Sotus: For One Last Time

Shadowy Links

Monday Afternoon,  3rd Person POV

As soon as she lands in Bangkok and enters her limo, Prija Boonyasit tiredly asks her oldest driver, Lek, to navigate to the private royal tombs.

Normally, only a select few royal relatives are allowed to visit the royal tombs, and even then, permission to visit can usually take weeks to obtain, but Prija wasn't an ordinary person after all.

Or perhaps, it's more correct to say that although Prija was ordinary in the lack of royal blood in her veins, her connections ran deep. Besides her ex-husband and his parents, no one knew of her connection to the late Prince and her best friend, the late princess, Achara Rojnapat, although she was sure that the tomb keeper of the royal palace had her suspicions since she's cleared for all visits.

Suddenly, her mind takes her back to fifteen years ago. Though it is partly true that she moved to the green village those years ago because of her divorce and the attempt on her life, her biggest motivator was Achara.

Achara needed her and so she was there. Since the age of 12, after coincidently meeting each other on the green field of the Green village during a festival, the two were inseparable until death did them part. They loved each other so unconditionally and freely that Prija even once did one of the biggest favors a woman can do for her friend.....

Yet despite being so close, to the point that they can be called sisters, their relationship stayed as a secret that only four other individuals ever knew. Even when they were in the green village, they were careful. So careful that not even Achara's bodyguards noticed their interactions. Due to the paths they decided to walk, and due to the people they wanted to protect, it was simply safer for everyone. But today, Prija could only see the green village as a mistake that should've never happened.

After entering Achara's tomb room, while staring at the golden coffin in the middle of the dark room lit with candles, Prija kneels down several times in prayer before she starts talking to her friend.

"Chara, our sons...I wonder if you knew.....I suspect this thing between them started a long time ago, since the green village..."

After several moments of silence, Prija continues on, "I know they're technically not-....but still, after all, I---" cutting herself off, she takes a deep breath before continuing, "I guess it's just...odd. If you were here though, you would probably be rooting for them right? Who am I kidding? Knowing you, you would've probably married them off by now..." she trails off with a sad chuckle, thinking of her friend who was always so open-minded. Otherwise, how could she have loved that monster--cutting her train of thoughts again, Prija suddenly gets startled by the sound coming from the entrance of the tomb.

"There's no need to worry so much, Prija. Although it seems odd at all angles, what matters the most, at the end of the day, is that they're not-" the tomb keeper tries to comfort Prija who abruptly cuts her off.

"Should a tomb keeper know and meddle so much? I was always under the impression that you guys have too much on your hands with people dying every day, but it seems like I was wrong," she rudely replies, something about the tomb keeper always rubbing her the wrong way.

Laughing with a full sound while waving her hand, the tomb keeper mysteriously answers, "Since I deal with the dead, you wouldn't know what I don't know, Prija" all the while staying in the shadows of the entrance with her face hidden, like always, under the hood of her robe, "Besides, why did you think your husband sent you here today?"

"He's not my husband--" Prija tries to say defensively before getting cut off by the keeper who completely disregards her words.

"And apart from your children's love lives, don't you have bigger things to worry about at the moment anyway?" the tomb keeper asks to the murderous glare of Prija, her words obviously having an impact on the well dressed women as lines form around her face.