Meanwhile back on Pentown, Diana was walking around her garden, watering the plants. Tending to the garden always soothed her soul. The snow covering the garden slowly melted in the sun's heat. The long winter was finally leaving as Spring was around the corner to welcome them with beauty.
"There is my beautiful wife" A young but confident voice sounded in the garden. The voice instantly put a faint smile on Diana's comely face.
Standing 6' 3" tall, a cream-skinned man entered the garden with a gentle smile. He had a stoic feel about him. His dark brown eyes were small and sharp as swords eyebrows on his angular face. The raven black hair fluttered in the wind as he was walking. Just like Diana who looked young as a girl in her late twenties, despite his real age, the man seemed to be in his early thirties. Even many youths never had toned arms, a broad torso, a well-defined waist, and toned long legs like him.
He wore perfectly pressed masculine clothes. A long white winter cloth with grey wolf fur and finely made black trousers. He put the two sheathes containing his swords on one of the benches in the garden before embracing Diana and placing a gentle kiss on her rosy cheek.
"Welcome home, Ethan"
"Jeez, I missed you so much"
"Why didn't you come earlier? You could have spent some time with the kids "
"I wanted to Dian but the peace talk between the dukes took longer than we all expected" Only she could see the exhaustion of battle behind his lively eyes. They had been married for so long that she could read his face like a book.
"I'm sorry Dian" his smile was replaced by an apologetic look.
"For what?"
"I know what happened while I was away. It almost stopped my heart, Dian"
She could see the stoic manly wall he put around him slowly crumbling down. He was a husband long before he became the House Lord, so even if he put up a wall to look stoic to others, he would show his vulnerable side only to Diana.
"I'd never leave my family unprotected again, I promise" he squeezed her hands. She had seen the look on his face before when he fought against her brother to marry her.
She smiled to ease his pain for not being there for her,
"Im fine Ethan, the gods won't let anything happen to us"
"Your smile would always make everything better"
The two of them made their way to the bench holding each other's hands.
"Jacob huh? I always had a bad feeling about that little fucker. What did my brother do to deserve such trash?" Ethan disappointedly shook his head. He was worried about his brother. Ever since he was little, his little brother always had his back. When they heard what Jacob did, his brother was shaken to the core. At Least his little brother was blessed with a good obedient daughter to wipe off the shame Jacob brought on him.
"I cannot thank Ghost enough for saving you and Sabi"
The mere mention of the name 'Ghost' brought waves in her soul. As a mother, she wanted nothing but to reunite with her son. Her heart ached everytime she thinks about her son. She never slept ever since he met him, every time she closed her eyes, she could hear his cries, and the images of her leaving the baby on the altar flashed in her mind.
To this day, she could never forgive herself for being so helpless, so weak to be made to leave her baby in the middle of a forest. The only thing that stopped her from cultivating again was the seal inside her body. It would alert Skyhall the moment she starts cultivating again.
Except for Amelda, the rest of the world was thinking that her cultivation came to an end when she was injured ten years ago but it was only a facade. Skyhall made sure the mother of the Dark Lord would never grow strong enough to challenge them or reveal anything about the Dark Lord.
If it wasn't for Rowena's mentor, they would have killed her the moment she gave birth to the twins. Even though the Skyhall showed her what would happen to the world if the Dark Lord was left alive, her heart and mind never accepted that her son would become evil as they claimed.
An evil person never would have saved Sabrina or healed Andrews or put his life in danger to save a stranger like her.
"Dian, are you alright?" he noticed the slight change in her expression,
"The last time I heard, he was still in seclusion"
"I'll go to his place in person to thank him as soon as he came out of seclusion"
"Take me there too," she quickly said. Automatically a smile appeared on her face thinking about meeting her son again.
"I thought nowadays you hate traveling" he chuckled while pinching her cheek playfully.
"No, I just hate boring places"
"My Lord" As they were speaking, a guard in full plate armor entered the garden. The guard was not one of the house guards but a soldier from Ethan's army.
"The Oracle is ready to meet you"
Ethan almost forgot about the Oracle until the guard reminded him. He left the Oracle at the guest room before coming to meet Diana. The Oracle asked everyone to leave the room so she could meditate in silence.
"Dian, you need to see the Oracle, she's the real deal. If it wasn't for her, the peace talks between the dukes never would have happened"
A tinge of anger emerged in her eyes. When Noah and Ghost were in her womb, she met an Oracle who revealed that one of her sons is going to bring chaos to the world and then informed Skyhall. Hence, she didn't want to meet another Oracle.
"Who told you to bring an Oracle here?!" Ethan was taken aback by surprise. For a moment, he saw the Diana he first met. This was the first time she had raised her voice after getting married to him.
He was confused. Except for Amelda and Diana, no one knew anything about Skyhall or what they did to Diana.
"Dian"
Diana quickly realized what just happened. Taking a deep breath, she controlled the anger boiling inside her.
"I just heard some bad stories about these fortune-tellers and I don't trust them, that's all"
"One could hide the truth but not bury it" Suddenly a gentle voice reverberated in the garden. Every timeThe voice sounded like a piece of soothing music, calming Diana's anger in a blink of an eye.
The guard stepped aside to reveal a woman in full orange robes. This azure-skinned woman had a warm feeling about her.
She had a square face with a rounded jaw, a flat nose, narrow lips, and her crimson eyes were sparkling with patience and mystery. Her curly long black hair rested in a bun above her head. The golden nose stud and the piercing in her both ears added a certain charm to the woman's grace.
She was blessed with the muscle of an athlete and the fat of a baby. She wasn't the most beautiful woman Diana had seen but she was the most graceful woman. She was something robust and real.
She wore rudraksha bead mala around her neck while a red bindi occupied the center of her forehead.
"Oracle" Ethan stood up to welcome her. The grace she radiated made Diana stand up unconsciously,
"I'm not an Oracle but just a guide for those who are lost or searching for ways to fix your past mistakes"
Diana felt like the woman was directly talking to her. The guard quickly ran to the lady with a chair to sit. Even the way she sat on the chair had grace to it.
"Oracle, meet my wife, Diana"
"You have everything a woman could ask for yet your heart is like an ocean, never calming for a moment" The lady calmly said, looking at Diana.
Ethan and Diana seated themselves back on the bench. The guard took his leave after bowing towards them.
"Oracle, I don't understand" As far as Ethan was concerned, Diana had everything. If she wanted anything, she only needed to ask and the entire Winston family would go to the edges of this world to bring what she asked.
"She does," The Oracle said. Ethan couldn't help but look at both of their faces. His face had confusion written all over it. Diana on the other hand was lost in words. Unlike Ethan, Diana could make sense out of the lady's words.
"Gods wouldn't have created darkness if it was evil. The choices you made took out the darkness in your life. Hence the light in your life disappeared as light cannot exist without darkness" Ethan was stunned to see the tears rolling out of Diana's eyes as water broke out of a dam. Her entire body was trembling.
"Dian, why are you crying? Oracle, what is happening here?" Ethan wrapped his arms around his wife while pleading to the lady.
"Don't cry my child, fate can be such a cruel mistress. You were weak and helpless. You thought you were sacrificing the gift blessed upon you by the gods for the sake of this world and your family"
Diana dropped to her knees at the lady's feet. Ethan was dumbstruck by the sight of his wife clutching the Oracle's legs. He had never seen Diana cry like this as his heart started to pound against his chest. Seeing her wife like this, he could sit still, he also dropped to the ground, trying to console his wife.
"Dian...tell me...what's going on?" He stuttered yet Diana kept crying her eyes out.
"A single drop of poison is enough to poison a pot of milk. A single secret is enough to spoil the relationship between a husband and a wife. But know this my child" the lady looked at Ethan,
"The world is an evil place and you are in the center of it. Anything you do without thinking it through will endanger everyone you love and care about"