"Guards seize her!
Vashi froze on the spot; she could recognize the owner of that voice anywhere. It was Ragaleon's!
From behind the nearest pillar, a shoe emerged; it was Micah's.
Another appeared on the upper deck of the hallway, her hand trailing on the wooden railings, the sound of soft clicks coming from a pair of shoes echoing. It was Racheal.
One by one, figures stepped from the darkness: Selena, Helena, and the whole royal family.
Last of all, from the shadows at the far end, the Ragaleon himself stepped forward, his presence heavier than the silence that followed him.
Vashi's breath caught in her chest. She turned slowly, eyes darting from one familiar face to another, only to find their gazes sharpened, cold, and predatory.
They had been waiting. Watching.
And now she stood exposed in the center of the hall, the circle closing in around her.
Jazell made her way to where Ragaleon was and took a stand beside him. As she watched two guards grip Vashi aggressively.
"Let go of me! Vashi screamed.
"I am a queen; I will not be disrespected…"
"I am afraid your reign is over, Vashi." Micah said, signalling one of the knights standing behind Ragaleon as a protective shield.
The knight nodded curtly before walking up to one of the fire torches placed on the wall. He walked back across the room, the fire torch in his hand, and Micah took the fire torch from him.
"The hour has come, Vashi; your judgement has been put forward, and death is what shines upon you." Jazell said from where she stood.
"I did nothing wrong; on what basis are you going to execute me?" Vashi asked, still trying to wiggle out of the grip of her captivity. But the grip the guards had on her was tight.
"For treason! Ragaleon shrilled with rage.
Vashi snapped her head in his direction, then snarled.
"I sheltered you in my home, and what did you do? You went behind my back, plotting and scheming to kill me! He said in a calm and low voice, his gaze like daggers.
"You fool! Vashi cursed out, not hiding her resentment for him anymore.
"If I die today, it doesn't change anything; there are hundreds of people out there still after your life, and mine won't make a difference! She shrilled, laughing in a deranged manner, while falling to her knees.
Her hair flipped over her face as she continued to laugh, leaning her head backwards, then forward.
"My name is Saprina, and I curse you…"
"Save your words for later, Vashi." Micah said, then turned to look at Jazell.
"Will you do the honors?" She asked, and Jazell smirked, taking a step forward.
"The honor is mine." She walks up to Micah and takes the fire torch from Micah, then makes her way to the wooden box where Viper was trapped in.
When Vashi realized what they were about to do, her eyes popped out of their sockets in shock.
"No…no…noooo!
Jazell turns to look at Vashi before lighting up the wooden box, and it slowly erupts in flames.
"You should be happy; what a privilege it is to be sent away to the afterlife…by a queen." Jazell said in a dreadful tone, as the reflection of the flames dazzled in her crystal blue eyes.
Vashi screamed, her skin withering, just as Viper burned.
Her face lost shape as it melted.
The royal family watched with predatory gaze, not flinching at the scene in front of them.
There was another queen leaning on the railings of the upper deck… Jia Veythar… The burning flames ignited in her dark eyes as the screams of Vashi sounded like music to her ears.
Soon it was only Vashi's bones that remained scattered on the floor, and the smell of roasted skin. Viper was burnt to ashes along with his mistress.
"It has been a long night; let us retire to bed." Selena says before walking out of the grand hall that what she had seen just now didn't just terrify her; it warned her about the existence of diabolical people.
One by one everyone made their way out of the grand hall.
"Come with me." Ragaleon said to Jazell before walking away.
Jazell's cold eyes lingered on Vashi's pile of bones before she finally turned around and walked away.
Ragaleon's chamber was swallowed in silence as he sat on the edge of his bed, the soft glow of burning candles illuminating the room.
The clicking of Jazell's shoe against the marble floor jolted him back to reality. He slowly raised his gaze; she had just walked through the door and was making her way to him.
Jazell had a confident look on her face, but within her was a glint of hope that her tactics to end Vashi wouldn't be in vain.
Ragaleon rose to his feet, his golden eyes skimming through the outfit she was wearing, then up to her face. Jazell was cloaked in a long blue robe; the inner was a short, knee-length blue nightgown.
"My lord, you asked to see me." She said with a faint voice, daring to meet his gaze.
Ragaleon was silent for a while as he gazed into Jazell's eyes. It was only now he noticed how profound her beauty was; he never really took notice of Jazell; he found her too cunning.
"The day my wine was poisoned, how did you find out?" He began to ask questions.
Jazell wasn't surprised; she was mentally prepared for this.
"It took some time, but I soon realized Vashi had some brewing hatred against you…
"You didn't dim it to let me know?" He intruded, arching his brows.
"You have a habit of accepting facts rather than mere words. Especially words spoken from a wife you don't acknowledge." Jazell was talking about herself, and she was speaking the truth.
Ragaleon couldn't deny her words either.
"The other day, I had gone to invite Vashi over for some tea, to break words with her, and then I overheard her talking about poison within the walls of her chamber. She was conversing with her venomous pet, Viper." Jazell started walking around the chamber as she talked.
"How did you come about finding out she had a poisonous pet?" Ragaleon wanted to know the truth about everything; his life was put at risk after all.
Jazell smiled evilly at his question, her mind flashing back to when she had kissed Vashi after their game of archery. She had spotted the bite of a snake, two red dots, but yet Vashi wasn't dead; it was very suspicious.
"Through the kiss of betrayal." Jazell answered Ragaleon's question; she was backing him, pouring herself some wine from a jar on a table across the chamber opposite the bed.
"The day I had drank that wine, I did have the maids in the kitchen taste the wine; it was poison-free." Jazell lied with a straight face, sipping from the golden cup of wine as she turned around elegantly to meet Ragaleon's gaze.
"But my instincts told me Vashi was too cunning to let her plan fail just like that, and since I suspected she had some hatred towards you, I sought to keep an eye on you." Jazell cooed, pausing as she sipped from the wine again; she smacked her lips at the juicy and intoxicating taste.
"My life wouldn't have been put at risk if you had stopped me from drinking that wine and had a maid do it instead. The fact that Vashi insisted I drink the wine confirmed my suspicion. The only reason I had agreed to drink the wine was because I had prepared ahead." Jazell emptied the cup of wine and dropped the cup next to the jar on the table.
She made her way back to where Ragaleon stood erect with his hands crossed behind his back.
"I had a medicinal herbalist prepare different concoctions to neutralize the effects of different kinds of poison and gave them to the grandmaester for safekeeping."
Jazell's eyes looked distant as her mind flashed back to when she had given the grand maester an antidote for the poison, before she fell unconscious."
"Do not tell anyone about this." She had said with a strict gaze after throwing up her guts.
"I wanted to make Vashi confess her deeds by herself, so I faked my illness even though I had been perfectly fine a few hours after drinking the cup of wine, but in order to get back at Vashi, I knew I had to play little games." Jazell continued her narration, her gaze resting on Ragaleon.
"Then you sought to drive her to madness by looming around the walls of her room?" He questioned.
"No…" Jazell answered abruptly.
"I had a maid add something to her wine that would make her hallucinate; she would see things that aren't real, like shadows, and hear voices that don't exist." Jazell added.
"And all this while, you pretended to be seriously ill, keeping the royal family worried, making the kingdom unsettled….
"What I did, I did it for the kingdom. To save their king." Jazell said with dilating eyes.
"I apologize for the position I had put you in; it must have been a difficult one. But I assure you, not many people in this palace mourned my fate; they would rather throw a feast within the walls of their chamber." Jazell said with detest, looking away for a fleeting moment before tracing her gaze back to Ragaleon.
Suddenly he was in front of her… too close, intimidating. His scent prickled her nostrils, then his lips clashed on hers, capturing it, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her to himself.
Jazell's eyes shone in astonishment, her body going numb from his mere lips against her; she shut her eyes and moved to the rhythm of his lips. After a while, he slowly pulled away.
"I am indebted to you for the sacrifice you made. Your loyalty…it is simply laudable." Ragaleon says with an emotionless tone, his face having a nonchalant countenance, as if nothing had just happened.
To him the kiss was only a way of saying thank you, but to Jazell it was a stepping stone to her mission.
"A wife must always remain loyal to her husband. It was not a flimsy thing to put my life at risk if it meant protecting yours." Jazell's eyes were genuine, her words sugar-coated, but her heart was as cold as stone.
Lies!… She was lying to him with a straight face.
"I will take my leave now; the night is far away. A few hours until the break of dawn." She said, smiling, and Ragaleon nodded, giving her a sign she could take her leave.
She got the message, turned around, and made her way out of the chamber. The blue robe she was wearing was dragging behind her.