As soon as she left the Volyrt lair, she got in her car and speedily drove to the presidential palace. She was running out of time to save her sister's life. She had decided to let go of her pride and ask Davys for help. He was the only one powerful enough to offer any assistance.
As she reached the driveway, she was shown in with no problem by the guards, even though she hadn't been there in weeks. It was almost like he had expected her to come. She was told by a butler that the president would be in his study, so she gingerly made her way there, her movements made slower by the shame of what she was about to do.
The door was closed, so she knocked on it and waited for a response.
"Come in," was the smug reply from the other end. As she made her way in, she noted that Davys was having a meeting with some officials. She wanted to excuse them, but he signalled for her to wait at the back of the room.
There were no chairs there, so she stood, waiting in embarrassment as he took his sweet time with the men he was present with. After nearly an hour, he finally bid them farewell. He went to the door and locked it, before turning back to her.
"What brought you to my palace, Valerya?" he asked.
She didn't say anything, just fell to her knees and bowed her head. "Please," she eventually said.
"Please what? Do you need my help with something?" he asked.
"Please don't do this to me. You know my sister means everything to me. Why don't you want to let me go? Why can't we just live in peace? I'm begging you, Davys. Save my sister. We both know you put her in this mess. Even if you don't do it for me, do it for her, and for the bond you've formed all this time. You know she loves and adores you. Please, don't let her life end this way, I'm begging you," she pleaded.
"What did I tell you the last time we met?" he asked.
"That I would come begging you before a week," she admitted. "I accept. I have put my pride aside, it's nothing to me. Pleading won't affect me in any way, but by not pleading, I could lose what I hold most dear. You're the most powerful man in the world, Davys, and I'm asking for your help."
He walked towards her and said, "I've grown to love Lilliban as a sister. I wouldn't do anything to hurt her intentionally. But for each love I give to Lilliban, I love you a thousand times more. You complete me, and I want you to always stay by my side. To keep me grounded."
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Quit your current job, and come back to the palace."
"Done."
"Leave Sebastian. From my level three intel, he may not live too healthy anyway due to the accidents he has been having in the mines."
She bowed her head further, in shame. She felt like it was her fault Sebastian was suffering. The least she could do was save him more pain. "I wasn't with him in the first place. Save Lilliban's life and I wouldn't even talk to him for the rest of my days."
"Good. The Auguri may get pregnant soon, and she'll look the other way to having you around," he said.
She became still, contemplating, "So basically, you want me to live here with you and your wife, as your mistress."
"Not when you put it that way. For the first time in centuries, the presidency and the Volyrts are united. I made that happen. I can't leave the Auguri. Not because I love her, far from that, but because we need each other. It's some sort of toxic mutualistic relationship. Our first child would be the president, as well as the leader of the Volyrts. But in as much as I need that relationship, my heart belongs to you, and I don't think I can live without you."
"So you want to eat your cake and have it."
"I'm the president. I believe I can afford to."
"And then when we have kids, if we decide to have kids, they should be attacked by your wife because she would see them as her children's competition? I should lose my integrity as an officer, and only be known in history as the president's whore? Not just a regular whore, no, a whore to the greatest president and first lady to ever exist? The empire darlings who united the presidency with the volyrts."
"You would have anything you want," he said.
"What of my sister? After the trial, what happens to her?" she asked.
"Since she's in that position with the Volyrts, she cannot go off completely unscathed. Auguri Anna has assured me that she would simply be banished to level three. That is the best she can do."
Appalled, she looked him straight in the eye. "So you're telling me that my sister would be banished, thrown in that pigsty called level three, never to set foot in either level two or one, living a miserable life because she attended a party you told her to attend? For a crime she didn't commit? While I would be in the presidential palace being a whore to the man who put her in that situation?" she asked disbelievingly.
He didn't reply.
"I do not accept your offer," she said simply.
She stood up and calmly walked to the door. As she unlocked it, she turned back and said, "It was a mistake coming here, one I already deeply regret. If anything happens to my sister, Davys, I will kill you."
She was about to head out when he called out, "For the sake of Lilliban, and the relationship we once shared, I would tell Auguri Anna to let you defend your sister."
"I won't need to, because she did nothing wrong," Valerya said, still with her back turned to him.
"Okay," he simply said.
She walked out, putting him, and her past behind her. The once friends turned lovers were now bitter enemies.