Pain & Pleasure

Part 3: A Promise

Esmeralda came to love the rays of sun here, never before she had woken up in order just to feel the early strokes of the dawn.

She sat on the loveseat she brought closer to the window and she loomed in it, hugging her feeble knees with her hands. Her eyes settled upon the same, enigmatic hedge maze she almost got lost into yesterday. She was sure that more secrets lie there, for it is so big, and she swore she could see something rustling there – or maybe that was just childish imagination?

She sighed as her mother came into her mind again – she was little, she couldn't comprehend the real situation that was going on, she couldn't understand just how serious it really is.

Moreover, she absolutely didn't want to believe that King Vlastislav, the one who all her villagers admired despite never even having seen his face, only on the tapestries, icons and other forms of art, which also couldn't portray the exact reflection of their Lord. That was true devotion, a full-fledged loyalty to their ruler.

Her pretty face contorted into that of a grief as she recalled all the happiest memories with her dearest mother. She knew there will be no more pastry cooking evenings, no more drawing sessions, and no more playing outside. Her mother was gone forever, and she refused to believe that her King on whom everyone counted completely deprived her of all the happiness she had.

Through her blurry sight she discerned how her drops of tears sank into the fabric of her nightgown and disappeared.

A sudden knock on the door made her curtly snap her head at the source, the droplets sprinkling off her cheeks.

"Y-Yes?" She mumbled, her mind racing.

Sebastian came in, his expression neutral as he laid his bloody eyes on Esmeralda.

The girl bit her lip lightly and returned to her initial position, eyes diverted back to the view from behind the window.

She heard how Sebastian closed the door behind him and started to walk. He slumped on the bed, although slumping cannot be called slumping when he landed on the mattress so gracefully.

"I heard you crying. Is it because I scared you yesterday?" He questioned, inclining his head slightly to the side and being actually curious about the answer.

Esmeralda hugged her knees tighter when she remembered last day. He did scare her, but that was not why she was crying.

"No." She muttered, burying her head on the top of her knees, letting the tears flow freely again.

The next second she felt his finger lift her chin gently and she wondered how he got here so fast. In that short moment of confusion she remembered what exactly the King of Northern Empire is.

He leaned on the windowsill and yet again appeared as a saint in the girl's eyes.

"It's your mother, isn't it?" He asked as her brown eyes connected with his ruby ones.

Esmeralda tried to do her best to not to cry right in front of him, but as her lower lip quivered, couple of sneaky tears escaped nevertheless.

He wiped them from her porcelain skin before he stroked her cheek gently. "Tears won't bring her back, Esmeralda."

He wondered if it wasn't a cruel thing to say to a little girl who just had lost her mother, but he wanted her to understand.

She closed her eyes in attempt to stop her lip from quivering as she concentrated on Sebastian's cool palm on her cheek.

Sebastian sighed realizing that words will remain words, while the actions might actually change something.

"Let's have an agreement – you promise me that you'll try to shoo all the sorrows away, and I'll take you somewhere... incredible." He knew that he won the second girl opened her eyes with a new trace of pure curiosity inside of them. "Deal?"