Chapter 27

'Is everything alright with you two?" Asher had to be concerned with the way she requested his presence,
'I think it must be important, start with the techniques I taught you yesterday and I will be with you soon. Do. Not. Slack. Or else." He warns before jogging up the stairs to his room, Asher shakes his head,
'What he doesn't see can't hurt him." He smiles sinisterly before going to have his ‘training'.
He opens the door to his room to see Sheila pacing up and down with a worried expression on her face,
'Please could you close the door? No one must hear what I'm about to tell you." He nods and does her bidding, locking the door,
'I hope all is fine but I know it isn't with that look on your face, is it one of our officials? What have they planned this time around?" He wanted to see how they would get rid of them,
'It is more than that, it started when sage Mazi ordered one of the maids to burn down this scroll," she shows him the scroll and lets him take it, 'it is the will of king Fang." She hoped he would receive it well, his eyes begin to read the words and what he found there surprised him,
'Is this a joke Sheila? This never happened, he never said this, he gave Magnus the throne and not me." His is annoyed at the situation and hands the scroll back to her,
'I knew you would react this way, but please master, you need to believe this, it isn't a joke." She tries to make him understand, but he isn't ready to accept it, 'what is wrong master?" She could see he was hiding something behind his orbs,
'Sheila please, I don't want the throne, even if my father gave it to me I don't want it." He pushes it aside as he sniffed,
'Master…..do you know something I don't?" Sheila didn't want to hurt him the way she did, 'king Fang was sick and he willed it over to you, he gave you everything but Magnus snatched it from you! Why won't you take it?!"
'I just can't." He collapses to his bed, and she sits beside him, 'I don't belong on the throne, it isn't my destiny." Her eyes sadden at his statement,
'It is your destiny, and you're giving your destiny to your daughter, either way you're meant to be recognized as royalty. Master, what are you hiding?" She put the scroll aside and opened her ears to listen to him. Xerxes takes a deep breath in and let it out,
'Before Octavia died, she found something rather unbelievable……" He could still hear her words.
Flashback.
'Xerxes!! A moment with you!" She drags him to her room and closes the door behind her,
'What is it now? You don't have to be so harsh if you want to get romantic." He was flirting with her while there was a serious dilemma at hand,
'You fool!! Is that all that is in your empty skull?!" She knocks his head and he reacts by gripping it to soothe the pain, 'I am starting to have doubts ad to why I even married you in the first place!" She was getting frustrated by his antics.
'Sorry love, I would listen now." He draws her by the waist to place a chaste kiss on her lips, it made her blush, 'what is it you want to tell me hmm?" Her scent always calmed him down, she exhumes a piece of paper from her breast and hands it to him, 'what is this?"
'It is one of the scribbles of your late father, it says there that he had a feeling he was being poisoned." Her brows crease in anger, 'she brings out multiple papers from her chest and she begins to arrange it for him, 'I found these discarded in his room, it is so old but we can still make something out of this."
'Octavia please stop. Just leave it please." He didn't want to bring up the past as he still hasn't been able to heal from his passing,
'Xerxes this must not go!! Someone killed the king, he wasn't sick he was poisoned to death! Read this!" She orders him but he refused to take it from her hand, 'what is wrong with you Xerxes?! Why are you being so arrogant!?!"
'I don't want to remember this Octavia!! Leave me alone and leave the past in the past!" He raises his voice at her and storms out of the room,
'Xerxes wait!! Darling!!" She calls after him but he refused to listen to her.
Flashback over.
'I didn't want to believe it but it started to make a bit of sense, although I never went back to the papers." He admits with a heavy heart,
'Master….I can understand how you feel but how would your father feel knowing his son is not ready to avenge him?" She places her hand on his shoulder, 'I think you should know how king Fang was murdered and who murdered him. The Queen said he was poisoned and it makes a lot of sense since he said that he fell ill all of a sudden, there is a correlation."
It made sense but Xerxes was still unsure, he didn't listen to his lover back when she was still alive, the least he can do is to honor her words. He looks at the scroll before picking it up, he opens it to read his father's messy handwriting which he had inherited from him, he laughs a little at a thought.
'What is so funny Master?" He was sad now he's suddenly laughing,
'When I used to send love letters to the Queen she could complain that she couldn't read them." He laughs a bit harder even though he was in pain, 'so I had to recite my Letters to her." Even this made Sheila laugh, she could imagine an elderly woman nagging a young lad for not being able to write properly.
Dawn had already began to set in but the moon was still out, and it was shining on the scroll, Sheila could mark out hidden words and her eyes squeeze to read out a statement,
'They're planning an attack on the rose clan." She reads out and Xerxes wonders what she is saying,
'What? Where did you see that?" He turns the scroll multiple times but he couldn't see a thing, she helps him direct it under the moonlight and they can see another letter embodied in his will, 'father can't get enough of his hidden letters, he used to do this a lot for me when I was younger."
'There's a lot more to this that meets our eyes, look," she points out to the beginning of the will, 'Xerxes if you see his then I know you would be able to solve my riddle." She notes, 'he wanted you to see this in the first place."
'But I never got the chance….." It crossed his mind that he was never able to see his father's will for himself, it was only read to him and then again it was not this will that was read out to him on his passing.
'I have a feeling the officials are hiding something, we need to find out."