Shouts erupted like a struck horn. The guards moved at once, heavy boots ringing on the royal marbles ground as they moved for Lucas. He did not struggle. He only smiled — small, sincerely, as if every chain the world might lay on him were a reward.
"No!" Loretta's voice cut through the hall. She reached for him, but a guard's arm stopped her, gloved hand a pale wedge between her and the man she was supposed to wed.
Prince Leon sprang forward, eyes blazing. "You dare seize your champion? Empress—" He stopped at the tilt of Priscilla's head. One look from her, and the fire in him immediately died.
Priscilla rose from her throne, every inch the sovereign. The hall fell into a immediate silence so complete that a pin could be heard dropping. She studied Lucas as the guards closed in, the faintest hint of something — calculation, amusement, nothing more — flickering across her face.
"You ungrateful dog, how dare you!?" she said softly, the words carrying like a blade. "Guards — take him away."
The two wide-shouldered men seized Lucas by the arms. He went with them willingly, letting their grips be the only touch he accepted that day. He glanced once at Priscilla still with the same smile. There was no pleading in his eyes, only a steady, terrible love.
"How could you!? Leon demanded "He's the best knight in all of Calmaria! What of the law!? What of the honor! What.."
Priscilla's voice immediately cut him off from continuing "Don't you dare forget your place Prince Leon! Lucas Darcy has chosen his fate. He has resigned his commission and refused the union given to him to honor calmaria, for that he will be detained pending judgement. And also any one who dare lay a finger on him before I decree otherwise will find their legs cut off." Her voice was calm and it laid an unshakable promise.
Murmurs rippled through the assembly. The nobles bowed lower still, not out of respect but to make themselves as small as possible. No one wanted to be the one who tested Priscilla's temper.
Loretta, cheeks flushed, pressed her hand to her mouth. "My Empress—" she began, barely more than a sob.
"Silence," Priscilla snapped. "You will have your day, Princess. We will speak when I have decided where loyalty and usefulness truly lie for now this wedding is over."
In the dungeons, Lucas found himself bound to a simple iron ring. The cell was damp, lit by a single torch that guttered and spat. He sat on the cold stone and laughed once, a sound like breaking glass.
They brought him food. They searched him. They bared his shoulders to check for wounds. He answered no questions. He had nothing to bargain with — not for himself. If this was punishment, it was one he would wear gladly.
Priscilla watched the path where they had taken him for a long time, the candles burning down to stubs. She made notes in her head — lists of favors owed and debts rendered, movements to be made in the next hour, the next week. The world was a chessboard and men like Lucas the pieces she shifted to serve a larger design.
But when she left the the throne room and walked to her chambers, she paused for the barest heartbeat and placed her hand on the silver hairpin she had worn that morning — the hairpin she had used as a small, private token when she wished to test him. Her fingers closed around it. There was no warmth in that touch, only the chill of authority.
Lucas, alone in the dark, unbound his hands from around his knees and spoke to the stone as if it were the throne. "Whatever you decide, my Empress," he said softly, voice steady even in the echoing cell, "I am yours."
"Even at a time like this, your still thinking about her?" Loretta voice broke out of the shadows as she walked closer to his Dungeon "Lucas look around you, The Empress only sees you as a dog of service! And should I tell you what happened to this type of dogs? once their masters no longer sees them useful, they trash them or kick them out! And now she has done it for you and yet your still blinded by love!"
Lucas's chains rattled as he shifted closer, his voice low, almost a growl. "Careful, Princess. Speak words like that too loudly, and it won't be me rotting in this dungeon—it'll be you."
Her smile lingered, sharp as glass. "Then let us both rot, if it means I stand beside the only man unafraid to spit in the face of a tyrant."
He chuckled as he sat down on the ground not breaking eye contact with her "why are you here? Because if your here to convince me to continue with the wedding or whatever shits like that am not listening"
"Lucas let's run away together far away from Calmaria" For a moment silenced stretched-thick charged as her words hanged in the hair like fallen glasses.
"You should leave princess don't let your emotions get the best of you"
But Loretta didn't move. She stayed, her fingers still brushing the cold bars, her golden gaze locked on him as if she'd already chosen her fire.
----
The Empress's chambers were lit by a hundred candles, their flames bending in the draft that crept through the tall windows. Priscilla sat before her writing desk, quill in hand, as though the chaos of the day had been nothing but a passing inconvenience.
Priscilla's maid announced "Your highness the Princess is here."
Priscilla did not rise, nor did she even glance up until Loretta stepped fully into the room. two predators clothed in the same shade.
"You wished to see me?" Priscilla's tone was smooth, dangerous, the kind of silk that cut deeper than steel.
Loretta lowered her head slightly but did not bow fully. "Yes, Your Majesty. I thought it necessary. After… what transpired today."
Priscilla dipped her quill back into the ink, her gaze fixed on the parchment before her. "If you have come to complain about your ruined wedding, I suggest you write a letter to your brother. He enjoys hearing such annoying news."
Loretta's lips curved faintly, but her golden eyes hardened. "It is not complaint I bring, Majesty. It is a warning."
At that, Priscilla finally looked up, her expression unreadable.
Loretta stepped closer, her voice low. "Lucas may be your dog, but even dogs bite when cornered. What he did today… that was not obedience. That was rebellion. And rebellion, once born, does not simply die."
Priscilla's smile was sharp as glass. "You think I fear my knight?"
"I think you underestimate him," Loretta replied, daring to hold her gaze. "And I think you underestimate how far I am willing to go if you do."
Silence stretched, thick and suffocating, broken only by the scratch of quill against parchment when Priscilla resumed writing.
"Loretta?" She finally stopped writing as she stood up and walked closer to her "firstly don't you dare look at me in the eyes when you're speaking."
even if Loretta tried to be bolder she did not dare look her in the eyes.
"And secondly, you came into my chambers talking like a big dog, when your just a day old puppy still looking for it's mothers nipples to feed on, you talk too much for a princess, listen power isn't talk it's action, and you" her finger traced Loretta chin as cold sweat dropped from her forehead.
"Your an empty bucket, I am your ruler and you are my subject, your a princess and am an Empress, you serve me not the other way around, so this should never repeat itself again. Now get out before I damage your pretty doll face".
Loretta's curtsy was graceful, but her eyes glowed like embers but still with fear. "You might be at the head of the table today, doesn't mean you can still be there tomorrow your Majesty."
"And you might love and fight for a man who's heart and loyalty is already sold to another, doesn't mean he will reward you with the love you expect, cause such a person will still be a dog to the one he loves" Her voice could send chills into Loretta's skin as she turned and left, the echo of her steps lingering long after the door closed.