CHAPTER THIRTEEN

...'I didn't mean what I said'..., that was what she wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to say those words because she knew that they weren't completely true as her actual feelings were hidden within the words that escaped her lips.

"I wouldn't dare to ask for your forgiveness, I know very well that I do not deserve it"

"I won't ask you to understand me either"

He took a step away from her.

"I just hope that you remain safe"

Aria left the room without another word, Alistair didn't try to stop her this time and only stared at her with a sigh leaving his lips. He remembered how close they once were but he had already come to terms with the fact that those were only distant memories and they would probably remain that way for a very very long time.

Aria wished she could really resent him just like she claimed, however, she knew she would never be able to truly hate him. Alistair was the only one who defended her when she was going to be thrown out of the family by the Patriarch because their father believed her talent to be lacking and inferior to others. When others could only cower before the might of the Patriarch, he stood up for her and welcomed all the consequences. He was flogged on countless nights for his defiance but not once did he blame her. She had convinced herself that she needed to work twice as hard in order to catch up to her brother, she was willing to try her best to be recognized as a knight worthy of the Polemos bloodline. She was still barely a teenager back then but Alistair was willing to encourage her, he never gave up on her even when she wanted to give up on herself.

Though, she never got the chance to properly use that determination to escape the label of inferiority before Polemos fell. Alistair encouraged her and cheered her on when she needed it, he gave pointers when she was training and aided her in building the foundation of the knight she was currently. It didn't take away the severity of what he had done, however, she found herself unable to hate him despite all her anger. Deep down, she still cared for him but she refused to allow herself to forgive him, she couldn't let go of their horrid past so easily.

Aria helplessly found herself drowning in a pool of her unpleasant memories all over again.

...

Asher Polemos, the last Patriach of the knight family of Polemos had three children, two sons and a daughter. He never cared for his children as they were simply tools to strengthen the family and would only be allowed to remain in Polemos as long as they were useful to it's growth. He was a cold man who only cared for the name of Polemos and nothing else. He raised all his children to be the same as him, they were always meant to put the pride of the family above all else, that was why it came as a shock to him when one of the children he had so carefully groomed became the cause of the downfall of Polemos.

Alistair was not only an illegitimate child, he was also much too rebellious to be chosen as the Patriarch's successor. He disobeyed orders and refused to let himself be chained by rules. For that reason alone, his elder brother, Liam Polemos was the favoured choice for the successor position despite the fact that Alistair surpassed him in both talent and power. It didn't really bother Alistair as he never cared for the position in the first place since he would much rather avoid being bound by any form of duty.

The knights were always known to follow strength and not legitimaty so Alistair had a lot of supporters among the knights of Polemos that wanted him to become the Patriach's successor. However, the struggle for the right of succession wasn't the cause of the internal conflict within the family that ultimately led to its destruction.

Polemos may have lost the blessing of strength but they still produced a long line of exceptional knights that were above the average in terms of both strength and talent, they also had many more knights under their employ. Though the size of their army was no match for that of Andrius, the knights of Polemos were stilll considered the biggest threat to the establishment of the New Empire.

When the war began, Polemos was confident of defending against Andrius and protecting their land but their confidence quickly fell apart the moment the white witch made her first appearance on the battlefield, she decimated the armies of the Modryg crafts and forced Thalia of the east into submission.

Thalia didn't focus on battle power in the first place since they were a family of scholars so they could do nothing in the face of the powerful white witch. They were forced to surrender themselves to a gruesome deal for the sake of their survival, giving the lives of their Patriach and all his descendants in exchange for the lives of their people.

The other families made a fatal mistake in the beginning of the war, they underestimated Andrius who had lost all their blessing and saw no need to unite in order to stop the crusade of the conqueror, now they would all pay dearly for it.

Polemos knew of their eminent destruction but chose to fight until their last breath, the pride of knights in their blood refusing to willingly submit to their enemies. However, Alistair was different, he saw no point in meaningless sacrifice and would do anything to prevent it. He approached the conqueror of Andrius with a promise of delivering Polemos into his hand. Alistair submitted himself to the enemy that threatened his family in exchange for his life, the life of his sister and that of his followers. Grisha was willing to accept the deal as having the most talented offspring of Asher Polemos as a subordinate would further increase the power of his armies. Not to mention, the other knights of Polemos that would also follow.

Alistair's decision led to a divide in Polemos, many of the knights who were unwilling to die simply because of pride chose to follow him which cost Polemos a huge loss in battle power.

Even after losing a considerable amount of his forces, the Patriarch of Polemos still decided to go to battle, he refused to submit to his enemies until the end and died fighting against the armies of Andrius.

Aria refused the leave Polemos behind so she was forcefully taken away after being kidnapped by her brother's followers. Alistair along with his followers disappeared when it was time for the battle against Andrius.

In the end, after losing a huge chunk of their forces, Polemos suffered a crushing defeat, becoming the last family to fall to the crusade of the conqueror with unification of the continent being completed soon after their destruction.

....

"You're leaving already"

Jack called out to Aria from behind the desk.

"You know how it is"

"Duty calls"

Aria replied.

"I understand, see you in a year then Aria"

"You too Jack"

Aria walked out the door that served as the entrance to the shabby shop, quickly making her way to the city gates where the carriage she came in was still waiting for her to return.

"let's go"

Without wasting any more time, she entered the carriage and began the journey back to the castle but she felt very restless and strangely uneasy for some reason.

"I hope the lady is fine"

She mumbled those words to herself, however, she dismissed them after a bit of thought. She pushed the uneasiness aside, believing that nothing would happen.

After making use of the teleportation circle near the gates of Dremos, it didn't take long for her journey to be over. The carriage dropped her off right in front of the main entrance to the castle and left immediately after.

Aria watched the carriage for a bit before turning around and entering the castle. She was completely exhausted in more ways than one, she felt emotionally and physically drained and her heart remained unsettled. She thought about her conversation with Alistair, wondering if her words were too harsh or if she should never have said them at all but it was already too late for those thoughts and dwelling on the past would only make mistakes a lot more tiring to remember.

Pushing everything else aside, Aria weaved through the empty hallways, she found an odd sense of comfort in the silence surrounding her.

"My lady, it's me"

Aria took a deep breath before politely knocking on the door, however, she received no reply.

"My lady"

She called out again but still received no reply. She didn't think much about it and knocked a few more times, only for the same thing to happen each time as she didn't receive a reply of any form.

She could tell that something was definitely off, Kharis would often get lost in her thoughts so it was common for her not to notice that someone was at the door but it was different this time because a knight was meant to be in the room with her. Alertness was one of the basic qualities of any knight, Aria didn't think that any decent knight would make such a mistake much less a knight sent by the Emperor.

There was also a chance that they were never in the room to begin with but it was highly unlikely since Kharis rarely left her room.

Aria was reminded of the uneasiness that plagued her on the journey back to the castle. She didn't know what was going on but she decided that opening the door was probably the best course of action at that moment.

The door was unlocked so she was able to open it easily, however, the sight before her eyes was rather shocking to say the least. Carmen was lying not far from the door, she was sprawled on the floor and appeared to be unconscious. Strangely enough, the lady that the unconscious knight was charged with watching was no where to be found.

"What in the world.."

Aria tried to wake Carmen but all her attempts proved unsuccessful.

"What exactly happened"

The present situation left her beyond confused, her lady was gone and the knight sent by the Emperor showed no signs of waking.

Aria proceeded to spent the next two hours conducting a thorough search of every nuke and cranny of the castle, all hidden corners were carefully scrutinised and she even questioned the other staff but came up with absolutely nothing. Her search ended up being fruitless, she failed to find anything that could help her figure out her lady's whereabouts.

She returned to the room, Carmen was still unconscious and after even more unsuccessful attempts of waking the knight, Aria decided to leave her be. The knight could probably shed some light on the current dilemma but she was out cold and it didn't seem like she was going to wake up any time soon.

while sorting through her thoughts, Aria caught sight of a purple amulet peacefully lying right next to Carmen. Aria reached out her hand and grabbed it, the amulet wasn't marked so she couldn't find out its purpose or if it was simply a normal item rather than a magical one, however, it was the only clue she had. She stashed the amulet away before taking out a communication trinket, it was a marked item unlike the amulet but it could only connect to a single location and that location was the imperial palace.

There was a small buzz before the trinket was able to successfully connect to the palace.

"What is the emergency"

A cold voice rang out from the other end of the connection.

"The witch has disappeared"