An Unabridged Memoir - Part 08

Part 8 – The Tragedy

My earlier curiosity at Lady Freiya’s unusual paleness during our brisk yet forceful endeavour of recapturing the kingdom Revelia did not come to be utterly groundless. Two weeks after Lady Freiya was installed queen, roughly ten-weeks after we last set sail from Norath, I discovered a fascinating truth of Lady Freiya’s pregnancy. It came to me as a surprise, as she managed to keep it well hidden from most of us for all the time. However, the way truth visited me was rather abrupt, rather alarming that it almost completely faze me out. If she didn’t collapse during a reading session that I personally attend together with Seth Frederich (of whom by then I had grown accustomed to calling him Fred) on lesson about governing, and if it wasn’t for Jared le Blanc’s extreme panic when he furiously removed her corset, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind of the possible reason for the doctor’s behaviour. My years of training did not help him to shield the truth completely from my observational skill, and in the end, with Lady Freiya’s consent, he described the happenings to me after forcing a vow out of mine and Fred’s mouth that we will never let it slip out and by our tongues. It was delighting news, but tears managed to slip out of my eyes when she said, “you will have someone to call ‘brother’,” with such warm, motherly smile spreading on her lips. It was such a revealing moment as I realized that they did, and had never really thought me as someone foreign, an adopted entity in this odd family, but of course, I held dear and true to my vow of not letting that make me forget my grounds.

Though, little that I know then that that piece of extremely good news was actually the start of tragedy to come.

In regard of Lady Freiya’s pregnancy, we weren’t allowed to mention it to anyone, including to Lord Ladir and others close to us until she entered very well late into her days and hiding her growing belly beginning to be in vein. As days passed by, Lady Freiya began to lose much of her strength, and her days in the royal court began to deflate. At first I made it a point to accompany her to her court meetings when Jared le Blanc wasn’t around, but as her condition deteriorated she began asking me to go in her stead that until one point, I spend more time with the court than with anyone else or anyplace. Lady Freiya remained stubborn about letting Lord Ban learn of her condition, but as things spiral down to such worrisome abyss I decidedly broke my oath and send an informant to Norath to notify Lord Ban of his wife’s ailing condition. Of course, Lord Ban immediately ‘flew’ to Revelia at the news of his wife’s bedridden state and he simply made it before the birth of their first child together. Believe it or not, the first born were a pair of identical twins, whom took many of their mother’s beautiful features but acquired their father’s very wise and calm demeanour as well as his lustrous magnificent golden eyes. Although Lord Ban insisted that Lady Freiya return with him to Norath to benefit through their advanced healing technology, our queen’s sense of duty did not let her abandon the kingdom she vowed to protect with her one life and she fiercely refused her husband’s invitation. In the end, Lord Ban left Revelia alone, leaving behind the twins to be taken care and looked after by their mother. Little that we know that it will be their last meeting for the two lovers. After Lord Ban left, although with the advanced knowledge of elf’s medicinal studies, her condition continued to deter, up to a point she completely lost her mobility and freedom. After two years of great, endless suffering, Lady Freiya passed away on one beautiful morning, three days after I graduated with flying colours from my medicinal studies, short a few days to the twin’s birthday. Lord Ban greatly mourned his loss, and he never made it to attend her funeral. When he finally arrived, not any of us could look at him in his eyes, for his sadness was so apparent and real that none of us will ever survive looking at him without having our own tears flowing freely and unstoppable. For two weeks we often found him asleep on Lady Freiya’s tomb, inside the royal mausoleum build on the ground where he was once held captive, day and night. He couldn’t listen to the twin’s pleading voice, their giggles and laughter, their cooing notes. Tears came easily to his eyes, and each and every drop of it, without fail, will give birth to extreme sorrow that wouldn’t spare anyone, rendering them helpless, burdened. For more than two weeks, I lived feeling guilty and wretched, looking over such distraught body and mind of my lord father, and those brilliant, and blinding smiles of unbounded innocence of the twins, as bright as the sun and as pure as the crystal clear spring waters. The kingdom itself mourned for over a month, and Norath, with the sadness of its king, too, joined in the remembrance of their late, uncrowned queen.

With that, ends the extraordinary tale of love between a queen of a kingdom and a king of a different nation, between two kingdom, two race and two continents, across seas and airs. Lord Ban lived on to fulfil his duty to his kingdom, Norath, while at the same time, looking after Revelia in his late queen’s stead and as an aid to her successor, guiding the two nation into prosperity and glorious future. This kingdom, Revelia in particular, could have not lived without the two’s involvement, and this peace could have not been if no love came between them. The love that transcended every aspect, hope, and stigma that may beget such unusual crossing, transcended time and most importantly, rose above all challenge and remained strong as the years pass by. They had now become a legend, as told by the fathers to their children, as an example of perseverance, hope, trust, and of course, love itself.

As I wrote this, nearly twenty-years had passed since the passing of the great lady whose love for both a man and her blood-kingdom was so undying, she eventually fought head on, hand in hand with those she believed in and who believed in her. Years have slowly crept up to me, and my memory, although not as vivid, was still proudly intact. However I realize that the days when I might very well forget every detail of this amazing love story shall one day come visiting, and before it comes, I should have it written down where it won’t fade, where it won’t die, where it won’t lost, eaten by time, buried by ignorance. Such heartfelt sacrifice must not be forgotten, for if it wasn’t for her, this Revelia we know of now will never come into existence, and this blinding and sickening peace couldn’t have ever returned. It was the start of revolution, and revolution, as itself, is an important element in a single nation’s history, and it happens that it was love that brought about this kind of revolution. Without their love, the now Revelia will never have come to be…

In memory of my great late mother, Queen Freiya, and father, King Admarith Noel,

In the remembrance of my blood parents, Lord Isaac and Lady Helena Montgomery,

-    Gabriel-Admarith