"I always knew that the ruin of this family would enter this house through an ice queen, I just didn't think that... She was already among us."
"I'm nobody's ruin! Why don't you help me escape from this place?"
"You have all the freedom to leave as a free person, Yuki. Take advantage of that condition now, because everything is heading towards an uncertain future and that freedom is probably under threat. And I wasn't talking about you, Yuki. You're right. You're not the ruin, but it will be through you that..."
"You don't think Durin will try to stop me from leaving?" Yuki asked without bothering to interrupt his host's madness.
"He won't."
Yuki looked at the place where Tykar had disappeared and turned to the host.
"Tykar made me believe that I couldn't get out of here."
"Please... Sean and Attila. Farida calling the two princes of our people by their mortal names will bring sadness to our people. I think Atila should just have warned Majesty Farida that her decision to leave won't be easy. There are devastating consequences for the health of... Her daughter."
"He's not an experienced doctor. He must have graduated a year ago? Less? I know I can find help for my daughter elsewhere."
The host agreed.
"I'm sure you will. But... What good will it do? If I may ask, Your Majesty? I think you'll always be looking over your shoulder without knowing where the danger is going to come from and even if you're very careful, you're Farida now, no matter where you are in the world. Our enemies are your enemies and they won't be kind to your family, just because you carry that title."
Yuki looked at him, trying to assimilate what he was saying with her plans. She had to risk leaving. She would talk to Sean in disguise and find out what his reaction would be and depending on what he said... She would grab Selytha and take her away.
"I'll have Pharaoh himself decide that question for me." She said and hurried into the palace.
The host looked up and Sean blinked at him complicitly.
He looked away. It might have been a mere impression, but Sean no longer looked like the young man he had known. It was as if something bad had taken possession of his Pharaoh's body.
...
Yuki went to her room and began pacing back and forth while her servant watched her with a tense gaze, but without daring to interrupt her Farida.
Yuki stopped, finally realizing her presence.
"Peaceful! Where's Pharaoh's room?"
She approached cautiously.
"Your Majesty? No woman may visit Pharaoh unless he invites her."
"I'm Farida. I received the invitation to be part of everything in his life as soon as he married me, don't you think?"
The young servant still stared at her in doubt.
"Peaceful!" Yuki said impatiently and the young woman seemed to wake up.
"As you wish, Your Majesty. I will accompany you to the entrance of the Royal Wing, but I will not go inside. Will you be able to find the room on your own?"
"Why don't you want to go with me?"
"You're right. Pharaoh won't punish, because it's his Farida and he's allowed everything, but as for me? I'm just an unimportant servant."
Yuki didn't like hearing her talk about herself like that.
"We're all important, Peaceful. It doesn't matter what job or social position we have. We're people with dreams and plans and the same blood runs through our veins. But I agree that that ogre of a husband of mine hasn't understood that yet. And I promise that I will dedicate my life to showing him that his subordinates are people and that they deserve consideration."
"We'll be grateful, Your Majesty." She said and Yuki realized that she had very beautiful eyes. They were green and big. "But you yourself distinguish us when you call me Peaceful."
Yuki frowned.
"Isn't that your name?"
"No, ma'am. The Peacefuls are the people admitted to work for the Royal Family."
"I didn't mean to offend you."
The young woman smiled.
"You didn't, my Farida. I'd rather you kept calling me that."
"So... shall we go?"
They followed and Yuki realized that they had entered a much deeper part of the palace. It looked like a cave, all dark and windowless. And the walls seemed damp and musty.
"The entrance is just over there, Farida." Pacífica announced, pointing to a golden door at the end of the stinking corridor.
"All right. I can get there." She said and when she looked to her side, Pacífica was already far away. She moved on.
...
Yuki arrived at the golden door and before entering without knocking, she tried, futilely, to hear some sound from inside.
She opened the door and entered a cozy room, with lots of pillows arranged around an oval bed with a huge mirror on the wall behind it. The room contained no other furniture apart from the bed. And it was completely empty. Yuki took a deep breath and made her way to a door that was separated from another room only by a beige curtain. There was a huge table with more than twenty chairs, similar to the table she had been forced to share with her husband's in-laws. The only difference was that both the chairs arranged around the table and the huge benches against the walls were made of expensive upholstery and looked very comfortable. There were huge barred windows and Yuki walked past them, still unsure where to go, as there were several connecting doors. She decided on the largest, double one and continued on her way. She entered a hall and there was a new palace, with more rooms, but dance halls, offices and libraries could be seen. Yuki stopped and frowned. She was in a huge place and hadn't met anyone yet. That was unusual, to say the least.
She went up the stairs and found a corridor adorned with large portraits and started looking at them, and forgot about Durin. She forgot everything. The portraits in that corridor were of women. Faridas from the past. She stopped in front of one that slightly resembled her daughter, although the woman she saw in the portrait didn't have the same blue eyes as her daughter, and Yuki began to breathe faster. The story Tykar had told. The island. The ritual. It was all obvious now. Selytha was the granddaughter of the woman portrayed in that frame. Yuki covered her mouth to suppress her cry of revolt and disgust and prepared to run from the place when she felt hands touching her shoulder. She turned to struggle and run, but saw blue eyes, as blue as Selytha's, shining in front of her.
"Durin..."
"Sean." He corrected. "Didn't anyone warn you that you can't invade the Pharaoh's private domains?"
Yuki straightened up.
"I'm Farida. I can't have any place in my house that's off limits to visitors."
Sean stepped back and put his hands in his pants pockets.
"You're right." He said and Yuki saw the desire shining in his eyes. "You talk about your rights, but you don't seem to be willing to fulfill your duties."
"What duties?"
He reached up and touched her face for a while, before putting his hand back in his pocket. That simple touch set Yuki's heart on fire. She wanted him to continue, but he seemed hurt by something.
"The duties of a wife."
"I'm willing to fulfill all my duties."
"When?"
Yuki looked to the side to try to disguise the redness of her face.
"Why is this place so... Empty?"
Sean stared at Yuki, as if he were looking at a curious object in front of him.
"What did you think? That you'd come here and find totally naked women, dancing or in bed with me, or orgies and booze, drugs..."
Yuki looked away from the woman in the painting.
"Completely naked women, I confess, hadn't crossed my mind."
Sean smiled.
"What about everything else?"
Yuki pointed at the painting.
"Who is she?"
Sean followed the direction of Yuki's finger and the smile faded from his face.
"That's my father's mother."
Yuki felt his world come crashing down.
"So she's Atila's grandmother too..."
"Yes."
Yuki approached Sean and, grabbing his wrists, forced him to remove his hands from his pockets and followed him back to the first room with the oval bed.
"Sean... I have a friend who's having a problem and I think we could help."
"You have a friend?"
"She has a three-year-old daughter and... The child's father doesn't know she exists. My friend is afraid that he'll reject her daughter and... Well, if it were up to you, if you found out you were the father, what would happen to that child?"
"I can't say. It's a complicated situation. If the man is married or loves another woman, she's forcing him to live through something he didn't plan. But... I think that if I were the child's father, I would definitely assume paternity."
Yuki was already cracking a smile when he remembered something disturbing.
"What if one day you found out that the child might be another man's daughter?"
"Is your friend promiscuous? Doesn't she know who the father of her own child is?" Sean asked teasingly.