Plummet

Reader

More than half the castle was asleep, not Princess Hue, I knew. And not even Anh. My gut feeling told me she was in the library. Princess Hue turned out to be difficult, and I needed a small victory today. All I had done was lost.

But the library was empty.

I walked amongst the tall shelves, dwarfed by all the manuscripts piled neatly. I ran a palm against the wood... how well this place would burn. Wood and paper. And hundreds of lamps with oil filled to the brim...

My footsteps fell neatly, noiselessly.

Thump, thump, thump. A pair of very noisy, expensive sandals.

Right, there was somebody at the entrance.

I stopped, my ears pricking up. It was very simple to tell by the footsteps if it was a man or a woman. Or a child, that this clearly wasn't. Woman, definitely woman. My eyes narrowed - calm, unhurried woman. I stepped out from among the shelves, this was clearly Anh.

And so it was. I pushed my sleeve down, Hue had made her point rather harshly, Anh's eyes fluttered to it. "That seems pretty bad," she observed, calmly.

Ah, I realized she wasn't stupid. Her manner of speaking was bewitching, nowhere close to stupid. Unlike all those previous women... 

"It looks worse than it is, Anh."

They talk of poking a toe out of line, I place my entire foot out of it. Anh looked duly taken aback at my audacity, "How dare you- who are you, Sir, to call me by the name?" she took a step away from me, frown etched across her face.

I admit it, that was foolish. She was trying to be friendly and I made her hostile with a single sentence. But truth is, I didn't want this girl to be polite to me. I wanted to her to fall hard for me, so hard that she'd be on her knees, begging for my love.

"You know me, Lady Anh." I took a step towards her, "I don't read." I wanted to hint at the fact that I had come to the library only to see her. And perhaps she understood, I saw a tiny blush spread across her pale face. She found me attractive - I could read her eyes, they were anywhere but on my own. And it was not that she was shy, her eyes weren't downcast, they fluttered. Excited.

"I don't fight, Tutor Pham."

A smile curled up my lips. I had to get away, anybody could find us here and raise a scandal, and for all the scandalous life I had led, I couldn't afford this one. "I'm only the princess' tutor." I told her.

Triumph.

The blush spanned across her face, right to the roots of her brown locks. I wondered how much time it would take for her to fall completely in love. Probably a week.

"Do you want to be something else to me?" she asked, rolling the words out, sweeter than honey, bolder than the bee.

Maybe not even a week. She already knew of my intentions, and seemed interested. I knew it was this way with the noblewomen. Good men, wealthy men. She didn't need to know that I had not a penny to my name and an even greater debt. In any case, I didn't seek to marry her. Anh could be a distraction from the arrogant princess Hue.

I took another step towards her, now we were dangerously close. "Don't say all that, Lady Anh. It's scandalous." I smirked, and she smiled, a smile that reached her eyes. Her eyes glittered alive. There was such a fiery personality under her soft cover.

"You should leave, Pham. Us getting caught this close would be all the more scandalous."

I smiled. Or maybe this was a smirk too, they are always more helpful. But I had to do this one last thing: I took a step closer instead of away. She did not step back... good sign. I lifted a hand, was it audacity to be tracing a finger across the face of a woman you have never known? I did not feel it to be so. I felt pure near Anh despite all I had done in the past. She felt so right it hurt. There was a dull ache in my chest, such that I had never felt before, of longing. I had to be closer to her than this. I had to...

Anh raised a hand, wrapping it around my fingers to fold them. She stepped aside, face set, lips a thin line, and walked past me. Had I overstepped? And the pang in my heart upon seeing her walking away, unimpressed... without realizing it, I was falling to my knees before her. This had to stop - but it wasn't in my hands anymore. 

Okay, calm down. Leave. You are making a fool of yourself. You are acting DESPERATE! My conscience screamed, and I decided it was time I listened...

But Anh! She wrapped me around her slender finger forever that day when she turned that very moment to ask, "Will I see you here tomorrow?"

And like a man finding an oasis in a desert, I clung to it.

"Earlier than today, if you please, Lady Anh."

And then she smiled. 

"I like Anh better."

+ + +

"I'll be dead if they find us, Minh!" Bia protests halfheartedly. She clearly wants to be here, it isn't as if I am even kissing her. I just need a distraction and Bia's gorgeous.

"I have my sword handy. Nobody can dare to touch you, dear." Empty words. If men come up here, while I can certainly fight them as easily as I claim, I will not. To me, Bia is not worth that much effort.

"Why don't you find work then, Minh? I'm tired of hiding, I want to marry you!"

The darkness hides my pathetic smirk.

"Are you good with crossbows, Minh?" she then wonders out loud, ruffling my hair. I disentangle her hand from my hair... not very gently. My hair is sacred to me.

"I am." I breathe.

She has a habit of pronouncing my name in every sentence, saying it quite in a wrong way. I never understood how someone could get such a simple name wrong but Bia always does. "The Princess you know... the Heir... she needs to learn to wield the crossbow. It's mandatory that she does... or she can't be crowned..."

And then I squirm in my seat to get away from Bia. That night, it hits me that I can be the one to break the crossbow for the Lord if I become the princess' tutor. Prove myself to a mother who thinks I am worthless, get all I power I ever craved...

Legendary Crossbow, your days are numbered.