Put back together

72. Sunset Execution

Warning: Murder(!), Execution, talk of past genocide, implied suicidal ideology, guilt, death, blood. Let me know if I forgot anything!

Patton followed Logan back out of the dungeon.

He'd hoped the fruit would help somehow but it hadn't done anything at all. Maybe Han had lied to him.

"What do we do now?" he asked as Logan knocked on the door.

Logan seemed to think.

"I'm not sure," he said.

The door opened for them and Patton gave the guard a small wave as they slipped past her.

"If we could figure out why Virgil wants the king to die, maybe we could save him from being executed. But he certainly doesn't want to tell us," Logan continued once they were out of earshot. "If only we knew more about him or the king."

He groaned and put his face in his hands.

"Are you okay?" Patton asked.

"If I was back on D'cal this would be so much easier," Logan bit out. "If there was a book or a scroll about all this I could just figure it out!"

Patton gently put a hand on his arm.

"Well, there isn't, but I'm sure we can figure it out anyway," he tried. "There's something going on here, we know that much. I'm sure, together we'll figure out what it is."

Logan let his hands sink and looked at him for a long moment.

"Are you sure?"

"As can be," Patton smiled at him.

Logan sighed and let some of the tension slip from his shoulders.

"Okay," he said, nodding, as if to reassure himself. "We should find Roman first. Maybe he knows more."

Patton nodded. "Alright. Let's find him."

They headed back the way they'd come to try and figure out where Roman had gone after they'd split up.

And they couldn't just open doors to try and find him. Some guards were already eyeing them weirdly just for wandering around and going up and down some hallways and Patton didn't want to risk disturbing any royals.

After almost an hour of wandering around aimlessly they stopped in the gardens and sat in the grass close to the door.

Patton picked a flower and turned it in his fingers.

"Do you think we'll get to stay here in the castle over night?" he asked.

"Most likely," Logan was watching the trees. "You were sent out to find us after all. It would be pretty stupid to send us out again immediately."

Even though Patton had been in two rooms outside of the basement he knew how the others were. He'd heard about it from butlers, maids, servants and even some pages who came down to the kitchen to eat leftover goods and complain about their work.
They'd spoken of floors that had to be polished until you could see your reflection in them, bronze bathtubs that had to be kept shiny and golden, beds framed in curtains that were washed twice a year and took a week to get clean and dry each.

He had thought about what it would be like to sleep in one of those beds but he'd never considered it possible.

The realisation just how much had changed since he'd left hit him suddenly.
How much he'd seen that he never should have because Patton was just some baker from a tiny village and his journey to Corin should've been to longest of his life.