Roses and Shadows

Chapter 5: Tumbling Down

The day everything went from good to bad, Henry had, had enough on his plate.

"My prince, you seem distracted are you well?" The woman with a plain white dress who was sat across Henry asked, dark eyes focused as she moved a chess piece.

"No, nothing that's important really," Henry slowly shook his head, pushing away the chess board from his side of the table. "Just recalling a strange conversation with someone who I met a few weeks ago."

The woman and Henry were in the study hall, obsidian walls with open square stone windows letting in the sunlight in the room that wafted used scrolls and old books. A lone bookshelf stood on the corner, empty like the hollow trees. The high desk on the center was littered with splotched parchment and a quill with ink that was placed in its dip.

"A strange conversation?" She dropped the game, settling with storing away the pieces and checkered board. "What was it about, Your Highness?"

"Dahlias,"

"Dahlias?" She parroted.

"Yes. And a strange encounter that I won't forget. It's... Haunted me a lot, Alya."

Alya nodded and kept the chessboard on the shelf that was pressed at the southeast side of the obsidian walls. Perhaps it was best that she didn't comment least Henry brought down his already downtrodden mood.

They talked some more about casual things, moving on from the depressing topic to more simpler ones until Henry stood up and excused himself, leaving an order for Alya to put away the haphazardly stacked scrolls and books.

Alya bowed with a hand on her chest. "Of course, My Prince."

Henry gently closed the door and walked along the empty black halls. No painting decorated the space, except the windows that were lining against the walls to let in the warm and cooling rays of the sun. Opening the gritty metal door, he was welcomed by the world outside.

A foot path carved in between the shrubbery, leafy green trees, and the distant town that sang with loud pounding of hammers and bricks; all of this served to ground Henry's mind that he was here. Solid, alive, and real.

Henry walked away from the obsidian walled mansion to the stables  to get his horse, freezing when someone screamed for his attention.

"Your highness!"

He abruptly turned, frown on his face and a furrow on his brow as a messenger came running along, halting in his tracks to catch his breath. "Is something the matter?"

The messenger gasped in air before handing Henry a pearl colored shell necklace and a scroll that had the family seal on it. A blue diamond shaped wax seal that had an oblique face of a rose.

Henry's hand twitched. He took the scroll after the long pause and thanked the messenger, getting on his Andulusian horse.

"You're not going to read it, your highness?" The messenger asked.

"I'll read it when I arrive at the camp," Henry said, putting the scroll on his waist bag. "It's best that you go inside the mansion though, you need the rest."

"I— okay. As you wish, Your Highness." The messenger bowed and disappeared inside the governor's abode. The one where Henry was currently housed at.

Urging the horse on, they went into a small troth through the parted bush path. Henry took in the crisp smell of summer winds and stared at the fine pearl-luminiscent shell, lump forming on his throat that he tried to swallow.

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He went through the town, watching all the dark wood houses and stalls rising up again, commoners looking at the workers with interest and awe. Some looked fearful, others desperate, but it wasn't like before where everyone tried to rip them to shreds just for a piece of bread.