William has always liked the cool breeze that came with each nightfall. He would let his eyes trace the dark sky while seated at his terrace, a cup of wine mounted in his right hand.
If that wasn't an option, he would send his men on an errand and have two concubines that would pleasure him for the night summoned, and he would bang them mercilessly till the break of dawn until they could no longer feel their legs.
Those were the days ... and still those days are yet to come, when he fully recovers from the wound he sustained at the battlefield.
Right now he was on his bed, legs stretched out, facing the ceiling. He has not seen any soul outside the walls of his chamber, and soon he thought he might run mad.
Every day, all day, it was one pretty maid or the other coming to clean him up and put his chamber in order before returning back to their duties.
This wasn't the man he used to be; he felt helpless. The war ended with his side taking the victory, but the cost for it in return was at his disadvantage.
After a while of staring into nothing, a knock sounded at the door.
His blue eyes lifted at once, tracing toward it, a sharp flicker of anticipation igniting in their depths. For a moment, he held still.
It shouldn't be a maid, he thought.
A maid would come quietly, timidly—already half-apologizing for her presence.
No, that was not what he needed now.
His sister would do.
She could be loquacious, endlessly so at times, her words spilling faster, sometimes without any meaning. But right now, that was exactly what he needed. Noise. Familiarity. Someone who would fill the suffocating silence and keep his thoughts from turning in on themselves.
The door slipped open, and his mother stepped in.
The hope that had flickered in his blue eyes drained away as if a waterfall had been emptied, leaving only a hollow ache behind. He turned his gaze aside, refusing to meet her, to admit the disappointment that now clawed at his chest.
He started hearing the familiar, relentless tap of her shoes against the floor, striking a rhythm he had long since come to dread.
The sound gnawed at his patience, setting his nerves on edge, twisting his chest with unease.
"I come in peace," she said, coming to a halt just in front of his bed.
Her keen gaze swept over him, straining to catch even the faintest glimpse of his face under the soft, flickering glow of the candlelight.
"You must be aware… that the king… he is in a state from which there may be no return."
Her words hung in the air, heavy and unavoidable.
She paused, letting the silence press in, then turned gracefully away, the hem of her dress brushing the floor.
With casual steps, she made her way to a comfortable chair across the room, settling into it as if claiming a small dominion of calm amidst the storm that swirled between them.
Silence.
That was what she got in return; he was so resentful of her he didn't even want to speak to her.
"By all means, you can continue to hate me...or maybe see me as some kind of monster, even though I wish it were not so..."
She paused, gathering her breath from speaking too fast.
"But make no mistake, I will still perform the duty bound to me as your mother. Even if it means having to pretend there is no string holding this fragile mother-and-son relationship."
He offered her nothing, not a glance, not a word. The resentment sat heavy in him, so thick that even speaking to her felt like a concession he refused to make, but she continued anyways.
"Need I remind you that an opportunity...a great one for that matter…knocks at your very door, but you have refused to let it in?"
She crossed her legs with ease, one over the other, the hem of her gown spilling outward as it settled.
"An opportunity to finally sit on the throne of Decreash, to finally become the king you were born to be."
She struck the nail squarely on the head.
William's brows shot up, then his lips twisted into a pout before breaking into deranged laughter.
It was a laugh stripped of humanity, raw and unsettling, reverberating through the chamber in jagged bursts.
It rattled the air, seizing the space between them, and left his mother momentarily speechless—frozen, caught off guard by the darkness that seemed to have taken root in her son.
"It was about time, don't you think?"
His voice cracked through the remnants of his laughter as he finally sat up, eyes locking onto hers with a sharp, burning intensity.
"All those times you paraded yourself in front of Leah, acting all doting and caring… I knew it wouldn't last long."
"You misread my intentions," she replied, her voice calm but firm, a subtle reminder that she would not be cowed.
"To hell with your intentions!" he snarled, the words spitting from him like venom.
"Nothing you have to say or do is ever good. It is always selfish, always filled with dishonorable things."
He gauged her carefully, eyes narrowing, scanning her every feature as if to memorize the contours of her defiance.
"Have you no shame?"
He arched his brows, tilting his head to the side, his stare sharp and accusing.
"Plotting behind the king's back—wishing death upon him—just so you could ensnare me and seize the throne?"
"I do it for your own good," she shot back, rising swiftly to her feet.
"I see…"
He nodded slowly, the motion soaked in sarcasm, before turning away from her.
"Trust me, Selena would have done the same if she were in my shoes." She stepped closer, her voice tightening with urgency.
"These people have nothing planned for us but ruin. Our days in this castle are numbered. Your end is my end; that is why RagaLeon sent you to the battlefield, to give you a quick death.
"I decided it!"
He shouted the words, thrusting a hand hard against his chest, as if to drive the truth straight through her.
"I was the one who chose to accompany him to battle."
"Needless… It doesn't matter," she said, her voice tightening despite herself.
"If you had died anyway, I would have suffered for it." She took a step closer, frustration bleeding through her composure.
"Do you not care at all about your sister…about her future? No eligible suitors have asked for her hand, and it does not trouble you in the slightest."
"Leah's refusal to marry is of her own doing," he replied flatly. "The king and his mother have nothing to do with it."
At his words, she lost it.
"Are you blind?!" she snapped, the words tearing out of her as she rounded on him, disbelief and fury colliding in her expression.
He was taken aback by her sudden loss of composure, as if the weight of reason itself had snapped under her frustration.
It was almost maddening; how could a simple, logical discussion with him push her to the edge?
"Can you not see the games Selena is playing?" she demanded, her voice trembling.
"She stole the Sea Prince from your sister and had him wedded to her daughter, Helena!"
He remained silent, his gaze fixed on her as she struggled to catch her breath, the tension in her shoulders slowly easing.
Her expression softened, the sharp edges of anger giving way to the quiet reminder of her original purpose—she had come in peace.
"She hates me."
Her voice came in a whisper, brittle and worn. Her fingers tightened in her lap, clutching the fabric of her dress as though anchoring herself.
"That woman… You don't know how deeply she despises me."
Her eyes became distant as she continued.
She could already picture Selena's face in her mind, every remembered slight etched there. "She almost killed you once."
Slowly, she lifted her gaze to William, searching his face for understanding—for belief.
"When you were a baby, she had countless opportunities," she said, swallowing hard. "And she never failed to take them. All of it, every scheme, every quiet cruelty—was meant to uproot you from the surface of this earth."
*You do not have to tell me these things…"
He was still talking, but she went ahead anyway.
"I snatched away her husband's heart… Harris Von Clegane,"
She continued, head bowed, fingers flexing nervously in her lap as if trying to grasp control of the storm inside her.
"He was her first love… she was obsessed with him. But he… he just had to choose me anyway. And ever since, I've been paying the price.
I did everything in my power to keep you alive," she said, her voice thick with emotion.
"You have no idea what I went through."
She lifted her head then, bitterness hardening her features.
"That woman you see holding her head high—kneeling in the temple, murmuring her silent prayers—is a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Her fingers curled into her palms as she went on, conviction burning through her words. "But only I can see it. Not even her own son will ever know who she truly is beneath the pretty mask she wears so well."
"Why are you telling me all this?"
He had turned away from her for a long time, yet he still listened. Somehow, despite himself, he believed everything she said.
She was wrong to claim that only she could see Selena's true colors—he knew her too well himself.
"I tell you all this so that you may be warned."
She exhaled sharply, rising to her feet, limbs trembling slightly from the effort. "I will not be the mother who fails to tell her son who his enemies truly are."
Drifting closer, her voice dropped to a low whisper.
"They are everywhere. Selena has many puppets working for her in this castle—the maids, the courtiers, the guards… even the council members."
She paused, her lashes twitching a bit.
"She has no friends."
She went on quietly, the words filled with certainty. "Only enemies—and pawns she knows how to control."
Her gaze fixed on him, unblinking now, resolute.
"You are her target. She wants to ruin me, and the only way she can do that is through you… and through Leah."
Having said all she could, she felt the need to leave. She turned away from him and made her way toward the door, her steps slower now, burdened by everything she had just laid bare.
She nudged the door open, letting a thin line of light slip into the room—then paused.
Her hand remained on the door, her shoulders stiffening as her eyes darkened, as though one last thought had risen unbidden, heavy and unresolved, refusing to be left behind.
She paused, leaning back slightly, her eyes gliding to where William was seated at the edge of the bed, turned away from her.
"Woe to anyone who crosses Selena's path… For the end is always destruction.
Do not say…you have not been warned."