I pulled my hand back from the cool, carved wood of the door. I didn't knock. I pressed the handle and pushed the door inward. I closed the door softly, plunging the room into a contained intimacy that felt dangerous. And rested my forehead on closed woods with my eyes tightly shut.
The chamber was overwhelming, saturated with the scent of those cursed lilies and the faint, expensive perfume of a stranger. And a sharp cold sensation behind my neck felt like a pointed... Knife!?
"Your Majesty, Empress Seraphina!?"
There was no reply to my call, instead a trembling calm silence razoring the cold settled. Earlier at the wedding, she definitely seemed normal. But I wonder what she's thinking right now as I am unable to see her. I sighed, letting the formality drop as I raised both of my hands in surrender.
"How unexpected of you! I believe there's a misunderstanding behind your current actions."
"You speak of a misunderstanding, Your Majesty? There's no such thing but the truth which led you to this chamber!"
Such a certainty she carried in her words had me fall into deep thoughts of our previous encounters. I believe we never crossed paths before today. But then a sudden phrase the maids kept whispering in hallways struck my head, 'The First Night'.
What has been this woman thinking all this while? Does she think I am here to have our first night? Do I look that desperate to her?
"You have gone completely south of the truth. As my true intentions lay somewhere else."
"Is that so, Your Majesty," she spoke in a tone of disbelief in return to my truth. I nervously kept pursuing her of my true intentions further. While she continued to distrust every word I said.
"I assure you! I'm not the kind of man you have been thinking about. I am different!"
"Every crab says that!" Her words sliced.
She has been treating me as a pervert since I entered. And now she's calling me a crab? Does she ever plan to see me as a human?
I can sense the sharp object pressing against the back of my neck. In order to refrain her from going any further, words slipped out of my mouth hurriedly, "There's only one woman in this whole world for whom I can ever harbour such thoughts."
"And... who might be that woman," she continued suspiciously. But even for a split second, I can sense a spark of interest in her voice. And the atmosphere became a bit breathable as her grip on the knife loosened a little. Although in a very unexpected manner, this is how I chose to reveal the truth according to the situation now.
"Aurelia!"
"Oh! Then you surely must have had a love story, am I right, Your Majesty?"