Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 335: Esme’s mother

’’There was a time when I held similar beliefs for things. It is like being a child who believes when she closes her eyes, the world cannot see her,’’ Esme shook her head, ’’One can forget the incidents when they are intoxicated but how would they forget the cause of their intoxication?"

Ruby looked at Esme, taken aback by her words.

Esme smiled, ’’Sister Ruby, did you talk to the King?"

Esme did not linger on that topic anymore to not stress Ruby out more than she already was.

Even though Ruby denied that there was some meaning to it, it was so unlike of her to stand at a distance instead of bidding farewell to Adrian. So, Esme knew better than to say anything that might hurt her.

Ruby inhaled a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak, ’’Your father," she rephrased Esme’s words.

Esme nodded.

’’Esme, I won’t lie to you. I had known his identity for a long time which is the reason I stopped Aleister from reading and getting the book about mers from the library when your powers were awakening.

It was never safe for you and your father had known it. Your mother was unwilling to abandon her kingdom. And he could never have left Defire because the throne to Nevesray had other inheritors but the Lord was everything that the mers had. After your mother’s death...’’

’’Death...’’

Ruby paused briefly.

Esme shook her head, ’’I had guessed it. Some people in Nevesray believed that she had disappeared but I guessed it the moment I discovered my father’s identity. If she was alive, she would have been here,’’ she had long understood and accepted it but listening about it made her feel a small pinch in her gut.

It was that unreasonable feeling of losing something that she never had.

’’The mers have always considered every other race as their enemies and they have stayed on guard against everyone. Since the very advent of their race, they had been targetted by the heavens. If not for the Lord, then it would have been impossible for the mers to exist,’’ Ruby referred to Rezeph as the ’Lord’. Even with a changed identity, that was an entity whom her father bowed to in reverence, let alone her.

Esme fell into contemplation, ’’My mother...’’

’’All I know is that she had trespassed into the territories of the mers, which has always been forbidden. So, some of the mermen captured her and tortured her to death thinking of her as an enemy who had evil intentions,’’ Ruby’s voice softened, ’’She had come with one of her trusted aides who lost his life with her. Your mother was a great warrior and even her guard was skilled. If they were fighting against humans, they would have taken down hundreds of them.

But mers have magical powers. Special abilities. She did not make it through the third night under their torture and lost her life.’’

The place sunk in a deep silence. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Ruby sighed softly, ’’Your father was not around. When he came back, it was late.’’

And she did not have to continue with the rest of her words for Esme to understand what must have transpired after that.

Confusion. Disbelief. Rage. Bloodthirst. Agony. Numbness.

Esme had felt all those emotions when she thought Aleister was losing his life.

If her father had any such feelings for his mother, then would he have felt the same?

’’You were born a human, Esme. After your mother passed away, your father wanted to bring you here but you did not have an ounce of power in you. I was commanded to protect you by my father. I was too young to understand the reason behind it.

But as I grew up, it all started making sense to me.

If the Lord brought you with him back then, then he would have wanted to give you everything that belonged to you. With you being there as the King’s daughter, the ambitious mers would target you for the throne. And if the clans in heaven caught a whiff of your existence or the Lord’s true identity, then it would have been a threat to your life.

And if he did not tell people that you were his daughter, then you would be vulnerable in this place, without any powers or magic in you.’’

Esme remained quiet.

’’When your powers started awakening, I had tried every way to stop it. I wrote him a letter and told him how happy you were in your life, in Daven Castle, with Aleister, and your father did not want to disrupt your life.

Even though he wanted you to awaken your powers, he did not want you to lose your memories or suffer anything that happens to a half-mer during their transformation.’’

By the time Ruby stopped speaking, Esme understood some or most of the things.

’’Will you be staying with us?" Esme glanced at Ruby, ’’For some time?"

Ruby shook her head, ’’I have accomplished every command I was meant to fulfill. You have grown up safely and your brother has healed. Now, it is time for me to go back.’’

Esme opened her mouth to speak but in the end, she closed it.

’’Go inside and talk to your father. I will leave in a while.’’

Esme hesitated but she eventually nodded and left.

Ruby stood there looking at Esme’s retreating back till she could not see it anymore.

’One can forget the incidents that occur when they are intoxicated but how would they forget the cause of their intoxication?’

Esme’s words reverberated in her mind out of nowhere and at the same time, that alluring face crossed her mind.

That was all it took for Ruby to understand that she might have misjudged how deep she had walked into the pits of the fire.

And now the gradual warmth had turned into a burning sensation that enveloped her, making her heart writhe so painfully at his departure.

Ruby closed her eyes and disappeared in the air, turning into a silver wisp that dove into the vast sea.