Daughters Of Hera

Chapter 38-Awaken

Hope your day was good?
Sometimes you need to look back, at the beginning, look back to how your dreams began, there's a blessing in that too.

At the throne room, Count Lamott Benex of house Howee, or rather Regent Lamott Benex was being congratulated and celebrated as she walked towards the throne and sat on it, claiming her ownership over it, while everyone present bowed solemnly, screaming, "Hail our Regent!" they howled. "Hail our Regent!" they repeated again, and when they were done, they all sat down in their respective sits and continued the order of affairs like nothing even happened.

General Sylva raised a suggestion to bury the former Regent in a ditch far away from the Royal Palace, and it was approved by the parliament. Nobody else wanted to carry squishy dead body parts remains, and no one would give a more befitting burial to the former Regent than she. So General Sylva draped herself in a black cloak, then hauled a carriage and packed the remains of Joanne at the back of the carriage and covered it with a thick blanket, then she drove away from the palace.

She galloped and trailed past the streams of Newes, where the goddess Hebe transformed the streams of water into wine for her consensual exclusive parties. To the East of Serapenia, where the fields are purple with grapefruits, but it was beyond the outskirts of Anisato, near the boundaries of Juventas that something perculiar happened in the back of the carriage, in which General Sylva rode, in it a restoration was taking place.

Cells conjoined cells at quite a fascinating pace, that arteries began healing in a blink of an eye, bones cackled against bones and joined into one, flesh torn and blistered, began rejuvenating, blood returned to it's rightful dominions and flushed and flowed back in a rush, the heart began to thump, tump—tump, then it accelerated, beating at a fast pace, like the beak of woodpecker upon a tree. A fresh intake of oxygen swooshed into the grasping lungs and then a body that was long pronounced dead, once again lunged into Life; Joanne was awaken.

Joanne's body firstly felt numb and nibble, so numb that she couldn't feel her own skin, there was only the trumping of her heart to show that she was alive, she glanced around and saw only darkness, a thick nothingness, before she pushed away the blanket that covered hee, then a bit of light dimly showed her the iron corners of the interior carriage. "I died." Joanne whispered to herself, like she was unsure of what had occurred and needed to voice out her thoughts for assurance. "How am I alive. . ." said she, before hushing, as the memories flooded her, of the Fountain of Youth running through her veins, she couldn't die, not yet at least. Then anger swelled in her heart, a surgical furiousness devoid of a direction, her anger was looking for something to latch onto, then it did, she resorted to betrayal. "Sylva betrayed me. That old bitch!" she screamed, then rushed out towards the front, where the horse man sit, but instead of a horse man, there she saw Sylva, gesturing the horse forward. Joanne didn't think, not in this circumstances, all she could feel was rage, blank rage. The kind that makes one scream at a wall. "You backstabbing hag!" she screamed, mad with anger.

Sylva didn't respond, not at first, she didn't even look back at Joanne, not for a while, before she spoke. "Good. You've awaken. Well, if you could keep calm for a while, I'll try to expl—"

Sylva couldn't finish her sentence, before Joanne plunged towards her, on the moving carriage, she pushed Sylva with force towards the ground. And with a painful this Sylva landed her back heavily on the mucky ground, and Joanne dropped on Sylva's stomach, with an intensively, and then all the rage in her bones burst out, and she just allowed it to flow through her forcefully, she, Joanne began attacking Sylva, giving bountiful series of slaps, first on her right cheek then on her left, after that she proceeded to punches and elbowing, till Sylva's nose gushed out red liquid, and at that instant, Joanne stopped and gasped for air. Sylva was breathing heavily too, but it looked like she didn't care either way about her broken nose, her facial expressions still remained the same, blank. But when she began speaking, a motherly expression leaked on her voice. "Are you done now?! Are you ready to listen to me?!"

"Yes!—yes! . . . You traitorous hag—spill all you have to say. I'll have your head anyway, I'm sure your skull will make a good cup for my wine." Joanne blurted, she wasn't going to have Sylva's affection sip into her heart.

Joanne let herself off of Sylva's body, and Sylva stood up abruptly, all dirty and smeared with mud, she tried to dust the dirt away but it was a lost cause, her outfit was beyond saving. Joanne wasn't having any of it this time, she itched for an answer. "Speak now!" thundered she, a vein almost popped on her neck, she flung her hands around in frustration.

"Look, my child. I needed to betray you, to save you. I connived with them so that the evil Regent Durga and her spies won't conspire to kidnap you."

"Shut the fuck up! You planned with them to poison me—did you know that I was the Fountain of Youth. At that time you didn't know about it as you helped them. I almost died!" shouted Joanne.

"I did it all to protect you. I knew that after the poisoning I'll find the Fountain of Youth and cure you then. By then I'll know who'd want to kill you in the court. But you seem not that Durga wants you badly. I made a bet that'll find the Fountain, now that we have, I needed a way to protect you, so I arranged a coup to fake your death. Now Durga and her spies in the parliament would think you're dead. Now I have to find somewhere for you to hide."

"I think by now Regent Durga's patron godess would've told her that I am the fountain of youth."

"Yes. But she knows it's in your blood, she doesn't know of it's abilities to cure you too. Now we've fooled her into thinking you're dead and the fountain of youth is lost forever."

Joanne scoffed loudly, "Why didn't you just tell me this was your plan from the onset?"

"Because I needed you to act surprised. And you really don't know how to lie when you're drink,"

"I still hate you. . ." said Joanne coldly.

"This was the best way to protect you. Everyone now thinks you're dead. There's a place to hide you in, and luckily I know a place," said Sylva compassionately.

Their horse had fled with the carriage had fled during their struggling and shouting match they called a conversation, so they simply walked on the muddy grounds.

"Look you're very young, my child." said Sylva. "You do not understand the realms like i do. Regent Durga is dangerous, she has dark forces forces behind her, you don't stand a chance against her,"

"Why! Because I'm a drunk right. You don't see it, but I do. You always look embarrassed Everytime I'm with visitors. You always give me this disapproving look . . . Face it! You're disappointed in me, just like the rest of them. Just like mother and father would be if they were alive,"

"I am not embarrassed of you, my child. You hold so much potential. I swear I do not like seeing you drunk to stupor. It's always breaks my heart, but I can never be embarrassed of you. I wouldn't dare replace you with the finest of rubies, not even the stars. I only do what I do, to fulfill a promise I made to your parents, to protect you."

"Why don't I believe you," said Joanne unconvinced, she shuddered with a chill of cold that swooshed past her, rain was drizzling , as she turned to the silent Sylva. "Do you think I want to be this way? Do you think I want to numb my senses with alcohol? Do you think that I want to be broken, That I've worn my pain on my sleeves for too long? No!—no! I can't control it. Do you remember how I saw them—?"

"—you don't need to say it, my child. I was there. . ."

Joanne burst out, ". . . I saw them lying in a pool of blood. My parents were dead before me, their skins were had been ripped apart, like a Lions prey. they looked so pale, that their skin was almost white. Do you think I don't try to forget?—i do—but it doesn't go away, it always keeps coming back—it keeps replaying in my head all the time, and I can't seem to shut it out. The wine numbs it. It makes living less excruciating for me. It makes living merely bearable."

"I am sorry, Joanne. I understand you—" said Sylva, then she wanted to hug her, to lend her shoulders, to weep on, but when she did, Joanne stopped her saying, "Don't—" then continued. "I need wine."

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