Chapter 102

SEVEN

I can feel a hot liquid coming out of my nose. I can taste the smell of rusty.

Stars filled the sky like pale grain into the freshly turned ground. It was the promise of life in the darkness, a sense of warmth springing from the cold. It was a vastness to bring humbleness and an eternal space to bring gratitude for the coziness of home, of her. No matter the years that passed, Knight saw each night sky as a fresh gift given anew. It was the moment anyone that knew him would see his eyes smile and his breathing deepens just a little, it was because of her, his smile, and his breathing is because of her.

As night fell the blue haze of day lifted to reveal the stars. He always felt that this was closer to the truth of who he is. Yes, after all those lie years he had lived, he is now proud of what he is now, but not yet to be proud of what he is capable of, he must get her, he had promised that day that he would return. He wondered if we were nocturnal would we feel more connected to those far away stars, perhaps sensing the fragility of the surrounding, he can sense something is going along with his plans.

"Master the prince and king will be off soon in the palace and only her will be left in the room so we are free to get her any time soon," Antarteces stated as her knee bend down and her head bow. It was not easy for her to be in this part of his plan, kidnapping the woman he loves and she will be a part of the plan surely hurts her but it is her happiness if her master gets what's he wants.

'I've poured warmth into you for so long and you love it, I know you do. Then you turn on the cold to shut me down. It hurts. Every time is a new wound, a new scar to add to the collection. You know it never stops me loving you, but I need you to try real hard, try not to go cold in that way. The hurt covers me like a cloak I never wanted, bonding to my skin when all I ever wanted to be the sunshine. That's why I act as I do for several days afterward, it takes time to shed something like that. It never stops me from loving you since that day you found me in the organization even though I am a concubine you treated me like a woman even if you just saw her face to me. And even though I don't like you being in the dark I have no choice but to be with you, by your side just to be with you, I'll come along whenever you go Knight, that is how much I love you. I can survive anything if I feel loved, even these pains that come to explode within, these silent hand grenades. I can survive this Knight, if you didn't love me then you would have driven me away but no and somehow I felt love even in just your touch, you look me in your eyes, and your orders,' she thought to herself as she looks at him with such sorrow in her eyes, her unrequited love had no end.

"Why Antarteces?" Knight asked as he looks at her eyes, she was in deep sorrow, her pale blue eyes tells all of her hidden messages.

"Nothing Master," she answered and decided to stand up.

Knight walks into her direction slowly and his hair was blown by a cool breeze and his scents were lingering in her nostrils. She remembers how it felt to touch that hair and lingers it on her fingers. Pain is invisible, subjective, and open dispute unless it is one's own pain. Aches are worse, always taken to be less than they are, and hardly ever thought of without the possibility of the sufferer magnifying their woes. Sometimes I think the reaction a person has to another's pain tells more about that person than they'd like but she should be asking herself about that.

Antarteces bit her lip, eyes everywhere but on Knight, then he moves closer with those eyes that look so deeply into her own, slowly he lifts his hand and touches her cheek, his warm hand felt so soothing. There is something about that gaze of his, she'll never find in another man and she knows that she loved him indeed.

"Quit with your imagination bunny, it is never going to happen, and I remember that I just warned you," he coldly stated with those cold-blooded eyes. Her brain stutters for a moment and her eyes take in more light than she expected, every part of her goes on pause while her thoughts catch up. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from her lungs, and she lay there in her mind struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything. Trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as his words bounce around inside her mind.

"I don't imagine things, Master," she answered it took her a while to answer those icy statements of his but she gained a strong emotion not to burst out because it will totally look pathetic if she will do that.

"It's better that we are both clear to each other right Antarteces? But as long as you are faithful to me I will not be gone by your side. I will still root in you Antarteces, keep that in your pretty mind," he said and left her standing there. Antartces waited for him to at least close the door before she knelt her knees down and groan in pain that she kept, it was too painful. Nothing hurts more than realizing he meant everything to you, but you meant nothing to him. Her heart no longer felt as if it belonged to her. It now felt as it had been stolen, torn from her chest by someone who wanted no part of it. When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn't want it, you cannot take it back. It's gone forever and even your soul, the whole of you.

Unrequited love differs from mutual love, just like delusion differs from the truth.

'She's beautiful," Antarteces stated, but her eyes were glued to Knight, her eyes shows the sorrow and hurt that only she can feel, looking at the man who is looking at the woman whom he loved.

'Yes, she is more than that word," he responded and a smile on his lips, a smile that you can't even define. Those were the smiles that Antarteces expect to see but she sees those smiles because of her, Ysabella.

'Are you happy now?" she called for and Knight didn't mention a word instead a smile was written on his lips, that was enough answer to her question.

'Tomorrow you bring her back to her room, she'll wake up as if everything was a dream or maybe. She is too smart to think all of this was a dream. This is enough for now and when the day comes that I will take her, we are on our empire," he replied and Antarteces fixes her cloth mask in her mouth, she wanted to bite her lips to prevent the tears from wiping away her eyes.

‘You are the one I will die a thousand times for,' she thought phrases that remembered her the day that she was waiting for him.

‘I chose you, and I will repeat the action over and over. A million times over. I feel incomplete without you. Every time I look at you, I feel love and inspiration coursing through me. How destiny writes fates, I see, you want her Knight, but she doesn't want you, I am here for you but you wouldn't want me. You taught me to dream fearlessly, and love limitlessness, though you didn't know what love is. You don't know the meaning of love Knight, you only know the definition but not the truth of it.

The true enemy of love is when emotional indifference takes command of logic; for only when love takes command of logic can it can make excellent choices. Love in command of both our higher logic and our primitive drive is humanity's hero-mode.

Even though Ysabella is still in the state of unconsciousness, she could feel her surroundings. She wanted to open her eyes, but it was just too heavy to open it no matter how much she tells her mind. She wanted to move her feet and fingers but she can't even feel them, not even a muscle. But Ysabella could sense that they are people talking but she cannot even heard it. She could sense that they were in a dreary place or a room. Even in her state she had felt relax that she somehow thought odd and scary how on earth that she would feel relax in her state now? Her heart beat was at rest. The air moved like cool water and the aroma of scented candles infused her far more deeply. It was intoxicating her, as if she was calm and perfect, which makes her worried.

She wore a red dress that made of soft, satiny fabric that hugs her curves and her it showed half skin of her breast, her paled porcelain skin embraces that ominous light of the room. Knight can't help his self not to touch her delicate soft skin. He left a mark over her healthy breast, he left a love bite after that. He leaves her a mark that will remember him, she was his.

'Ysabella," he breathes and slowly bend down his head and touch her lips with his. Knight placed a kiss on her lips which makes Antarteces stands from where she was sitting and slowly walks away from the scene that was slowly ripping her heart away, nothing is more painful than that scene to her eyes.



***

FLASHBACK

The winter time has passed in its somber majesty, having brought us skies of richly marbled greys and trees so elegant in their bare beauty. Those chilly days for calmness and reflection are waning and a fresh energy rises. Antarteces lets her eyes flow from tree to tree, noticing the buds ready to open into the light, to be as green flags in the ever-warming wind. The crowd has a life of its own, the vibrant clothes shine in the morning light and the people move like enchanting shoals of fish. There is chatter between sellers and buyers. It's busy for sure, but the hustle and bustle brings a life to this capital.

She feels the energy, she loves the vibe, and then she wants to find a quiet tree in a quiet spot to feel peace of mind once more. Yes, a peace of mind doesn't suit her personality because of what she is, a paying woman. But she is just a person who wants calmness in life and nothing to worry about, but that won't do.

'I love you", she blurted as she put her hand up and feel the heat of the sun. Those are the words she kept secret, she wanted to tell those words to him, Knight, but that would be a crazy idea and maybe if she would tell it to him he will immediately leave her.

'It's spring, he told me to wait for him. And now look at me silently praying and waiting for him, who am I kidding? Wake up Antarteces, you are such being a nobody," she whispered into a thin air and sighed until someone speaks up which startled her from her place. She spun around and her heart skips a beat. There she saw the man who had taken her heart away, whose the reason why her breath stops and her world stops spinning around, if this is love she is doomed. Meeting him was a fate, being his pastime was a choice. And falling in love was bound to happen. He was the one who paints her world.

He was the one she will die a thousand times for.

'Are you waiting for me my doll?" his deep voice asked and Antarteces was still bewildered that alas Knight was here, in front of her and she can't believe that he was smiling. That smile is the prettiest thing she would have seen in a while, for it extends to his eyes and deep into his soul. She just wish those smiles meant for her and not that woman. His smile was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens. She could see how it came from deep inside to light his eyes and spread into every part of him.

***

'Where are you going?" Knight asked which cause Antarteces to halt.

His voice was just so irresistible that Antarteces wanted to slap herself, why did she stop?

'Get some fresh air and a drink, I think you two need a privacy," she answered and leave without waiting for his response. It's not anymore important.

'My heartbreak is grief that comes in waves, grueling, stealing appetite and sleep alike. It is a shard in my guts that never leaves, though perhaps in time the edges will dull. You're still hurting me Knight and I don't like this feeling.'

For Antarteces that was the most heavy footsteps she had ever felt in her entire life, every step she makes her heart shattered into pieces and pieces until none of it left. She wants to cry but she would not again shed tears, her life looks even more miserable if she does that.

"Knight are you sure about this? Is there no other way to solve this out? Don't give me a damn Knight, Hades and you are-" Antarteces said with full of fear and concern.

"Don't start Antarteces, just do what I have told you. I didn't keep you to pry, molest, tamper things on my plans," he coldly said and look at his soldiers preparing for an attack to the palace.

"And why sudden call me by my name huh Antarteces?" he added placing his blade on his secret leather pocket.

"Forgive me Master it won't happen again," Antarteces answered and bow ahead.

"In fact it is okay but you're the one who insists calling me that and I'm just used to it besides it's not like you didn't scream my name in the past," he grins and turns his heels back to Antarteces.

"In the serenade of the black, the stars are a choir, they are lights that sing in infinite patterns. Sometimes eyes need music, and the darker the night the sweeter the song," Knight muttered under his breath and he was sure that Antarteces heard it right, it was enough for Antarteces to hear it and leave.

'The black night holds me close until the dawn, always my cloak until I am ready for the dawn. It is that friendly blackness that allows my eyes to rest and let my dreams take center stage,' Knight thought to himself and walking down the stairs, tonight is the night he starts the warning attack.

'This is the dream I have been waiting for and I hope it will not come into a nightmare and all of my plans will come to fall into the way I want it, no, the way I love it,' engulfed his thoughts and soldiers came approaching him, his horse was already prepared and even his gears, all of them are ready.

This evening he got a message coming from the palace and of course, he has one of his eyes out there that literally no one knows, that is how he moves, how he plan, oh how proud is he of himself. He looks up in the dark sky and closes his eyes, inhaled the cold breeze if air, how intoxicating it sending his body of eagerness, a roar to take a fight, a roar to take what is his, what is his property all along. On this moonless night, even the silhouettes of them are gone and even the stars that he used to look at and remember her were dense in the clouds.

What a shame.

The messenger sent him a letter with the help of a crow, it says that Hades has come along with a young maiden, and if he is not mistaken the messenger sent him a painted portrait of her face. His heart exploded with excitement and at the same time anger and jealousy. It was indeed his Dawn, the girl that he had been searching for a long time since he was captured the rogues of his father, sending him to take what's their capital.

Flashback

Market around 9 am

Knight was in the street observing, he needs it this time, he must forget the conscience, he must think of his state. He was hungry for pete's sake and he can eat three bowls of rice and how many bowls of hot noodles. He was not used to pickpocketing but he must, that is how he will survive without the shelter of his father, even just by today he is free, free of his young mind will. When he had already seen his target he was like the wind by his speed, the woman didn't even know it, her purse was no longer on her bag.

"Alas! so a lot of money is this, I could get myself a warm blanket and food for three days, boy what a luck!" his eyes were sparkling as soon as he gets out on the crowded market and finds himself a hidden place to see what he got. Little did he know a young girl was secretly watching her with her wooden stick by her side.

"Give it back to the lady young boy," a girl said with her thin lips which cause the boy to startled from his feet and slowly spun his head and look at her with wide eyes, he thought she had big people in her back, she was all alone. He wanted to laugh out loud but he can't, a girl was ordering her and called him a young boy is such a big fool.

"Did you call me a young boy huh girl whoever you are?" he spat making her flinch, she was not expecting that coming from an angelic face yet a rude personality which makes her even mad, her blood even boils.

"Give that purse back to the poor lady," she said and pointed the lady who is now searching her purse, they are miles away from the crowd and yet he can see it and he was surprised how keen is her eyes to see such a long way, and a crowded place and come all the way in his place.

"What are you?" he absentmindedly asked and look at her.

"Give her back her purse," she murmured and he knows she was holding her anger.

"And what if I won't?" he said and grin, she even goes red which he finds it cute.

"Don't test me, I'm a well-trained fighter if you don't know," she says swaying her stick which nearly stumbles her due to the heaviness of her stick.

"Pfft," he mocks and holds his stomach he must not laugh, or else he will be laughing the rest of his life and that is not good.

"Don't laugh at me, young boy."

"Listen, fighter girl, I need to get back to my place and buy myself a good warm blanket for tonight before the store closes and also food for I am starving to death you know in order to survive this fancy life you need to do these things," he said and started walking away.

"Is that so? I can help you with that shelter and food? I can help you, persisting in the illegal thing will just put you in crisis you know."

"If this is putting me into jeopardy, I'll take all of it."

Antarteces had been by my side watching me love another woman.