Vow Of Silence

CHAPTER EIGHT

3rd PERSON P.O.V: - -

‘I can’t believe he’s mad about this,’ Pelomina thought,

Begrudgingly following Lykus’ broad back, his gait heavy like he was stomping his way to wherever they are headed that it brought her too much inner turmoil and she couldn’t think of anything else and process her surroundings, forgetting that she has to pay attention to wherever she went to avoid getting lost in the spacious castle.

By now, Pelomina only has a single consistent impression of the man in front of her.

That Lykus Vaustero is her biggest threat and enemy, that he's her biggest obstacle in fulfilling her goals. It feels wrong to see and keep him in negative lighting, but it’s not like the large man was doing anything to alter her view of him.

He’s been doing nothing but antagonize her, Pelomina only wondered why it took her so long to finalize that fact when since the moment he arrived, he exuded the aura of every man in the world who had no other function for women other than to make children.

The lowest caliber of men. So in the mere moments that he led her to his study, Pelomina was planning a sure-fire way to escape the castle, not even interested in knowing who, what, or why the situation between her and the real Pelomina became as it is but to just immediately get out of Lykus’ iron clutch.

'How' is the most pressing question that she had to attend to, but it only frustrates her to realize that she had to make a well-formulated plan, one of her biggest weaknesses. She’s not one to be compared to a bull who charges heard first, but that doesn’t mean she’s any much of an intellect as she is good at acting like a noble lady from the medieval ages.

In both circumstances, she can only do her best and hope it pays off despite having no previous idea how to do so apart from what she knows as common knowledge. Those are, if not fake and made up, just overly dramatized and exaggerated. Something nothing short of fictional and shouldn’t be applied in real life.

Once they arrived at the large wooden doors of Lykus’ study, he pushed the doors open to lead her inside and slammed them shut. His footsteps echoed in the room, like before. He looked displeased. Does he only lead Pelomina in his study whenever he’s crossed with her?

‘What an awful reason to have a study,’ Pelomina thought to ease her nerves, couldn’t help but clench her fists as her palms starts to sweat, Lykus gave her a hard stare, his golden amber-like eyes blazed with annoyance and irritation,

“Ever since I came back, you’ve been acting differently…” he began, taking a seat on his throne-like chair,

Pelomina gulped. This is the worst-case scenario for her. But assuming he’s not someone who kills immediately with no ear to lend for reasoning, Pelomina, in a split second of hopeful thinking thought that there might be a ridiculously thin strand of chance that Lykus would hear her out once she explains this absurd situation to him.

“It’s just… I-I can speak again, isn’t that a big change?” Pelomina started fumbling with the words from the nerves, knowing that this is a big risk, because she doesn’t even know why she can’t speak in the first place. And to prove her worries correct, Lykus gave her a confused yet perpetually annoyed look. It’s starting to make Pelomina think that the man’s resting expression is a permanent scowl.

“Wife… you have been able to speak this whole time,” he reasoned.

A chill ran down Pelomina’s spine, first and foremost stressed, that she had to deal with this kind of confrontation in the first place, with things and issues piling on top of each other, she’s starting to lose track of what to deal with first, luckily Lykus was kind enough to motivate her and guide her on what she should provide a solution first.

His foul mood caused by confusion and frustration.

“Pelomina, what are you talking about?” he queried again, taking a step closer to her.

While the woman in question was in her head running over a million words and hurdling over the great fear of being killed just because she spoke of tongues and lied directly to this man’s face, “I… I…” she started but couldn’t form the proper words.

It’s hard to achieve both the correct answer and the right answer at once. They might seem like they’re similar, but to Pelomina the difference is clear as day,

The correct answer would be what the real Lady Vaustero would say, the right answer on the other hand would be what Lykus wants to hear, and when there’s a chance those two answers are different, and apart from the danger of choosing between the two, Pelomina now has a third issue of not knowing either.

“Speak, Pelomina… tell me, was every word you wrote before, a lie?” he pressed, leaning over her and making her cower as her back hit the wall, his hair and braids draping over his back like an extra layer of his cape.

‘This is it, he’s going to kill me if I don’t speak now…’

“No! I… I wasn’t lying I just couldn’t tell you… the truth… at that time,” she replied, webbing out the lies as she spoke, from this point on she’ll just have to answer his question and try to not delve too much into heavy detail and ingrain every word that she says deep in her memories for later use.

Lykus huffed as he slowly leaned back and straighten his spine, looking at her with a downcast half-lidded gaze, “Then I suggest you tell me now,” he growled,

Her jaw opened and close without uttering a sound, still not forming a cohesive and proper reason, or lie rather, to weave all her past and future actions altogether.

‘This is really bad…’ she thought to herself before gulping,

“I’m not always able to speak… that—that’s the truth,” she replied in a firm tone, or rather as firm as she could sound even with how her hairs were standing on end and her skin feeling cold as ice. And as if her nerves weren’t on fire as they already are, Lykus raised a hand to her cheek, gently making contact and caressing it with the back of his fingers,

“Wife…” he whispered, although his voice remained deep, he spoke noticeably softer,

Pelomina’s breath hitched up as she lightly shied away from his touch, looking away and trying her best to even out her breathing, gulping the lump that was forming in her throat, nervous as she anticipated the lord’s next words. With a sudden jolt, Lykus grabbed her face with one hand and forced her face to turn his way.

“If you think I’ll believe this poor excuse to save your escort’s neck,” he trailed off, his lips inches from her ears,

“I’m not saying this… to save anyone else's neck,” she replied in a shaky voice, the fight-or-flight adrenaline giving her unwarranted courage to defend her name but in her head, she added the words ‘but to save mine’.

“Then what for? Why go through the effort of lying through your teeth for such a pathetic whim?” he asked again, his eyes more sinister than before, more so that he stood behind the windows and the light made his eyes glow with the ambiance, making it look like that of a feral predator.

His jaw visibly clenched as she stared her down, “Are you telling me that this is the truth? That all those moments we shared… and letters you wrote, were all mere... deception?” he growled, his hair falling onto Pelomina’s shoulders with their great height difference.

Pelomina is getting more and more desperate, she started off pretty strong and she’s proud of herself to stand up on the topic like that, given that she’s not defending herself but the reputation of the real Lady Vaustero, it only felt wrong for her to stand by idly while she was being targeted with false accusations. But if only she knew that it would signify harsher weathers, she would’ve chosen to be silent and just wait until it was the optimal time to execute her unplanned escape.

Lykus finally released his hold of her and walked back to his desk to take a seat, she’s been trying to see a pattern in his behavior but it’s either too early to assess such or that the man has one single behavior, and from her observation, it’s just enmity.

Especially to her.

She remained silent even while her back remained pressed against the wall and watched as Lykus placed both elbows on the table, his right hand over his left set of knuckles, “Wife, do you like flowers?” he suddenly asked with a softer tone of voice compared to his words laced with venom earlier,

‘There was no pattern of behavior with this man, just spontaneity.’

She thought as she weighed down the question and somehow her instincts told her that she must humor this man's whims in the meantime, “Yes… Yes, I like flowers,” she answered, making Lykus smile and nod,

“Excellent, so that part wasn’t a lie,” he began, he scoffed as gestured at her from head to toe, “I realized working in the kitchen must be too burdensome… so how about working on the garden instead?” he finished making Pelomina stop the urge to groan and roll her eyes at him,

‘Of course, she thought, biting her lip as she nodded stiffly at her, supposed to be, husband.

“That’s all, rest up and I will personally supervise your work to be done tomorrow,” he instructed and Pelomina didn’t have to be told twice and immediately bolted out of the room, breathing in raggedly as she stormed away from the place like she was being suffocated in the room and finally got a breath of fresh air the moment she left the study.

“Stupid Lykus… I’ll need to hurry up,” she said to herself as she walked away, not so familiar with where she was going but in her path, she’ll bump into a few servants and from then she could just ask for assistance.

Taking back her naïve thoughts of how she thought that this castle wasn't as bad as it is.

Both determined and anxious about what tomorrow has to offer, thinking that anywhere else is better than here.