We walked in silence through the corridors, me a few paces behind him. I noticed he kept slowing down so that I would catch up to him and walk beside him. Walking beside him was a bad habit we had adapted from home. He didn't think about the fact that a few paces behind him was the one and only place for me. But he seemed to have forgotten.

He hadn't asked me what the news were, just stood there for a lifetime, staring at me. I could not read his eyes as I used to. It pained me.

He looked well. He had gained some weight, making his face look even more beautiful, and had also gotten stronger. His eyebrows were thinner, his ears pierced and his hair shorter, reaching just past his shoulders in a straight, neat page, and he wore it down.

I had been the one who had to break the silence in the doorway.

"It's your parents. They're alive, but ill."

He had thought for a while.

"Come with me", he'd said and turned around.

I had followed without hesitation. What was there to hesitate about? I had come here for the king, not for myself.

We walked through exotic corridors, their beauty taking my mind off the excruciating heat, to a garden where Izuna sat down, crossed his legs, tipped his one flat shoe on his toes, and gestured for me to sit as well. I sat down, unbuttoned my cape, hung it on the back of the frail chair, unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt. Izuna kept a steady gaze on my eyes, I couldn't help but notice. Had I hoped for him to do anything else?

"What's your business here?" he asked. 

"The king and queen are ill. They will not live long. Your father wishes for you to take the throne."

If he was surprised by the last part, he didn't word it. The plan had been for him to be here, forever, even after the king's death.

"Couldn't he just have sent a letter?"

His words stung. What bothered me was he said them to hurt me.

"I don't ask the questions. I receive orders from the king, and I carry them out."

"What if I don't want to take the throne?" he asked defiantly, putting his chin forth. "What if I want to stay?"

I fought the cold hand trying to grab at my heart. I had suppressed my greatest fear, that he would be happily married by now. Seemed I was living in the middle of my worst nightmare.

"I don't know", I said truthfully. "I was only ordered to ask you home. If you refuse the throne, then I will go back immediately and deliver your message."

I knew I meant it. He knew I meant it.

"Had you just hoped I would come back home? Just like that?"

That was it for me.

I put my fist down on the table.

"Look, Izuna." He flinched at me referring to him by his first name. So be it. I didn't care. "I don't say you have to be polite, or behave, or be kind to me. I am a servant of the crown, so you have the right to treat me any way you wish. But please. Stop infantilising yourself. You're deliberately trying to hurt me. Much of me is the same as when you left, but I would not repeat the decisions I made back then. It was disrespectful and turned what we had into nothing, and I'm sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. But I am not here to make you accept my apology, or to win you around. I am here because the king ordered me here. I am just trying to do my job. I would appreciate if you did not make it more difficult than it already is by letting me relive past mistakes every time you open your mouth to speak to me."

Izuna just looked at me, a surprised expression on his face. Then, he looked to the side.

"I am sorry", he said mildly. "You're right. I tried to hurt you on purpose. That won't solve anything. Please, tell me about my father."

I noticed he didn't say he accepted my apology, but I told him everything I knew. Tears filled his eyes.

"I need to think", he said when I was finished. "Of course I'll return but... Taking the throne..."

"Certainly, my prince", I said.

He dried his eyes.

"Shall we take a walk?" he asked, to my great surprise.

How could I ever deny him anything?

We walked in silence, through the heavily scented rose bushes and date trees heavy with fruit, between ponds and over small bridges crossing little streams. We walked in silence at first, but then, we started talking a small bit. It suddenly struck me he was here, right in front of me, blood and bones and skin and flesh that I thought I would never see again.

"A traveller told us about your battle scar", Izuna said, looking at me shyly sideways. "Can you tell me the story behind it?"

I frowned.

"What battle scar?" I asked.

He raised his eyebrow, pointed to his left one.

"This one."

I chuckled.

"You've been misled, my prince. That is not a battle scar."

Izuna looked confused.

"It isn't?"

I smiled warmly.

"Remember Alberto, the man who helped install the lights in the castle who I befriended?" Izuna looked confused. "He is hired as a chef. He's my best friend in the castle. At least now." I gave Izuna a meaningful glance, and he looked down, blushing. I was beyond myself. "We were drunk one night. Or, we've been drunk many nights." Izuna smiled a little. "I was hungry, so I demanded he'd make me the best sandwich the kingdom had ever seen worthy of the king's right hand. Me, that is. We went to the kitchens. When he was chopping a great lettuce head, I put my head down in the counter, asked him to treat my head as he treated that lettuce." I shook my head at the memory, at how I played at trying to seduce him. "He pretended to chop me up. Problem was, he was so drunk, he saw two of me, and didn't know which one was real, and which one was his blurred vision."

"That's honestly an even better story than if you actually had gotten that scar in war."

I snorted.

"As if I would let anyone lay a hand on me."

Izuna looked at me sternly.

"You're lucky you're alive", he said.

"It's not luck. It's skill."

"Well, I'm glad you're still as humble."

I smiled warmly.

"I told you many times. I won't leave this world without telling you." I reached my hand out, but then stopped myself.

Izuna stared at me, lips slightly parted.

But upon reaching my hand out to touch his, I had noticed something that would change my worldview.

Izuna was no longer wearing his wedding band.