Chapter 30 - Lady Mallory... Arian?

My mind became blank. And when Mr Drante called for my father, appearing when spoken of as if he was devil I only had one instinct.

Run.

Yet, I didn't dare move. I stared at the old man. His appearance was that of a wrinkled old man, but there was a glint in those worn out eyes that made him seem younger and cunning. The slits for eyes he had travelled around the room to take in the kings company and when they came my way they simply passed over me.

It was Mallory's superpower acting up again.

Did I feel glad because of it?

Not. At. All.

"Your highness", he bowed, yet there wasn't an ounce of respect from him.

"Archie", father all but sighed.

"You missed my proposal earlier. I feel it would aid in the splitting of riches between us", he manipulatively made it hard to disagree with whatever his proposal was. If it eases the argument over how the riches will be split than anything would be possible.

"I heard it from my chancellor just now. Well spill it out and maybe we can sort something out".

I felt dread at the thought of whatever it might be.

"Well I think a marriage between the princess and the Brennus might make negotiations much more smoother. The Brennus king was in approval", he carried on speaking, but I heard nothing more than the first sentence.

What?....

What? -wait? What?....

I couldn't understand what exactly I did to get to this point? Why wasn't it Raphael? Or maybe his brother? Why was it Luka?

In a way it made sense. With the new ties between the empire and the Brennus then a marriage between us would make sense. It helped that Luka wasn't a male lead. And he didn't have any reason to have ever hated me since well... he was meant to be dead.

Isn't this like too good on my side? I will basically be far away from the empire. Nobody would be able to find me in the Brennus since we haven't got a clue where they reside even if it's in the empire.

I'll take it!

"No".

Eh?

The immediate rejection from Mallory's father startled me.

His eyes glared at Archie. As if he saw more to this than I could ever.

"There's no need for a marriage when we already have good relations".

That was true...

"I thought you might say that so I do have another idea", he smiled with that scheming glint and it didn't take long for me to realise that Archie Drante had us in the palm of his hand, "Then how about a marriage between the princess and the Arian heir. That would also aid in the riches being split".

I felt a strange uncomfortable coil in my stomach. They were just children. Why would he toy with their lives like this?

"No need". Father once again refuted.

His second refusal made a series of whispers arose among the crowd of nobles and only the wealthiest. Clearly Archie had the upper hand and fathers refusals were becoming more and more unreasonable despite his valid reasoning.

"And why is that My lord?" Duke Arian spoke up, having suddenly arrived with Edmund behind him. The boy was sullen, staring only at his feet.

What happened to him? I glared at the culprit.

His father.

"We also have fine relations. What would be the point? Mallory what are your thoughts?" Suddenly the attention that once evaded me was on me all at once and if I hadn't already knew my answer I might've faltered.

"No. As you said we have good relations with"- I was so confident in my answer until I met Edmunds eyes that no longer stared at the ground but just looked at me pleadingly. I knew what it meant. Those desperate eyes. Asking me to save them. Asking me to risk the doom he would befall on me.

And I, I faltered.

My voice became mute as my thoughts tried to come up with a solution.

"The Arian dukedom but- but a marriage wouldn't be out of the question" I glanced at Edmund and for once he looked apologetic.

"Hm?" Father hummed at he watched me closely. "Well you're far too young to decide anything anyway and would you look at that it seems your friends want to play with you" he basically rushed me off to a crowd of children who were most definitely not my friends.

They stared at me for a moment before wandering off in their little groups, whispering among themselves in an uncomfortable way. I saw it on their lips.

"Fake". The words that didn't quite reach my ears but my eyes could read those lips.

That's right. It was almost as if the universe wanted me to end up just like Mallory did. To feel so scorned she turned her back on morals. So scorned that she tortured people.

"Mallory", Edmund seemed to have left his fathers side and appeared next to me with a candy he offered as an apology.

"What was that?" I asked with a frown. I wasn't mad at him, but more confused and even slightly concerned.

He flinched at my words as if he didn't expect me to acknowledge what had just happened and turned his sparkling eyes to the chandelier above us. The light made his eyes appear lilac.

"My father said I was useful. He said I did good", despite his words he didn't look at all happy. Instead, he looked like he had been stabbed through with multiple knives.

I suddenly recalled a memory I had that was so insignificant to the storyline I had completely forgot it. It really only made me feel worse for Edmund, but the duke of Arian wanted Edmund to marry Mallory, didn't he? It was such a minor thing that only made Edmunds hatred for her even more justifiable that I barely recalled it.

"I'm sorry, but don't worry I won't marry you", I wasn't really sure what to say, but I didn't want him to hate me. Not when he was beginning to like me!

"You won't?" He stared at me with surprised eyes.

What was that look for?

"Yeah? Why would I? Your my friend". As much as that didn't make any sense, a kid would understand it, right?

"But don't you like me?" He pointed a finger at himself in astonishment.

What? I gave him a wide eyes owl face.

"No?- I mean yes I like you! But not in the way that people who marry each other do and... I would like it if you marry someone because you like them. Not because they like you".

He stared at me in stunned silence. And then as if on cue his cheeks became pink and he turned away from me.

"I'll marry whoever I want!"

"Yeah! That's right!" I said with enough enthusiasm to catch the stares of a few guests, but I couldn't care less about them. "We're going to marry whoever we want!"

And just like that I was tackled into a hug by two familiar and rather annoying boys who seemed to crying over something.

"Mallory!!! Don't marry Edmund!!" Victor cried.

"That's right! Edmund doesn't deserve you! I won't let you marry him even if you want to!" Jirael was basically suffocating me.