DISCLAIMER: See Part 1

This story is a sequel to the stories “Lord Conqueror of the Realm,” "Queen of the Realm," and "Princess of the Realm." I strongly recommend you read them first because in this story there are references to events that took place in them. Here is where you can find them:
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/warriorjudge_lordconqueror1.html
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/warriorjudge_queenoftherealm1.html
http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/warriorjudge_princessoftherealm1.html

The third story of the Realm series "Princess of the Realm" can now be found on an Ebook format as well – for free. (epub, MOBI, PDF) on the Xena Library web site. It is listed under the LORD CONQUEROR OF THE REALM SERIES, so scroll down to the L's.
http://www.xenalibrary.com/ebooklibrary.htm

SPECIAL THANKS : My humble most ardent gratitude to the excellent, most brilliant Beta reader Nancyjean , whom I can't thank enough.

Comments, thoughts, questions & feedback : MOST WELCOMED – The more you write me, the quicker I post – I mean it!

warriorjudge2000@yahoo.com

The Realm - Epilogue

Written by WarriorJudge

Part 5

Terreis grew up to become a beautiful, strong and conscientious lass. All that knew her adored and admired her, for she took much after her Mother not only in beauty, but in a kind, generous heart; her wise, peaceful ways; her moral stature and well-tempered nature. When she became of age, an ilk of suitors began circling around her.

She was not yet ready for courtship and somewhat naïve in these matters and so no overt overtures were made and no one approached the Conqueror in order to obtain permission.

One day, soon after she had become of age, she went hunting alone in the woods, not far from the lake where her Sire had been taking them for swimming and fishing, when a large grey wolf attacked her. It caught her off guard and pounced on her from behind a large rock, throwing her to the ground with it on top of her.

The wolf's weight upon her nearly crushed her ribs and knocked the air out of her lung. She felt as close to death as she had felt during the night of the great fire, and when the animal growled at her and exposed its formidable canines, about to devour her, she felt a sudden rush of panic. Being her parents' daughter, she gathered her wits about her in a blink of an eye and managed to shut the wolf's jaw with one hand and with the other, drew her dagger from its sheath on her belt and drove it upwards, skewering the wolf's mouth shut and piercing its brain.

As she felt the life leaving the slain animal, a shower of its warm blood rained all over her face, neck and torso. Terreis's heart was pounding wildly in her chest still and her breath was quick and labored by the exertion. Her body was burning hot and she felt her blood boiling in her veins.

She pushed off of her the animal's carcass with her dagger still sticking out of it and ran to the lake to wash off the wolf's blood and cool her own.

The chilling water in the lake washed the animal's blood away but it did not cool her own blood any. She could not understand what was happening to her body and her spirit. She thought she was running a fever but it could not account for the awakening, throbbing and unfamiliar ache of pressuring wanting between her legs and the predacious state she was in. At some point she was in the grip of the idea that upon death, the wolf's spirit entered her and was punishing her for killing the body it had formally possessed.

Whatever the ailment that was attacking her, Terreis thought, her Mother would be able to identify it and have the remedy for it.

When she reached her Mother's chambers, she entered it despite the Queen's lady in waiting imploring her to wait, for the Queen was receiving audience with Princess Sieglinde.

When Princess Terreis stormed in, all the Queen's lady in waiting could do was to announce her presence.

Lingering by the entrance rather than stepping in and approaching the Queen, Terreis bowed before her Mother from a distance and said, "Your Majesty."

The Queen remained seated, dressed in regal attire, with her crown over her head. "Your Grace," she greeted back and wondered with some alarm and concern for she didn't know her youngest to be rude and so she had to surmise something must have happened.

The noblewoman who had been consulting with the Queen rose to her feet and along with the Queen and Princess Sieglinde's ladies in waiting curtsied before Princess Terreis, greeting her with accordance to protocol.

"Pardon my intrusion, but I am in dire need to discuss a private matter with your Majesty," Terreis' voice was urgent and somewhat labored.

"Please leave us," the Queen ordered her subjects and they all vacated the Queen's antechamber.

When Princess Sieglinde, who often accompanied the Queen on her meetings to learn her role from her, remained sitting, Terreis looked at her with imploring eyes trying desperately to hide what she thought was the beast within her.

"Forgive me, sister, but it is private," she said to her sister-in-law.

"Of course, sister," Princess Sieglidne answered in kind and left the Queen's antechamber, too.

Terreis began to walk towards her Mother, feeling like what ever it was that plagued her was becoming harder and harder to control.

As her youngest came closer, the Queen recognized immediately what it was that disturbed Terreis so profoundly. The heat emanating off her body, the voracious air about her, the ferocious look in her eyes that annunciated 'danger' as if to ward off any resistance – the Queen had seen it many times before and when she had seen it in her Lord it had made her take heel and succumb.

The Queen was almost too astonished to utter a single syllable. Since Terreis was the living image of her, it had never even crossed her mind that her youngest would experience battle-lust like her Sire and her sister.

"Tell me what happened," the Queen requested. "Were you just now in danger? Were you violent when you repelled the threat?"

"A wolf attacked me by the lake. I had to kill it," On account of her state, Terreis' speech was concise even though she did not intend it to be. "So you know what it is that is ailing me, Mother," she said, relieved.

"I do," the Queen replied. "You should go at once and tell my Lord, your Sire."

Terreis was confused. "You are the healer, are you not!? What can my Sire do for me that you cannot!? What is wrong with me!?" she asked as her hands clenched into fists and her voice trembled with the effort of controlling the furious darkness.

"There is no cause for alarm, my child. There is nothing wrong with you. We shall go see my Lord, your Sire," was all the Queen thought she ought to say.

Wondering about her Mother's evasive mannerism, Terreis strode down the corridor leading to the Imperial Chambers where the Conqueror had been preparing herself before going down to the Great Hall where her advisors were waiting for her. Her Mother the Queen nearly ran in order to keep up with her.

When they reached the Imperial Chambers, the Queen turned to her daughter and said, "Wait here in the antechamber for I wish to speak with my Lord first."

The Queen entered the bedchamber.

"Finished so soon, my Lady?" The Conqueror was pleasantly surprised to see her Queen in their bedchamber at midday and rued the fact that her day's obligations were far from being over.

"No, my Lord. I need to speak with you on an urgent matter," the Queen explained.

"It sounds dire," the Conqueror said, concerned.

"It would appear that Terreis has inherited my Lord's battle-lust," the Queen said.

The Conqueror beheld her wife with some measure of disbelief. "What happened? Has someone attacked her?"

"She went hunting in the woods near the lake and was attacked by a wolf." The Queen regaled the events that had led to her conclusion.

"Was she injured?" asked Conqueror, alarmed.

"She killed the creature and was unscathed," the Queen was quick to put her Lord's mind at ease. "She came to my chambers not a few moments ago and I could see battle-lust glowing about her."

"But," the Conqueror was hard pressed to reconcile what she thought she knew about her daughter and her Queen's almost wild accounts. "But she is you all over… How is it possible!? How convinced are you?" she asked. It wasn't so much any mistrust in her wife's assessment as it was her inability to fathom the reality in which her little Terreis had matured and had developed sexual proclivities and propensities that matched hers rather than her mother's. Nevertheless, the Conqueror felt herself being somewhat relieved that in terms of sexual predilections the second in line for the succession took after her.

"She is waiting outside in the antechamber if you wish to examine her first-hand." the Queen was just shy of being offended. "My Lord, I have been in the presence of the dark beast so many times that I would know it in my sleep."

"Of course," the Conqueror said and emitted a deep grunt, "Please, forgive me, Gabrielle . "

It thrilled the Queen as always to hear her name pass the Conqueror's lips, and she wondered whether her Lord was apologizing for what she had said or for what she was about to say.

"Is it your intention to edify her as you've edified Athena?" the Queen asked. The memory of the time when Athena had broached them with the awakening of her desires and how it had placed her and her Lord at variance came to the Queen's mind.

"It is, my Love," the Conqueror answered.

The Queen found her Lord's reply most disconcerting, so much so that the Conqueror could read her wife's state of mind clearly across her face.

"I know of no other method to… contain it," the Conqueror attempted to appease the Queen.

"I have faith in you, my Lord," the Queen finally said but she could not shake the foreboding feeling that was eating away at her in the far regions of her mind.

The Conqueror nodded her head. She leaned down and opened the chest at the foot of their bed and retrieved a velvet bag. The Queen knew immediately what was in it. Before the Conqueror had exited the chamber, the Queen rested her hand upon the Conqueror's forearm and said: "I beseech you to be gentle with her, for I suspect Terreis will resent you for it."

Without another word, the Conqueror left their bedchamber.

The moment she stepped into the antechamber, the Conqueror sensed the presence of a predator. She took one look at her daughter and knew all the way down to her very bones that she was riddled with battle-lust.

"My Sire," Terreis's voice was hoarse.

"Terreis," the Conqueror returned her youngest' greeting.

"What is this torment that has been blackening my soul?" the young lass demanded to know.

"Come with me and I shall explain on the way," the Conqueror replied.

As they rode together to the center of the city of Corinth , the Conqueror broke her silence.

"You have become of age now, sweetheart, and are no longer a child," the Conqueror said as her dark tresses were billowing in the wind. "With adulthood certain… changes occur in your body as you might have noticed."

"I have, my Sire," Terreis confirmed. "Mother has already explained to me about said changes a fortnight ago."

The Conqueror was relieved to hear it, yet she knew that the harder explanations still rested on her shoulders.

"Mother said nothing about the searing darkness that spreads in me," Terreis said.

The Conqueror exhaled. "It is most unfortunate that the first experience you have with sexual desire came to you in the form of battle-lust."

"What is battle-lust, Sire?"

"Exactly what you are feeling now," the Conqueror answered.

"What I feel now is an almost overpowering need to control and possess… an excruciating desire to conquer… physically conquer and own with my body… It is a lower need… a hunger… it is so very consuming … It cannot be merely sexual urges…"

"It is not. It is the dark beast that dwells in our blood, mine and Athena's… and now yours."

"Athena!?" Terreis asked, surprised.

The Conqueror nodded her head.

"Sire," Terreis' voice trembled, "for the first time in all my life I find myself terrified of my own power. I shall lock myself in a chamber and wait for it to abate on its own."

"It is a misfortune for one to fear his own power. You should not fear yours especially since you possess a pure heart, like your Mother. As for battle-lust - It will not abate on its own, Terreis. It must be expelled… a certain way," the Conqueror explained with severity about her countenance.

"I fear what I might do in this state, Sire," Terreis shook her head.

"You must let it run its own course through carnal knowledge… there is no other way," the Conqueror said gravely when they reached their destination.

The Conqueror and her youngest climbed down their horses and entered the brothel. It was the same establishment to which the Conqueror had taken her eldest some years ago when she had become of age.

The lewd murals over the walls did not alter over the years and Terreis stared at them with the same curiosity as Athena had stared at them back then when first she had laid her eyes on them.

"Your Majesty," an old lady curtsied before the Conqueror and from the familiar tone of her voice, Terreis surmised the old lady had previous acquaintance with her Sire.

"Madam Atia," the Conqueror greeted back.

"You have brought your youngest this time, I see," Madam Atia pointed out as she beheld Princess Terreis. "Your Grace," she curtsied before her.

"Madam," Terreis greeted back and inwardly she had the sense as though she was pushed into a world that was as foreign to her as the Province of Chin – a world from which she would not return the way she would enter it. She ran her eyes over the old woman and thought she seemed shady to her. A nagging feeling began gnawing at her as to how her Sire came to know the woman and what sort of dealings they shared. Her Sire was honorable and that particular woman did not strike Terreis as honorable but rather disreputable. One thing was clear from Madam Atia's words, however: her Sire had, at one point, brought Athena to that place, which Terreis thought was foul and vile.

"What will it be for her, a lad or a lass?" Madam Atia asked, for it was not as conspicuous or straightforward as it had been with Princess Athena, she thought.

"A lass," the Conqueror answered determinably, without deferring the question to Terreis, despite the fact that it had been her appetite that required addressing. " No daughter of mine shall be swived by a man."

Terreis could not help but begrudge her Sire not letting her answer for herself despite the fact that she would have chosen a lass, as well. It was then that she suddenly realized what they were there for and what her Sire was doing – procuring a woman for her to lay with. Had she not been in the state she was in, she would have stopped her Sire and returned back to the palace. Things being as they were coupled with the fact that she trusted her Sire, she said nothing.

"Of course, Majesty," Madam Atia confirmed.

"Madam," the Conqueror continued, "This will not be a regular initiation session into the ways of the world. Her Grace has our darkness upon her. She would require a lass that is both trained and willing."

Again it was all Terreis could do not to wear her astonishment on her features. By the way that her Sire presented her specifications, Terreis learned two things to be facts. The first, her Sire assumed that the Madam would know exactly what she was talking about in reference to their darkness and the second, that her Sire and Athena had let their darkness loose on the women inhabiting the establishment.

Many questions sprung into Terreis' mind as she felt the earth beneath her feet vanish, but her mind became too addled by her needs to define them and much less to contemplate them.

"Then this one should do nicely, your Majesty," Madam Atia said as she beckoned to approach them one of the young women who were sprawled all over, wearing garments that revealed more than they concealed.

"Very good," the Conqueror said and placed a hefty pouch filled with silver coins in Madam Atia's hands.

Terreis' eyes stalked the young woman in her early twenties with the long, smooth black hair and ample figure, who passed by her and curtsied before her and her Sire.

Madam Atia whispered a few words in her ear, while the Conqueror showed Terreis into a nearby, unoccupied chamber.

Once alone in the chamber that had a large bed in the middle of it and not much else, the Conqueror was revisited by the memory of standing in the exact same chamber with her eldest.

"Before you go and sate yourself, I wish to say a few words to you," the Conqueror said to her youngest. "You must never force yourself on a woman, Terreis."

"Of course not, my Sire," Terreis was appalled by the notion and wondered why her Sire felt behooved to warn her against something she would never dare do.

"I have obtained for you the lass' consent to all acts that might please you, but know that in the future you yourself must always obtain a woman's consent beforehand to any act you wish to commit upon her without exceptions and halt when she requests it, do you understand me?"

"Of course, my Sire," Terreis reiterated.

"If your rent the services of a professional, always pay her twice her fee," the Conqueror continued.

Terreis was too overwhelmed to entertain the concept of renting women in the future. Nevertheless she answered, "I will."

"And most importantly, never treat any woman you take to your bed, be her a professional or a lady of the Realm, with anything but utter respect."

Terreis was almost offended by her Sire's last instruction, for how else could she ever treat women other than with perfect respect.

"That goes without saying, my Sire," Terreis assured her Sire.

The Conqueror then took a phallus out of the velvet bag that hung over her shoulder. The bag she discarded onto the bed and the phallus she handed over to Terreis.

"She will show you how to use it," the Conqueror said and explained no further and Terreis took the instrument from her Sire's hand and examined it with the bewildered eyes of a novice. "I will be in the tavern across the square when you are done." The Conqueror placed a kiss on Terreis' forehead. "Do not forget who you are," were her final words to her youngest. Those were the same words she had spoken to Athena.

The Conqueror exited the chamber and the young woman that had been picked for the task entered.

***

While the Conqueror was sitting in the tavern over a mug of ale, much to the other patrons' surprise, she recalled how she had instructed Athena when she'd taken her to a brothel for the first time, and thought how different her eldest' reaction had been from that of her youngest'. She clearly remembered how Athena had made a jest when she had brought the issue of attaining a bedmate's consent, where as for Terreis the issue had been both serious and obvious.

The mid afternoon shadows were beginning to fall across the ground. The doors to the dimly lit tavern were swung open, making sunlight invade in.

Princess Terreis stood at the entrance disheveled with the velvet bag hanging over her shoulder.

"Your Majesty," Terreis bowed before her Sire, who turned her attention to the entrance.

"Your Grace," the Conqueror answered and stayed in her seat.

"I need to have a word with you, Majesty," Terreis asked but her tone of voice suggested something more in the way of a demand.

"We shall talk at the palace," the Conqueror stated and stood up, throwing a few coins onto the bar to settle her tab.

"With respect, Majesty, what I have to say won't keep till then." Terreis fought to keep her distraught state from showing.

"Very well," the Conqueror emitted. Not wishing to find herself in the center of a royal scandal, the Conqueror turned to the man behind the bar. "Innkeeper, a private chamber."

"This way, your Majesty," he said as he stepped out from behind the bar, happy and honored that the Lord Conqueror was spending her coins in his establishment.

He led the Conqueror and Princess Terreis to the most isolated chamber in his inn, reassuring them that no one was currently residing in the nearby chamber.

As soon as the door was closed, Terreis opened her mouth to speak but the Conqueror upheld her hand to shush her youngest, listening to the innkeeper's footsteps furthering away down the hall. When she was sure he was far enough, she signaled Terreis to speak with a nod of her head.

"It was revolting!" the words simply burst out of Terreis' mouth.

"Was the lass not to your liking?" the Conqueror inquired.

"The poor thing…" Terreis said with sorrow mixed with disgust, "the things I've done to her… The degrading words I spewed… It just came out of me… Evil…," she grabbed her head with both hands and wide-eyed she shook it as if in disbelief of her own actions.

Though Terreis' words were muddled the Conqueror comprehended her daughter's mind.

"Calm down," the Conqueror muttered and poured Terreis a fresh cup of water from the basin that stood on a table neneath the window.

At the sight of the offered cup, Terreis turned on the axis of her heels, bent over while supporting her weight with one hand against the wall and lost the content of her stomach on the wooden floorboards.

The Conqueror was clean amazed by Terreis' violent reaction to the expulsion of her battle-lust. Concerned, she rested her hand on her youngest' back, but Terreis shook it away as if she was neither able nor willing to bear her Sire's touch.

"She fastened this thing to my crotch," Terreis brandished the velvet bag before her Sire's eyes, "And I shackled her to the wall… and I liked the sight of her… vulnerable… bound… completely at my mercy…" Terreis wiped her mouth and tears sprung from her eyes.

The Conqueror said nothing but listened.

"I whipped her with a crop… a riding crop, if you can believe it… the kind one uses on horses! What's worse… it excited me… her tears excited me… the sight of her wriggling … trying to avoid the beating excited me… I pulled her hair like a savage and then… I penetrated her with this," the Princess cried.

Terreis took out the phallus and threw it at her Sire's feet. "Here, take it! I do not care for it," she said defiantly. Her gaze tracked the trajectory of the phallus all the way to her Sire's feet, and on the way back up she caught sight of the glaring bulge at her Sire's loins. She suddenly realized what exactly that bulge was. Her Sire was wearing a phallus on her person constantly. She almost laughed at herself for her childish, naïve foolishness, for when she'd first noticed it when younger she'd thought it was some sort of protection equipment such as an armor. How silly of her, she thought, it was not a shield but a weapon.

"That's enough!" the Conqueror warned her, torn between her impulse to comfort her beloved daughter and putting a stop to what she foresaw was quickly becoming a lashing out against her.

"The onslaught was too horrific for words, Sire. I left her black and blue."

"She was well compensated for her service to you," the Conqueror replied with some measure of sternness.

"Service…" Terreis scoffed. "You make it sound so harmless… so benign as if we were talking about cooking or tailoring."

The Conqueror said nothing.

"So funds can buy you everything and power gains you all your heart's desires!?"

The Conqueror's eyes narrowed into thin slits. Was her youngest resenting all that she had worked so hard all her life to achieve? The Ruler became vexed.

"The woman knew what she was getting herself into," was all the Conqueror had to say.

"I doubt that very much, Sire," Terreis dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"You are young and do not know the ways of this world," the Conqueror took a step towards her youngest. "The first bit of gossip these women exchange between them as soon as they begin plying their trade in brothels are their encounters with the Lord Conqueror and her progeny. They pass these stories between them like we pass war stories."

"So you and Athena are frequenting brothels and do to these women what I've done today!" Terreis exclaimed, her strong suspicions now confirmed. Her sorrow and turmoil now turned into anger. She thought of her Mother and her sister-in-law. Try as she might she could not reconcile in her heart what she thought she knew about her parents and the bond between them and what she had come to learn that day.

The Conqueror remembered a time when she had welcomed the spreading of such salacious allegations. Now she was livid from being accused and rebuked by her daughter. "Lower your voice;" she hissed between clenched teeth. "I will not have the entire city of Corinth knowing our private business." The Conqueror folded her arms over her chest and lifted her chin up. "Your Mother was right. I have spoiled you too much throughout your childhood. Had I disciplined you as she demanded, you would not have dared speaking to me with such extraordinary impudence."

Terreis exhaled deeply and wiped away her tears.

"I used to in my youth before I met your Mother," the Conuqeror said after a few moments passed between them in silence. "This is all you will hear from me on the matter. I will not be judged by my own child."

Terreis felt betrayed. She regarded her Sire as though a complete and utter stranger stood before her.

"I shall never do that again," she stated adamantly.

"Then hope battle-lust is never upon you, again. Alas, being that you are of my blood, I'd venture to say you should not count on it."

"I would simply lock myself in the dungeons and wait for it to pass, then."

"You would only drive yourself mad. Battle-lust is inexorable once it sets. I have explained all this to you, already."

Terreis refused to accept it and could no longer bear listening to the one who had given her life. She stormed out of the chamber and rode back to the palace alone, leaving her Sire behind.

She found her Mother alone getting ready for bed in the Imperial Chambers.

"Do I still have the right of cast?" she asked. Her eyes were bloodshot and her demeanor wild.

It took the Queen all but one look to realize that something had gone terribly wrong, as she'd feared it would.

"Of course you do," she replied, inwardly wondering where her Lord was and why she did not return home with Terreis, for surely she would have sought her out as soon as she could . "Now tell me what has brought this on?"

"I wish to leave Corinth and travel to the Amazon Lands and live in their midst. It is high time I trained to be their Queen."

The Queen's heart shrunk with concern.

"You need to secure my Lord's permission for it, as well you know," the Queen replied.

"I think I should find no difficulties securing my Sire's permission after today," Terreis spoke with an air of confidence and defiance about her that the Queen did not care for at all.

"Tell me everything that happened," the Queen asked firmly.

"I shall spare you all the gory details, Mother. Suffice it to say that what I have learnt today I wish I would never have learnt."

"Was the performance of your mate not to your satisfaction?"

Terreis looked at her Mother as if she could not grasp what was wrong with her.

"My victim," Terreis pronounced her words in a manner which had a corrective quality to it, "I'm glad to say - survived my abhorrent and humiliating treatment of her."

Upon hearing her daughter's rhetoric, the Queen understood what was troubling her youngest.

"What makes you so convinced?"

"That the woman I brutally violated was a victim?" Terreis asked.

The Queen nodded her head.

"How could she not be!?"

"Different women have different appetites, child."

But there was no persuading Terreis.

"I wish to go and live with the Amazons. I cannot stay in the palace a moment longer."

"And why is that?"

"The world is ruled by a bloodline of depraved and insidious monsters and I do not wish to partake in it."

The Queen understood the implication. Terreis was in the belief that her Sire was a monster and so much as said so. Hot, sizzling blood rushed to the Queen's features, pounding in her ears, and without thought her hand rose in the air and she slapped Terreis hard across her face.

Terreis was stunned. A dull, pulsating ache began to spread over the right side of her face and she could not control the scorching tears from running down her face. She rubbed the place where her Mother's hand had connected with her face.

"In all my years I have never raised my hand to you or to Athena no matter how much you deserved it, and trust me when I tell you I have had occasion to listen to some audacious words coming from both of you. Princess Gabrielle Terreis - You will disrespect my Lord, your Sire never again if you wish to keep the right of cast, which I have given you. Am I making myself clear!?"

Terreis had never seen her Mother more serious or more furious in all her years. Her mother meant every word she said, and for the first time in her life she feared her Mother.

"I shall leave immediately. I trust you will inform the acting queen of my imminent arrival and secure my Sire's permission of my leaving." And with her words still echoing in the chamber, Terreis turned and left without even looking back despite her Mother's cries after her.

Some time later, the Conqueror entered the bedchamber. Her steps were heavy as was her heart. She never believed there could ever be a rift between her and Terreis. Terreis' blind adoration towards her has lasted for far longer than Athena's ever had.

The Queen was not in bed but pacing aimlessly to and fro across the chamber with her knuckles under her chin and her mind too preoccupied to notice her Lord's presence.

"Gabrielle," the Conqueror's voice carried defeat in it.

The Queen was startled by the unexpected voice calling out to her.

"My Lord," she sighed and by the expression on her face the Conqueror deduced that the Queen had spoken to Terreis, already.

"You've seen Terreis, I take it…" the Conqueror muttered and her tall body landed heavily into her armchair. She felt too tired to bend over in order to take her boots off and so halfway down she straightened back up again.

The Queen knelt at the Conqueror's feet and carefully removed the boots off them.

"I have, my Lord," she replied while her hands were toiling.

As the Queen helped her Lord out of her attire, they told each other all that had happened and everything that had been said that day. After some contemplations and despite her desire to spare her Lord grief, the Queen elected to tell her what she considered their youngest' outlandish view of her Lord.

"I should go after her…" the Conqueror said and stood up purposeful-like, "If I leave now I could still catch…"

But the Queen cut through her speech. "You will do no such thing, my Lord," she said determinably. "It is she who owes you awe and respect. She should crawl on her knees, kiss your feet and beg your forgivness and your mercy."

The Conqueror said nothing and pondered over her wife's words.

Eventually she said with a small voice laden with sadness, "It just breaks my heart that she thinks of me such awful things. The pain is so awesome I can heardly breathe."

If there was one thing she could not forgive, the Queen knew, it was a slight against her Lord and it broke her own heart to bear witness to her mighty Lord's agony.

"I know, my Lion," the Queen said and caressed the Conqueror's majestic features.

"My little princess has left me…" the Conqueror's voice cracked.

"She will come to her senses, Love," the Queen promised. "She was forced to receive hard lessons today and learn certain truths she did not expect to learn not just about us but about herself, as well."

"I know," said the Conqueror.

After a few quiet moments had gone by, the Queen said: "She seemed to struggle so hard to control it… So much effort she applied but I could see she was failing. You are always able to keep the darkness on a low simmer. I've seen you bridling it for a long time when the battlefield is moons away from home… from me."

"She is very young and inexperienced. Mine is a bleak, raging ill-tempered nature where as hers is the opposite. I have had to learn to master my darkness and rage since childhood. She never had to before today," the Conqueror explained. Mourning the loss of Terreis' adoration, she whispered after awhile, "Do you think she loves me still?"

TBC

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