Chapter 1022 Magic Dust
"What is it?" Rowena asked Raphael with concern. She had seen his displeased expression and was wondering if something really bad was written in her father's notebook.
Raphael looked up with eyes filled with pity. He knew his beloved had such a hard life, and she had suffered so much. However, to relearn it in writing with such detail made him feel so bad for her.
He didn't want to tell her what he had just read. She would only feel hurt even more. What good would it do? There was nothing they could do about the past, and Draco was now dead. It's not like they could come to him and make him pay for his crimes.
"It's just your father's notes," said Raphael softly. "Nothing important."
"If they are not important, you wouldn't have that expression," said Rowena. "Please be honest with me."
Raphael sighed. He opened the pages again and pointed at one page. He decided to read it to her and made Rowena think that it was the only page that made him feel upset.
"I am upset because here he wrote that he didn't love your mother and, by extension, he also didn't love you. He was kicked out of the elven realm because he tried to sneak into Cretea from the portal located in the elven royal palace. That's why he married your mother, a princess, so that he could get access to the palace," he said. "This makes me so upset, and I wish I could kill him with my own hands."
Rowena looked at Raphael with round eyes. She was surprised to learn that her father didn't love her mother. All this time, she grew up thinking Draco hated her for causing the death of the woman he loved.
It turned out Draco never loved his wife.
Her body trembled, and Rowena had to hold on to Raphael's arm for support. She had blamed herself for something that she didn't do.
"My poor mother..." she whispered in a hoarse voice. Only now could she feel sympathy for her mother. Both the elven princess and she were unloved by Draco, and they lived all their lives trying to please the man and get his love and approval.
All this time, Rowena only felt guilty. She blamed herself for her mother's death and her father's bitterness. However, it seemed death was a good way out for her mother to leave her suffering life with Draco behind.
"Draco never loved her nor you," said Raphael. At this point, Rowena already knew it, and it no longer hurt her as much as before. Raphael continued, "So, please stop blaming yourself for what your father did. He didn't have love for you, not because he blamed you for your mother's death. He is just an evil man through and through. I think it will be better just to throw this book and forget about everything."
Rowena still wanted to know what else was written in the book. However, Raphael didn't want to inflict more pain on her if she learned all the evil things her father wrote there. So, he refused to continue. He believed there was nothing good there anyway. Why hurt her with things that already happened in the past?
"Can we just throw this and forget it? We should move on with life, not keep looking back," said Raphael gently. He put the book down and touched Rowena's shoulders with both hands. His eyes were fixed on hers. "Do you agree?"
Rowena glanced at the notebook and bit her lip. She finally nodded. "I will store it away somewhere and forget about it. As you said, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Just like my mother's hairpin."
She added, "This wound is still fresh, and I understand you are worried that I will be hurt if you read them to me now. But a hundred years from now, things might be different, and I can read the contents with peace in my heart. Who knows, maybe I can learn a thing or two about myself."
Raphael looked at Rowena deeply and finally nodded. The box and its contents were hers. He would not force her to do what he wanted to them. Let her make her own decision. He said, "Very well. You can keep it somewhere safe."
"I will keep it in the library," said Rowena. "I am hungry. I will see you in the dining room?"
"Oh, you can put it away later. Let's just eat first," said Raphael.
"It's okay. The sooner I get rid of this, the better," said Rowena. She waved her hand and motioned him not to argue, so Raphael complied.
Rowena took the notebook and put it back in the box, together with the hairpin. She decided to bring it to the library and stored it on one of the shelves meant for family heirlooms.
There, she had another box gifted to her by Raphael on their first wedding anniversary. He had been giving her simple pieces of jewelry that he had created with his own hands to show his love for her. They were all her treasures.
When she placed the box next to her jewelry box, Rowena remembered the small pouch with golden dust that was hidden under the lining of the box. She took it out. She wanted to ask Raphael if he could tell her what it was.
However, because she was absent-minded when she stepped back, she didn't pay attention to the stool behind her and ended up hitting her ankle. Rowena was startled and gasped in pain. The box fell from her hands, and the pouch went up in the air, with the golden dust sprinkled all over her body.
"Ouch!" Rowena groaned for her hurt ankle, but soon she was distracted by the glowing dust that fell like rain on her. She didn't have time to move away, and the golden dust touched her skin one by one in what felt like slow motion.
She was surprised by what was happening and didn't know what to do. Rowena was frozen in her spot. When the golden dust touched her skin, it was absorbed, and soon, all of it was gone.
Rowena was very confused. What was just happening? Her breath panted, and she wanted to go and find Raphael again. Her husband must know what was going on.
However, before she could step out, the notebook that Raphael read to her earlier was opened in the middle pages, and much to Rowena's surprise, she could understand the words written on it.
The notebook was thrown out of the box together with the pouch when Rowena lost her balance and was now opened on the table to Rowena's right. She could see the strange runes there now were somehow readable.
Rowena touched the book with trembling hands, and she was in awe to see the runes dancing around on the paper as if they were animated creatures, but she could understand what the runes were about.
"I have finally acquired magic dust. Rumor has it that this is the source of magic in Cretea. It can even bring back the dead."
Rowena's brows furrowed when she read that last sentence.
Magic dust?
She held her breath when she realized that she suddenly could read her father's writing in elven language after the golden dust was sprinkled on her. Was that... the magic dust?
She immediately opened pages after pages of the book to check if she truly could read them all or if she was just hallucinating and thought she was reading that page.
"I saw Rowena today. The little girl surprised me. She is the most beautiful female human I have ever seen, even more beautiful than any goddesses in Cretea. When she grow up, I could see gods and kings alike fighting over her. This is a good sign."
Rowena took a deep breath. She remembered the reason her father insisted that she was raised to be a perfect woman was that he wanted her to seduce a god from Cretea and get her and her father a chance to live in Cretea.
Just like Raphael, she felt upset when she read the story of her life from her father's perspective.
Rowena pressed her lips. Indeed, she could read all the other pages. So, whatever magic dust she got, it allowed her to understand the elven language. She didn't know if that was the magic dust that her father had mentioned or if it was something else.
"Should I ask Raphael what it was?" Rowena muttered to herself. "Oh.. maybe my father wrote something about it in this book. I should look it up first."
She decided to read again the first page she saw to find out more about the magic dust that Draco referred to.
"Magic dust is the royal family's treasure. I was lucky to get it without being caught. If they found out, I would lose my life," Draco wrote in his book. "And I could never be with Minnerva."
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