Ephemeral Affairs [MXM]

And Another

Claire snatches Asahi away, and I'm already too weak from malnutrition and the pregnancy to do much about it when the female warriors hold me back.

"He's my son! Give him back to me!" I cry.

She makes a sour face at the crying Asahi, and to me, "How is he yours? He looks nothing like you? He has the royal characteristics and you... The skin of a savage worst than the cattles we kill for food."

"He is the only thing King Nillin left for me, please give the child back?" I beg instead.

"What about the conceiving child inside of you?"

"There's no conceiving child inside of me."

She clicks her tongue the same way Fiona and Nien do, "Then you wouldn't mind doing an experiment for me. Tie the Queen to a pole."

Claire takes us back before the judgeful eyes while the rain still pour over us.

She hands Asahi off to Grandmama at least when they tie me to a pole.

The bag of gold from before appear before me again. Claire pulls out of that bag a herb substance. There's any gold.

She put that into a small bowl and she allows for the rain to soak it into a drink.

"If you're not pregnant, it shouldn't do anything," her smile gives it away.

The warriors hold me still as Claire pour the drink down my throat and shoves the rest of the herbs down too.

I mimic the feeling of wanting to throw up but nothing comes out.

"Why do you look so terrified? You're not pregnant are you?"

My vision blurred and I can only make out an image of the warriors stopping Grandmama from getting to me.

A burning sensation starts around my lips where the herbs first touched, then inside my mouth along with my tongue, the back of my throat and down to my stomach.

The pain is far worse than cramps or giving birth—a Hell is inside of me now.

I scream and jerk trying to escape this pole and this horror, but when some of the stuff surface itself, Claire gags my mouth shut with a piece of linen.

My struggle becomes futile due to my weaken state and yet my body continues to jerk violently.

I can feel every fiber trying its best to also reject the poison.

Soon, the sun has gone down and the rain has stopped, but my stomach still burns like an inferno.

'I shouldn't have forgiven him if I knew his sister was watching my every move. I shouldn't have wait for him to rescue me when I had so many chances to escape with only Asahi.'

'I have yet to see Asahi has a sibling and the child is already dying inside of me because of ME.'

When my breaths are short and my body has stop rejecting the poison, a warmth excretes through me and between my legs.

The warmth drops onto the mud, and I can feel the heat escaping the warmth between my feet.

"Mommy... Is sorry."

As my consciousness fades away, I somehow returns to my room back in the Capital where Nillin sleeps soundly on my bed.

The crescent horn moon shines through the slightly open windows just the way I had them.

My finger follows the shape of his profile, "Why aren't you looking for us?"

"Do we mean nothing to you?" I sob to myself knowing he can't hear me and this is a dream.