Outside the Palace (2)

The familiar ringing of the bell above the glass door as it opened brought a smile to Raquel’s face. It had been a while since she had stopped by Lacy’s Palace.

It was a cozy corner café that many noble ladies stopped by after shopping at the nearby shops. The scent of baked bread and sugar filled the room as Raquel and Ryker walked into the café.

It was bigger than it appeared outside, with gold furnishings and a few nobles sitting around drinking tea and chatting to one another.

“Is it okay for us to be here?” Ryker whispered in Raquel’s ear. “There seems to be quite a few nobles here.”

“It’s fine. I have a private room here.” Raquel nodded towards a flight of stairs in the corner of the room.

“A regular huh?”

“No, just the owner.” Raquel smirked before walking over to the stairs.

Ryker stood by the door in shock for a few seconds before hurrying over to Raquel “Are you being serious?”

“I am…”

“Why have a café though? The palace must make better food than here. Besides, it wouldn’t really make financial sense. Buying a mine or maybe a tailor shop would be a better route.” Ryker mused.

“That’s true, I suppose but the palace can get quite stuffy. Plus you never know if the food is safe. Siblings can pull such nasty pranks. So, I come here to enjoy some tea once in a while.” Raquel explained as they got to a small table with two chairs.

It wasn’t the whole reason, but Raquel didn’t want to explain that the real reason was because it was an apology gift to the chef, whose father had been slaughtered in one of Raquel’s episodes of madness a few years back.

The chef had forgiven her, understanding what had happened that day, but it didn’t make Raquel feel any less guilty. Many had died that day because she had let the curse control her.

“Good day, Lady Ricki.” A servant called out, suddenly appearing before the two. “Shall I bring the usual?”

“Sure.” Raquel paused for a second. “Maybe bring out a few more pastries. Mister here likes his sweets.”

The servant nodded and quickly left. Raquel then turned to look at Ryker seeing that his ear had gone red from her words.

“I just don’t want the chef’s hard work to go to waste.” Ryker muttered in embarrassment as he pulled out a seat for Raquel. “Imagine spending hours on something to have it become decorations on a table.”

“If you say so…” Raquel said, taking the seat.

Ryker quickly went over to the opposite seat. “I do say so.”

Raquel smiled, enjoying teasing the duke. But as she realized this fact, she frowned. She shouldn’t be enjoying his company so much.

“So…You seem to like the name, Ricki…” Ryker murmured, bringing Raquel back to reality.

“Well, yes.” Raquel answered. “It was the nickname my mother gave me.”

“The late empress?”

Raquel nodded, a wave of grief flowing through her. It had been years since the empress had passed yet she still felt a pang of sadness whenever she spoke about her mother.

At times she wished her mother had never died, angry that she was gone, leaving her to the cruelty of her father and stepmothers. But later she learnt that-

“My lady?” A voice called out, drawing Raquel back to the present.

She looked up to see a servant holding a teapot, waiting for her instruction to pour her some tea. She quickly nodded the go ahead, turning to look at the duke.

She noticed Ryker had a weird expression on his face as he stared at her, making her instinctively look down to check her clothes. She felt herself let out a sigh of relief as she saw the cloak covering her.

“Ahem…” Ryker coughed, making Raquel look at him.

“Yes?”

“I thought we were going to forget about that day.” Ryker muttered, turning his head away. “Have a fresh start…”

“Sorry, someone just made me conscious.” Raquel retorted, thankfully that the servant had left. “Anyway…Why are you here?”

Ryker looked at her slightly confused before realizing what she meant. “Did the emperor not tell you why I had come?”

“I do know why you’re here…I’m just trying to figure out why you’d want to court me?”

“Well, why not?”

“I don’t know, maybe because I’m cursed?”

“So, you really are cursed…” Ryker murmured, looking to be deep in thought.

Raquel however was confused by his statement. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you act quite normal for someone who’s been cursed. Normally, a cursed person would lose their sanity. Also you don’t seem to have a curse marking…Well it might be under your mask but you could also have a scar.” Ryker explained. “It’s too early to judge though…”

“I see…” Raquel smiled sadly, placing a hand over her mask. “Well, the rumors are true sadly.”

--------

Ryker watched as Raquel slowly removed her mask, showing a destroyed face. A web of black veins starting from her eye spiraled across the right side of her face, pulsing with a ting of green, almost as if they were alive.

The skin under the black veins looked like it was melting and upon a closer look, Ryker realized Raquel’s eye color was lighter too. Her eye was damaged, probably making her blind.

It was clear to Ryker what he was staring at. He had seen it numerous times in the research labs back home.

It was a curse marking. Slightly bigger than normal but it was a curse marking nonetheless.

“Do you believe it now?” Raquel asked, bringing Ryker out of his thoughts. “That I’m cursed.”

“I do.”

“And you still want to court me?”

“I do.”

He didn’t have a choice. She was the key to everything and he could look past her curse seeing as she hadn’t gone insane yet.

“With all those ‘I do’, we might as well get married.” Raquel muttered sarcastically, placing her mask back on.

Ryker looked at her and smiled, deciding to act dumb. “Can we really? I’m sure there was a temple two streets down.”

Raquel frowned at Ryker before sighing, “You really don’t get it do you…Marrying me would be a death sentence. Have you not heard?”

“What, the countless rumors flying about how the Crown Princess has killed hundreds, destroying whole villages and even drinks the blood of young children.” Ryker muttered angrily. “Yes I’ve heard them all but here we are having a nice time drinking tea.”

“I guess you didn’t hear about my fiance going insane and killing himself after being alone with me for thirty minutes.” Raquel laughed bitterly.

Ryker stared at Raquel for a second, everything suddenly making sense. His mother had never really cared for all the former rumors, believing most to be false, so her hysteria seemed odd.

He figured it was because of his father’s death but hearing those words from the princess, his mother was scared he’d be the next man to kill himself over the princess.

“Ricki-”

“Have you heard, the emperor is bringing suitors for that wretched princess?” A voice suddenly exclaimed loudly.

Ryker looked down to see a group of young noble ladies entering the café. Turning away, he looked back at Raquel, seeing her go pale.