Chapter 15: The Queen’s master plan!

The Queen had left Selena alone for several weeks after the dreadful incident. She had known that her daughter wasn’t too fond of her but never in her dreams had she ever imagined that her own daughter would hate her to death.

She understood Selena’s intention behind showing her those memories perfectly. She was clearly warning her mother not to push boundaries. Her daughter was clearly stating to her that she had no right to interfere in her life as she didn’t see the Queen as her mother. Her performing the final rites emphasized that point. That she had accepted her mother as dead.

Though the Queen kept a safe distance from her, she still couldn’t help but feel worried for her daughter.
She announced that day itself about the first princess’s rehabilitation plan and everyone in the kingdom of Valyria except for the concubine and her daughter had taken the news in stride and wished happiness and good luck for their princess and for the past few days, Selena had been maintaining her public appearances where she pretends to exercise her legs and train and several citizen onlookers even cheered enthusiastically for her quick revival.

The Queen got up from her chair as the person she was waiting for arrived.
Demetri, her daughter’s right hand. It was so hard to see one without the other as they were literally inseparable but the Queen had managed to send out the order to have Demetri meet her without Selena noticing.

The Queen squinched her eyes at the man, wondering what it was that made him so loyal to her daughter. A part of her was grateful that her daughter had someone like him watching over her, protecting her.

“Your Highness”, Demetri acknowledged the Queen’s presence and bowed deeply to show his respects though he had a confused expression on his face.
For the life of him, he couldn’t think of what the Queen was planning by getting him to come alone.

“You are the General’s right hand in name only. In fact, you are loyal to my daughter only.”, The Queen stated the obvious, not beating around the bush and jumping right into the conversation and Demetri nodded, not quite sure where this was heading.

“And why is that?”

Demetri looked up and straightened out his shoulders and replied simply, “Others mistake my utmost devotion to her for love. But isn’t love that I feel for her, it is gratitude. I owe her a debt, a debt I would like to spend my entire life repaying. Some relationships aren’t for living, some are for repaying”

The queen raised her eyebrow in surprise. The more and more she knew about her daughter, the more she came to find out that her daughter had lived quite the interesting life despite her not being able to set a foot outside of the General’s clan. From what she heard from the General’s men, her daughter was quite the handful.

She had heard from a man in the General’s clan that her daughter was the type that rarely gets mad. His exacts words were,
*“Selena is not the type to get angry easily. You could be dancing on her head and she still won’t get mad. She only gets mad when you have completely crossed a line and when she does get mad, just run away. Don’t even think of standing and fighting, just run away because when she gets mad, all hell freezes over and its game over”*
She had found that amusing at the time. The man warning her of her own daughter’s wrath but now she knew what her daughter was exactly capable of doing to her prove her point.

Even the royal sage after just a meeting with Selena had said to her,
*“Like mother, like daughter. Love to heaven and hate to death. There was no in-betweens. She is a person who would never let go of your hand if she is your friend and also the person who wouldn’t hesitate to stab you in the back if she was your enemy.”*

The Queen let out a sigh and eyed the man standing in front of her with scrutiny. For some reason, she was jealous of Demetri. Jealous of his closeness to her daughter, jealous that she trusts a stranger like him blindly while scrutinizing everything her own mother orders her to do. She nodded at Demetri to continue.
“She saved my life”, Demetri said simply and the Queen let out a sigh.

She already knew that trying to get anything more out of him was useless. She knew a loyal man when she saw one. He was tight lipped when it comes to Selena and there would be nothing she could do to make him open up unless he too sincerely believed that everything she was doing was for Selena’s welfare.

Upon gathering his courage, Demetri asked meekly, “Your Highness, do you really plan to send Selena back to the Labyrinth of Death to retrieve the blood sword?”
The Queen nodded at him and replied, “It must be done. Didn’t you hear the prophecy that night? Securing the allegiance of the Blood Sword would play a huge role in her journey to the throne of Valyria.”

Demetri flinched at seeing the Queen’s cold determination to send her own daughter back into the hell that she barely escaped.
“Your Highness, Selena did come out of that place alive but she lost a part of her in there.”, Demetri said, not being able to hold back any longer.

The Queen raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to keep speaking as this was the only way she could ever get any information from him.
She would have to make him feel worried about Selena’s safety.

“She was a cheerful lad when she was young, friendly to everyone but ever since she got in there by accident, she came out shaking. She lost her smile and her cheerful attitude. She started treating everyone with distrust. For several weeks, she had nightmares and she still gets them occasionally. She used to wake up in the middle of the night, screaming her head off. Though she did survive whatever was inside, she was broken even though she came out alive. So, I beg you, don’t make her go through all that again.”

The Queen sucked in a sharp breath, tears brimming her eyes. She had led her life in a luxurious palace while abandoning her daughter through all the suffrage. By the little information which she gathered form Demetri, it seemed as if she had went into the maze by accident and judging from Demetri’s words, she wasn’t exactly sane for the following weeks after she came out of it and it took quite a while for her recover form the trauma.

She bit her under lip anxiously, feeling lost for the first time in her life.
She dismissed Demetri with a slight wave of her hand, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and he bowed and quickly left, hoping that the Queen would reconsider his request.

The Queen slumped on to her chair. On the one hand, the Blood Sword was absolutely necessary for the throne of Valyria but on the other hand, she didn’t want to put her daughter through all that hideousness again.

It’s said that powers don’t work in the maze, so Selena’s rather fascinating abilities won’t help her one bit in the maze. The only thing she would have to rely on would be herself.

A part of her wondered how Selena had managed to escape the maze when she was just a teenager when the strongest, fully grown vampires had fallen prey to it.
Though it was heartless and manipulative, a plan was already forming in the Queen’s mind to make her daughter go into the maze willingly. Though she didn’t quite want her daughter to suffer from the trauma again, she had full belief that she would come out of it alive….She has to….for Valyria.

Though she was a mother…..she was a Queen first.

And Queens always put their kingdom first over any other personal relationships.
She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, hoping her daughter forgives her what she was about to do.