[A/N] Hello darlings ◝(' ˘ ')◜

I'll post another chapter tomorrow, a Patreon exclusive chapter that is independent to the plot (so it'll be a random scene between them) but it will be available to everyone on Wattpad for a week before I make it Patreon only again.

I'll post the link to my message board when it's up.

[Elpis's POV]

The breath of relief I felt waking up from my dreams, where he had not scared the daylights out of me finding me, where I had not been hauled back, was immense. I woke up and my heart stopped thumping so loudly in my chest, the sweat on my brow cooling.

The marks left on my body had not only survived the night but looked stubborn enough to remain as nerve wracking reminders of a mixture of relief, pleasure and displeasure. Even still there was a slight sense of self contained chagrin on my part, though I was ultimately glad I was caught, for being caught where and how I was.

Clothes were laid out for me, a new set. When I asked where the old clothes were he told me they were being washed.

"It is good you kept them..." He mused to himself as he dressed. 

"The clothes?" I asked, puzzled.

He observed me for a moment with a critical eye.  

I looked at the new ones, a similar sort, but with different embroidery, fish, their tails interloping, along the hem, and a complicated pattern in silver threat at the collar. It looked less modest than the former, made with skilled hands and high quality fabric and thread, I would surely stick out with it on. 

"For some time we looked for the clothing, when you must have cast them off to hide," His voice was low. "They were most convinced you would have disposed of them quickly."

"No," I stated naturally, automatically and fast. Although a piece of evidence that should not and could not be found for the sake of my life, at the time, I hadn't thought, I'd quietly stored them, unable to let go. 

"They thought you might have burned them." He hummed, almost playful, a twinkle slowly sparking in his eyes, but it was manufactured, a latent darkness hummed underneath.

"Never." I spoke under my breath. Not if my life depended on it. Although I wasn't sure where that conviction came from. In the end, it had been all I had left of us.

He watched me for a while longer but ultimately said nothing, his broad shoulders shifting as he moved and turned away from me, but I still saw him from the side, dark eyes matched with dark brows, just the vaguest curve to his lips.

There was a dark shadow in the palace now, an awareness that something was moving in the air. He had once told me that the walls speak in this place and he was right in more than one sense. 

Somehow without a word I knew that the servants were discussing it, the slow descent of war, I did not fully understand why but I gathered it from the occasional hushed whispers here and there combined with certain looks that passed each time a certain keyword or phrase was used.

I wondered if it had something to do with Belem.

My chest felt cold when I thought about it.

First I sentenced him to a nearly sure death, then saw him survive and smile at me genuinely for the first time since I met the man, a smile most natural and comforting, then I escape only for him to be missing the very day I return.

The distraction, it must have helped in getting to him.

Now what hope was there left for him? How could he survive? In reality it seemed as though he must be alive, because I felt his spirit in this world yet, and saw no body for proof.

And sat on my own in the empty chambers I thought about it with furrowed brows, my fingers fidgeting with the fabric of the bedsheets, his face still kindly drawn in my mind, soft cunning eyes watching me with odd curiosity, fascination that turned heated with wine, finnicky fingers grabbing for me, the wince in his eyes as I grabbed his arm and saw evidence of the injury I caused him on his face. The panic, the pause, the threat.

He had tried not to hurt me. I knew it securely. When I chased him down then, when he escaped from the balcony. He had the strength, power and perfect vision of a man who could have killed me without issue but he had deliberately avoided it and been struck by me.

He was not the enemy.

I stood up, walked slowly toward the door but did not approach more than a step, just stared at the large wood, engraved slabs and stood still. 

I was not ready for them to open and startled I stepped back as a bright eyed boy stepped into the room and flung his arms around me.

"Amun!" I exhaled in shock. He was quiet but his arms were surprisingly fixed, his eyes shut tight, his hair, normally groomed, messy and in some disarray. "Amun, I must apologise..." I thought I must, even if he was so much younger.

But Amun didn't reply, he also did not let go and only hugged my waist tighter, still unwillingly to move.

I pushed his shoulders gently but he stamped his foot and held on and I looked at him startled, he was still only partly through the doors and so they were still open, the maidservant that apparently followed him here watching with her head slightly bowed but a perplexed look on her face, looking up at me, her gaze passing between us.

My face felt a little warm. "Amun, come inside..."

He would not move or let me move, I thought of fragging him but in public, in front of his maidservant, I knew it would not be possible.

"Amun..." I continued to cajole gently.

Amun finally let go, taking a step back, he painted a sternly haughty expression on his face and pursed his lips.

Oh he was really very upset.

[Despina's POV]

My Lady was quiet in the morning, her face colder than usual, her lips pursed into a tight knot. Tea was poured and presented, a sort of spiced dry bread set aside as an accompaniment along with dried fruits and dry cakes.

The curtains were drawn, a pale frosted white fabric that was heavy but translucent, even fully drawn light still filtered into the room in a soft glow that left her even, doll like completion more radiant than ever, even the lines pressed into existence from her slight repressed frown hardly managed to interfere with.

I watched her. "Are you well ma'am?" I spoke low, worried.

She did not answer. Just sat tense and unhappy.

For some time this strange silence continued, until she finally chose to break it.

"Despina." She addressed me.

"Yes ma'am." I bowed and reached for the tea to fill the teacup.

She slapped my hand away and turned to look up at me.

"The King knows. That boy ran for a reason, he knew I would kill him, and now the King knows it too." Her voice was calm but the words disturbing.

Thera's eyes were cold and angry as she looked ahead. Of course I already knew this, all of us did, and while worry left us tense throughout the night no one was more perturbed than my Lady.

"He would have acted already, surely." My sister maidservant spoke, to me more than to our mistress.

I pursed my lips. "He cannot execute you, ma'am, he cannot even punish you!"

Her lips pursed together even tighter, if possible, her eyes returning to the table, she delicately raised a little gold spoon and turned it in her fingers, before using it to gently scoop out a single sugar cube from the pot and balance it quietly.

"A man like that does not sit quietly when he has his possessions disturbed."

"There is no proof, what the Joker says will only be seen as an attempt to gain his forgiveness!"

She huffed, looking out toward the window, where the curtains cloaked it, long vertical hills in the fabric, pleated at the top. "The boy is too..." She waved her hand lightly. "Clear. When he speaks. Even when lies it sounds honest."

"Do you really mean to say he will believe him without a doubt?"

She gave me a warning glance. "No. He will remain suspicious for some time. And then that will die down..."

"And he will..." I glanced at the other maidservant who glanced back, some worry in her eyes. "Believe him?"

Whatever my mistress said was usually correct, despite her fair looks and multitude of talents she was also a very good judge of character.

"In time. What do you think will happen when he finally trusts him again?"

"An entertainer-"

"Who he sleeps with." She turned back to me, a slight whip in her voice. "I have met King Demosthenes a thousand times before. The kind that thinks it is far better to dance with someone who has nothing than everything. Sweet and vulnerable, and so eager to please."

Her eyes burned into me. I knew not to look away, it was rude to break eye contact without permission. But occasionally it was possible that one could feel rather stifled under that oppressive gaze, it was the mark of someone powerful, of course.

"King Demosthenes knows better than this. He merely spends the night with him. His heart will be devoted to you if you give it some time..."

But she seemed not to have heard me.

"It will not last." She told me, a chill in her voice despite the warmth in the room from the excessive wood burning, a maid still kneeling on the floor in front of the flames to direct the smoke up the chimney flue, gently turning her large fan up and down, eyes lowered.

"Of course not, my lady."

"They all fall eventually." She leaned in just close enough not to disturb her perfect posture and looked down at the sugar cube in her spoon. "Common born aren't raised with the blood or the tutorage to handle the wealth and decency required to be in power." He mused, her words spoken gently but her expression still tight. 

"They fall so easily, rotten by greed and born stupid, insipid fools. They cannot hide what sits underneath for long. Yes..." He hummed. "Some men let themselves become soft to these little common born men and women, and others see..."

Her words trailed off, her eyebrows knitting together, eyes narrowing as her spoon moved, glowing softly in the light.

"See the frog that crawls before them. See it dissolve beneath them, no longer fresh and fascinating. They become nothing again." She let the sugar cube fall into the tea and it sank to the bottom of the transparent caramel coloured liquid, only disturbing the few vagrant tea leaves formerly resting at the bottom.

It dissolved quickly, faded, and there was an unnerving, calm, measured look on her face as she looked down at it.

I watched it, stiff with the chill she managed to set in the air, sweat cold on my chest.

She glanced at me. "But the Fates work against us. I will not lose, come back as the daughter who failed to marry above her station, the sister who follows to be lower in rank. So we must help him." She smiled slowly, but the tenseness was still visible on her face. "So that he sees sense."

I nodded my head, lowering it naturally into a bow. My lady was so vastly intelligent, I knew that the moment she had a plan in mind it would save us.

This time luck would not play a role.

[A/N] Big warm thanks to my patrons  (˵╹ᵕ╹)━♡

♆ Vanille ♆ locagd ♆