Chapter two

“Is this a joke?” Aster asked, the empresses face fell at the question, 

“No! You really are our children,” 

“You would not still be here if it were not true,” the emperor spoke. 

“Our mother left us at the orphanage, if it’s true then you abandoned us,” Aster spat harshly at the empress, “why find us now? Did the guilt finally get to you?” 

“No, i-i never abandoned you, i-” 

“We had thought you were dead, killed during a raid at our summer palace. The mother you are referring to, was your wet nurse.” 

Aster narrowed her eyes on the emperor, “how convenient,” 

“Maybe they’re telling the truth,” Clover said, hope shining in her eyes as she gazed at Aster. She shook her head to her younger sister. 

“I don’t know what game you're playing, but this can’t be true. I won’t believe it,”

Basil stared at the two, not knowing how to feel about it all, he sided with Aster but he wished to be naive enough like Clover to hope it was true. “Why had she left us there?” His tone revealed no emotion, his eyes stareing blankly at the two rulers. “Why did she not come back to take us back to you?” 

The empress glanced at the three muddled, “do you not know?” she asked, “your wet nurse, Gwen, she died after delivering to that orphanage, she died there. The priestesses had buried her body in the temple's garden.” 

The three looked shocked, “no,” Aster shook her head, “they would have told us, they wouldn’t have lied, making it seem like someone would come back for us, they wouldn’t they-” 

Clover began to cry next to Aster, Basil held his sisters hands, “they lied to us,” Clover trembled, 

“If we had none, you had survived, that Gwen had managed to save you. We would not have wasted a moment to find you,” the empress promised, '' I would have done anything to have you back.” 

Aster gritted her teeth together, scolding down to the stone floor, “that doesn't prove anything, i shouldn’t prove shit that we’re your children!” she shouted. 

The empress peered sadly at her husband, the emperor sighed, he waved up his hands to the side of the room, where a door stood. A guard opened it, as a man hunched over, pushed a squeaky cart carrying a crystal ball of some kind. 

He was slow. Painfully slow, and the awkward atmosphere in the room seemed to cement with wait. The man arrived in front of the two thrones and the triplets. The man wore goggle-like glasses, which magnified his eyes. His hair was pink and he wore a loose robe of faded red that went down to his calves, and sandals showing his large feet. He seemed chirper and happy as he bowed to the empress and emperor. 

“Your imperial majesties. Who shall I start with?” he popped up from his bow, clasping his hands together licking his lips, regarding his rules eagerly. 

“Wrenium can go first.” the empress suggested. 

“Very well.” the man grinned, he swivelled around to the triplets as the three tried to figure out who Wrenium was. Evidently it was Basil, the man whistled as he brought out from the sleeve of his robe a knife. “Your highness,” he greeted Basil, taking his hand and moving it towards the crystal ball. 

“What’s happening?” Aster watched stunned, she whispered in the side of his lips to Clover, 

“Oh my god,” Clover whispered back, “we’re going to be sacrificed,” her voice was serious, they both watched as the man sliced through Basil's right palm, holding his hand above the crystal ball, allowing for the blood to drip onto it. Surprisingly instead of the blood landing on the surface of the ball and dripping down, it sank right into the crystal. Something strange began to happen as the blood swam in the crystal, it began to blood with specks of gold, till there was nothing but gold blood instead of red. It glowed and glowed, burning brighter and brighter, till that was nothing but blinding light. All were blind for a moment then the light faded away and the gold blood was gone. 

“Right,” the man grinned, “who's next?” He held the knife that was still stained with Basil's blood up next to his face. 

“Why do we need to pour our blood into that ball?” Clover questioned. 

The man instantly slapped his leg, “I forgot to explain. Sorry.” he smiled quickly, “well this ball is a-well it sort of-it tells us that-oh crumbs how do i explain this?” the man muttered, 

“It shows if you have divine blood, and can do other things, but you need not know that.” the empress offered, 

“Yes, it will tell if the goddesses blood runs true in you.” he then used his knife and cut into his own palm, and squeezed the blood onto the ball. His blood just floasted there, doing nothing, no sparks, no light. Just plain red. “See, if I had divine blood mine would be glowing like your brothers had.” The blood faded away after a moment, and the man then moved over to Aster. Basil slid to stand in front of her, the man then moved on to Clover, but Basil slid over to her to stop the man from getting to her. 

The man sighed, “I can't find out if they have divine blood, if you block me my highness.” Basil didn’t move, the man huffed, turning to glance at the emperor and empress to ask for help. 

“Let Zelam do what he must,” the emperor ordered, Basil still didn’t move. “I said-”

“I heard,” Basil cut off, 

“I could do a prick, if that's helpful?” 

Aster frowned at the man, “you could do a pin prick, then why did you slit Basil's hand open?” 

“I had the knife on me, I didn't want it to go to waste,” the man mumbled. 

Aster snorted but stepped forward, “prick my finger,” she growled. The man did so, the blood flowed into the crystal and began to glow the same as Basil till it was blinding. Clover went next and the same happened again. The empress was grinning. 

“See you are our children,” 

They were silent for a moment, till Aster exploded, “this doesn't mean anything, i refuse to believe that your our-” 

“Aster,” Basil tried, but Aster ignored him. 

“If there was even a slither of a chance that we were alive for all these years, you should have found it, not left us to rot in an orphanage, or to constantly have to hide our magic.” 

“We thought-” 

“Did you even try to find our supposed dead bodies? No, whilst you’ve been living in your ivory tower, getting to live peacefully in a place where no one dies for having a speck of magic in their veins. We’ve had to constantly look out for one another, when Clover was nearly burnt through, Basil and I had been the ones to beg the priestesses to help her, we had given away all the money we had saved.” Aster and basil had never told Clover that, it wouldn’t have done any good, considering what they still gave wasn’t enough, and the temple had to use their own money as well. 

“When there wasn’t enough to eat at the orphanage Basil was the one who had risked the skin on his back to get us a single loaf of bread to share. Clover was the one who cut off all her hair for some stupid copper coins for us, even though she loved her hair. You’ve done nothing for us and now you want to just calm us as your own after everything.” ASster scoffed, “no thanks. I’d rather go back to being dirt poor than be here with people who abandoned us.” 

“Rhea-” 

“It’s Aster, don’t even try to push a new name on me.” 

“Please,” the empress spoke softly in a plead, “we did not know, if we had we-” 

“Too bloody late. I don’t care. I won’t stay here another moment!” 

With that Aster stormed out from the hall, hot tears flowing down her cheeks. 

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