All I Need ✔️

Chapter 14

Third Person POV

Prince Cassius wheeled Safania down the hall and through another door. The pair entered an outdoor greenhouse. "Emalina and I both love plants," the prince said, wheeling Safania in the dark down one of the aisles towards a fountain in the middle. The prince put her next to a bench that he proceeded to sit on.

"She does most of the work, but I would much rather her spend time doing this than skulking about the castle the way others are prone to. You'll have to see it during the day. The flowers are mainly dormant and will be until summer, but it's still beautiful."

"It's beautiful right now," she said, looking up through the clear ceiling to the stars.

Prince Cassius smiled. "It is," he replied simply.

The pair both looked up at the stars for awhile. "What was it like growing up in Eir?" the prince asked finally.

Safania looked at him, a bit surprised. "It was nice," she said uncertainly.

The prince looked at her closely. "You'll quickly find I have no interest in pleasantries or meaningless conversations. When I ask a question, I want a real answer, not some kind of fluff."

She nodded. "Yes your highness."

"So what was it like growing up in Eir?"

Safania closed her eyes, remembering the sound of the ocean, the taste of the salty air. "It was beautiful. Every day was like living in a painting. I would wake up before everyone else and sit on the rocks on the shoreline, watching the sun come up while dipping my feet in the water. Eventually my mother would come looking for me, but she never had to look very hard. I was a creature of habit."

Safania smiled wistfully, deep in thought. The prince studied her, enjoying the response his question provoked.

"I used to catch fish and other animals in the tide pools. I would name every single one of them. I almost certainly named the same one twice, but when you're little you don't think of those sorts of things," she looked at the prince, who was looking at her, interested.

"Your parents," he said, "what are they like?"

Safania smiled and looked away. "My parents drove each other crazy. But not the kind of angry, yelling, fighting crazy. I don't really know how to explain it. I guess . . . one time, my mother was making a cake. She had told my father to get butter day after day, and apparently he said he had done it. But he hadn't - he forgot. And my mother . . . she was so mad. She started chucking the flour she had measured out at him. So then he grabbed some flour and started throwing it back at her. Next thing you know, the entire kitchen and the three of us are all covered in flour, laughing and laughing. It was a lot of things like that. They knew exactly how to irritate each other but they loved each other more than anything."

"What happened to them?" The prince asked.

Safania's expression turned from nostalgic to forlorn. "They're dead," she said quietly

"The war," the Prince said. Safania nodded. The two sat there for several moments, neither speaking. Wanting to break the awkward silence, Safania changed the topic.

'What about you? What is your family like?"

Prince Cassius paused for a moment before beginning. "Nothing like yours. My brothers and I all have different mothers. They're all dead. I do care for my father, but he did an absolutely terrible job protecting his wives. They were constantly trying to kill each other, and whenever they weren't, someone else outside the family was. Not the most stable home environment I suppose."

"I'm sorry," Safania said.

Prince Cassius smiled a hollow smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What do you mean, you're sorry? I'm still a prince. I'm one of the luckiest people in the world."