Hey guys,

Sorry for any grammar and editing mistakes!

Please comment, vote, and follow!

Enjoy!

-&-

Chapter 28

       The King was still sleeping when I woke up the next morning, his large body resting peacefully besides mine. I blinked over at him, at the soft look resting across his handsome face, and let out a quiet sigh. Why couldn't we be like the regular mates of his kind? The one's he always seemed so proud to tell me about?

       Because he was a king, the King, and I had no idea what I was anymore. I cast him one last look before slipping carefully from the large bed.

       North didn't move once.

       I watched his large frame breath evenly beneath the thick covers as I walked quietly towards the large oak door of his room, my footsteps light as I stepped on the very tips of my toes.

       I didn't know how I felt about yesterday, but I knew I wouldn't be able to figure it out with those blue eyes glowing down at me. He had killed a handful of people that had practically raised me, and yet I still slept beside him like nothing had happened.

       What was wrong with me?

       He had been so different, so unlike the North I had grown used to. The King from the traveling stories. It was rather frightening, but I knew he wouldn't have hurt me, not physically at least. But he hurt others, killed others.

       He was right though, it shouldn't have surprised me. He was the ruler of his entire, animalistic kind after all. I just needed to be away from him for a while.

       There was already a bath waiting for me in the side washroom of my own chambers, and I slipped easily into the hot, refreshing water. Oh yes... This was lovely.

       I leaned back against the marble tub and closed my eyes, the warm water resting just beneath my chin. What a mess my life had fallen into.

       I needed to find the infirmary and talk to Mae. If what North said was true, and they were going to fix whatever was wrong with her, maybe she would make more sense.

       I hadn't seen Aeyron since Eirik told him to take her away, and it was oddly disconcerting. I hadn't realized how much I relied on his company.

       It wasn't long before I was climbing out of the quickly cooling water with a sigh and pulling on a simple tunic and cotton pants. Even though spring was slowly starting to make its appearance, the snow and chill in the air around the kingdom seemed to never disappear. I rather liked it.

       It was still very early in the morning when I slipped from my rooms, the sky just barely starting to lighten with the morning sun. The halls were relatively empty as I wandered out of the King's wing, and besides a few servants running about, I didn't see anyone. Not even the Generals.

       I frowned. I was sure at least one of them would be awake and meandering about.

       "Excuse me?" I asked a passing servant after wandering aimlessly around the large statue-lined halls for what seemed like hours.

       The server paused, his mousy-brown eyes wide in surprise, and what looked like slight fear. His panic made me frown.

       "Could you tell me where the infirmary is?" I asked softly, a small smile pulling at my lips in some attempt to ease the poor man's nerves.

       "Uh-Um, up the main steps and down the second hall. My lady." He muttered quickly, bowed, and then hurried away.

       I ran my fingers through my freshly cleaned hair. Well then... The servants here didn't seem to speak much, if at all, and they were rather jumpy when addressed. Not that I had much experiences with servants anyway.

       I followed the nervous man's directions until I reached a large wooden door that was nearly as tall as the stone pillars lining the halls. No matter how long I roamed this castle, there always seemed to be a new turn or door. It was maddening really.

       I didn't bother knocking, the door seemed too large to pass any sound through. Opening the thick wood was hard, and I had to put most of my weight into pushing against it, but it budged just enough for me to slip through, and I was gazing over at rows, upon rows of white sheeted beds before I knew it.

       Aeyron was nowhere to be seen, none of the Generals were, but I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Mae was sitting on a plain white bed towards the back of the room, clothed in a pale robe like gown. Her dark cloak and ragged clothes from the other day were folded neatly on the nightstand beside her.

       Besides the two of us, the infirmary was completely empty, and her head snapped up as the door closed behind me. I couldn't help the small smile that pulled on my lips at hers.

       "Emrie," She started with a timid sigh, her hazel eyes flickering against the candle light illuminating the room. "I'm glad you're okay, Aeyron had said you fainted yesterday."

       "Aeyron..." Well, that was awfully informal for an Underling.

       "Yes, I was pretty scared of him at first, but he's actually quite nice." There was a blush rising to her cheeks, the same one I saw what seemed like years ago when she looked at Terif in the Lower Kingdom. It made me want to laugh and roll my eyes.

       Looks like she had a thing for wolf-borne Generals.

       "Yes, he is. You look like you're feeling better." I admitted softly as I walked around the many beds and cleaning trays of the infirmary. She did actually look a lot better. In just a few days those dark circles under her eyes and the hollow of her cheeks was already starting to fade.

       "I am feeling better. Their medical treatments here are amazing."

       There was a bright smile on her face, one that matched the shine in her eyes. The stressed out, horrified Mae from just the other day seemed to have completely disappeared- but that didn't mean she wasn't there.

       I paused just beside her bed, my eyes glancing over every familiar feature of her face before I broke that unwanted bubble surrounding our heads. "Mae, I-I don't exactly know what happened in the market, and I am so sorry for whatever the Elders have done to you and Lei- but I need to know what you were talking about."

       The light from her eyes quickly faded, and she glanced away as I sat slowly beside her on the edge of the rather hard cot-like bed. "I was deranged when I found you in the town, from all the interrogations and everything. I don't even remember half of what happened. Besides, you're safe here. I highly doubt the King-"

       "Please." I was surprised at the desperate plea that fled my lips, and even more so at the weak tremble in it. I was beyond tired of all this begging for answers and receiving none.

       "I'm living a life of complete and total ignorance. No one here tells me anything, and North is more obsessed with keeping me isolated than helping me understand. If you know something, anything, don't hide it from me. I-I promise to listen this time."

       I meant every single word of the needing beg that fled my tongue. Despite what he's claimed, North has kept me at arm's length for so long, and has hidden so many things from me. I honestly resented him for that, even if I constantly looked over it.

       It was easy pushing it down these past couple of months, and I held desperately onto the hope that one day we could be together like what I assumed normal mates were like. But killing the Elders was just too much.

       I was tired of being respectful of his wishes, when he was never of mine. He didn't care how I felt or what I thought, even though he apologized for upsetting me quite often. It was my turn to stop caring about his.

       But that was a lie. I was no wolf-borne, no Eirik. I could never stop worrying about his feelings, or his thoughts, or him. And I didn't know how to feel about the Elders. The only way to sort out the mess inside of me was space. A space I initiated this time.

       At least for a little while.

       Mae let out a quiet sigh before her dark eyes flickered up to mine. "Are you sure, Em? Sometimes ignorance is bliss."

       "Says the girl who came charging up the Mountain and started spewing random accusations about me being locked away in a coffin for hundreds of years. How did you even do that mind-vision thingy?"

       She looked away uncomfortably again, her hand reaching up to play nervously with the ends of her dark hair. I narrowed my eyes at the action. I had thought I knew everything about Mae and her family, but like everything else in my life, I was wrong.

       "It's just a trick Leikos taught me a long time ago. And the coffin part was true. I-I've been to the cave."

       That single sentence made my breath catch in my throat. She had been there? It actually existed? I gulped and wrung my hands together nervously in my lap. "It's real?"

       Even if it was, I'm sure I didn't have anything to worry about. I didn't know what to believe anymore, but I knew that I had memories of my early life. Memories with Mae and Lei.

       "Yes, I wouldn't have believed it either if I didn't see it for myself."

       "But you know we shared a childhood together, Mae. You've seen me when I was young, we grew up together." I didn't mean to sound condescending or anything along those lines, but I hated that I felt like I was reassuring myself more than her.

       Her bright eyes refused to meet my own, and her pale cheeks seemed almost like glass as she played with the thick hospital blanket resting over her lap. She seemed as if she were trying to hide herself, like she would rather be anywhere else then having this conversation with me.

       "I-I don't think it was real." She finally admitted a tense moment later. "I think... I think they placed memories in our heads, Emrie."

       My ears felt as if they were buzzing, and my body leaned unconsciously away from hers. Fake memories... that- that- couldn't be true- But it's happened before. Some freak toying around inside of my mind, placing thoughts there so I would claim them as my own.

       I stood shakily to my feet. It was suddenly too hot in the large, open room, and I could feel my hands shake and grow clammy. I needed to move.

       My entire childhood was a lie? My whole life? No, no it couldn't be. This was all just a dream. Just a horrible, terrible dream I would wake up from eventually. Wake up in that large bed in the room down the hall from North's, with Mae tucked safe and sound back in their house in the village.

       The Elders would be alive and well, and good. Leikos would be leading the town and Mae would be taking dangerous adventures down to the Mountain's edge like we had done some many times before.

       "Emrie..." She started softly as I paced on the floor beside her bed, my hand running furiously through the dark waves of my hair.

       This was not a dream.

       "The cave. Can you take me there?" I paused suddenly beside her, my breathing leaving my chest in rapid pants as I spewed the question at her.

       I needed to see it, to know it was real. If I did, maybe then- maybe then the mess inside of my head would make sense. Her hazel eyes widened at the question, and her grip on the blanket tightened.

       I was going to get answers if it was the last thing I did.

       "I-I... If that is what you want."

-&-

       It was still early in the morning when Mae and I decided to leave, too early for most of the castle to be awake. I wanted to wait a few days to make sure she was well enough, but she insisted she felt fine.

       "The sooner we get this over with, the better." She had muttered when she rolled out of the infirmary bed and stood to her feet. I frowned at the action.

       I felt bad for asking her to take me to the cave, especially after she trekked up the Mountain all by herself barely two days before, but she agreed so easily. If she truly didn't want to take me I wouldn't force her.

       I shuddered against the freezing wind whipping through the lower town, and pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders. The heavy snow had finally disappeared, but the cold of the Mountain never seemed to fade.

       The castle had been fairly easy to slip out of. None of the Generals were around, and the servants we did past didn't seem to care- or look up long enough to notice us. "Are you sure the King isn't going to come after us?" Mae asked over the howling wind as we trudged along the rather empty market-place.

       No, I wasn't.

       "Yeah, I'm sure." I couldn't keep the slight disdain from my voice. I had left a small note for North outside of his door, one saying the only thing I knew that would ensure he wouldn't come after us.

       I couldn't forgive him for the Elder's deaths. At least, not yet. I needed space from him, needed enough time to sort out all my thoughts and erratic emotions. And Mae was staying with me for that time.

       I knew he would respect those wishes, for a little while at least. He had seemed genuinely upset the night before, as if he truly cared how I felt about him. His mood swings confused me more than the situation with Mae and this secret cave.

       He would give me my space, or at least he would think he was. For a little while.

       I didn't want to lie to him, but this place- it was something I needed to see. Something I needed to know the truth about, and it was the one thing I could figure out on my own. And I had an inkling feeling he would never let me anywhere near it if he had the choice.

       "I bought us a few days at least. Is the cave very far?" I asked as we walked hurriedly past the many shops and houses of the kingdom's town center, the same one we had spied on at the beginning of all this madness.

       I highly doubted the note would by us a few hours let alone a few days, but it wasn't wrong to hope. Even if Eirik did leave me alone, Aeyron would not.

       "Not terribly, maybe a half-day from the village."

       Which means it was probably a day and a half-to-two-days from the Kingdom. I hoped we could make it there and back before anyone noticed we were gone, but that was a foolish hope. I knew it was. Aeyron would be checking on me sooner rather than later, if he hadn't already.

       We had to start traveling before that happened.

       Our foot steps left trails in the light snow covering the ground, but I hoped our dragging capes were enough to wipe them away as we headed towards the entrance of the kingdom. The last thing we needed was an easy path for them to follow.

       The morning sun was hidden behind a mass of grey clouds, and offered little light as we finally passed out of the town and walked slowly into the dark woods on the Mountain. I felt an odd chill race down my spine and into my stomach.

       This was the first time I had been away from the King, and at least one of the General's, in months. I wasn't sure if the turning feeling in my stomach was of excitement, or trepidation.

       "Emrie?" Mae asked softly, her small form pausing just inside the tree line. "Are you alright?"

       I hadn't realized I had paused just outside of the town's entrance until she turned to look back at me, a good couple of feet separating us. I gripped tightly onto the end of my dark tunic, the same one Terif had given me on the ship what seemed like ages ago, as my other pressed against that odd feeling in my stomach.

       I glanced back at the dark, towering castle. "Y-yes." I heard myself stutter as I took a staggering step towards her. "Yes, I'm fine."

       But I didn't feel fine, and with each step I took into the dense forest, my stomach twisted further in knots. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to." Mae spoke after a few silent moments passed between us. I quickly shook my head and tried to push down that uneasy feeling as best as I could.

       "No, I want to do this. I need to do this. I have to know." I murmured the last part softly and ran a shaky hand through my wavy hair before pulling the cloak's thick hood over my head.

       She cast me a worried glance before pulling her own hood over her head and falling easily into step beside me. "Are you mad at him? The King, I mean." She asked after we had been walking in a calming silence for some time.

       I glanced over at her before slowly easing over a large rock in our path. "I... do not know how I feel." Which was the story of my life lately, and it drove me mad. I wish, just once, that something about North made sense.

       Silence fell over us once again, even though I could practically see her mind turning over and over beneath her dark hood. "A lot of things the Elders had done, never made sense until recently." She finally muttered as the path in front of us started to slowly even out.

       "Like what?"

       "They would..." She paused and licked her pale lips briefly before glancing out at the snow-covered ground before us. "They would ask Lei and I about you a lot, especially when we were young. Or, at least, I thought they would."

       I could feel a frown tug on my lips at her words, and it didn't help that those knots in my stomach continued to grow worse and worse the more distance we put between us and the castle.

       "Do you really believe they placed those thoughts into your head? Placed memories of us growing up together, of the life we all shared?"

       Her nod was sad, and the slow bob of it matched the dull beat of my heart. "They even put them asking those questions into our minds, like they needed to make sure we knew you. I-I am sorry, Emrie."

       "I do not know if I believe any of this." I muttered against the chilly air, even though the heaviness in my chest told me differently.

       "I was never supposed to find out, neither was Lei. But they were so furious when they discovered that the King had taken you back to his castle. Even Elder Lana took part in the inquiries."

       That news was like a heavy blow to my stomach. Besides Mae and her brother, Elder Lana was the only other person who I had ever truly felt close to, even after all the testing and experiments they had done to decipher the gold-power. It was just another piece of information to make my head spin.

       "They had twisted and played with our minds ever since you awoke, trained us to keep you hidden. They even masked the rest of the villager's memories."

       My head was starting to throb painfully behind my eyes, and I paused long enough to press my fists against them and let out a long, stress filled sigh. "Why? Why would they do all of this, Mae? What could they possibly have gotten out of it?" My voice was as shaky as my breathing as I pressed my fingertips into my temples.

       "The gold-power? If they wanted it that badly I would have found a way to have given it to them."

       I flinched when her gently hand suddenly rested on my shoulder, and my eyes snapped open to lock on the bright hazel of hers. The looks crossing over her almost gentle face was sad and filled with sympathy. "It was never you they wanted, Emrie."

       My heart immediately jumped at her words, and at the quiet remorse that washed over her soft features. I knew what she was going to say before she ever did, and it made some protective instinct in me want to surface.

       "It was always Adranus."

-&-

Not really action packed, and a lot of info to take in, but I hope you still enjoyed it! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!