The King's Collie

Part V, Chapter 10: Of A Love Unconditional

Felix spent the next few days in his library, not coming out whatsoever. He obsessed over a desk, and got lost in his self-conflict. He knew he must do what was right, as he knew from Iago he had to, but something inside him told him not to do this. He knew it must have been sin, and yet, it didn't feel like any sort of sin whatsoever.

The door to the library was locked, and Felix only came out for two reasons. First of these reasons was to get food, during which he was quick and successfully avoided contact. After all, he was the king: If anyone were to ask a guard where the king was, they would have to follow orders and say this information was requested to be kept.

The second reason was to take occasional visits to the church, during which he conferred with Iago. A final, definite plan was made. Felix was still in disbelief at how quickly he himself was convinced, but followed through. So much was at stake here. He could bear to make this sacrifice in order to preserve everything else he knew and loved.

The most prominent thing that had changed about Felix was the way he never slept with Cameron during this spell, nor did he talk to him during his days of isolation in the library. The King slept in this library, generally making it his home. He even brought a pot there, which he used often in nervousness. Cameron was meanwhile left to wait in the literal king-sized bed, waiting for this strange spell of seclusion to wear out.

A bit of procrastination was had between Iago and Felix during their brief conferences, and they decided it would be best to wait further with the deed. Ophelia had been an omen, after all. Her death was a warning. They soon agreed, that, upon the end of the month, the end of the summer. Indeed, it seemed as though this sin started at the beginning of the summer, with both the arrival of the collie all that time ago, and the succumbing to the temptation in Venetia, roughly a year afterwards. The end of the summer would be the fitting equal end to this strife, an adequate heeding of His warning, and a swift rescue of the kingdom.

—

"Goodnight, Marco," Cameron said to the wolf passerby as he made his usual way to the King's bedroom.

"You're going to Felix's room again? He won't be there," Marco replied.

"He's been acting so unusually, lately," the collie replied.

"It's something— something not good," the wolf theorized. "I saw His Highness get out of the library, and then go to the church, both yesterday and two days before," he said.

"What's he doing there?" Cameron asked. "Talking with Iago?"

"That's what I fear," Marco stated. "But I'd rather think it's just for official business, no?"

"I should think so," the collie stated. "He's probably trying to figure out how to prevent some diplomatic crisis that we haven't heard of yet. Maybe it's with Lusitania," he shrugged, and smiled.

"It's probably nothing," Marco agreed.

"Do you know what night it is?" Cameron then asked, though not exactly enthusiastically.

"What is it?" the larger canine asked in response.

"The thirty-first of August," the collie stated.

"It was a horrible summer," Marco sighed, rubbing his head. "I'm sorry it was so terrible for you, too."

"I can't say it was all too bad— well—" Cameron stammered, then stated resolutely: "It was my worst summer in one way, but... but the best summer in quite another."

"Ah. I see," the wolf then nodded, forgetting that Felix and Cameron had gotten together at the start of the season. "That felt so, so long ago. I'd really kill to have those days back again."

"They slip away like sand through your fingers," Cameron agreed. "But we had them, and that's better than not having had them."

"Very much agreed," the wolf nodded. "It might seem like that's how life is."

"Every day he's been with me have felt like the greatest of my life. Well, until— she—" he stammered, then sighed.

"I know," Marco repeated...

"But as long as I know he still loves me," Cameron then eagerly smiled, "I won't care. We could be thrown out of the castle, for all I care, or even put in a dungeon. As long as he still loves me, and as long as my name is Sir Cameron of Valentia, I'll still love him, and relish life for that fact. And I know he'll love me too, come hell or high water, and until the end of time, just as much as I love him."

"You should tell him that, see how deeply he gets it— and see how deeply you get it," Marco nodded, smiling. As terrible of a joke that was, what Cameron said more sincerely reminded him of himself, and how he felt about his sweet sparrow wife.

"Once he gets over whatever this is," Cameron chuckled, now in lighter spirits. "Goodnight, Marco. Give Lætitia a kiss for me," he then winked.

"You saucy thing! I'd have at you for that if you weren't so gay," Marco replied, making his way back to his own room, as the two men chuckled to themselves for the night.