As our former king was trained for the throne, his brother on the other hand, had been left to his own devices, unintentionally given freedom from without the crown looming over his head. Once he grew old enough, he traveled to far lands in search for his meaning, in search for life and of love.
He found that he was able to charm any woman he came across with his well educated mind, and carefully groomed complexion, however, every woman he loved inside tavern beds, creeks, brothels, noble quarters had held no worth to him, he saw them all the same, and maybe they were the same, or perhaps greed loomed over the lad.
There came a day where he had visited an unusual town, you see as he went on his journey, every town and every tavern seemed the same, though they had all held drinks of various tastes, rules and customs of various strictness, and languages of various familiarity, they all seemed the same. This town on the other hand held a much different tone, usually the people in every town were awake in the sunlight and sleeping or drunk in the moonlight.
Instead, this town that gazed over the hot sun had been sleeping and slow moving in the day, but wild with life and awe at night. The prince made sure there were no festivals, this was their normal routine. When he checked into the tavern, even the usuals seemed different than what he normally saw from town to town.
Women danced by themselves in silks and ruffled skirts instead of dancing with men in bland colors. The women had approached men instead of the other way around, and people drank wines with tastes unfamiliar to his tongue. He was captivated, and yearned for more.
Although, at the end, he could get rid of the alcohol, the captivating music or language, and even the women if it was in trade for the lady he met eyes with that had leaned against the balcony railing. Her hair was dark like ink, eyes filled to the brim with life and mystery hidden under long shadowy eyelashes as her wrists were hidden with burns yet no chains were shackled to her ankles, instead gleaming bells had replaced them.
And so, the whole night he went on, pining for the attention and affection of the girl. The girl however, only showed him distaste. She knew who he was, a prince of a boring and dull kingdom that she wanted nothing of. Her town taught her to desire life from the people she loved, therefore she knew she would never get any life nor adventure from him if she were to accept his desperate proposals, regardless of what the seer had told her weeks before, of how the shackles she once wore would be put onto her legs again in the near future.
The prince however, without the burden of the throne had felt greed overcome every king's senses. He had never been declined something, been mocked like this before. And so, he had his servants take her away from her home, paid people to look the other way and calm her as if she was a nervous bull to be put out for the showing. If he couldn't have such an interesting woman when he finally found someone who was able to stick out of the crowd, to be able to match the wits of his own, he would just have to steal her.
And so, for the rest of their days they lived in the kingdom together. He never went back to journey or venture, in fear that his wife would leave him, as she went on to dreaming of the life she could of had without him that was hopeless in the end.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"Much to talk about?" I mumbled quietly as I sat on the floor beneath him, shivering and spiteful. "Yes," he started before taking a moment to pause "Why do you have that.... scar on your leg?" He questioned as my lips pursed into a thin line.
"...my mother... why she.... she sinned." I answered flatly as he hummed for a moment before letting the silence take us again, I inspected the cold wet leg, the pale scar had barley even been noticeable in color despite its decent size that had taken over the inner part of the thigh.
"Are you sure that it wasn't perhaps, say your husband who did it?" "Then my mother would have fled for naught.....She....she did those sins that day in the name of your master. In the name of Lucifer, and everyone from noble to peasant knows it. So please, do not even dare mention my husband's name in such a foul manner ever again." He hummed for a moment as more silence came, as he took his time to think.
"Your husband, Dimitri. Why did you make him into such a husk?" There he went at it again, "Dimitri..... he isn't a husk. He's my husband-" he cut me off with a roar of laughter "husband? A corpse, yet you don't title yourself as widower?"
Widower... the word seemed foreign to my ears after all of these years spent caring for him just as any other wife would to her husband. "I don't know how things work in your mind, but I've stayed devout to my husband for ten long years, loyal to him even after I take my own last breaths, and my loyalty to him is something you can not dream of stripping me of no matter how much you dehumanize and belittle my shape."
"It's cute how you word your sentences like that you know. You've only told yourself those things this whole time because for the ten years you've ruled this land, you fear a new king would kick you off the throne if you had married again. Correct?"
I kept quiet.
"You were forced to play a devout and pure innocent wife... a virgin so you could go ahead and make yourself ruler. You're no better than me, are you? Tell me you're as terrible as I am, admit it, and you have my word that I will let you off right here and now.
You will no longer suffer if you'd just tell me the truth."
