Chapter 39: The seduction plan!

“How’s your relationship with Caro Silva going on?”, The Queen asked her daughter sternly, suddenly understanding the importance of his vote and the role he could potentially play on getting her daughter to ascend the throne of Valyria.
Selena frowned at her mother and let out a sigh, thinking all the way that her mother doesn’t understand nor respect the beauty of privacy. She got herself involved in every minute of Selena’s life and her decisions and it was stating to irk her out, how little control she had on her own goddamn life. How can she so shamefacedly get herself involved in every little aspect of her daughter’s life after she had so nonchalantly discarded the same daughter at birth?

“Not going very well”, Selena answered truthfully, shaking her head resignedly at her mother.
The Queen had spies everywhere, it was a waste of time trying to lie to her mother. The Queen cursed internally at the news. Just by watching the two of them together, it was quite obvious that Caro was quite taken by her daughter, but Selena was a different case altogether.
She couldn’t read her daughter very well and the Queen had an inkling that her daughter was keeping it that way on purpose. The Queen’s hands were itching to place themselves on her daughter’s cheeks so as to know what exactly was going on in her mind or if she had some feelings for Caro Silva, but the Queen found herself hesitating because of the last experience she had when she had tried to read her mind. Selena clearly didn’t like the intrusion of her privacy and as their relationship was already on thin ice, the Queen decided not to push it any further and just trust her daughter blindly on her words.

She said softly, “We need him, Selena. We need him to stay as our ally to win”

“He knows about my real identity”, Selena declared out loud and frowned as she realized that her mother’s usual poker face hadn’t changed much. She wasn’t surprised by that important piece of information and that could only mean one thing. She already knew about it beforehand.
“You already knew”, Selena stated the obvious, eyeing her mother warily. She literally couldn’t trust her own birth mother with anything.
The queen immediately jumped on the defensive mode and rushed to correct her daughter’s misunderstanding and reassured her sternly, “He was the one who found out by himself with no help from me whatsoever. After all, being an original vampire, he has a lot of spies in every clan. He, however did confront me about the matter.”

Selena crossed her arms in front of her chest indignantly and muttered angrily, “And you didn’t think of mentioning that fact to me before we set off?”
The Queen shook her head vividly, then took a moment to collect and gather her muddled up thoughts, then stared down her daughter firmly.
“Your marriage with Caro will never happen, I will make sure of that. Just trust me, I have no intention of seeing my only daughter married to an old geezer who already has a family of his own. But for now, we need him on our side. We stand a very slim chance and we will never succeed without his support.”
Though it was something that she had wanted and hoped it hear, Selena found herself frowning at her mother when she said that her marriage with Caro would never happen. She found to her own surprise, that she felt a tad bit let down and disappointed.
Selena raised an eyebrow at her mother questioningly and asked warily, “So, what is it that you want me to do?”

“Seduce him’, she said softly and Selena eyed her mother incredulously, taken aback by what she had just heard.
“Seduce him, but down fall in love with him…..Kiss him and grant him entrance to your mouth, but never your heart. Always remember Selena, before a woman or a daughter or a sister or even a mother, you will always be a queen first. Don’t be so foolhardy as to fall in love. That ruins your determination and makes you waver from your destined path”, she continued on and Selena cursed her luck internally.

“So, basically you want me to use him, and then throw him away the moment we have fulfilled our purposes like a rag doll?”, Selena asked sarcastically, not feeling too good about what her mother was asking of her to do.

Though she didn’t see herself having any future with Caro Silva, she couldn’t even think of using such a respected man like that for their own purposes. After all, she couldn’t deny that Caro had a certain effect on her. That was such a dirty and underhanded trick which was proposed by the Queen and she felt uncomfortable going along with the plan, but the determined look on her mother’s face told her that she wasn’t really giving her much of a choice in the matter.

“If he finds out about our little plan to ditch him later on, he would be beyond furious. Besides, he is an original vampire. Do we really need to invoke his fury on Valyria?”
“He may be an original vampire but by the time he realized that we were just using him, you would be the Empress of Valyria. He would have no choice but to bow his head before you.”

Selena eyed the Queen cautiously and repeated, “I don’t think Caro Silva would be that easy to deal with”

“Then make him fall so deep in love with you, that despite your atrocious actions, he still wouldn’t have the heart to slay you. Bewitch him and then ruin him, body and soul”

Selena scoffed at her mother. Easier said than done. Caro was a man of stature and a master strategist, if she were indeed to act according to some predetermined plans, he would see it coming from a mile away. It’s better to let it happen naturally than scheme your way into someone’s heart.
“I will take care of it by my own. So, I beg of you to not get yourself involved”, Selena begged her mother, fearing that her mother’s proactiveness would do her more harm than any good. Conning the smartest man in the world was no easy feat, and she didn’t want any outsiders getting themselves involved, catching her by surprise. She should be on constant vigilance and on guard with Caro, because the slightest mistake or error she commits, Caro would see right through her plan.
“I won’t as long as you do a good job”, The Queen stated firmly, shooting her daughter a knowing look. Now that she had truly experienced Selena’s capabilities with her own eyes, she had absolute trust in her daughter’s abilities to get things done. She was more conniving, malicious and crooked than the Queen herself. Despite Selena’s desperate attempts to not be like her birth mother, The Queen knew deep in her heart, that she was all her. She took after her the most, no matter if the place where she had been raised was different. Like mother….like daughter…..