Snippet #1103040

Castle

Cleo noticed that Shien was following them towards the throne room and couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened. She had kind of been hoping that she would be able to have some time alone with her father. It had been years since she had seen him and Cleo was in a way desperate for his attention. Sure it sounded like she was some sort of spoilt little brat, but Cleo was anything but that. For so long she had been denied the love and attention from her father that she would take anything she got.

When her father spoke to her she looked up at him. When he paused a worried expression crossed her face as she studied her father’s face for any sign of where this sentence was going. She was desperate for some kind of reassurance from Valius, that what she had been doing was good and was valued work. However before he could finish the sentence he was interrupted by Shien. Cleo also turned her head to watch him, a look of surprise on his face. She had never seen anyone do that before. Cleo remained silent though as she left the situation up to her father. It wasn’t her place to interfere.

She then watched as Demetrius left the throne room. Her attention then turned back to her father as he started speaking to her again. A smile appeared on the girls face as her father told her she was doing “exceptionally well”. The words rang in her ears. It was much better than she could have ever hoped for. Maybe somewhere she was beginning to prove her worth... that she was just as valuble as any of the men at her father’s service. The smile drifted from her face as her father touched her forehead and instantly she knew everything that had happened. Things were just as bad as Shien had said they were. Despite this, her father’s cold words still shocked her.

He wanted her to kill Markell if he tried to escape. Cleo wasn’t sure if she could do that. She really liked him... maybe more than liked. However it was her father asking her and she knew that when push came to shove, she would do it.

His next words forced her eyes to avert to the ground. He may have been joking but to Cleo his words were all too real. She had always been trying to prove herself. Her whole life had been about trying to show him that she was as good as any son. Probably without realising it, he had said that one thing that Cleo had wanted all her life... yet it wasn’t said in the context she longed for it to be said in.

“Yes Father” Cleo said quietly, unable to think of anything more that she could say to him.