"Your highness, it's already late. You should retire and go to bed." A beauteous woman carried a little child in her arms and walked across the room.
The woman sat on the edge of the bed and let the child sat on her lap as she took a flask in her pocket.
Sinvera looked at her aunt, Lady Beatrice, her mother's sister and one of the King's concubines.
The moonlight shone in the darkened room. The crickets sang below and was in harmony with the gust of wind.
Lady Beatrice looked at her niece and pats her head and said, "The night is long and I bet you're tired after playing with your little friends." She opened the flask and held it in front of the child, "Here, drink this. It will make you feel better."
The child looked up with her big eyes twinkling like the stars and excitedly said, "Is it one of those miracle drink that could make a horse fly?"
Lady Beatrice laughed and said, "Yes."
A miracle drink that could make a horse fly was out of this world. However, magic was a normal thing in the empire of Yllios, where every male in the empire knew how to wield magic and aspire to be the greatest warlock.
The child happily reached toward the flask and downed the contents of the flask without hesitation.
As if a string was cut, the gust of wind stopped and stay stilled. The singing of the crickets and the moises of other animals vanished and only the light inside the room mattered.
The flask in the child's hands fell on the carpeted floor, staining it and broken pieces of glass flew everywhere.
Lady Beatrice carried the child once again and laid the child on the bed. She stepped inti the terrace and looked at the moon that seemed to bleed for the sin she had done.
The face of the child in the darkened room looked exquisite and even though, she was just a child, there was no doubt that she would grow into a beauteous young lady.
However, there was also tranquility and death hovering above the child. The rhythmic ups and down of her chest wasn't visible or even in the suffocating silence, the sound of her soft breathing wasn't heard.
'Bang!'
The door suddenly opened with a loud thud and broke the silence. A man in a military uniform breathed heavily and looked at Lady Beatrice with incredulity.
The military man looked around and dashed toward the bed, where a child was sleeping. He checked the child's body, pulled her clothes and see if there were any wound but he found none.
However, he lastly found out that the child didn't breathe. No pulse. No heartbeat could be heard as he stuck iphis ear on top of her chest.
Staggering a few steps, the military man's face was drained and ashen as he shook his head.
"What have you done?." He whipped his head to look at Lady Beatrice, "She's only a child! She's your sister's daughter!"
"And my husband's daughter." Lady Beatrice icily retorted.
She looked at the red moon above and said, "Isn't it beautiful? It looked just like my sister's hair and also that child. A pity they couldn't live for long and rise above everyone else like that moon."
Her sister, Adele, was a dancer, who was fancied by the emperor. She knew that Beatrice was betrothed to the emperor and should have stayed away from her sister's man, but Adele chose the emperor and bore him a child.
Thankfully, the child was a princess and a not a prince or else, Beatrice's chance to become the empress will go down the drain. However, when she found out that her niece possessed a great amount of magic in her small body.
She decided to take the her niece's life just like how she rob her sister's.
Her crime was bone chilling but compared to the future of having her desired position as empress being covered by her foolish and shameless sister, she would rather commit the same crime over a thousand times if it means securing her title.
General Geralt couldn't believe what he had just heard. The woman before him was the honest and pure lady that stole the emperor's heart and yet, it seemed that she was completely different from how she acted around the emperor.
He knew that Beatrice would do something but he had not known it was this cruel that she would murder an innocent child.
A child, her beloved sister bore and hated after being forced by the emperor. Adele knew how much Beatrice loved the emperor. However, the emperor's lust won over him and tasted the flower he shouldn't have.
Lady Beatrice passed by General Geralt and was about to get out of the room when she suddenly said, "Since you're here. Please, find a place to bury that child. I don't want my palace to be stained by that woman anymore."
'Click.'
The door was shut behind him and General Geralt found himself kneeling beside the bed, the broken glass pierced through his pants and blood started to stain the carpet.
He wished he didn't stay in the border and looked after the child, Adele, his cousin left in his care. If only he listened to her plead and didn't let the emperor get his hands on her. Everything shouldn't have ended up like this.
General Geralt held his head as tears filled with guilt started to run down his face when suddenly, a soft yet, forceful noise rang throughout the room.
"Kukk!"
Couldn't believe what he had just heard, General Geralt hesitated to look up. However, the coughing noise continued a few more times, and the creaking of the bed soon came after.
He looked up and saw a girl sitting while looking down at him.
He then heard her say, "Uncle."
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