Chapter 377: A PERFECT WORLD
SERAPHINA’S POV
I blink my eyes for only a second, and suddenly I'm in a garden with the sun setting, showing that half the day has passed. Half the day just breezed past me without being present, almost as if I’m running through today. I'm startled for a second, not remembering coming here at all. I could have sworn that I was back in the hall accepting my new title just a second ago. Yet, I'm sitting on a bench holding the book in my hands, its skin feeling and looking awfully familiar, as if I’ve had it long before now. “How does it feel being Queen now?” A voice cuts through my train of thought from behind me. I pause and look around, meeting my mother walking towards me in her always slowly paced walks. I’d never seen her run, even in times of distress and emergency, and always wished I could be half as regal and calm as she is. “Mother,” I say, standing to my feet and hugging her for a while. Somehow calling her my mother leaves a feeling of yearning in my heart, despite the fact that I know she’s always been here. We pull apart, and she sighs, falling next to me on the bench. Taking a second before she pulls the veil from her face now that we are alone. For a moment, I don't know why I expect to see a hideous scar or wound on her face. I instantly recognize her features, gasping before I can control myself. The same green eyes and delicate features that always bore a significant resemblance to mine. Yet, I remember it from my dream... where she was nothing more than a ghost hanging over my shoulders. “Grendaline?”
She looks at me, confused for a moment before chuckling beside me. Her laughter brings me back to reality again, filling me with instant embarrassment. “Calling your mother by her name the second you're Queen, don’t tell me you were looking forward to that all this time?”
I blush from embarrassment, immediately turning my face the other way. “No, no… forgive me… I don’t know why I did that. For a second… it felt as if I had forgotten something important,” I explain to her, hoping she’d understand, not blaming her if she didn’t. “Anna told me… you had a nightmare,” her voice comes out worried. “It’s not just that… I keep getting lost in thought and winding up somewhere I wasn’t a second ago. I don’t remember walking into the garden.”
“You wanted to go on a walk after your coronation,” she says, filling in the gaps for me, and I instantly remember it, like reading a book: asking for it to be with her because I always enjoy walking here with her. Her hand gently pats my back, and just as she does, I feel at peace again, like my worries fade instantly. “Thank you, Mother… I suddenly feel so much better.”
“Maybe you’re just worried about your new position as Queen. I have been waiting for this moment since you were born, my dear. You were the most perfect baby.”
“Yes, you say this all the time,” I smile, remembering her endless bragging and comments about my younger self to anyone who would listen. “…And now that you are Queen, it is your time to start thinking of the future of your kingdom as well.”
I quickly feel the tone of our conversation shift towards an uncomfortable direction. I look at her again, hoping it's not what I think she's trying to say. "I have a few portraits waiting in your room," my mother says, causing me to let out a heavy, tired breath and fall against the backrest of the bench. "I have no desire for a romantic relationship right now, Mother."
"It doesn't have to be romantic… at first. But for the purpose of a future heir, you will need to find a partner… suitable to support your reign over the kingdom. The earlier you find one, the better."
Her nagging gives me a headache and annoys me terribly. She's always been on about finding a suitor since I was fifteen and won my first magic battle with witches of the high court. It annoys me every time, especially the fact that she never listens to what I want. "I don't need anyone else!" I yell, uncontrollably charged with heavy emotions. A second passes for my words to settle and for the confusion to dissipate. "I mean, I… what do I mean by 'anyone else'?" I muse out loud, questioning myself. I would never have said that, yet I feel as though the words have some truth to them. Another headache hits me, the fifth one today, and I see his face again—perfectly gorgeous and perfectly in love with me. His deep laughter that tickles my toes and fills my heart with endless love. His warm hands that hold me and fill me with so many emotions. "Maybe you're not feeling too well. Maybe you need to rest…" Mother laughs nervously, urging me to go inside and rest, but I shrug her hand off me. "No… I… I have someone already… someone I love."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetie."
My heart pounds harder and stronger, feeling something new—no, something that's always been there, even if it had faded for a few days—a connection, a bond. 'Sera…' I hear his whisper again, remembering everything about him instantly. "Artemis… His name is Artemis…"
And then it clicks. The veil hanging over my eyes, the magic scrambling my memory, loses its power. I remember who I was, who I really was, what my real life was like. The reality around us begins to crack and fall apart. "None of this is real, is it?" I mumble. Grendaline looks at me with a solemn look, disappointed and sad. Suddenly, we're standing somewhere else, in my room, just the two of us and no one else. "I only wanted you to see a world that was without pain; you've been through so much, my darling. You need to rest." Her voice is calm, almost lulling me to sleep, but I fight it. It's less potent when you're aware of it. "Why do you keep calling me that? Why do you care so much about me? Why!" I yell at her, frustrated and angry she'd mess with my mind like that, making me think all those things were true, wondering if all of this was just to taunt me. "I had a baby…" She begins instead of answering the question, her face filled with pain despite the smile playing on her lips. "She was never born, but I could feel her life, her magic. I knew she would have been powerful and perfect if she was ever given the chance to be born, but Cyrus, he didn’t let her have it."
Tears fall from her eyes, igniting emotions inside of me—sadness and pain, a deep loss that feels like a black hole in my chest. Emotions that feel like mine. “I used the last of my magic to conjure a spell, the first of its kind, and cast her soul and essence into the future, so she would have a chance at life, a chance to be born into the world.” She pauses to look at me now, meeting my eyes with a light in them and drawing closer.