Female Man

Chapter Twelve – His story.

Dark circles were around her eyes with two bean bags below them. Her eighteenth birthday was approaching but she lacked the joy or excitement it came with. “Lillian, your food will get cold” her father reminded. He sat besides her. She turned to him and tested on his shoulders.

A maid came in with a letter. “A Dhanks soldier had dropped it earlier, my Lord” she left immediately. “Hmm, the Dhanks are proposing an alliance? Ahaha, are they scared what happened to Konia would happen to them? Better” the general had howled. Lillian had no expression.

“Yes, Lillian dear. You’ll go with me to the camp to discuss our new alliance” the general stretched to feed her. She barely opened her mouth. A maid helped her with her clothes and escorted her to the carriage. “Last time she was like this was when her mother had died” the maid said to the general.

He agreed, looking at his Lillian pitifully. The general hadn’t visited the camp since he was recovering, there was a lot to catch up on. “Lillian, wait at my tent. I’ll be back” and he headed off to meet his deputy. She sat on his chair and looked around.

She had always been proud her father was Latvian’s general, capable of protecting the Latvian people. But why wasn’t he able to protect her best friend from a magician’s kidnap?

Honestly, she had been angry about her father releasing Amelia like that. What good was an army that couldn’t defend it’s Princess. Even after that magician threatened everyone and spoke rudely, he was still allowed to go free.

“Lady Lillian?” a voice called out.

Lillian dragged her eyes to face Prescott.

“I am not in the mood” she said to him. Why was he calling her “Lady Lillian” now? The boy just annoyed her.

“How has your health been?” he asked. She nodded but kept mute. He walked closer, “I know losing a friend is hard. Well, you can talk to me if you need anyone?”. Why did she feel the sudden urge to laugh!

She turned to him, “Who do you think you are? I won’t need you. Ever”.

A soldier had come into see her father and met Prescott in there. “Prescott, the deputy had been looking for you” the soldier said alarmed.

“Go on now. Be a good boy” Lillian sneered and looked away. Prescott left with the soldier shortly. See continued her thinking on how Amelia could be saved from the hell she was in. Latvian army was reluctant. Was there another way?

The annoying young man came in again. “I am a somebody, you know” he seemed offended. Lillian wasn’t in the mood for an argument so she ignored him. “And one day I’ll prove it. Inasmuch as I am here by punishment by my misdeeds to train in the army, I am still a noble son of my father. You will soon stop looking down on me” he added. Since she said nothing, he went out again.

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Lies. All he had said were lies.

Kiera must have told her a bunch of fairy tales and not the truth. His story had started from a village, he called ‘Kiam’. It sounded Konian and he approved it. Realizing he was somehow Konian disgusted her.

Those backstabbers seemed to hurt her people every time. It was no surprise he was a magician. His real name was Koline and he had lived with his mother who married a fisherman.

He always knew that the man who posted as his father wasn’t his real father. Infact, his mother had once been asked to send him away or kill him but he never knew why. When he got to eleven, he learnt that he was born after a Konian Prince and r***d his mother.

His mother lived with the shame for years till her childhood friend got married to her. The man refused the child but his mother fought to keep him.

Already a curse had been placed on his biological father, the Konian Prince, because he was an unruly and wicked man.

The curse was generational so it transferred to Koline at fourteen. The curse was to be puppets of a witch. Kindly enough, the Konian Prince had tried bearing full responsibilities of the curse but it still had to be partly given to his only heir. Koline tried learning magic to divert it but it made him stronger and remained.

With his powers, he had saved his village from their bad Konian rulers and Kiam was cut off from Konia to stay alone. As reward, his village heads gave out condemned prisoners he could transfer part of the witch’s Trace to, so he could dispense it along with his magical abilities. But the witch’s trace could only get to Royal blood.

The longer the witch’s trace stayed in him, the harder it would be to dispense it. His biological father was said to have e commit suicide. Soon, Koline's mother died. She adopted her name and tried taking Jolly, his stepsister, with him but his stepfather, Sam refused. The village owed him a debt and that was why Sam was the mouthpiece on proposing a marriage with the Royal Princess of Latvian.

None of all those sounded real to Amelia. She was dealing with a witch possessed man. Luckily for her, Kiera said he could only transfer it to a royal. Did he want to send it to her? He said something of using a child since the witch could easily adjust to an adult's body more than a child.

Well, she wasn’t bearing any child for him! Her son won’t be a son of a magician or a witch possessed one, at that. She had more reasons to escape the hells he was in. Koline or Kiera, whatever he was, wasn’t going to be transferring any of his bad luck to her off springs. After all, they weren’t legally married because no priest ever blessed it. She would just run away to somewhere. Another question, where?