Broken: Day 10

Word Count: 60,041

Summary of Events:

Emil and Samuil went to examine Arina again after dark and discovered that in order for the spell to be broken Arina needed to hear a public profession of love and then be kissed as dawn broke; they then visited for awhile, with Samuil expressing more concerns about the wisdom of their marrying that unsettled Emil. After they left Arina spent some time in thought about quite a few things . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Arina sighed. She had far more questions than answers right about now, and she was sure that she would end up having more of the questions unanswered at her dying day than she would have answered.

The questions regarding how things would fare if she were to marry Emil would have their answers, but the answers as to why things had happened how they'd happened to get her to this point would never be answered.

She wondered if they hadn't happened the way they'd happened so that she'd meet Emil. If Papa had remained alive she and Mama would never have moved, they would've remained where they'd lived and she would surely have lived out her days without having ever seen Emil face-to-face.

It may've been that she would've seen and admired his image from afar, but he never would've seen her, and would he then have married someone else? Arina wondered, but she knew she wouldn't ever find out.

She wondered what Mama and Papa would think; what they maybe even were thinking, as surely they knew what was going on in her life to some extent.

Were they honoured to think that she had acquired the affection of the Imperial Heir? Were they glad to see she had a way out of this trouble? Did they know already who their grandchildren would be and how many they would have?

Oh, there were so many questions, but she had to admit, the advice she'd given to Emil and Samuil was advice she ought to heed for herself: if Sevastian's balls were as late now as they'd been before, she was going to need to be well rested, lest she find herself so exhausted that she fell asleep either before Emil professed his love to her or before they could kiss at dawn and the spell could be broken.

Arina bundled herself under the blanket Emil had brought her — which she appreciated very much — and gazed at the flames, slowly dying down into little glowing embers that she would nurse back to a flame with some wood in the morning, as she was sure that the rain would be continuing all day tomorrow, thus she'd be spending her time in here, lest she be cold and miserable outside.

Even if she didn't marry Emil because it was deemed unwise, she hoped that she could find a life far away from here so that she couldn't be cursed again or even outright killed by Sevastian and Anastasia.

Pronunciation:

Anastasia: ahnahstahzyah