The King Trials.

~Surprise~

I have only exhausted myself further by repeating the same question.

With the guidance of the servant ahead of us, she leads us to wherever Vince's secret surprise is. Suspiciously far as we are directed all the way back down to the humble grounds of the Citadel. We breeze through the night air, drifting amidst the vennels of wooden infrastructure. Most of them stacked on each other, integrated into the wood of enormous trees.

Our environment is placid with only a few nightgoers that wander. The surrounding scenery bespeckled with floating fireflies. Pinpricks of luminous gold dapple the darkness of night.

"I was astonished to realise the scope of the Citadel, it's larger than I thought," Vince says with his arms folded behind his back. "With a river that goes beyond Cistern. And the other is an idyllic lake that remains in the safety of its gates."

I nod knowingly. "So is my surprise an idyllic lake?"

Our gaze meet.

"To reach it is to pass through the valley of lights," he says and nods his head forward.

I look ahead at the wide passage of flattened walls of foliage, like tall vertical hedges that border the pathway. Alike to shrubbery in a maze garden. But this tunnel of shrubbery is designed like an underpass which is decorated with innumerable neat layers of brilliant lights that are embedded both overhead and around us.

Awe nips a breath. I revolve as I walk, hypnotically observing the transcendent beauty. "This...is...incredible."

I glimpse a smiling Vince beside me, but it lacks its usual dazzle. Clearly, he's been here more than once. But besides that, this ambit of magnificence is unending. Everything seen that blesses my vision, vies for my attention in this soul-enriching, dream-like fantasy.

The parade of gleaming strings of lights like a stagnant vortex of heavenly radiance. The face of the walls of the foliage is lined with ever glowing streaks. Engrossing us as all in a wonderful, even divine brilliance.

Suddenly the whirlpool of lights ejects us out to a new place.

A rowboat of a shallow draft with cross thwarts for seats kisses the shore of still blackwaters. Its sharp nose aimed at the meandering stream that ebbs into an unknown stretch. Boulders colonised the edges of the rivulet. Buffed with pillows of moss. Sweet fragrances, alluvial, and palliative flit in and out of my awareness.

"Aeline," Vince says.

The servant girl swivels with her hands clasped in front of her, her face respectfully turned to the wavy grains of sand.

"Thank you, you may go."

She dips into a quick curtsey and hurries to return to the valley.

Vince strolls ahead of me, traipsing in the rowboat's direction.

"I cannot tell if this is romantic or dangerous," I say, crossing my arms apprehensively.

He swerves goofily, rotating around to look back at me, raising his chin as he bites down on his bottom lip.

"Are you afraid?"

Maintaining eye contact, I amble towards him, scanning him up and down exaggeratedly. I shoulder past him and his shoulder jerks back. I strut to the rowboat, picking up the front part of my dress, stumbling inside, scuttling towards the triangular brink.

I turn to face him, and I plop down on the narrow bench.

I make a gesture to the ores. "The boat is not going to row itself."