Locked Legacies

Chapter XXX: Pages in a book

The sun eventually fell into the horizon, starting a countdown to the beginning of a conflict that had everyone in the kingdom highly worried. Determined not to sulk into the disturbing idea of war, the prince showed up for his second scheduled meeting; this one, hopefully, would be a bit less depressing. He walked into the library, wandering in between the shelves as he searched for his friend; a flickering light was spotted by the prince, illuminating Lucas, who was going through the pages of one of three books that were spread on the table.

"There you are," the knight looked up with a smile, his tongue, which had been sticking out in the slightest as he read concentratedly, returned to its usual place.

"In flesh and bone," he opened his arms slightly before finally sitting down, "What is this all about?"

The royal was flipping the pages of a volume on Greek Philosophers when Lucas snatched it out of his hands; "Hold your horses," he said, not wanting for him to find the dog-eared page and find out by himself and lose the thrill of explaining.

"Fine, then, please begin."

"So impatient, Little Prince," he shook his head slightly in fake disappointment. "Alright, you know how we are taught at school the definition of the elements?"

"They are what Greek Philosophers describe as the components of the world," Augustus recited, just as if Lucas had hit the play button on a tape; it would be engraved in his mind for the rest of his life. "Believe me, I remem—..." he began saying with a short chuckle, but noticed that his friend was staring over his shoulder with a frown; his head was slowly turned to find Faylinn right behind him. "—ber," he finished the word, barely audibly.

The only one who dared to break the tense and awkward silence was the knight. "What are you doing here?" It came out a bit harsher than intended, which earned him being kicked by the other man from under the table.

"I came here because I received your note," she went to the point, pulling up a chair in the small round table before sitting down.

"Well, yes," Lucas rolled his eyes, like Faylinn usually did, "I am aware of that. I just assumed you wouldn't come after whatever happened that is making this man not look at you which, believe me, I tried doing but failed."

The girl gazed at the prince, hopelessly wishing to meet his eyes. She knew to perfection that she had broken his heart, but she never would have imagined that they would find themselves in that position, unable to look at each other, and with the fear that Augustus would die. With a sigh, she whispered his name, "Gus... I—"

"I don't want to talk about it, Faylinn. Not the war, not us..." His voice was cold, a tone that the girl had never heard come from him before.

Trying to ignore the bullet that hit her, she cleared her throat and said: "Either way, I resolved that this is about Prince Rainer; whatever argument does not take away my will to help him."

Lucas' eyes traveled from the royal that stared at his hands, to the woman that yearned to connect with him, and mumbled "This will be fun" before starting to explain. "Anyway, as I was telling him, there is a definition of the elements that they teach us when we are young..." he left a short silence, turning to look at Augustus as he expected him to recite it. After three seconds with no response, the man sighed and proceeded himself: "The elements are what Greek Philosophers define as the components—"

"—The components of the world," Faylinn nodded, "Yes, I've heard it before," she added, shortly looking at the prince, who had once recited it to her in Mystichut.

"Right, so Greek Philosophers know. Since they are the ones who discovered that, there is no way that they hadn't ever touched the subject of the world again."