The Knights Of Laegovhar

A Knight-time Wish

The moment Eliana closed the door of the bedroom, Cayde approached her with a glass of bubbling liquid. He clinked the two glasses together once before scoffing an emotionless laugh and turning on his heel to sit beside the fire.

As he sipped, so too did the woman, her gaze focusing on the room rather than the bubbling beverage. Similar to the corridor and the rest of the castle, gold highlighted everything. Picture frames, furniture, the bed. But unlike the rest of the castle, the rich reds were replaced with black. Even the bedsheets, the carpet, and the curtains were as dark as the night sky without the moon or stars to light it.

Then Eliana looked to Cayde, the man next in line to be king, as he sat drinking with his head in his hands. She watched how the flickering firelight framed his face, how his eyelids drooped after a day of non-stop walking, and how his hands cradled the near-empty glass.

Eliana bit her lip and approached the prince as he swallowed the last dregs of liquid in his glass. Wordlessly, she swapped the two glasses to give the man her drink before placing the empty glass on the end table. Before Cayde could say anything, the woman moved away, her attention on the view outside the window, her eyes locked on the crescent moon in the sky.

She heard Cayde sigh, followed by the tink of his glass resting beside the other. Then he spoke.

"You know, the view is better from out here."

Eliana turned to see the man open a second pair of double doors in the corner of the room. Beyond the doors, she could see a short hallway and a third pair of double doors beyond them. Eliana assumed for only a moment that they had entered into Mikail's room, but as she walked through the doors and into the short corridor, she saw no signs of a bedroom, only a floor to ceiling window taking up the entire right side of the wall.

Eliana's breath escaped her in a gasp as, beside her, Cayde chuckled. "But that still isn't the best part," he said as to Eliana's astonishment, he reached forward and opened the glass, revealing them to also be doors. The man stepped through them and out onto a stone balcony decorated entirely with black roses.

Eliana's breath halted in her throat as she followed the man out, for not only was the entire night sky in view, but so too were the castle's gardens, and the kingdom beyond that. If she squinted, Eliana could see the farthest reaches of the edges of the kingdom, a place where even the most downtrodden person could find a meal amongst the kind folks.

"Cayde, this is..." Eliana began, but her words escaped her and she could only breathe at the sight.

The man moved to join her at the edge of the balcony, his hands resting on the stone banister. "This room used to be father's," he mumbled as his gaze swept over the kingdom beyond. "Best view in the entire realm."

"Meant to be a scare tactic, I assume?"

Cayde chuckled gently as he leaned forward onto his elbows. "This should have been Mikail's room."

Eliana turned and looked back. She saw the windows of Cayde's bedroom on the left, and even more windows on the right. Beyond the glass, she spotted a copper bathtub. "Where is his room?"

"Look up."

Eliana's eyes flicked up to see tiny arrow slits in the rock wall, a tiny glint of glass covering the gaps. "He doesn't have windows?"

"His room is a culmination of other rooms that used to house fighters." Cayde scoffed a laugh. "My room maybe nothing but black, but his is dark. I think he prefers it that way, though. It's a bit like a wizard's tower room with books in every free space."

"Sounds lonely," Eliana said, as she turned back to see the view.

"Won't be if you keep shouting back at my dad." Eliana opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again as her stomach lurched. Looking back on the events of the past hour, she finally saw how defiant she had been. Cayde's voice came to her again, pulling the woman from her thoughts. "Mik knows you will protect him."