Chapter 5- Her Lost Hope

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Years slowly ticked by.

Lysandra was being built, starting at the centre, the palace.

People began moving in and these people helped to build. While Eleanora built the inside of the palace, people delicately carved out designs on the walls and painters painted pictures on the ceiling.

The palace no longer looked like it used to but Eleanora didn't mind. She had visions of her time in this place, running through the hallways on the back of Apollo, getting scolded by Selene, being thrown into the air by Arturo and so much more.

She stood at the main entrance of the palace and smiled with a trembling lip at the beautiful building that she had worked hard to rebuild.

She had found a few of her belongings and either threw them away or put them all away in the secret hideaway where she had her last meeting with Arturo. She did it discreetly then sealed the place up and not even Atticus knew of it.

"Eleanora, stand next to me," Atticus called, outstretching his hand for the young woman.

"Why?" She asked.

He was now 30-years of age, it's been 5 years since both Atticus and Eleanora met but Eleanora looked the same as the day she had met him, the only difference was that her hair had grown longer and she used to walk around with it trailing behind her but one of the ladies had forced her to tie it up into a ponytail so that at least it wouldn't drag behind her.

Construction work is all being done faster than Atticus presumed and today was the day where Lysandra become known as an official Kingdom. A good few hundred people have moved into the city too, including Atticus's family and he was feeling proud of himself.

Eleanora was busy working on the palace when his family came to visit but they caught a glimpse of her and Atticus used that chance to introduce her as his future wife without her notice.

Up until today, an entire year since that ordeal and Atticus's mother was still planning their wedding and picking out baby names in which Eleanora was oblivious to.

"Because none of this would have been possible without you, my queen," He grinned, taking her hand and sitting her down on the chair before he went to stand behind her and smiled at the painter who immediately got to work.

His hands rested on her shoulders and she turned her head to give him a confused look but he held her chin and faced her forward, leaning down beside her ear to whisper.

"I know you're not my queen, not yet at least," He whispered and she turned her face to glare at him and he chuckled, leaning in to place a kiss on her cheek.

"I can't be your Queen," Eleanora replied, rubbing her cheek where he had kissed.

"Why not? You'll no longer be immortal when I make my wish so we can both live happily together and rule this Kingdom that we worked so hard to create,"

"That's not it. You're the King, the people only see you as their King and if you wish to see Lysandra thrive then it's best you marry someone you can create an alliance with," Eleanora explained.

"I'm thinking of expanding. What Kingdom only has one city? We'll call this city the capital of Lysandra and then we can expand and create more cities. What do you think?" He effortlessly changed the subject.

"It is your choice," Eleanora replied.

"Hmm. I'm thinking of naming one of the cities Eleanora,"

The mage was caught off guard and choked, spluttering and turned to give Atticus a shocked look and the painter coughed, voicing his annoyance and she turned back to her original position.

"You can't do that," She simply said.

"Why not? I am the first King of Lysandra and you are going to become my future Queen so it only makes sense that I name one of the cities after you. If you don't like that then how about a palace? Or should I rename the whole Kingdom Eleanora," Atticus chuckled and Eleanora's glare was answer enough for him.

"Okay, I understand. Then we'll just stick to this painting... and a statue of you,"

"Atticus!"

"It's already in the process of being created so it's too late to say no," He leaned down and pecked the top of her head, laughing at himself.

"You've got your work cut out for you with this mischievous lad as your husband," The painter chuckled and Atticus laughed along with the man.

"Yes, she does," The first king of Lysandra said, smiling down at the grumbling figure of the woman he loved.

A few years later, Atticus was forced to marry the princess of another Kingdom under the pressure of his people since he was growing older and still had no heir.

He constantly asked for Eleanora's hand in marriage but the mage's response was always the same, no. She would not marry Atticus until he set her free but he wasn't ready to set her free and so, the years continued to pass.

While Eleanora didn't age, Atticus grew older, now at the age of 45 with 2 children of his own, both being male and his wife having passed away during childbirth.

Lysandra grew, expanding it's military, getting richer and more diverse every day. People were born, people died but Eleanora stayed the same.

"What's happening?" Eleanora asked as Atticus led her through the hallways and out onto the balcony.

"Ta-da," He chuckled and stared at the mage's reaction as her jaw fell agape and she stared at the scene in front of her in complete shock.

"W-What is this?" She asked.

"The festival of Eleanora. I would have liked for it to happen on this day every year but you wouldn't like that, so instead, it's going to happen every 5 years,"

"It doesn't make it any better... but why 5 years?" She asked curiously.

"I like that number. It's the number of times I proposed to you and you said no every time," Atticus chuckled with his hands behind his back and Eleanora didn't understand why he liked it. If anything he should dislike it.

"But don't worry. I won't ask for you to marry me anymore, it's too late for that now for I am an old man and you are still a young, beautiful woman," He smiled at her.

"After I set you free, you can marry one of my son's if you want. Everyone knows they're quite taken with you," Atticus's oldest son was not much younger than her at this point but Eleanora still found it weird.

"I'm going to war tomorrow and after the battle, I will set you free," He smiled at her.

"Keep me safe, Eleanora. That was the promise," She scoffed with a light laugh but nodded either way and he leaned down to hug her.

Eleanora wasn't able to keep the promise.

Atticus died in battle and the contract was no longer void.

Eleanora fell asleep and returned to the sword which vanished and she's been asleep for 300 years after that and still is.