Falling petals

Side Story: 3 year old Sakura.

A girl with silvery blond hair was leaning down staring at the baby in the crib who gurgles and uses his toothless mouth to chew on his hand.
 
The girl when smiling appears like an angel sent by heaven, but when she just hold a neutral look her appearance matches a beautiful porcelain lifeless doll. Her eyes a beautiful mix of a light brown and the silvery specks seem to move about by what angle the light shines upon in. Her pupil and rim of the iris was a black that pops and gives those beautiful eyes an intimidating tone.
 
Those very eyes look down on the few week old infant. His eyes was a beautiful azure blue with a mix of grass green. Reminding her of the blue sky and the grassy fields. His facial features resembles his mother so much, but she knew he would grow to have the same attitude as his father.
 
His pointy ears reveals he isn't human, or better yet, he was just a quarter of human and the rest elven.
 
"Hohohoho! It seems my son takes a liking to you Sakura. He hasn't once looked away from you."
 
Alyona was ecstatic to see Sakura for the first time in person. The child was brought over to see her son and she found the meeting adorable. Her son wasn't a quiet child however he seemed like a docile child the moment Sakura first appeared. He hasn't cried or fussed around since her arrival.
 
"Ugly."
 
"Huh?"
 
While looking at the baby Sakura grew tired and scowls while turning away. She jumped out of the small steps used so she can see the child and she went running to Raphael's arms.
 
"Your highness! That is very rude."
 
Raphael frown in disapproval but Alyona assured him it was fine.
 
"Hahaha it's fine Raph. Maybe because she isn't used to seeing babies that young."
 
"Klemens is ugly."
 
"Huh?"
 
Alyona let's out a perplexed sound when she heard Sakura say her child's name.
 
"What's wrong?"
 
Just when she showed a surprised look, both Mihkael and Klemens father, Igor arrived to the nursery after having a walk around the elven territory.
 
"Its that Sakura said Klemens name."
 
"What's strange about that?"
 
"I don't remember announcing his name yet."
 
'! Shit! I fucked up!'
 
Sakura recalled that after the birth of a child of royal elven blood is born, a ritual is formed to their blessed tree to call upon the fairy goddess to choose a special name for the child. So just today was the revelation of his name, yet Sakura said the name that hasn't even been revealed to the other common elves.
 
"Now that I think about it..."
 
Raphael glanced at the child in his arms and held an expression of wonder when he thought of how she knew.
 
Sakura quickly calmed her beating heart and looked at Alyona in confusion.
 
"But you did?"
 
Sakura calmly lied between her teeth. Not an ounce of her anxiety shown in her exterior.
 
"Did I?"
 
"Yeah! You said babies name while we were both looking at him. Papa Raphael was bringing tea over."
 
Sakura brought up what happened around an hour or so ago, which made it more convincing at the moment. She wanted to make them believe that the reason Alyona forgot was because it was a while ago, while the reason Raphael didn't hear it was because he was setting up the refreshments.
 
"Oh... I may have forgotten then."
 
She held a profound gaze while looking at the small doll like child in Raphael's arms, however she couldn't find anything in those clear eyes.
 
'I'm overthinking things. Maybe being alive for so many years gets a person to forget things.'
 
"Maybe Alyona's old age got to her."
 
"Hey! I have no problem if you think it, but don't say it!"
 
Alyona glares at a smirking Mihkael and was ready to strangle him if Igor hadn't intervene and assured her she "aged like wine, so there is no issue." Which in return she ended up strangling him instead.
 
Sakura smiled and laughed along with the adults antics. Yet contrary to her giggling exterior, the interior was sighing in relief.
 
'Thankfully they didn't pry deeper into the situation or else I would've been done for. I really have to be more careful with what I say.'
 
Feeling that her time here has helped her adjust to the situation, it may have made her relax herself to her predicament, yet this situation reminded her that she still has to watch herself or else she could lose all her advantages with just a few sentences. Or in this situation, just by saying one name.
 
The adults in the room eased up a bit more and began talking about a few things here and there. Sakura didn't pay attention until they brought her and Klemens up into the conversation.
 
"My son hasn't once removed his eyes from Sakura. This really is the first time I've seen him be such a docile baby. Maybe this is a sign."
 
Alyona hinted something in excitement and joy at the thoughts. Everyone quickly catches onto what she wanted to hint at, Mihkael and Raphael both glanced at Sakura but she was still just sitting about eating a cookie from the small dessert tray.
 
"I think it's a bit too soon to think about that, don't you think?"
 
Mihkael raises a brow and looks at Alyona while she cradles her child in her arms.
 
"It is never too soon! There must be some type of connection. Oh! It must be from her blessed name! How mystical. A child blessed with the sacred trees name marrying the future emperor of the elven empire! A fate matched by the gods."
 
Alyona held an expression of filled fantasy romanticism about her child and his maybe future wife.
 
Sakura acted like the typical clueless child, but her inside grew cold at the thought of Alyona quickly aiming for an engagement.
 
'Is it because she is such a romantic about fate and destined partners that in the lives Sakura was engaged with her son there was never an argument against it by the elven people!?
 
No wonder none of this people denied my engagement with their elven prince! They always were suckers when it comes to their sacred tree and their goddess; so hearing this type of stupid reasoning from their empress, they must have thought it was predestined by their goddess!! How fucking inconvenient it became for me in this life!'
 
Sakura didn't want to end up in an engagement with this slobbering toddler. He may be around 3 years younger to her by outer appearance, however inside she is older than him by around 20 years! Even more so because she recalled how he cut off his engagement with Sakura when she saw this wide eyed gremlin looking at her.
 
'He really pisses me off. He may even be the second or third most painful break up Sakura had to suffer because of their "Love" for Rose. And there were many she had to suffer through.'
 
***
"Sakura Enough! Do not blame Rose for this, if you need to blame someone, then blame me!"
 
Sakura watches how her fiancée blocks Rose from Sakura's heated glare. Those furious eyes looks up toward Klemens own blue and green eyes. Those eyes that never once glanced at her, for the first time directly looking at her with more emotions she has ever seen in her life as childhood friends.
 
The situation causes her to laugh in a condescending way.
 
'The irony! All my attempts to make him see me! To look at me with an expression other than disinterested never once bearing fruit. Yet here he is, looking straight at me with an ounce of an emotion, yet the reason for that is because of another women; my half-sister no less!! Ha! Does he really not think how I feel at all!'
 
"Are you truly going to cut our engagement because of your so called love for Rose?"
 
Yet with all what she was feeling inside, surprisingly Sakura spoke in a calm, even tone. Surprising both her and her soon to be ex-fiancee.
 
"Sakura. Do not belittle my love for your sister-"
 
"Half-sister."
 
Sakura hissed those words toward him, not an ounce of her usual caring display she had for him.
 
"She is still your sister! Even if by half or full blood! I can understand your anger yet I cannot see why you are overreacting about breaking our engagement? This was decided by our parents when we were children. There was never a moment of love blooming between us tha-"
 
"Because you didn't allow it to!!"
 
She cut him off in anger at his words, her face held anger, yet pain from his words displayed there as well. Looking straight at him she spoke her aggravation while ignoring Rose who tried to speak up.
 
"You never tried!! But I did! I grew up believing I will be your wife, so I had to learn your empires political and cultural affairs while learning from my own empires because I was the only heir to it! I would forget to eat and study to the point I would black out for hours. I would have to remind myself that my future children will inherit my fathers place in being emperor so I would have to teach him or her as well as your own future heir at the same time because it is the empress's duty to raise their children with the right tutors and all that nonsense!! I never allowed myself to rest for longer than five hours a day, I studied for exams, I  was even given a fiefdom to raise experience for a moment if I ever have to rule over the empire. I worked, studied, learned and tried to make a connection with you because of our future together!! I always tried but you never did!!"
 
Sakura's eyes redden in agitation and unshed tears. This was the first time Klemens has seen this side of Sakura and hearing all her words made him silently hear her out.
 
"You think this was all just something our parents decided and has really nothing to do with us?"
 
Her unwavering gaze looked at him and hoped he would deny his words a few moments ago, but contrary to her wishes he silently gave her a gaze that answered her question.
 
Knowing what he thought, he'd lips raise to give him a melancholy smile.
 
"I never once thought that."
 
His eyes widen in surprise at her words.
 
"I was happy to learn you were to become my fiancée. At the beginning I thought it was great I was going to marry my 'best friend' yet growing up it became more than that. I believed that you will allow me to have a family I always wished for, that we would be beside each other and lead our children to be great rulers. I with those dreams ended up falling in silly love."
 
Her self-deprecating smile for the first time made him feel something other than dislike or disinterest to her. A feeling of guilt washed over him.
 
"I fell in love with you. Thinking it was fine to since fates intertwined us to marriage. So I wholeheartedly did so many things to gain your love."
 
Her pathetic smile disappearing from her lips and only sadness remained.
 
"I am not stupid Klemens. I was able to see your dislike for me, but I believed that if I tried harder you would finally see me with tenderness in your eyes like you used to do when we were children. That you would finally come to love me and we can live a life filled with love and harmony.... but it seems that it all was just wishful thinking; all was just a naive dream of a stupid clueless women in love who kept on hoping and wishing!!!"
 
Her tears fell with her shout, her emotions on full display, revealing her weakness which she always hid from so many years. She grabbed the scruff of his shirt and looked up at him with those pained filled eyes.
 
Those eyes that always held warmth and care was now filled with hopelessness and tired feelings. Rose stepped up to intervene but Sakura pushed her away and Klemens couldn't say anything, he felt her eyes were eating him from the inside.
 
"I believed everything will go the right way if I just waited for you to open up, I believed you would finally take a step toward me too after seeing all I did to be the best wife I can for you. Yet here you stand before me; to tell me that you love another who just recently stood beside you contrary to I who was here for 9 years!!.... ha..hahahaha!"
 
Her lips let out a laugh, yet tears still streamed down her face.
 
"Why..... why did it have to be her..."
 
"Sakura.... I- I'm sorry.... I fell in love with her."
 
Those eyes that held so many things grew dim from his words. Her chest felt an unbearable pain.
 
*
"You should have expected this."
 
'No! Not again. Leave! I don't need to hear this again.'
 
A voice filled with malice intent arose in her mind. This voice that always haunted her in her dreams and her life awake.
 
"Do not say another word!"
 
"Sakura?"
 
Klemens soon notices something wrong with Sakura's expression. Her eyes glazed over and she looked in pain while clutching her chest.
 
"What's wrong!?"
 
Rose quickly walked over and tried to hold Sakura steady but she was quickly slapped away.
 
"Do. Not. Touch. Me!"
 
Sakura sneered while looking at Rose teared face expression, a Deja'vu feeling entered Sakura and she didn't understand why this seen seems so familiar, yet so different.
 
'What's happening? What's wrong with me!?'
 
Sakura tried to shake the feeling away yet the moment she saw Klemens hold Rose in his arms to steady her from Sakura's slap, his image was overlapping by Adonis embracing Rose while glaring at her.
 
"Ugh!"
 
A pain of a thousand needles piercing her chest made her fall to her knees, sweat poured over her and tears kept falling down.
 
'Why does it hurt even more? I love Klemens yet why did that image hurt just as much or even more!? What's wrong with me!'
 
She looks up at Klemens and raises her hand up to ask for help, that she feels something is wrong, but before she could.
 
"H-hel-"
 
"Sakura you are too much!"
 
"!"
 
She was cut off by Klemens sharp words. His face filled with disappointment again was overlapped with that of Adonis giving her such a look.
 
Her hands that reached out retracted in confusion and fear of what is happening.
 
"I thought we could be civil about this Sakura. That's why I came to tell you about my love for Rose. But now your just acting like a child!
 
"Klem-"
 
"Sakura I'm sorry. I truly am sorry. But the engagement between us were something our parents decided, I just didn't love you. You were just my fiancé my parents decided on."
 
**
"Its no use to act pitiful. What we had was just a promise between our parents, I have never once had strong feeling like love for you. You were just my fiancé my parents decided on."
**
 
Klemens words were mixed with a memory Sakura couldn't recognize. A agonizing headache consumed her mind and she cried in pain.
 
"Sakura?"
 
When Klemens glared at Sakura he saw her gaze grow in confused fear. He didn't understand that look and wasn't expecting her to react this way. What made him panic was her scream while clutching her head. Her breathing grew ragged and she seemed to be in agonizing pain.
 
"Sakura!? What's wrong!?"
 
Klemens sent Rose to call for help and he quickly grabbed Sakura and raised her head to look at him.
 
"Sakura!?"
 
Blood seeped out of her nose. She kept mumbling incoherent words and the moment she made eye contact with him she grabbed his shirt and looked straight at him.
 
"Why again... why did those I love always choose her! Adonis and now you!... no, I don't love Adonis,  I love you? Wait, I'm engaged to Adonis, no? I'm engaged to Klemens. Shouldn't I be dead?"
 
She shakes her head in conflicted anger. Her words not making sense to Klemens at all.
 
"Ugh!"
 
Because of Sakura weakened mind, the defense she kept up against whatever dark thoughts was weakened and was quickly taken advantage of.
 
The corrupted being that runs through her body can see a crack in her mind and invaded it. Especially so now that the purification mage wasn't anywhere near to interfere.
 
In one quick swoop it chained Sakura's mind and soul, it couldn't consume her yet so it decided to push her in the depths of her mind while it rose to the surface.
 
Quickly the conflicted expression that ran through Sakura changed. Her face cleared up and in horror Klemens watched how her eyes became pitch black.
 
"The corruption!?"
 
He shouts in disbelief and watches her blood mix with a black one that seeps out of her nose, it consumes it and disappears inside her skin.
 
"Such a great vessel. I have to thank you boy."
 
The corrupted being let's out a shadowy attack and pushes Klemens away. He smacks right on the wall and coughs in pain but quickly rose up to stop whatever that corrupted being was planning to go.
 
"Trying to stop me? Heh! You are far too weak to go against this vessel boy. But I must thank you, because of your actions, you made the take over quicker and effortless than what was expected. But be glad! Now that you don't have this girl as an obstacle to intervene between you and that purification mage. Isn't this a great thing for you?"
 
"Get out of her now!"
 
Klemens released a ice chain to hold that thing down till Rose arrives to purify it. However the thing smirked with Sakura's lips and used earth magic to block the chains.
 
"How annoying. Rather than thanking me you are attacking me? How so very ungrateful of you."
 
The thing sneered and joked while a teleportation portal appears behind him. The portal was oozing corrupted magic and Klemens panicked when he saw it.
 
"Don't you dare!!"
 
"Ta ta! Lover boy hahahahahahah!!!
 
And just like that, Sakura disappeared, then a few months later Raphael disappeared. He was later seen beside the corrupted leader, him helping them fight against his old friends and allies. His betrayal surprised many because he was always loyal toward Mihkael. But many years later it was found out he did so to protect the girl he raise for so many years. His life that became condemned by many and was cheered in his death the was mourned by those many when seeing him buried beside the girl. Their end was tragic, no good came after that death either.
***
 
Sakura moved to hold on to Raphael even tighter. Her mind forgetting about the pain of being discarded by her fiancee for her her sister, and now in pain remembering he died trying to keep her safe. His death was all her fault, and even in his last breath, he never blamed her for it.
 
Feeling this man's chest raise each time he breathed, hearing his steady heart beat eased Sakura and she closed her eyes, letting her mind close down so she doesn't have to think about it.
 
"Let's ask Sakura! Maybe she wouldn't think it being a bad idea! Sakura. How about it, wanna be a family with my adorable son."
 
"-e."
 
"Hm?"
 
"I rather die."
 
With her mind growing fuzzy, her real thoughts leaked out and she fully closed her eyes, leaving those adults in the room in pure shock.