Epilogue
A loud scream rang out through the palace as Helia was pacing the halls. It had been almost eight months later almost to the day that Flora and Krystal had arrived on the shores of Hademort that Flora was in their bedroom, screaming out into the dead of night as their child tried to make their way into the world.
Helia kept pacing the halls, desperately wanting to be in the room with Flora; holding her hand, wiping her sweaty brow, and telling her that everything would be alright. But given the nature of her pregnancy, all hands were called in to help, leaving no room for Helia. The physician called in the older maids of the palace, some of which helped Viviana when she had given birth to Helia and when Flora's contractions became closer and closer together, it wasn't Helia who she wanted, she wanted Krystal.
So Helia continued to pace, looking up at the clock and waiting. Every time that Flora let out a yell, he wanted to run into the bedroom and take her away. However, that would not stop the pain but Helia could only hope that she would feel a bit better. No, he would feel better. The pacing continued.
"Helia, please try to calm-"
"Don't tell me to calm down!" Helia snapped his head to look at Saladin who was calmly leaning against the wall. How could Saladin or anyone just stand there?
"Flora is in there and she needs me and they won't let me see her!"
"What you need to do is stay calm. Flora is in good hands and she-"
"What if she...what if...what if the same thing happens to her that happened to my mother? I can't...maybe my father was right. If I lost Flora and the baby, I don't think that I could-"
"Helia, Flora will be fine."
"You cannot promise that."
"No, I suppose you are right." Saladin shrugged as he pushed himself away from the wall, "But Flora is one of the strongest people that I have ever met. If there is one thing that I know is that Flora is a fighter and she will make it through whatever is thrown her way. Your mother was a fighter too but the fire in her eyes had been long extinguished and she met death with peace. I don't see Flora giving in just yet, there is still fire within her."
Another yell sounded out along with a barrage of muffled words of encouragement that could be heard beyond the door.
"I hope that you are right," Helia said as his eyes looked at the large wooden doors.
Saladin chuckled, "Spirits help us all if I am wrong."
"Flora you are doing amazing." Krystal held Flora's hand as she looked down at her friend on the bed as her body became covered in sweat.
It had been hours since Flora's water broke as she was preparing dinner. While she may now be Helia's wife and the queen, nothing would keep her out of the kitchen. It was the place that made her feel most at home. It took some time, but the servants became accustomed to their new queen spending time with them downstairs. It was even more strange to see their new king down there as well, fussing over Flora's every move and helping her lift heavy pots. However, the king and queen looked happy, and it was a welcome sight after years of tyrannical rule under the old king.
"I want my mother." Flora cried out as the contraction began to fade away and she found the strength to speak.
"I know," Krystal wiped the brown strands of hair away that stuck to Flora's sweaty brow, "and I know that your mother would want to be here too. She would be so proud of how strong you have become, and she would have loved to meet her grandchild. So, you have to give it all you've got and don't give up, okay? You might be the queen, but I command you as Princess of Linphea to give me my new best friend."
Flora nodded as she felt another contraction hit. It felt like she had been constricted and she desperately wanted to find release. She squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation for the next wave of pain to hit her just as it had most of the night. All she wanted was for it to be over and to have her child in her arms. It had been hours and if there was one thing that she knew about her child, it was that he or she was almost as stubborn as their father. Well, it didn't help that both she and Helia were stubborn, but Helia was both the King of Hademort and the King of Being Stubborn. This child was definitely his, and Flora would be damned if there was going to be any contention.
"Your Majesty-"
"Flora."
The physician looked up at Flora from between her spread legs, "Excuse me?"
"Please," Flora winced as the pain came closer and closer, "no need to call me anything but my name. Especially when you are wrist deep inside of me and your head is between my legs."
The physician chuckled, "Very well. Flora on the next contraction I am going to need you to push. I can see the top of the baby's head. It is time to bring in the heir to the kingdom."
Flora nodded before she threw her head back onto the plush pillows, waiting for the contraction to fully hit her. The beginning of the end was here.
"Alright, Flora." Krystal lightly squeezed Flora's hand, "This is it. Ahh, I am so excited!"
"I am glad someone is."
"Come now, Flora. Where is that positive attitude that we all know and love?" Krystal teased.
"I think that it left three contractions ago." Flora groaned as the pain was beginning to radiate down her legs, signaling the impending contraction.
"Flora, you can do it. Now do as the physician said and give it all you've got."
Flora nodded and her body shot forward as the contraction finally hit her full force. She couldn't make a sound as she concentrated on pushing. It felt like she was being torn in two as she felt something hard and heavy move through her. There was so much pressure but the adrenaline of meeting her child and the concentration of her pushing made the pain seem to go away.
"Good job, Flora!" Krystal exclaimed before the physician said anything. Flora kept pushing, the contraction still raging within her.
"Flora I can see the head! Flora they are almost here! You are doing so well!" Krystal placed a kiss on Flora's forehead as tears began to fill the young princess's eyes.
The physician spoke as Flora's body began to relax, the contraction having passed, "The head has been born, Flora. Just one more big strong push on your next contraction and you shall have a child."
"And what a beautiful head it is, Flora." Krystal smiled as she looked at Flora, "Dark hair like their father. And lots of it too."
Flora softly nodded, unable to say anything before one last contraction came her way, smaller than the one before, telling her to push out the rest of her child. They were almost here. She could do it. It was almost over.
"Good, Flora! Push!" Krystal instructed, essentially taking over the role of the physician. She was the princess and her best friend was in labor, she would do as she pleased.
Flora pushed down into her hips, the stretching and tearing feeling not as strong but the pressure remained as she desperately wanted to bring the baby into the cold world. She pushed and pushed until the pressure was suddenly gone.
Sharp cries rang out and every single pain that had overtaken Flora's body had suddenly left her. She fell back onto the pillows and looked up at Krystal who was crying as she looked ahead towards the end of the bed.
"A girl, Flora!" Krystal announced through tears as she watched the physician cut the cord between baby and mother before bringing the baby to Flora's tired and weak arms. "A beautiful, perfect, loud baby girl."
Flora gave a soft chuckle and through a tired voice she teased, "She gets the loudness from you."
Krystal rolled her eyes as the physician handed Flora the baby. Not a moment later, the door to the bedroom slammed open as Helia came barging into the room. He looked around at the host of maids in the room carrying blood and water-soaked bedding out of the room that he shared with Flora. However, his eyes quickly landed on his wife on the bed, a tiny, crying baby cradled in her arms.
Helia ran over to her and stopped suddenly when he looked down at the small child in Flora's arms. It was like the air had been knocked out of him and the world stopped turning as he looked down at the baby, their baby. Helia loved Flora more than words could say but he never imagined that he would be capable of a love stronger than the one he felt for Flora.
"A girl," Flora whispered as she looked up at Helia, "we have a little girl, Helia."
"A...a...a...girl?" Helia stammered as his face brightened and a smile spread across his face. Flora hadn't seen him smile like that since their wedding day months before. Helia felt that his knees would give out underneath him and he would go crashing down to the ground.
"Do you want to hold her?" Flora asked.
Helia quickly shook his head, "I don't trust myself. I can barely stand as it is. I fear that my body would finally give out and I would drop her. Just," Helia felt a tear fall onto his cheek, "just give me a moment. I just want to look at her."
Her eyes were squeezed shut and her little hands were balled up into fists as she cried. Helia looked at her hair, dark like his but with a gentle curl like her mother's. Her face was red from screaming but he could tell that her skin was a beautiful olive tone, much like the princess's but it was to be expected when his pale skin combined with Flora's beautiful tan skin. He counted ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes connected to her perfect little hands and feet. She was perfect. Everything about her was perfect, just like her mother.
"She's so beautiful..." Helia let out a deep sigh.
"She looks just like you," Flora remarked as she looked between her husband and crying daughter who had begun to calm down against Flora's chest.
"No, she can't. Nothing that perfect could ever look like me. I just can't believe that I had a part in creating her. She is here and she is ours. I love you so much, thank you, Flora."
The baby calmed her crying and fell asleep in Flora's arms, her head snuggled into her chest. Flora looked down at the slumbering baby and then back up at Helia.
"She needs a name, Helia."
"No name will ever be good enough for her."
"We have to call her something, Helia." Flora giggled as she looked up at Helia who was still staring down at the small child sleeping in Flora's arms. "And a future queen must have a name."
The couple was interrupted when the physician approached them.
"I am sorry, Your Majesties but I must take the princess for evaluation. Standard practice, nothing to worry about. And Flora, you are not quite done, there is the business of the afterbirth."
Flora nodded as she slowly raised her daughter up into the physician's arms. She watched as he took her to the corner of the room where maids were waiting with towels and a basin of water. Her daughter cooed as the water hit her head, sending Flora's heart soaring. Flora couldn't keep her eyes off of her, it was like she was the only other person in the room. All the talking around her was muffled as she looked at the tiny little girl in the maid's arms.
A slight cramp in her abdomen brought her back to reality as she shot up in the bed once again. Helia's hand landed on her back to help prop her up, worried that there might be something wrong. He had learned the hard way what a difficult delivery might do, and while there had been no complications, Flora had been in the room yelling for hours as she was in labor. Helia had to make sure that everything was okay. He was supposed to have a sibling and he lost his baby sister and mother in the same day; he would not lose his wife and daughter in the same day either.
He would rather die than have that happen.
"Someone come quick, my wife..." Helia's voice was panicked and hurried as he called over to the maids and physicians who were tending to the small baby.
The physician calmly made his way back to Flora who had brought her knees to her chest and began pushing. Krystal grabbed Flora's hand and the physician was at the end of the bed, his hands and head back between Flora's legs. Flora felt a soft pressure and then it was over. The physician popped back up with a large mass of what looked to be congealed blackberry jam. Helia looked on with worry.
"What is-"
"The placenta, Your Majesty. Nothing to worry about and it appears to have come out all in one piece, but I will examine it further just in case. You have done beautifully; Flora and your daughter look healthy and rosy like any other baby I have seen. Congratulations."
"So, she will be alright?" Helia asked, "Flora is going to be okay?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. But please," the physician turned to Flora, "if anything feels amiss, please let me know. Nothing is too small. A weird itch, call for me. Sneeze weird? Call for me. If your head starts to hurt, send the entire guard for me and drag me out of bed."
Flora nodded as she watched the physician wrap the bloody placenta in a towel. She lowered her legs and called out.
"What are you going to do with that?" Flora asked. "After you have examined it?"
"I will have it thrown into a fire to dispose of it."
"Oh," Flora frowned, "if it isn't too much trouble. In my village, we would bury the placentas and give thanks to the spirits for blessing our village with new life. May I?" Flora looked over to Helia, "It's not too strange, is it?"
Helia chuckled and shook his head, "No, my love, it is not. We shall have a grand ceremony if you'd like. In fact, someone should be ringing the bells right now that Hademort has a new heir. The whole kingdom should be rejoicing."
"Helia, it is the middle of the night." Flora relaxed into the bed as she reached up and gently grabbed Helia's hand. "And she doesn't have a name yet. Let the city sleep, please, let me sleep."
Helia sighed, knowing that his beautiful wife was right. It was the late night or early hours of a cold June day, and the capitol was asleep. But first thing in the morning, he would command the bell ringers to sound the bells for hours and the whole kingdom would fall into celebration. From the port to the mountains, everyone would know that there was a new princess.
"Where are you taking her?" Flora slowly rose and looked at the maid who had wrapped up the baby and was making her way to the door.
"She needs to be fed, Your Majesty. She is probably very hungry."
"Then give her to me," Flora responded, "why are you taking her away from me?"
"Your Majesty, a wet nurse-"
Flora's eyes widened as she angrily cut off the maid, "I am her mother! I shall feed her and wash her and dress her and change her and clean her clothes and-"
"Flora," Krystal placed a hand on Flora's shoulder in an attempt to calm her friend and new mother, "she did not know. Most royals are fed by wet nurse and cared for by nannies."
"I'm sorry," Flora calmed down as she looked at the maid apologetically, "I did not know. I would like to feed her and do everything that a mother would do. I may be the queen, but I am her mother first. Please, give her to me. Do not take her from my side."
The maid walked over to Flora and timidly gave the queen her princess. She desperately did not want to incur the wrath of the woman that everyone had regarded as kind and merciful. Flora took her child in her arms and looked at her sleeping face, serene and her pink lips were parted as she breathed in and out.
"She may look like me, but she snores like you."
"Helia!"
"She also has your mouth." Helia shrugged as he looked down lovingly at his daughter.
"I fear that is where the similarities end." Flora sighed as she took a closer look at her. Flora did say that their child looked like Helia but as she slept, she looked nearly identical to her father. She could tell that the baby had high cheekbones like her father under the chubby face, her nose was still like a button, but Flora had seen a royal portrait of Helia that Saladin had pulled from the gallery which had been kept away during Azrael's reign, and the baby Flora held in her arms and the baby in the portrait had the same nose. Finally, the baby had fine wisps of eyebrow hairs that formed high arches like her father's.
She and Helia were identical, but Flora was glad that their daughter had something of hers. If she had not just spent hours in labor with the child, Flora would begin to question if the child was hers.
Flora brought her baby up to her chest and as if by second nature, the baby latched on and began moving her small little mouth. It felt odd yet natural at the same time. Flora also hadn't realized how sore her breasts were until the baby started feeding and the pressure in her chest soon dissipating. She ran her hand over her daughter's head and felt her soft hair, still damp from her bath. She was so soft and tender. Her skin felt like the skin of a peach and her cheeks were colored to match as she suckled. She really was perfect.
"Mireya."
She didn't know why she said that name, but it felt so right coming from her mouth. Upon saying the name, the baby opened her eyes and Flora was met with the brightest, green eyes that she had ever seen that contrasted with her dark lashes and hair. She could hear Helia let out a gasp as his eyes met his daughter's. She looked at him as she fed, and it was as if they were having a silent conversation.
"She has your eyes." Helia remarked, unable to take his eyes off of his daughter, "I prayed that she would have your eyes. I didn't think that she could be any more perfect but those eyes..."
"Helia," Flora said gently however Helia's attention was still on their daughter, his eyes holding him in some kind of trance, "Helia," she called him a bit more firmly but her voice still light and gentle, "what do you think of the name Mireya?"
"Mireya." Helia repeated and allowed for the name to hold in the air for a while. The baby made a sound as she fed, Helia taking it as a sign that she liked the name that her mother chose for her. "I love it."
"It's not too...Linphean is it? I know that the court and council will want a more traditional name for their future queen but I-"
"Mireya is perfect, and the court and council will need to accept that. Linphea is part of her, and she should have a name to reflect that. Princess Mireya. June for her middle name."
"Why June?" Flora asked.
"Because her birthday is in June and June was the month that you came to me. I fell for you the minute you arrived, no matter how hard I tried to fight it."
Flora smiled, "Mireya June. Reya for short, Mireya for formal and official occasions, Mireya June for when we are cross at her when she does not listen."
"I could never be cross with her." Helia said as he ran a finger over Mireya's cheek, "Not when she is everything that I never thought that I would have. I don't deserve her, I don't deserve you, I don't deserve any of this."
"Of course you do, Helia," Flora replied as looked up from Mireya to Helia, his eyes still on their feeding daughter. "I am the luckiest woman in the world to have you as my husband. Hademort is lucky to have you as a king. And Mireya is going to have the second-best father in the entire world."
"Second best?" Helia lifted an eyebrow as his gaze met Flora's.
"I had a pretty amazing father, Helia." Flora giggled, "But don't worry, you are a very close second."
Helia rolled his eyes as he chuckled. Reaching forward, he placed a hand on Mireya's head, feeling her warm skin and soft hair for the first time. He did his best not to cry as he felt his daughter and did his best to hide the trembling of his hand.
Thank you, Flora."
"For what?"
Helia bent down and placed a kiss on Flora's forehead, the taste of salt from her sweat still on her skin.
"For everything."
"Did you hear?" a man clad in thick armor turned to a man in a similar metal uniform.
"Hear what?" the other man responded.
"The King and Queen of Hademort welcomed a princess last week. I heard one of the guards talking about it with our weapons supplier earlier this morning."
"Really? I guess that congratulations are in order, don't you think 51395?"
The man turned to the dark-haired man in the cell that the two men in armor were guarding. The man sat in his usual place in the dark corner, only moving forward into the light when food came. The prisoner sat in the dark and never talked to anyone, not even the guards.
"Eh leave him," the other guard responded, "he hasn't uttered a word since he arrived eight months ago. They said that he was a madman from Hademort charged with crimes against the crown. The man who brought him in said that he sometimes would claim to be the king. Can you believe that?"
"Ha! If he were a king, he wouldn't be here."
The guards laughed as they continued to tease the man in the cell.
The man was hunched over, and his body was tense as he heard the news from his country, the country where he still would have been king. His son was on the throne and that Linphean girl had sired him a child, a precious, little princess. Helia had gotten what he had wanted and here he was, sitting in a cell, rotting away as he listened to the people of the prison chat about anything and everything.
It had been eight months and there was a child now. Helia was at his weakest. He would be distracted by love and bliss that he would lose sight of what was really important, power. Now was the time to start his grand plan.
"Yes," Azrael spoke, his voice still holding the deep, soothing timbre, "I suppose congratulations are in order."
"Ah, so the loon does speak." one of the guards smirked.
"He does and he is going to take back what is rightfully his."
Azrael looked up at the guards and gave them both a wicked smile as he stood up and emerged from the shadows. Reaching the bars, he towered over the two men, and they backed away, a hint of fear glimmering behind their eyes.
Azrael's smile widened. Good, he thought, let them be afraid. Let them all be afraid.
"Gentlemen," Azrael announced, "I think that it is time for me to return home."
So that is it for Forbidden Spring! Thank you to all who followed me along for this little adventure and I hope that I will see you all in the sequel. There are some hints to some things that I have planned for the sequel, some good, some not so good…
And before you all say anything, yes, I know that babies do not get their eye pigment until around 3-6 months, I just wanted ~drama~ and there is already magic in this story, I think that we have crossed the line of what is realistic and what is not. Also, it's my story and I shall do as I like
Anyways, thank you and as always let me know what you think now that this first story is complete. What are your predictions for the sequel? And to calm your fears, I am planning plenty of sexy fun times for our favorite characters. Some passionate, some comical, some angsty, and some scenes just because I feel like it haha! As always, you can follow starrynights513 on Instagram for polls, musings, and updates! I always love getting messages for people and thank you all for humoring me in the polls that I create that I don't tell you what they are for because I am trying to make decisions where all options would be good but I just need other people just to make the decision for me and not telling you all what the poll is for just makes it that more interesting to see what you all voted for. With that said, I can't wait to see you all for the sequel!