May Death Do Us Part

104 Chapter 104 : The letters

It had been a little while since William, Bahram and the twins had travelled from Meria in pursue of their wives. Bahram’s wife, whom they had reached first in Guria, was fairing very well given the circumstances. Though heavily pregnant, she was able to fend for herself really well. Bahram had decided to take his wife to be with her parents during that delicate time while he proceeded to Gavaria with his brothers to find William’s fiancé Klaryssa.

The brothers had arrived in Gavaria a week later and had found Klaryssa alive, well and still human as well. She was surprisingly well informed about what was going on around the continent and had even maintained her friendships with some of her friends who had turned. William had also decided to leave Klaryssa in the care of her parents for a while, she may not have been pregnant while William was away but after they reunited she now was.

William was gently rubbing Klaryssa’s very flat tummy and smiling lovingly at her.

“It’s barely a week old you’re not going to feel anything,” Klaryssa spoke curtly, “don’t you have somewhere to go?”

“Oh come on Lyssa, you know when you pout like that it gets my heart racing.”

The woman swatted William’s hand away and crossed her arms over her chest. “Then stay,” Klaryssa whined, “I don’t see you for weeks and now that you’re back you want to leave me again?”

William pulled the beautiful woman in his arms and planted a soft kiss on her creased forehead, “you see how worried I was about you after I didn’t see you for a long time? It’s the same way I’m worried about my little sister.” He leaned in and gave her a kiss on her nose making Klaryssa giggle. “I now know you’re safe and sound, I just wish to do the same with my sister.”

“But I’ll miss you,” Klaryssa complained. She placed her hand on her tummy and looked up at William with her big doe eyes, “We will miss you William.”

The man scoffed in amusement. It was quite obvious that Klaryssa was trying to emotionally blackmail him just like Bahram’s wife had tried to do. Women were so cunning that was for sure. William pulled Klaryssa into his embrace and kissed her sweetly.

.....

“I’ll be back before you know it,” he whispered to her.

“Ehem!”

Klaryssa and William turned to look at William’s brothers who were sitting across from them looking a little uncomfortable. “Could the two of you please get a room and do this quickly so we can be on our way,” Bahram spoke.

William clicked his tongue and gave his fiancé one last kiss. “Take good care of the both of you till I’m back okay?” He whispered and gave her a quick hug.

Just in that moment, one of the servants rushed into the room and bowed before them, “m’lady there are some letters for Sirs William, Bahram and the twins.”

Klaryssa took the four thinly rolled up parchments and inspected them, “these have the royal seal of Meria on them,” Klaryssa pointed out. She then trailed her eyes to the servant’s face and asked him who had delivered the letters.

“It was the messenger boy m’lady,” the servant responded, “that’s all I know.”

“Alright thank you,” Klaryssa responded. The servant bowed one more time before making his way out of the room.

Klaryssa handed the parchments to William who distributed them amounts his brothers. Each of them broke the seal and read through the contents carefully. Bahram was the first to comment, he rose from his seat and with a serious expression looked at his brothers, “It’s from that deceitful king Elric..”

Throughout their journey the Morrell brothers had collected more than enough intel about the happenings in Meria. They knew that Nathaniel went by the name Elric now, had been crowned king and had somehow amassed enough power to spread his reign to Gavaria and part of Cenia.

“He says he has our baby sister!” The twins spoke in unison, anger and irritation visible on their identical faces.

“Horse shit I don’t trust that silver haired bastard not one bit!” William responded. “Are we just going to take his word for it?! You really think the elven prince would just give our sister up like that?!”

“But what if he speaks the truth?” Bahram added on, “the letter says she wants to see us. What if he took her back to Meria against her will by some deceitful means, are we just going to stand by while our little sister needs our help?”

The room went quite, there was no telling whether the letters were a trap or not. That silver haired king had really played his cards right this time. It was so twisted of him to use their sister as bait like this, he knew the Morrell brothers couldn’t neglect a call for help from her, even if it was a false one.

William balled up his fists and cursed, he could feel it in his bones that this wouldn’t be a winning situation for them regardless of the decision they made, but what bothered him the most was he couldn’t figure out what Elric’s end game was, what exactly was he trying to achieve by baiting them like this?

“We have to return to Meria,” Bahram spoke as he tucked his own letter away, “our plan was to find our sister to begin with so why not humor that bastard and see what his angle is.”

“And if it’s a trap?” William questioned his brother, even though he too had already made up his mind to go back to Meria.

“There’s four of us and one of him, I’m sure we can take him.”

William sighed before chuckling at Bahram’s answer. Elric was on his own yes, but he was a king now who had a whole army at his disposal, it was highly unlikely they’d take him on in a fight. But still, there would be some satisfaction in knocking him in the face once or twice before his guards came to his rescue.

“Well alright,” William responded, “I guess we’re traveling back to Meria.”

*

“King Elric?!” Julia froze in place as she looked up at the man she had bumped into.

“If you’re going to be running around like that you should keep your eyes on where you’re going,” the man spoke.

Julia gulped when he stretched out his hand to help her up, “don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you.”

Julia hesitantly took his hand and stood up. She quickly pulled her hand away from him and curtsied apologetically.

“And it’s Clovis...”

Julia looked up at the man with a stare of confusion, “huh?”

“My name,” the man repeated himself, “it’s Clovis not Elric.”

Julia studied the man in front of her closely and gasped when she realized it was indeed not king Elric. So this was prince Clovis? She had just heard of Elric’s brothers but had never actually seen them. The resemblance between the king and Clovis was unnerving, he had the same silver hair except that Clovis kept it neatly tied in a ponytail unlike Elric who left it tasseled most of the time. They also shared the same honey brown eyes and fanged smiles, only that Clovis’ seemed softer and less terrifying.

Julia also noticed that Clovis was much taller and had a more polished look than Elric, but regardless, they could pass off as twins.

“Hey...”

Julia was pulled out of her trance and looked up at the prince.

“I asked you what your name is,” he repeated himself.

“I’m um.. I’m Julia,” she responded meekly.

“Oh so you’re the dwarve princess I’ve heard about,” Clovis commented as he gazed down at the green eyed woman who looked scared and disoriented. “Did that little fall affect you that much? Should I call the maids?”

Julia shook her head and curtsied again, “please don’t mind me your grace I’m fine, thank you for your concern. I shall take my leave now.”

Julia briskly made her way passed the silver haired prince and practically ran down the hallway to her room.

“Hey wait a minute!” Clovis called out to her but she was long gone. He slowly retracted his arm and stared down at the hand that hand held Julia earlier. Something weird had happened to him when their hands touched and he had no idea what it was. The prince folded his palm and walked towards the study to join the meeting, whatever it was was probably nothing anyway.

Julia rushed into her room and closed the door tightly shut. She paced the room nervously as she digested her findings, she felt betrayed and used, why would Elric to this to her, to the continent? Suddenly a thought crossed her mind, was it possible that he was doing all of this for her?!

The green eyed woman weakly made her way to her bed and sat down. Gods she felt so stupid, she had blindly trusted Elric because of the little crush she had on him and ended up being used, just like queen Margret Burchard had used her when she was hopelessly in love with her son, and where did that lead her?

Julia fell back on her bed and stared at the ceiling, “maybe love isn’t something meant for me,” she muttered to herself, “I should just give it up.”