The Dying

11

The two females take a look around the room they find themselves in. It is old, the oldest they've ever seen in the palace. Even with the age there is little decay about it, like it is still well maintained. Aurora is intrigued, she thought that she'd been through all the palace, well, not the private rooms of course, but this isn't a private room. She had had little to do over the years other than raise Margaret and so they had explored the palace extensively.

Once Margaret discovered the underused library that was usually where she would be found. She found the history books especially entrancing.

Aurora moves over to the windows to see just where they are. Her breath catches as she looks out over the gardens and towards the waterfall where Marcus had come to her the other day. She wonders if he had watched her as she went there and as she undressed.

It doesn't bother her if he did. She knows that many of the females from Earth have issues with that, but she never did. The Lockheartians don't really have a standard of modesty. That was very difficult for many of the females. Some of them had been taken from areas of Earth where the females were covered from head to toe with just eyes showing.

Some of those females didn't do so well, Aurora understands. That and the requirement of them to have children with those that they weren't married to and many couldn't handle it. It went against all that they were taught to believe in. Perhaps they weren't Lockheartian females, but the sickness that killed the females seemed to have taken a few of the human females as well.

Aurora knows that the males didn't understand, how could they? Most of them weren't taught to listen or understand that a female had needs and wants just like them. They were taught to be selfish. They have no religion, at least not that Aurora has discovered and so they can't understand the needs of those females. They don't understand things like faith and belief.

To tell the truth Aurora has a hard time with it as well, she's never had it taught to her either, but at least she understands the need the females have for it.

If there are other females like those on this transport she'll talk to Marcus about it and see what can be done about it. Perhaps they can be artificially inseminated and have the required children that way? She doesn't see a reason they shouldn't be allowed to wear the clothes that they feel comfortable in as long as they are able to do the assigned work they are given there shouldn't be a problem.

It doesn't take long for Aurora to become restless. There are books and so Margaret has happily gotten herself lost in the pages of whatever book has caught her attention, but there is nothing to keep Aurora's thoughts distracted. She just can't help the thoughts that she'll have to share Marcus with others. The thoughts just won't go away no matter who has reassured her that he won't.

After what seems like hours, and from the position of the sun she believes it to be just that, the door opens once more. As she looks over and starts walking her sight goes dark. She doesn't hear Margaret's scream or Dallas's cursing as he tries to reach her side before she hits the ground. 

Margaret looks around her. The garden is beautiful, flowers that she's never seen before are abundant. "Where am I?" She had meant to only think that but her words seem to almost echo as they are said.

"You are in a place I made so that I could talk to you. I do apologize for the scare I gave Margaret and your guards, would you let them know?" The female says appearing before Aurora at that time.

"I would, except I have no idea who you are." Aurora says. The words come out far more bluntly than she'd intended, but she shrugs, there is no taking them back now.

The female far from taking offense actually laughs. "Yes, you have definitely gotten some of my temperament."

The female takes a breath and turns to Aurora. "I have longed to talk to you for some time and explain things, but I have to follow certain rules and until now, the conditions haven't been met for me to talk to you or any of my people. In my people's case it has been several centuries since I've been able to talk to them.

"Have a seat, Aurora, there are many things I need to tell you. Things that will explain a great deal of what has happened to you. I wasn't pleased by some of what happened, but there was little I could do."

Aurora finds herself sitting on the lawn that is as lush as she thought it looked and waits impatiently as the strange female also takes a seat. "I am known by my people as the throne." The female smiles sadly. "They have become so prideful. Your father, Marcus's father wasn't always the evil king that he turned to be.

"His second wife, poisoned by jealousy that her children would never rule started turning him against his first wife. The wife that he loved from childhood. By the time Marcus was born the king was barely talking to his queen. He became prideful, angry and defiant. He had turned away from his duties as king and become tyrannical in his dealings. He turned from natural male and female relations to starting something that had never been here before. Not only did he turn to males he was forceful in making the males be with him and other males. He violated all his children. He is the reason the females started dying. He is the reason that for the first time in history my children died from natural causes. He is the reason my daughters died from heart break and from lack of care during pregnancy and birth. He is the reason I was no longer able to speak to my people." The female is angry and it shows. Angry tears fall down her face.

"In time even the queen succumbed to the illness. But at least she found some comfort in Marcus. I couldn't make it so Korban was theirs completely, but Korban is as much Marcus's as he is Demetri's." The female pauses at Aurora's blank look.

"Demetri was the old king, Marcus's and Garrett's and your father.

"I was able to combine the DNA to make Korban both their child, but I couldn't just allow Marcus to be his father as much as I wanted to. As much as their mother wished it to be, not even I can break the binding.

"How did Garrett's mother die?" Aurora can't believe that one spiteful woman brought about the downfall of an entire people.

The female in front of her smirked, "Like the other females. She was one of the first to succumb to the illness. She died before her last child could be born. Emmett actually had to do an emergency operation to attempt to save the child."

"Did the child survive?" 

The female smiles sadly. "Yes, but he died along with five of Marcus's full brothers and several of the other males."

"I see."