Chapter 63: Chapter 63
The room was small, dark, and musty. The stench of vomit and urine also hung heavily in the air. A small window, about the width of two palms, illuminated the place and nothing more. The floor seemed to be covered in hay based on how people’s boots sounded upon them. It seems that there aren’t any chairs, beddings, or even a wash basin in Langrion’s side of the room.
Shia’s squinted her eyes. She couldn’t see Langrey directly, but she knew someone was sitting down to the ground in front of her. In an instant, the figure rose, and grabbed the steel bars that had separated them from each other.
As Shia’s eyes became more adjusted to the dark, she could see a towering familiar figure. She looked at his face. Despite the lack of sunlight, Shia could see how gaunt his Langrey had become. Beads of sweat were pouring down on the prince’s face, and his hair was messy. She wanted to cry to him and shout his name, but she couldn’t. She needed to do what she has to do.
“Shia!” It was Langrey who had first spoken.
Shia swallowed the lump in her throat. She touched his hands that gripped the bar, but a sword was instantly drawn by Lord Fincher towards her.
“Touching isn’t allowed,” he said in a gruff voice.
Shia hated him to the bones, but she nodded. Things will be more difficult for her because of this despicable knight’s presence, it seemed.
“Langrey, how have you been?” She searched his face and was relieved to see he still has his mask on. She knew that ordinary guiding stones hold no power against Langrion’s curse. However, the sorry state of his face and the laboured sound of his breathing made her heart cry so much. He must be suffering intensely due to the mere presence of these stones that specifically acted against the Ancient Evil’s presence.
“I-I’m fine... I’m happy you’ve come. How have you been?”
Shia smiled. She was going to say so much lies today, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the first one to him as she looked at his face. How can she say she’s fine when she really wasn’t?
“The weather’s too nice today for horseback riding lessons. Do you remember?” Shia nervously retorted. By the gods of Teotroly, she hoped he does remember them!
He blinked back at her slowly. “Yes, it is... I think...”
“Do you remember promising to give me lessons when we were at the fields of marigold? You said on a day with warm weather, you will teach me how to ride a horse, Langrey...”
Langrion ruffled his hand into his already messy hair. A few facial hair had already grown under his chin. He looked more matured now than before.
“Did I? I hope I could give it to you too...” he replied dryly.
Shia’s heart fell into the floor. He does not seem to remember them at all. Tears started to run down her eyes. She should still try. Gods and goddesses, please help him to finally remember!
“Anyway, it was all in the past... They will be good memories for us...” Tears began to flow down her eyes more and more, and she could not contain them. “I hope you can forgive me. I cannot fulfil my promise of tying red laces around our arms together in the future...”
She removed the signet ring from her finger, and she threw it to the floor inside Langrion’s cell.
Langrion’s gaze fell into it. It twinkled inside the cold floor of his cell.
“What do you mean, Shia? What’s all of this?” he said, his voice pained.
“I am getting married soon, so I am returning your ring.”
He did not speak for a long time. “Who are you marrying?”
“Time’s up. We have to leave now,” the big slime of a knight beside Shia said gruffly.
She looked back to Langrey one last time and sighed. “Take your ring. I hope it will help you remember all the things we talked about and promised to each other in the fields of marigold -”
“Time’s up!”
When she tried to open her mouth and finish her sentence, the king’s knight had finally lost his patience towards her, and he caught Shia’s arms and half dragged her while she was still speaking.
“Langrey!” she shouted at the top of her lungs before the door between them was shut completely.
As soon as they reached the waiting area, Shia stomped at the foot of the detestable knight and pushed him against the wall.
“You don’t get to touch me again!”
“I am just following the orders I have been given, my lady,” he retorted sarcastically back at her.
“Then pray that I don’t become your queen. Otherwise, my first request will be your head served on top of a dish!” she snapped back with so much hate her stare must have burned a hole to his skull.
It took a while for Shia to calm her senses before walking away from the despicable knight who looked back at her in a stunned but equally hateful manner.
******************
Nights and days looked the same to Langrion ever since he was detained in the Capitol, but today was more heartbreaking than the others.
He had lived and stayed in the Capitol for some time in the past, so he was a little bit used to the effects of guiding stones. However, the place they had detained him was especially constructed to torture cursed ones. His body started to react more violently than he had imagined from the pure guiding stones that surrounded him on all sides. His head ached, the muscles of his body throbbed, and his breathing felt heavier and heavier as the days passed by.
Just today, he had started to vomit the food he had eaten. He knew that even if he would not be executed soon, he’ll eventually die from all the after effects of the guiding stones.
Thinking that he may not be able to see the next light of day, the door to his prison had suddenly opened up, and he saw the figure he had longed to see for a long time.
Still as beautiful as the first time he had seen her, Shia ushered inside the dark room, looking scared, nervous, and tearful. She was shortly followed by the head of the Imperial Guard, Lord Bragford Fincher.
Although his body seemed to weigh like a ton of bricks, Langrion immediately bolted from the floor and shouted her name, gripping the iron bars of his cell.
“Shia!”
Perhaps finally sensing him, Shia touched his knuckled lightly, her hands trembling and cold.
Langrion wanted to grab hold of her hands and lock them into his, never intending to let them go, but the burly guard stuck out his sword against her and said, “Touching isn’t allowed.”
He could see her nod her head to him. Why did she look so frightened, and why was she so cooperative towards him?
“Langrey, how have you been?”
“I-I’m fine... I’m happy you’ve come. How have you been?” he said, the bitter taste of lie lingering in his mouth.
Shia was pale, and she looked even paler after he asked how she was. She did not answer his question, and what came out of her mouth next was too confusing. “The weather’s too nice today for horseback riding lessons. Do you remember?...”
“Yes, it is... I think.” Langrey said, answering her after a while. Horseback riding lessons - what did she mean by that? She definitely hated riding on horses!
“Do you remember promising to give me lessons when we were at the fields of marigold? You said on a day with warm weather, you will teach me how to ride a horse, Langrey...”
Again, she mentioned horseback riding to him. The only time they had passed by the fields of marigold was when Shia had accidentally opened a portal after talking with Mage Silas. Back then, the promise he had with her was that he wouldn’t die.
Yes, he remembered now. He said he wouldn’t die unless she would allow it... Was she referring to that time and promise just now?
Langrion passed a hand against his hair. “Did I? I hope I could give it to you too...” Now, he is positive that she wanted him to go back to that time and remember something. But what is it, and why?...
Still in a dazed and confused state, what Shia said next to him shattered his heart into a million tiny pieces.
“It was all in the past now, anyway... They will be good memories for both of us...”
Why did tears suddenly begun to flow from her eyes?...
“I hope you can forgive me. I cannot fulfil my promise of tying red laces around our arms together in the future...” She removed a ring from her hand and threw it inside his cell. It hit the wall and remained on the floor. He did not have the heart to catch it since his chest was throbbing badly.
“What do you mean, Shia? What’s all of this?” he finally said after some time.
“I am getting married soon, so I am returning your ring.”
Shia couldn’t look up to his face as she spoke. Did he really her hear correctly – she’s getting married?
Langrion’s voice felt as hard as steel when he spoke. “Who are you marrying?”
Before Shia could speak, the Imperial Guard beside her said that it was time to leave. She started to say something rapidly. “Take your ring. I hope it will help you remember the things we talked and promised to each other in the fields of marigold!”
He didn’t comprehend what she had said, or rather, he couldn’t understand her words and actions. Did she really say that she was getting married and that he should take the ring that she just tossed?
He heard her say his name one last time as the door was shut; it was a voice that pleaded.
“Langrey!”
She’s marrying someone else, but she was still calling his name! Then, that must mean she was coerced, right? But who would do such a thing?
As soon as the door to his cell was shut, there appeared to be some skirmishes from outside. He couldn’t hear everything well, but the last sentence was loud enough. It was Shia’s voice, her high pitch tone reverberating throughout the room as she spoke.
“Pray that I don’t become your queen! Otherwise, my first request will be your head served on top of a dish!”
There was only one way that she could become a queen and that involves marrying a king – an old, sinister, and sly devil of a king!
Langrion glanced once more at the ring whose luster looked misplaced at the dark, putrid floor of his cell. He stared at his own signet ring that Shia had returned to him at the night of the debutant ball, the one hanging on a thread around his own neck.
He began to wonder – if his ring was dangling on his chest, whose ring could that one be?
He picked it up and studied it. Langrion’s heart was throbbing in his chest. By thunders, he hoped that his hunch was right!