The autumn wind howled softly outside the grand stained-glass windows of the Arden castle chapel, but inside, the air was heavy with the scent of fresh cut lilies and heavy incense.
At that moment...
The instant Lucien saw the pillar of violet light erupt from the Imperial Palace far to the east, everything around him disappeared.
He didn't hear the nobles crying out in panic.
He didn't hear chairs crashing onto the marble floor.
He didn't even hear the priests shouting for everyone to remain calm.
There was only that light.
That impossible...
terrifying...
beautiful light.
His heart suddenly clenched so violently that he could barely breathe. A sharp, icy dread shot straight through his chest, making his hands turn completely cold inside his formal white gloves.
"No..."
Lucien whispered, his lips trembling.
"...Cassian."
Without another thought, Lucien reached up and ripped the heavy, gold-embroidered ceremonial cloak from his shoulders, tossing it carelessly onto the cold stone floor. He turned on his heel, abandoning the altar, and sprinted straight toward the massive double doors of the chapel.
"Lucien!"
Ruby's frightened, shrill voice rang out behind him, cutting through the murmuring crowd. She gathered the heavy skirts of her white bridal gown, rushed forward, and caught tight hold of his arm right before he reached the threshold.
"Lucien, stop!"
"It's our wedding day!"
"How can you leave now?"
She pointed a trembling, gloved finger out the high arched window toward the distant, blinding beam piercing the sky.
"Don't you see?"
"Cassian is doing this on purpose!"
"He only wants your attention!"
"He wants to stop our wedding!"
Lucien stopped. He slowly turned his head to look at her.
His blue eyes, usually so calm and guarded, were filled with something Ruby had never seen in him before.
Pure, unadulterated fear.
"If that is truly what he wants..."
Lucien said, his voice shaking with a fragile, hollow edge.
"...then I will still go."
He gently but firmly placed his fingers over hers, removing her grip from his sleeve.
"Because that light is far too strange. And if there is even the smallest chance that something terrible has happened to him..."
He swallowed painfully, his throat burning dry.
"...I will never forgive myself if I don't go."
Just then a bitter, faint smile crossed his pale lips.
"After all....I am the fool who always comes running whenever he calls."
Without waiting for another word from her...
Lucien spun around and sprinted across the stone courtyard. He reached the stables in seconds, cutting the tether of his heavy warhorse and leaping onto its saddle in one smooth motion.
"Hyah!"
The white stallion screamed and burst through the castle gates like an arrow released from a bow.
Rain poured down from the pitch-black sky. Within seconds, Lucien's formal white wedding shirt clung tightly to his chest. His neck-length silver-white hair stuck to his cheeks and forehead, and cold water blurred his vision.
Yet he never slowed down.
His eyes remained fixed on the fading violet pillar stretching into the dark heavens.
With every passing minute, the light was growing weaker.
Little by little...
it dissolved into the heavy storm clouds, leaving behind only the dull gray sky.
"No..."
Lucien's breathing became uneven, his lungs burning with icy air.
"Please..."
"Please don't disappear..."
He dug his heels harder into the horse's flanks. The exhausted animal let out a strained cry, but it obeyed its master. It ran until its breathing became ragged and shallow.
Until white foam gathered around its bit.
Until thin streams of blood seeped from its split hooves against the sharp road stones.
Still...
Lucien urged it forward without mercy.
Hours vanished into the storm. Mountains became dark shadows in the mist. Great oak forests became meaningless blurs.
Nothing mattered.
Nothing...
except reaching him.
"Please..."
Lucien whispered again, his words swallowed by the roaring wind.
"...wait for me."
"Just this once..."
"...please wait."
By the time the high gray walls of the Imperial Capital finally appeared through the downpour...
the horse could go no farther.
Its front legs suddenly buckled beneath its weight. It collapsed hard onto the muddy, rain-slicked road.
Lucien was thrown violently forward over the reins. He rolled several times across the jagged stones before crashing shoulder-first into the muddy embankment at the roadside.
A dull pain exploded through his arm and back.
He completely ignored it.
He forced himself upright, dragging his body out of the mud. His knees shook violently. Blood trickled down from a deep cut near his hairline, mixing with the cold rainwater on his cheek. His left shoulder burned with every movement.
Still...
he ran.
Every breath tore through his chest like dry paper. Every step felt heavier than the last, his heavy boots caked in thick gray clay.
But he refused to stop.
Not now.
Not when Cassian might still be waiting for him inside those palace walls.
The outer palace guards froze in complete shock.
Before them stood the grand groom of House Arden. His formal wedding clothes were completely soaked with rain. Covered in black mud. Covered in fresh red blood.
He looked completely mad.
"Sir Arden!"
"You cannot enter without—"
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!"
Lucien's raw roar echoed off the high marble pillars of the outer gates.
The guards instinctively stepped back, their hands slipping from their sword hilts. None of them had ever heard the calm, soft-spoken Holy Knight scream like a wild beast before except for when he's on the battlefield.
He charged past them into the grand foyer.
He took the grand stairs four steps at a time. Five. Six.
His frantic, wet footsteps echoed loudly through the silent, empty palace halls.
"CASSIAN!!"
His voice cracked, echoing off the high ceilings.
"CASSIAN!!"
No answer came. Only the low whistle of the wind through the tall arched windows.
He threw open the heavy doors to the Crown Prince's private study.
The room was completely empty. Everything had already been swept, cleaned, and set back into place. Only the faint, metallic smell of burned mana lingered heavy in the quiet air.
His heart sank straight into his stomach.
"No..."
He turned and ran again. Straight toward the private inner bedchambers.
The heavy oak doors stood slightly open, a dark gap leading into the silent room.
His shaking hand pushed them wider.
"Cassian..."
His voice had become barely a whisper, thin and broken.
"...please."
The room was completely silent. The long velvet curtains drifted softly in the cool evening breeze blowing in from the open balcony.
Then...
he saw him.
"Cassian!"
Lucien rushed across the room, his muddy boots slipping slightly on the polished floorboards.
The prince lay perfectly still upon the dark marble floor near the center of the chamber. The dried, dark red remains of an enormous magic array surrounded his body. Its intricate, ancient lines had been drawn entirely with blood. The ancient artifacts placed around its perimeter had already burned away, leaving behind only small piles of fine gray ash.
Lucien immediately dropped to his knees beside him.
"Cassian..."
He gently lifted the prince's upper body into his arms, pulling him tightly against his chest.
The body was still warm.
His heart...
it was still beating in a slow, faint rhythm against his ribs.
A wave of overwhelming relief flooded Lucien's entire chest.
"You idiot..."
Lucien laughed weakly through a sudden burst of tears, resting his forehead against Cassian's cool temple.
"You're alive..."
"I knew you wouldn't leave me..."
He carefully lifted Cassian in his arms, carried him over to the grand bed, and laid him down against the soft silk sheets. He pulled the heavy fur blankets around the prince's shoulders with trembling hands.
Then...
he noticed.
Cassian never moved.
Not even once.
His chest rose and fell in a slow, unnatural pattern, but there was no other movement. No small breath against Lucien's cheek. No subtle twitch of his fingers. No quiet voice calling his name.
"Cassian?"
Lucien gently shook his shoulder.
Nothing.
He shook him a little harder, his heart beginning to hammer wildly again.
"Cassian..."
Still nothing. The prince's long dark lashes rested quietly against his pale cheeks, motionless.
Fear returned, colder and sharper than before.
"No..."
Lucien's breathing became frantic.
"No..."
He leaned over the bed, grabbing both of Cassian's shoulders in his hands.
"CASSIAN!"
"Wake up!"
"Please!"
"You've scared me enough!"
"Wake up!"
Nothing. Not a single blink. Not a single sound.
Lucien's hands slipped from the prince's shoulders. He slowly slid down the side of the bed until his knees struck the cold floor with a dull thud.
His shaking fingers wandered across the dried blood inside the magic circle on the floor.
The lines were still warm to the touch... yet the magic inside them felt completely empty and drained.
"No..."
"...no..."
A quiet, shuddering sob echoed from the dark corner of the room.
Lucien turned his head sharply.
Elias stood near the balcony window, hidden partly by the heavy drapes. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot from crying. A wet cloth rested uselessly in his trembling hands.
Lucien scrambled across the floor, dragging himself up by gripping the edge of the curtain, and seized Elias by both shoulders.
"What happened?!"
His voice shattered completely into a raw cry.
"Elias!"
"What happened to him?!"
Elias looked at him with empty, lifeless eyes. Then he quietly answered.
"...His consciousness is gone."
Lucien stopped breathing entirely.
"He crossed into another world,"
Elias continued, his voice trembling violently.
"His body remains asleep, but his mind... his spirit... has left this world behind."
Elias looked down at Lucien's mud-stained face.
"...You came too late."
Lucien stared blankly into the attendant's face.
His mind suddenly remembered every conversation they had ever shared.
Every strange, quiet promise Cassian had made.
Every ancient relic he had secretly gathered.
Every single time Cassian had looked at him with those sad, deep eyes and spoken about returning home.
"No..."
Lucien shook his head slowly.
"No..."
"We promised..."
"We promised we'd leave together..."
"He still had two months..."
"He promised me..."
His voice completely broke. Tears finally burst from his eyes, hot and fast down his pale face.
"He promised me..."
He buried his wet face against Elias' shoulder, his body shaking with hard, uncontrolled sobs.
"How could he leave without me?"
"Didn't..."
"...didn't I matter at all?"
Elias slowly closed his eyes, fresh tears spilling over his own cheeks.
"It is all your fault..."
Elias whispered softly.
Lucien froze instantly. The room seemed to plunge into an icy silence.
"What?"
"His Highness wrote to you,"
Elias said, his voice cracking with deep bitterness.
"He waited."
"For every hour in seven days."
"He stopped eating."
"He stopped sleeping."
"Because he waited by that window every single day, with hopes that you would eventually respond to him."
"But when your reply finally came..."
Elias' voice broke completely.
"...it destroyed him."
Lucien slowly stepped backward, his hands falling away from Elias' tunic. His face turned completely white, drained of every drop of color.
"...Reply?"
"What reply?"
"I never wrote a letter for Cassian, let alone receiving one from him."
Lucien gasped out, his chest heaving.
"I am the one who waited for seven days for his word, but it never came!"
Silence heavy as lead settled over the bedchamber.
Elias slowly raised his hand and pointed a finger toward the wooden desk near the balcony.
Lucien turned and walked over. Every single step felt heavier than the last, as if he were dragging iron weights behind him.
Upon the desk lay the reconstructed fragments of a letter, carefully pieced together.
Lucien leaned over and read the lines.
Once.
Then again.
His hands began shaking so violently that he had to grip the edge of the wood to keep from falling.
"I..."
His voice completely disappeared.
"I never wrote this."
His breathing became uneven and ragged.
"I swear..."
"I never wrote any of this."
"I never saw Cassian's letter."
He looked back over his shoulder toward the sleeping prince on the bed, his blue eyes wide with horror.
"...And..."
"He was carrying my child?"
"I didn't know..."
Elias stared at him in utter disbelief, his jaw dropping slightly.
"...You–..."
"You didn't know?"
Lucien shook his head frantically, his pale hair flying across his face.
"I swear on everything I have..."
"I didn't."
Elias slowly sat down on the chair behind him. His legs simply gave way beneath his weight.
"...Then..."
"...the letter..."
"...was fake?"
The room became deathly quiet.
Lucien clutched his head with both hands, his fingers tangling tightly into his silver hair.
Everything suddenly fit together into a nightmare.
The missing week.
The Emperor's sudden confinement order.
Ruby.
His eyes widened into dark slits.
"...Ruby."
His voice was barely audible, thick with realization.
"It was Ruby."
"She copied my handwriting..."
"She stole Cassian's letter and hid it from me..."
"And she sent this instead, posing as me."
His knees finally gave out entirely. He collapsed hard onto the marble floor.
A long, broken sob escaped his throat.
"Oh God..."
"What have I done..."
He raised his fist and struck the hard floor beneath him.
*THUD!*
*THUD!*
"I failed him..."
"I failed him..."
"I left him alone..."
Elias covered his face with both hands, weeping bitterly.
"He believed you hated him."
"He sat by that window for seven days."
"He looked toward the palace gates every single hour."
"He kept saying..."
"'Lucien will come.'"
"'Lucien promised me.'"
Another heavy sob escaped the butler's lips.
"But when this letter arrived..."
"He broke."
"He destroyed his own room."
"He cried until he couldn't even speak anymore."
"He kept saying..."
"'This world was never mine.'"
"'I don't belong here.'"
Lucien slowly turned his head back toward the faded magic circle on the floor.
The ash.
The dried blood.
The empty center.
His entire world had disappeared from that very spot.
He slowly crawled forward on his hands and knees until he reached the edge of the circle.
His shaking fingers gently brushed the cold gray ashes scattered across the marble.
His broad shoulders trembled violently.
Tears quietly fell from his eyes, splashing onto the stained floorboards.
For a long, agonizing time...
he said nothing.
Finally...
his lips moved.
"...Then I'll come to you."
His voice was very quiet now.
Almost completely devoid of life.
"I don't care how many worlds exist."
"I don't care how many years it takes."
He slowly closed his hand, gathering a handful of the gray ash tightly inside his palm.
His silver eyes no longer held tears.
Only absolute, unyielding resolve.
"I will find you, Cassian."
"And this time..."
"...I will never let you go again."
*****