I was no longer listening to a word Callis said.
Not because I didn’t believe him, but because another thought had suddenly occurred to me—How was Callis even alive?
During the wedding ceremony, I had sensed my imminent death, and according to the teachings of the High Church, a Sterne and the one bonded to her are destined to share the same fate.
That meant Callis, too, must have been teetering on the brink of death.
He should have died, an inherent punishment for failing to uphold his pledge in such a sacred ritual.
And yet, here he stood before me.
In a brave act of heroism, Rouche had saved my life.
So, who had saved Callis’s?
My crawling thoughts slowly caught up to my new reality as I remembered that I was not the only Sterne in this territory.
My heart dropped when I realized what must have happened.
“Callis…” I said, a bitter knot forming in my throat.
“Did you marry Lina?”
He did not respond.
How could he?
He merely lowered his eyes, incapable of even looking at me.
In preparation for our wedding, Callis had undergone the Ceremony of Vows, administered by the High Church itself.
This preliminary rite for a Sterne’s wedding involved submerging one’s hands in specially prepared holy water, an act which purified the body, mind, and soul of one intending to enter into a sacred union with a Sterne.
It signified the completion of the marriage preparations, but it only partially bound the two partners together.
The true binding occurred during the wedding ceremony.
Since Callis had completed the Ceremony of Vows, he was technically able to marry a Sterne.
Any Sterne.
“So you chose to marry Lina,” I reasoned.
“That’s how you survived.”
Callis bit his lip and stared at his feet.
My whole body felt restless as it trembled and burned with heat, tortured by a sense of betrayal.
“Even when I lay on the altar, vomiting blood and on the brink of death, my only thoughts were still of you,” I spat.
I buried my face in my hands, unable to look at him anymore.
“And meanwhile, you were already marrying Lina to save yourself.”
“Seria, you have a right to be angry with me.
But my marriage is temporary, just like your marriage to the Archduke.
Am I wrong?”
“So?”
“So, we will both get annulments on our marriages.
Both of us.
Then we can marry again.
I shall give you the grandest wedding.
We can start over, like it was in the beginning.
Remember?”
I got off the bed and glared at him with a hatred that would have made the Seria of old proud.
“Why would I marry someone I no longer have feelings for?”
Then I stormed past him, out into the corridor wearing only my nightgown, shawl, and slippers.
To hell with decorum.
To hell with trying to be someone I’m not.
And to hell with Callis.
What good did it do to bend all my will towards living righteously if it was only going to lead to death anyway?
“Seria!” Callis came chasing after me.
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me back towards the room.
“Let go!” I yelled, trying to squirm away.
The knights rushed at Callis and pulled him away from me.
They pinned him against the wall and looked at me for orders.
“What the hell is this?” Callis bellowed as he struggled against their grasp.
“Don’t you know who I am?
Release me at once!”
The knights each apologized to Callis, but their voices were solemn and they refused to release him.
I gave Callis one last look of scorn and headed off down the corridor.
* * *
I turned down another corridor, then another, and when I felt far enough away I stopped to catch my breath.
Everything was falling apart.
Everything I had worked and planned so hard for, every chance for me to survive Seria’s damned fate.
I had to calm down and collect my thoughts.
What was I going to do?
I have to do something, and fast…
There must have been a reason why Rouche saved me.
I needed to find out why he did what he did, and then decide what I was going to do.
But I couldn’t possibly meet with Rouche as I was, barely dressed and with a hideous bloodstain still growing larger on the bandage around my arm.
I would need to change clothes before seeing Rouche, but since Callis would no doubt remain stubbornly waiting outside my chambers, the only option seemed to be to head outside into the freezing cold, somehow climb in through the window, and put on some clothes before climbing back out through the window.
Then I could see Rouche.
As I turned to carry out this harebrained plan, I bumped into Lennon.
“Oh my, my lady!” He looking me up and down, clearly shocked by my lack of garments.
“I was just on my way to see you!
But this is not the warm, tropical south.
Our winters here are way too harsh to be wandering the castle dressed like that.”
Lennon was depicted in the novel as a remarkable talent with several areas of expertise.
He was a top graduate of the Altair Academy, an institution known for its rigorous admission process and even more challenging curriculum.
With a background and recommendations such as his, Lennon would have had his choice of prestigious positions in the capital, so what was actually most impressive was that Rouche had such a highly lauded individual serving as his chief aide.
“You already had a cold,” Lennon continued.
“And in your current condition, this just will not do.
Please, go back and get properly dressed.
Then we can head to the main building together to see His Highness.”
“Did His Grace send for me?”
“Not that I am aware of.”
“Then why?”
“Do you have many things to discuss with His Highness?” Lennon asked with an innocent but knowing expression.
“So, you’re a mind reader,” I said.
“Lead the way.”
“I hear that quite often,” Lennon smirked as we started off together.
Thank god, no need for scaling the castle walls today…
I figured that with Lennon and two knights protecting me, Callis wouldn’t be able to do much harm.
As I’d suspected, he was still waiting outside the room.
When he saw us coming he looked at me hopefully, then glared at Lennon.
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Lennon queried with the same smirk he’d just directed at me.
“Escorting a lady is a gentleman’s duty, is it not?”
“Enough,” growled Callis.
“I will escort her from here.”
“My lord, I am terribly sorry, but you will do no such thing.”
“Why not?”
“Consider for a moment, if you will.
I say no, you insist, I say no again, and eventually our back and forth leads to a duel.
But as you know, someone in my position is not allowed to enter into a duel on his own behalf.”
Callis’s expression hardened as he caught on to Lennon’s implication.
As a knight, Callis could not duel Lennon, who was not a knight.
For such instances, there was a long and convoluted history of conventions dictating who could challenge who.
A knight from Lennon’s territory would have to step in to fight Callis, and furthermore the knights had to be of equal rank.
Since Callis was the head of House Hanneton, he would be compelled to enter into the duel with the head of Lennon’s territory.
So if Callis insisted on continuing down this path, he would soon find himself in a duel with Rouche Berk.
The sane thing to do was swallow his pride and back down.
“If such are the conditions for the right to escort Seria, then I wholeheartedly accept,” Callis declared, staring steadily into Lennon’s eyes.
“Marquis.
I beg you to consider your words carefully.” Lennon said.
“Do you truly mean what you say?”
“What does my face tell you?”
Their staredown lasted several excruciating minutes.
Callis glared and Lennon smirked.
The knights stood by, unmoving.
I shifted an uncertain glance between the two of them.
Sometimes the stubborn wills of men really astounded me.
Eventually, I broke their stalemate.
“Continue this nonsense, if you will,” I said.
“Lennon, I am going to change clothes and then I’ll be back.”
“As you wish, my Lady,” Lennon said with a bow, a little flourish meant to infuriate Callis.
Once I was inside, I quickly shut the door and changed into a comfortable indoor dress the maids laid out earlier.
Unsure of what was about to unfold, I took a deep breath and then opened the door.
As soon as I stepped out, Callis blocked my path.
“Seria, give me a chance to speak my mind.
Let me walk with you.”