was clear she was not the target, Athos had been and a part of her even suspected her own brother had hired the assassin just to secure his line to the throne. Sighing to herself as her eyes were downcast now having finally made up her mind to tell him a story of her past, one that went hand in hand with her nightmares of her younger brother. After all getting to know each other would make things easier for them and maybe one day she’d feel like she could trust him.
“I was only thirteen at the time, and I guess it was partly my own fault for wandering off too far from my escort, but it proved to be the perfect opportunity for these rebels to steal me away and demand a handsome ransom to the King… except the ransom was too high a price that my father was willing to pay and tradition in Eorzia always meant I’d never inherit the throne, so I was somewhat expendable. Especially when he had two healthy sons.” Trailing off for a moment as she knew he would catch her drift without needing to delve too much into the nitty gritty of the story.
“After a day or so they learned I would not fetch them the coin they desired the only option they felt they had left was to try and kill me and run from the evidence.” Narrowing her eyes as she tried not to recall the memory knowing it was yet something else she had chosen to burry deep in her mind, to not feel that fear she had when she was a child but with it being a part of her nightmares it was hard to forget. “Perhaps they had a sense of guilt or did not want to watch me die because of my age but they opted to slit my wrist and let me bleed out. I might have been dead in minutes if they had cut the right place, and maybe it was luck, because they had missed it by an inch.”
This time her gaze sought out Treville, her eyes falling on him for a moment before she turned back to face Ozragad finishing her little tale. “Treville was quite young back then, but it was how he was promoted quickly within our ranks as he had found me hours later abandoned by the rebels. I had lost a fair amount of blood by that point, not enough to kill me. But enough for me to fear I'd die.” It had been more than enough to scare her though, especially at her age having to go through an ordeal like that and her father had clearly felt some guilt from it after because he had practically given her everything she wanted.
“Have you ever felt that before? Life slipping away from you without having the power to stop it yourself?” She found herself looking back at him intently, feeling slightly vulnerable for sharing something of her past that not many knew about her bar the Royal Family.
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