Plummet

Lover

A month past the library kiss, weeks full of perfecting Princess Hue's grip on the crossbow and spending a rather promising hour with Lord Quan discussing the Princess' progress.

Anh and I were very sure that in order to reach the crossbow, I would have to teach Princess Hue quite a lot. The plan was simple, explain enough, teach well, gain trust. Then ask her to open the door in the dead of the night, secretly, under the pretext of practicing with the real crossbow. I would snap it, Anh would be waiting for me right outside. All we had to do was run.

Which, we surmised, would be the difficult part.

But the even tougher part was making Princess Hue fall in love with me. Anh had promised to help, but she was getting impatient.

"I understand, but it's really, really hard to watch you making loving gestures towards someone else!" she exclaimed, frowning very evidently. We were in the library, it was her favorite place. I heard her, but I couldn't reply. I was thinking about my times with Bia, Chi and the second Chi... and a score of other women who hadn't mattered. It unnerved and reassured me at the same time: this experience with Anh was so much difference. I actually cared for her. Seeing her frown actually worried me. And if anybody found us out, I wouldn't let anybody so much as touch her.

All those times that I had thought I couldn't fall in love... I had been wrong. And the fact she was the Lord's daughter... it certainly helped. All I wondered was: the Lord liked me, but did he like me enough to make me a son-in-law? Certainly, there was no mistaking the striking similarities between the Lord and Anh. Small stature, pale skin, brown hair, thin frame. Even the eyes, and the smile. Oh, the smile!

"Are you listening to me!?" Anh pulled at my sleeve, I broke out of the reverie, and nodded. I gave her a small smile and another nod, sinking into a deeper thought: what in the world was I doing!? Certainly, certainly if I lost the chance to make Hue fall in love with me, the Lord would never see my face again (in case I managed to escape this place). Worse, he would try to have me killed, and I would have to destroy his followers in order to escape. Because they couldn't stop me, and they knew it. But those deaths would be quite unnecessary. The Lord was the only person I respected. Falling from his esteem would destroy my life. Quite literally.

"Anh," I interjected, I didn't know what she had been talking about but my seriousness made her listen, "Anh, I need to make a move tomorrow."

Her mouth opened, then closed. Then opened again as she blinked. A smile formed, "She'll outright refuse you."

"You need to help me!"

"Why should I!?"

"Anh!" I grasped her below her shoulders, "wasn't this your mission too?"

She pushed my hands down, "I'm not powerhungry like you, Pham! All I wanted to do was to prove myself in my father's eyes by doing this. Now - now if I can have you, and we can live peacefully, away from this place..." she stopped, eyes shining, pleading and happy at the same time. "Please Minh..."

"Live peacefully?" I scoffed, "How much do you have to your name, Anh, because I don't have a single penny."

Her mouth opened, dumbstruck. She clearly counted upon my family fortune, I sensed a need to elaborate. "It's the only reason I am against Lord Quan. He destroyed my father's monopoly in trade, we were richer than the Royal Treasury, all the money he sucked away and debts... the debts that were only barely cleared. Anh, you have to help me."

"We can earn enough to live on," she suggested, "We're not going to be poor, there are kingdoms far more prosperous than Yo-"

"Money is not the matter," I cut her again, "I can't live with myself if I don't do this. Help me if you will. Or..." I searched a way to not be rude, "or please just keep quiet about it."

Still rude.

But Anh was smiling again, this time a bigger one. I would come to soon realise: a real one. She held my head in her hands, standing on tiptoes to kiss me. Fire. Pure fire. And not me, Anh had the fire. I melted almost readily, somehow, I felt remorse for all the hearts I had played with. Love - swift and unfailing wrenched my heart as it much have wrenched theirs. I had been wrong.

"I'll help you, Minh." Anh beamed, pulling away. "Forever."

And then I realised, face red, heart racing, that she had been testing my resolve.

+ + +

"We'll meet again, won't we?" Bia asks, breathless from running. Her father knew she was missing from home, it was pitch dark, midnight. No, we would never meet again.

"Very soon." I nod, just minutes after she told me of the crossbow tutor vacancy, we had to run. Her father found her missing and secretly sent a few people to go looking for her. Missing daughters are scandalous affairs.

Thankfully the blockheads kept shouting her name in the dark. I surmised the rest.

"Minh, I really love you." She hugs me. I don't hug her back, instead I push her away, not ungently.

"Go," I tell her, "you'll be dead if they find you here."

"Tomorrow?" She asks, if she would meet.

I shake my head, "I'll tell you when."

And the time would come. Just probably not in this life.