To Love, Once Again

Sera heads back through the castle halls, off to pick up a tea tray for Lucien.

After saying her goodbyes with Lois, it was back to business as usual, attending to her duties as King's Maid. The dress she wore now was much simpler than the elegant azure dress she'd worn to meet the Azai, the tribal nomads of Azark.

When out and about in the castle, Sera found it easier to blend in, to not be noticed, when wearing simple white apron frocks with detailed flowers embroidered on the hems compared to the fashionable constructed dresses Lucien preferred she wore.

It was better that Sera blended in. With the new nobles who populated the halls, out socializing with tea parties, hunts, and horse riding, she wanted to avoid as much public scrutiny as possible. Though it was difficult, when everyone knew she was Lucien's mistress.

With a simpler outfit, she could pass herself off as a off-duty servant. No nobles cared to look too closely at what a servant was doing. Although the servants knew who she was no matter what she wore.

When she passes through an open hallway, the Queen's Royal Gardens leading off to one side, she hears a child crying, making her pause. Why would a child be crying in the Royal Gardens?

The sounds emanated from the Rose Maze.

"Maaamaaaaaaa!" the high-pitched voice cried out.

That sounded like Leo!

There wasn't enough time to go through and try to solve the maze. Sera circles around to the back of the maze, where she knew the goal would be, from the view of her room in the castle. Now there was the tall rose bushes trimmed to form one wall of green separating them.

What she was about to do, the gardeners would not like. Not at all.

Taking a deep breath, Sera lifts her arms to cover her face, and plunges into the bushes. Surrounded by the heavy scent of roses, thorns scratch at her clothes and mark her arms with thin lines that cut into her skin.

Leo!

"Baby?"

She calls out.
Another wail.

Cold ice runs through her veins.

Nothing could stop her from getting to her child, especially if he was hurting.

She focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, breaking through the entwined branches, and finally, with loud cracks and pure white and pink roses tumbling to the ground, stumbles out on the other side.

There's a Sera-sized hole from where she'd come out.

Dorne was sitting next to her son. He smiles and stands up, dusting off his legs, while leaning on a crutch someone had fashioned for him.

He's a professional at changing his emotions at the drop of a hat. With a worried expression, he leans down to pat Leo's small head hunched over in sadness.

Sera was in shock that Dorne was still alive, and with energy enough to do something like this. If he hurt her son.. Taming the roiling storm of malevolent anger and fear within her, Sera quickly looks her son up and down for any injuries.

There's almost a hint of humanity that can be felt from the way Dorne acts, his face still swollen and discolored from the beating Lucien had given him during the challenge. One of his legs were healed quicker than the other, but it was obvious from the way both were twisted and faced out at a strange angle that he was in pain with every step he took.

Lucien had been merciless in his judgement upon Dorne. He had to be, as King of Thornmere. A challenge was a sacred ceremony that only the best of the best, or those who had a claim to the throne, could do.

"Don't touch him!"

Sera hisses, rushing forward to put herself between Dorne and her son.

"And here's the mother" Dorne laughs.

Groaning, Dorne adjusts his weight to lay more evenly on his crutch.

"See boy, I told you it would be alright"

Feeling a tugging on her skirts, Sera looks down to see Leo rubbing his face into the fabric of her skirt, his tender face soaked with tears.

"Ma-

Ma-Mama lweavin'?"

He asks between hiccups.

Dorne sighs. "That's not what I said, boy."

"-All mothers will leave someday" he continues, smiling with a crazed look in his eyes, the cuts on his face breaking open and bleeding fresh blood down his cheeks.

Tilting his head, Dorne contemplates the picture before him.

"I hear you can fix people." This was the first time Sera had heard him speak in a serious tone.

".....Do you think you can fix me?"

Confused and caught off guard, Sera stares at him with a blank expression on her face.

"Fix your legs?" the words unconsciously escape her lips.

"No."

"Here!" Groaning, Dorne pounds his chest, right where his heart was located.

Why was this man acting like this? Making her son cry and now asking Sera to fix him. Dorne needed to get away from her son, before he did anything crazy.

"You're Dorne the Honorless, right?"

Licking her lips, Sera hopes the words that pop up in her head are enough to satisfy this sad, but angry, psychotic man.

"Maybe you need your honor back..."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Throwing his head back, Dorne laughs, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes.

Leo hides his face in Sera's skirts, so that he can't see the monster smiling at them. Reaching back, Sera gives a reassuring pat on his back, reminding her son, 'I'm here with you'.

The crazed laughter suddenly stops.

"Honor. Easily lost, hard to gain. Much like trust..." Dorne mutters, a ironic smile making the side of his face quirk up.

And with those words hanging in the air, lifting his arm in goodbye with his back turned away from them, Dorne shuffles off, out of the Rose Maze.

Only the raw cries of a distressed child remain.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, quickly, Sera kneels, and wraps her arms around Leo. Rocking him gently from side to side, and brushing aside the red strands to press light kisses to his forehead, she does her best to comfort him. The fruit of pooling together all the information Lois had taught her about children in combination with her interactions with the Azai children gives Sera the confidence to know that she was doing the right thing.

Leo needed comfort for his mother, and there was no time for Sera to be confused about what was required of her.

The small body in her arms shakes with the hiccups that seem to subside with each soothing pat she gives him. A warm burst of pride unfurls in her chest. It was working. She prayed it was enough to help erase the horrifying sight of Dorne that was engraved in Leo's mind.

"Shhh-"

Lifting his face off her chest, Leo gazes at her, lower lip trembling while the tears continue to spill out.

"M-Mama lweavin again?"

Hugging her precious son to her chest, Sera keeps her own tears from spilling out.

"Oh no, baby"

"Pwomise?"

"I promise to stay with you, Leo."

Leo cocks his head to one side, his tears ebbing as he responds to Sera in confusion.

"Leo?"

Wiping away his tears with her thumbs, Sera nods with a soft smile, biting her lip. Hopefully he liked the name.

"Leo. That's your name."

"My name not pwince?"

Hopefully, the laugh Sera gives sounds comforting, instead of filled with sadness, to Leo's ears.

"No, baby. That's your title. Your name is Leo, after my grandfather, Leonard."

"Thank youw Mama!" Leo responds with a shy smile.