367 Show Me Part 1

"Well, why don't we start with why there was so much division in the family portrait." Kyera offered and Clovis leaned in nipping her neck gently as a warning, sending a shiver down Kyera's spine. It was thrilling.

"I told you my grandmother ran away with my mother? Well my grandfather later found them and forced My grandmother, Ren to bring my mother to the palace. There is a festival every year and a sacrifice must be made to the Shadow King in order to preserve the life of the Matriarch and with her life, the life of the tree. If Crystalsa dies, the flower in her chest dies and so does every Snowdrop tree in existence rendering their land baren. Every year either a royal or a noble if a royal couldn't be found and seldom did the sacrifice return." Kyera began to explain as Clovis watched rather enthralled. Her eyes seemed to disappear into the history and stories she had been told. There was an slightly detached emotion that, he perhaps didn't expect. However he was pretty sure that wouldn't last long.

"He was asked to offer his youngest daughter, my aunt, because females always returned and men sometimes did not. My grandfather didn't want to offer her so instead he demanded my mother be brought back and sent into the portal. No one knows what happened but the flower in the Matriarch bloomed brighter than it ever has and several patches of land not touching the trees became fertile. My mother returned alive, but there was a cost. She was pregnant with her first child. By eldest brother, Keenan." Kyera glanced at him to see confusion and curiosity on his face but when he didn't speak she continued.

"After that, every 2 years my mother returned as sacrifice and things got better. My mother bore 5 children in total. After that she brought her children here every year, and we would go through the portal as a family. We spent time with the Shadow King and came home every year safe and sound, till the year my Grandfather and my mother fought. He wanted her to marry."Kyera took a drink of her water. "She explained to him she was already married and he kicked her out, banished her and us 5 children. It wasn't till she had already left us, and our grandfather died that we 5 were welcomed back. However, my brothers had already been killed."

"I see. I remember you told me the story of your brothers. I have heard quite a bit about them however your mother… this is the first time you have spoken so much of her." Clovis pointed out, obviously opening a new path for Kyera to explore for him. She sighed and stood, this being a rather difficult one to talk about. He seemed to sense this, standing Clovis grabbed her hand. She looked back at him in confusion as he pulled her toward him by the love seat. Wrapping his arms around her, he swept her feet out from under her and into his arms. She gasped in surprise as he smirked.

"I have no attachment to that woman. If she hadn't caused the separation from our father, perhaps my brothers never would have died." Kyera replied her body tense as she restrained those emotions.