Chapter 226: Precious Memories From The Past

"Your Majesty, as His Majesty said, do you wish to add something more in the garden or wish to change something?" Lady Tyra asked as they continued to stroll inside that huge garden, surrounding the residences of the King and the Queen. 

Seren stopped and looked around the garden and tried to recall what things she had seen in the fairytale book. She remembered the little princess in that book had lots of pets and among them, she loved the bunnies most. 

"Do we have bunnies in the Megaris too?" Seren asked. 

Lady Tyra smiled a little at this question and replied, "Of course we have them, Your Majesty. Would you like to have them in the garden?" Lady Tyra asked. 

"Yes," Seren replied. 

"Consider it done, Your Majesty," Lady Tyra assured and said, "Your Majesty, today we have arranged lessons for you to know about the Royal family of Megaris. Will it be fine with Your Majesty?"

"Royal family?" Seren asked. 

"Yes, Your Majesty! Now you are a part of the Royal family of Megaris, Ivanov Royal Family."

It was so sudden for Seren as she never thought about it. Being isolated for all her life, having family was like a foreign thing for her as she never had one but only in name. The only thing she had with her from her family was her last name Ilven and that too was gone now as it had changed to Ivanov after her marriage with the King of Megaris, Drayce Ivanov. 

'Seren Ivanov! Sounds good too. It's his last name,' she thought and smiled lightly as she repeated it in her mind again, 'Seren Ivanov!'

Seren was immersed in her unknown happy thoughts as they had finished strolling. Lady Tyra asked, "Your Majesty, will it be fine for you to start your lessons?"

Seren nodded as she thought, 'Maybe I will get to know more about him and his mother.'

"For that, we need to go to your study. We have arranged everything there," Lady Tyra informed. 

"Study? My study room?" she asked surprisingly. She till now only heard Drayce mentioning his study room but never thought to have it for her.

"Yes, Your Majesty. You are yet to visit there. It's on the same floor as your bedchamber," Lady Tyra informed. 

Seren felt happy, 'My own study room. Now I will have something to do instead of just idling around and looking at my servant's face,' she thought and said, "I would like to see it."

"Sure, Your Majesty," Lady Tyra said and looked at Lady Xena, "Make sure everything is arranged properly."

Lady Xena Nodded, "Yes, Lady Tyra," and she left with the other two ladies in waiting. Lady Tyra and Seren walked inside the residence after spending some more time out. 

"His Majesty said I will have lunch with him today," Seren informed. 

"Yes Your Majesty, We have already been informed."

The two reached the floor of the Queen's bedchamber. At the end of the corridor after crossing the door of the Queen's bedchamber, there was one more door. Seren had seen it before but never felt curious to ask about it. She thought only this bedchamber was assigned to her as she was the Queen. 

Lady Xena was waiting for them outside the wooden double door. She bowed and informed them, "Everything has been arranged."

She opened the door and Seren entered the study as Lady Tyra followed behind. Seren had never seen the study of any royal and she couldn't help but look around curiously to observe each and everything inside. 

In the tower she had lived in, she never had such a study room but had to study in her bedchamber and read only the books that had been sent to her.

She observed each part of that huge study room was meant for different things and it was evident with the way they were designed and decorated. The entire floor was covered with well designed soft carpet. The walls had various paintings hung to it with beautiful glass lamps on each wall. The ceiling had a crystal chandelier hung to it matched with the design of the lamps. Flower vases were arranged everywhere with the fresh scented flowers in them. 

Seren looked exactly opposite to where she was standing, at the door. There was a wooden study table and a chair with a big-sized bookshelf covering the wall at the back of the chair. Two glass windows were on either side of the shelves that brightened up that area. 

Seren went towards it and stood closer to the table as she looked at all those books on the shelf. 

"Your Majesty, there are all kinds of books that you might like to read, poetry, medicines, and literature from all around the continent. The previous Queen used to read them. If you wish to add some other books to it, you can visit the royal library and we can get them for you," Lady Tyra informed.

Seren nodded and turned to look at the right side of the room after she crossed the cushioned wooden couch kept closer to the study area. It had everything needed to do the painting work- The brushes, painting stand with the white painting cloth fixed to it, and small containers of colors. 

Seren walked towards it and heard Lady Tyra talking, "We are not sure if Your Majesty would like to paint but…"

"I do love painting," Seren interrupted Lady Tyra as she touched the wooden painting stand and said, "It feels good to paint what we see and like. One can paint that memory and keep it alive always in that painting." 

Lady Tyra looked at Seren and suddenly felt like seeing one matured woman and agreed to what she said, "That's true, Your Majesty."

Seren turned further to see at the right side wall of the door and saw there was a cushioned sitting arrangement on the floor and had small circular and square-shaped wooden frames fixed on the stands with a small wooden table in front. It was meant for the embroidery on the clothes as most nobles ladies preferred to do this in their free time.

"Your Majesty, If you are interested in doing embroidery work…."

"I am not," Seren said as she smiled behind her veil. 

A memory from the past flashed in her mind when Martha tried hard to teach her how to do embroidery work but she failed with huge disappointment. She could hear Martha's nagging again buzzing in her ears. 

"My Lady, all the princesses, and noble ladies do this. You are a princess and you should not lack any kind of talent."

"No one wants to know what I can do or not. They just know I can only harm them."

"It's their fault, My Lady. But you know what you are. It's not difficult to do this. Let me teach you again." 

"This needle keeps pricking in my fingers and it hurts, Martha. I don't wish to do it. Like this, I will lose all my blood."

"With this tiny pricking, you won't lose that much blood, My Lady. Just focus and it won't prick. Just finish this rose flower for a day and it will be enough."

"Martha, I am done making this rose."

"Where, My lady?"

"Here, these tiny red petals are hiding behind green leaves."

"My lady, it doesn't look like a flower but a red caterpillar buried under the dried leaves."

"I like caterpillars then. I won't do it anymore. I don't even want to learn it."

Seren's eyes turned moist as she stared at those embroidery work tools. She missed Martha, her only family. 

'I wonder what Martha is doing after I left. Did she leave the palace or is she still there in the tower? I really miss her. I wish she was here. Though she nagged me all the time, she was the only one I had."'

Tyra didn't know why her Queen suddenly turned silent and said, "Your Majesty, It's fine if you don't like it. If you wish, we can take it away from here."

Seren shook her head, "No need. Keep it like this. It reminds me of my nanny Martha."

Lady Tyra understood their Queen was not just silent suddenly but she was emotional inside and said, "As you wish, Your Majesty."

Seren turned to look at the left side of the study room and saw there was a fireplace at the left wall with two cushioned chairs with high backrests kept in front of it facing each other with a small table in between them. There was a huge glass window that showed an outside view of the sea when one sat in those chairs. 

"Your Majesty, while sitting closer to the fireplace, you can enjoy your tea," Tyra informed.

Nodding, Seren stepped towards the left side as the left side wall attached to the door had a music instrument kept on the floor with the same cushioned sitting arrangement at the right side wall of the door, the embroidery area. The music instrument was a long rectangular well carved wooden body about more than one meter long and had so many strings attached to it from one end to another. It looked heavy to lift normally. 

Seren found it attractive and kneeled in front of it. She brushed her fingers along the well-carved wooden body of that instrument and said, "It looks like a zither but bigger in size."

Lady Tyra liked the way her Queen showed interest in this instrument. This instrument held lots of precious memories and meant a lot to King Drayce. 

"Your Majesty, this instrument belongs to the previous Queen, Queen Esther. She always liked to play it for His Majesty, King Drayce. His Majesty used to sit in front of the instrument, facing his mother, and liked to see her playing it for him." 

Seren turned her head to look up at Lady Tyra. She could see this old woman really cared for her King.

"Those were the moments when His Majesty felt happiest when we could see him smiling," Lady Tyra added as the old memories flashed in her mind and she couldn't help but say it. "But after she was gone, he never came here." Tyra looked emotional. 

Seren stared at the instrument for a few more moments while her fingers reaching out to its chords as she thought, 'I wonder how he was as a kid and how he must look while smiling.'

The next moment a few blurry images flashed in front of her eyes and she heard the music playing on this instrument and a pair of hands playing as the slender fingers worked on the chords to create that music. Another pair of tiny hands was there which was trying to mimic the movements of the other pair of hands. A woman's hands and a kid's hand, who sat opposite to the woman and in front of that instrument. 

"Mother, I loved this music." Seren heard the kid's voice but couldn't see the face. His back was facing her which had his shoulder-length jet black hair left open. 

The music stopped and the kid said, "Mother play it for me again."

The woman whose only hands were visible to Seren started to play the same music again as her slender fingers moved along the instrument chords. 

The kid said again, "Mother is prettiest when she plays this for me."

Suddenly Seren noticed the flower mark on the woman's wrist, the sams she had on her forehead. Her eyes were left wide open and she retreated her hands from the chords of that instrument in shock as a result those images disappeared from her sight.

"Your Majesty, what happened?" Lady Tyra asked as she noticed Seren was a little shocked. 

"N-nothing," Seren replied as she thought she just imagined something. 

All this lasted for only a few moments but she felt like she was witnessing it for a long time. Being familiar with such things as it always happened with Seren, it didn't take her too much time to come out of that shock. By now she understood those two were the Previous Queen Esther and that kid was her son, the current King of Megaris and she had just witnessed some old precious memories of the owner of this instrument, Queen Esther. 

Seren didn't know why and how it happened but thought, 'He looked so happy with his mother.' She could remember that innocent and cheerful voice of the kid. Seeing this innocent side of him, Seren didn't know what to think about him. How adorable he sounded while talking to his mother.

Seren turned her head to look up at Lady Tyra who stood beside her, "Seems like this instrument still holds the old memories inside it."

Tyra stared at Seren for a while as she realized her Queen had witnessed something and replied, "It can be possible when something is precious to someone."

Seren saw something written at the one corner of the instrument along with the symbol of Ashrin flower but the letters were not familiar to her and asked Lady Tyra, "What is written here?"

"Heather! The previous Queen had given this name to this instrument. It is written in one of the ancient languages that's why Your Majesty could not read it. Queen Esther knew lots of other languages which are extinct now."

"Heather," Seren mumbled and asked, "Why this name?"

"This is the name of the flowers that grow on the barren land but make it look prettier and alive. Previous Queen thought the music from this instrument did the same with her heart. It made her feel her barren heart alive."

"Then it must be really nice music to listen to," Seren commented. 

"It is," Tyra agreed.

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Dear readers, the name of that instrument "Heather" is taken from the real names of two readers "Heather_Paulk" and "Heather_Maddox"

If there are any other readers with a similar name, they can accept it for themselves as well. I love all my readers, but it's just a way to show gratitude towards you all.