Frostbite

Chapter Two - Joy

It was already night-time when prince Jion finally walked up to his chambers. He was far from being sober and almost danced through the hanging corridor leading to the wing of the palace he lived in. in this late hour, when everyone else was asleep, he felt like the entire palace was only his. sometimes when he was still a child, he would come out of his room at night, run to the Grand Concourse or the throne room and pretended that he already was the emperor. He would practice sitting gracefully on the throne and even took his father's ceremonial crown to try it on. It was of course too big for him, but as years passed by, he grew into it though it never ceased to be heavy.

The sky was still a whiteish-blue colour, but the crescent moon could be seen upon it. Sticky with sweat and blood, he couldn't wait to get to bed. The servants would deal with the stained bedsheets tomorrow while he would be bathing. Living all his life in luxury, he enjoyed getting his hands dirty and his throat wet with wine. He never knew how much longer he had as a prince before his father would die and the time would come for him to sit on the throne and not just as a childish game. Even the thought of him dealing with imperial matters, signing papers and going to council meetings filled him with terrible boredom. As he was walking up to his room, the guards opened the door for him with a troubled look on their faces, as if they were afraid of him. He couldn't imagine why that would be, but didn't really care at this point.

The room was dimmed with the giant, heavy curtains that hung from the balcony windows, and candles filled the room with a warm, quivering light. He took off his polar bear coat and placed it carefully on a chair by the door then ripped all the other furs and wool sashes off of himself as he stepped inside the room. He almost tripped over his boots as he was trying to get rid of the heavy, wet pieces of clothing, and losing his balance somehow made him go sober for a minute, before sinking back to his half-drunken state. He noticed that he wasn't alone in the room. As he looked around, he could see his brother sitting at the table. His copper red hair hung down in one single braid and there was no crown on his head, which was a rare sight even for Jion. He smiled after he'd come to the realization that his brother was the reason behind the guards looking so shaken. The years of training didn't prepare them for a threat like Emeryth. The young prince could put fear in the wildest of warriors with a simple stare from which they couldn't hide behind their mountains of muscles. Jion thought that if Emeryth was there, it meant that Athystal couldn't be too far either. And indeed: he could see the Epicene's queer silhouette as they stood on the balcony, motionless.

He quickly grabbed a glass from the shelf next to him, and poured himself some wine. It wasn't usual that his brother visited him at such a late hour, but when he did, he had a reason for it. And this reason, more often than not, was to give him a serious talking-to. Jion approached the table and only now saw that Emeryth too had been drinking. A half-empty glass of purplishly shimmering red wine stood in front of him on the table. Where he'd drunk from it, little crystals of undissolved Joy were clinging on to the side of the glass. He was in his nightgown, a champagne-coloured, light silk one with embroidery of snowflakes on it. The snowflakes fell down from the garment and vanished before reaching the floor. Jion started to get worried now. Not only because in the faint light of the candles, Emeryth again looked just like his mother, for that was usual; but rather because it was very unlike his brother to walk around in the palace, even at night, dressed in nothing, but undergarments. Even though Jion had no doubt that if he did, he would bring it into fashion.

He had an effect on people, especially the nobility. Some of them even dyed their hair red to look more like the prince, but without possessing the light, yet masculine beauty that he did, and that could be envied even by the most beautiful women. Most of them who tried to mimic his style just managed to make themselves look ridiculous. Emeryth would have looked more elegant wrapped in shapeless linen and picking his fingernails, than the prettiest of them in a fine gown. Jion too was unusually handsome, but it was one thing being handsome and another being beautiful. He was half-asleep and for once looked peaceful. All his pride and strictness were gone and for once he really looked just like a fifteen-year-old boy. But the next moment he suddenly opened his eyes as if he could feel Jion watching him, and all his innocence was gone, like it hadn't even been there.