As we finished eating our fill, the maids came and collected our dishes. Aurora sat their with a satisfied expression on her face, and I couldn't help but feel... good. I felt we had bonded quite a bit over this meal too, just talking about nothing significant and me just catching up on lost time.
I then turn to the Head Maid, Selene and said "Is the room for her ready yet?" Selene then bows and says "Yes, Your Excellency, it is now ready for Her Highness." I nod then turn my head back to Aurora "Lets go see this new room of yours, you can add anything you want to it over time, just tell one of the staff if I am not here and they will see it done" Aurora nods animatedly and says simply "Okay!"
We then set off to her room, moving out of the grand dining hall and back into the long, wide, luxuriously but tastefully decorated hallway. Alphonso is there waiting, with his unit and they salute and fall a step behind us. As we walk I look down at Aurora and strike up a casual conversation, much like the one we had over dinner.
Then, we arrive at a pair of double doors with engravings of mages of old on them that makes the doors alone look like some priceless relic, that should be in a magic civilisation museum in the capital of an empire, than in someone's residence.
Alphonso pushed the doors open again for us as we enter, he then closes them behind us.
What greets us is a massive, four-poster bed, and two large double glass doors leading out to a huge balcony, then over the other side of the room seems to be a private bathroom. The room itself seems very plain, however, Aurora will be able to decorate it over time, like I stated earlier.
Aurora runs around checking everywhere, with awe filled eyes and then lastly she finds herself in front of the bed before launching herself at it, landing face first and spreading out her body.
She then laughs and says "This room is ridiculous, father, the bed is, like, a 100 times bigger than me!"
I look at her with a dead panned face and say "This rooms quality is what is expected for my daughter." She giggles, then I say "Anyway, I guess this means you like it?" She nods eagerly "Yeah!"
I reply evenly "Good, I'm glad. Come, let's go look out over the city from your balcony. You will love the view." As I say this I sweep her up in my arms, which causes her to yelp, before marching over and entering the outside balcony.
Once there Aurora can not help but exclaim "Wow, this view is amazing! Is that the city?! Its huge! Ah and over there, how far up do those walls go?!" I smiled at her shock, this city is indeed a marvel, it still shocks me whenever I view it from places like this.
I put her down and we walk to the table and chairs and both sit down, I then think of a way to ask her what has been on my mind the whole day. I sigh, before just coming out with it, albeit in a more measured way than my usual bluntness. "Aurora... what happened to your mother? What caused you to end up the way you did?"
As I said this, the excited expression from earlier vanished and her face twisted slightly, like tasting a piece of bad food. She then went on to explain "I'm not too sure, we lived a normal life for as long as I can remember, in a cabin just outside of a small town within the human domain. Its was nice, nature, trees, peace. Then when we went to the town like we always did to collect food and other things to last us the week, we came across... came across.... these bad men." She stuttered.
Then she went on "They said something to mother who had pushed me behind her, I think they were mages, they had nice looking clothes on, held themselves with importance. My mother looked visibly distressed, then they tried to get to me, before they could my mother started to attack and told me to run, so I did and hid in between the buildings and after a while, the noise calmed down I came out.
That's when I saw mother on the floor, I ran over to her and she was barely awake, but as I looked around it seemed like she was able to defeat the mages, well except one who staggered off. But I didn't care about that I wanted.... to save mother.... but.... but... it was too late."
She looked at the floor now sniffing and trembling, I was stuck in place. I was so angry, how dare they? I thought. But then as I saw my daughter shaking retelling this harrowing tale, crying quietly, my anger subsided, and I went and knelt before her. "Aurora, come here." I said as I hugged her. "You are a brave girl, your mother would be proud." She continued to cry for a time into my shoulder, then I pulled her away looking into her eyes and said "What happened after this? Its okay if you don't want to say anything else."
She then sniffled before saying, "Then I stayed with her for I don't know how long before I ended up wandering, the town was basically destroyed during the fight. Then some people found me and dragged me to that orphanage." As she said this her face became sullen.
I quickly hugged her again and then gave her a kiss on the forehead before saying "Well done, Aurora, thank you for telling me this. I will ensure that these people are held accountable."
She stiffened slightly at my words, then said "You are not going to leave me too father? Please don't, you are all I have. What if they do the same to you too?" I looked at her right in the eyes as she said this to me with almost desperation coating her words.
I then reassured by saying "You don't have to worry, I will never leave you, and there are not many people in this world that can threaten me. I never break promises. And I made one to you just now, the same one I said when we first met. 'I will never leave you' and I will not break it."
As I said this to her with utter seriousness, the most serious I have been when speaking to her since we met, she seemed to visibly relax and then said "Okay, I believe you." *Sniff*
I nodded and then said "Can you give me any information on what colour their robes were? Or an emblem?" She then contemplated for a second before saying "I think they wore red robes and had a flame emblem?"
As my daughter uttered these words, I froze. It cant be them, surely? Before looking back at her with a reassuring smile. "You did good, my child. Rest now, your father needs to sort some affairs out. Oh, by the way, there will be a maid team assigned to you, for your daily needs. Don't be afraid to ask for anything." She nodded slightly then hugged me this time, before saying "I love you."
I stiffened at that. I didn't know how to respond, so I just pulled back and nodded before leaving.
Time to get on with what I do best, I thought. Parenting is seeming more and more daunting...