13 Love contest

"Darling" Viressi's kissed Wilbur's chin as she plopped down beside him.

"Imagine if I bear your child..." He didn't say anything. He pretended like he didn't hear her, but his reply was at the tip of his tongue.

"Why won't you say anything... You don't want me to be the mother of your child? Am I not a legitimate wife material to you? Or are you not ready to be a father?"

"In case you do have my child growing in you. I want a boy." He got up picking his clothes from the mess they'd both created on the floor.

She placed her hand on her stomach. "Child bearing. That's the only thing that dog looking woman can beat me at" if by chance she becomes Queen it is very necessary she gives birth to the next heir of the throne throne. Which she knew she can't.

Many years ago, she gave her womb to a witch that promised her everlasting beauty even if she's aged. Till date she doesn't regret that decision. It's what made her the woman she is now.

"Maybe that girl will be our source of children. When we have like seven we'll dispose of her" She'd already planned everything in her head. What's left was to hope everything would turn out good.

Viressis put on a bathrobe and made her way out of the King's chamber. She bumped into Amal on the way, but the latter scurried away without facing Viressis.

"I was hoping for some drama this morning" She said watching her until she made a turn and wasn't in sight.

Viressis continued to walk till she got to the dinning room to eat breakfast with Wilbur. She sat close to him, fed him and poured him wine whenever he asked for it. She was pretty much doing everything his wife was meant to do. It was clear to Amal she couldn't do a thing to stop Wilbur from replacing her. She was helpless in the face of fate and had no other option but to accept it.

All she had was her garden. Where she'd like to be buried when she's killed.

"Good day my Queen" She smiled when she saw Gilbert approach. They both walked to her garden and sat on the nearest bench. "Such a lovely weather isn't it?..."

"My Queen, Are you going to let Viressis  continue to oppress you?"

He didn't let her finish her compliment about the weather, he brought up something she didn't want to talk about because she was ashamed of the truth. Her husband hasn't bed her once, she doesn't know his name, he doesn't care about her, and he's lying around with another woman.

"What can I do? Can't you see what he likes? She's a beautiful woman. She has the perfect body, and the perfect facial features. God must've taken his time to create her. Who am I to think he'd love me? My skin is different. He doesn't like my race I suppose..."

"I don't believe that" Amal mentally slapped herself frustrated by Gilbert's ignorance to the obvious.

"The beauty standards here don't favour me and you know it. People don't like me because of my skin. I'm the only one that's this dark in the whole of Ekver. I'm a shadow."

"Never have I found a woman attractive Amal, but I have to say you're unique and beautiful."

She smiled "Thank you, but I'd rather love to hear that from my husband. I really don't mind how I look because I'm proud to be a woman from Tyri. I just don't like the fact I'm considered less human here, even by the king" She played with the hem of her dress as she fought the urge to cry "I just want to be loved."

He pat her back not knowing what else to say that could console her. He felt really bad that she'd have to suffer all this because Wilbur for some reason is punishing her for something he claims her sister did to him.

"Did you have a sister that left your home land for a reason?"

She thought for a while "My father had a lot of wives, and I had lots of sisters."

"What about the one's before you?"

She remembered Someone, Marita, the beauty of Tyri. Amal was still a little kid, about four years old when Marita was taken away on a ship. She didn't understand that scenario till date. All she could tell was that her mother was crying and her father's face was plain.

"There was one, I knew very little about her. She was taken away from home when I was just a child."

"Do you know where she was taken to? What happened to her?"

Amal shook her head. "Why are you asking?"

"There's a chance your sister came here."

"WHAT?!!?" she held his hands, her eyes glittering, "does that mean it's possible I'm not the only one of my kind here? My people should be somewhere hidden right?"

Gilbert wasn't going to talk. Ekver did hold a lot of secrets. He was a bit certain that her sister was brought as a slave, most likely a labour slave. As the female slaves aged they'd most likely end up as bed slaves. They didn't even need to be tagged bed slaves before they'd end up underneath some men.

Telling her that would hurt her and she'd think wrongly of Wilbur's intention of sparing her life.

Maybe during the Slave trading periods, Wilbur and her sister met. What happened between them is surely the cause of the abuse Amal was experiencing.

Gilbert would stylishly gather more and more information about The King's contact with a female slave. He doubt people would know about it. During those years, he was a nobody until the day he stepped up as the new king.

What if he didn't meet her in Ekver? That was possible. He'd known Wilbur for years but at some point he stopped hearing about him for a while till the day he took the crown and assigned him as his chief assistant.

Wilbur was just a normal boy, the poorest of the poor. He earned so little from the little job he had at the food market, peeling carrots and peddling them. He'd get beaten a lot and laughed at for doing that by people his age. Despite all that he still had a smile on his face. That Wilbur was a kind hearted boy, shy and adorable.

Gilbert was a peasant just like him but he'd go out of his way to help his friend from starving. He gave Wilbur half of his food because he had parents that were bringing  a few silver coins home to buy dinner. Half of the food would be enough for him.

For a long time Gilbert thought Wilbur was eating everything he gave him, but the day he secretly followed his friend to a barn, he found out the food was going to his mother. Then he realised he failed to see that his friend was scrawny underneath the baggy sack clothes he wore.

Gilbert was moved and his feelings started growing from that day. Once his mother died. He left and from some Travelers,  Gilbert heard he joined the knights of his father's home, Arda.

Whatever her sister did must've hurt him deeply, but Amal isn't like her sister. There's no guarantee she'd do the same. But that Viressis was a parasite feeding on him. He was just sad that his friend failed to see it. His flaw was his love for those that would cause his destruction, whilst the people that cared for him he would ignore.