Chapter 5

“I love you dear,” Aris said to his wife, kissing her on the forehead as he readied himself to leave. “I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“Be safe babe, Sephi’s gossip of the rebellion has me worried,” Corrine replied, grabbing her husband’s face for another kiss before he walked out the door.

Though Corrine knew her husband was more than capable of handling himself in danger she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of worry each time he left. She hated that nebulous fear, but it was always there. Corrine didn’t want that overwhelming feeling of loss ever again.

But what had been lost?

She couldn’t remember no matter how hard she tried.

Why did it feel worse when she thought of her niece Sephira, whom Aris had taken in as a young child after the execution of her father, Aris’ brother Van?

Aris, confused, overwhelmed, and in the depths of pain, had still found it in his heart to care for Sephira when he had no clue how to. She loved him for that and it had been one of the major things that had drawn her towards her future husband.

Every time Aris took his leave, she was reminded how he must have felt bidding goodbye to his brother one last time before the axe had fallen. Just thinking of her husband’s pain of losing his brother and knowing there had been nothing he could’ve done to stop it tore Corrine up inside.

Whenever she thought of Van’s death, she felt sick inside.

Why?

Why did she feel so heartbroken over the death of a man she had never met?

Corrine never wanted to experience that finality that her husband had when he had said his final goodbye to his brother, so whenever Aris left she would always say ‘see you soon,’ instead.

Aris smiled as she left him with those words.

He had once asked her why she would never say goodbye. “Goodbyes are final, our love will last ‘till death. I’ll never say goodbye until then,” she had whispered in his ear lovingly.

Now Aris’ heart lightened each time she said ‘see you soon’ when he left. It let him know he always had a home. There would always be a place for him to return to.

Aris neglected to take his horse to the keep with him to the Imperial keep this morning. At least once a week he would walk the four miles it took to get to the keep. It gave him time to think.

He needed it today.

In truth, Sephira’s talk of the rebellion had unsettled him. He wouldn’t talk of it, but the last time he had heard the rebellion being talked of so openly had been when his brother had been executed for his part in it.

Talk of the rebellion had disappeared with the death of his brother. That it was returning meant that something was brewing. Aris could feel in his bones that something was going to happen, what with the rebellion rearing its ugly head again and the trouble brewing on the borders where it seemed that at any moment, a misspoken word might start a war, something bad was bound to happen.

Trouble was a pot and it was being stirred. The commoners might not feel it, but the tension among the Imperial Cabinet was nearly palpable. Something big was going to happen, and soon.

Aris had a sixth sense about these things. He could feel the tension building.

Ever since he had found that his brother had been part of a rebellion, Aris kept his ears and eyes open.

He had been duped once, but he’d never allow himself to miss something so important ever again.

Not when the last time it had happened it had cost him his brother. The only person who had ever truly cared for and protected him up until that point.

Aris’ gut twisted in a knot. He could feel the trouble in the air. It was as sure as the mountains that towered over the city. Whatever it was it was something that could potentially change the course of their nation. He needed to figure out what exactly it was.

Quickly