Mother

Queen Elvira walked back slowly to him and she gave a small smile.

"We have to go back. You can spend as much time as you want here later."

He nodded, hesitating a little. "What about the first night?" His voice cracked as he watched her profile.

She turned to him, her brows furrowed. "You are already thinking about that?"

"I am not..."

"Pray it is unevenful first, Hector. And we can think about what we want to do to each other after that."

He swallowed, his heart pace quickening. "To each other?"

She shrugged. "Whatever that means to you."

Throughout the ceremony, Hector could not get the idea of having to spend the night with Queen Elvira out of his head. He had kissed her before, or she had him, but the first night..it was a whole different thing.

He watched her as she calmly accepted congrats and gifts, and her small smile through her veil.

"Hector?"

He turned to the voice that had whispered behind him. There was no one. He turned back, just as another man came to him.

"Congratulations, Hector."

His brows furrowed. No one would call him Hector now. He met the man's eyes.

"Thank you." He replied, watching the man curiously.

He smiled, and then instead of handing his gift to the servant standing close to Hector like everyone else did, he leaned closer to Hector's ear.

"I am sure you would want to hear what I have to tell you."

Hector blinked. "What is it?"

"You are not naive. Follow me and I will tell you."

Hector felt his hands go cold as the man leaned away, then dropped a small, seemingly empty box on the tray the servant held.

He turned to Queen Elvira. She was accepting congrats from someone who seemed to be of high status, and they seemed very cordial to each other.

He leaned forward to her. "Your..."

The other woman's attention turned to him.

"I mean...Elvira...I need to do something. If you would excuse me."

She turned to him with a smile and nodded, and he immediately stood and went the same direction with the man.

He watched the man's big strides as he took a turn. Hector knew it would lead to the royal gardens and he immediately followed.

"Who are you?" He asked as soon as the man stopped walking.

The man turned, his eyes a little melancholic, and his smile even more so.

"Hector. My voyage has not been in vain."

"What do you mean?" Hector asked as he instictively took a step back.

"When I heard the daughter of those tyrants were getting married to a nameless servant, Hector...I thought fate could not be more twisted."

Hector searched the man's face desperately, trying to recall if he had seen him somewhere before. "What are you talking about?"

"Did you really get married to that woman because you wanted to? Because you forgot everything her parents did to you? Your parents, your home?"

Hector took another step back. "Please stop. My parents died. Everyone died and she was not..."

The man suddenly burst into laughter, as he clapped his hands. "Is that what you believed? All these years? You lived in this very palace and you believed they were dead?"

"What?"

"This very palace...houses your mother, Hector. I did not think I would meet you this naive and clueless. Do you not see the blood of your...."

"That is a lie. This is all another attempt to...sabotage the wedding. I know this wedding is not the best of things that has happened to me but there is no need for all of those. I am the one hurting, not anyone else. If you are doing this for my best interest, you would stop."

The man went silent for a very long while, Then nodded.

"I see I can not change what you have forced yourself to believe. However," He threw a bunch of key to Hector who caught it and cradled it in his arms. "If you are any good a son, you would go see her. If you are any good a son, you would be thinking of revenge rather than marriage. The sixth to the right is the one."

The man gave a small sigh and started to walk away.

"Where?" Hector asked, even though he willed himself not to believe it.

"There." The man said and pointed to an abandoned structure on the very ends of the vast garden. "It is not your average dungeon, so be careful."

"Why would there be a dubgeon in a garden?" He foum it irrational.

"Where is the best place to store your evil other than a place so beautiful?"

Hector said nothing and the man promply left, leaving him with the doubts.

"Has Hector not returned yet?" Queen Elvira asked, her eyes scanning the entire place.

The waiting servant bowed. "No, your highness. Should I look for him?"

"Let it be, he will come back." She said the last part more to herself than to the servant. It was something she needed to believe. He had not cowered because of the idea of a first night with jer. He would come nack.

Hector opened the door to the place and a pungent smell immediately hit his nose. But more than that, it scared him. The prospect that someone dear to him would be there...it scared him for all he was worth.

He took a step in. It was only lit by small windows placed high up and the only thing that the windows could let through was the light itself.

He made his way through, scanning the cages. In most of them, there were humans in the middle of their own waste, tattered, haggard and miserable. He tried hard not to vomit.

He counted the cages eagerly, hoping to prove the man wrong. Hoping to prove his doubts wrong.

When he got to the sixth cage, there was a woman. She was lying on her stomach, the food she must have been served days ago was stale on the floor, her hair all over the place.

"E...excuse me?" He said, his eyes filling with scared tears.

She slowky, weakly looked up. "Who..."

Her voice trailed off as she looked at him.

He lost his footing and fell to his knees, his eyes going wider and his lips parting wordlessly. He tried to swallow to free up the weight that clamped down on his chest, but he could not.

"What...what are you..." He tried to say, his tears flowing freely. "You are...dead."

She sat up, her legs crossing under her. "Is that what you believed?"

His lips quivered, his jaw shaking hard, preventing him from talking.

"This can not..."

She smiled. "How have you fared, Hector?"

He looked up at her, as he brought his sleeve to wipe his eyes. "Mother."