Myth And Alcaster Drabble!!

051 - Games

For some reason people were always set to compare people in their plans to chess pawns. Myth knew that kind of thinking -had followed it at some point- but had in the end abandoned it. Real life situations were way more complicated than games.

More important as well and way harder to control. You couldn’t just restart, put pawns back on the board or undo a turn. The rules changed as the persons involved changed. Left the pattern, joined it, changed their views or what they wanted.

Chess didn’t fit it. Chess had only two players controlling a set of figurines without a free will, following an unchanging set of rules. Real life was… variable. Even know there were at least four sites to the situation. Whoever had the princess, the king and his loyal followers, Alcaster and his coup, himself and his allegiance to the late queen and maybe even the Lucis bearer and her allies. And there was also the unpredictability of people meeting at random and forming alliances.

No, these things really weren’t like common games. It didn’t even exist a clear win or lose. There was still the possibility of things turning south and him being able to slip away unfollowed, like after the rebellion. Not losing, but not winning either. The chance for another try.

He would see what the future would bring.

How would myth react to being in a love and having a love rival.

Well, here is what I came up with.

Was kind of tricky to work out and hope it isn’t too far fetched.

He ran intoher by accident. Even a year after her disappearance there were stillpossessions of his queen in the palace he had hidden away and sneaked into moresecure hiding places whenever he had the chance.

Like in thisnight, when he was moving the stash of magical books to somewhere else.

The librarywas dark when he had retrieved the first books and it was still dark when hecame back for more, dawn just dusting the horizon.

But now therewas someone else in the library as well. Stepping back into the darkest shadowshe slipped to the stash, made sure it was safely hidden and then went toinvestigate.

It was ayoung woman, not older than himself, taking books from the shelves and puttingthem onto a cart. Myth didn’t know her. The rebellion of the traitor had gottensome personal replaced due to ‘questionable actions’ under the reign of thequeen.

It was thesame reason why the former advisor had been let go, allowing him to slip intothe court.

It seemedthis woman was new as well.

Auburn hairframed a light skinned face with dark eyes. From the clothes she was wearingshe was either higher middle-class or lower high-class. Well, this wasn’t hisproblem. He barely interacted with the staff at all in anyway.

Myth saw heragain, when he was forced to consult the royal library for a dictionary  to better translate a contract he was tryingto make sense off.

She waschattering with a maid, passing by the shelf he was looking over and -when helooked over to identify the noise makers- she gave him a cheerful wave. Forcinghimself to stay in character of his new personality, he nodded back and thenscratched that meeting from his mind.

Then he runinto her for real.

For somereason the king was permanently shoving more work his way. On one hand, it wasa clear sign of being trusted. On the other hand, the man was most likelysimply trying to get out of tiresome and boring paperwork, now that his queenwasn’t terrifying people into respecting contracts anymore.

Myth roundedthe corner of a hallway and smashed into someone, paperwork sent flying.

They wereboth apologetic about the meeting, she embarrassed and he just done with theday, both collecting their own work which had scattered over the hallway andgoing their way.

An hour laterhe needed to hunt her down, because he was missing some sheets.

Her name, itturned out, was Elena. She had lived outside the capital in a town not far awayuntil the Great War ended and she had come to the capital looking for work,getting hired as a library.

She wascheerful, open and always up for making new friends. And she seemed to deemevery new person she talked to a friend.

Him included.

After thepaperwork incident -and yes, she did hold onto the sheets, because she didn’tknow if she could simply hand them off to another servant, proving the abilityof thinking sensible thoughts- she seemed set greet him every time they crossedways.

In thehallways, when she passed by his office, when he was forced to look somethingup in the library, it didn’t seem to matter to her.

The onlyreason why Myth didn’t leash out on her, was her ability to see when she wasinterrupting something and letting it be, leaving him alone to work through it.It was… kind of nice.

It took a fewmonths before he got a better grip on what she was like. How she was a bit shyaround strangers with no one around she knew and always willing to approach newpeople as long as she had a friend around. She didn’t like people mistreatingbooks -even had a slight temper there- and loved reading.

Myth foundhimself even slightly enjoying her company, it was way less offending than thetraitor had ever been, if only because she could stay quiet.

It took sometime for Myth admit to himself that he enjoyed Elena’s company. She was-everything considered- way less complicated than most women he had been forcedto interact with.

He likedbeing around her. He could make comments about books she understood, even makea bit of fun about how ridiculous some of the poetry books were, with theirperception of love and how it made everything just better and how marryingsolved every problem.

Then he foundhimself looking at books he had read some time ago and wondered if she wouldlike them. Was it something she may have read already? Something she would findinteresting? Or something she would put aside as boring?

Why did heeven care? His focus should be somewhere else completely, on securing andstabilizing the kingdom, so his queen would have everything she needed upon herreturn.

Why did hecare?

He… couldn’tanswer it.

Myth foundhimself thinking more about that question while living his days in hisdisguise. And then decided to just let it go.

He was workingon keeping the kingdom secured and he needed to wait a few more years for hisqueen to be released anyway.

As it was, heentered the library and found Elena joking with a young man.

She quicklyintroduced them. He was a young noble, visiting the castle and introducedhimself as Richard, complimenting him on achieving the position he had at hisage. Myth kept the conversation light and curious about the reasons about theman’s visit.

Richard was,as it turned out, visiting on behalf of his family, and had asked and receivedthe allowance to use the royal library for it.

Myth let itgot and went his way.

For somereason it bothered him that Richard was there, spending time with Elena.

And for somereason it bothered him that she was looking at him like- …like what?

When histhoughts caught up with him, Myth stilled. Why did he care that these two werespending time together? It was, all things considered, none of his business. Hehad way to much work to do anyway to play babysitter for two adults.

So why did itkeep bothering him?

He keptpondering that thought, trying to sort out his own mind.

The firstthing he really noted was, that he felt unnaturally happy and relaxed aroundher.

The nextthing was that -for some reason- he really liked her smiling at him.

And the lastfact was that for some reason he really couldn’t stand that man.

What the hellwas wrong with his mind? He would need to ponder that more…

Days blurredinto weeks and Myth found himself… strangely stressed.

He visitedthe library on occasion, always finding them in either blissful silence (hestayed a bit if that was the case) or in animated discussion (he left).

In a way hefelt… angry. He wasn’t sure at what. Like someone had intruded on somethingthat was his. Which wasridiculous. He had no reason to claim ownership to anything of the library.

Days passed,his mood riding and falling, him grumbling under his breath and the kinghearing and commenting -sounding way too amused- if he was jealous.

The commentmade something inside him freeze.

He thoughtabout it, when he was alone.

Was hejealous? He disliked Richard, disliked how he spent his time with Elena,disliked how she looked at the man, but not him-!

…was he…attached? Did he… like her?

More timepassed and Myth pondered this new revelation, remembering how comfortable hefelt around her.

…maybe heshould… do something about it?

The smallgifts were easy enough to come by.

Nothing too expensive,no reason to get intrusive or pushy. Richard did not seem to appreciate the newattention on Elena, glaring at him when she wasn’t looking.

He justraised a brow at the man, daring him to make a scene.

It still wentdownhill in the end.

He didpretend to be someone else, after all.

It was aninnocent enough conversation up to the point where fairytales came up.

There wereinterpretations thrown around, obscure ones retold (there were no books aboutthem in the library) and at some point it went to the source of this gap.

“I heard thequeen burned the books. As if it would erase everything,” Elena sighted,putting a book away, “I mean, just burning a few books doesn’t erase thecontent. There are more copies after all.”

“What do youmean with erase everything?” Myth asked, morbidly curious.

“What witchesdid. I mean, the fairytales tell you all what happened and so many of them areso gruesome!” the young woman shuddered, “I mean, these things must have beenreally bad to get written down. I’m sure you could add a few recent ones fromthe war as well!”

“We couldcall it ‘Rise of the Fairies’!” Richard added laughing, “What do you think,Mythros?”

“I rememberthat there were a few witches as well in the uprising,” he said after a shortbout of silence, fighting down seething rage and boiling blood.

“Sure! Andthe witch queen and the fairy leader were friends once! Would give it quite thedramatic spin!” she laughed, “But then it would just be a story!”

It isn’t justa are story. The tales are just a story! There is nothing true about them-!

Myth feltsomething squirming inside him, heart hammering, he forced his body to relax.

“Have fundiscussing it,” he said, voice neutral, “I have paperwork to get through.”

Later in theday, in the privacy of his own home he raged.

It was thefollowing day that he passed the painting of his queen.

He stopped and turned to the portrait.

The queen was looking down on him, eyes cold,unyielding and judging.

What had he been thinking anyway? Itwasn’t like he had time to waste on something like that. He had way more important things to get done.

ScratchingElena from his mind, he turned away from the canvas and went his way. Shouldthe two, naive idiots have each other.

His loyalty was to the queen and no one else. No oneelse was important. No one else mattered.

Waltz: What's your problem?

Mythros: You. You are my problem.

15?

And here is another one.

015 - Emotionless

Beingemotionless would have been a blessing. It would make the whole thing so much easier!

But Mythwasn’t able to just kill off his emotions, his wants or his wishes. And so, hespent every single day since the rebellion seething on the inside, snarling atpeople celebrating about the queen’s death and cursing the traitor and the damnedfairy with every insult he could think off.

And laterfought back the desperation and depression pushing down at him, when he lookedat the sleeping face of his teacher. He couldn’t fail. He wouldn’t fail. But the fear of failure was gnawing at him, day andnight, every second he spent in his disguise.

Fear ate athim, anger boiled inside him, fury seemed to cloud his thoughts when his mindslipped away.

Being ridof these pesky feelings wasn’t possible. But it made the future of his queenreturning look so much sweeter, that it may even be worth it.

039 - Dreams

Dreams were an odd thing. Myth knew that. Just as he knew their unreliability.

They were things that had been, may have been and could be. Good and bad.

Myth liked to think that his wishes shown during pleasant dreams would come true. Just as he wished that the bad things would disappear from the surface of the world and take their pyres, gallows, blades and blunt weapons with them together with the screams and phantom smell of blood, sometimes creeping out of his nightmares into his awakened state.

Even if he wished for good things for himself, he wasn’t sure that he wanted them, if he would ever need to relive these kinds of dreams for it.

These could stay dreams and never come back to reality.

71 - Obsession :)

071 - Obsession

The crystal was slightly glowing, just like always. His queen was safely enclosed, sleeping like she had for the last months. Months he had spent busy to assure the success of the task she had given him

There was no way, he was going to fail. Failure wasn’t tolerated. He was the only apprentice now. The loyal one. He would work on freeing her and succed and she would praise him, acknowledge that he was the better student.

His loyalty would be rewarded. Him fulfilling his task would be reward. These rewards was all he wanted. Only serving his Queen was important.

can we have 028?

Enjoy. ^__^

028 - Anguish

The worldwas unfair. Myth had known that since the Hunts. This was simply the worldtaking it a bit further.

How couldthe traitor dare?!

As it was,there was nothing, Myth could do. Nothing outside of staring at the crystal encasedform. Wondering about her status was maddening. Was she sleeping? Aware of hersurroundings, unable to move or make herself known? Was she in pain? Did sheeven notice that time passed?

Having theonly person willing to support him was maddening!He still could remember her last words, promising sweet rewards for hisloyalty, but until then-

The fear of being found. The traitor returning,finding the cure to his curse. The traitor finding him, killing him for realthis time.

The pain uponlosing to him during the rebellion had been real, physical. Knowing that he couldstill turn back up while he was bound protecting the queen-!

It gnawed athim. Kept him awake. And while the wounds healed, there was still the dangerand the worry and nothing he could do outside of waiting and preparation.

It drovehim mad. But there was nothing he could do to stop this anguish.

010? Honestly I can’t choose, I love them all

And here is it. ^__^

010. Breathe Again

Being ableto breath normally again… nice. Myth could still recall the feeling of wantingto breath, trying to breath, but beingunable to, restricted by ropes too tight, cutting into the skin of his throatand almost completely blocking his airpipe.

Stupid Hunters.Stupid humans! They should all justgo and die!

The boyglanced down, checking the surroundings. The forest was empty and quiet. Climbingup here had been difficult, still dizzy from the long lack of air, but it hadbeen worth it. People rarely looked up, even when looking for someone. Andthere were no fruit trees anywhere near where he was, so there wasn’t even areason why someone would be looking up in this area anyway.

Jumpingback to the ground, the boy started moving away from the settlement. Now thathe was outed as a witch in this area as well, it was better to get the hell outof the area, before they decided to pick the search up again. He would need tojump a few settlements, to make sure, no one recognized him, but that wasn’tthe first time and he had enough experience with that already.

Keeping an eyeout, he pondered why so many deaths the humans inflicted on them had to do withbreathing. Gallows, if used wrongly, choked you. The fires may choke you beforethe burns kill you. Sometimes they drowned the witches, nothing to clean upwith them being dust and no wasting of resources either.

Maybe theydid that, because there wasn’t any blood to cause a mess then. Shrugging, he madesure to keep a steady pace. No reason to let these bastards catch him again. Hehad gotten lucky this time. He couldn’t count on always being able to take abreath again in the morning air of the day after the one when he got caught.

108 - Moonlight

The moonlight remembered Myth of the Crystallum temporarily under his care. It was silverfish white, not blinding and -like the Crystallum at the moment- only shining in the dark.

And just like the moon was mirrored by the sun with its warm golden light, the Tenebrarum was mirrored by the Lucis, radiating warmth were the witch crystal was always emitting cold.

Myth could still remember the fight between the bearers back then (an occasion where he hadn’t tried his luck and got away to a safe distance to not become collateral damage), as both temperatures had dipped into the uncomfortable to deadly extreme and clashed, the golden glow almost racing after him, as he had lunged around a corner.

It had been a good decision, for he had needed to get his queen to safety soon after.

This whole incident was also the reason why he preferred the moonlight over the sunlight. It was much easier to enjoy the light with the colour that hadn’t almost burned him out of his life back then. Even if the other party thought so.

My happiness about this blog existence is too big. So can you maybe write a Drabble about Myth’s first weeks in Hildyr’s training? How was he adjusting to this new life and all that? If it’s ok for you.

I live to write! ^___^

I hope this is along the line of what you wished for. (I may have escalated it a bit towards the end…)

“This will be yours.”

The door was closed now and Myth was alone in the roomthe queen had just assigned him.

‘Yours’ she had said. His. This was his.

This whole room.

A whole room for himself after years of running andhiding and fearing the cold of the night and used to the pain of hunger.

Hesitating for a moment, he stepped further into theroom, the wood of the floor not even creaking under his weight.

Clothes had been the first thing provided by thequeen, upon deciding he was worth some of her time. A street child had no placefollowing the queen around.

Standing in the middle of the room didn’t makeanything disappear. In a strange way it made everything more surreal and realat the same time.

Smooth, painted walls and a window. A drawer and acupboard. A nightstand and a bed.

Drawer and cupboard proved to be empty, but what wouldhave been in there? He hadn’t brought anything with him.

The sight from the window was met with darkness.Whatever was on the other side, it was too dark outside to see at the moment.

The bed was real. Soft and warm and utterly heavenly.

Exhaustion, mixed with the surreal new situation hewas in soon enough swirled together into the dreams he would never remember.

Myth wasn’t trusting this new routine quite yet.

He got up in the morning, got a meal, started on hislessons and worked on them until either he was finished or night arrived, onlyinterrupted by another meal in the evening.

It was strange to not need to worry about thingsanymore. It was… nice. A sense of security had severely missed and mournedwhen his childhood home had turned to ashes.

There was food, there was warm clothing and rain andcold weren’t a problem anymore, because he was inside heated, dry rooms duringhis studies.

He didn’t trust this peace. People didn’t just sweepin and took in orphans. It just didn’t happen!

Not that he dared to voice that thought. Especiallynot to the person, who had rescued him. No reason to bite the hand that fed him-in this case literally!

He was here, because the queen wanted it, learned fromher, because she wished so.

He needed to figure out why.

There was another apprentice, Waltz.

He was a bit younger than Myth, but had also been herefor a bit longer.

And the queen wasn’t teaching them together. For somereason it gnawed at Myth.

Why not? What was the reason? They couldn’t bedifferent in skill if she had decided to teach them both…

Myth found himself paying attention. Especially to howmuch time the queen spent on whom (her daughter taken out of the equation, shewas a blood relative, the princess rating higher than him in the queen’spriorities wasn’t surprising).

The queen spent… a lot more time on Waltz.

Why? He had watched the other boy and he wasn’t a goodstudent at all! Sure, he got the material quickly, but shirked the lessonswhenever possible!

Maybe she spent more time on him, because she knewthat as well…

Yes… that was it. Surely it was that.

But… why would she keep sucha troublesome student around?

There was pain flaring when he moved, the welts on hisback burning.

He should have known better than agreeing to do thatboy a favour! No one would know, he had said. Nothing would happen, Waltz had promised!

“I thought better of you… Butit seems, I need to remember you, who you’re owing your place… And how easilythat gift is taken away.”

The room was dark. Cold. Somewhere underground.Layered with something that kept magic just out of his reach.

No light. No warmth. No power. Hunger gnawing at him.Thirst burning in his throat.

How long had he been in here? How much time hadpassed? He wanted out, he felt so powerless and weak and he didn’t want to feellike that again -pleaseletmeout!Ogodthedarknessisdrowningme!Pleasepleaseplease!It'schokingme!IpromiseIwon'teverdoitagain!Pleaseletmeout!

He didn’t remember the darkness taking hisconsciousness away.

…

“Look at you, you learned yourlesson so well! Lets see, if you’re a good student after all.”

The words were somehow in his mind when he woke up. Asif someone had said them just before he woke up.

The whip marks on his back were bandaged, the softlight of the dawn was streaming inside the room through the window, a meal onthe nightstand next to the bed.

It took a few days for him to get over himself and askWaltz about what happened.

Nothing had happened to him.

Nothing had happened to him.

NoThINghaDhapPendtOhiM!

Myth found himself hating Waltz.

Waltz, who got his queen’s personal attention, despitehis disobedience.

The prodigy, who never took his lessons serious.

The one favourite, who never even got punished!

He deserved nothing!

Myth would prove it. He would get his queen to look athim. He just needed to make up for the first slight.

He would prove that he was worth it!

There were new scars on his back, now.

His thoughts were kind of hazy to grasp.

He remembered darkness…

Right, he had been studying by himself, topics notassigned by his teacher…

He hated Waltz.

He wouldn’t disobey his teacher again.

He was a good student.

Pain. Darkness.

He hated Waltz.

He wouldn’t question his queen.

He was a good student.

Pain. Darkness.

He hated Waltz.

His queen’s decisions were absolute andwithout fault.

He was a good student.

Pain. Darkness.

He hated Waltz.

His queen was perfect.

He was a good student.

Pain. Darkness.

He hated Waltz.

His queen was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

His queen was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

His queen was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

His queen was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

His queen was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

She was perfect.

Pain. Darkness.

She was perfect.

She was perfect.She was perfect.She was perfect.Shewas perfect.She was perfect.She was perfect.She was perfect.She was perfect.Shewas perfect.

Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.Shewasperfect.

He would give her everything.