A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 6 - Friendly Advice

The morning after, all was quiet. The heavy, grey clouds engulfed the sky once more; no birds dared to sit on the edges of windows and sing due to the threat of rain; the winds that blew through the halls were cold, and there were shadows everywhere. Many complained about it, but to Wentworth, it was the perfect weather. Not only did he admire the smell of the rain, but he also could not sorrow about the irony of nature being beautiful during those times if it was not like that at all. On this particular morning, he had something else to sorrow about.

The Queen was standing solemnly near a closed window, her right hand leaning against her cheek. She was as pale as always, breathing in sighs, staring into the distance with a blank expression. Although her emotions were never a mystery, he, just like this time, wondered what was behind them. He was standing still and doing nothing for a while, which was enough for her not to notice him, but he thought that she would have heard his breathing. She did not notice him even when he slowly started to come closer to her, only doing so when he was standing right next to her. Her jaw dropped to the floor, she turned to face him.

"Good morning, Madam Bellerose," he stated in a voice devoid of emotion while she was thinking of what to say.

"Good morning to you as well, Wentworth," she muttered a while later. "I have been standing here for hours. How long have you been here?"

Wentworth shrugged. "I have not been here for too long. What have you been doing here?"

She let out a long sigh. "I have been merely standing here. You have no idea how defeating it feels when sadness swallows you whole and you do not want to do anything. At least I mustered the energy to get out of bed early today. I tend to lay in it for hours and stare at the void. Do you know how it feels?"

Wentworth swallowed. "I know what you are talking about, and I cannot imagine how it must feel. However, we shall not discuss that here and now because there is a thing I wanted to say-"

"Say it," she hissed, turning closer to the window.

This reaction of hers stunned him for a little while. It was as though she was daring him to speak, as though she knew exactly what he was going to say, which was not surprising, as she was quite known for being good at detecting others' true intentions from small hints, just as anyone would have expected. Her posture was stiff, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes as cold as ice, thus he concluded that all of this was intentional, especially from the way he felt about it. The two of them had had enough conversations for her to get to know him, and even if she did not, she would have found a way to hold power over him. After all, people like her always have tricks that even minds like his are not capable of knowing.

He coughed. "Madam, I am well aware that you are never going to change, but there is something that you must consider. A web of lies can only be extended so far before it breaks. You hid everything pretty well when you engaged in smaller evils, but now that you mean to conquer this entire continent, it has become a bit too much. Perhaps you could accept that you are going to either never succeed at all or lose popularity among your people in no time. Ruling a country is already a difficult task anyway."

She laughed at him. "Let us not address each other too formally, Archibald. I knew that you could never be satisfied with me, for you care about the feelings of poor little slaves. About what you were trying to say, no, it is ridiculous of you to think I would ever back away from the chance to not only have my name written in the history of the universe but also enjoy the title of Empress. And although my lies must be revealed someday, it is not going to happen any time soon. It is easier to come up with a few of them than you would think, my dear acquaintance. Thank you for worrying about me, by the way."

His veins began to boil while he was listening to her. Her laughter sounded like little bells and her voice was serene, which he could not comprehend. He remembered praising her for not going mad with power right in front of her, but at least her lies were meticulously constructed, so he could not blame himself too much. No one could have predicted that this would happen, but the allure of evil had befallen many throughout history, often without that many visible signs beforehand. Perhaps she was simply hiding her exposure to it well when it started to appear, and there surely must have been a lot more she was hiding. However, he let out a deep sigh, reluctantly accepting that there would always be a lot about her that he would never find out, returning to the conversation at hand: