A Tale Of Shadows (Wattys 2023) - REPLACED BY DIVINE ASCENSION

Chapter 13 - Best Served Cold

As was to be expected, Melinda had long ago stopped being capable of forgiving and forgetting all the injustices she felt had been done to her, which had become many over the years. To her, the most natural solution was always revenge, and plotting that many acts of revenge meant that, all the time, she was busy with one or the other, often multiple at once. Still, some of them stood out, particularly those she had been planning for longer than she believed she should have.

Several days after the duel in the dungeon, she woke up thinking about her former best friend and how she had failed to end her life twice thus far. She had devised various plans to perform the deed at last, but nothing ever seemed right. Maria had known her for a significant portion of both of their lives and was also the only opponent of hers to be able to challenge her truly, which was why she understood the reason for her indecision, yet something had to be done. She was lucky to have evaded any real consequences for keeping her alive for so much, and she was well aware that if she did not hurry up, she could take her last breath a lot sooner than she had expected.

After some time of going through her daily routine, she came up with the perfect idea. She could not go off to execute it immediately, for there was a heap of paperwork for her to deal with, but she had finished it right before dinner, which brought a wide smile to her face. On her way outside the palace, she told Jane that she was going to skip dinner, and once that was over, nothing else was left to do. When she had made sure that she was alone in the courtyard, she teleported herself to the Thorne residence, where she saw exactly what she had anticipated.

The windows may have been closed, but the curtains were not drawn, so the candlelight made everything clear. In the dining room, which was located on the back side of the house, there was a rectangle table obviously carved from oak at the centre, a chair of the same material placed on all four sides each, and Maria and Kevin, together with their two children, a brunette boy and redhaired girl whose names she had only recently learned were Desmond and Felicia respectively, and who appeared to be around her daughter's age, were eating slowly with broad smiles on their faces, conversing between every other bite. Gently leaning towards the window, she began to listen, nothing short of curious about what they could be saying.

"You know what, Maria?" Kevin spoke, grabbing his goblet full of red wine. "We may have had some obstacles in our past, which even our children are all too acquainted with, but now it looks like happiness is finally returning into our lives. I never thought you would be capable of doing it, but you acknowledged your mistakes and really, truly worked hard to amend them, and people are starting to regain your faith in you. You remember how I used to say that our marriage was a mistake, right, my dear? I apologise for ever claiming it was so, and I apologise for attributing the most profane prospect, that of adultery, to your character, but for a moment there, I was deceived. It is not as if your real intentions were all that good either, but everyone makes mistakes, and now that you have learned your lesson, our lives can finally become long and prosperous. Let us rejoice and drink in the name of all that is right and good!"

His speech had caused Maria to blush. "I love you too, my dear, and your eloquence is nothing but impressive. I have faith that our dreams will come true, that we will be of much help when it comes to justice, and that our boy will become a great archer and our girl a great curse breaker. Time is in our hands, as well as numerous resources, which means that there is nothing stopping us. Now that happiness is indeed in our possession, let us indulge in it and drink in the name of our unity!"

The four goblets, two of red wine and two of plain water, all met with a clank, and everyone took a sip of their drink, blissfully unaware that Melinda was crouching at the window, sneering and grinning at their mirth and how sappy it all appeared to her. Such sickly-sweet joy had no other outcome than death, not where she was concerned. Long and prosperous lives, fulfilled dreams and an eternity of peace and contentment, what a farce! There was no force other than the darkness that ruled the world as far as she knew, and she had no reason to believe otherwise.