Hera lounged in her room. They had visited so many places over the last few weeks, she felt entirely too tired to do anything today.
"I think I’d like to be alone for a while," she said quietly.
Iris lay on the bed, half resting against the headboard. "You want to leave?"
"No, no... I just ant, I’m too tired to do anything today," Hera said. "We have no arrangents with Niko today, and I would like to simply... exist today. To do nothing but anything, I eventually decide to do."
"Soo... You wish to be left alone, then? You would like to leave."
Hera sighed. "Yes, I would like you to leave."
Iris studied her for a while, "Is sothing wrong?"
"No," Hera offered Iris a small smile. "I just feel a little overwheld from the activities of the past few weeks."
"Alright." Iris nodded. "Will you be staying in your room all day, or will you be going out? I want to be sure."
Hera paused. "I’m don’t really know," she said. "I might go out, I might stay in, whatever I end up feeling like doing."
"Well, be careful," Iris warned. "Whatever you end up doing, just don’t get yourself in trouble."
Hera chuckled but nodded anyway. Her mind was filled with thoughts of her sister again. She didn’t know why, but she desperately wanted Astrid back by her side. She missed her parents as well. They hadn’t been the best, but she loved them regardless.
She stood from her seat and went to lie on the bed, but stood up again after a few minutes. So much ti had passed since Iris left her to her vices, dusk would be upon them soon, but she needed to leave her room.
She got her cloak and dashed out of the room, but stopped at the entrance of the palace.
"Could I have an escort into the city, please?" She asked one of the guards.
"But, mistress, it’ll be dark outside soon," one of the guards protested.
"We’ll be back before you know it, sir, please."
He sighed. "Call soone to take over from here."
Hera wandered at first, stopping by a few stands, sampling goods she wasn’t buying, until she rembered the theatre she’d visited with Niko.
A play was scheduled to start in thirty minutes. She imdiately pays for two seats and tells the guard to find sowhere else to sit. She wanted to be alone.
In the anti, she looked around the theatre while she sat. Nothing interested her.
Then soone sat beside her. It was a man.
"Princess," he said. "I’m quite surprised to see you here."
Hera’s eyes widened in fear as she looked at him.
"You don’t need to be scared, your majesty, my na is Theo," he said, stretching a hand out. "Theodore Diodes, son of Pri Minister Casper. I watched you at the banquet when you recited your poem, and saw you again when you’d visited the sun arena with your maid. You had seed quite preoccupied with Nikolas."
"Forgive , my lord, but I do not recall seeing you."
"It’s fine," he laughed. "Compared to Nikolas, my face is less morable."
Hera offered only a tight smile. He told the truth. He wasn’t an ugly man by any chance, but Niko more than rivalled him in beauty. However, he... He seed more primal. Radiating raw strength and pride.
She’d taken a glance at him, and she could see the well-ford muscles, the scars. One in particular shocked her; it ran from the base of his neck down to the other side of his waist. He would be trouble, a lot of trouble, she felt.
"Why have you co here all alone?" He asked.
"I’m not alone, my lord; I ca with my guard."
"I know, " he said. "I saw you both walk in. I ant, why did you co out so late in the day? It is not safe for a lady of your standing to be out and about by this ti."
Hera lowered her head and looked at her hands on her lap. "I couldn’t stay in the palace. I need to get so air. It felt very suffocating for to be in there. I have no idea why....
I’m sorry for rambling; it’s just that I can’t seem to stop thinking about my sister. It’s been a while since she left, and she hasn’t sent word to of where she’s gone."
She covered her face with her hands.
"It’s alright, princess. I understand." He said. "You wouldn’t mind if I stayed by your side for the rest of the show, would you?"
"Of course not," she denied sharply. "Please stay as long as you like."
He chuckled. "Just till the end of the show."
"Of course."
"And you may call Theo," he said quietly. "It would be much more comfortable for both of us."
She sent him a small smile. "And you may call Hera."
"Hera," he repeated.
"Yes, Theo?" she said. They both smiled at each other.
The show soon began. It was about a woman who had turned into a ghost, wandering the world and seeking revenge after she was murdered. She’d tornted her husband till his last living days, but her spirit had refused to rest.
"Are those tears we see in your eyes?" Theo teased as they left the theatre. "Don’t tell you’re a cry over things like this, Hera."
"It was a sad story, a sad story." She said, sniffing. She turned her head away in an attempt to wipe her tears, but it made him laugh even more.
"Oh, please, it wasn’t that sad."
She gasped dramatically. "There’s no sympathetic bone in your body if you didn’t feel sorry for the woman." She said. "She was murdered by her husband and road the earth even after his demise. Surely you felt sothing."
Theo chuckled. "Nothing at all."
They had walked quite a distance from the theater when Theo stopped beside her.
"I must part with you here, Hera," He said. "I had a lovely evening thanks to you. I hope our paths cross yet again." He gently held her hand in his and brought it to his lips, then his forehead.
"It was a delight to make your acquaintance, too, Theo. Let us et again."
User Comments
0 comments from readers