The young prince stood by the arched window, gazing down at the medieval town below red brick roofs huddled tight, their shadows unnaturally sharp beneath an aberrant sun that hung too low and too bright in the sky.
Behind him, the castle's eastern wing rose in cheerful absurdity, its roofs glazed a bright, impossible blue like scattered gumdrops.
There was a gentle breeze forcing his short blonde hair to flutter and wave in the wind. His bright emerald eyes looked longingly at the blue clear sky. The room was neat and large magnificent and most of all luxurious.
A knock, sharp and deliberate.
He didn't turn. "Enter." Deep stable and loud enough to be heard across the room.
The door opened and closed with quiet precision.
Viola stepped inside. She never announced herself; her presence was announcement enough. Her blue eyes locked onto his back took a small breath small enough not to be noticeable but only when you are close enough.
"My prince."
Her voice was level, cool, the voice of a woman who had seen too much. She was older noticeably so scars faint on her forearms, authority carved into every line of her body.
She could have hid it instead she wore a sleeveless gambeson probably made of cotton allowing them to breathe.
Carefully walking towards him she looked around the room it was a bit too clean to be a young man's room. The cleaning maids were not allowed into their rooms.
"You are late."
She stopped a few inches from him.
"Training was set for the sixth bell. You are thirty minutes behind."
Auther smiled faintly, still facing outward. "That so?"
"Yes." Her tone cut clean. "And before you try to charm your way out of it," she took a little pause "don't."
He turned slowly, deliberately one step, then another, closing the distance until she could feel the warmth radiating from him. A calculated invasion.
Viola held her ground; he simply lifted her chin in response. Her cute face was now fully facing his unnaturally unblemished one. Her gaze being captured by his irreverent jade crystals he had for eyes
She met his eyes without blinking looking somewhere between mesmerized or bored, which was which only she knew, one thing for sure was that she was about to react violently evident when her hand steadily reached for the hilt of her rapier. "There you go being inappropriate you royal filth."
"But you like the inappropriateness, you could have easily told a maid to bring me down to the arena, yet..."
"Stop with your little mind games!" A rapier edge was at his throat a pressure increase away from splitting him into two.
His heart thumped against his ribs, sending blood racing. He could feel his subclavian vein pulsing against the edge one twitch away from a red fountain, the soft cold edge of her rapier sent chills down his spine.
In the three years they had knows each other he knew Viola was fickle but this was new, dangerous...intoxicating. He wanted to find out whether she had the guts to call out her threat, he was a prince, not as good as his mother but still respected.
That perceived status filled him with even more arrogance his smile deepening. "Are they working?"
"What do you think," The rapier drew blood.
The smugness faltered, just enough. He had to let go of her chin. He was a bit stunned though a light graze, she had the intention to kill, his status meant nothing to her and he did not know what to make of it.
"Three years of this, Auther. I am still a blade, and you are still a boy playing at being a man. Pitiful."
She pressed harder the rapier wanted to cut but couldn't, he felt it, she was holding back. Then just as suddenly she removed the rapier placing it back in it's hilt.
"In the arena," she murmured, "you'd already be dead ok."
His breath hitched barely audible, but she heard it.
"You're no fun," he said, voice lower now.
"I'm not paid to be fun," Viola replied, turning to face him again. "I'm paid to keep you alive long enough to wear the crown without dying to your own reckless desire."
He leaned in, emerald eyes dark. "Am I really going to ever wear that crown?"
"I don't know. Neither do I care."
She turned for the door. The door closed with quiet finality.
"I swear one day that woman will kill me." Auther paused looking back outside the window smiling at a group of ravens migrating. "Weird it's not their season for this." his jade eyes fixated once more on the ravens "I miss traveling with my family—my real one. Hopefully, this is a one-way emotion."
Proceeding to brush off the depressing thoughts he headed off to clean himself, ready for the brutal training his instructor would put him through. He unconsciously touched his neck smoothening a contour he had just felt.
"Beauty is not a natural process."