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They came up in her head now and again, her family, like fragments of a dream. Perhaps seeing Jasmine with hers had propelled her to make the decision to visit them soon, and she would let Zavian know. She wasn’t expecting the love they never gave her, but she wanted to make sure they were okay. Family, no matter how far on the earth she went, still had an invisible string that tied her to them.

Rue threw a look to her over her shoulder, her bonnet obscuring half her eyes, and Neera gave her a smile. The maid looked away quickly, and her steps hastened, leaving Zoe and Neera behind. Maybe Zavian scared her, which wasn’t untrue, Zavian too used to scare Neera as a maid, domineering and formidable, but now, he was the sugar that had sweetened her once bitter life.

When they reached her favorite part of the garden, Neera searched around, but there was no sign of the King.

“Where is he?” She asked, looking between Rue and Zoe.

Zoe was the one who stepped forward to speak. “He would be here shortly, my Lady. But as we wait, do you mind if we all have a look around the place? We would have the gardeners come here and tend to some of the bushes.”

Now she mentioned it, Neera noticed the leaves jutting out of place from the bushes, rough branches here and there. The rain had fed them, and within a few days, if nothing was done to tend to them, she would have branches blocking the entire entrance to the place.

“Let’s have a look”, Neera granted the maid her request. She moved ahead toward the lake, already double in size. Jasmine loved that side of the seclusion, the water had a calming effect, medicinal to the soul, she had said. So the Queen would remove her shoes, and dip her leg into the water that was now knee-deep, humming a melody Neera had come to memorize.

“You can sit by the lake and wait for the King, my Lady”, Zoe said. When Neera raised her head to her, it was Rue who caught her attention. The maid’s face was white, drained of the faintest color, and her fingers jittered. The familiar portent phantom hands slid their way along Neera’s chest and clawed their way down her back.

.....

“Let’s go wait for the King somewhere else”, Neera said.

“He specifically requested here”, Zoe insisted, and her eyes were trained beyond Neera.

Neera followed her train of gaze and looked at the water. There was nothing but the usual glimmer to its surface, yet something was off in the air around it, something heavy weighing down like a fog.

And then, what happened next happened so fast.

Neera tumbled forward into the water, and her entire body was submerged in it. She was quick to bring her head up, gasping for air, only to find herself being plunged again.

No, she didn’t tumble, the realization hit her, she was pushed.

“Help me, Rue!” She heard Zoe’s muffled voice above her. Zoe’s hands clamped down on her face, pushing it deeper, and just as Neera fought her off and began to raise her head again, another set of hands held her down.

Water filled her nose, her ears, and stifled the primal screams from her mouth. Fire filled her lungs, burning her chest, her fingers reaching out for anything around her, but her hands were held down, and two faces, hard set in determination, stared down at her from the watery surface.

There were moments in Neera’s life she had thought she was going to die, had even seen death take different forms and beckon her into its cold embrace. But as her lids fluttered close, and her body’s will to fight weakened, she heard someone call to Zavian, maybe it was her, or a lucky savior coming for her, she had no idea.

But there was darkness clouding her eyes, and her limbs went limp, giving in to it. Soon, her eyes closed, and the darkness swallowed her whole.

–

–

When Lyra was hauled out of the throne room for attempting to kill the maid, Jasmine had thought one thing of her; foolish. Foolish in the mediocre planning that had gotten herself and the relationship with her Kingdom in jeopardy. One must not act in haste, for patient planning leads to well-executed results.

Jasmine had had no qualms against the renowned doppelganger of the late Queen then, if anything, she had grown fond of Neera with the time she had spent in the castle. But up until the point she had become Queen, her life had always been her in the shadows, an onlooker, the figurehead holding the title of Queen while she was to turn a blind, “understanding” eye to the maid and the King frolicking around, and the maid now turned concubine had stolen him on her wedding night of all nights.

What a selfish, cruel thing to do.

So Jasmine had used the one thing in her arsenal she had always had; her sweetness, the good girl who had no seed of bad in her. It had been distressing growing up in that image of someone who couldn’t even harm a fly, where her flaws and mistakes would be amplified and scorned, so she had quickly learned to hone the “perfect” behavior that was required of her as a weapon, and hone it perfectly she did.

She had tried getting close to Neera at first, hoping to know everything about her and Zavian, poking for weaknesses and secrets in their relationship. But Neera had been reserved and kept her answers monotonous, one thing that angered Jasmine to no end. When that didn’t work, Jasmine resorted to eavesdropping.