~RUNE
My heart was pounding so loud that it was almost deafening my ears.
The women all watched me and even if they weren’t vocal about it like Darya was, I could tell they thought the exact same thing.
That I was weak and not fit to be Queen.
In truth, I had never been trained to be Queen.
That had always been Sayla’s training.
And now she was gone…
Just like the maid lying lifeless on the ground before us.
Her blood pooling around her, making her entire life seem meaningless.
I seemed to be the only one affected by her death.
The rest of the women stared like it was a perfectly normal thing to them.
It told me that death meant absolutely nothing to the Orin.
Anyone could take lives as they pleased and this terrified me the most.
“Guards, take the body away,” Darya ordered before facing me again.
“The festival is in two days, your majesty. You better be ready to prove yourself to us.”
With that, she whistled at her pet.
The tiger rose from the ground and hurried over to her.
“Come on, let’s go, Ladies. We will see the Queen again at the festival.”
With that, the women arose from their seats and began to follow her out.
The third seat smirked at me before leaving.
It was only Gwen that waited behind.
She stood with her hands together.
“Whatever you do, don’t enter the Black river for you will be lost within it forever,” she concluded.
I parted my lips in confusion.
What was she talking about?
Before I could begin to ask, she walked out of the hall too and they all left me standing helplessly in the center.
That was when I realised my hands were shaking.
There was suddenly so much pressure on me.
How was I supposed to survive this?
I still had no idea what it was.
Where was I supposed to get the information I needed?
Perhaps the library.
There had to be an Orin library somewhere in this palace.
So I replenished my resolve and started hurrying toward the great double doors.
I was just about to push them open when they came open on their own.
A guard stood behind it and bowed low.
“Your majesty,” he began.
My heart skipped.
Why was he summoning me?
Did I do something wrong?
Was he about to give me my second punishment?
Perhaps he heard about how I failed to kill the maid…
Shit!
“Where is he?” I finally asked.
“Follow me, your majesty,” he concluded before turning around and leading the way forward.
I tried to calm my raging heart as I fell into step behind the guard but it felt almost impossible.
He led me down the many long hallways of the building.
I could have sworn this building was a maze.
How did people even manage to remember their way around?
It felt so impossible to me.
I would have claimed it was an Orin ability but even my handmaidens had already gotten used to it.
After walking down long corridors, it opened to a grand hall which housed exit doors.
The guard took me through the doors and it opened to an outdoor sparring space.
I didn’t have to search long before I spotted Uriel— shirtless and sparring with Dain who was also shirtless.
They looked sweaty and Uriel seemed to be having fun going at Dain.
The men grunted as they kept lifting each other up and crashing on the ground.
It looked way too brutal for me to keep watching with a straight face.
Both men were already bleeding through their noses and they would have kept at it had Uriel not spotted me.
“My Moon,” he called as a big smile spread across his face.
It still made my heart skip at how well he could act but I was already getting a hang of it so I returned his smile.
He wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and Dain seemed to get the message because he bowed slightly.
“I’ll leave you to attend to Her Majesty,” he said before stepping away.
He turned to me, bowed slightly and walked away.
It was after he was gone that the smile fell away from Uriel’s face.
I bowed to him immediately.
“You sent for me,” I said.
His eyes swept over me for a while and I couldn’t seem to read the expression on his face.
Was it hate or disgust?
“Let’s go,” he finally said and turned away from me.
He seemed to be even taller than usual.
His massive body standing before me was enough to leave me intimidated.
Thankfully, he put on a shirt and I was finally able to breathe probably.
I wanted to ask questions like where we were going and what we were going to do.
But I knew better than to provoke him.
This man could hurt me any moment.
I stayed silent and tried my best to catch up with me as he strode forward toward the trees.
Yet I realised I needed to start running if I wanted to make it.
I was breathing heavily and trying to keep up when he suddenly stopped and I bumped into his back.
I froze and staggered back immediately just as he turned to look at me with an expression I was finally able to identify.
Disgust.
I swallowed hard.
“I— I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you—”
I stopped when I realised he was not interested in my apology.
When he saw that I had read the room, he finally faced forward once again.
I stared out at the area.
We were completely surrounded by trees from all angles.
We were literally in the woods now.
But I had a feeling these woods were guarded on the outside and one couldn’t just escape it.
That was when I heard Uriel pull something out.
I whipped my head in his direction, only to see him now holding a crooked yet sharp dagger.
“Run.”
I blinked hard as I stared at him in confusion.
What did he mean by that?
Why would he ask me to run?
I turned to look at the trees before me.
The woods seemed to stretch on and on.
I doubted if I would make it far even if I tried to.
Could this be a test?
Or a punishment?
“Once I catch you, you are dead,” Uriel said once again.
The tone sent chills down my spine and I watched as he began to reveal his fangs.
His ears seemed to grow pointier than before.
Dark shadowy matter seemed to scatter around him, almost as if he was channelling the monster within him.
That was when my legs began to move and I started backing away slowly.
“Remember Rune,” he called out as a dangerous smirk formed on his lips.
“Whatever you do, don’t bleed or you’ll lead me straight to you.”