Chapter 24

A Lost Destiny

Instead of being held in Evalius, Sahrissa was taken to the land of Bellaire. Based on what she heard, she would be used as a tool to strengthen the alliance between the king here and Queen Kendal.

As she was led through the land in chains, Sahrissa took a moment to reflect. This land was her home once, or at least where she lived as a child. Her family was decently wealthy although her stepmother treated her as a servant.

Once within the palace, Sahrissa was taken directly to the dungeon. She wondered if this magic blocking dust Becket used would wear off.

Sahrissa noticed this dungeon did not seem all that dark. There was just enough windows towards ceiling for a comfortable amount of light. The walls were clean rather than covered in dust. There was even a pile of two mattresses pressed against the corner of her cell.

Letting out a brief breath, Sahrissa sat on the mattresses, and noticed something felt odd. She stood up and lifted the corner of the bottom mattress, and pulled out a tiny pea from underneath.

As she tossed the pea in the corner a voice came from behind her, "That's funny. Most people do not even notice the pea under the mattresses. You most certainly are royalty my queen."

"I am now, but I wasn't born that way," Sahrissa muttered as she turned to see who spoke to her.

There, a young man stood with golden blonde hair and a tiny goatee. He wore noble attire and a black cape. Sahrissa did not notice a crown on his head so she figured he must simply be ordinary rather than royalty.

"I see, so it was by marriage then, I assume," he said, quietly.

"Yes," Sahrissa answered simply.

"How did you meet him?" the man asked.

Sahrissa looked up at him, curious of why he was asking her all these questions. Who was this man? She then briefly thought of the truth of how she ended up with her late husband. It was all because of Myrtle. Her fairy guide was who led her to her future in another kingdom in the first place.

Sahrissa merely sighed. "It's a long story. The truth is I actually once lived here. I did not leave until I first married."

He frowned and raised his eyebrow. "You lived here as a young maiden? You must not have attended my ball when I was first trying to find a wife. I would have remembered your exquisite beauty."

The young queen looked up at him. "Your ball?"

He nodded and smiled. "Yes, I am the king, here. Since it is just the two of us at this moment, you may simply call me Victor."

Sahrissa gazed up to him, stone cold bewildered. She was not expecting the king himself, to pay her a visit, especially by himself.

"I see I must have caught you off guard, my queen," he spoke with a grin.

"Just call me Sahrissa for now," she muttered looking back down.

Victor, the king, took a step closer to the bars and commented, "Now, what I want to know is why my possible fiancé wants the current Queen of Ventura here. She claimed you were dangerous. What do you have to say on her claim?"

She turned to head back to him and responded with, "I do not have an answer for your inquiry but merely another question. What makes you so quick to trust the Queen of Evalius? Do you know nothing of the land?"

"I was told Queen Kendal brought the land out of ruin," he answered softly. "That is the kind of woman I need for my ally and queen. This is both for the sake of my kingdom as well as my own future."

Sahrissa sighed and gazed back downward. For a moment, she wished she could be the kind of person a king would look for, someone he knew would care for the kingdom, but she supposed she already ruined any chance of that happening.

"So why didn't you attend my ball?" Victor asked her out of the blue.

She looked up at him. "How are you so certain I did not attend? There must have been nearly a hundred of young maidens there."

"As I said, I am certain I would have noticed you," he persisted. "I can't really explain, but I feel as though we would have connected there. Now tell me, why didn't you go?"

"My stepmother wouldn't let me attend," Sahrissa admitted.

To her surprise, this made King Victor chuckle. He then said, "Forgive me, my lady, but you just recently snuck into your enemy's kingdom all by yourself. I am almost completely confident, if you wanted to get into my ball, you would have done the same."

She looked up to him and sighed. "I did want to go. I used do dream of it and wish for it harder than anything I've ever wished for."

"What changed your mind," he asked her.

Sahrissa shrugged. "I don't know, really. One day my fairy godmother came to me, and said she would help me get to the ball if that was what I truly wanted. She then however, told me I could do so much more with my life… be so much more. All I had to do was follow her guidance. I guess I was intrigued by where she would lead me."

The king merely looked down towards his feet and mumbled, "I see."

When Sahrissa looked to his face, she noticed he appeared slightly saddened. She herself actually felt a twinge of guilt for the choice she made.

"I'm sorry," she said to him, softly. "Perhaps if I had simply met you first, I would have chosen to attend your ball."

Victor smiled at her. "I think we would have had a good time."

He then pulled out a key from his pocket and began to unlock her cell.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"I do not understand Queen Kendal's orders," he said simply. "I was going to hold you here to strengthen my alliance with her, but now I see no reason to keep you locked up. After all, you seem to pose no threat to this kingdom, especially now that I discovered it was once your home land."

Sahrissa walked over to the bars and held them as she muttered, urgently, "Don't marry this queen. I promise you, she is not the person you think she is."

Victor looked into her eyes and merely smiled as he opened the door and placed his cloak around her. "I think its best you leave now while you have the chance. I don't know what is going on between you and Queen Kendal, but I do sincerely hope the two of you will one day be able to reach some sort of understanding."

Sahrissa did not respond to this, but merely smiled gratefully as he let her out. As she trotted up the pathway, she turned and gave one last glance at the king, the man who showed her mercy. She had the feeling this would likely be the last time she would ever see him.

Keeping a low profile, Sahrissa snuck through the hallways, hiding in dark corners and curtains whenever she would spot someone heading her way.

She stopped by the room of the little infant princess. Seeing that no one was there, she crept in and gazed down upon the crib. Sahrissa saw familiarity as her eyes looked down to the face. After all she had known this little girl's mother. Jillian, the late queen of this kingdom, was the only member of her stepfamily that ever showed her kindness. When Sahrissa's stepmother would punish her by refusing to give her dinner, Jillian would sneak some bread to Sahrissa late at night, once everyone went to bed. Between her two stepsisters, Sahrissa definitely thought King Victor made the right choice. She just thought it was rather unfortunate Jillian had to pass away at such a young age.

Sahrissa kissed her hand and gently pressed it against the infant's forehead before moving on. It seemed funny how destiny worked here at times.