“Episode 18”
As soon as Aris arrived at the duchy, the atmosphere was tense.
“You’ve come just in time! Hurry. The Dowager Queen has asked for you,” the chamberlain said.
Aris stepped out of the carriage and ran into the mansion. She climbed the stairs, out of breath, and saw Lance guarding the entrance to the Dowager Queen’s chambers.
“Has Her Majesty awakened?”
“Yes. I just greeted her a moment ago. She is very clear-headed and is asking for you,” Lance said, sounding mature for his age.
Aris caught her breath desperately. She didn’t want to appear disheveled when meeting Sophia.
“Take your time. I’ll be waiting here,” Lance reassured her.
“Thank you.”
Having barely composed herself, Aris entered the Dowager Queen’s chamber with trembling anticipation. The bed, usually shrouded in dark curtains, was now open, and the room was brightly lit by candles. Most notably, the Dowager Queen Sophia, sitting up against the headboard, had clear eyes.
“Grandmother…!” Aris ran to the bed like a child and took Sophia’s hand, on the verge of tears.
“Yes, Aris, my dear. I dreamed you were coming.”
Aris nodded, biting her lip at Sophia’s gentle voice.
“It felt like a very long dream. Or perhaps just a moment… It doesn’t matter,” Sophia said wisely and calmly.
Sophia’s aged hand precisely touched the spot on Aris’s neck where a shimmering fragment was embedded.
“You can see it, can’t you?”
Sophia nodded with a kind expression.
“Sit up straight. Time is short, so show me your smile, not your tears.”
Her voice was just as affectionate as Aris remembered. Pushing back her tears, Aris sat by her grandmother’s side.
“Meeting you… it wasn’t a dream, was it?” Sophia gazed sadly at the gleaming fragment in Aris’s neck.
“Do you remember? Everything you told me?”
“I remember some things… It’s like a dream, but also not… It feels like a fog. Perhaps I wished it was a dream,” Sophia said with a steady voice, momentarily forgetting her illness. Aris couldn’t believe this dream-like reunion and couldn’t take her eyes off Sophia.
“You’ve been through pain…” Sophia’s simple words touched Aris’s wounds. As tears welled up, Sophia’s warm hand comforted her, offering immeasurable solace.
“Aris, dear. Look at me,” Sophia said, rolling up her sleeve and extending her left wrist to Aris. At first, Aris didn’t understand, but soon she saw the shimmering fragment.
“No way…”
“Yes, the bloodstone is real. You can see it now, can’t you?”
“Did you use this too, Grandmother? How, why… What exactly is this?”
Aris’s pent-up questions poured out.
“I’m sorry, dear. I too inherited this mysterious stone… I never fully understood where the legend ended and the truth began,” Sophia admitted.
“But you used it!”
Sophia nodded.
“I too faced despair. Then, one day I found myself back in time.”
There was no time for a long story. Aris had already seen despair; there was no need for further explanation.
“Past stories are unnecessary. What I saw in you is…”
Sophia was silent for a moment, unable to speak.
“You must be confused. The fragment within you radiates such dreadful despair and boundless sorrow. I thought it was a nightmare. I hoped it was,” Sophia said, unable to see exactly what Aris had lived through, but sensing it.
Hesitating, Aris slowly began to speak.
“I… I was just going to end it all… before I turned back time.”
Sophia’s grip tightened. Her granddaughter’s misery was a deep pain for the old woman, whose days were numbered.
“My dear, listen carefully because time is short. What I gave you is said to be a dragon’s bloodstone. I don’t know if that’s true, but it has the power to reverse events.”
“Really…?”
“No one knows when or where it came from. It’s not necessarily passed from mother to daughter… it seems to move from one destined person to another.”
“A dragon? That’s just a legend.”
“Reversing time might require a legendary power,” Sophia replied with wisdom.
“I’ve spent my life trying to uncover the stone’s origin, but I know nothing. What I do know is that the fragment is invisible to others… and that the term ‘bloodstone’ might obscure its true nature.”
“Its true nature?”
Sophia coughed, but refused Aris’s hand when she tried to help.
“My mother knew nothing either. She passed it to me as a legend. Probably… nothing happened most of the time.”
The bloodstone reacted to moments of intense despair, pain, and the soul’s desperate cry. It could be called many things.
“Aris, I too thought it was my delusion at first. But… everything except me proceeded exactly as in my previous life. Natural disasters, wars, even plays unfolded the same way.”
“Then, have I… come back in time?”
Sophia nodded, and at the same time, she felt her own death approaching. It was said that only one person in each era could be the stone’s master, and previous masters didn’t live long. But she didn’t want to share that sad truth.
“This is reality. It’s your past and the future you will write.”
“Can I change it? My fate? My life?” Aris asked desperately, striving to change her future. She hoped it was possible.
“I changed mine. That’s how I had your father and you. So, you are the proof. The future can be changed.”
“Then, what about people who can see this sparkling fragment?”
“They are, like you and me, users of the bloodstone.”
“No, I mean someone entirely different.”
Sophia looked very puzzled.
“When you saw me before, it was as if you saw where I came from,” Aris said.
“Did I say that?” Sophia looked puzzled. But Aris continued.
“Is it just a coincidence? What if the person who recognized this fragment happened to play a significant role in my life?”
Aris’s voice trembled as she asked. Sophia narrowed her eyes for a moment, then grasped Aris’s hand with both of hers.
“The only truth I know is that there are no coincidences with this bloodstone. Perhaps… this bloodstone itself is fate.”
“I don’t know, I still…”
Unfortunately, Sophia couldn’t know everything. It might have been too much to expect any human to understand from the beginning.
“I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”
“No… it’s alright.”
“The bloodstone doesn’t necessarily make its bearer happy.”
“No one knows… but it did let me escape the worst of misfortunes.”
Aris’s blue eyes, stronger than Sophia remembered, reflected her determination. Sophia smiled softly. There were no more worries. Legends and truths didn’t matter. Aris’s fate was hers to shape.
“That’s all that matters. Trust your instincts and intuition. And don’t doubt that this world was your past.”
“Yes… I’ll remember that.”
Sophia had wasted time thinking she was delusional. But Aris’s gaze was far stronger than hers had been.
“Now I understand that everything is destiny.”
Sophia smiled and took out a small bundle from her bosom. It was a familiar item to Aris.
“This, it’s right that I give it to you.”
It was the bloodstone that had ended Aris’s life in the past. Before becoming Empress, Aris had received it from Sophia, and now it found its way back to her hands in this life as well, as if it were the will of the bloodstone itself.
* * *
Sophia fell into a deep sleep, saying she was tired. Aris left the chamber reluctantly, clutching the bloodstone Sophia had given her.
“I want to be alone.”
Leaving those words behind, Aris secluded herself in her quarters, fingering the bloodstone.
“I chose death, but turning back time… that was the power of this bloodstone.”
Sophia had said she didn’t know the true nature of this mysterious stone. Perhaps it wasn’t that Aris chose her fate, but that the bloodstone chose her.
“I’ve come back in time, and it’s in my hands again?”
Of course, the stone gave no answer. Instead, there was a knock on the window, a now familiar sound.
“Fell, did you fly here in the rain?”
-Caw.
The bird, once intimidating and black, now seemed rather cute. Aris untied the letter from Fell’s leg and poured some milk for him. She recognized Richard’s handwriting immediately, matching the divorce papers she had hidden.
“I have no idea what he’s thinking.”
But, unlike Patrick, he didn’t seem deceitful or hypocritical. On the contrary, his honesty was almost disconcerting.
“That’s better.”
Aris sighed and began to read his proposal again. There wasn’t much time left.
