Chapter 13: The Royal Sage!

The last few days, Caro found himself being drawn to the first princess. He followed her everywhere she went and to his surprise found that his constant presence was not in the least bit welcome to her and she was starting to get irked out by him.

He stifled a laugh at seeing her open glare at him. For the last few days, she had at least tried to hide her annoyance but now she was openly glaring at him and Caro suddenly found her the most amusing person on the planet.

“What now?”, she yelled at him and he chuckled.
Her face was flushed red with barely suppressed anger and she had ‘ Don’t bother me look’ on her forehead.

“Your half sister seems intend to marry me”, Caro said suggestively, curious as to what the first princess thought about that.

Selena rolled her eyes at him and muttered, “Well, aren’t you a lucky guy”
Demetri snorted from behind her, then seeing Caro’s curious glance concentrated towards him, carefully composed his expression and went back to maintaining a poker face.

“Your Highness, everyone knows what you are really here for. You are here to look for a queen”
“I am?”, Caro asked teasingly and she rolled her eyes annoyedly.

Selena was more than irked out at Caro’s constant presence. She couldn’t let go of her composure and breath properly as she was constantly under his vigilant eyes.
Caro found himself loving the way she rolled her eyes. He found himself wanting to annoy and irritate her more often.

“Please stop wasting your time on me. I have absolutely no interest in marrying you. You should concentrate your attention on my half sister or other luckier women of the Kingdom of Valyria”

Caro’s smile froze in place as he caught the hidden meaning behind the words. She was pushing his attention to the other ladies. He had known that the princess had not even an ounce of interest in him, but it hurt when spoken directly like that.

Regaining his composure, he cleared his throat and asked nervously, “And why is that?”
She shrugged nonchalantly and replied innocently, “Because I don’t feel butterflies in my stomach when I see you. What I do feel when I see you is plain annoyance.”

Caro pulled back his head and let out a laugh, taken aback by her candid answer. Even her companion seemed taken aback by the answer.
Upon watching her from the sidelines the past few days, Caro had reckoned that she was quite a cold, indifferent woman. But who knew that she was such a romantic at heart?

Power, fame, wealth didn’t seem to be much of an importance for her. All she wanted was a man who could instill butterflies in her stomach.
The corner of his mouth tilted up. He was starting to adore her cute little antics and her feisty nature. Caro let out a sigh watching her confused pouted reaction. Deep down, he knew he was a goner.
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“Oh! The great Queen finally have some time for her daughter”, Selena declared sarcastically as she glared down at her mother.
After she had put her in an unfamiliar location where she had numerous enemies, her mother had vanished into thin air, allowing her to fend for herself.

The Queen let out a sigh seeing her flustered daughter after several weeks. Clearly, nothing had improved between the two of them. Though she wanted to mend the relationship between the two of them as soon as possible, she knew that her daughter would need some time to get used to the life in the palace.

“It’s time you start to walk. You can’t go on pretending to be paralyzed for the whole of your life”
Selena raised an eyebrow expectantly at the Queen, sensing that she had come up with a plan to get rid of her wheelchair. The Queen had seen that her daughter was starting to get restless and annoyed at having to spend her whole day in a wheelchair and she knew that the gig would be up if it were to continue like that.

“I arranged for an ancient sage who is proficient in treating incurable diseases. He has already been informed about your complicated situation and he is to be trusted. Today, he will arrive and I will announce to the public that the first princess has started taking treatments. For a few days, you will walk and train feebly in front of public eyes so that they believe that you are truly under the rehabilitation process.”, The Queen explained with a patience she didn’t quiet feel.

Selena let out a sigh. That seemed like a fool proof plan. Under the guise that she had successfully recovered from her paralysis by rehabilitation, she can start walking again but it all comes down to her acting skills, which wasn’t much to speak of.

Selena nodded at the Queen, agreeing to go along with the plan being desperate to get rid of the wheelchairs. She couldn’t run freely with that and she often felt suffocated. The queen was carefully planning a way where she can slowly go back to the way she was before she entered the palace.

The Queen nodded at her royal guard and he went out and came back with an elderly vampire. One look at him, and Selena could see that he was the divinely sage that the Queen had spoken of earlier.
Selena shot a surprised look at her mother before bowing her head out of respect to the sage. She hadn’t expected that the sage had already arrived.

This certainly explained her mother’s disappearance. She had gone in search of him.
The sage’s eyes twinkled as he took on the woman sitting in a wheelchair in front of him.

It was him who had made the original prophecy which had made the Queen abandon one of her daughters at birth.

*Twins born at midnight. One shall fall prey to destiny while the other would raise from her fallen sister’s ashes. Two of them at the same place means death and separated they shall survive.
One twin more powerful than the other, an insuppressible claim to the throne of Valyria.
Born of evil seed, she shall fight for her motherland. She shall either end up destroying Valyria or saving it. Oh! Master of the Blood Sword, the kingdom of Valyria bows its head before you, the first Empress in the history of Valyria.*

Selena blinked in surprise, taken aback by the sage’s words. Judging by her mother’s expression, this wasn’t the first time she had heard the prophecy. Is that why she had abandoned her?

Though she couldn’t make any sense of his words, she had an eerie feeling that her mother already had everything figured out.
Selena cleared her throat loudly and shot a cryptic look at Demetri, who shook his head back at her.

The Queen caught the secretive glance between the two and was sure that her daughter had inferred something from the prophecy and she was hiding that particular something from her.
The Queen narrowed her eyes at her daughter again and leaned forward. Unaware to her daughter, the Queen had the power to read minds with just a touch.

Selena gulped as she saw her mother at such a close distance. She flinched as her mother gently touched her cheek.
The Queen took in a sharp breath as she finally found out what her daughter was hiding from her.

“The Blood Sword!”, the Queen murmured under her breath and Selena shot a panicked look at her mother.