The Dragon Emperor's Slave Bride

The Temple of Nyx

The preparations were done. Her father had splurged money on her wedding party more than he had on last six years. She understood. Nishak could not look bad or show that their daughter is treated badly to the Empire, lest the Emperor believes she is not precious enough and throws her away which might cause more trouble. As if her being a shadow dragon was not enough.

Her white wedding dress was one of the most beautiful thing she had the luxury of seeing in years. Her own mother’s wedding dress had been destroyed by the Queen for some stupid reason that she does not want to delve in further at the moment. The accessories of pearl and gold jewellery that were specifically made to match her dress were magnificent as well. Shoes and heels and pretty bracelets and rings.

Shrina thought her eyes would hurt seeing how pretty all of this was.  

When she finds Emily frowning at another set of dresses, she questions her friend.

“Ah,” Emily frowned at the bundle. “The Queen seemed to gave gone through the dresses brought for you. She took the gorgeous and expensive ones saying that they will not suit you.”

A laugh bubbled out of Shirina’s chest and it must have shocked Emily and the other maids because they were gawking at her.

"I was not expecting anything else." Shrina told them after calming down. "She is mad that I'm escaping her clutches on my terms. Or maybe even that she might not be able to hurt me anymore. She is trying be petty now."

Emily made a sound like a scoff and then started ruffling through the dresses, pulling out some actually good looking ones. "I think they will look beautiful on you, my princess." 

The next few hours were some of the most fun hours of Shirina's life. She twirled around in front of the mirror, gasping and giggling with her maids, all of them ecstatic that they were finally able to see their adorable princess dressing up. 

Well, a vast majority of servants in her palace belonged to the Queen in a way for them to keep an eye on her, but a lot of others were her mother's loyal people who were extremely careful to maintain a false façade in front of her to their prevent expulsion. They have put their lives on risk for me many times and she was thankful to them for all of it.    

 She opened the boxes full of jewels, that were her mother's and presented it to the head maid. Many of her loyal servants were present. Head maid and others looked absolutely flabbergasted at the sight.

"P-Princess?! What is thi-is?" 

Shirina smiled sadly. "Well, you know. Once I leave the palace and the country, there won't be much staff needed to maintain the palace and she might choose to fire some of you."

A wave of understanding swept over them. 

"And before that happens," Shirina continued, "I want to make sure that you have all your futures secured."

"But-" Head maid interrupts but Shirina steps forward, clasps hands with the older woman. "Please do accept them. This is the least I can do for all you have done for me."

"But Princess!" Head Maid looked troubled, frowns crinkling her eyes, "These are the heirlooms the late Queen had left for her daughter. There is no way we can accept them. They belong to you. Your Mother left them for you. And we have hidden these boxes from Queen Charlotte hoping that you would have them when you have the opportunity."

"I appreciate the sentiment so much that I cannot even explain in words but you know that all of luggage I am supposed to take with me to Tejask will be monitored by the Queen strictly. If she gets a wind of such treasures that I had with me she will harm you people on the name of treason or maybe even stealing from the Royal family. That will not end well for any of you."

They all looked deeply disturbed with her words but knew they held some truth. The evil Queen's depravity was witnessed by them first hand and knew that their King did not bat an eye towards her crimes. 

"That is why... I want to use my mothers keepsakes to help the people who were kind and loving towards her only child to have a better future. Trust me," She smiled brightly remembering her good times with these people, "She will be so thankful and happy to all of you. And she would want this. And more than that, I want this too. Because you were all more family to me than anyone else in this place."

A lot of them had tears in their eyes at her declaration and the head maid was furiously wiping her tears.

"Princess," she whispered with her throat full, "Never in my dreams did I imagine that we would mean so much to you."

Shirina laughed, wiping her own tears. "What are you talking about? You people were the only family I ever had."

The head maid gingerly took the boxes from her with a sad but loving smile. 

"Please make sure to divide it fairly amongst yourself and prepare your resignations if you want to. For the older ones who have served a major time of your life working for me, please retire and return back to your families. And the newer ones, who require jobs, I will be more than happy to write recommendations for you. That will allow you to work anywhere you want. Is that a fair deal?"

"Of course, your highness." They say in unison and smile. 

"It will be fun make the Queen suffer when we all submit our resignation at the same time." One of them smiles mischievously.

All of them laughed together at the suggestion. Although it was not possible that they all would have been released at the same time but slowly they could be freed. 

...

"Princess! Pri-princess!" Emily was panicking. 

"What happened? Is everything all right?"

Her maid dropped in front of her, pupils blown wide and Shirina wondered if the Queen had done something again. 

"Hi-Hi-"

"Emily, breathe." She commanded and her maid visibly relaxed after taking a few large gulps of air. 

"Now tell me. What happened?"

"His Majesty, the king has summoned you for a meal with him."

Shirina's blood ran cold. 

"I will not be going." She growled, "I do not want to spend one more meal with that woman nitpicking me."

"Ah," Emily started. "Actually, King's messanger asked me to inform you that the Queen will not be attending the lunch."

Shirina hummed. Well, that was surprising. It never happened that her father had picked her over his new wife. After giving it some consideration, Shirina decided to go. After all, she had so much to say to him before she left. 

"Alright then. Let him know I have accepted the invitation. But only under one condition. The Queen will not be allowed to intrude in our time. If she does, I'll leave."

The word 'leave' held incredibly many implications. And she needed her father to realize that. 

...

The King's palace was beautiful. Decorated with dark stones and mirror work on the walls, accentuated with shades of black and gold, it looked exactly how a shadow King's palace should look like. While her Palace was on the inner side of the royal property, hidden and surrounded by forests, the King's palace faces towards the capital city.  

Shirina stops for a few seconds in front of the massive window on her way to the dining room of her father's palace. She marvels at the faraway buildings down below and feels a incredible sense of nostalgia sweeping over her. 

Choosing to marry the Dragon Emperor was not only a decision she took to save herself but also help her people. She was going to save her country. She had to. That is what her mother would have wanted. 

"Her Highness, please, His majesty is waiting for you."

She takes a deep breath and enters the room, remembering it has been years since she last saw her father personally. She almost assumes she will have to wait for hours for her father to arrive but he is already there. His face is unreadable when they meet eyes. He gestures for her to sit. She takes the chair across him. They wait in silence as the food arrives. 

To her surprise, most of the dishes served are her favorites. It sends a bout of confusion through her head cause why would the food be her favourite. She tries to think if she or her father share favorite foods does not come up with one. It makes her a bit uncomfortable. 

"Is the food to your liking?"

Her hand stutters, but she places the fork down and nods once. "Yes, they are delicious."

They fall silent again and Shirina almost wonders if her father if he never even spoke or their conversation now was just a figment of her imagination. But then he speaks again. 

"Are you free after the lunch?"

Shirina nods thoughtfully. 

"Then we will go on a walk after."

Then they finish the rest of the lunch in quiet and then go for a walk. Walking through the paths of the gardens of the main royal palace, she is guided by her father through a hidden way. 

"Where are we going?" She questions her father but he does not reply and keeps moving forward and soon an ancient building comes into view. It is large, but not massive by any size. And is made in grey stone, carved with ancient symbols and figures of dragons. Their is a weird, calm atmosphere surrounding the building, cool and shady and blue. 

"what..." Shirina turns around, wide eyes flicking all over the place. "What is this place?"

"The first temple of the first shadow dragon - Nyx." Her father replies. Shirina blinks, but enters the place and feels an incredible and indescribable sensation run down her spine. The heavy stone doors slide open when her father touches them. Together they enter the place and it is as dark as she expects for it to belong to a shadow dragon. Even though the area is as dark as it possibly can be, she and her father navigate through the place without any trouble - benefits of being a shadow dragons. 

The Temple impressively bigger than what it appeared to be from the outside. There are massive pillars of thick girth that support the high ceiling. These pillars are inscribed with some language Shirina does not understand. She runs her thin gingers on the letters and to her surprise, she recognizes some of them as the ancient languages of Dragons that her mother would often talk about. She is very invested in the inscriptions that she does not see her father looking in her direction with soft eyes. 

"Shirina." He calls her name out. 

She freezes immediately. How long had it been that someone had actually called her name. She turned to her father, surprised but he gestured for her to come to the wall opposite to the entrance. She walked to him and saw him fiddling with some handle on the wall. And then the door slid open again revealing a set of stairs. Now, they were even darker. Even ordinary shadow dragons will have trouble climbing down them but thankfully, Shirina and her father were some of the most powerful shadow dragons because of their royal blood.  

The deep stairs opened to an open area. It seemed to be an alter of some kind and that is when she noticed the large statue in the center. It was of a dragon. A beautiful, dark shadow dragon. It was not decidedly massive, but slender, with a long tail and sharp wings. The neck was long and the snout. 

"Is this...the first Shadow Dragon? Goddess Nyx?"

"Yes, this is Nyx."

It was obvious that Nyx was female if the statue was accurate. And Shirina thought that the goddess Nyx would have looked beyond gorgeous and beyond powerful. 

"I...did not know something like this existed in the palace grounds ever." She whispers, intrigued, with the statue. 

"Yes, you did not. Only the current ruler or the next heir to the throne are able to enter the temple." Her father tells her. 

Shirina freezes then turns to glare at him. "I am not your heir, father."

He does not reply. Instead he kneels in front of the altar and presses a few blocks. A small stone door slides open revealing a tiny compartment. Her father shoves his hands inside and pulls out a small chest. 

"What is that?"

Her father stands to show her chest when a soft, faint, sweetly familiar smell hits her nose. She stumbles towards him. 

"Why...does this smell like mother...?" Her voice trembles. 

Her father carefully places the chest in her arms and Shirina fells tears gather in her eyes. 

"Because it is Layla's."

Shirina blinked. Why would her mother's belongings be kept in the temple of the royal family? It did not make much sense.

"I am sure you are surprised." Her father continued. "But there is another way to enter the temple as well. And Layla knew about it."

Shirina pulled the chest closer to herself, gripping it tightly. "Does...your wife know about this?"

She gestured to the last of her mother's belongings. He shook his head. 

"No. The Queen is not supposed to know about this. I have made sure she is also unaware of the temple's existence."

Shirina carefully noticed her father's distinction between her mother's name Layla and the Queen. If she were anyone else, they would have seen it as a mark of disrespect. But the way she saw it...it was more like...the word Queen was uttered with more disdain than 'Layla'. She knew such a tiny detail should not mean anything but it did. 

"Alright then," she said, "What am I supposed to do with this? What does the chest have?"

Her father hummed. 

...

As they exited the building together, the chest firmly held in her hands, her father dropped another bomb. 

"Sir Jason will be accompanying you to the Empire." 

"what? Jason?"

"Yes." 

Shirina narrowed her eyes. "Is Jason not the Queen's personal guard? I do not think she will want to relinquish him for me."

Her father avoided her gaze. "Yes, she did not. But then Jason came to me."

Of course, the King's orders are above the Queen's. But why would Jason and her father would go so far and beyond. This changes nothing for her. In fact, it makes her mad. 

After ignoring her for years, these people think they can waltz in to show her kindness and she would accept them with open arms. Or maybe, that was not it, maybe this was the same kindness you show to a lamb that is about to be sacrificed. Ah, did not make that better sense. She thought bitterly. 

Soon after she returned back to her palace, heart, mind and soul prepared to leave her childhood home forever.