The King Trials.

~Twilight Embraces Night~

Primus Kelan and I take an imperial carriage to reach the city. From there we travel on foot. Just him and me, at last.

"Tell me, how did you come to know of this...festival of lights?" I ask. 

He and I wander through the alleyways. Gaggles of children swarm by, laughing, chasing one another.

"I was not always a Primus," he begins solemnly. "Before I rose. I was a soldier like any other, and I have been posted at military compounds all through Urium, patrolling and dealing with border skirmishes. Many moons ago, I was stationed at a Vanguard outpost just east of Urla."

The currently vacant outpost.

"My squadron and I merely stumbled upon it on our way to an alehouse," he says. The edges of his face slightly soften at the recall. "After we drank, got into a tavern broil. Then they sought out...female championship. I left and I found a garden bridge tucked away, with an outstanding view from of the spectacle."

I follow him blindly, but my eyes are transfixed on him. Engrossed by his every word, enthralled by the mere sight of him.

"Hera."

I snap out of it, staring back at him questioningly. "What was that?"

His one brow twitches. He gestures to his neck, then points at mine. "That necklace you always wear; it must bear some significance to you."

Perceptive.

We round a corner.

"It does, a member from my Regnum gifted it to me," I say whilst clutching it, fingers brushing against the gilt coat, drawing immediate solace. "His name is Burg. I miss them all so much. Every waking moment of my life I have been with them. When I left, I left behind a piece of myself."

I look back at him and he listens so attentively, like I'm giving a philosophical speech, staring at me deeply with silent intensity.

"Tell me about them," he says.

And I do. I tell him anything and everything. I tell him about mine and Seliah's joint education, just as unconventional as the King Trials. I regale him of all my lessons with my masters, my sister and I's seepages to town fairs with Wren. And all the friends we have made, the skills and dialects we have learned from them alone. I even expound on how she and I survived the social seasons. A noteworthy feat. How my mother made them even more insufferable with her unremitting offers of viable marriage proposals. I tell him how my father insisted on teaching Seliah and I, educating us on our history, specifically the history of our foes.

He takes it all in, soaks everything up with soundless content. In the presence of others, my usual candour is restrained, conversations circling platitudes and cheap sycophancy. But with him, I cannot help myself. It all comes out in floods, rushes, and waves.

Not too long, I start to hear distant music playing, amplifying with each step we take.

"Since I am certain your ears must be bleeding," I say with a nervous laugh. "Share with me, how the great Primus Kelan came to be. What of your family?"

His gaze strays away from mine. "My squadron is my family. The soldiers under my charge are my family."

A familiar line etches between his brows, stern and rumpled.

"No siblings?" I ask, trying to proceed with caution. "Or... your parents, are you not close with them?"

The line deepens. He crosses his arms, cords of muscles tensing. "My parents died when I was a child. Both perished before me. After, I was taken to a recruitment parish by a benign meta. Since I was a child, the military was and is all I know."