Chapter 58 - Part Two - Farewell [1]

My father watched me in silence - but it wasn't really me he saw. His eyes were fixed on the woman I had brought with me: Evelyn.

The family's servants and warriors stared at her incisively. Their eyes seemed to wonder if this was some kind of joke - after all, no matter how they looked at her, even the daughters of the servants seemed more... refined than this simple-looking girl.

None of them said a word, but their stares were loud enough.

They laughed inside. They questioned. They doubted.

"Is that the woman the young master brought home?"

Even without speaking, I could clearly hear what each expression meant.

They looked at her as if she were an ordinary stone lying in the garden of the noble house. A sheep herder, with calloused hands, plain cloth overalls and badly cut hair that stubbornly fell over her eyes.

But she didn't look away. She wasn't intimidated even by my father's cold gaze, and that was rare. Warriors like him carried a natural pressure that made peasants wince. The fact that she held his gaze said a lot. Her heart was firm. Her conviction was unusual.

She didn't look like any of the noblemen's daughters who used to parade through the castle corridors. She wore no jewelry, didn't smile with trained delicacy, didn't lower her eyes as if she had no right to be there.

And yet she was there. By my side.

And the most impressive thing: he didn't bow.

When my father heard a few days earlier that I had brought home a shepherdess as my wife, he immediately rejected the idea. But now, looking at her closely, something changed in his countenance. An old memory struck him.

I know that look in his eyes. The precise assessment, the one that measures someone's soul without the need for words. He's already used that look on me. With my brothers. With generals. And now, he was looking at Evelyn... as if he was facing something he hadn't expected.

And then, for the first time in many years, I saw something in my father's eyes that wasn't stern or disdainful.

I saw memories.

It was a subtle but recognizable flash. He stared at her as if time had come back, as if he saw through her - or perhaps beyond.

And suddenly he smiled. In the corner. That half-smile he only made when he was overwhelmed by a memory too strong to hide.

I knew exactly what he remembered.

"What are you looking at? Did you lose something in my face?" - That was the first thing the woman he once loved said to him, or so he told me. He was in the prime of his youth, arrogant as every prodigy is, thinking that his strength was enough to bend the world. But she... she bent it with one sentence.

She was a peasant too. But there was a strength and dignity about her that surpassed any warrior he had ever met. Many fought for her attention in the camp, but she never treated him with deference - she spoke to him as she pleased. And that's what charmed him.

He never fully understood her. And perhaps that's why he never forgot her.

"Marriage is complicated right now" said my father, without taking his eyes off Evelyn. He paused briefly and then added, just as calmly: "But... you can keep her. Is that a problem?"

As soon as I heard those words, I bit my lip, trying to control a mixture of feelings that I could barely name. He saw in my eyes what I was trying to hide: I was enchanted, completely taken by this girl.

Evelyn noticed the tension between us and, with unexpected care, calmed the situation. She took hold of the sleeve of my garment and, with her simple manner, made even the employees around us soften their gazes.

"It's okay, I know it's complicated, don't be angry with your father" she said in a soft voice.

My father seemed calmer. Perhaps he had finally understood that there was no point in trying to separate us. He had always been proud - and rightly so. He was a great warrior and expected the same of me. For him, it was unthinkable that I, Zaatar, heir to his house, would get involved with a simple sheepherder.

But he still gave in.

"From tomorrow, she's going to the Full Moon" he said quietly, without looking at me. "Find something you like... something you want to do there"

I didn't answer. I just stood there, feeling the tension dissolve on the outside but build up on the inside. He thought he was giving me a choice, but I knew what I was doing: politely separating us. The Full Moon was big. But it could also be an abyss.

He turned to the warriors gathered in the room. Ten men, rigid as statues, had been watching us since we entered. The tension was almost physical. My father faced them, and his voice changed. It became firmer, colder.

"What do you think of Casa Violeta's statement?" he asked.

Doug, always looking like a wounded guard dog, answered first. Without blinking. His voice was filled with a pride that bordered on venom.

"The young master represents our dignity. If he disgraces himself, we disgrace ourselves with him. Even if he decided to run back into that girl's arms, I would object. She has no dignity. She's disrespected our house"

I felt the blood boiling in my veins, but I controlled myself.

Doug grew up alongside us, he received everything from my father - respect, food, a roof over his head, forgiveness for the trouble he caused. Even the merchants he cheated were paid in silence. And yet now he felt entitled to judge those I chose to love.

My father had never openly commented on the subject, but he knew enough - the rumors had reached him.

It was Rammal who cut through the heavy air in the room. His eyes were as sharp as his mind - more so than Doug's, that's for sure.

"Violet is too far away. Three months of travel just to get here" said Rammal, his eyes narrowed and watchful. "They'll wear themselves out just crossing. We'll patrol our borders and retreat at the slightest sign of invasion. We've invested too much time in the farms and territory to give in now. We can handle it"

Rammal understood the risk, but he was more astute and calculating than Doug. For him, accepting Casa Violeta's request at this time was tantamount to admitting weakness - and that was the worst signal they could send out. If they showed any weakness now, other families would start to move in, taking advantage of the situation to sow conflict and collect old debts.

The other warriors shared the same opinion. Some even wanted to counterattack, to invade the Violets' territory before they took any initiative. No one there was naïve. They knew very well the value of what they had - and how much was at stake.