Painted Roses

Mother's Words

"What has depressed you, Rosalia?"

Rosalia looked up from her dinner, across the table to Luka who sat opposite, his wine glass in his hand as he looked at her.

She had arrived back an hour before, just giving herself time to freshen up and prepare for dinner, arriving minutes before the set time, Luka arriving at seven on the dot. Dinner was held in a smaller, private dining room, different from on the one she usually dined in when Beldon was also there. Luka's valet, Sebastian, Joshua and two maids stood around the room, setting out food and drink when needed before stepping back to the corners.

She looked blankly at Luka for a moment, then blinked. "I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked.

"What has depressed you?" Luka repeated, setting his wine down and returning his attention to his meal. "Your mood is quite different compared to this morning."

"Oh... oh it's nothing to worry about, I just..." Her brow creased slightly as she looked down at her food. "I realised I am due to lose a friend."

Luka looked up at her through his lashes, raising an eyebrow before looking at his food again. "One does not usually schedule such things."

Rosalia laughed slightly. "No, I suppose they don't. But I fear, in this circumstance, I will have to plan for it unless I can adjust the outcome."

"I see," Luka said, not looking up. He didn't continue the conversation either, which Rosalia was grateful for. Instead, he gestured for Joshua to pour a glass of water for her and asked, "Did you get what you wished for out of your trip to the castle?"

"... I suppose I did... though I'm not sure why I really went there in the first place," Rosalia said, nodding thanks to Joshua before picking up her glass. "I found a room which must have been the office of your brother, Braydon. I didn't realise you still used it when you were grown."

"Oh yes, we travelled there quite often. It was where my sister spent a majority of her time in fact, up to the time of her disappearance." Luka's hands stilled in his cutting of the chicken on his plate and he fell quiet, looking at the food though clearly not really seeing it. "In fact... I believe I lost most of my siblings to that castle," he muttered. Rosalia looked up and he finished cutting. "Both of my brothers... they each rode into the woods to go to that castle and they never came back. Perhaps I was careless to lose them... but then I lost my sister within these very walls, how lackadaisical."

Rosalia smiled slightly as she took another bite of her food. "You can hardly blame yourself for those misfortunes," she said.

"Perhaps, I should have noticed the way Braydon suffered through, that was careless of me." Luka let out a deep sigh and shrugged, closing his eyes. "I suppose, for all I knew, he ran away, escaped to the continent and left his life behind. I only had the words of court Fortune Tellers to tell me otherwise, that he was cursed - and The Southern Wind didn't confirm it until long into my own curse."

"May I ask something that may upset you?" Rosalia asked.

"You may," Luka said, opening his eyes and looking at her, picking up his glass.

"If Braydon was cursed, do you believe he's still alive, as you and Briar?"

Luka stopped, his glass inches from his lips as he looked over the rim towards her. Rosalia looked back at him, picking up her own wine glass.

"I always believed him and Grey dead," he finally said, setting the glass down, hard, and Rosalia almost dropped her own.

"You did?"

"I still do," he replied, returning to his food.

"Even though both you and Briar have lived so long?"