THE ARCHAIC SKY

CHAPTER: THE REUNION OF OLD FRIENDS

The two stood before a workshop on castle grounds. An open pavilion, every inch was covered in rolls of fabric, baskets of doll limbs and small ended metal tools. One of the baskets even had a doll's head pinned on the front, Amara tried her best to stare at the ground or ceiling.

Dark, and dreary just like the autumn, as if engulfed in a kind of sorrow. From the bottom of the roof, long sheets of fabric were strung along before gathering around the chandelier. Dolls were displayed in all their magnificence with large intricate sets, on shelves behind the dollmaker's large worktable.

Other tools were present on the large table in the middle of the room, which sat a giant magnifying glass. On the corner, she could see pots for paints and dyes. The pots and vases present nearly everywhere contained a myriad of things, including glass eyes, doll hair. Doll bodies and limbs for the dolls. Separated neatly.

"you... had no idea what I was going through" Amara watched him walk around the table, dragging his hand over the golden pine table. He stabbed a dagger on a piece of paper, pinning it to the wooden table that shook as he did so. The doll parts nearly falling, instead creating a sound that falls nicely to her ears. Like shells knocking on one another.

"oh? and how would i? when you'd never even tell me? even when I asked, you'd keep them all pent up... hurting me just because you were hurt too... doesn't...make it... right" she shoved the table slightly towards him. Which he caught with both hands to stop it halfway. His large figure draped over her, above his eyes, were guilt he couldn't wash away with his alcohol. "I despise you... ryu"

She turned on her heel, seeing the two soldiers who followed her. Ryota was clearly amused, his smirk spoke for him. Ruyi on the other hand, were orders away from snapping ryusei's neck in half, or gouging out his eyes, or breaking his spine over his knee, killing him in the procces. It would be so easy too, it would be as if asking a guard to kill an intruder.

Amara was pulled back, the sharp end of the table stabbing her back. Once he heard a slight pained cry, the grip Ryusei had on her hand began to lessen, allowing Amara to pull it back and examine the red marks he had left. . "...if you tried harder to understand me, to understand what I was going through-"

"as if you would let me"

"you don't know that! Because you never-" his voice was unsteady as he shouted at her. His sharp eyes so sharp he could kill her with the dagger made of them. he stared with his head tilting down, his eyes staring, no glaring, through his eyebrows.

Amara scoffed in disbelief, stepping backwards. he really thought he was innocent. He was as innocent as her. "I never tried? i'm sorry, my prince, I should have begged on my knees for you to open up, right? It was all my fault that you didn't." he threw his face away, his hands now on the table. "it was all my fault that you stole ninety thousand chrons from me. it was also my fault that you decided to gamble it away and spend it on osmanthus wine. It was also my fault that you lost in that gamble, therefor losing all your stolen money" his grip on the table tightened.

"it was all my fault you gave me fake gold in compensation which got me arrested by police monitoring alchemists" that wasn't even to the most of it. He sold the old identities of seikatsu members and their whereabouts to nation officials just to make money. "I'm terribly sorry, I feel awful, I apologize truly..." Amara paused straightening her face as she stared him with a deadpan look.

"my kreideprinz"

Just like that, he flipped the table over. All the limbs and parts of the doll falling and nearly shattering on the ground. Ryusei raised his hand before it slapped her across the face. so hard Amara felt tears in her eyes and a stinging feeling on her cheek. She sniffed harshly as she wiped them away. She heard armour shift before she raised her hand, stopping the two guards from interfering.