Prelude (Underworld Lucian Fanfiction)

97 - Chapter XCVII: A New Beginning

Days later.

He opened his eyes...

...and saw Raze.

Raze.

Fuck, he felt like crying.

Which had to be a withdrawal symptom.

Surely, he thought. Trying to sit up...and finding himself...unable.

It was the Change Quarters. Or had been.

Everything had been destroyed.

The stench of vomit, piss, blood, and shit telling him no one had dared clean it in some time. Or him.

His throat dry as he croaked the words. "How long?"

"Eight days."

Oh...

Oh no...

...that was too long.

"Reinette?"

"Still refusing to sign anything."

Oh thank fuck, he thought. Letting his head settle back onto the floor. The hard pillow of stone that was more comfortable than he cared to admit. She kept signing things without being...fully...cognisant of how deep she was about to entangle herself in a situation...

...it had taken France and a guillotine to teach him that, and he was still paying for his mistakes. The golden rule of lycan politics: Do not...sign...anything...if you can help it.

There was a slight pull at the corner of Raze's mouth.

But it disappeared quickly.

Leaving a sadness.

A sorrow that it had come to this.

"She told Weylan you threatened to abdicate."

Right.

He again tried to sit up.

It did not happen.

"Does she know it would take an act of Parliament," continued Raze. "...that the Council would end your immunity, after which you'd be thrown in prison along with Xristo?"

"They'd still have to charge me first."

"Say the words, and it could happen," said Raze.

Looking tired by their present circumstances. He...again...in the Change quarters...and Raze...again...seated on the other side of silver bars, managing to make a wooden stool look like a throne.

While Lucian stared from his bed of piss and shit. Taking a grip on the floor and forcing himself up against the wall.

"Well, it got you here, didn't it?"

Raze looked pained.

His gaze wandering to the eastern wall. The stones that had been used to seal the window. Knowing they both could picture the darkness in which Xristo had been left to rot.

"Yes," he said. "It got me here."

"Where were you anyway?"

"An errand."

"Important?"

"Still to be seen," said Raze.

Giving him nothing.

As usual, he reflected. Unable to think suddenly on what errand Raze might have been going on. And sadly aware that it had been years since he'd been interested. Instead spending the past year avoiding his friend. Too afraid that he would scent him out. Gauge his plans. But now wishing he'd paid more attention...