The King's Remorse

Don't Worry, I Stole It

"Phoenix, please calm down. Wolf is going through her emotions right now. Please give her some space." Miles approaches Phoenix cautiously. The black cat stares at Miles for a few moments, glowering, before he rolls his eyes, turns around, and stalks off, ears drawn back and tail flicking back and forth rapidly. A snarl rumbles in his chest.

"You alright, Wolf?" Miles asks.

"Yeah." Wolf's arms hug her sides. She doesn't look up from the ground. The Midnight Tears well in her unblinking eyes, but they never spill down her cheeks.

"It's not an excuse for him, but it seems Phoenix's way of dealing with his emotions is anger."

"I know. He just lost Ky, too. The last living member of his family."

"Probably a dumb question, but how are you holding up?"

"I keep feeling like he's gonna just show up, you know? Like I'll be able to see him again and talk to him again." Guilt chews through more of my body. It feels like soon there won't be any of me left. The mask of the model Soldier begins to splinter, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface.

"What's next?" Wolf sinks to her knees. The mask fractures further, and I feel like I'm about to shatter. Miles shoots me a concerned look before crouching beside Wolf, who clutches the pendant around her neck in her hands.

Just as the mask is about to break, Wolf braces her palms on the ground. Her eyes are wide, blazing orange. The constellations on her skin burn with light that shimmers all around her. "Are you alright, Wolf?" Miles scrambles back a pace or 2 as sparks of rainbow burst to life around her. Wolf's fingers dig into the ground. Her knuckles turn white as she holds onto fistfuls of soil.

"Phoenix was right," she starts. "The King did take Dove from me. He can't get away with that, and I'm going to make sure of that." Wolf's gaze finds the direction to where Bryant's castle is and stares it down even though it's out of sight. I hold back the twist of my gut. Bryant's in the wrong here, Luke. You don't have to defend him anymore. The snake shifts in the back of my mind, but it cannot escape from the grasp of Pisces. The familiar burn on the back of my neck starts as the snake tries in vain to break through.

"Are you going to help, Sc- Luke? You're not a Soldier anymore." I hesitate. Instinct tells me to deny what she said until the end of time- I'm a Soldier and the Dust Devil, and I need to become the model Soldier people see me as. But I've admitted I don't want to be a Soldier and they didn't do anything. Maybe I'll be able to escape. I shake the thought from my head.

"What do you want?" Every word burns with betrayal in my throat. Bryant's the King of Ragdon and sits on the Amethyst Throne... but look at some of the stuff he's done. My heart and mind can't agree on which to side with.

"You know everything about his castle, right?"

"Yeah." I nod.

Wolf opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. She clenches her jaw, running a hand through her hair as she exhales through her teeth. "Call me selfish, but I just wanted to escape from the pain for just a little bit. Everywhere I look I see Dove. And every time it's a fresh dagger through the heart. I just wanted to escape from that."

"I-I'm sorry." My fault. It's all my fault.

"It wasn't your fault. Only the King's." You're wrong, though. You're wrong. Don't you know that?

Miles leads Wolf away to the Earth Tree, saying something I can't hear. Why doesn't she know it's my fault Dove's dead?

"Now that they're gone we can talk." I jump, whirling around. Phoenix slinks from behind a tent.