The King Trials 2: Beyond.

I push the hatch open, heaving myself out of the circular hole.

Kelan is right behind me, climbing up the rickety wooden ladder.

I lengthen my spine and I turn my gaze to the skyward, and for a moment awe disrupts my breathing. The canvas of the universe is painted with galactic hues, a stagnant explosion of infinite colours from dazzling pinks, electric blues and vivacious yellows. A cosmic wonder. It is as if the heavens released a breath and it caused ripples of interstellar clusters.

I find myself at the brink of the tavern’s roof. Not the tallest infrastructure in the village, but high enough. My eyes never leave the scintillating aether.

“Kelan…are you seeing this?” I breathe. “It’s absolutely…phenomenal.”

“Yes,” Kelan says from behind me. I twist my shoulders to glance back at him. “No words come close to a beauty that surpasses all splendours.”

Eyes of night gripping twilight.

Heat warms my face, the flustered singe rising in my cheeks. I turn from him to behold the cosmic magnificence. Kelan shortly appears in my periphery, arms folded behind his back. In the cool night air, echoes of tavern music swirl around in a moderate rhythm.

Curious, I peer over at him. His steel features thawing gradually into a placid look, but his eyes bear much discontent, a burden that gnaws still.

I nudge him with an elbow. “What troubles you?”

“Vince,” he says with all the resentment he can assemble and poison into one name. “I do not trust him. The other Herems, I tolerate, they are all under my guard. But with Vince, no matter how amiable he pretends to be. I do not buy it. He is an Emikrollian after all.”

Not this again. “Is that why you dislike him, because of something he was born into and had no choice in the matter?”

“Of course not,” he dismisses brusquely. “Beside the fact that I feel something off about him, and my instincts have never led me astray. I also despise how close you two have become, more than rivals for one throne should ever be. Your focus should be on none other than the Trials, they are still yet to begin.”

I free a glum-filled sigh. “He is merely a temporary partner. For this point, we all need each other more than we want to kill each other. Treating one another as ‘friends’ until the time comes when we are foes. Vince is an ally just like Solaris has been to me.”

Kelan shakes his head in staunch disagreement. “Solaris does not look at you the way he looks at you.”

I look back at him questioningly and his eyes consume mine.

“And how would that be?”

He takes a long time to respond, eventually he says, “The same way that I look at you.”

I release a built-up sigh. With resolute fact and all the sincerity in the world, I say, “You are an imbecile.”

A frown puckers his forehead, equinox brows gathering.

I move close to him so that I can tangle both of my limbs round his one arm. “Look to the sky,” I direct. And he follows, his eyes cast to the heavens. “Why would I count the stars, when I already have the moon?”

Kelan looks back at me. Something awakens in his eyes that cause it to shine like black waters, something in him daring to hope.

“It all does not matter, no-one else matters,” I say it more like a promise. “Not when I only see you, none can compare. Perhaps none ever will.”

He flares a brow. “Perhaps?”

I giggle softly, untangling my arms from him and waltzing to the centre of the roof. The music swells below with a series of two-beat drums and a mass of pounding feet; the music reverberates through the soles of my boots and channels through me.

I extend a hand to him, wagging my fingers demandingly. “Are you going to join me, or shall I dance on my own?”

A ghost-like smile flashes across his face. “Well…if I have a choice—”

“You do not,” I deny swiftly.

Kelan moves off the edge and saunters to stand right before me. He places his callused hands on my waist and reels me in to his chest. He positions my one hand in his, his thumb brushing over my knuckles, followed by a brush of powerful energy against my flesh, his warmth igniting my skin. Embraced wholly by strength.

The melody that sounds, all in the world seems to fall away. But still a harmony plays. One from within. A melody thrums, one that I think only our souls can hear and one that only our hearts can dance to. The ballad unfurls and Kelan leads me in a sequence of heartfelt steps, one that I can instinctively follow, swaying to our own song.

All my qualms dissipate, my fears thwarted, and whatever ailed me from the inside seems to have all been banished by his sheer presence. For the first time since Sorcia. I feel like… me again.

“And what troubles you, my queen?”

My heart beams an immeasurable smile. “Nothing, nothing anymore.” I lean closer to him and I lay my head on his chest. I relish in this moment, absorbing every millisecond of it, soaking in every ounce of his warmth, the tender tempo of his heartbeat.

I can feel a delicate pressure increasing on top of my head. His cheek resting upon it.

“You seem…different.”

I close my eyes. Focusing all five senses on him alone. He smells like forest dew at dawn, a pinch of subtle spice and a crisp, refreshing fragrance like the Shire waterfall in the Prime. I can feel his chest rising and falling, aware of every breath he takes.

“Different, good?” I ask absently, intoxicated by his mere proximity.

“I’m still deciding.”

That response spares me a moment of soberness. I lift my head to look up into those raven black eyes that reveal something more each time I gaze into them. His walls crumbling with every glance.

“I know how you fight. Though you wield great power in your blows, when you fought in Sorcia, you fought to wound not to kill. There was always this hesitancy in your attacks, though you could have killed your opponent several moves earlier. You did not. You chose not to.”

My gaze slips from him to stare piercingly into his broad chest.

“Before, I had to practically shove you out of the portcullis,” he says with a chuckle. I look up quickly to capture a glimpse of his pronounced smile with a deep, one line dimple in his cheek. It vanishes before I could behold it any longer.

“And I believe that your reluctancy to enter was not out of fear for your own life. But of taking the life of another, regardless of the circumstance, foe or friend, innocent or not. That goodness inside of you that shines as bright as your wisdom.”

My goodness? Wisdom? Since of late, even I question them.

“But when I saw you fight the northern raiders.” His tone plummets from admiration to something almost deplorable, like he is morally concerned with my actions. “You were…decisive. Swift, eager almost. Ruthless.”

I hurl my gaze away. I try to step away from him but his grip tightens, pulling me back so my chest collides with his. Both of his arms coils around my waist securely.

“I am ruthless?” I clutch onto his ironbound biceps, trying to push him away from him, but he doesn’t even budge an inch. “You should see yourself fight, Primus.”

His sharp gaze slices into me. “I am who I am. And you are, who you are. You must not let anything change that. No trial, no person. Nothing.”

His gaze flickers down to my chest and it lingers there for a while. “In my absence, did something happen?”

Too much has happened. What am I to say? Yes, that Rimnick’s apparition has returned from the grave itself as an eidolon to torment me, followed by phantom pains that come at whim. Oh, and how can I forget about the mysterious, omnipresent voice that magically appeared in my mind, one that only I could hear.

“Are you referring to before or after you departed? I did not begrudge your absence, you had important matters that needed your attention and I respect that. What I was not fond of is how you treated me after, suddenly, like I was just one of the Herems.”

He nods grimly and he dodges my gaze.

“I am not angry, I was just…fearful, I suspect.” I move my hands off his arms to place them on his chest that is stronger than steel. “I thought that perhaps—you stopped—I even doubted—” I cut off my own stammering.

His eyes snap back to me look at me like my stuttering offended his entire being. “You doubted me?” He stares down at me, semi-wounded. “You thought I stopped what? Caring?” A humoured breath flees from him. “And you think I am the imbecile?”

I crack into a small smile.

“Can you tell the stars to cease its gleam?” he asks, rattling off his metaphorical questions. “Can you silence the ocean’s roar? Or can you deny the sun’s rise when it makes its rise at dawn. You may doubt all those things, my queen. But never doubt me, never doubt that I care for you.”

Heartwarmed tears sting the back of my eyes and before they can fall, I close them and slant myself closer, allowing myself to be embraced.

I have never a known a strength like this. One that makes me strong whilst I feel vulnerable, a strength that ensures my safety but still dares me to be bold, brave. A strength that inspires me to not only do, but to be better.

“This is all so new to me,” he whispers so softly as if hoping I will not hear him.

“What is?” I ask.

“Feelings.” His one hand plays through my hair, fingers combing through the strands.

“Kelan,” I say into his chest.

“Hmm.”

“When you were young. Did you always want this for your life?”

His hand continues to stroke through my tresses in soothing brushes. How fascinating that brute hands like his that can harm, that can kill. It can still be as equally gentle.

“Do you mean overseeing the first ever King Trials in the midst of civil strife, where forces both known and unknown seek to tear our realm and all we know asunder?”

I bury my face in him to hide my smile for a moment. I shake my head and lay my ear back on his heart. “I meant being a Primus. Was it always what you wanted?”

His hand strokes lull me into a state of complete serenity.

“It is all I have ever known,” he says wistfully. “I have been a solider for all my life. My future was decided the moment I was taken to the recruitment parish. I was conscripted, sent into training, became a Vanguard and I worked hard. I fought in battles, border skirmishes, I did regional patrols, oversaw outposts. I rose from being a weak, despondent orphan to a—”

“Valiant and great Primus, the best Urium has ever seen.”

He liberates a rumbling chuckle. “I suppose all of those things.”

We share a light-hearted laugh, our joy ebbing into the heavens.

I lift my head back up again to gaze into his eyes with all solemnity. “Do you know who killed your parents?”

A stark look of haunting shades his eyes.

It’s like he’s not even staring at me but through me, fleetingly vacant. “When I joined the military it gave my life purpose, and to avenge the one I lost feeds it. It’s why I worked so hard, I wanted to ensure that terror by terror I rid the realm of the pure malignancy that would rip a mother away from his child.”

I lift my hand and I cup his cheek; my thumb traces the sculpted bone.

I look to his eyes, but his gaze are not on mine but on my lips.

He leans closer and I incline my head, eager to close the gap.

Abruptly, a whistle of two short bursts penetrates the night sky. Midnight.

Kelan releases me suddenly and he turns his back on me, on high alert. “Why do I recognise that sound?”

I glance at him ruefully. An awkward, guilty smile forming. “Because you do. It’s Vince, he’s calling me. It’s time.”

Kelan wheels on me with a scorching look that incinerates every residue of gentleness that once existed. “He is calling you. And time, time for what?”

I take a ready breath, bracing myself for an outburst. “Vince and I—”

Kelan turns a cheek like I struck him.

“A few of the other Herms and I,” I correct lightly. I clear my throat a few times. “Since we could not require a short supply of grain. We are…going back to Bumlot’s estate to make a…lifetime loan of what we need, just enough to last the village through the frost season.”

“Lifetime loan?” His voice surges with fury. “You mean, you all have schemed to steal from the Nobleman? I do not care that you are highborns, in case you did not know. Thievery is illegal to all, and I will not allow you to partake in a crime willingly.”

I lift a shoulder slowly and I let slump back down. “The truth is…you cannot stop me.”

Kelan’s eyes widen, eyes alit with black flames. He storms towards me dauntingly and I stagger backwards, shooting up both hands, yielding immediately.

“Wait.” I plead. “This is our only chance. By dawn Duce Merian wants us to resume the Trials, the journey to Velheim. There is nothing we can do to even send word to nearby nobles, to request for their aid. Because other than Bumlot, there are none. I hate to do this as much as you, but I am thinking about those villagers.”

Kelan stills himself to a halt.

“Goodwill will not feed them. And should they starve because of our shared ethics? I know it is wrong, my father raised me to do many things but not to use my skills for illicit means.”

He stares back at me intensively, his judgment hidden by his stern, uncrackable expression.

“If you truly believe that it is ill-reasoning on my part, if my moral compass has skewed. I will remain, and I will convince the others to do the same.”

Kelan snaps a nod and marches to the open hatch.

I deflate with disappointment.

He goes down. Half of his body submerged in the hole.

“Are you coming?” His tone brash. “Hurry up, we have a village to feed.”

A thrill inflates my chest and I scurry to the hatch. After him I descend the ladder and we travel back down through the attic then we move down another tier to reach the ground level. The flying piglet is far less rowdy, the masses diluted to a measly scattered few. Tavern musicians slumped on the floor beside a slumbering blaze, a few of the patrons passed out at the tables.

Kelan and I exit the tavern to see Treyton, Solaris and Vince awaiting my advent.

Undefined shock teems in all of their eyes as they watch Kelan and I approach.

“Primus Kelan?” Treyton mutters with raw bafflement. He looks at me as he asks, “Will the law-abiding Primus be joining our little crusade?”

I nod tersely.

“I will retrieve our horses,” Kelan says and walks off into the distance.

Vince burns me with his searing look of pure loathing. “You told him?” He slaps his words away angrily. “You invited him.”

My head tilts from side to side. “Technically, he invited himself.”

“I think it is a good move,” Treyton says with approval, crossing his arms. “In case plans go awry with our food heist. The Primus can take care of it.”

“Take care of it?” Solaris repeats with visible discomfort. “And what do you mean by that? Kill a guard perhaps, because we merely decided to rob another’s property?”

“Oh, baulk up, Solaris,” Treyton says with a soured face. “I am beyond vexed with your self-righteous attitude. You are no better than the rest of us, and the one thing we can all do right is to help these people.”

“Whatever must be done. Let is be done,” I say to harmonise with Treyton’s sentiment.

Solaris grumbles something indistinct. Audible, he says, “For the sake of this village, and for helping others, despite the moral cost. I hope my sins can be forgiven.”

“That’s the spirit,” Treyton says and claps a hard hand on his back.

I observe a tense Vince, his brows clashed in a hostile scowl, glaring in the direction that Kelan disappeared in.