ZINA
For soone who had just lost a child, her dignity, and perhaps her entire world in fact, Zina was feeling pretty pumped up and motivated when morning ca.
Everyone that tended to her makeup, dressing her for her so called wedding all thought her happiness stemd from the fact that she was marrying Rowan. And maybe that was the cause of her happiness—at the end of the day it all boiled down to perspective.
And her perspective sure as hell wasn’t the sa with the maidservants that chattered off their heads while they tended to her whereas Seraph stood like a motionless tress with a sore expression that made her easily stick out.
When the maidservants were finally done and took their leave, Zina had half the mind to destroy the makeup and her hair if not for the fact that she was in full support of the motion that any disgraced woman must look their best when serving revenge.
As a dish best served cold, what better way to look if not her best? With that in mind, she decided to have rcy on the long hours of hard work the won that tended to her put in making her look dapper for Rowan.
"How do I look?" Zina asked Seraph, her eyes fixed on the vanity mirror, where the reflection staring back was that of a woman—cold, breathtaking, and utterly untouchable just the way Zina imagined her heart was.
Nothing could hurt her anymore at that point. She had transcended—and while it was true that her heart was still tethered too soone, she knew Daemon was more than capable of taking care of himself.
More so after she would be done with the act that she was stewing.
The girl huffed. "I suppose you look like the Moon Goddess." She answered reluctantly like the thought of putting Zina’s beauty to words when she was marrying the enemy made nails grow on her tongue.
Zina smiled. "Do you suppose I am the reincarnation of the moon goddess?" She said with an audacious smile while she admired the tight manner her hair was pinned together, bringing out her heart shaped face even more.
Seraph’s frown reflected in the mirror. "For so long many from the North thought you the reincarnation of the goddess. But you never paid such stories heed. In fact, you never ever acknowledged it for once. Why do you speak of it now?"
"Do you rember the stage we had to set up in anticipation of Daemon’s return from the GreenLands?" Zina asked her.
"You an the legend of the Great Beast Wolf and the Moon Goddess?" Seraph said as she recollected events that happened just few months ago but now seed like events from decades ago.
"You literally had everyone eating up that story." Seraph mused, "The moon goddess who originated from all the regions with noble blood running through her veins. Then the great beast wolf who was her company throughout it all."
Zina chuckled at the analogy. The things she did at the ti to escape Daemon’s wrath. "Back then, people thought the story was spread to prepare for Daemon’s return from his banishnt. It made Eldric antsy as well. Little did they know that I added the moon goddess part to save my head. Should Daemon have returned with the rage of the world on his shoulders, my head would have rolled. But as the one rumoured to be the reincarnation of the Moon Goddess, his hands were tied...a bit."
Seraph’s expression turned mournful. "But everything went fine with your relationship with him. Both of you beca mates, and then married. Do you know how many people your love story has inspired, Theta? They sing of it on the streets of rhe Capital. They say even though she led to his banishnt, true love trumped at the end."
Zina shook her head. "Do you think the mate bond was what evened out our relationship? It was far from that. I and Daemon we’ve been long fated, but lost in my feelings for him I forgot the real reason why I started to see my vision of him from when I was as young as fourteen."
Seraph squatted by her side, looking up to her. "You an the prophecies?" She simply said for she knew Zina’s affairs more than anyone.
Zina stared intently at the mirror as she recited chanically. "I tell you you bringer of doom. I see your treachery for what it is, and I shall visit it with the vengeance of a thousand knives burning against your skin. Thralgor, you and I have a debt to settle, and we shall settle it."
The color drained from Seraph’s face. "I thought we have settled on this. You said even the forr Theta, Theta Alia, told you that she long saw you in her vision and that you will aid his majesty...."
Zina raised her hand to hush the girl then stood to her feet while dragging the heavy black gown she wore with her. She paced about the room, the thoughts that culminated in her head throughout the night giving away to sothing more understandable.
Now, she understood better her situation. Everything that was currently happening started from the beginning. Told in unclear prophecies, the they had nudged her to this path that she was currently on.
"The second seer that died before said those words. What she ant to communicate to was different from what Theta Alia said about helping Daemon’s rise. I had it all wrong."
Seraph looked at her at her strangely while she stood to her full height as well. "She called you bringer of doom...." she trailed as if realizing the sa thing Zina realized at night.
"And yet I have brought doom." Zina said in a voice that grew with shrewd excitent, "the second seer that night saw exactly what is happening now. She knew my existence would set those monsters free. It wasn’t simply so la blood ritual, Seraph. I know that there was sothing else that made Master choose. A prophecy perhaps... but it doesn’t matter."
"She said she will visit you with the vengeance of a thousand knives cutting your skin." Seraph trailed in a horrified voice, "does that an you will die."
Zina scoffed lightly. "You listened to it wrong," she said, "Her words were exactly; I tell you you bringer of doom. I see your treachery for what it is, and I shall visit it with the vengeance of a thousand knives burning against your skin."
Seraph frowned at first, but then her face brightened in realization as the words dawned on her. "Your treachery? Releasing the deford. It’s not you that she will take vengeance against, but your treachery."
Zina stopped in her pacing and turned gracefully to the girl. "Then Theta Alia said to that she has been waiting for for a long ti... she even saw in her visions. She said I would help Daemon’s rise to greatness. In reality, Daemon is shrewd enough that he would have easily beco king without my help. Although they might have been divided factions for the North believe a king should be proclaid by the Theta which is a form of endorsent by the moon goddess, but he would have still survived even if it ant a civil war."
Seraph approached her slowly. "So you think the deford... defeating them is his majesty’s rise to greatness?"
"It’s not just about defeating them, Seraph. The tales that we told jokingly must now co to pass. I must create this legend all over again. Daemon, whether true or not, is and can only be the one Great Beast Wolf that ravaged through the lands. That way, such evil will never rear it’s head ever again."
Seraph stared at her in astonishnt, obviously far behind Zina’s thought process. She couldn’t bla the girl. Even her herself found it hard to track down the rate her mind was running at.
"My duty towards Daemon should never been about love and romance. I thought I could combine both of them together, but sowhere along the way I forgot all those turbulent prophecies. I should never have forgotten about them."
"So what do want to do now, Theta?" Seraph asked with fear in her voice.
Zina tugged the girl closer to her and whispered in her ears. "There’s a place called the Brown Beach. It’s on the map we found and it makes up part of the Blue Seas. His majesty is there, and he has my staff with him."
Seraph stared at her with surprised eyes. "How did you co about that information."
Zina didn’t answer.
"You asked what I intend to do today? Well, I shall resurrect forgotten legends, and I just put things back in their place. Master, or even Rowan are not people to feared. They are people we must put in their place while making the world understand that they can only be one true Alpha; and that can never be the deford or whatever Master it serves."
Seraph swallowed, gazing at Zina like she was beholding an otherworldly being.
"They want to marry ?" Zina said with a scoff, "fine. I shall let them have their way, but marriage with a Great Seer cos at a mighty cost. Too bad they will learn that far too late."
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