There Is No Me Beyond You

~30~

After Junior and Clara's wedding, we did not hear from Rareş and his Council for weeks.

In contrast to the fair, bright, early summer days following each other outside, the atmosphere within the walls of the castle was gloomy and tense, as no one knew what tidings the next letter from the Council would bring. However, Vlad resolved not to insist on the answer until Rareş offered it himself.

A few more weddings were celebrated in the chapel by the lake, and as the rumours, despite our attempts at secrecy, spread about the oncoming coronation, Vlad was excused from having to attend each of them. My and Junior's presence was enough to please the newlywed couples, they already considered him their prince.

As the days grew warmer I started to long for a bath in the waters of the lake, remembering the days I spent on its shore in the past with Vlad. But since the chapel was in use again, the place became overcrowded. It wasn't our private piece of paradise any longer.

"What are you thinking about, there's this... strange smile playing on your lips. Surely something improper, as your Katerina would say." Lucas teased, helping me into the saddle after another wedding we attended.

"She and Father used to spend the whole days here before..." Junior, already seated on his horse, replied, grinning at me. He pulled on the reins of his impatient grey to keep him still and wait for me and Lucas.

"Oh just... be quiet you two." I said, trying to suppress a smile as we headed down the path leading towards the castle the moment Lucas mounted his horse.

As usual, the wolf pack led by Shadow followed us through the shadows of the underbrush growing along the path. Recently, the three cubs joined the older wolves, making the pack's number become quite impressive.

Lucas chuckled, inspiring Junior to tell him more, "You know that once..."

Whatever he wanted to share, I didn't want to hear.

"Vlad, stop. Now." I said resolutely, forcing my face muscles into an approximation of a frown.

"I'll tell you later then, Lucas!" He called, making me roll my eyes even as Lucas exploded in laughter.

"Samara I've been wanting to talk to you for a while." Junior said after a moment of thoughtful silence, making his horse approach Frost.

Lucas forced his horse to stray behind us at hearing this, leaving us alone to talk undisturbed.

"Father keeps talking about the coronation, but I have not heard your opinion about it yet." He looked at me directly, his eyes searching my soul for hidden truths.

"I agree of course. And I insist on Clara being crowned along with you. Human or not, she is your wife." I repeated the things I had spoken about with Vlad more than once.

"I thank you. That's very generous of you. But you realise that Aurora, your and Father's daughter, should have a right to the throne too, don't you? You married Father before I was born..."

I had not thought about this at all until now. I could see how he could think this, but nothing was exactly as easy and straightforward as it seemed to him. This was one of the moments to share a tiny part of Katerina's secrets.

I took a deep breath, trying to choose the right words to make him feel easy about this subject, and at the same time, not to reveal too much.

"Your father told you that I cannot stay here forever even if I wanted to, right?" I asked, watching him nod. "Somehow it is not the same for him-- he can leave this place with me if he wants to, and stay with me on the other side. But not you, Clara, or anyone else can do that. I don't know why, but our daughter is like me, and not like him in this aspect. Like me, she can only come to visit, our other world does not... function properly if we leave," I tried to explain the weirdness of Katerina's magic making the world on the other side of her time passage slow down and wait for me whenever I left it. "So... even if I wanted to make her sit on the throne of this realm, the place rightly belonging to you, my husband's son born before our daughter, it wouldn't really work well, would it?" He still didn't look convinced, so I added, "This place, if you want it, belongs to you, and your and Clara's heirs."