forum The Queen and her Bear (Reboot) // OxO // Closed

Started February 02, 2020 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

(Sorry it took me so long lol. Motivation is severely lacking)

Blood stained the floor of Jacos' room, which Kade noted instantly when he entered the room. He knelt to one knee, expressionless, although the scent filled the air. "You called for me, my king?"

The older man smiled and tapped his fingers together, wearing nothing more than a robe. He sat on a chair next to his bed, and Kade couldn't help but notice that Arin was laying on the bed, still. He felt a wave of panic for a second - was she dead?! - before she moved slightly, and he let out a quiet breath he didn't know he was holding. "Sir Kade. Will you tell the maids not to come in here today? My wife and I are having some… quality time. You're intimidating, so they'll do what you ask."

The horror of the blood and the implications of Jacos's words made Kade's teeth clench in disgust, holding back bile. "Of course, Your Majesty. Is there anything else you require?"

"No. I'll call for you again when I need it." He waved his hand dismissively, and the hunter stood.

Just like a common servant, he seethed as he stepped out the door. But he deserved much, much worse. This was nothing.

Outside the room, he bumped into the only maid who seemed to care about the queen, the one who wanted to help her but couldn't, the powerless one. The one with the same eyes he had. She met his gaze, eyes filled with revulsion and confusion.

He deserved that look. "Nix, be careful in there. He's-" his voice cut off, and he shook his head. "Help her. Please."

"Get her out of the mess you made?" She asked scathingly, and he flinched.

(it's fine!)

Arin was curled on the bed, her back to the door. She didn't move when she heard Kade enter the room; there was no reason to. Her whole body ached, and there were bruises all over, along with some cuts. Jacos had not outright tortured her; it wouldn't be a good look, but he saw no issue with beating her until she could hardly move, or throwing her down on the bed and using her. She was lucky, she supposed, that her maid had been slipping her a contraceptive tea, to keep the king from actually getting her pregnant. She knew that, were she to bear a child to Jacos, and the child was male, she likely wouldn't live longer after that. All Jacos wanted from her was an heir to further legitimize his reign.

"Go. Just go. You've ruined it enough already. I thought you had a plan, Kaden." The maid's voice was venomous, and Kade winced at her use of his name. He didn't even try to deny anything.

"I do. I did." He ran a hand through his hair and turned to go. "I-I'm sorry, Nixie," he said as he left, tongue stumbling over words he wasn't used to saying.

The maid, Nixie, shook her head, evident fury in her eyes, before she stood by the door, waiting. After Jacos left, she stepped into the room, holding back a scream of horror at the sight of the room and the condition of the queen. She set her tray down and knelt next to Aris, shaking. "My lady. Aris. Are you okay? Can you sit up?" She helped the queen sit up and then started a bath and helped the queen in. She tore the sheets off the bed, cleaned the floors, and scrubbed at the bloodstains on the wood boards of the bed as best she could, seething all the while.

"I'm fine." she breathed, though she clearly was not, not when she winced with each small movement, not when she curled up again once she was in the bathtub, silent and pained. She was already a far cry from what she had been, when she was first brought here. She was breaking, or was already broken, from Jacos's treatment of her.

Nixie glared angrily at the portrait above the bed, the one of Jacos and Arin, on their wedding day. Her lips twisted into a scowl, thoughts turning to the man who had brought the queen there in the first place. That sonovabitch, she thought furiously.

After she finished cleaning, she pulled out a first aid kit and helped the queen out of the bath, helping her dress and treat her wounds. She started to hum a little lullaby from her childhood, one to sooth and comfort. She handed the tray with the now-cold contraceptive tea and a slice of toast. "Eat, my lady."

Arin could only stare at the things for a long moment, before she reached out and took a small sip of the tea, knowing that that, at least, was important. She needed to drink that. If she didn't…she really didn't want to bear Jacos's child. But she wasn't sure she wanted to eat, nor that she was even capable of it.

The queen didn't touch the toast. The maid sighed and let it go; she knew that there wasn't much she could do. Maybe she would bring Arin a fresh meal soon, some hot broth or something filling and light.

Arin sipped at the tea silently, closing her eyes and letting out a faint breath. She didn't speak, just sat in the warm water with the tea in her hands, sipping at it every now and again. She looked thinner than when she had arrived; the muscle she had had from living in the forest had shrunk and faded away.

Watching the queen drink her tea slowly, wearily, Nixie's anger grew. How could such a mighty woman be brought down by this? How could she be so- so broken? She thought of the bastard who had brought Arin here in the first place. Kaden Vyldburn. That nasty, no good, lying sonovabitch deserved to rot, to die in pain, slowly. She dreamed about dragging her nails across his face as she finished cleaning and helping Arin dress.

Finally, she bowed. "Is there anything you would like, Your Majesty? A book, perhaps, or something to draw with?"

She shook her head faintly. "No. Thank you." her voice was quiet, hushed and soft. She wanted to go home, but where was home? Was it the forest she had lived in with Ryke? But that did not feel right. Was it here, then? The palace where she had been born and now lived again? But this did not feel like a home, either.

"Don't thank me." The maid helped her into the Queen into a chair, started a fire in the fireplace - it was getting gradually colder - and slipped out of the room. She was shutting the door when she saw a package laying by the wall, hidden in shadow.

She knelt down, examining it, and her lips twisted into a scowl when she noticed the handwriting on it. All it said was, to Queen Arin, but she would have recognized the handwriting even if it had been scribbled over. She was about to throw it away when she heard a light clunking. She opened it.

It was more contraceptive tea, which the kitchen had been running out of.

She glared at the package, but hoisted it under her arm and went to hide it in her room.

Arin curled up on the chair, a soft blanket wrapped around her body, her gaze fixed, slightly unfocused, on the fire. Her damp hair hung around her face; it was longer than it used to be. Jacos was making her grow it out, and often made her put extensions in it when they were in public. He said it was not lady-like for a woman to have hair as short and raggedly cut as hers had been. She used to cut it with a sharp rock, just to keep it short and out of her face. It was now slightly longer, and professionally trimmed so it would grow out evenly.

(yeah np)

It had been another month or so. Arin was hardly seen in court anymore, and when she was…well. Most days it was in long sleeves and high collars, hiding the bruising from Jacos. Alternatively, when there wasn't any bruising on her throat, he would put her in dresses with plunging necklines. No matter what she was wearing, though, he would often touch her whenever they were alone for even a moment, his hands wandering across her body. She didn't have any fight left anymore, and would just let him do as he wished. He didn't hurt her as much when she didn't fight. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and her eyes looked lifeless. Dead. Glazed over like a doll's, and that was exactly how Jacos liked her. Cowed and broken and perfectly submissive. A token to placate those who had said he had no right to the throne, and, to those who opposed him, a symbol of what happened to his enemies. He had made her grow her hair out, too, and where it was once chin-length, it had now crept longer. When she appeared in public, he often had the maids put extensions in it to make it even longer, saying that short hair was unbecoming for a woman.

In private, Arin hardly did anything. Most days she barely left her bed save to bathe, or if Jacos ordered her to get up. Mostly, she just lay in bed and slept or stared, empty-eyed, at the ceiling, waiting for him to come and use her as he wished. Something was always aching, whether it was bruising or other. It was easier to just not move. She had lost a lot of weight, too. Most of the muscle she had had was gone; Jacos had said it was unbecoming for a woman and had essentially starved her to get rid of it. He liked her smaller anyways. Made her look more fragile, and he liked that. He liked that he was bigger and older and stronger than her. Liked that she was so broken she didn't fight him anymore, no matter how hard he hit her, no matter how roughly he took her on their bed. Liked that he could grope her– and worse –in plain view of servants and she could no longer bring herself to care.

Today, he had had to bring her to a public appearance. The court wanted to see her at least once a month to ensure she was "alright". No one really cared, they just wanted to know she was alive. So he had had her dressed up in a dress with a deeper neckline than she ever would have been comfortable in, and extensions were threaded into her hair and done into an elaborate style. Make-up was put onto her face, along with a few bits of natural make-up to cover some light bruising on her neck, and then they had appeared in court, her arm threaded through his and her eyes downcast. To someone paying close attention, it would have been obvious that each step brought pain. Jacos was becoming more and more frustrated with her lack of pregnancy, and had been taking it out on her rather violently.

Kade hid a yawn with his hand, uniform was so black it seemed to suck in all the light. He was standing next to the door in to the Queen's room… although she wasn't really a queen. More of a puppet, really. Or so he had heard. He had been gone for the last couple of months, working on cleaning out the crime central of a city. Or so Jacos thought. In reality, though, the man was working on building a Guild of spies, informers, thieves, mercenaries, and assassins. They would be trained, and they would be better than those people formerly known as rebels. The ones who had been wiped out ages ago.

But now he was back, back to see what was going to happen next.

When Aris walked out of the room, arm-in-arm with Jacos, he almost cried aloud. When he had first met her, she was strong, slightly muscular, and incredibly fierce. There had been a fire in her eyes that made him admire her, even if he hated her guts.

But this… this was a shell of what she had been.

No longer was her hair short. It was longer, but without the healthy sheen before. Her body was skinnier than a stick, and her arms trembled as she walked. And her eyes… they were dead, lifeless. There wasn't any pain, there, any emotion. Just blank submission.

He felt horror roar through him, especially when she stumbled slightly, wincing at the apparent pain in her limbs. He watched the two continue down the hallway for a moment before following. He needed to get her out later. This wasn't safe. She was being eaten alive from the inside.