Princess Bellatrix

Angry and hurt, Katherine grinded her teeth. "Why? Why do you have to bring that up now? Do you want me to put you on that list? As long as you didn't say it, I could still hope that you didn't know back then, that you were careless for once. Why? Do you want me to hate you so much? Because I don't see another reason why we need to discuss this right now!"

Despite the need to tell her, the guilt inside Nathaniel accumulated with her words. Adding to it was the gnawing pain he felt by hurting what was dearest to him. From the beginning, he was reluctant to bring up a topic that could endanger their relationship, but he had to. It had to be discussed. If not now, it would only grow worse with time.

Not knowing how to cope with all these contradicting feelings raining down on him, Nathaniel decided to cling to his logical side. By burying his emotions, his face turned back into the stony mask Katherine thought she'd never see again. She'd hoped he'd never feel the need to direct it at her anymore. And yet, here it was, cold and indifferent, hiding his emotions. "We need to clarify this. I don't want you to misconceive any of it. It won't do any of us good to ignore this topic, and I don't want this rotting question to one day infect our relationship and eat you up from the inside out. So, yes, we need to discuss this. Right now."

"You damn hard-headed Earl! Prince or whatever you are! How can you still be so reasonable! Sometimes I just want to claw this aloofness off your face so I can see some real emotion", she hissed. "Or would I not even find any there? Huh? Right now, I wonder about that!"

Under this attack, Nathaniel's mask cracked for a second as hurt flashed across his eyes. Instantly, he regained control of himself, but it was enough for Katherine to see and regret. Yet, she pressed her lips tight, too proud to apologize.

Taking a deep breath, Nathaniel ignored her last outbreak and as the silence progressed, eventually continued with his explanation. "As I said, I was involved in Princess Bellatrix' death. I didn't know of your cousin's plans to slander your parents beforehand, but when I came to know about it, I didn't intervein. Partially, this was because they were unknown to me, but the bigger reason is that even the princess' father, king of your former country, didn't intervein. It surly is a surprise to you, but almost everyone that attended and influenced your parent's trial, knew that they were innocent. Despite this, they had either no will or power to stop the execution."

As if hit by a stone, Katherine's brain stopped working as her mouth fell open. "No... that can't be... why... why would they do this? Why would the king allow this to happen? It was his daughter! It might only be one of many, but princess Bellatrix was his real daughter! WHY?!"

After screaming the last word, Katherine felt dizzy all of a sudden, teetered, and got caught by Nathaniel, who helped her back down onto the blanket again. For a few minutes, she just stared into the open air. She had thought only her cousin was the evil one, the real culprit behind everything. Yet, how could so many people know, and nobody did anything? She just could not make sense of this new revelation.

After a while, she lifted her eyes to Nathaniel's with the look of a child that didn't know how to help itself. The new information just didn't make sense. She could not understand what anyone would gain by killing her parents, especially the king who could as well have executed the real culprit. "Please... please tell me why. Tell me everything that happened back then."

Nathaniel quietly heaved a sigh of relief that she still seemed to trust him to a certain degree. With that, the first hurdle was taken. Now, he just had to make sure they would continue on this path. "That is exactly what I want to do. But I must warn you that my information might also be incomplete at times. For example, I don't know much about your cousin's reasons besides his craving for power or what deal exactly he struck with the organization. I won't make guesses on these parts."

Obediently, Katherine nodded, then a word she found familiar temporarily distracted her from her confusion. "Organization?"

"Yes", Nathaniel confirmed solemnly, resisting the urge to take her hand that was trembling slightly. He knew that was not because of the cold but a similarly dangerous ailment of the mind, and she would not allow him to soothe it. Not now. Heavy-hearted, he forced himself to look away from her into the flames. "The organization threatening the Icelands right now resides in Dragsa as well, under the name of 'Loki'. Because my uncle knew about their existence and kept a close eye on them, they waited and accumulated power over there for a long time, like a hibernating illness.

Finally, my uncle got negligent, and they slipped in right under his nose. You might want to ask, 'why did they focus so much on the Icelands?' Well, we assume that they hoped to find remains of the former king's research - my father's research so to say - to bring their own to a new high. But that deviates from the topic."

For a few seconds, Nathaniel paused to organize his thoughts. Katherine's warmth was right beside him, but he still felt like she was far out of his reach. In some way, they might be fated to be together, in another it was a destructive relationship for her mind and soul. If only he'd met her years ago, before all of this happened, he would have protected her from the pain she had to go through now. If he'd had known, he would have done everything to keep her family safe. Although, thinking back, that might have been too much for the past him to handle.

A small finger nudged him in the side, urging him to continue. When he turned his head, the sight of Katherine's violet eyes, sad and pleading, made his heart clench. He cleared his throat.

"So, this organization, Loki, accumulated power, bribed and incited politicians in Dragsa. The royalty was tempted by the prospect of more and stronger magicians in their country. In a few years, after the first results got out, not even the king dared to defy Loki anymore. Instead, with Loki's help, he hoped to breed something like a deity... or a devil with his genes."

"Princess Bellatrix was...", Katherine whispered slowly, and got affirmed with a nod.

"She was a lot like me. After many experiments, she was the first known one to succeed in gaining a mutated ability that was much stronger than the usual mage. But she was unstable. Being brainwashed by fanatics since birth and in a tug of war between the organization and her father, who both wanted to control her, she lost her mind. It's a sad story. Even with her randomly exploding in power, burning people and buildings to ashes, both sides didn't want to give up on her and proceeded to hide her deeds for years. Finally, the loss of his subjects was too much for the king to bear.

So, he decided that she would have only one last use: as a weapon of war against the Icelands. The organization was against this as they still wanted some more samples of her, but it was only a matter of time until they would agree.

The time was pressing when I heard of their plans. I had to make a fast decision: let them be and hope for the best or eliminate a possible threat for the Icelands. On the one hand was a young woman who was not in her right mind and constantly exploited by her surroundings, on the other hundreds of soldiers' lives. It was not the best of choices, but the most reasonable one... though I'd have preferred to talk with her first. I wonder if she was really as mad as the rumors said."

The fire reflected in Nathaniel's red eyes like they were tranquil seas. He took a while until he came back from his thoughts, then he was surprised to find Katherine's small hand above his on the blanket. Intrigued, he looked up and found her gazing back at him quietly.