From his perspective

"You still can't find them?!" I yelled at my head knight. I hated when my rage got to me but sometimes I just wasn't able to control it. My lack of ability to control my own emotions is why I am in this mess.

"No, your Majesty. We did find this though," He turned over to the knight standing to his right holding a wooden box. I sat back and waited to see what he had to present to me. As he opened the box I saw the yellow nightgown she was wearing that day. It was ripped and dirty, the rage inside me was flourishing again but I kept quiet to hear what my knight had to say.

"We found this in a Northern town and we met with an innkeeper. He saw them both and paid in this," He reached into the box and pulled out one of the many missing jewels I gave her. My heart broke a little inside at how little they meant to her.

"Very well. Good work on following them. Find her soon and don't delay," I said before sending them off. They turned and left me after bowing. These formalities meant so little. My throne was embedded with the finest materials that shined in this room full of fine portraits of the previous members of the imperial family. Suppose to be next me was the jewel of my life but instead, I had-

"Why are you wasting your time? She clearly is not worth the effort! She doesn't care enough about you to stay," My Empress next to me complained. She was always consumed by jealousy, I could understand that about her, but I could never love her no matter how hard I tried. I only could feel love for my Viola. This woman didn't even compare in intelligence or beauty.

"When you have your own you love you would understand, Ceara," She pouted to my side, rolling her eyes. I knew she loved me, but I couldn't help but say these cruel things to her. I never once even touched her no matter how my family pushed for an heir. Her doctors believed her infertile anyways and I wasn't going to try to torture myself for such a futile thing. She got up and left the room, leaving me alone again. Good riddance. I wish I could divorce her already but I had to wait to find a replacement Empress that would rule fairly. It wasn't easy when my heart was already tied to another. So I stayed to please our families until I was ready with the correct love of my life to my side.

In my solitude, I got up and started to wander. I found myself walking to the Mistress's palace to see her room again. It has been two days since she has gone missing and it is all my fault, I didn't lock her in. But if I had to keep her locked in to stay with me, I deserved this. As I walked into the small palace I saw Nurse Nevi who curtsied before leaving me be. She understood why I came to mope here, I was right to keep her to my beloved's side.

I don't even deserve to call her my beloved. As I opened her door and stared at her empty room, her anger at me still filled my mind. She had every right to be so upset. Why couldn't I control myself? I punched the frame of her bed as my self-resentment overtook me. I looked again around the room and saw all the beautiful gifts I gave her were taken so she could run off with that man.

Him, he was worse than me, yet she loved him. I was the one to know her when we were young and she met him only a few years ago and fell in love with him. He was nothing more than a womanizer, the other servants complained of his constant flirting. Oh, but he fooled her good. All because of her sweet and kind heart he went after her, vulnerable to his greed.

I hoped she was okay in the world out there. She only just regained some memories and as much as it pained me to hear her whisper his name in front of me, she was still vulnerable out there. She was always a bit too gullible despite how intelligent she was when it came to her studies and social standing. Not to mention, she was extremely weak from being in a coma, she couldn't have gotten too far I reassured myself.

Her nightgown flashed again in my mind. It was dirty and ripped, she may have been taken by a group of bandits who wished to hurt her and leave her in the mud. No, if that was the case the nightgown would have been stained with that, it appears to have only been damaged by her running.

My anxiety continued to run full force until I decided that there was no use in moping here. I just hoped they would be found soon. I wished to punch that man but she already had a horrid image of me, I shouldn't worsen it. Even after all this hurt I still was in love with her. Maybe I was the fool who fell in love and not her.

As I went to exit the room Nurse Nevi was standing outside, waiting for me.

"Your Majesty," She curtsied. I signaled for her to say what she wanted to tell me.

"If you would care to hear my advice your majesty when Viola returns tell her the whole truth no matter how angry she is. She is too sweet to hold a grudge if you are honest with her," She pleaded with me. I could see she had grown attached to her despite what I told her to do.

I sighed and sat down on the bench in the hallway staring at all the portraits of the Emperor's and their mistresses. My father's and their fathers, smiling brightly with women by their side giving an obviously forced smile. Am I as foolish as them to not notice? To not notice her resentment towards me so engraved in her that she hated me when she couldn't remember who I was?

"Will she always hate me Nevi? Will I never be able to connect with her?" I asked her. My heart was exposed but I didn't mind, there was a reason Nurse Nevi was referred to as Nurse Mother.

She shook her head 'no' at me before continuing, "She is very upset and confused. She needs your honesty. Her heart is swept by another who fooled it. Give her time and she will come to understand. She is still young and immature to an extent no matter how she presents herself sometimes," She explained to me calmly. I merely nodded as she wished me goodnight.

I really was the fool who fell in love with her.