Chapter Eleven.

"I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have brought him here, Sif!" Fiora scolded at Sif who could only reply in plain silence. Aiden just stood over without uttering any word.

"Since you have chosen to be so foolish, do you think everyone else would wish to follow in your path?" Clement questioned with cold eyes.

"So what? You're here to take me away again?" She asked, not meaning to yell but the fear in her voice forced her tone to increase more than intended.

"No, Fiora," Sif replied and her eyes turned to him. "He wants to help."

"Help?" Scoffed Fiora.

"He said he wants to help." He repeated again, though with little assurance.

Fiora advanced closer to him."What are you talking about? He's only fooling you." She pointed out, whispering to him.

"He said he wanted to help. It did surprised me as well, but I never quite knew exactly why. But I'm sure he has good intentions." Sif continued to explain lowering his voice and Fiora added her own bit of objections as well, making both of them sound like some top royal assassins working on their next hunt. Clement and Aiden stared in silence, watching them say things to themselves like no one else was around.

"How can you even trust him? Asides that he's your father, but how can you trust him?"

"Because he's my father-"

"I've had enough already!" Barked Clement, causing them all to shift in surprise. "Right here, right now, you're all going through tell me what you have been planning, and how far you have succeeded." He said, his tone in a demanding one. "Or failed."

It took a while, and a lot of confidence and bravery, but they began talking. Fiora spoke last, explaining the details that had occured to her, down to her fight with Donn. Sif explained how they'd saved the twin, Fiora strictly indicating that she planned to protect them at any cost. Clement listened all through their talks, asked questions when necessary but kept quiet almost all through.

Then Aiden too began to add some of their adventure shared together."...was so marvelous that-"

"Who is this one?" Asked Clement with a furrowed brows.

"Uh, hello sir. My name is-"

"I wasn't talking to you." Interrupted Clement who immediately brought his focus to Fiora.

"Aiden. His name is Aiden and he has helped me through a lot."

He grunted in displeasure. "You should be smart enough not to trust in just anyone. You and Sif are enough together-"

"I'm sorry, but she's not limited to the people around her. It's her choice." Frowned Aiden, rushing his words immediately before Clement could go on further with his statement.

"Shh! Aiden, he's-" Fiora was beginning to correct before Clement waved her off of her words.

"Doesn't matter. Now, we are going to discuss a new plan. Right here, right now." He said with a serious tone. And they listened. "I need you all to be certain of one thing." He stared at their faces and proceeded when he saw interest in their eyes. "There may be no going back. Even the Queen has enemies that are powerful to her, much less any of you here. Fiora, how many friends have you made now, and enemies?"

"So far, you guys are my friends-"

"How many important and useful powerful friends have you made?"

"Ouch." Muffled Aiden, though they all must had heard him because his voice grumbled a little louder than he'd expected. But luckily, they ignored him.

"No offense." Clement added, facing Aiden.

Fiora took her time to think, because Clement was an accurate man. He commanded real statements only. "No one, I'm afraid."

"That's not good. And Ropert did not say anything more than that?"

"Yes. But his tone did conveyed a bit of fear. He was under the influence of Lord Tobin's power."

"Who usually isn't?" Clement muttered under his breath. "Which means you have all been failures at your attempts."

They all stared down in disappointment.

"Maybe not so much of a failure." Fiora said after a brief moment of silence.

"You have only made enemies. That is quite catastrophic."

"No. It's Helen."

"Queen Helen." Clement corrected.

"No one else is here with us now." Frowned Fiora.

"You cannot be so sure. Talking rudely about her majesty is treason. A crime punishable by death."

"Clement. Don't start-"

"He won't." Sif said, looking at his father for assurance. He didn't argue again.

"Helen," Fiora began to say, seeing that Clement reserved his comments, she continued. "She contacted me, just hours ago." She handed him the letter she received. "Here."

It didn't take long for Clement to read through it. "This is her hand writing." He found himself speaking his thoughts outside. Sif took the letter from his hand and read through as well.

"She asked me to pay her a visit. If I go, we might have a way of finding the solution to our problem." She said. "But, if it were so easy, then why haven't Helen-"

"Because she's a coward." Replied Clement.

"What? Why would you say that?" Asked Fiora.

"There's no reason. It's because that's what she is. Helen is scared of a lot of things, most importantly, of Tobin overruling her."

"Then how do we convince her?" Fiora asked.

"Firstly, you need to hear her out, then come back and report to us. But you need to be very careful." He warned because who else know Helen better than he did? "That woman doesn't even trust herself, much less someone else. Especially someone that is bound to overrule her someday." He said.

'Overrule her?' Aiden thought to himself, but decided not to share. "So you leave by day break, huh?" He asked instead, and Fiora only nodded.

"This is a lot to handle. Are you ready for the task ahead?" Clement asked. "Because if you're not, then there's absolutely no way you should even bother getting yourself into dangerous activities like this. Central City can wait." He said. "We would all be at a big loss if we loose you, so you have to be very careful at all cost."

It didn't really make much of a sense to Aiden. She was just a really nice woman willing the do something really nice for the people. Why was Clement making it necessary?

"Fiora is ready, father." Sif added. "We've doubted her for too long now. All she needs now is our support."

Fiora was glad that they were finally believing in her. Only problem was, did she really believe in herself?

"Sif is right. But you must carry me along now in all-"

"Us." Sif quickly corrected. "Us, father."

"Yes. Us." Grunted Clement. "You must carry us all along with your steps now. And trust no one outside of this circle." Warned Clement. "With the well wishes of the gods bestowed upon you, I wish you good luck in becoming our next rightful ruler." He added, then fell to the ground on one knee with a brave heart. "Your majesty." He said, and Sif followed in his footstep. Only Aiden stood still with wide eyes. Clement and Sif both stared with blank expressions, waiting for him to also bowed to their Queen.

Startled Aiden shifted uncontrollably, cursing himself for not had realized who Fiora truly was. Not that he understood entirely, but he saw just how Clement had been speaking to her. He saw just then, how important she was. With no choice, he too knelt on one knee and paid his respect to his queen. "Your majesty."

****

"Your majesty!" Aiden yelled from a corner, after dragging Fiora out to talk to her. Clement and Sif had a serious discussion to talk about so they excused themselves, making Aiden take the advantage of their privacy. "Your majesty? You, your secret all along was that you were a queen?" He made some other repeated claims before taking a brief moment to pause, like something had suddenly dawned on him. "Wait, queen? Which queen exactly-"

"Aiden, stop." She placed her hand calmly on his shoulders. "I am no queen, just yet." She said, watching his eyes stare in confusion. "I am Fiora, the same normal girl that you have known all this while. Please, just trust me and continued to guide me. I will explain everything with time, I promise. In the mean time, I want you to trust me. Please." She pleaded.

"You made a mistake." He said, and she ask a big why. "You're not a normal girl."

"What?" She bursted in laughter. "Shut up, you." She let go but he pulled her closer, placing is hands on her waist. "What- what are you doing?" She frowned, tried to break free of his grasp but couldn't make herself do so. They paused, staring deep into each other's eyes.

"I want to trust you, Fiora." He said, watching her with pleasing desire. Her eyes glowed brightly under the moonlight. "I trust you." He said instead, realizing that he was already so drawn towards her. She had changed him more than he'd ever expected. Even though they'd only known each other for barely some days. "I trust you." Then he lowered his head closer to her lips, slowly and slowly, gripping her waist tighter and was close to brushing his lips on hers. Eyes closed in pleasing relish, and he imagined a wonderful moment together with her.

"What are you doing!?" Fiora pushed him away, almost a little too hard his feet tripped off, sending his buttocks to land hard on the ground after a few staggering.

****

It was a new dawn. Not like a normal other one, but the one that was bound to turn Fiora's life around. Whether it would be for good, better or worse, it was up to the gods and Fiora knew that just well.

She did got prepared in the little way that she could. When she got home, she shuffled her wardrobe to find what she could call a presentable gown. The gown had been a gift from Gregoria two years ago. She had no one around to dress her up as Gregoria still laid on her sick bed. Sif and Clement we're not so much of a good make over people so her dressing look were completely in her hands. Fiora was never the type to care about her looks, but alas! She had to, for the queen's sake.

Unsure of what to do with her hair, she decided to let it loose. After wearing her gown, certain her hair was close to perfect already, she picked up the invitation letter she received from Helen and read through it again. Heaving a deep breath, she frowned a bit, unable to process the fact that she was about meeting her worst nightmare. Was it necessary to meet her? She'd already heard the theory a few dozen times but now it was starting to make sense to her.

Something about; keeping your friends close, and your enemies closer." She saw how the phrase related to her now. Once she could get Helen's approval, and all of her support, she would be another step closer to achieving her goal. She would be strong now. It wasn't really like she had any other choice besides that.

Taking one last minute thinking of how her daring adventurous day would go, she smiled. A cheerful one that hid her fears and created a vivid image of a bigger vision of her goals. She stepped out of her room to meet both Clement and Sif waiting for her already.