Cinder-knight (bxb) ||completed

11th rule| never

A smell of burning rust invaded Eric's senses once he finally regained consciousness. He looked around, apprehensively, as a black obscurity gridled around him like a halo that never left. It had the knight trapped as a circlet of darkness sneered all over his head.

He couldn't breath.

The scent of scorching wood, and the sensation of savage flames hovering near his frame, made him clench his jaw, struggle, and even cry. Yet everything was futile, cause in the end he couldn't move an inch, nor could he breath in an appeasing amount of Oxygen.

"Take off the bag, I think he's awake," a familiar voice said and Eric felt the dark abyss get sucked off his sight, making a gasp leave him once his eyes met with those of Charming's, who still managed to charm him even in a scruffy wedding suit.

"My Prince?" the words left his mouth without notice as his body went numb. His eyes scanned around the place he was in, it looked like a penitentiary, with uncanny antiques and dribbles of a thin liquid gushing down the stony walls.

Eric was lost. He didn't know what was going on. What had he done to be in here? Did he do something illegal without even knowing?

Blazes of fire guttered and flickered out in cracks from a fireplace that gawked at him from the left. The heat was too much.

Sweat was pouring down his face, his body drenched, mind unsteady. He couldn't stare at the fire for more than a few seconds as he got nauseous, so he looked back at his prince, whose eyes gleamed bright in the gallantry of red.

But then Eric realised his own state.

He was tied to a chair with giant ropes, two guards were standing either side of him and in front of his exhausted frame stood the prince, with all his frustrated glory.

It almost seemed like he was a great criminal, brought in for a interrogation.

"Out of everyone, you had to be the traitor?"

Eric looked up at his prince, his expression contorting into confusion.

"Your majesty, what's that supposed to mean? I'm not-"

"Shut up," Charming cut him off with a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his wiry body against the desk that one of the guards drew towards him after seeing how tired he looked. "I have no intention to listen to your blether, so hear me out with caution and answer the questions I ask you, it's as simple as that."

The freckled knight nodded and looked down, trying to show his inferiority to the prince's valiance.

"First question, for whom do you work for?" Charming inquired, and Eric looked at the royal with his eyebrows knitted together. His gaze raked over the prince who examined him thoroughly, both not understanding what the other was up to.

But then again, Eric realised, if this was supposed to be an interrogation, then shouldn't he show no fear to prove that he's telling the truth? So he looked straight into the hale pit of azure that stared back at him, wincing in discomfort at the way the usual puckish glint of the prince's eyes got replaced by utter turmoil.

Nothing except a smile suited the prince's face, according to the knight's perspective. But that was a tale to tell later, and right now, Eric had to acquire the courage to speak.

"I'm not a traitor."

Charming stared at him for a bit, visibly taken off guard by the tone he had used. "If then, how do you explain the letter you gave to my fiancé? The one that reeks of black magic?"

Eric stilled, his mind going blank for a moment as he let out a small gasp.

"What no- I only delivered a letter given to me by an elderly lady, my prince!" the knots wound over his wrists to affix him to the chair, suddenly started feeling.. too tight. Eric writhed and jounced up, trying to appear more candid than he was by then, "Please your highness, you have to trust me!"

The knight felt his insides crumple at the way Prince Charming scoffed at his bold tantrum. Of course, it's as expected. Eric was a knight, and a knight shouldn't be shouting in his liege's face like a bloody maniac, they always had to stay composed.

The red haired man realised his blunder, and tried to calm down. But before he could do so, he was grabbed by the collar of his tunic and was shoved back, so relentlessly to the point where he saw stars.

Prince Charming just watched while sitting on top of the desk. "Respect the prince," one of the guards reminded while Eric stared at the prince for too long with his mouth curved down.

The two guards behind him did not seem happy with his constant flubs, and the satirical muses of the mice that ran across the solid stones proved that he was only adding reasons for his own existence to be ridiculed.

"Listen here, ginger." Henry started as he turned behind to glance at the already escaping set of mice before returning his gaze back to Eric, "If you do not reveal who your master is this instant, we will get the truth out of you with magic. And trust me when I say it's not going to be pretty."

"Your highness please.. I'm not lying.." he begged, knowing what was about to come. But as his eyes widened a stable amount once the prince commanded his guards to bring the lie detecting powder from the office of the royal magician, Eric found the amount of courage in his posture dwindling to complete nothingness. And the way his heart thundered at the accusations that were being dumped over his head, was indescribable.

"My prince.." he pleaded weakly, for the umpteenth time and said, "I'm not a traitor.."