By the Bone

9. Granted Freedom

"You're quite sure you don't want me to come with you, Ira? I can send another guard with you, perhaps." Suggested Fai, rubbing his hands together nervously as he stood outside the entrance to the lifting platform, a hand propped against the doors to keep them ajar.

"Estrella is high in the sky, nothing will become of me, Fai. Anyone with a head on their shoulders and eyes in their skull could tell you're the prince. I'm also Vijeta, you forget. I am the guard." Ira smiled, cocking her head in amusement at the worried prince.

"I see your argument. " He sighed, relaxing his shoulders. "All the same, take care. Shāyán be with you." He nodded to her.

"And with you... Thank you, Fai." Ira smiled back and took a final step onto the platform and let the doors close, the platform gliding down the glass-walled liftshaft with smooth speed.

Perhaps a dozen rises had passed since Fai and Ira shared their moment in the baths, neither mentioning it since. Things traveled on much the same, though now only one hundred rises remained until the king's Bǐsài and after more tense discussions and Fai finding himself at a loss, they agreed she should return to Obscura in hunt for her new teacher. It may be worth mention Ira hadn't yet discussed who she had in mind with her prince.

Fai still felt  a pain deep in his gut that he was not enough to  help Ira how she needed, but he could give her what she needed to succeed even if it wasn't him, and he knew that would have to be enough.

The prince hadn't stopped thinking about his idiotic actions with Ira since they had happened. He closed his eyes at night and could still feel her pressed against him, her absence a cold prickle against his skin. He thought himself cruel to her. He knew he'd never be able to make her a queen, and she had always known much the same. He knew the king watched him with her too closely. Wanted to know why he hadn't been considering the nobles of the neighboring cities to wed. He cursed himself a poor prince. If he couldn't even abide by a single oath as a prince what kind of a king would he make? He shook his head and tried to ignore the pain in his chest as he watched Ira disappear on the platform below.

Ira took a deep breath as soon as the prince's face vanished from view. Shāyán above, she hated that sad look. She pulled her cloak from her orange leather bag and flung it over her shoulders donning the deep hood.
The guards at the base nodded to her sadly once more, now with a glint of fear in their eyes. She supposed they would have seen her that night...
"Ira..." one of the guards uttered as she stepped by. "Are you well?" It was the most senior of the guards, a slightly older woman with light brown hair tucked neatly into her helmet that spoke. She worked closely with Ira's mother, often alongside Ira herself.

"I am. Thank you, Fuerta." Ira smiled, but she could see the guard was not smiling at her, her eyes locked intently on Ira's stomach, vividly picturing the rusted protruding blade.

"I hoped I'd not see you here again," Fuerta whispered in a dulcet tone. She had that same look the prince had in his eye. It put a knot in her stomach. She knew she meant it with good intentions but she found herself too proud to be belittled as if a child.

"I'm hoping it will be the last time, Fuerta," Ira said sharply, struggling to keep her tone fair. She nodded once more to the guards before they felt the need to share more thoughts, which she thought they weren't entitled to and walked out into Obscura.

It took her a moment to realise that she walked in the dark... her eyes adjusting from the bright glow of Estrella that she'd been cast in just minutes ago. The same dark she had walked in the times she had visited prior. The blue bulbs still flickering and bobbing about the air above the streets. She swallowed and squinted through the darkness, her stomach sinking. They always lived in the dark, she realised with pity. They truly didn't know the light of Estrella, cursed though she may be, her glow is second to none. How sad these people must be, she thought.