She felt blessed, like the Stars themselves had granted her this. There was no limit, no rules or constraints. She was boundless; she was home, safe and secure in his unbreakable embrace.
~
Shackled in an abrupt and demanding upbringing, Althera is...
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Althera heard her name being called, and she jerked upright, blinking. She was back in Valentine's sunlit office - and everyone was staring at her. She looked around her, going crimson at the expressions of worry and confusion on each face. She'd done it again, and this time, everyone had been there to witness her space out.
"Althera?" She whipped her head back around to face Valentine, who she could tell was hiding under a guise of neutrality. Had she missed something important when she'd drifted? "What do you think we should do with the remaining detected rebels left from the battle between them and General Lesste's army?" He repeated kindly for her.
General Lesste? It wasn't unbelievable - the general would move mountains to get what he wanted, and disobeying the king's orders and hoping to wipe out an entire village of rebels to show he was powerful was only a small part of the things for him to do to prove his worth. Althera thought for a moment, still a bit staggered by the vision - she didn't know what else to call it.
"Left alone, Your Majesty," she mumbled in reply. No one disagreed with her, but she was sure if the untamable general was still alive, he'd be the first to stand against her. She didn't feel anything about his death - no grief, sadness, or remorse for arguing with him. She just felt especially empty and hollowed out.
"Very well." Valentine was actually listening to her inputs, surprising her a little. And none of the dukes and generals were arguing back and finding faults in her ideas, if there were any. But she wasn't paying attention to the rest of what he was saying. She'd been captured by something outside of the window.
A blur of movement scouting the walls of the castle and combing past the stone statues and guards stationed outside like a streak of lethal wind. It didn't seem human to her at all; the climbing and running were all insanely fast. It vanished from sight after a while of her gazing after it with a mixture of fright and astonishment. Whatever it was stopped her breath, even though it could be something explicitly dangerous coming her way.
"Is everything alright, Althera?" A hand landed on her arm and she tried not to pull back. They would know something was wrong as soon as she did. Rhaye studied her features softly, his eyes scanning her face for any sign of something that should be worrisome. She didn't feel in the mood to allow herself to be flattered by his care and merely nodded, silent, her voice trapped in her throat.
Other than being a little stricken about what she'd seen, she was completely fine. But she didn't want any more blood, monsters, and nightmares haunting her sleep. She didn't ask for any of that, so why was she experiencing all of this? Everyone spoke around her in hushed voices, as if they were afraid they'd alarm her if they were ever too loud.
Then there was no sound at all in the room. Until her eyes flew to the great doors as it opened with a deafening bang, disrupting everything that Valentine had said that she'd been trying to tell herself wasn't real - the rebels, the burning villages, the families drowning in immense pain.
