The King Trials 2: Beyond.

~One Last Dance~

It has been a week since our first encounter with the Adons, a week since Vince's ill-tempered outburst. By law, it is an offense punishable by death to threaten the life of an Adon. But given the Vince is a foreign noble of high standing. It would cause an irreparable diplomatic incident, and that consequence would lead to a military confrontation between Emikrol and Nivalis.

That fact alone makes him immune to retribution.

Now we await the summoning from the military tribunal.

Since our advent, a flaying tempest on every scale of belligerence devastated the outside. But today, only today has the tempest ceased, hushed into stillness. Which is why I have taken the time to explore the walled courtyard gardens in my leisure with Vince, who is adamant to keep me company.

He and I stroll through the eastern botanical garden, an expansive plot with water basins, fountains and ponds. The section of hedge maze is fashioned in a curlicue pattern is adorned with glistening, fanged icicles. An elegant parterre which is sculpted lawn constructed on a level substrate, comprising of flowery plant beds, typically in proportioned shapes, which are separated and connected by tiled paths.

The ponds and fountains carved with spout stones with flairs of mosaic work. The baroque-style ornamental gardens, a plethora of shaped forms and patterned vegetation. But one thing is consistent. Everything is immaculate, their colours outshone, enveloped under a shroud of white. The blooms frozen and threads of snow line the bare, gnarly limbs of trees. Everything pure and shimmering.

Vince and I saunter between the paved paths. The silence makes me aware of every sense, the frigid winds that blow, needling my cheeks, the whistling sound it makes as it runs by. A sound that none can tell from where it comes nor where it goes.

I sneak a glance at Vince. Though he was determined to accompany me, he has not said a word. We haven't been strolling for long, but a moment of silence with Vince is like an eternity. Unnatural. And it irritates me that it is beginning to bother me.

"What is it?" My words shatter the ice. "Where are you right now? What plagues you?"

He exhales calmly, breaths clouding the air. Attired in a crimson and black tunic with a thick cape of white that hangs from his shoulders. His face is barred with a severely sombre expression.

"I do not like the cold."

My brows furrow. "Then why did you volunteer to join me on my walk?"

"Because I do not dislike you." He meets my gaze fleetingly. "I never said I wanted to speak. But being in your presence dispels the melancholy I feel. I intend to exploit that."

My mind reflects on his outburst. At the nerve struck when Adon Bordamere shamed him by trying to defame his kin, dishonouring its entire legacy with slurs of ignorance.

Treading lightly. As much as I can, I say, "Permit me to ask but is this about your family?"

He holds my gaze, his eyes a-glimmer with a torn look. One that I regrettably recognise. The look dissolves, his melancholy fades, and he conjures an indulgent smile. "It is like only you can read the truth etched in my eyes."

I offer him a faint smile. "Are you close with them?"

He shoots me a penetrating look like I had crossed a line.

I quickly expound. "I only ask because when we were still in Sorcia and it was time for the recess interval. All the other Herems were visited by their loved ones, my sister came all the way from the Prime. But you were the only one without family."