The Cursed King

Chapter 22 - The Lessons From Butterfly

Elise's mouth agape when she realized that her grandmother was really serious with her threat and had punished her by not allowing her to see the chamber.

"Father..." Elise looked up to her father and pursed her lips. "Did grandma lock me out of her chamber for good?

King Alexander turned to his right and saw Myrcella Leorelai, his mother, who sat gracefully on her favorite chair with a cup of tea in her hand shook her head. The woman raised two fingers.

Only he could see his mother, as he also saw the chamber like usual. As for Elise, all she saw was a vast of nothingness.

The king immediately understood that his mother had grounded his daughter for two years.

"No, only two years," said the king to his daughter. His heart ached when he saw her expression turn gloomy. He turned to the right again and asked his mother with his eyes.

Myrcella Leoralei rolled her eyes and finally raised one finger. "I can reduce her punishment to one year, if she could finish all her studies by then."

King Alexander turned to Elise and told her what his mother said. "However, if you promised to be a good girl and finish all your studies in one year, your punishment will be lifted by then."

Elise turned to the right and bit her lip, looking so pitiful. She knew her grandmother was right over there, but since she was charmed by her grandmother's spell, she couldn't see Myrcella Leoralei.

"It's really up to you if you want to be grounded for one year or two years." King Alexander continued. "You have broken the law of our kind. You are told over and over again, not to intervene with regular humans' life. Your grandmother thinks it's time to make you really understand that for every action, there is a consequence. Just because you are a princess, it doesn't mean you will get special treatment."

"Oh, grandma..." Elise went to her knees and begged. "I didn't hurt anyone. I was only helping Loriel..."

"He didn't need your help," King Alexander replied on his mother's behalf.

The handsome king reached out his hand and motioned Elise to come with him. The young girl sighed and took her father's hand. She rose from the floor and walked with him, holding his hand.

She knew her father was a very busy man, but he always made time for her to teach her important life lessons, and this was one of the things she loved about him.

They went down from the tower and walked to the massive garden in front of the palace. It was filled with Elise's mother's favorite flowers. The flowers here bloomed all year round no matter what season it was.

"What are we doing here?" Elise looked up to her father and asked. She knew this garden had a special place in her father's heart since it was her mother who grew most of the plants here herself and she cared for this place every day when she was still alive.

After she passed away, King Alexander spent a lot of his private time here.

Did he ask Elise to come here to talk about her mother?

She never met that woman because she passed away when she gave birth to Elise. So, it was hard to miss someone you never really knew. Grandmother Myrcella was the only mother figure that Elise had in her life.

"Come here and see this caterpillar," said King Alexander. Elise walked to his side and saw several caterpillars getting ready to wrap themselves in cocoons on a branch of a blackberry tree.

This was nothing unusual, she thought. She had seen caterpillars turned into cocoons and later butterflies. It's part of nature.

"Now, let's see these cocoons over here." King Alexander moved to the next plant and pointed at two cocoons hanging from the branch. Both were at the stage of breaking free from their cocoons and got ready to fly as butterflies.