Honey : The Empire's Treasure 364 Want to Mee

"….Are you alone?" Mika lean into the screen and lower her voice.

Lyra looked away from the monitor and to the side. Mika could soon see Pia leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

"Okay...speak."

"I am with Prince Ailwin, on his military vessel…"

When her mother didn't say anything, so she continued.

"...The King had sent Ailwin on a mission, which was really a plan to kill him. I took a leave from the academy to help him…"

"Why did you go?"

"...to help-"

"No, Mikaela. Why did YOU have to go to help him? I'm sure the Prince Ailwin has many soldiers under his control and allies to help him. Why did you involve yourself?"

 Lyra was angry. She knows what the Royal family and their followers are capable of. She wanted her daughter nowhere near them.

"I...I wanted to help him…" Lyra didn't like the sound in her daughter's voice when she spoke of helping the Prince nor the look in her eyes.

"You like him?" 

"I think so...I want to tell him, mom." Mika stared at her mother's face through the monitor.

Lady Lyra could see her daughter was heading down a difficult road and she wanted to stop her.

"Mikaela, don't you wonder why I have never told you about my father?"

At first as a fledgling she did, but having grown up in an orphanage in her past life, she knew that if a person doesn't talk about their family, there's a good reason for it. So, she never brought it up.

"My grandma kept my mother from civilization for a long time. In fact, she raised her inside that cave I showed you. Unfortunately, my mother couldn't stand the isolation and would constantly sneak out to the nearby towns and villages. 

One day she met a man, who swept her off her feet and wanted to marry her. Of course, my grandmother said no and took my mother away from the town, separating the two.

For a long time, mother was unhappy and depress until she realized she was pregnant with me…"

Lyra stopped for a moment recalling her memories before continuing.

"When I was born, I'm sure it mended the relationship between the two. There were smiles and laughter in the home, but my mother would always get this daze look on her face from time to time. It always made me wonder what she was thinking about. If I had known that that look was lovesickness, I probably wouldn't have asked about my father… It was a taboo subject between my mother and grandmother, but the curiosity of the young me didn't realize it then."

Lyra picked up her now lukewarm tea and took a sip.

"It seems, me asking about my father was what broke my mother's will to stay away. She left me and my grandmother one night, saying she would return. My grandmother couldn't stop her.

With each day that went by with my mother gone, my grandmother would get increasingly jumpy. It was to the point wher she was afraid of her own shadow. 

Finally one night while I was sleeping, she carried me back to the cave and told me wait there as left me as well… A day past and then another, I was hungry and upset at being abandoned by both of them, so I left the cave to find my way back home." 

Lyra's face turned somber, "When I reached the house, it was no longer a place I could return to. A group of people had surrounded house with torches as a man pointed at my mother saying, "...that's her and her mother" my mother was crying at his feet.

My grandmother had saw me standing in the crowd and gave a silent warning to stay away when I wanted to run to them. However, before I could ignore her warning, she stood up and walked to the man. Raising her hand, she gave him a resounding slap across the face."

"My daughter is too good for the likes of you. It was her misfortune to have loved you." Those were the words out of her mouth. It was then that I realized that the man, who told our enemies were my mother and grandmother were, was really my father. It seems my mother went to find him, but was betrayed instead… I don't believe I need to tell you what happened next…"

"No, you don't." Mika didn't want her mother to relive any more of that nightmare.

"You can never be too sure of who you can trust, especially when your heart is involved, Mika."

Mika stay quiet for a while thinking of her mother's words before asking, "Is this why you don't trust father…?" 

Prior to leaving for the academy, both she and Lady Lyra knew that Lord Mano had been checking up on her mothers comings and goings.

"I swore to never let foolishness destroy my family again, Mika… Keeping your father out of this is the best option-"

"Is it?" Mika was asking this more to herself than to her mother.

"Yes, it is. You don't ever want to feel that kind of betrayal in your life, Mikaela."

The room went silent once again as Mika thought about it. Lyra kept quiet when she saw her daughter considering her words.

A few moments later, Mikaela spoke.

"I want to trust Ailwin… You have been struggling by yourself on egg shells because you won't trust the person you love, but I don't want to live like that way, mom."

Mika stare at her mother's face, "...nevertheless, if you don't want me to tell him, I won't…"

The resolution in her daughter's eyes told Lyra that her daughter has already made her choice.

"Fine, you can tell him...after I meet him for myself, face to face." Lyra ended the comm with that and cut the connection.

Mika stared at the blank screen, sh*t Ailwin is so screwed.

Chapter end