Oath of Steel

37 |Twin Tales|

Tales are meant to be carved up shells of memories long forgotten, bringing them back to life in the most spectacular of ways. But not all tales are meant to be remembered.

Her eyes were closed as she heard the door shut close. The shuffling of footsteps got close, sending her muscles into overload as she waited. The scraping of a chair being dragged close made her crack an eye opened.

He was right in front of her, leaning on the chair as he watched her. The walls around them seem to close on Rosalynde as she quickly stood up, back straight before spotting the familiar door that led to her private restroom. Her footsteps quick as she slammed to door behind her, locking it up as she stepped closer to the oval mirror sitting over the marble basin.

"Do you know what happens you're taking in under direct orders of the Crown?" She started, eyes taking in her hollow appearance.

She heard him stand up again, footsteps getting closer as a light thud came from the door. Grey's back slowly sliding down until he hit the floor. His silence an invitation to continue.

"Children taken in stop existing. Our pasts, whatever evidence of who we'd been before, erased from this world. Set to walk paths not chosen by ourselves. Shadows serving our masters, satisfying every little whim, every articulated lament, even their joy is ours to share." She started tracing on the mirror the outline of her sharp features. "I was brought here by Lord Regulus after the murder of my parents, and left to the care of the woman you met tonight."

She heard more shuffling on the other side of the door before silence came back biting.

"At the time, Lord Regulus was not as influential as these days. Peace run thin. And the paranoia of her majesty after the birth of the twin heirs had only but grown. Me, Katherine and a handful of other kids with similar backgrounds. All brought together under her care."

Her hand stopped tracing the mirror, falling back to her side.

"I was one of her favourites."

Something started dragging itself from within her venter, like a corpse crawling out of its fresh tomb, long fingers grasping the freshly moved dirt.

"She loved playing with us. Any kind of game – you name it. Any at all, as long as she would win at the end," her throat felt on fire, the tips of her hands cold as ice. "But there was someone that she loved more than winning those games. It was what came after that."

Grey cleared his throat. "And what came after that?"

"When you're a child," she started, gaze absent, filled with memories. "You think that crying will give you everything you want, and that smiling will make the ire of your parents go away. After all, who could ever resist the sweet gaze of their own child beaming down at them?"

She forcefully tore her gaze away from her reflection, looking at the door, imagining the body of Grey on the other side. With his head resting against the wood, his dark hair falling effortlessly over his forehead.

"Each time she caught us, we had two options to choose from. Either get on with it, or apologize."

Once again, her gaze fell on the mirror, rocking her body left and right as she reminisced every single second spend there.

"And how did you apologize to her?"

Rosalynde's smile grew wicked.

"I smiled."

She came to a halt, fingers grazing skin as she forcefully started tugging up her smile, widening it till her cheeks started hurting.

Smile. If you smile I promise I'll pardon you. Are you going to be a good girl for me and apologize, dear? You know I love your smile. So, smile, smile harder, I want to see all your pretty white teeth. Smile and I'll stop.