These chains... they bind me. Her face... it reminds me. My love was turned to hate, my freedom revoked by those who subjugate. That nightmare became a reality. That fateful day when the blood-red sky wept. And the rest of the world slept. When we...
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_________________________________ "Y-you're the princess of Casia!?" Jinto erupted.
"Do you wanna tell the whole world maybe?" Juri sarcastically huffed.
"Ah, right.. my bad! But, the first Casian I meet happens to be the princess? Princess Juri... it has a nice ring to it," he replied.
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In that moment, Juri's face became like soft clay, moulded by the hands of tragedy. Her eyes were like cracked marbles and her golden hair flopped downwards like the severed silk strings of a spider's web.
Oh no.. I've offended her somehow. "I-uh, didn't mean to.."
"Jinto," she interjected. "You're the first one..."
The Melanin man looked on expectantly.
"You're the first one to ever show me kindness. To ever show a weightless compassion, unabated by a shameless expectation of royal favour in return. None, save for my mother were ever kind to me unconditionally. Even..." the pensive princess's hands clenched, scrunching up her trousers. "Even my own father saw me as nothing more but an asset to further his ambitions."
Jinto gently placed his hand on top of hers, warming it with his Qudra, "I know how you feel. Never to be seen as anything other than an object. My father doesn't see me as anything more than a tool of wa..."
"NO! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE!" Juri erupted.
The Tamer of flames stared at her intently, silenced. This anger she is displaying isn't truly for me... I'll endure it for now, if it helps her to cope with her traumas. With how tightly she's squeezing my hand, her heart must've been more like a fissured dam, holding all the pain at bay.
In that instance, the shutters furiously swung back and forth, as a vehement wind wailed like a siren, almost conjured by Juri's emotions.
"I'm sorry, it's just (sniffle) it's just..." Juri's eyes began to water like melting ice, as the cauldron of agony began to bubble and brim within her. "Yes, as the Princess of Casia, you could say I was given most of whatever my heart desired... The downside? Incessant rules and traditions. The strange ceremonies that always left my mind so hazy... I've lived my life wrapped up in bubble wrap! Unable to make true connections. Unable to make true friends. I'm certain even The E6 hate my guts despite their warm smiles, especially that Saeiqa..."
SAEIQA!? Did she just say Saeiqa!? As in the same one who attacked me in my nightmare!? And the E6? I need answers, immediately! "The E6, what does that mean? And that name, Saeiqa, it sounds familiar?" Jinto subtlety pried.
The princess felt the heat from his hand grow from warm and comforting, to aggressive and tense, though it still did not burn her. "Oh, I doubt you've met the Saeiqa I'm talking about. He is a very dramatic, intense man who belongs to a group called the E6; meaning The Elite 6. They're a special, chosen group who were tasked with protecting me during most hours of the day and night. Excluding Saeiqa, they treat me as their own, though they do not look like me. They aren't Casian. But considering their strange powers, the king made them esteemed citizens and gained much benefit from their talents. No one seems to know where the E6 actually came from or when they arrived in Casia. They're probably the product of my father's wretched machinations."
This is uncanny... I truly hope this Saeiqa and the one I dreamt of aren't one and the same."Your father's... wretched dealings?" Jinto inquired.
The pensive princess looked up at him with the eyes of a wounded puppy, "He... he..." warm tears streamed down her face like condensation on a window.
"He what? What does he do?" Jinto pressed.
"I can't tell you..." Juri abruptly blurted.
"I see..." he sighed.
A brief spell of palpable silence fell over them. Each one, lost in their own transient thoughts.
"Look, he just has a sort of business. A vile business that he wants me to take over once his old age overtakes him." Juri confessed.
The Tamer of flames peered deeply into her eyes trying to figure her out. "What of your mother?" he asked.
In that moment, Juri's eyes became vacant, dejected. Her gaze drifted upwards, as if she beheld a sight only visible to her. An invasive cold chill exhaled through the room, as she held herself and began rocking back and forth, as if she were possessed by insanity.
"What of my mother you ask? Well..... Hmhmmm, Mhmhmhmhmm..." she suddenly paused and inhaled deeply. "AHAAA, AHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAA!... AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!... AHHHHHH!... WRAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Her maniacal laughter morphed into something more akin to the tortured wailing of a demented soul. A harrowing, haunting melody inspired by a lifetime of turmoil.
That voice!.. THOSE EYES! And that wretched wailing, doused in disaster... even the way she's holding herself! It can't be, surely it can't be!? How am I just now noticing!? B-but, the woman from that nightmare, her hair was a different colour... it was black! That's right! There's no way she was real! There's no way they're the same person! It's impossible! Besides, Juri rejects whatever her people are upon, so they can't be the same person...right?
Juri, aggressively latched onto Jinto's top with her two hands, before burying her face in his chest. "HE KILLED HER JINTO! (Whimper!) My father... he murdered my mum..."
