🌊 ELYSTIA 🌊

I find peace when Zairo tells me what has been on his mind. His origins as a Captain don't change how I see him. As morbid as it is, I even appreciate him for stepping up and saving the camp from the previous tyrant Captain.

But my peace doesn't last all night. Because Zairo is still deep in thought and I'm beginning to think that he didn't take everything off his chest.

I'm getting tired of running in circles. Ever since I moved into this massive tent, it's like I've been seeking a corner to fit into. I can't quite feel at home.

"Zairo," I grab his large, calloused hand. For a second, I'm struck by the polarity between our hands. He's massive. Built for destruction. And yet I weaved past all the mysteriousness and found a tenderness in him. I care for him. I never thought that I would find love after leaving Terra and leaving my family behind, but Zairo proved me wrong.

I need to make this work.

"Yes?" He replies, squeezing my hand.

"Is there—"

Is there anything else you're not telling me?

Before I can finish the sentence, a male's voice booms throughout the camp.

"Thief! Thief!"

Zairo shoots up from his seat, running outside barefoot. I quickly follow him. We run to the edge of the camp to a tent used for stockpiling logs.

A man wearing ragged clothes is being forced to his knees by a master as two others watch on.

Zairo reaches the group first. As I approach, my sandal gets caught on a rock and I fall down. I break the fall with my hands, but instantly reach for my skirt to pull it down my thighs.

I look up, and the first eyes I meet are the thief's. He's grinning with the few teeth that he has left. A foul scent radiates from him, but I don't react to it. Thief or not, I don't wish disrespect on anyone.

I look away from him and pull my skirt so hard that it might rip. Why is he smiling? Did he see my thighs?

I scramble to my feet before Zairo reaches me.

"I'm fine. Sorry, just clumsy."

"Are you sure?" He asks.

I nod and dust my skirt, too disturbed to glance at the thief. I'm aware that I have no place here. I should have stayed behind in the tent, but something about Zairo jumping into danger didn't sit right with me. Somewhere along the line over the past weeks, I found a calling to protect him.

"What's with this ruckus?" Zairo demands.

"I tracked him sneaking into camp. He has a map leading to a healer's tent," the master explains, his hold tightening on the thief.

"Explain yourself," Zairo commands.

The thief lowers his head. "Sorry, Captain. I got caught, but no harm was done. May you be so kind as to release an unlucky soul? I give you my word that—"

"What were you going to steal?"

The thief chuckles, not looking stressed by the situation even as a giant Captain glowers at him. He must have plenty of experience thieving and slipping out of dangerous situations.

"I'm an honest man so I'll speak the truth. I was just going to take a few vials of morphine. Tiny amounts. Think of it as charity, my honorable Captain."

His smile widens, and he glances at me. His beady crimson eyes make my skin crawl.

"I'll only have you whipped five times. You can consider that charity. Try to steal from my camp again and you won't have any sticky fingers left to steal even a pebble."

The thief's face falls, erasing his smile and hiding his many gaps. "Captain, please. I won't step foot back in your camp. How about a trade, hmm? Some business to sate your ire?"

Zairo makes a sound of disgust before turning his back to the thief. "Whip him," he orders, before taking my hand and leading me away from the scene.

"Captain, please!" He yells.

Zairo keeps walking away, not looking back.

After a few seconds, I ask, "What do you think he would have offered to trade?"

I'm curious about how many incidents Zairo has to deal with every month. I'm sure this isn't the only thief that sneaks into the camp. Sometimes I forget he has so much on his plate. Moments like these humble me.

"It doesn't matter. I want for nothing. I have everything I need." He squeezes my hand again, showing me affection.

He says all the right things that I consider letting my questions rest. But something tells me that I must persist. I've had enough tense days.

Back in the tent, he leads me to his desk. "Do you wish to practice writing?"

"Actually," I clear my throat. "I don't think our earlier conversation was finished. Thank you for telling me about your origins as Captain, but I have to ask you... is there something else you're not telling me?"

He grunts and stands taller, but I know him too well to feel intimidated by his size. "Elystia, I don't think this is the time to..."

"Please. Please just tell me."

"I..." he sighs, and grips the edge of his desk so hard that I fear the wood will splinter.

Deafening silence fills the tent. Knots form in my belly as I begin to imagine the worst case scenarios.

"I know you came from Terra."

My eyes widen and I take a shaky step backward, my mind running laps.

I knew Zairo was powerful, but how could he possibly discover my deepest secret?

"How..." I can't finish the sentence.

How the fuck did he unmask my entire existence? Terra is a tiny, lost island that can't even be found in the wildest imagination. Never to be found. I wanted to protect it by keeping it that way.

"And that's just the thing..." he whispers and hangs his head with... shame?

"I have my own secret bloodline, my love." He looks at me, and I find pain dulling his eyes. "I'm related to the queen. She is my cousin. I was born in the palace, and I cannot change that no matter how far I travel and how many armies I lead."

No.

I quickly connect the dots.

Zairo is... related to them. The bloodline that forced the Terra people onto an island to be forgotten by the world. To take the power that was rightfully theirs.

Fearing that my legs will give out, I lean against the desk, raising a hand to reject his touch.

He fucked me while keeping this secret. Looked me in the eyes as he filled me with the cock he inherited from his evil ancestors. Fucked me literally while his ancestors fucked mine figuratively.

My stomach turns. I feel sickened by him. Betrayed.

It seems like even after seven hundred years, his bloodline keeps betraying mine. Keeps violating the Terra people.

"I...have to go."

I need Sidra. I need my friend. A resemblance of safety and of home. I thought Zairo was beginning to become my new Terra. But I got ahead of myself.

It turns out I don't know much of this man. This Captain. This royal. Secrets keep pouring out of his mouth like an ocean, and I'm drowning in them.

Our blood is completely rival. And yet they have coupled when he held me in his arms and filled me with pleasure. I slept with him without knowing he was the enemy.

I fell in love with the man designed to hate me.