Spectrum

04. The Bleu Twins

I begrudgingly stomped to the door and swung it open, 'took you long enoug-'
I was cut off by a set of dazzling green eyes eyeing me up and down, 'looking good, babe'.

I cringed 'never never never never ever call me that again, oh my god no!'

Perseus blinked, 'so that's off the table, what about shortstack?'

I shook my head, 'that's rude'.

'How?! It's cute, isn't it?'

'It is not cute! You are implying I am short and a stack and I am most definitely not a stack!'

He smirked, 'so you are short...?'

'Oh fuck off, will you?' I let out with an annoyed sigh.

'Now that's certainly rude', he pointed out.

I gave him the most silent of death stares I thought was humanly possible. It was so silent I was afraid to break the silence when the moment came, I think he was too. We barely breathed, in fear it would be too loud.

I nodded and closed the door behind me. The silence was broken. He sucked in a deep breath of air, 'glad that's over'.

I rolled my eyes as we began to walk towards the stairs, 'yeah, glad that's over, now here comes the part where I embarrass myself and my kingdom in front of everyone, geez how fun' my voice dripping with sarcasm.

He nudged me, 'there's nothing to be worried about, if anything upon hearing your value they'll see you as a goddess'.

I sighed, 'right, my 'value', I'm starting to feel more and more like a fragile artefacts than a human'.

'Well you are', my head swivelled and my eyes shot daggers at him, he immediately retreated, 't-to some, not to me haha no, no, not to me, you are as human as it gets, please don't kill me'.

I burst out laughing, he smirked, 'the strong and famous Perseus? Quivering, begging me to spare his life? I see you have revealed your true self!' I joked.

He fiddled with the button of his suit, 'oh no. You have caught me. Whatever will I do now.' his voice was so monotoned that he almost sounded like a robot.

This time I nudged him, 'hey, c'mon, you are meant to be the funny one, why do you sound, less interested than a piece of cardboard?'

He shook his head and waved it off, giving me a big smile, a big fake smile that is, 'it's nothing, truly, don't concern yourself with such trivial matters'.

I was about to say something but he laced his arm around mine, straightened his back and nodded to the guard, who opened the set of doors.

I fixed my posture, plastered a smile and held up my head, because I was walking into a ballroom with a thousand or so people all staring at me. The starstruck and confused looks followed me as Perseus guided me to the King's and Queen's thrones, where the King's words rung in my ears.

You are to appear powerful but submissive to me.

A bowed before the King and the Queen, when I looked up the King's face let out a sly smile, as if he had won the lottery but had to keep it a secret.

I turned around and faced the crowd, with a horrified look of understanding, a sea of people bowed before me.

What a display of power.

Or so I thought, until I looked again at the sea of the backs of people's heads and two men in navy blue suits stood above them all.

I stood about 10 metres away, awestruck, I didn't let it show though, I had to maintain a powerful facade. But even from here I noticed their striking blue eyes, people say you can get lost in eyes, but these eyes, oh they took that to a whole new level. You wouldn't just get lost, you would drown in the ocean while falling from the sky because this colour was only found at the horizon, but not any horizon, no, the type of horizon that you only see once in a lifetime and it's so enticing you want to jump into the water and swim till you touch it but you never do.

That's how I felt at that exact moment, I wanted to swim through the crowds of people and just touch them, but I couldn't.

They were tall and lean but muscular, their messy hair shaped their perfect faces.

Then they spoke, and if my knees weren't about to buckle before they certainly were now. Their voices were deep but not too deep, grand but not too grand, raspy but not too raspy, it was like the goldilocks zone of voices.

'We shall not bow to the Queen of a dead nation who bows to an arrogant King who lies on his death bed' one said.

I maintained my composure, the same could not be said for the King of Jaune, 'Arrogant!? Remember you are in my castle and are speaking against me'.

The second man spoke, 'I must remind you, you are the one who implied we are to lower ourselves, when we share a common status. You may have the current upper hand, however, we will never fall to the moral level of a monster.'

The King rose, his voice boomed throughout the ballroom, bouncing off the walls, 'Peace! This act will bring peace. You should be grateful!!'

Peace? What is he taking about?

The first man spoke, it was now safe to say he and his brother where somehow both the Kings of Bleu, 'We had peace!!!'

The King of Jaune snared, 'You young imbeciles have no idea what peace is! Do you think the starving and the homeless is just? Do you think the violence, murder and theft are peace? Here you are babbling on about the perfect world we used to live in and yet you know nothing!'

The brothers seemed baffled, they remained silent for a moment.

Ok, I decided, fuck whatever flogging I was going to get for disobeying, I turned around, I could feel every eye in the room on me, all a mix of fear, confusion, anxiety and interest.

I walked towards his throne, up two steps and I was now symbolising I was at his level. I looked him in the eyes, that where by the way raging with fury, and spoke as loud and clearly as I could, so that even a spider in the furthest corner could hear me.

'Calling these young men imbeciles implies you haven't looked in a mirror lately.' I took a deep breath and continued, 'furthermore, this kingdom-wide upset that you speak of; the penniless and the violent. It can not be cured, because if a Kingdom didn't have anything negative it wouldn't be a Kingdom, it would be a paradise. Now you may say, a paradise is exactly what you wish to create, well I'm sorry to disappoint but humans were never meant for a paradise, it's not in our nature.'

The old King laughed and shook his head, 'I'm the imbecile? How very amusing. Everyone rise, this is a ball after all not a conference, have fun, enjoy yourselves!'

Slowly, one by one, everyone rose. The band started playing again and the ball restarted, people danced, ate and chatted.

I had lost sight of Perseus and everyone was too afraid to even touch me, it was as if I was walking with a force field around me.

Then someone tapped my shoulder, finally, the force field was deactivated.