Light from the Shadow

Chapter 46

"I didn't know exactly what happened after I left the room. What I found was deep cut wounds all over her body and they were not something that could be inflicted with a small blade on one's own. I was late. Your mother had died when I arrived. I couldn't save her. I went to you who were lying unconscious beside her and saw the glow on your right hand and that was how I understood the situation..."

The king finished his story. He looked at his daughter's pale face.

"Whatever that caused your magi to suddenly appear that day, I'm sure your mother didn't mean to harm you. She loved you more than herself. She was just trying to use you to threaten me..."

"She choked me..." Ayna touched her throat. Her face was white. "She..." She gasped. Her breath became uneven.

"Ayna!" Rishi remembered the same thing happened before when he tried to force her magi out in the past.

"Mother choked me. I tried to scream for help but my voice wouldn't come out..." Tears were seeping down her cheeks.

"She really tried to kill you...? Just for him..." The king was shocked by Ayna's revelation. He never thought his wife could do this to their daughter.

"She let me go after I cried but why... why would mother do so far?!"

"I think we should stop now." Rishi held her in his arms.

"No! I have to know!" Ayna begged her father.

The king glanced at Rishi for a few seconds before looking away. "Your mother... she..."

"Your Majesty!" Rishi shouted, trying to stop the older monarch.

The king ignored him and smiled weakly at himself. "She fell in love with Mehari emperor."

"What..." Ayna could not believe what she just heard. It was impossible. How could her mother love another man beside her father...?

"After the event where he saved her life, I started to notice the changes in her. She became interested to the point of obsessed with the east empire and would sometimes bring you out to the border which I later found out that those days happened to be the emperor's hunting days. They would sometimes meet and have tea together. That was the time the rumor about you not being my daughter started circling around the palace and it got worse after people found out you could not use magi. I couldn't remove their doubts as I hid the fact that the queen consort was killed by your magi..."

"Father..." Ayna looked at her father. She regretted not letting him know that she could use her magi earlier.

The king noticed the troubled look on Rishi's face. "Don't worry. Your father was a devoted family man. He never saw my wife anything more than a friend."

"I'm just sorry that it had led to this..." Rishi muttered.

The king shook his head. "It was my own fault. If only I listened to her that day, she might still be alive now. Your father, your family and the people of Mehari too."

"Remblan might be in trouble if you do that." Rishi reminded him about the kingdom's agreement.

The king lowered his eyes. "My decision not to help the Mehari probably wasn't pressured by a hundreds-year-old peace agreement. No, I'm sure it wasn't. It was a deliberate spiteful decision I made because I was angry and jealous of the man my wife was so infatuated with. I couldn't stand the thought she chose him over me... and secretly wished he was gone from my life." He laughed softly and rubbed the ancient mark on his right hand gently. "I'm pathetic. I am a king but I have weak and evil thoughts like this. I have this power within me but I couldn't save anyone. I hide behind it because I don't want to face the truth."

"Your Majesty..."

"I'm sorry, Rishi. I'm sorry for letting you down." The monarch apologized.

"Father..." Ayna went to her father and hugged him. Both father and daughter hugged each other and cried for a long long time.

"Are you okay?" Rishi asked. He was sitting by Ayna's bedside trying to calm her down after they learned the past that morning.

Ayna sniffed and nodded her head. She turned to him. "Do you hate my father now?"

Rishi took her hand into his. "I sympathized with him. It must be hard for him to keep this by himself all this time. The guilt. The regret. Everything."

Ayna sat up and hugged him.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I love you, Rishi. I promise I will only love you in my life." The princess said and buried her face on his shoulder.

The young emperor chuckled. "You'd better be." He put his arms around her and patted her back gently.

"Don't fall for anyone else. Stop spreading your charms at other girls too." She murmured.

"I see jealousy is a trait in this family." His joke received a hit in the chest – so hard he almost choked.

"I'm serious!"

The former librarian laughed. "Fine. Fine. I swear I will only look at you and you will be the only one I see. Will this do, Your Highness?"

Her face was still wet with tears but a smile was now beaming from it.

Rishi wiped her tears and kissed her forehead. "I love you, Ayna."