Chapter Thirty

"Are you ok?" Aidan asked as he looked me over.

"Yes, I'm fine." I say.

"He didn't push you too hard?"

"N-no, he-he just asked the same question a bunch of different ways."

"What question? If I treated you terrible?" He said in a disgruntled tone.

"Essentially – I told him how awful you are." I joked.

"Hey," he said and pulled me into his arms, "don't joke about that."

"Or what?" I jested.

"Or I'll have to tease you incessantly."

"You've already promised me that."

"I owe you many, many hours of teasing and sexual torture."

"T-torture?" I asked, in a nervous tone.

"Mm, hours of just you and me in bed – you twitching and squirming, never able to get away from my touch."

"T-that doesn't sound like torture." I said, I'm sure my face was bright red.

He chuckled. "I'm glad you see it that way. Maybe now we can have that make up sex."

"There's nothing to make up for."

"Just sex then." He said as his hands started to roam.

"With our clothes on?"

He frowned. "You talked with their specialist, we can go to my room now."

"W-well n-no one has told me that…"

"Let's go." He took my hand and dragged me out of the room. He led me down the hall until we found the Cordonan advisor.

"Victor, what is happening?" Aidan barked at the Cordonan advisor.

"W-we cannot converse like this Your Majesty." Victor said as he looked around the hall.

"Your specialist spoke to my wife, was he not convinced?" He was starting to get annoyed.

"I-I do not know. I haven't spoken with him."

"Well where is he then? I want to speak with him. I need answers."

"He's meeting with King Thebes at the moment." Victor said and Aidan looked to the door behind the advisor.

"Where? In there?" Aidan asked. He went towards the door but was blocked by the guards.

"Please have patience. We will see what he says when they've finished talking." Victor said, obviously nervous.

"Hmph." Aidan said.

"Aidan, let's just go wait up on the roof, get some air."

"You go. I need to be alone." Aidan said then stormed off. I couldn't tell if he was being serious or if this was part of the rouse.

"He's just under a lot of pressure." I say as I look to Victor.

"Yes of course…might I accompany you to the roof Your Majesty? I could use some fresh air." Victor asked.

"Oh, um, sure." I say. Perhaps that was Aidan's plan. It was difficult when we couldn't talk about it directly, there's always someone watching us here.

We walk up to the roof and stand on the edge to look out.

"Is he always so easily riled?" Victor asked.

"He's frustrated. He feels like we're being kept apart." I say.

"Surely a few nights isn't so big a deal."

"It feels like it to him after looking for me for so long…"

"Ah yes, the quest for the blonde-haired maiden. There are only so many in Cordona, I wonder what took him so long?" Victor asked, clearly trying to get a reaction out of me.

"Well I hardly left the palace after my parents passed. I'm sure people forgot I even existed."

"The appointed Princess of Cordona?" He scoffed. I had never heard this title before.

"W-what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Why do you think the nobles and other royals were so callous towards you? You weren't a noble or royal by birth nor did you serve a function in the castle, yet you lived there and were afforded luxuries as if you were. The citizens coined that title for you after seeing how you emerged from the castle dawned in fine clothes and accompanied by guards."

"I never knew that…that's one of the reasons I rarely left the castle. It was so much work to get ready and to have a guard following me everywhere was tedious."

"There were threats made against you, King Thebes couldn't be too careful."

"I'm not sure why the palace would care. I was a nobody."

"Your father was a hero, not a nobody."

"He was a guard, he protected people, that was his job. He just happened to save the young Prince."

"He saved the Prince – that made him a hero. The nation was grateful, his brother more so. King Klaus' health was failing at the time, Thebes had full latitude to make sure your family knew they were grateful."

"They did more than anyone could've expected – moving us to the capital and promoting my father would've been more than enough. They gave us the best house in the neighborhood, Prince Osamu had me brought to the palace regularly to spend time with him, and when I complained I couldn't go to school they had his tutors teach me too. After my brother was killed in the war, they paid for his funeral service, promoted him, and threw a ceremony in his name."

"Your brother died a war hero. It was maybe a little much, but it was befitting a war hero." Victor said.

"Perhaps…but moving me into the palace after my parents passed never made sense to me. I had my father and brothers pension, it wasn't much but it would've got me by until I found a husband. The prospects weren't great, but it would've been a normal life." I said.

"Perhaps after all your family had sacrificed the King didn't want you to just have a normal life."

"But I didn't do anything…I didn't deserve anything. I was just a normal girl whose family made the sacrifices; they were the hero's not me."

"Isn't that the same with all families? The men are responsible for the heroic acts, earning a families wealth, and the women marry into it – they are responsible for the house, raising the children, and ensuring they uphold the family name."

"Family name…that's why they moved me into the palace...life got strange after that."

"Strange how?" Victor asked, concerned.

I let out a sigh. "Oh it doesn't matter anymore."

"Why not?"

"It's in the past."

"If your life wasn't pleasant at the palace, I need to know."

"It was fine just…alienating. The rumors meant no noble would be around me but my living at the castle meant I couldn't really make friends outside of it." I sighed. "I was clothed, fed, and looked after but it was lonely." I back away from the edge and turn around.

"Where are you going?"

"To find my husband." I say and continue downstairs to find Aidan.