His Queen

Untold Secrets

"Isabella?,"

I sat there confused. Sure many people have compared me to my mother on many occasions and I've never taken offense to it. But members and citizens of Asgard have never once been in the presence of the people of Afisa. So how the former King knows what my mother looked like is a mystery to me.

Fergus was close enough to hear Julian's question and spoke to me through our link.

"How you reckon he knows your mother lassy?," he asked.

"I'm not entirely sure,"

"Uh no, Your Majesty, my name is Ziya. Isabella was my mother," I spoke slowly.

The way that Julian was looking at me was a bit unnerving, it's almost as if he was seeing a ghost.

"Isabella?," he asked again.

This time I looked over at King Darius, who had remained seated. By now the entire table has gone silent as they watched our encounter. The lords were especially wary of their father and made a move to stand. But King Darius made a quick motion, that I almost missed, that told them to settle down. Darius stood up then.

"I would like to apologize for my father, it seems that old age has affected that once keen mind of his," he laughed.

Glancing over at Julian once more, I noticed that his eyes had glazed over once again. Almost as if he was placed back under a trance. Darius made another movement with his hands and two young maids came to Julian's side. They helped the man up and gently escorted him out of the room.

I spared a glance to my uncle and we shared the same suspicious look. It seemed that our host had already begun what looked like a long cycle of lies and cover ups. No matter, one way or another the truth would reveal itself.

"Why of course," I replied with a tight smile.

The room, like a switch, returned to its lively behavior. I was the first to leave.

"I would like to thank you for being such a hospitable host to my uncle and I. I have to say it was quite easily one of the best dinners I've had in a long time," I said to King Darius.

"Truly your compliments are too much, but nevertheless you are very much welcomed," Darius said.

Together Fergus and I walked out of the dining hall, we waited until we were some distance away before we spoke up.

"I didn't like that one bit; they're lying to us, I can feel it in my beard," Fergus whispered.

"I feel the same way, there is no way that Darius' father would have known what my mother looked like. Except for portraits maybe, but even then he shouldn't be able to have access to them. The whole thing seems a bit off if I'm being honest," I said.

"Aigh, what you say we do for now?," he asked.

"We can't really do much, it's not like we could demand they tell us why his father knows my mother," I replied. Fergus gave me a look that said otherwise. "I mean we could, but there's layers to being a royal, and the outermost is that we must keep up appearances of diplomacy at all times. Any forms of disrespect on either side could lead to trouble,"I said.

"So what, we pretend like that never happened!?," he exclaimed.

"Shh shh...keep your voice down, and no we don't pretend. We just wait for an opportunity for it to be brought up. For now all we can do is remain vigilant and be prepared for whatever obstacles that may come to pass," I said.

The two of us parted ways at this point, our thoughts taking us down every possible outcome that this journey could lead to.

~~~~~
In the King's study...

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!," Hayden yelled.

"Would you quite being such a drama queen and shut up, you're going to give me a headache with all that yelling," Caspian said.

"Why is nobody else concerned about this? Our father hasn't spoken in oh I don't know....FIVE YEARS, and the first words he utters is the name of our supposed enemy kingdoms dead mother," Hayden argues.

"It is a bit weird Cas," Peter spoke up.

"Oh not you too, little brother the man is old and tired. We can't hold it against him that he gets confused from time to time," Caspian replied.

"Cas...how does he even know what the late Queen Isabella looks like huh? Afisa and Asgard have been separated for centuries and somehow our father mistakes the Queen for someone he isn't supposed to meet," Taylor commented. "Hell we didn't even know what Queen Ziya looked like up until four hours ago," he said.

"They're going to get suspicious and then what?," Hayden said quietly. "We're already feared across the nation and we have little to no allies. If the Queen begins to suspect something of us, then we're looking at a possible war," he said.

"I think you're all forgetting the most important thing about being royalty and that's diplomacy. In the short time I've know Queen Ziya, the woman proved to be as intelligent as she is stunning. I know that she knows the consequences of what unproven accusations would lead to. I will admit the Kingdom of Asgard has been a bit of an untapped mystery even to me, one thing I know is for sure is that peace is their upmost goal. Above all else they hold that to higher standards," Caspian explained.

"Okay so diplomacy...and what happens when that no longer becomes enough?," Taylor asked.

"Well we can't predict the future, all we can do is play it by ear. For now we just keep the interactions between her and our father close to nonexistent," Caspian replies.

"What do you think Darius?," Peter asked his older brother.

The whole time that his younger brothers had gone back and forth, Darius chose to remain silent and dwell on the issue.

"I think....that Caspian is right. The only thing that is protecting us, that has been protecting us for quite some time now, is the need for civility. Our main focus now should be on the supposed raiders. The meeting will be held tomorrow and we can expect that tensions will be high amongst our generals. Nevertheless we must keep an eye on father, possibly coax him into explaining himself," Darius said. "You're all dismissed, be prepared to check your generals if you must. I want to keep this meeting as civilized as possible," he said.

The brother began to bid each other goodnight. The only one who remained was Taylor.

"What are you going to do?," he asked.

"I'm going to do what I always do and prepare for the worst," Darius replied.

"I'm not talking about the meeting...I saw it. In your eyes, they changed," Taylor said.

To this Darius had no reply; Taylor sighed and realized he wasn't going to receive the answer he wanted.

"Goodnight brother," Taylor said.

"Goodnight," Darius replied.

When Taylor left, Darius focused on the many papers and scrolls in front of him. His skin began to crawl and the incessant need to run plagued his mind. Darius removed his crown and headed out towards the snow covered forests.

~~~~
Ziya's bedroom....

I tossed and turned in my bed not being able to fall asleep. The mention of my mothers name opened a floodgate of painful memories that I have tried so hard to forget. I grew restless and tossed the blankets from my person and sat upon the windowsill.

In the dark the only thing that illuminated the night was the silver moon in the sky. I stared out at the window toward the forest. It was then I noticed a movement. I squinted my eyes to get a better look.

I must have been extremely tired because I could have sworn that the giant figure out in the woods, was the wolf from my dreams.