Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

42 Starting

Akira looks at the witch as if she has said something offensive, before she slowly takes off her hip on the table and walks over to the latter. Her eyes seem to go wide with every move before she grabs a hold of Sara's forearms, her arms slightly trembling.

"I'm what?"

"You're pregnant," Sara repeats, nonchalant to how there seems to be fear in the queen's eyes. "With twins."

Akira lets go of her grip on Sara's shoulders, letting out a short breath, as if the rest of her breath is stuck in her throat. Her hand instinctively flies to her stomach, the symptoms she had before seemingly making sense now. Her tendency to become more tired after going through less than what she usually does, her increase in appetite, and her overall sense of fatigue whenever she does something even as little as going through the day. Then could it be... that the fact that she keeps seeing colours on and off is because there are changes to her body that she isn't used to?

Everything is just starting to make sense, yet it never crossed her mind and it's hard for her to put her finger on it. It's not something impossible... but with everything that went on she would never have thought that she's carrying not one, but two lives with her.

"So my suspicion is correct then," Sara speaks up. "You completely had no idea that you're pregnant. You went through hell and back trying to reach Ileara... all without even realizing." She pauses, transferring her gaze to the queen. "You're one strong woman; how else were you so determined to go through everything you did without even noticing that you're currently pregnant? And that was why... I couldn't simply let you go. I wanted to at least let your children have their father back."

"I... uh-" The queen finds her inability to speak, too shocked to even say anything after finding out. The unwanted regrets of her pushing Seonghwa away because she said she wasn't ready to have kids wash over her, yet now everything seems to come back at her as she finds out that she's pregnant while he's lost in the curse.

"I wanted to speak to you privately because I wanted to let you decide on who you're going to tell it to," Sara says, her voice turning softer. "I figured that no one else suspected it." As she studies Akira's face, she holds the queen's hands. "I wanted to let you go at first and pretended that whatever happened at the Ileara palace wasn't there. But when Micko-" she corrects herself, "-my black panther were hesitant to follow my orders, I sensed something off. That's when I realized he didn't want to disturb the two growing lives inside you. Animals are more merciful than humans." She chuckles, "Your children protected you without you even realizing. The man who came with you was lucky though; he would have been eaten if not for you."

"I thought that maybe the colours I kept seeing on and off were signifying something different," she breathes. "I never knew it was because of... this."

Sara lifts up her eyebrows, the information new to her. "You couldn't see colours?"

Akira nods slowly, glancing over at the witch. "It was until two years ago... but I gained back the ability after I made a wish at the fountain in Nyla. It became unstable a few weeks ago."

The witch does a satisfied hum towards the fact. "You're indeed Princess Laura's daughter then." When Akira only looks at her with a confused look, she continues, "The people of Ileara are those who take pride in their gold blood colours too, but as opposed to segregation based on ranks, we're proud as a whole kingdom. Which means that we try as hard as our might to maintain our golden blood colour. You may have heard of Ileara being an independent kingdom, have you?"

Akira nods.

"That's one of the ways we maintain that. We shut off our contacts with the outside kingdoms, hence at the same time we maintain the purity of our blood colours." There's a lilt of amusement in her voice as she relays, "Because as you know, when we did make contact with those outside, we were only taken advantage of." She refers to Nyla using Ileara to gain more power through the curse. "And... as you know, the bloodline of the royals practice magic. Much like me, only the fact that I'm not a royal. So as to maintain this purity, as we say, the royals casted magic over someone who tries to cross that, regardless of ranks. What I'm saying is, the baby born is cursed with the fact that they won't be able to see colours; only black and white. To them, since whoever decided to taint their bloodline would rather see black blood, then they give that to those born from the forbidden relationship. The baby born wouldn't know that they were a part of the golden bloodline. Kind of like..." she thinks of a suitable word, "a deterrent. But of course, people are always born to break the rules, despite knowing the consequences."