38. The letter.

Niya opened the letter and started reading it.

*Niya, I wanted to tell you so many things but now that I'm writing this letter, I don't even know where to start. There is so much to tell you but I don't think I can write all those things in just a single letter.*

*Okay, let’s start with the massacre of 2014. A week before the massacre is the day I regret the most. The day your body appeared in Drac Prime's dark forest. Your arrival was mentioned in our holy book Liber Sanctus but I personally never believed in it and I always treated that story as another fairytale that will never turn into reality, unfortunately, Archie believed it and he used to go into the forest daily to find you. And one day, he saw a body lying under a cherry tree. It was you.
He kept it a secret and hid your body in a cave near the palace. You were destined to marry the king who will sit on the throne of Drac Prime so technically, you were supposed to be mine but Archie didn't want it to happen so he kept your arrival a secret. He couldn't keep it secret for long on Drac Prime so he decided to create a rift between the Vampires and Draculas in order to start a war so he could leave the Drac Prime without any suspicion that he will be leaving with someone else.
Everything he thought, happened. He started a war, it was definitely my mistake too as I never treated Vampires equal to Draculas under my regime and Archie took advantage of it. Many people died, and many got injured. But Archie, with the help of Lucifer, got successful in taking you away from Drac Prime, away from me. Do you know why he was so against the idea of you and me together? In the Sanctus Liber, it was clearly mentioned that the one who will marry the Creator Queen, will rule all of the universes. The day you'll marry someone, your powers will be shared with him, or if he kills you after marrying you, all of your powers will be his. Archie wants the same. He wants you to marry him and then he will kill you in order to get hold of your powers but in order to kill you, he needs a dagger. This dagger can kill any angel but it’s hidden somewhere that nobody knows. Archie wants to find the dagger first before marrying you and he kidnapped the only person who could have an idea about where it is. Your father.
*

*Your father is being held captivated in the dungeons of this palace. All those attacks on Vamp Prime were planned by Archie to distract your mind and to play a victim so that he could become a hero by making me a villain in front of you. I'm not saying I'm not a villain but Archie is not a saint either.
Don't trust him and allow me to meet Azizmah to prove my innocence.
*
-*Samael*

Niya kept looking at the letter for a minute even after reading it. *Archie? How could he?*, she thought. Her heart sank at the thought that all of this, this friendship, the care, all of this was a beautiful trap set up by Archie in order to deceive her. She sat on the bed as her legs were about to give up from the shock. Samael sat near her and put his hand on her mouth to stop her screaming. She looked into his eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek into his hand. He looked at her for a second and let her go to sit comfortably.

"I know this is shocking for you but please, can you just forget all of this? I don't want to put you in a danger. It was foolish of me to write this letter. I'm sorry," he said, avoiding eye contact with her.

"He wants to kill me?" she questioned quietly. "Wow," her voice cracked as she scoffed at her helpless situation.

"But why I'm even believing you. You can lie as you always do," she said, wiping her tears. *He was lying, he has to be*, she thought as she stood from the bed and crumbled the letter in her hands. "Get out. I don't believe you," she said, looking at Samael. Samael looked at her for a second and opened his mouth to say something but couldn't utter a word.

*I think that's best for you. I don't want you to believe me,* he thought as he bowed and left the room immediately.

Niya was standing still, thinking about the letter. Her mind was convinced that Samael was not lying but her heart was screaming that Archie couldn't do this to her. Her soul has been torn apart between her mind and heart. She closed her eyes to keep her mind calm and sat on the bed.

*The only way to know the truth is to check it by myself. If dad is in the dungeons or not,* she thought and got up from the bed, but stopped as she looked at her reflection in the mirror and touched up her makeup before leaving the room. William, Archie, Ed, and George were already waiting for her. They hugged her and wished her a happy birthday once again.

"Cut the cake but we won't reveal our gifts yet. We'll give it to you in the evening," Edward said, looking at Niya. Niya looked at him for a second, trying to hide her inner turmoil, and smiled at him brightly.

"Ah! I can't wait anymore, I really wanna see the gifts." She playfully hit him on his shoulder.

"Nope," they all said in unison and laughed at her excitement. Niya looked at the cake and gasped in shock.

"Wow. It's just so beautiful." It was a multilayered black forest cake, her favorite. She cut the cake and gave each of them a slice.

"Guys! We are running late for the negotiation meeting, King Samael is already waiting for us," George said, checking the schedule on his phone.

"Okay then, let's go." Niya immediately walked towards the exit doors of the palace without looking at Archie even once.

They all left for the Parliament as a negotiation meeting was scheduled to be held there in the Octagon office.

"Your Majesty, we have all the proofs against King Samael. We just want him to apologize and we will move on by signing the peace treaty." Niya's finance minister said. She was a woman in her late thirties with pointy ears, a distinctive feature of the snake clan. Niya looked at her and nodded.

"Mrs. Richards is right. King Samael? Do you want to object to her claim?" Niya asked, looking at files.

"Yes, Your Majesty. No proof is direct enough to prove me guilty. I request you to let me cross-question the witness King Azizmah," Samael said, banging the files on the table.

Niya sighed, looking at the table. "Fine. Bring Azizmah here. Let's clear our doubts," she said, closing the files and looking at Samael. Samael's eyes glowed as he smiled at her.

"Thank you so much, Your Majesty. Thanks a lot," he said, leaning back into his chair with relief on his face.

Archie, who was looking at all of this, got irritated as nothing was going according to his plan.

*This is getting out of hand now. I have to do something,* Archie thought but before he could think or do something, guards brought Azizmah into the conference room. He bowed to Niya.

"King Azizmah! Can you spot King Samael in this room, the one who allegedly gave you orders to attack the goldmines?" Niya asked, looking at his pale face. He looked around for a second to observe everyone. He looked at Archie for a clue but Archie couldn't help him as Niya was already looking at them.

"No, Your Majesty," he said, looking back at Niya.

"But you said King Samael ordered you to do that…" she countered, looking at him suspiciously. Azizmah looked at her and gulped the fear down his throat before speaking a word to her.

"Yes, he did, but he never met me in person," he said, looking down at the floor.

"Hmm. You may leave," Niya said, sitting back on her chair as he left with the guards.

"See! He didn't see the face of the person then how can you all be so sure that it was me? It can be a conspiracy to defame me," Samael said, looking at Archie who was controlling his anger as his plan was going down in the dump.

"But it doesn't prove that you are not guilty. You didn't meet him in person because you planned everything in a way that no one could prove you guilty," Archie said, banging his hands on the table out of frustration. Samael scoffed at him and before he could speak anything, Niya closed the files. Samael looked at her with a frown.

"I want to give you a benefit of doubt. I'm closing this case for now. Let's sign the peace treaty and promise not to harm each other’s people and territory," she said, opening the treaty file. Everybody was shocked at her sudden decision, especially Archie. She didn't look at Archie for once as she was avoiding eye contact with him. Her mind was restless and her eyes were filled with rage even though she wasn't sure if Archie had kidnapped her dad or not but deep inside her heart, she was already convinced that Archie is the real villain.

After both parties read the document and made sure there were no loopholes, the treaty was signed.
"King Samael, I want to discuss something about this treaty with you in private. Can you please come with me?" she asked, taking some files with her, leaving Archie and others frozen in shock. Samael, on the other hand, knew very well what topic she wanted to discuss.

Her dad.