A Timely Knight

A Broken Kingdom

Estella Rose Lovegrove stood in front of the black, wooden caskets.

Holding her breath, she tried coming closer to them. She couldn't. She then tried reaching out. Her hand slowly raised, on its way to meet the cold wood, yet it stopped mid-air, as if something held her back. Some mysterious force, some strange energy.

A pressure on her chest made it hard to breathe, and the lack of sleep made her body shake under the weight of fatigue. Even so, her eyes were dry. She had tried crying, but no tears came to her bloodshot eyes. Not when she received the dreadful news. Not when she went into the destroyed throne room, a no man's land inside the castle. Not even when she saw the inert bodies of her sons, hollow shells of what once was, blood-stained and bearing the merciless wounds that took their lives away.

She knew those weren't her sons. It only took one look at their corpses to see it. Enlarged purple tongues that barely fit in their mouths; black, empty eyes that reflected the greatest sense of emptiness; engorged, blue veins that seemed to move even though there was no life left on them. She could have gagged. She wanted to. Her decorum prevented it.

As her eyes traced her sons' figures, she was forced to face the cruel and shameful truth. She felt no sadness at their deaths. She felt no happiness, either. No relief, no anger, no disbelief. Nothing at all. She was numb. Hard as she tried, she couldn't muster even the simplest of emotions. It was as if she was as empty as her sons.

The thought should depress her. It should make her rethink her decisions, her life choices. It should make her want to change. It didn't. Alone in this room, standing in front of her dead children, Estella had to admit she had officially given up. She had withered at last.

Perhaps, you have always been withered, a voice in her head said.

She shivered at the thought.

The sound of steps made her come out of her own thoughts. She didn't turn to see who it was; she really didn't care. She had been receiving visitors all day long, some to offer their condolences and others to inform her of the matters that still remained unfinished within the kingdom. She wasn't particularly interested in either at the moment, but she was still Queen. And a crown was a crown.

The voice that she heard was not the one she was expecting.

"Your Grace," Lady Livilla spoke in a shy, hushed whisper. "My heart is breaking. Is there anything you need? Can I do anything for you?"

Estella heard the words coming out of her mouth, but she didn't put any effort behind them. "Thank you. I can't really think of anything."

The woman approached her, like a deer fearful of the lion. "I... I don't really know what else to say, Your Grace."

Estella felt the poison rising through her body, making its way to her mouth. Yet, when it finally arrived, she had no use for it. There was no desire to hurt. As she turned around to see the woman's round face, her lips twisted into something akin to a smile when she saw Livilla's big eyes go wide with fright.

"Then don't say anything else, my dear Lady."

Her words, kinder that Livilla had expected, made the Lady release the sigh she had been holding in. Then, rather suddenly, the woman hugged her. Estella remained there, body rigid and eyes lost somewhere in the distance, the flowery smell of Livilla's perfume itching in her nose. Before she knew it, she was hugging the Lady. Even more surprising was the fact she was enjoying the comfort this simple act of kindness was providing her.

Look at you, the voice whispered. Have you gone soft?

Estella chose to ignore it.