“Lord Jaias has instructed that he not be disturbed at this time, milady. He should be done very soon. If you would come back at that time, I am sure he will take an audience with you.”
The servants were not allowed to put their hands on Lady Alara. She knew that and they knew that. But it didn’t keep the servants from trying anything else they could in order to get her to stop. However, all of their efforts were for not. Lady Alara still pushed her way through, towards her brother’s study. As she entered the outer room, she heard something. Something very familiar. What was that? Was it music? Alara hoped that it was just her frazzled nerves, creating the noise in her own head, playing on her worst fears. She remembered that song, quite well. What felt like a lifetime ago, her father had handed her a toy and told her to open it. She remembered the way he looked at her as those pieces slid across the sides.
She grasped the handle of her brother’s study and yanked it, barreling through the door as she did so. There was only quiet afterwards. Quiet that was fringed with a soft melody playing, the music that Alara had hoped she was only hearing inside of her own head. That dreaded song. That terrible song.
Cixi stared at her mother’s wide eyes with a startled stare of her own. She dropped the small box on the desk, music still continuing to play. Lord Jaias stood up from his chair and took several steps toward his sister.
“What…what have you done?” Alara replied, her stomach sinking with every second.
“It’s just a puzzle box…” Cixi started to explain.
“How long have you known?”
Cixi stopped talking. Lord Jaias had walked around his desk and was facing his sister. There were no pleasantries passed or civility faked. There was nothing but raw reality between the two of them now. It felt as if her mother and uncle had forgotten that she was even in that room. The conversation was now just them.
“You had absolutely no right! You had no right!”
Lady Alara’s shouting had no effect on her brother. His voice only became colder and deeper.
“How long have you known?” he repeated,”How long did you keep this from the rest of us? How long did you keep it away from Father? From the Heads of the Houses?”
“Cixithara is a trained hunter, just like her father and his father before him…”
“…with Ebonlynx blood running through her veins! Something you can’t erase no matter how badly you want to! There is a reason that your daughter was never able to fit into that excuse for a House that you married into.”
“My daughter will never be one of you! Not as long as I have breath in my body!”
“Stop shouting!”
Alara and Jaias turned from each other. Cixi stood there, opened puzzle box in hand. Alara half stomped, half marched her way over, reached for the toy and hurled it across the room. The box crashed into the wall. The music stopped, the glowing stopped. The box closed and relocked itself. As Cixi stared at the small toy that was now on the ground, Lady Alara grabbed Cixi by the wrist.
“We are leaving.”
Cixi yanked back.
“No we aren’t," Cixi replied, "Not until someone tells me what is going on.”
Story Finale: Secrets Revealed (Part 6)
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