Behind the Mask

6. The original lie

Liv

I think Avalon felt my distress through our bond, because before I could blink he was beside me, pulling me against his strong chest. After some time, he tightened his hold on me. 

“Liv, what are you doing?” he asked, looking between the door and me, his forehead creased with questions. 

 “Shhh… we are eavesdropping,” I told him using our bond.

“This is wrong,” he huffed into my mind.

I was sure if it was Laius he wouldn’t complain, just be a good partner in crime and rise to the job. 

I think Avalon caught my thought through our bond, he frowned but muttered, “Fine.” 

We kept listening to the talk. Avalon had a very good hearing for a wizard, his senses were all enhanced. I didn’t really understand how he could do it. 

With every word, every new piece of information added to that confused and wicked puzzle, my angst grew. 

I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe them. 

Believe him. I didn’t expect much of father, but Elric… I just couldn’t! 

I swallowed the thick lump in my throat as my eyes burned with the tears I refused to shed. 

Avalon took me in his arms gently, snuggling me into his warmth. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders almost numbly. 

“He just wanted to use me, to achieve peace, to fulfil that flipping prophecy and produce a child, an heir,” I muttered through our bond.  

Now he had his peace and his heiress, Lena. His scheming finally paid off. 

Mom was used as a breeding mare. Drugged, lied to, had her dreams and hopes crushed in secrets and games. 

I was used as well. This was what we were for them, for these both fake snakes! I was so stupid for having believed him, trusted him, loved him! 

“You know that I love you, above anything, right? I don’t want you because of child production. I love our Zorion very very much, but you, my Livia, I love above all things. You are who and what matters most, my sweet queen,” Avalon said in my mind, pulling me even closer to him. 

His touch and his words made me feel better, calmer. But when I heard Elric’s voice from behind the door once again, my rage built up in no time, and soon I was seeing fire.

~ * ~

Mel

“Why didn’t you tell me everything after you learned I was pregnant? And the female of your prophecy was already conceived?” I asked after long minutes of silence.

“There was always danger surrounding you. During wartime, many were against an interspecie mating, you could be hunted, hurt. Besides those that wanted the war to continue, who profited from the war as the weapons and spell traffickers. If they knew about the child you were carrying and the prophecy, you and Liv would be killed,” Elric explained, his voice carrying a gloomy emotion towards the end of his sentence. 

“I was in danger and you didn’t even let me know about it? You didn’t tell me about it? You treated me like I was a little child. No, you both treated me like I wasn’t even a person,” I sobbed. 

My tears couldn’t stay at bay anymore. 

They weren’t only tears of brokenness, they were hot cries of anger. 

“Mel, please don’t tell Liv anything,” Elric asked. 

“What?” I questioned as my gaze met his atypically serious, somber eyes.

“Please don’t tell Liv anything about what we told you,” he repeated with an exhale.

He wanted to keep her in the dark, surrounded by lies and secrets. 

“Do you plan to tell her the truth? Ever? She deserves to learn the truth about her origin, about her mate, and what you have done,” I spoke straightforwardly. My indignation made me leave aside my courtly manners, my strict upbringing. 

“I will tell her everything when the right moment comes.”

He was a king, but he acted as if he were a god. Playing with our destinies, our lives. 

“Right moment for who?” Once again the bitter feeling in my mouth and the constriction in my throat pushed the words forward without the filter of politeness. 

“The right moment for him!” I heard Liv’s voice as she burst into the room. 

Her skin was glowing slightly in a light shade of red. Was it rage? Was it fire?

Avalon was right behind her, his hand on her shoulder. 

“Liv,” Elric called, his eyes opened widely and his body tensing visibly. Now he was as stiff as a rock. 

“Who do you think you are?” My daughter asked through gritted teeth.

“Liv, please… let me explain…” Elric trailed off taking a step towards Liv, but she only moved away, closer to me. 

She heard everything. She knew everything. 

~ * ~

Liv

“You produced me! You made them make me like a crazy scientist experiment. I’m your lab rat. You freaking lied to me all the time, every single day!” I burst out. 

I felt my body grow warm and shake a bit. Was I about to release smoke out of my ears like Laius? 

I shook off this feeling and looked back at him. My eyes were burning with tears. 

I couldn’t turn my face away from it anymore. Well, I knew Elric was the one to tell my father to not reveal his identity to mom, but I didn’t know he had planned and done everything in such a way, to produce me. They drugged mom and used her as a breeding mare for this purpose, to make Liv Experiment 2.0. 

I was a Frankenstein toy!? 

The sting of betrayal cursed through my veins, hot and poisonous. I wanted to erase every moment I’ve shared with him. Every smile, every joy, every o*gasm! They hurt more than anything because they were all fake, all originated by lies and secrets. 

“Love, I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you things that I didn’t think would be helpful to hear or would make any sense,” Elric replied. 

He was trying to sound calm, but I could see the vein popping up on his forehead. 

His calmness, his apparent serenity, only another lie. 

“How convenient! Thank you very much for not telling me the freaking truth that you judged wasn’t helpful to hear. I can’t be with you anymore, I want a divorce!!” I yelled, taking a step towards him. 

Avalon was just behind me, he had me at arm's length. I could feel through our bond, he was prepared to protect me, defend me if the need would arise. But I could do it for myself. 

“You know that isn’t possible,” Elric exhaled. 

“What are you going to do? Force me to stay with you? Will you chain me to a bed or ask your fairy thugs to chant a paralyze spell again?” I asked, mentioning what he did when I was sixteen. The first he saw me, he had me under a paralysis spell. 

The wrong start to the wrong end. 

“No! Of course not! You know I wouldn’t…” he started.

I didn’t want to hear his excuses! I only wanted to erase him from my life, from my memory. But I knew that no amount of Fairy Wine would do it! 

“I don’t know anything about you anymore! That’s what happens when you build everything on lies and deceit, the whole freaking building falls like a sandcastle...What else do you want from me anyway? You have peace, a durable peace, you have your heiress. You don’t need me anymore. You already achieved your goals. All your life’s manipulation and lab work paid off. Congrats! Just forget me n...” I yelled again, as tears burst out of my eyes and my heart clenched painfully. 

“No! You know that isn’t what I want. I want you, I …” he tried another time. 

I wouldn’t fall for that. 

“You ruined it. You can’t have me anymore. It’s over,” I exclaimed. All I wanted to do was to flash away, but I turned to look at mom. I couldn’t leave her with those two. 

“Liv, please!” he insisted, taking a few steps closer to me.

I took two steps back and used my water and air, my Elf elements, to build a thin wall of ice between us. I didn’t want to be close to him. 

Mom stood up and wrapped her arms around my shoulder. 

“Sweetie, let’s listen to the rest of the story. We both have to know what happened,” she said softly. But I could see the tears accumulating in her eyes.

Honestly, I didn’t know how she could keep herself together. 

I sighed and nodded, I had to be here for her, I had to know the truth. 

“Please continue showing me, showing us what happened,” mom sighed, looking between Elric and father.

Elric huffed hesitantly, looking even upset. What more secrets he wanted to keep from me?

“You can’t hide it anymore! You shouldn’t have hidden it, to start with.” My voice was raw anger too.

“Liv... it’s not that. You should and deserve to know it, but not like this,” he was half tension and half plea.

Was it guilt in his eyes? Nah! If he was feeling guilt he wouldn’t have lied for so long!

I didn’t want to hear anything from him except the truth, the entire and real story!

“We have to know it now! We were left in the dark for way too long! No more!” I exclaimed.

Elric nodded at mom and turned his gaze to father. He gave my mom his hand, she sat down once again and lit the candles.

The smoke of salvia raised in the air, the images projected from father’s memory started to form in front of us. 

The truth started to play like a horror movie.