Chapter 32 Accusations
"I know you don’t, and when speaking to me, refer to me as Your Holiness," Aiden said as he sat up from the bed and closed the distance between them.
Olena was shocked; she didn’t expect Aiden to react this way. She had thought he was already frightened by her proposal, but it turns out he wasn’t moved; she still wasn’t out of the woods yet.
"Do you think I’m scared of you?" Aiden spoke before pointing to the scroll in her hand. "This little piece of paper only has value if I believe you can actually do what you’re threatening."
Olena remained silent as she swallowed her saliva, but Aiden continued.
"So let’s think about it: you said you’ll expose me, to whom? The king?" Aiden asked with a smile on his face.
"Tell me, Head Priestess... How exactly are you planning to meet His Majesty? Do you have the authority to waltz into the palace whenever you wish? Or better still, can you request a private audience with the King?"
Olena’s expression stiffened slightly; she didn’t know Aiden would call her bluff... she didn’t expect Aiden, who was just a normal priest until today, to be so well versed in politics.
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out; she found herself unable to answer, and Aiden continued before she could.
"YOU CAN’T!!" Aiden spoke in a hoarse voice.
"The prince has just survived an attack because of me; the priestesses in the palace couldn’t do anything. The kingdom is in chaos. Lords, generals, and heads of other cities would be trying to meet His Majesty. So a Head Priestess from the Western Church can’t simply barge in because she had a rumor"
Ideas were flowing into Aiden’s head, and he slowly began circling Olena, who was too stunned to speak. No matter what she thought of in her head, Aiden continued spewing logic that rendered it useless.
"So since you can’t meet the king, you’ll have to take another route. You’ll go through a noble instead; given you’re the Head Priestess, I’m sure you’ll have contact with some nobles." Aiden shrugged right in front of her, a smirk now forming on his face.
"But that makes it even worse; the moment any noble or Lord hears your story, they’ll need confirmation, which you don’t have, and even if you do have it, they’ll bring it to me first to further their own interest"
"And if I tell the noble your accusations are false, and you’re spreading rumors and lies during the kingdom’s darkest hour, who do you think the noble would believe?" Aiden asked, standing right in front of her.
Olena’s fingers tightened around the scroll. She was expecting this to be easy, and when she found Miraleth, she was sure it was going to be a walk in the park, but Aiden wasn’t immature; he was calculative, she couldn’t help but think what else he had in store.
To her, it felt like Aiden had planned this from the start, but there’s no way he knew what she was planning, or did he?
’He asked like he had no idea who I was, don’t tell me he knew of my ambitions, there’s no way that possible, does he have someone in the Western Church, and wait a minute...why is he the only male priest that survived, he was sent out by the former Head Priest and was close to the walls when the church was attacked, don’t tell me he knew’
’Ohh my goddess, what am I doing? I can’t possibly challenge him to a fight, I can’t escape from here, and I can’t report him. I need to find a way out of this. I don’t care about being the second in command; I need to survive this’
Olena made up everything in her head; she was an overthinker who planned, and if she hadn’t found Miraleth and deviated from her original plan, all of this wouldn’t have happened.
"The newly appointed Head Priest... Or a priestess making accusations." Aiden drove the nail home with a smirk on his face as he spread his arms forward.
"If we both stand before the king, he’ll naturally ask me what happened, and I’ll simply say... Head Priestess Olena misunderstood the situation and spread baseless rumors that threaten the unity of the Church after the attack"
Aiden looked directly into her eyes. "Now tell me, who do you think the king would believe, and that is if you get an audience with the king"
Olena’s breathing became uneven; she couldn’t speak or move. She was genuinely afraid of him. Now she realized she had made a mistake; she thought Aiden was going to be a frightened young priest who knew nothing about authority; instead, he understood it even more than her.
Aiden glanced at the binding scroll once more before pushing it into her chest. "You came here believing you held all the cards... But all you really have is an empty threat"
"What did you think was going to happen? Did you think you would be a puppet master controlling me from the shadows? Instead, you have just exposed yourself to me. So tell me Head Priestess... What do you think is going to happen now?"
Aiden spoke, closing the distance between both of them until he was right in her face; the only thing stopping him was her huge chest that stood in the way.