In the kingdom of Aeziris, a rebellion is rising, but its reins are not in the hands of its citizens. With a fine string entwining her heart with that of its chieftain, Esméralda must walk a knife-edge while navigating her way through a palace of ma...
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E s m é r a l d a A l b y
"Do you like the rain, Esméralda?"
I wondered if my heartbeats were so loud, he knew of my presence despite my cat-like footsteps.
"I'm a bit... aporetic, I guess? I don't know," he answered rhetorically.
"Because it feels like the world's crying with you? Sharing your pain?" I swallowed, eyes on his back as he sat by the patio.
"Too cliché," he giggled in a haze of high. "I'd say, the clouds sound like dope women having an orgy because there's just wetness everywhere."
I eyed him skeptically, concluding, "you're drunk," then blamed the half-empty glass bottle standing beside him.
He pressed his fingers to his temples. "Are thunderstorms fucking moans?"
"You shouldn't be drinking in an injured state—"
"Stop pretending like you care," my mouth closed and I looked away, the tears that I hardly swallowed attacking me again. I blinked at his back once I heard him say, "this shit is cool because it relieves both kind of pains." Twisting his neck, he threw me a smile that was all but warm, "come sit." His voice was icy, like the weather had become because of the continuous drizzle.
"I can't stay here any longer, Aedric, not even until tom—"
"Prince Aedric. Don't forget I'm still a Prince."
"I wish to leave, Prince Aedric."
"And be dead in a stinky cell?"
I stiffened at the thought of Keiser but managed to reply, "not raped in a glorified chamber."
"Sit," with a sigh, I settled down on the patio beside him, a bottle of alcohol and five feet distance between us.
"I want to believe you, Esméralda. I really do," he said, "it hurts so bad. The image the Duchess' words left has become a plague to my sanity. Not even alcohol is helping to take it away."
"I don't have alcohol as an aid."
"Add on, 'if I meant harm, I wouldn't confess'," he said, "you sure have a way with words. So sleek, a part of me that loves you already believes and wishes to draw Gabriel's blood with my bare hands. But the other?" he let out a chortle, "it has been stabbed too many times to not demand proofs. It wonders if you only confessed because you'd stealthily weaved a story of escape from the trap Lady Celene's statement created."
I glanced away and kept staring at a pillar like I wanted to bore holes into it.
"Tell me, Esméralda, what did he offer you that I couldn't?" he questioned. "I'd have given you everything. Jewels, gowns, title, authority, riches, throne, crown, equality, respect, love, marriage, children someday—all of it."
