❝What a plot twist you were.❞

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The two figures walked in silence as they trudged their way to the kingdom which lay at a distance from the palace. The entire path leading up to the monarchy was covered with trees of various size and shapes, creating a forest which divided the two parts of the province – one of royalty and one for commoners. Sunlight peaked through the thick canopy of leaves and painted the two traveler's figure with an auric glow as they walked in silence.

"How much longer?" Kartik huffed.

"A little farther," The queen smirked at the man walking beside her and ignored the slight brush of their shoulders, "Why? Are you tired already?"

Kartik scoffed, running a hand through his hair again, "In your wildest dreams."

Akira shrugged, trying her best to hold her words back and stopping herself from starting a bittersweet fight, "Bold of you to assume I dream of you."

"Knowing you, you perhaps dream of war strategies or how to dislocate someone's shoulders."

"I do dream of war strategies, accurate, but I also dream of killing you." The queen responded nonchalantly, "And not to burst your giddy little bubble but I know how to dislocate shoulders, I don't need to dream about it."

Kartik smirked, a smug expression on his visage, "So you do dream of me. I mean obviously I end up dead in them but still-"

Akira closed her eyes and shook her head - almost frustrated over how easily he could twist her words to accommodate him - and decided not to further answer anything.

The walk was of five more minutes and soon enough, they both reached the actual kingdom. The dominion started with a market place which buzzed with life and silently sung the story of the livelihood of the queen's people. The two sides of the wide streets were occupied by various shopkeepers and their shops, all asking the buyers to come buy from them as they went on and on about the picturesque items.

It was easy for the two royalties to merge with the people as the paths were filled with various men, women and children, all of them engaged in their own tasks to focus on the two strangers.

The morning sun shone harshly on the chattering people as they resorted to their respective work while a few children ran through the crowds while their parents chased after them, occasionally scolding them and a few others talked and laughed over something or the other.

"And here begins our tour." The queen vaguely nodded to the humming streets, "This is the biggest market place in our kingdom."

"It's crowded" Kartik made a comment as his eyes swept over the entire place.

"Of course, it's a market place, Kartik." Akira rolled her eyes and felt a smile on her face, "What did you expect?"

"Right, my bad." He paused and his voice sounded somewhat surprised, "The people look happy."

Akira stared at him questioningly, "Of course they do, why won't they?"

"I don't know," He muttered, not really thinking his words through, "I was told people in your kingdom were miserable."

"Who told you that?" The queen tried to hide the haste in her voice.

This is it, she thought. This was the moment that Akira had been looking for, he might tell her who sent him here.

Kartik's eyes widened as he realized the slip of his tongue and tried to cover it up with a small shake of his head, "No one. It was just a rumor I heard back home, it was probably a joke. A lot of rumors go around you know. Let's not talk about it."

Akira let it go. Her forcing him is only going to make him suspicious and at this point, she couldn't lose his trust.

'Who are you lying to?' The voice seemed to ask, 'You have gained his trust, now ask him. This is why he has been alive for so long right? No other reason, right?'

The two trudged on, their eyes almost transfixed on the shops which were decorated with colorful pieces of clothes as to attract customers. They just walked silently, running their hands through the fabrics which were displayed on the racks outside shops and gazing at the colorful bangles which stood out without much thought.

The queen hadn't been out of the palace as a stranger in ages and she was relishing every moment – how the people walked beside her, paying no attention to her anonymity, how she could walk without worrying about everything unlike the royal palace where she had to hold her guard up every passing second, how there were no marble hallways to obscure the sunlight from hitting her, how she didn't have to act so tough and composed in front of people who barely knew her.

Somewhere along the way, his fingers intertwined with her cold scarred ones. The warmth seemed to seep into her through the millions and millions of scars, lighting every neuron on fire as she looked at him a little wide-eyed.

He answered calmly as if the action hadn't make his insides turn into a pile of ash, "I don't want us to get separated in this huge crowd of people."

She minutely nodded and decided to pay no attention to the sudden stoppage of her thoughts. Or her memory becoming hazed or how the lines of her thinking became blurred and blurred and blurred until she felt as if she had no thoughts left.

The queen reminded herself of the fact that her hands was in his just so that they wouldn't get separated in the hoards and hoards of people but even such a great liar like her couldn't lie about the way she could notice everytime his grip tightened securely with hers when they passed a group of people or his shoulders brushing lazily against her.

Akira pushed down whatever thoughts concerning the man next to her and resolved to focus on her surroundings as they kept walking, sometimes stopping at shops to glance at the wide variety of goods. She continued to keep telling him all that she knew about her kingdom and he continued to make silly comments which for once didn't annoy her.

"And yeah, there's the blacksmith's shop." She pointed to a huge shop with a wide smile, where a number of weapons were put on display, "Their weapons are amazing, believe me. Best in many kingdoms around."

The owner of the shop – an old man with a small mustache – sat behind the counter, fanning himself with a small cloth as sounds of metal banging could be heard from inside.

Kartik gave him a side glance and looked back at Akira, laughing, "I have never seen someone get so excited over weapons."

"Hey!" She hit his shoulder playfully with her left hand – since her right hand was intertwined with his – "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing," He laughed and she joined along.

After quite some time of just pushing through the crowds and walking while looking at products, they came to the end of the never-ending labyrinth of streets and streets. Here, the crowd was much less intimidating and after looking here and there Akira saw a small shop where pieces of jewellery in all colors and sizes were kept on display stood at a distance, almost at the end of the market street.

The shop unlike the rest of the market wasn't harboring a huge amount of people and the queen started walking towards it, pulling Kartik along with her absent-mindedly.

An old lady who sat on the counter was too busy setting up more pieces to notice the couple walking towards her shop.

"Excuse me?" Akira called out to the lady as she picked up a pair of hand-crafted earrings, letting go of his hand and being met with the lack of warmth.

The sun glittered on the silver, slightly blinding her with its shine, "How much for this?"

The old lady smiled at the girl in front of her, glancing briefly at the boy who stood behind her, "Just for 2 gold coins dear."

A small mirror sat on counter and Akira put on the earrings and looked at her reflection in the mirror. For a minute there, Akira found herself grateful that she was anonymous here, no one knew who she was, what she did, why she did it and she felt the urge to just stay in this moment forever but she snapped out of it soon enough. What was the purpose of spinning tales which would never come true?

She looked back at the man who stood in slight trance, just looking at her with a small smile, "Why are you smiling?"

Kartik shook his head slightly and came back to his senses, "What..." He wiped the smile off his face in an instant, "What smile? I'm not smiling. No one's smiling. Not me, atleast. Someone else might have, who knows. Definitely not me." He let out a nervous chuckle. 

"Okay..." She slowly answered back, clearly puzzled by his lack of coherent answers. She faintly touched the earring, "Never mind that, tell me how do these look?"

"Uh," He struggled to find words as he debated over whether or not to look away, "Great. They look great. You look beautiful." He mumbled the last part as if scared to tell her how he felt.

Her voice almost failed her, "Thank you"

They both fell silent as they had way more times than they would both like to accept and the old lady breached the silence with her shrill laugh, "You both make a wonderful couple."

He said, "Thank you-"

She said, "You are mistaken-"

Both of them shut up – dumbfounded and a bit surprised - and Akira glared at him as she said all the words bit by bit, "We are not a couple."

He sighed half-heartedly, knowing way better than to say anything else, "Right, I know. Sorry."

The old lady smiled at Akira, "These eyes are experienced enough to know what they see whether you believe it or not, child."

The queen looked back at Kartik and he looked at her at the same moment resulting in both of them looking at each other in the heat of the moment before looking away in a jiffy. A faint red adorned their cheeks as if regretting the scene that had just played out right now.

"I'll just take the earrings, thank you." Akira took out a small red velvet pouch and kept down two gold coins, not meeting the old woman's dull eyes.

She walked away from the shop and he followed behind practically religiously.

The two kept a distance between them as they walked in silence out of the market place and into the residential part where lines and lines of huts and houses stood together, a few fruit and vegetable sellers stood there, fanning themselves in the heat.

He cleared his throat trying to break the tension that persisted between them from earlier, "So, where are we going?"

"Somewhere"

"That was very helpful."

The two made it out of the residential area into the forest. The sun was right above their heads indicating it was midday. The forest was at the outskirts of the kingdom, the faint sounds of a river flowing through the middle of the forest rang through their ears. Birds chirped a sweet unknown melody as the leaves rustled together due to the slight wind. Some twigs and branches snapped under their feet as they made their way ahead.

"So where are we going?" He asked again as he looked up at the thick canopy of leaves and branches where nests and nests of birds rested.

"Just keep walking Kartik."

"You do understand that this sounds a little life-threatening considering the amount of death threats you have given me by now." He gave her a awkward smile as he walked fast enough to match up with her.

"And yet I haven't killed you by now which has to count for something." She shrugged, trying not to pay attention to him.

"Yes it does. It means that you are probably planning a terrible way of killing me."

She smiled despite the tension that lingered between them, "That's exactly what I'm doing."

He didn't know whether she was joking or not but in all honesty, Akira herself didn't know whether she just uttered out the truth or just a very convincing lie.

They stopped at the edge of the river where the forest cleared up and the sun shone softly down at them. The faint sounds from the residential area were covered up by the gentle splashing of water against rocks.

"Wow" He breathed out as he took in the pure bliss of the moment they were in right in that moment.

"I used to come here as a child with my baba," She walked to the shore where a tree log rested, "Not many people come here considering it isn't a commonly followed path."

"This place is beautiful."

"I know" Akira sat down on the log and looked in front of her. The sun glistened down on the water, creating shapes and sizes to no limits. Kartik sat next to her. The makeshift wooden seat was only big enough to give a few inches of space between them as they sat in the silence of the forest.

"So no one comes here huh?" He questioned.

"Yes," A pause, "Which makes this the perfect place to kill someone." Akira slightly cringed at the amount of death threats she had given him in just one day but she found it almost impossible to not tease him.

Kartik shook his head, a small smile on his face, "When would you stop giving me death threats Maharani?"

Akira pretended to think, scrunching up her face as she looked up at the wildly running clouds, "Probably when you die."

The silence was pierced by their faint laughter but it lasted for just so long. Akira abruptly shut up, the laugh lines on her face dying out, as a reminder of who the man in front of her really was flashed through her head and looked at Kartik who was looking at the stream that hugged the shore lazily.

She debated whether to utter the question that had littered her mind, taunting her with every breath she took and adding a set of stones on her chest with every one she let out, "Why are you here Kartik?" She finally spoke.

Silence.

He looked at her questioningly, as if not quite understanding her and finally broke out in laughter, "What do you mean? You know why I am here Akira. I am here for you," Her heart thumped wildly in her chest over the words as he continued with a small laugh, "to win over you."

The queen felt relieved for a second as if that was what she wanted to hear but a terrible ache overtook her heart, burning her soul in never-ending torture, in agony bit by bit as he lied yet again.

Akira looked away from him and exhaled deeply, trying not to show any ounce of emotion on her features, "Yes I do."

She stood up, a blank expression on her visage, "I think we should leave now, I have to do some last-minute preparations."

"Alright," He stood up and she turned around when she felt a firm grip on her wrist, "Wait."

She looked back, slight goosebumps on her skin due to the sudden contact, "Yes?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"What?" She stopped in her tracks.

"Promise me that you'll come back alive."

Promise - the word brought back unwanted memories, memories she had worked so hard to forget and move past.

She said nothing and just looked at him, gears turning and running in her head. After moments of silence, she answered, "Promises don't last Kartik."

"We can atleast try."

She freed her wrist and looked away, it hurt too much to talk about the outcomes of a war, "We should go."

He just stood there, too overwhelmed to say anything as she trudged forward. His voice almost drowned in the eerie silence, "Just try not die."

"I'll try my best."

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