The Palace Guard (MxM)

XVI

The feeling like he had made a mistake didn't go away the next day. Or the days after that.

Training had only gotten more intense, so it actually seemed like they were planning on using the guards to fight. Well, at this point they almost had no choice since half of the soldiers and almost all of the knights were off giving Avaviles a reason for battle. Takkoria's famously large number of fighters weren't there.

Nikkol knew that they'd been in Caben for a while now. It wasn't that big of a location, and if they haven't found her by now then they were likely to never. Either she was dead or decided to go somewhere else.

"Hey!" Nikkol pulled his attention to Edgal, who was looking at him like he'd been trying to get his attention for a while. He hadn't really talked to his friend over the past few days, mind too preoccupied with his own situations. "We're going drinking." Edgal demanded, swinging an arm around him, but holding that arm tight, letting Nikkol know there was no backing out.

Nikkol still tried to. "I'm really tired today, they worked us hard."

"Exactly, we all need a break, need to relax."

"But I just wanna go to bed."

Edgal groaned. "Come on! You haven't hung out with me in forever and I'm starting to feel neglected!"

"Don't you have Anaiah taking up all your time?"

"It's not the same." He squeezed his arm tighter. "You're not getting out of this. It'll just be me and you this time, I'm sure we have a lot to talk about." With the way he spoke it was obvious he was talking about what was going on between him and the prince.

Nikkol didn't say anything else, keeping his head down and getting out of all his armor. He didn't protest when Edgal dragged him all the way to their usual tavern, in truth barely being aware of it. He had trouble focusing since his mind was busy. His own thoughts tended to be more unfocused too, although seeming to have a common theme: Setial.

Edgal led them to a table in the back of the tavern, kind of separate from other people so they'd have some privacy to talk. "What is with you lately? Has Prince Setial been giving you a lot of trouble?"

Nikkol shook his head. "None."

"There's obviously something up with you and I'll bet it's the one thing that's changed over the past few years. Tell me what happened." Edgal pressed.

Knowing his friend, Nikkol knew he wasn't going to let this go. It had been pressing on his mind lately, so he figured he might as well tell him. "I stopped going to his room at night and he's been ignoring me since."

A lot of that wasn't true.

For one, he made the decision to stop going seem a lot more insignificant and unconfrontational than it was. The screaming and yelling and pushing were a big part of the story and something that Nikkol often reflected back to.

Secondly, he hadn't been completely ignored.

At first he was. The first day after their... talk, Setial passed him in the hall. Nikkol, having broken the rules concerning him so many times, let his eyes follow the prince so he got to watch him a few more seconds. The prince's gaze didn't waver from pointing forward both there and back. He did, however, yell particularly loudly at his father in the throne room.

The second day, he passed again, this time, he looked at Nikkol, eyes displaying a pained emotion on the way back. No yelling happened that day.

The third day, well, that day, Setial looked at him and froze in front of him, like he wanted to say something, but continued on, not even looking at him on the way back.