The King Trials 2: Beyond.

“Here you are.”

Greer hands me the gemstone that has been made into a necklace with a leather chain, and the pendant is the soul of the seven seas entwined with thin leather ropes. The clasp is metal. She aids me and puts it on. The tail of my plait cascades on my shoulder. Now it shares the throne of my chest with the gilded eagle that Burg gifted me.

“It is perfect.”

She nods and smiles bashfully.

Hesitantly, I open my arms to her and envelop her in a hug. “Thank you. For everything.” She stands rigid for a moment before she relaxes and hugs me back.

We draw apart.

She adjusts the fur shawl draped on the shoulders of my brocade, long coat. “It was no trouble; I did for you what I would have done for any of my betters. I wish you safe travels and I wish for you, peace.”

Greer and I vacate the bedchambers and we journey to the Gatehouse. When we arrive, our convoy is all set with belongings collected, bridled horses for the Hitsches and the squadron, and the carousine for the rest of us.

After a brief interval of waiting. We are all assembled, the Avangard and the Hitsches mounted on their horses in rows behind the carousine. Only the Adons came to see us off. The Herems and I file inside, shuffling into the carousine. I claim a seat at the rear, sitting in the middle.

Shortly, Vince settles beside and a part of me still expects Solaris to take my other side, my right side. My hand lifts to hold on to the gemstone, round and smooth in my grasp, drawing morsels of comfort.

“You know,” Vince begins.

“Solaris may have despised my very breaths, but I respected him. He was strong in a fight and good-natured in spirit. My esteem came from worming my way into highborn’s lives, but Solaris drew them in with his mere presence, many flocked to him, enticed by his authentic appeal.”

Vince looks down and cracks his knuckles one by one, each crunch a jarring sound.

Duce Merian climbs in last, and the door shuts behind him.

“My only regret is that I did not have the time to prove to him that I am not the villain he thought me to be.”

I have nothing to say. Solaris truly reviled his very being.

The carousine snaps forward, rolling onwards.

He catches my gaze. “How are you faring? You two become quite close.”

How am I faring? Though I am in possession of my thigh holsters and scabbards. Kelan confiscated both of my daggers. That says it all. Truth be told, I do not know how I am feeling. Numb, I suppose. Merely disconnected from my emotions, from the world itself it is like my spirit has left my body and it roams near me but still away from me. Not yet… grounded.

And I lack the will to be. Reality is like a throned object that I dare not touch.

“Well, Solaris and I knew each other before… brief encounters, but they were many, each unforgettable.”

A pang of nostalgia wards off a wistful smile.

“Tell me about that,” he says gently. “Tell me about the day you first met.”

I pause for a moment, then that forlorn hiatus prolongs into an unpleasant interlude, tense-ridden.

“I know it may seem painful to speak his name and reminisce about what was and what could have been, but talking about it, releasing that pain is the first step to healing.” He places a delicate hand on my knee, his thumb strokes the black leather. “There is an Emikrollian proverb that says: Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.”

He leans closer. “His death was not the end of his life, but a start of a new one. He has transcended beyond this plain. Where he is, in the feasting hall of Ephraim or within the golden gates of heaven. He has everlasting peace.”

I give him a long, appraising look. “Do you want to hear the short story or the full version?”

He blinds with a dazzling smile. His hand slides off me and he slants to the side to rest against the headboard with his elbow propped up, the side of his face in his palm.

“Full experience.”