Chapter 2
Kia looked at the little pond in the middle of the Imperial gardens. Besides having her morning duties to attend, she also had chores to care for outside, on the little garden deck prepared for the Empress in her last months. She had liked these last requests that the servants had prepared. All sorts of lilies and orchids from every color and texture filled the desk with luminance and fresh scents. She fetched the water containers and watered the
flowers daily along with scrubbing the gold studded floors. Her small size made it easier for her to reach the crevices and nooks of places.
It was from the younger age that Kia had been brought to the palace and taken under Yolima's wing personally. You see, Kia didn't even remotely remember where she came from, much less who her family was. Yolima had told her of the rainy night when a woman, out of desperation, had plead for the care of her child to a guard outside in her last few minutes of life. Yolima had watched as the guard had turned her down unkindly, and how the mysterious woman had dropped on the floor, leaving a covered baby to the mercy of the rain. Yolima had taken the babe as her own, raising and nurturing her into a blooming child of 11. Of course, the child was kept secret from the Royalty's sight. Yolima did not to run the risk of revealing a child being raised in the palace under a handmaiden's care.
It was for a few years that that Kia did not know of anyone else but Yolima and a few of the servants, living a life loneliness, knowing only to always listen and obey. Inevitably, the child's presence became clear to the palace servitude. The Emperor and Empress soon learned about this as well. The Empress had taken a special interest in the child, maybe because she was young and ripe for child bearing, something she had desired since her irrational rushed marriage to the Emperor. Nevertheless, the Empress had only kind eyes for Kia and enjoyed her company.
She groaned. Her knees were killing her from crawling for long amounts of time. While nobody was looking, she stood up and took a walk around the garden, the birds her only companion, hoping nobody would find her and hurt her. She sat at the golden fountain with a mighty statue of the Emperor, looking grandly over the rising sun, his body rigid and muscular, and his face stern.
Kia sighed and looked over the horizon, perhaps concerned about the fate of her own people. Something caught her attention though. Orchid petals softly trickled down from the royal balcony landing on the statue and creating ripples on the water. Kia looked up only to see the Empress, standing melancholically over the rails. The breeze made her long sleek hair blow in harmony with the air, her face fixed like stone in the hills. Kia did not want to interrupt her and be seen. She quickly scurried out of her view to a nearby patio umbrella, her wide eyes fixed on the expecting mother.
Kia looked away, again staring at the horizon. She remembered it all. The grand news that the Empress was expecting an heir to the throne. The many lush parties and events hosted for the mother. The smiling radiating face of the Emperor upon his wife, whispered words of love only heard between them. She admired them from a far and watched as the Empress had grown bigger with every prear ending month closer to the happy moment. They would have a son, it was rumored, a beautiful baby boy.
She took a gulp and shuddered. A chill crawled in her spine. She then remembered how there were news of war upon a far away land. Dark news of death and starvation. How the Emperor was abruptly summoned to travel…oceans away. The bright vivid image of the couple's farewell remained ingrained in Kia's mind.
And yet, after many months of desperate waiting, he never did come back. The servitude was losing hope with every prear ending week their ruler would not appear. But yet the young expecting Empress waited patiently and with great persistence. In her mind, her love would come back and spend the rest of their lives together, away from war and famine and with their prince. Dark rumors were heard that the Emperor was dead, the sea claiming his life. Despite her perseverance, this took a toll on the Empress's health. She began to suffer pains and aches. She would spend vast amounts of solitude at her request, unless told to follow her husband's duties, which she would do with ever serenity and regal firmness. But every torturing day by herself was a possible toll on the unborn prince
