Wanderess

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN

The palace Guards found her an hour later. She hadn't moved. Still crouched in the mud, even when it began to rain, even when thunder clapped behind her, even when the city was cleared out and she was the only one left in the ruins. She didn't move when the Prince disappeared. She didn't move when she heard her name being called out.

Fayre Ayer refused to move even when she was dragged upwards by the weapons master. Fallon was his name. She was frozen to the earth, that was until she felt arms trying to pry her from her foetal position in the mud. She began kicking, screaming and thrashing at the hands that grasped her arms and hauled her into the safety of a car. Everything was a blur as she was enveloped in a warm towel and held by her father once the car door was closed.

Fayre had stopped screaming, her body going limp in the safety on the King's grasp. Silent tears still fell down the Princesses face as she backtracked over everything that had learned in the space of such a short time span.

The Prince of Malvat had wings. Ebony wings at that. One of her cities had been laid to waste at his hands, whether directly or not. He was the Prince. He was the Prince. He was the Prince of Darkness. Her polar opposite. Where her Light stretched in the world, his Darkness was there to cover any light she let out.

Her people had been slaughtered. While she had taken down a considerable amount of Demons before she made her way towards the Prince, it still wasn't enough. Hundreds had been slayed. Lia was no more. The city reduced to ashes and ruins. Her mother's city. The last remaining piece of her history from the non-royal side of her heritage. Gone. Reduced to rubble.

The car ride was silent. No one daring to utter a word, in case she began her hysterics again, or did something equally ridiculous such as hurl herself from the car to hunt down each and every Demon responsible for the destroyed land. If Fayre was being completely honest, she didn't fully trust herself not to either. The storm raged on outside the vehicle, the thunder loud and boisterous. The flashes of lightning the only other source of light bar the headlights illuminating the path before the car. The storm inside her was as equally as tormented, perhaps even more.

It took half an hour by car to reach the palace from Lia... or what was left of it. The grounds were silent as the Royals and Fallon made their way up the drive, followed by the car containing the Guards. Pulling up to the front door, the chauffeur waited as they all made their way into the building, then drove off into the night. If outside was quiet, then inside was utterly silent.

Fayre began to worry as they made their way through the exquisite home and not a soul was to be seen. She enquired quietly to the King where everyone was.

"You'll see," was all he deigned respond.

They walked for many minutes more before the entrance to the throne room ascended upon them. Hilda stood before the closed door. Fayre made her way over to the maid, taking both the older woman's hands in hers, tears in her eyes. Hilda pulled the Princess into a hug, taking the now-damp towel from around her shoulders. Pulling away, the Princess of Light gave the woman a puzzled look.

She turned back to the King, a silent question in her eyes.

He only nodded, summoning her to stand before the doors as they were pulled open by the servants standing on either side of the large double doors.

Not knowing what to expect, Fayre held her head high and strode into the room, not taking in her surroundings until she fully stood in the throne room. In all her dirt-covered, matted hair glory.

The room was packed full of people, her people. People from Lia. They were dirty and some injured, but they were alive. They all looked to her with admiration and adoration.

Tears returned to her eyes, but she pushed them back. Turning to look at the King, she mouthed the word, how. She trembled as she placed her hand over her mouth, attempting to control the sob rising in her chest.

Stepping forward to stand beside his daughter the King spoke with authority, the kind of authority that demanded attention- the authority Fayre could only hope to one day possess. "When you went in, sword blazing and fire burning, you bought most of the people of Lia time to flee, time to escape and make their way here. You took down a good third of the invading force alone. You saved all these people Princess."

The tears she wouldn't let fall began trailing down her face, despite her best efforts. Man, she thought. All I seem to be able to do is cry these days.

Every set of eyes in the room was on her and she tried her best to meet each and every single Angel's eyes. They looked at her with such admiration she wondered if she deserved it. She had stumbled and lost against the Prince of Darkness, and he had left; set free- able to come back, harder and faster than the attack on Lia.

"We could not be prouder of you Fayre. I could not be passing the rule of Solas to a better heir. You're already a Queen at heart and you will make a prosperous ruler." Her father's words brought on another wave of tears, Fayre giving up on holding them back. Not caring if it showed weakness or vulnerability, she sobbed and wrapped her arms around her father; the King- and held on tight.

The King held her as she sobbed. She cried for the doubt in her mind surrounding everything she had ever been taught, she cried for the people she lost today, thought the numbers were not as high as she once believed and she cried for the uncertainty she now held for the future of her kingdom.

Something was coming, and she wasn't sure if she would be strong enough to withstand it.

She pulled away from the King's embrace and made her way into the crowd waiting to get a piece of their future Queen. She was passed around, embraced, many shook her hands in gratitude, and she had the tears of almost everyone she interacted with on her, mingling with her own.

The Queen-to-be was exhausted by the time she was ushered out of the room to be cleaned up. As if those around her only just realised she was shaking not just from pure emotion, but rather the cold seeping into her bones from her wet and muddy clothing. Her hair utterly despicable according to Hilda.

After spending a good hour or so cleansing herself of the battle, by the time Fayre's head hit her plush pillows, she was already asleep.

****

Adrian couldn't bring himself to leave until he knew the broken Princess had indeed left. He watched her as she lay, curled in the mud. She didn't move, not for the storm brewing, not for the cold and harsh rain that pounded down upon her back, not even for her own name. Fayre.

He had done that. He caused that shattered look in her eyes. He had destroyed the Light inside her. Adrian Tenebris wasn't born to feel. He was bred to kill, maim and do the dirty work of the King. He wasn't taught empathy, sympathy, kindness, generosity or manners. He was taught apathy and destruction.

Despite all this, despite his upbringing and his past, despite his inevitable future; the Prince of Darkness felt a flutter in his chest as he watched the girl lay in the mud, completely oblivious to her surrounding, as he watched her heart lay in pieces, scattered around her, on the battlefield.

He would not leave his hiding place in the shadows of a burned building until the car containing the Princess was far out of sight, a mere speck in the distance.

Shaking his head slightly, Adrian rubbed his chest- what a sensation, the flutter in his chest was indescribable, beyond words.

He felt pangs of despair whenever he looked towards where the cars had disappeared to, shifts of unease slithering throughout his entire body and a deep longing coming from his very being.

This emotion, this sense of feeling...anything. it was new.

And the Prince of Darkness smiled as he thought of it.