one day they will come for us
like poison dripping in our blood,
you better watch your back,
you better watch your back, we're standing face to face with the hearts that turn to blackhearing footsteps in your sleep
all this darkness underneath
the shadows are haunting us
- Sam Tinnez

-----❅-----

- Nicolas -

-----❅-----

I sat on my throne and watched as the king's daughter was escorted out by soldier Orestes. Reluctantly, she looked at her weapons scattered on the floor, then they both disappeared. The slamming of the great door echoed throughout the hall.

Slowly I stood up, crossed the room to the window, and propped my hands on the marble window ledge. I looked outside. The clouds in the sky had darkened, fog was slowly gathering, heavy rain was announcing itself. I looked at the tops of the village houses.

It was only a matter of time before Cephas attacked our kingdom as well. Until he was not only satisfied with my parents' heads, but also wanted mine.

I closed my eyes and thought of that night when they had fallen. When I opened my eyes again, my hands, clenched into fists, were burning. Before all this, I never thought I could feel such anger and hatred. I could feel the hatred darkly clutching and squeezing my heart.

With a thud, I turned away, the fire in my palms instantly extinguished. Were the king's daughter's abilities to blame for me suddenly thinking about my feelings?

Furious, I left the throne room, the door slamming loudly behind me. A guard rushed over and bowed to me. Before he could even begin speaking, I interrupted him. "Return the guards to their normal posts. The suspect has been apprehended. Continue patrolling the woods and let me know as soon as anything unusual happens."

"Yes, Honored King Nicolas Talesin Artemas of Cadwallader," the man in uniform replied, bowed again, and then hurried away.

Without hesitation, I made my way to the dungeon. I went down the long, dark staircases and passed the guards, who bowed to me. I pulled out the key to the prison cells from a hiding place in my armor. No one but me possessed the keys. I trusted no one.

I unlocked the door and entered the spacious cell. It was not so big for the pleasure of the inmates, but so that one had enough space to torture.

"Don't you feel like talking today either?" I asked, tilting my head and looking at the spy hanging on the wall that we had caught yesterday in the nearby woods.

The blood from his wounds had dried by now. His face swollen, covered with blue and purple bumps and marks. He looked motionless at the ground.

I pulled up a chair, sat down, leaned back, and crossed my arms at the back of my head. For a few seconds I pondered what I could do with him today. My problem was that there was no way I could kill him. Patience and letting him live were not exactly my strong points.

So I reached out my hand and set his arms on fire. Suddenly the prisoner cried out, wriggling as much as the shackles around his wrists would allow.

Bored, I looked at him. If only he would speak, then he could end his suffering and finally go to the realm of the dead.

I waited a few more seconds, then let the fire go out before it could damage too much of his skin. It stank of burnt flesh. The man was crying softly, his head hanging lifelessly.

Sighing, I turned away, pacing back and forth in the room. Could I really trust the king's daughter? Could I use her abilities for my own purposes? Yes, her parents had been murdered by Cephas. But did that secure her loyalty for me? No. I could never be sure.

I weighed the risk. Information from Cephas' spies was incredibly valuable. Victorine could use it for some purpose, use it against Sanguis.

But I would have to take my chances. I needed to know what Cephas was planning. And subsequently stop him from doing it, no matter what the cost.

I would still have to talk to her first, find out some things. Maybe I could find something to pressure her with, if that became necessary. As far as I knew, she had siblings who had survived the attack on Spero.

So my mind was made up and I left the prisoner behind. I knew that if he really was a spy of Cephas, he would never speak voluntarily, not even through the worst torture.

There were far more terrible things than torture and death for a human being. The moment he spoke, he would know that it was the painful end for his family and all those he loved. Only such would Cephas choose, only such would I also choose. Those who had nothing but their lives to lose were dangerous and uncontrollable.

It still took a little while until the afternoon meeting, but I decided to go to the meeting room and think about new, possible strategies.

Arriving in the empty room, I sat down at the end of the large, oblong table and looked at some maps, which I spread out in front of me. I drew in the route that Tenebris' remaining army must have taken after the attack on Spero. Yesterday, when we arrived in Spero during the attack, we managed to kill some of those bastards, but most of them managed to escape after the king and queen fell.

Two years ago, I had tried to ally myself with Spero. It was always good to know powerful kingdoms as allies. But Almeric and Vesperina did not want to start a war against Tenebris with this alliance. I remembered that their youngest daughter was sixteen at the time, Victorine around eighteen. The royal couple did not want to protect their village, but also their children. How troublesome.

I had learned early on that Sanguis was on his own in this fight. No one wanted to stand against Cephas. Except for me and that king's daughter who had appeared a few hours ago....

Punctually at the chime of the bell, two advisors, the chief soldier and Orestes entered. I watched indifferently as they bowed and Victorine entered the room behind them as unobtrusively as possible. I had to find out what their goals were. What I could best use as leverage. How far she would really go to stop Cephas.

Thus, we began the meeting. I was careful about bringing up information and strategies. I couldn't let Victorine hear everything, but I couldn't send her away either. That would arouse her curiosity and could drive her to do her own research. There were spies everywhere, I didn't need them in my own four walls as well.

Accordingly, everything was quickly discussed and planned. I would probably have to order Orestes to lock Victorine in the room for next time. I made a shooing gesture and everyone left the room instantly, except for these two, whom I ordered to stay.

The door closed and I motioned Victorine to take a seat, who had been leaning silently against the window. Orestes and she gave each other a hateful look, then both pairs of eyes rested on me.

"Victorine, you have not yet told me the condition you expect for your support."

Seriously, with eyes slightly drawn to slits, she regarded me. "I want to be the one to take down Cephas."

Never.

"Of course," I confirmed with a smile. I knew my mind was anything but easy to read. Still, I watched each of her features closely for even the slightest change.

"Isn't it rather selfish to leave your weakened kingdom and siblings behind just for these thoughts of revenge?" I echoed.

"Yes, I suppose it is," she agreed with me grimly, but with a proud posture. Something wasn't right. She was hiding something from me.

"Orestes, fight her," I demanded, leaning back in my chair. "I must see if she can accompany us outside the castle walls."

"Of course, King Nicolas," said the soldier, rising. He drew his sword and handed another to Victorine, while she stood up unimpressed and accepted it.

"I'll win every time against you puny woman," the burly man boasted, turning his back on his opponent and strutting to the other end of the room.

He didn't see how first an enraged expression shot across the king's daughter's face, but then she began to grin wickedly. Orestes had made a big mistake. He underestimated her. I wouldn't have done that from the beginning.

So, accordingly, the fight was boring. Most of the time I looked out the window while Orestes was surprised by Victorine's fighting skills, tried his best in response, but still couldn't win.

A clang echoed through the room as the soldier was disarmed and his sword slid a few feet across the floor.

"You used your skills!" he accused the king's daughter, who then angrily pointed her sword at the tip of his nose. "Even if I had, I think I would have found nothing but emptiness in your puny airhead."

I stood up and picked up Orestes' sword from the ground.

"Would you object to another game, Royal Highness Victorine?" I asked, striding towards her, twirling the hilt of the sword in my palm.

She looked at me and analyzed every body movement of mine. "No, King Nicolas," she then growled between clenched teeth. Everything about her seemed tense. She probably didn't underestimate her opponents any more than I did.

Slowly, I pulled the metal protective armor from my arms and torso. A level playing field.

I had been trained to fight almost every day of my life since I could remember. It was easy for me to analyze and study each of my opponents in a fraction of a second.

As we moved into fighting stance I noticed every direction her eyes briefly surveyed, the crotch position of her feet, the tense jaw and clenched teeth.

She started with the first move and as expected, she took a step to the right, aiming for my right arm to create a decisive advantage. I parried with such ferocity that her sword shook in her hand. My blade switched to my left hand, landing a well-aimed cut on her cheek in the millisecond it took her to balance her hand and the sword hilt.

"I don't discriminate between genders. I treat a woman like a man," I said calmly.

Victorine looked at me and faster than expected she lashed out, causing me to take a step back. "That's good," she brought out with anger in her eyes and a smirk on her lips. The cut on her face was bleeding profusely, though it couldn't have been deeper than half an inch. "You see, I treat a man the same way I treat a woman."

Our swords clinked together. The fight amused me, which is why I dragged it on a little longer. Victorine began to sweat and had difficulty parrying my quick blows. For her there was neither time to start her own attack nor to watch that I pushed her back more and more.

Soon her back was against the wall. In her eyes, I could see that she was planning to push me, to squirm past me. I quickly stepped aside so that she reached into the void.

I took advantage of her astonishment to knock the sword out of her hand. The clang echoed through the room as Vicorine stared after the weapon slipping away.

Enough of the fun.

I held the sharp blade against her throat, where I could see several violent swallows. "And now that you've lost, you'll have to put extra effort into the next task," I said seriously.

Her angry, wrathful eyes fixed on me, and there was a suspicious expression on her face. "Which one?"

"We'll have to go to the cellar for that," I replied tersely, turning around and putting my armor back on. "Orestes, you accompany us," I demanded.

The two of them followed me on the way into the dungeon. By now it was dusk outside. The candles in the corridor were all lit and gave light, but in the spy's cell it was pitch dark.

I unlocked the door and the three of us entered the icy room. The silhouette hanging on the wall merged with the darkness and could only be made out with difficulty.

I motioned to Orestes to light the candles. At the sight of the fire, the silhouette began to whimper faintly. The man's face and body were bathed in ominous light, shadows flitting across the cold stone walls.

"Read his mind," I commanded the King's Daughter, who stared at the prisoner's burned, dying arms.

She looked at the man from top to bottom, appraisingly, expressionlessly. Or she showed no outward emotion. Suspicion ran through all my limbs. She had a thousand ways to betray me and use the information against me. Or maybe she was a loving person and recognized his suffering, saw his family in his eyes, didn't want to bring them to ruin.

Victorine rolled her shoulders back and stepped toward the prisoner. I followed her so I could analyze every change in her facial expression.

She looked at the whimpering man whose head hung down. Did she need to see his eyes? How did all this even work?

I watched as she slowly took a few steps closer. Carefully, she lifted her hand and put it to the prisoner's cheek. He flinched briefly, then was motionless again. Tenderly she ran her thumb over one of his eyelids and gently pushed it back so that the eye was in sight.

Then she froze for a few seconds, appearing completely out of it, no longer in this world. Suddenly she recoiled, pulling her hand away as if she had just burned herself.

"I have what we need. Now let him go," she spoke.

"I will not let him go. He is lucky to be able to die in peace and quiet now," I objected undeniably irritated.

"He will save his family and get out of the country. Trust me."

Trust her?

Deeply, I took a breath. What was she allowing herself? I was the king here, she should be on the floor begging for her life, thanking me for not executing her long ago for invading my kingdom. I didn't care what she thought she knew about the prisoner.

I left the cell, the others followed me, and I carefully locked up again. Then I took a few steps forward. "What did you find out?" I finally asked in a more controlled manner.

"Cephas needs something," Victorine revealed in a hushed voice.

"What is it?"

Victorine looked at me with a stony, expressionless expression.

"I will not tell you."