Finding the Wisest

Chapter Twenty

The three got up from their seats to peer more closely at the picture.

Maya didn't want to believe it. She tried to convince herself that the picture was photoshopped until her senses came back. These people didn't even have phones. Speaking of phones..her mind suddenly flashed to her phone wherever it was. She shook her head vigorously and her concentration came back. She berated herself for not paying attention and she focused on the picture.

The king was tall and thin with grey strands in his black hair, at the sides. He had a beard and a kind smile with crinkles that showed at the edges of his eyes. His arm was around the queen.
Of course, yes! That was her mother.
Queen Lilian was not as tall as the king, her long dark brown hair interspersed with streaks of grey...The ones she had always been dyeing back at home with Maya.

She held in her hands a child with a shock of blonde hair and standing in front of them were their three daughters. Maya could see the youth in their faces.
Faye, slender and beautiful with short hair and bright eyes stood next to Nebbia- no, not Nebbia anymore - Reina.
She had long jet black hair and piercing eyes that gave her a brooding look. She was standing closer to Maya, leaving an obvious gap beside her and Faye. She was by far the tallest.
Maya looked at the picture of herself, with the inscription "Princess Willow" underneath.
It was her alright, cheeky smile, large brown curls. Everything.

She had come to find her mother but had found herself a kingdom instead.

Queen Faye had lied to her. The queen had fooled Maya and she had eaten everything up like the naive girl she was. She had trusted her, and she felt shame wash over her. This was what her mother had been talking about. Maya's super trust had led her astray.

"So there's no 'the wisest'? " Maya asked as she tore her eyes away from the photo.

"Maya, I think you should forget about that now. " Nebbia said quietly, her voice coming out as something a little more than a whisper but not loud enough to be her usual voice.

Old Kita sprang up, surprisingly fast for someone who looked as old as she did. No offense to her.
"Actually there is, but the problem is, the only one who knows who the wisest is, is the king himself!"

"And the king is dead?" Kieran questioned
"He is not. He's in the castle somewhere. Unable to do anything. Trapped. As you all were. "
Old kita gives the two girls a look then claps her hands sharply, as if she were a school teacher reprimanding her children.

"Now that's enough story telling for today. Kieran, you'll stay with Ash in his cottage. You two girls can stay with me for the mean time. Now out you all go. Go on, go for some fresh air and some food."

That was that.
They all got out in a file blinking in the sunlight.
"Are you ladies alright?"
Kieran looked at the two of them, he figured that after hearing something like this they would both be in shock. " Your highnesses." He added cheekily.
Maya shot him a look then rubbed her face wearily " It's....a lot to take in, I guess"

"You guess?!" Nebbia hissed

"Well don't eat me up." Maya rolled her eyes
"Why so upset all of a sudden?"

"Why so upset?! Why?!. Because I was abandoned Maya, something you don't seem to have understanding of ! I spent years in that locked room, wondering what I had done to get there, wondering why no one was coming for me. Wondering why my only company was a maid and my tormentor
My own mother left me here for that monster! "

"She had no choice Nebbia, from what Old Kita said it happened fast and there was no time and no way for her to come back to you. "

"Very easy for you to say, Maya. You were watching films and eating with your mother while all I had was a hard, cold bed for ten years. Excuse me if I'm not excited like you about hearing all this."

With these last words Nebbia turned sharply, her cloak once again billowing like black smoke behind her.
Maya made to go after her but Kieran held her back. "She needs time to think. She'll be fine, she'll come back."

They decided to go for a walk around the little community for some fresh air but mainly to clear Maya's mind
All the while she tried to piece events in her head.
She didn't have all the answers as she stood there, but some strange things that had happened in her and her mother's life had started to come to her.

A little into their walk Will caught up with them and he and Kieran started talking animatedly about swordfights and something or the other.  She didn't pay attention, her mind drifted.
She didn't notice Ash sidling up beside them until he spoke  "Hello."

Maya let out a yelp and moved to the side sheepishly. "You scared me!"
"You scare easily" he commented.
"Well you move like a ghost so that's not my fault. "  He smiled but stayed silent.

They walked a bit more
"So you're the observant silent type right?"
He smiled again, proving her point.
After a while he said "I don't think I have to say anything If I dont have anything to say........."

She nodded too, the conversation was kind of stilted but not too bad.
"How are you taking the information Old Kita gave you?"

She sighed " It's difficult to imagine that I'm supposed to be a princess. I'm so sloppy and lazy and everything but I'll think about all that later.. I'd like to just find my mother first"
He nodded.
" It was to my family that Will was brought, about ten years ago. He sees me as his brother, maybe this news will be hard on him too." He stayed silent then as if he didn't know how to continue the thought pattern he had in his head "I think Will has taken a liking to you and your friend. He isn't usually this friendly. "

"Well duhh, we're awesome. "  She said with a finger snap.
He gave her a peculiar look and she laughed a bit as they continued on their walk.
                                X

Nebbia - Princess Reina- Nebbia was seated on a stone near a river bank, with her hood low and her defenses even lower.
Her face had been set in a perpetual frown ever since she had come from old Kita's hut.
She remembered all those moments of loneliness in the cells, those moments of depression and those moments of pain.

Those times she had worked herself into getting a headache, just trying to remember a memory or two. Walking around without an identity of who she was or where she had come from.
She did not even have a name to call herself by until bright Sozee asked her. She was a nobody, she was a nobody because of Queen Faye and her black jealousy.

Her heart seized within her as memories started piling up in her mind. One stood out to her very very clearly.

It was the cool of the day and Princess Reina, twelve at the time started feeling drowsy and sleepy.
It was sudden. She didn't know what had happened, she was just reading a book on war strategy when Princess Faye, then seventeen, had given her some fruit she was eating.
Reina, ever the glutton had taken it and eaten it. Then the feeling had started.

She lay on her bed trying to sleep, but her eyes couldn't close.  She couldn't move.  She was paralyzed but with her senses fully intact.
Someone entered her room stealthily. She tried to shout out but nothing came out of her mouth.

It was Faye, with a dagger in her hand and an evil glint in her eye.
"I hate you all so much, especially you Reina. You think you're so much better than me! I'm getting rid of all of you tonight and I shall be the best Queen in history. "
Then she lifted the dagger and brought it down on Reina. "

The memory ended and Nebbia shifted abruptly, panting heavily. She parted her cloak and the dress underneath and there on her calf sat a long ugly scar created by a dagger. A wound that had not healed properly.

Nebbia's  eyes darkened. She would make sure that Faye would get what was coming to her, even if it was the last thing she did.