A young man was looking at his perfect self in a silver mirror, magnificently set in a marble-clad room. It felt luxurious, almost excessively so, as the room, maybe 120 square meters in size, housed everything from a hot tub that looked like a miniature hot spring, complete with monotonal green plants and young green bamboo, a sauna area adjacent to a neat shower with sliding translucent doors. But the most striking feature of the room was the large wall-to-wall mirror, which the young man was using to look at himself, striking poses and making faces, trying to adjust his already handsome appearance further.
While the blonde son of Adonis was admiring himself a young woman was angrily storming down luxurious halls only befitting a royal palace of sorts, her face contorted in ways her beauty should have made impossible, seething so much it threatened to burn, yet from her hair to her eyes, they were both azure, the color of the ocean
She, in some empty-minded state, bumped into a woman wearing a French-style maid uniform. She, unlike the azure-haired woman, was completely ordinary; some might even describe her as ugly by conventional standards, with a somewhat haggard look, one which did not fit her ripe age of just grazing thirty.
"I'm sorry, Liana, I was a bit empty-minded."
The maid brushed off her frizzy hair, which had been combed as best she could, whose appearance was made worse by the collision with the azure-haired woman, bowed and smiled, afraid of showing off her somewhat perfect teeth, made only that way by a certain person who was scared silly of anyone else finding out about it.
"It's okay, Duchess Viola, I take it you are looking for the prince... he has not eaten his breakfast, so I presume he is either asleep or holed up in that mysterious room of his."
"Thank you, Liana. I'll be sure to thank you later for your magnanimity on the issue."
"It's nothing, I'm just happy to be of service," she let the awkwardness sit for a while before strategically continuing, "Speaking of service, I'm not even close to finishing half of my quota. Marla will have my head if I don't get going... have a wonderful day, Duchess."
Auther, the young prince, having finished his bath 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 an ominous blue moon.
A gentle breeze was forcing his short blonde hair to flutter and wave. His bright emerald eyes looked longingly at the blue, clear sky. The room was neat and large, magnificent, and, most of all, luxurious.
Outside, it was Viola herself, breathing a bit laboriously as she silently gazed at the castle's ceiling, adorned with glass murals of different species. She sighed gently into the air, her gaze returning to the door, a pensive, defeated look on her face as her knuckles grazed it.
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 an 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 noticeably older, with faint scars on her forearms, authority carved into every line of her body.
She could have hidden it, but instead she wore a sleeveless gambeson, probably made of cotton, to let them 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 while they were still inside and he had just woken up.
"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. "Is 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. It was a calculated invasion.
Viola held her ground; he lifted her chin in response.
She met his eyes without blinking, looking somewhere between annoyed, bored, and wrathful.
Which was which? Only she knew, however, one thing was for sure: she was about to react violently, as evidenced by her hand steadily reaching 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. Her breathing slowed when it should have quickened. The blade didn't waver — if anything, it steadied — and for just a moment, her lips parted.
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 known each other, he had known 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 a queen, 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. Her voice sounded a bit dry, not the conversational one she had before or the angry, peeved one. It was cold, empty in a way that made him gulp.
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 its sheath.
"In the arena," she murmured, "you'd already be dead, ok."
His breath hitched barely, 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 ever going to 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 gaze drifted once more to the ravens.
"I miss traveling with my family," he took a silent pause, "my real one...Hopefully, they don't feel the same."
Proceeding to brush off the depressing thoughts, he headed to clean himself up, ready for the brutal training his instructor would put him through. He unconsciously touched his neck, smoothing a contour he had just felt.
"Beauty is not a natural process." Still as he wiped the blood off, he realized that he had never noticed how fragile his skin was.
He walked out of his room as he slowly walked to the arena, skipping breakfast entirely, that was until he met the same maid who had talked with Viola.
"Liana, good morning. I hope I did not make you wait too long. I know my room is the last on your route."
"Not at all, it's just that the duchess looked a bit..."
"A bit what?"
"A bit livid, be sure not to anger her further or else, you heard the rumors of the azure demon, your highness, haven't you?"
Auther paused, looking at Liana blankly as he wondered whether it was a joke or reality. He scratched at his still-clotting cut, thinking back to her husky voice.
"Anyway, your teeth look lovely. I can see the toothpaste I made works."
"Amazingly so, now my husband wants me to smile all the time..." She hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask something, but Auther's blank look dissuaded her.
"Have a nice training session, your majesty."
Liana said as she went into his room with her cleaning things. Auther just walked away into the distance, suddenly feeling the need for breakfast.