A/N: IMPORTANT! This chapter takes place in the same time period as the last one. Got it? Hope so.

Chapter 11: Sweet Oblivion Eludes Us Till Death

Liam strolled through the courtyard. The wind blew a light breeze to him ruffling his black hair. The courtyard had beautiful decorative plants and flowers, almost as wonderful as Arra's personal garden. He smiled at that. Arra didn't let anyone touch her garden. He remembered the last caretaker of the palace who had thought some touch ups were in order. Needless to say, he didn't work at the palace very long.

Between the everyday work of a queen, daily practicing, sometimes training the troops and various other things she did, Arra kept herself busy. Very busy.

She had been increasing the loads over the years little by little but now that he looked at it she was swamped. Was this something he should look into? Should he worry that his wife was piling on more and more work unto herself? This question had bothered Liam for a long time. He had, after all, married a Shang. They were constantly restless. Arra had proved time and time again that she was Shang down to the bone and not only with the way she fought but with certain concepts too, such as traveling.

Liam sat down at one of the four stone benches that surrounded the large elegant fountain. It looked simple sitting here from the side but it had taken years of living in Karucia for Liam to learn that Karucian art was often simple yet wonderful.

The fountain was made from white stone. The fountain head itself was of three people holding up a large basin that flowed over them. He had never seen the figures when the fountain was off but he knew one was a woman and the other two men. Arra had told him that they were the three watergivers of the world. When the world was made the water was not drinkable for humans so the three watergivers were given to the world to supply clean, fresh water.

There was Deloy the Giving. He gave the water directly to the people, now in the form of rains, lakes, rivers, and other such waterways. There was Keru the Reclaimer. He took back the used water but not to be unkind because then it was given to Anani the Purifier. Anani cleaned the water so it could be given back to the people by Deloy.

Arra had went on to say that they worked directly from the Water Goddess. This fountain represented their never ending flow and of how they worked together for the good of everyone. It was one of the Old Tales and one of the stories that Arra had told during the first few years of their marriage.

The most beautiful part of the fountain was the many colored tiles that did not create a particular picture in the pool around them but it did make the water look like liquid jewels when the sun was shining on it.

Liam sighed. He couldn't go on concentrating solely on the fountain. He did admire it but his mind kept turning back to Arra.

The gods knew she tried her best to quell the urge to travel out into the world alone with just her, her horse, and a few possessions. He didn't know if she knew that he noticed but he had. It had been an internal fight within herself and he knew it all. He sometimes wondered if one of the main things that actually kept her in Karucia was the fact that since she had been known as the princess who ran away she didn't want to give fuel as the queen who did also. Just to prove everyone wrong.

To get a change of scenery she had even began setting up family outings and vacations to one of the castles by the shore or something like that. This succeeded for a while until the advisers decided the palace needed them to be at the actual capital far too much. When they had said that, Liam remembered closing his eyes and sending a prayer up to the gods that this wouldn't be what did it. That this wouldn't be what made Arra crack. That day, Arra had forced a smile and extended her hours training troops. The children still got to go on visits to places around the Kingdom, visiting distant relatives but only up until they reached a certain age.

Lana had gotten some of Arra's restlessness. Liam had seen that too and not known what to do about it. Should he have shown his love more? More than he already had? He tried to be the reason Arra stayed but she couldn't just stay for him, Arra had to care about a whole Kingdom. But his daughter, what could he have done? Was there anything that could have been done?

Liam shook his head in hopes of chasing the thoughts back but he'd been trying to do that for years with no avail. This is why people get gray hair, He thought.

He had been so deep in his thoughts he hadn't noticed when a person came to sit down beside him. She was the kind of woman who would be frustrated when a man did not notice her so after only a moment of waiting she said.

"My King, what has you so troubled?"

Liam blinked and turned to her. Lady Elise of Dunour Coast was—in all truthfulness—one of the most striking women he had ever seen. Her eyes were a clear green, not a hint of blue or even brown that would mark them as hazel. Her hair was what he described in his mind as soft. No, he had never touched it, but it just had that sort of look to it. Her hair wasn't the rare white-blond or hard yellow color he had found in his youth that he disliked but a smooth buttery shade. She wore it down at social functions (as had recently come into fashion) enough for him to know it was straight.

Liam thought the hair very nice but found that blond hair could hardly ever get a nice gloss that dark hair could. He liked dark thick hair. It felt nice sliding through his fingers.

There were some women who would never be considered ugly but more plain because no features caught one's attention. Lady Elise's caught more than enough attention with a that bone structure was delicate from the top of her head down to her toes. She might have been more popular at balls and functions if she were not married to the Lord of Dunour. He was a man older than even Liam while Lady Elise was probably a hair over twenty.

Liam stood to greet her. Even if she was seated already it was polite and it was well known she liked men—any and every one even married ones—to show her respect. She let him take her hand graciously. Her red lips turned up into a half smile and lowered her lashes over the green eyes.

He placed his lips on the back of her hand and murmured, "Good afternoon, Lady Elise."

He didn't kiss her knuckles because that was a little like begging to be noticed. It was flirting but in a kind manner and since he was married he would have kissed the Lady on the back of the hand anyways. It was folly to kiss the wrist because it was taking advantage and reaching for more of the woman's body than should be allowed.

After he released her hand she tucked it neatly with the other one on her lap. She smiled up at him again. "So, what has you so bothered? As your most humble subject I ask that if there is anything I can do, you need only ask."

Liam was tempted for a moment to ask her to leave him in peace. Arra was meeting with Joel this day and coming out here was supposed to calm him but having to be so formal would put stress on that. Then again it might take his mind off of other matters.

"No, Lady. I am only taking an afternoon stroll through the courtyard." He deliberately didn't answer what had him bothered and as king it was his right to.

"I think perhaps your stroll may come to a stop soon." He looked where her eyes were. It was Cyril. He hadn't spotted Liam yet but the king had a feeling he was going to.

"Yes, well." Liam coughed shortly into his hand. "I'm sure it isn't anything important. All the same." He smiled and walked away. He hadn't expected her to follow.

She giggled. For a moment Liam was struck with how odd giggling sounded on a twenty year old or then again maybe he just didn't like giggling. "I don't think anyone ever told me kings ran away from others."

"Oh, kings run plenty." Liam said looking behind him to see if Cyril was still there. "They just tend to be found faster than others. I'll probably talk to him later but right now I don't want to be bothered by courtly officials."

"You could not simply tell him that?" She blinked her big eyes at him.

Liam smiled. "They can be rather...persuasive at times." He moved to stand under some low branches of a tree. It had pink fuzzy flowers that looked more like odd cotton wisps. There was also one on the opposite side of the path. He peeked around the side of the tree finding that Cyril was walking away from the courtyard. He let out a sigh.

When he turned around he found Elise standing far closer than she had been before. His first instinct was to take a step back but his pride wouldn't let him do it. What king steps back from a lady? She reached up a hand and plucked one of the pink tree puffs from his shoulder. She smiled. At what? He didn't know but he didn't have to react because she spoke.

"This is a rather romantic place isn't it?"

"I suppose. It is, after all, a courtyard."

The beatific smile faltered as if she had made a mistake or he had said something she hadn't expected. Liam didn't let his mind sit there very long. What was the matter with him today? Ah. Yes. He was trying to keep himself off tender subjects.

In his attempt to think of a distraction he didn't notice Elise start a conversation. Well, he did notice but only with half a mind; he paid attention enough to answer her questions but they were mindless answers. If anyone were to ask what his conversation had been about with Lady Elise he wouldn't be able to answer. They talked like that for a while. Elise turned out to be one of those that gestures when they talk. Eventually, Liam's mind came back to him.

"Your Majesty, I must admit to having ulterior motives when I came out here this afternoon," Elise began. Liam listened in. "I—I--"

Suddenly, her hands were pressed against his chest and her lips on his. Liam was struck with a thought, Arra wouldn't be able to kiss me on the lips by surprise because of her height. It was that thought about Arra that helped him push the Lady Elise away.

"What are you doing?"

As if the kiss had given her confidence, she freely gave him a seductive smile. It was practiced and perfect. "My King, please--" She took a step to him. He took another one back.

"We are both married." Perhaps that would dissuade her? Remind her that she was married and not to him.

"Yes." She said agreeably enough. "But to those neither of us can really love."

"Who said I did not love my wife?" Liam demanded.

"It is okay to admit. You have been married a while. Others have lost their love before this length of time." She made it sound like a simple fact. Liam didn't like that.

"We," The words had to be pushed past the anger that had crawled up into his throat ready to burst forward. "are not one of them."

She started to say something equally awkward and wrong but Liam turned away. He strode into the palace. He stopped and leaned against one of the walls. He thrust his gaze to the ceiling only to close his eyes. After a while, he thought he would be okay. I'll just go to my bedchamber and wait for Arra. Would she be done by now?

Liam turned the corner to find that beside the door to his and Arra's room there were two huddled figures. He saw a fall of wavy hair and knew it to be his wife's. It didn't matter who was holding her, only that it wasn't him. As he stormed down the hall he saw one small hand snake around the man's waist. Immediately Liam was there and pulled off the man. Cyril.

Frustration with Elise and himself and the state he had found these two in built in his system. His parents raised him correctly. Rages were not proper for a noble and especially not for a prince. Liam had never complained. The gods had made him calm by nature but there were few times—and this was one of them—where his anger built and even his iron control lost.

The anger almost physically hurt. As if because anger was not so common for him it had to work harder to be forced from him. His hand hurt from clenching Cyril's shirt so hard and his chest hurt with emotion. He forced words from his mouth and they came out loudly. "What are you doing with my wife—your queen? I sh--"

"He was there for me!" Arra's voice pierced his anger. "Were were you?" She punctuated her words with a shove.

Out romancing with a married woman, his mind produced guiltily. With that shame he let go of Cyril but Arra wasn't done. Tears ran down a beaten face. He had seen her sad before. She still cried for Emereth and Damien and on truly bad days she still shed tears for Cobalt who had died in a skirmish in the west a few years into their reign.

But this was different. It looked like she was breaking. Another piece of her giving up its hope, dying. And when I should be strong for her, I'm with another woman in the courtyard. His body went limp with further sadness.

"Where were you? Hm?" She demanded as more tears mad their way down her battered cheeks.

"Oh, Arra." He came to her with open arms ready to wrap them around her and hold her. She pushed him away and turned back to the room. Did she know? Did she know where he had been while she had been with Joel? He laid his head against the wall for a moment taking a deep breath.

"S-sir?"

"Go, Cyril."

"But--"

Liam turned his gaze on the man. "Just. Go."

Inside the room Arra was on him, clinging. He tried to lift her face. She couldn't keep her secrets from him long while she looked him in the eye but she pressed harder against his chest and held her chin down. Liam did the only thing he could and held her as she cried. He put his chin on Arra's head. It took a few moments to catch the words she was whispering.

"I do love you. I do, I do. I love you Liam."

Was it horrible that after twenty years things like this happened? Liam didn't know if he could say the words back. He knew he loved Arra, always would, but could he dirty the words and say it after what had happened with Elise? He would tell her, to get it off his chest but she seemed to have her own problems and he couldn't very well pile them on could he?

He slid his fingers through her hair. "Shhh. Tell me. Tell me."

He picked her up and sat down on one of the couches in another room which put her in his lap. To stay on him she had to fold her legs on either side of his and lift her face from his chest to the crook of his neck.

"Tell me." He whispered to her again rubbing her back.

She stayed silent for moments longer her body still rigid. Then finally her body eased. The story spilled from her. She told him about Joel and how things had started out normal and how they had gone so horrible. She held him a fraction tighter when she told Liam Joel's cruel words.

Liam picked her up again. "Shh. Come lets go to bed."

He didn't feel right with his own problem weighing on him but Arra needed him right now. He kissed her cheek and left his lips there as a soft question. She turned her head and accepted. He would have to be careful and watch for her new bruises and anything worse.

Green. Green eyes burned into her vision and a voice came to her consciousness.

"I've got her."

Arra was already thrashing. Dimly, in the back of her mind she was glad she had gone to a healer before this attack. It held on tighter and tighter until she could only scratch at it. Someone was screaming. Upon opening her eyes, Arra found that the noise was her own. She stopped and fell limp in unexpected exhaustion.

Something trickled onto her arm. She looked down. Blood ran in a thin line from a thick tan arm onto her.

"Oh, Liam!" She gasped. "I'm sorry. I--"

"Nightmare?"

Arra nodded wordlessly. She untangled herself from him and went to pace. She stopped mid-step and spun just in time to see Liam fall back on his elbow with a cat-like smile. Feeling the creep of a blush made Arra's voice come out more cross than she meant. "Oh, go find a healer before you get blood on the sheets!"

The smile was still in place. "At this time? They would probably think our tastes have just...become violent."

This time the blush came full force. Arra put a hand over her eyes and turned away to continue her pacing—after she got a robe on. Liam laughed, a deep manly sound, but she heard him get off the bed all the same. He came back out of the bathroom with his arms cleaned and bandages. He stood in the way of her pacing path and held out the bandages to her. Arra took them and wrapped his arms, her mind elsewhere.

Arra knew those eyes and that voice and her stomach churned just thinking about it. Completely throwing her out of her thoughts, Arra found Liam's hand on either side of her face and his lips against hers in a soft kiss.

"And what was that for?"

Liam put his forehead against hers. "You looked like you needed it."

The smile she had fell when a knock sounded at the door.

"I need to wash up a bit and get some clothes on," Arra said. "You get...something on and answer the door."

Liam groaned in a very childlike way. "Can't we just send them away?"

"No." Was the firm answer.

Just as Arra had pulled the blue shirt over her head, Liam came in with a grim face. Though she noticed he had put on the pants he wore last night before answering the door.

"They want to see us." And he left to get properly changed. Arra sighed and rubbed her forehead. She didn't need to question who they were: the advisers. Perhaps it was something very small? Arra tried to hold onto the hope but on the way to the meeting it kept slipping away from her.

The thread of hope perked up a bit when it was just Cyril. Though now that she thought about it he had seen a very emotional scene from the both of them. If there was one thing she hated, it was when people saw her at her weakest. She didn't mind Liam seeing her, he was her husband, but even then it had taken a long time for her to feel comfortable expressing such private feelings.

Luckily, the young adviser planned on skipping over the whole ordeal.

Cyril looked older than he should sitting at the long table rubbing his temples. Arra and Liam took a seat and Arra raised her brow expectantly as if saying, "Well?"

"I have been trying to tell you for days now, but both of you have...been busy." Cyril began. "So, I thought perhaps I should try before the day began."

"Out wit it Cyril, I am tired and already have a lot on my plate. I'd rather you simply told me so I can see how many more things can go wrong." Arra sighed.

"The Yamani have sent word that they are sending Princess Nozomi over. Their message arrived not too long ago but they have probably already started the journey."

Arra rested her head on her two cupped hands. Liam spoke. "I thought they weren't supposed to come for months."

"They weren't but apparently that date coincided with a sacred holiday."

"But we've already gotten everything ready so nothing to worry about right?" Liam said grasping at that same thread of hope.

"Most everything some of the small details of her arrival ball are still being taken care of. Oh, and it would be best to tell this to the Prince in a way that won't make him too...apprehensive." Cyril paused for a moment then nodded. "That is all."

Arra let Liam grasp her hand as they walked down the hall.

"So. A list." Liam said. Arra nodded. This was how they kept track of things between the two of them, any kind of problems. Big or small, they put them on the list.

"The triplets." Arra said first.

"Emereth's betrothal."

"Joel and Lianne."

Liam squeezed her hand. "Lianne is my sister and no matter how far apart we grow I will always love her. I know you love Joel. But no matter how much we want to help, that is not technically our problem."

"Fine," Arra said in a whoosh of breath. "The warring cities down in the south eastern quadrant."

"Some of the soldiers have been complaining."

"About what?" Arra demanded.

Liam shrugged. "I'll have to see to it tomorrow."

Arra was silent for a moment. "The nightmare I had."

"What bothered you about it?" Arra swallowed and shook her head. It sounded stupid in her head. It was a stupid fear. But all the same she found herself wanting to go to the place she went when life got just a bit too hectic and she needed quiet just for a few moments. It gave her those milliseconds of peace she needed to just sit and think.

Without any forewarning, she released Liam's hand and left down a different path. Liam must have noticed some oddness because he did not follow.

Not for the first time Arra wished she could close her eyes and float away into a sweet oblivion. No problems she had to solve because she was queen, no thoughts constantly running through her head, no pressure to be something she had wanted to reject from the very beginning.

She opened a door to a room that had been dusty since the first time she saw it. Arra had never let a servant enter this room for anything even cleaning and she never had enough time to clean it herself so it stayed in that state. Somehow it didn't seem to fit, this room without the many layers of dust from ages past. It didn't take long for her eyes to find what she stared at every time she came into this room.

Arra froze.

She walked up to it carefully and swiped a hand across the glass case. She came away with a dusty hand. This shouldn't have seemed so odd except for that in twenty years of knowing this place that case had always been pristine. She pulled her gift—a few shades darker than her crystal blue eyes—and created a light to see by.

Arra left the room and leaned against the closed door with her eyes closed. My daughter, what have you done and where will it lead you?

Arra ended up in the hall filled with paintings. She spotted Emereth sitting on the floor against the wall. He stood as she drew closer. She spotted the picture he stood opposite of and couldn't find the energy to make a face at it. It was a portrait made of her on her most faithful mount Ghost and her very first falcon, Cobalt.

Emereth bent and laid his chin on her shoulder as he used to do when he was younger and much shorter and hugged her. She hugged him back. "I love you, Mother."

"Should I be suspicious?" Arra said, hoping her voice wasn't too weary.

His head shook his head on her shoulder. "No. There are just some days when you look like you don't think anyone does love you and you need to be reminded."

He brought his head back with a smile on his face. She didn't know what he meant exactly but she was too tired to ask. Arra put a hand on his cheek. He was so much like his father. An old pain clasped her heart. From the day he was born she knew he would probably have to have an arranged marriage. How could she condemn her own son to something she had so heartily defied?

Fate won in the end, I suppose. I married Liam and became queen. Another though poked in uninvited. It's not the end just yet.

"Now, there's that look. There is something on your mind." Emereth said. Arra put on a smile for him.

"What have you been doing in this place anyway? And looking at the worst picture here, too." Emereth looked like he wanted to say something. For almost a moment Arra thought about letting him. Even if the conversation would be somewhat embarrassing at least they'd be talking about something that wasn't business. But Arra ruined it and her voice came out. "Come, business awaits us."

Emereth, the perfect heir that he was, simply nodded.

Arra expected he would try to continue the conversation down the hall but he didn't. Perhaps she had misjudged how well he knew her? She didn't want to talk about the painting. In fact, now wasn't really a good time for talking at all and maybe Emereth sensed that. He's gotten so many traits from Liam. Arra thought. I think if he had gotten too many from me he wouldn't make the good king I know he will become.

Old worries mixed with new problems and all at once Arra wanted to scream and just bundle everything up and throw it out the window. One thing at a time. Handle one thing at a time. She reminded herself.

A/N: Uh, the watergivers belong to me. So...Yeah. There was a lot in this chapter. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of hinting or foreshadowing so see if you can guess what might happen—or not happen or maybe almost happen later in the story.

Aww, I was reading over this (to make sure it was as close to perfect as I can get it for my wonderful readers) and I just feel so bad for Liam. He's an all around good guy (actually he's pretty much perfect but hey who's taking notes?) and he sees things falling apart around him and doesn't really know what to do. I realize I have put him in this position but...well actually I don't know where I was going with that sentence.

Well! I finally finished the chapter and I'm going to sleep!

Thank you for all the reviews! Everyone! Some people send me reviews and they start out by saying something like "I'm pretty nervous about sending this..." or " something degrading to themselves. I'm going to tell you right now guy, I LOVE REVIEWS! Unless you are going to absolutely grill me about something completely retarded I will LOVE you for sending me a review. NO WORRIES!

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