Malice Maze

Chapter 32
The Lover

Five will be born,
Created of God.
Five will breathe,
Four destined to die.
None will know,
Where their hardships fall.
A prophecy born,
Of a God’s lie.
The Light born of The Gypsy
The Dark born of The Assassin
The Lover born of the Mistress
The Accomplice born of the Priestess
The Prince born of the Princess.
There is no prophecy of who is savior
No prophecy to follow for the four
They will not know who they are
They will not know why they live
They will only know misery as it comes upon them
They are the beginning of a new world
And the end of the old.

“Hope, pardon my pun on your name, but we do hope you will still come and visit, though he is coming of age soon.” Queen Serena looked to Hope hopefully.

Hope smiled and looked to the son she had only known as Serena’s companion, a man with many women drawn near to him. Serena had done her best to give Hope everything she would need in her new life. She had given her a home, clothes, a place to come to, and a lover, one who cherished Hope for all that she was.

“I will visit,” Hope promised. “I just think that Ronald and I could use time just the two of us, uninterrupted. I came her so often over the last seventeen years that it is hard to believe that I was not his mother all of this time.” Hope looked to Serena and bowed her head. “I apologize. I guess it has been harder for me all this time than I thought.”

Serena smiled and nodded. “It has been hard on me as well,” she admitted, her eternally blank eyes not showing if that smile would have reached them or not.

“Do you see a happy future for him?” Hope asked of her friend.

“I do not see anything,” Serena admitted. “It is as if he is shrouded with a black cloud. The only thing I know for sure is I must find the girl with pink eyes, the pink of a blossoming rose. I see her in his future and I do not understand why.”

“Maybe he will meet her at school,” Hope hoped. “Maybe he will fall in love with her and bring her home. It would be great if he fell in love.” Instead of sleeping with everything on two legs. Hope could not say that, for Serena most likely did not know. It was almost appalling, being the boys true mother, and being the one he confided in because he did not want his ‘mother’ to know the truth about him. He was a lover of all women, and all women loved him. Hope even knew of a few male conquests in his past, though she was grateful it had been a passing fancy, a need to experiment with something new.

Serena’s lips twitched though she did not allow herself a full smile. “I wish I believed it was love. I only believe it to be something of dire importance. Orphen would like to engage him to a noble family, try to pretend we are normal nobles who had not stolen this castle for ourselves. I would like him to choose how to live his life. What would you like Hope?”

“Does my opinion count?”

“It always has,” Serena told her kindly.

“I would like him to choose his future as well.”

This time Serena did allow herself the smile. “I am glad it was you, Hope, I am so glad it was you.” And though her eyes showed no emotion the tears still fell for them when she was sad, or happy, and now they slid down her cheeks and dripped on her dress. Serena dabbed at them absently before placing a false sense of bravado on her face once more.

“Hope?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Thank you.”

“And as always, Queen Serena, when you tell me that,” and Hope smiled lovingly at her friend, at the king who had given her the son, and at the son she knew as a friend, “thank you as well.”