Chapter 111 - Blazing Souls

Yvonne gripped the handles of her chair as she remembered something. 

"I realized it was a bit daft of me to react so surprised to finding out about the current Emperor not being the princess's father," Yvonne muttered, "because I had had a hunch about it long ago."

Aspen leaned forward in his chair, his arms on the low table. "Why so?"

"It's weird that there hasn't been a single pregnancy even though the Emperor has had his mistresses for so long." Yvonne shrugged. "There's absolutely no way he hasn't touched any of his women at all. If that was the case, someone would have said something about it."

"So you're saying that the Emperor might be sterile?"

Yvonne nodded, an inspired gleam in her eyes. "Exactly. It's unlikely that all the mistresses would be infertile, so it has to be him. And,"- Yvonne smiled as she remembered- "I've actually confirmed my suspicions not too long ago."

Aspen arched an eyebrow. "How?"

Yvonne looked both ways before leaning in and whispering, "I pretended I was pregnant."

"Pregnant?"

"Yes." She nodded.

Aspen, apparently, still didn't understand. "How does that confirm your suspicions?"

Yvonne sighed. "I pretended to be bearing the Emperor's baby, you fool! Imagine the shock the Emperor's old physician received when I lied to him about it."

"I still don't understand."

Yvonne groaned and slapped a frustrated hand on the table. "Because the physician would be the only person to know if the Emperor is infertile or not! The clear shock and utter disbelief he portrayed confirmed any and all doubts about the Emperor being infertile. Would he have questioned my claim so many times if the Emperor hadn't been sterile?"

Aspen bit his lower lip, his eyebrows bent in a frown as he registered Yvonne's words. She waited for him to realize the importance of her words.

"My God, you're right! How very clever of you," he muttered as he stroked his chin. "But aren't you afraid of the consequences if the Emperor got word of it?"

Yvonne leaned back, her posture relaxed. "No, because the physician gave me his word for keeping silent about it. And if he does decide to betray me,"- Yvonne shrugged carelessly- "I'll just say there was some minor miscommunication. After all, the physician is an old man; the Emperor is likely to believe me rather than him. There's nothing to worry about, Mister, I've got it all covered."

Aspen chuckled. "You really are a strange woman. And please, you may call me Aspen. Being called 'Mister' is just not my cup of tea."

"Fine. Aspen it is." Yvonne sighed. "But what do we do now after we've established that the Emperor was the imposter all along?"

Aspen tapped his finger on the table. "We bring him down a notch. And not one notch, mind you. I mean all the way."

Yvonne's eyes widened as she stared into Aspen's mischievous ones. "How?"

"That," Aspen whispered, "will be for another rendezvous, Goodbye, Your Highness."

He scraped back his chair and went up to the barman. Yvonne saw him pay the man a heavy sum before strolling casually outside as if they hadn't laid out the base of the most insane change of its time.

Waiting a few minutes after he had disappeared out the door, Yvonne, too, took to her feet and left the bar without even giving it a single glance back. As she made her way back to the boutique, she realized that the sun had moved from its place by quite a distance, which meant that from the poor coachman's point of view, Yvonne had been in the boutique for hours.

"Dear God, please don't let him suspect a thing," she prayed as she hastily entered the building through the back door and walked straight out the door as if she had been in the changing rooms the whole time. 

"Your Highness!" the man said in shock as the lady finally reappeared. "Are you alright? You took ages! I was almost going to come in and check on you."

"Yes, well. Shall we leave, then?" Yvonne asked hopefully. 

"But you haven't bought a thing..."

"None of the dresses were to my liking. Help me up the carriage, will you?"

Yvonne approached the carriage steps and the horses upfront neighed with frustration for having to wait so long out in the cold morning. With the coachman's help, she boarded the pumpkin-shaped carriage and finally melted on her seat, letting go of all the built-up tension inside her. Soon enough, the horses started pulling it on the way back to the palace. 

Without even realizing it, Yvonne dozed off.

✿

[Back at what once was Ogden Cove]

After breakfast, the men were immediately requested to dispose of the dead bodies. 

"Take them to the cemetery, throw them in the dumpster, or burn them in the incinerators, I don't give a damn. Just get them out of my house, will you, Hector?" Mama muttered bitterly as she stared at the bloodied bodies in front of her entrance. "And get Sidmund out, too. "

Hector's face crumpled. "But how can we-"

"They're dead!" Mama snapped as she slapped the wall beside her, startling everyone in the room. "Let's deal with it and move on. People die all the time, okay? It doesn't make a difference if a few more do. After all, no one besides us will be affected by this ordeal, not in the whole wide world."

Hector lowered his gaze and stared at the floor. Klyn's face beside him remained emotionless, though I did think I saw his eye twitch. 

"Sidmund was your friend, Mama," Hector said gently. 

"I don't care, okay?" Mama growled as she went back to her room, and before slamming her door in everyone's face, she looked back one more time and said, "Just get them out of my sight."

I could tell it was painful for her to see people lying dead on the floor with bloodied gashes on every inch of their bodies. It probably reminded her of her family. I sighed. 

"You both go up and get Sidmund down from my room," I instructed Hector and Klyn in a low voice, glancing nervously at Mama's room, though her door remained shut. "Sven and I will..." I looked at Sven who refused to match my gaze. I turned back to the two with a sad smile. "We'll wait here."

Nodding, both of them headed upstairs.

"Are you alright?" I asked Sven when everyone else was out of earshot. He looked like he was going to throw up any moment now. A few minutes ago, he had been so animated, but now, it was as if life had been drained out of him. 

"Um, yes," he mumbled as he turned away from me. 

I frowned. "You're such a liar. It's apparent there's something wrong with you. Tell me before I change my mind about being nice." I was just teasing him so he'd open up to me, but I guess it didn't work because he sighed and headed outside.

"I'm going out to get some fresh air," he said.

"Wait!" I called. Gesturing around at the dead bodies, I scoffed. "Who's gonna deal with all of this?" 

"Figure it out," he mumbled before closing the door on me. Just behind me, Hector and Klyn came carrying Sidmund's dead body down. 

"Where to?" Hector grumbled. 

"Um..." I glanced at the front door, hoping Sven would come back. "I think there's a cemetery nearby. It's better if you go out and check first, since I'm not too sure."

The men exchanged glances. Then Hector turned to me. "Look, we can't bury our men at a public cemetery since we're not from around here. And it's a long process to get a place in the already crowded grounds."

"Then what do you do when foreigners like yourself die here?"

He took a deep breath. "We burn the bodies."

I gave a soft gasp. "No way..."

"Yes." Hector gulped. "Is there perhaps an open ground around?"

I wanted to say that I had no idea, but the way I trampled prohibited me from doing so. I could not imagine burning someone even if they were dead. How could one be so insensitive? 

I think I took too long to answer because Klyn reached forward and whispered something in Hector's ear. 

"Fine. Let's do it here," Hector said eventually.

"What?" I whispered.

"This inn has a backyard, doesn't it?"

My eyes widened. "You don't mean..."

Hector didn't even bother to explain the rest, he just lifted Sidmund's body over his shoulder and started walking towards the kitchen, where there was a door that led to the outside.

"No!" I cried. "Not here!"

Hector didn't answer as he twisted the knob to the kitchen and threw the door open. 

"I beg you! Not here!"

He clenched his jaw and remained silent as he headed to the back door. I followed him all the way out to the backyard, which was void of any lush greenery, just like the last time I had seen it. It was just a plain ground laid with soil bearing scarce patches of dried grass. The whole backyard was surrounded by a full coverage wooden fence and at two ends was tied a long piece of rope to hang wet laundry on.

"Hector, don't do it!" I called, my body trembling in the cold as I followed him outside.

He dumped Sidmund's body in the middle of the yard and turned to me, his face stone cold.

"Will you shut up!?" he yelled at me, clearly out of sorts. "Shut up! Just shut up! I know, okay? I don't want to do it either. I don't want to see him like that." Tears started flowing down his cheeks as he stared at his dead friend laying on the bare ground, bending in all the different angles. "I don't want to see him burn" 

As both of us stood under the cold sky, Klyn returned with the bodies of his two other accomplices over his arms. With two loud thumps, the corpses were laid in a heap on the ground. 

Klyn produced a handkerchief from his pocket which he set fire to using the small box of matches Mama usually kept in the kitchen. I watched in horror as the cloth got enveloped by golden flames.

"Stand back," Klyn warned quietly before dropping the burning handkerchief over the bodies of his pals. I gave a shrill shriek as the flames grew slowly, taking over every part of the corpses. 

I wanted to get away, I wanted to look somewhere else, but my body was paralyzed with fear. Hector seemed to be in a state of shock as well because he stood very still as he stared at the burning corpses. The crackling of fire grew by the minute, being provoked by the short spells of cold wind. 

"No..." I whispered in agony as I was pulled away from the horrible sight. "What are you doing? What's happening to them? Make it stop!"

"Don't fight it," Klyn murmured behind me as he pulled me inside by one hand and Hector with the other. He seemed to be out of sorts as he stared wide eyed at the burning bodies of men he had been buddies with not too long ago. 

I gasped for breath as I was led indoors, leaving the bodies to become ash outside in the cold.