The surprise on Jazz’s face when she realized Eclis was watching her was a treat. It gave him great delight to hear her heart once again beat fast. “Shall we… Pardon?” Her speech was still breathless. Eclis had spent a better part of his life hating the numerous effects his kind had on humans, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate her reactions to him.

“On showing me this novel of yours. Or do you want to wait for another day.” Eclis’ entire body felt both electrified and sedated after feeding. The blood given through a contract was powerful and its strength only increased with the strength of their bond. Due to her love for him the blood she gave completely satiated him, banishing the gnawing, mind breaking hunger he experienced in the prison like it were a distant memory.

“Right. Yeah. Let’s do that then…” Jazz seemed to be slowly recollecting herself. He could hear her body beginning to calm down once again. The scent of her arousal was a tantalizing temptation, but he’d restrained himself. Now that she’d confirmed she was attempting to push him away he knew just how important it would be that he take things slowly.

“The process will take some time and it requires me to hold you. Is that ok?” Jazz’s heart had finally stilled, only a slight flush reminded him of the thing they’d just shared.

“Yep. You have to do your… Mind thing again right?” He chuckled.

“Yes, the red mind thing as you so put it. It’s a form of telepathy, though this will require the use of the elder language.” He considered her for a moment. “Why don’t you speak the spell?”

Jazz looked at him confused. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know what the difference is between speaking normally in that language and speaking a spell. Michael refuses to talk about it until he solves the mana issue and I become his official apprentice.”

“There isn’t one. All you need to do is say you grant me access to your memories in the language and that command will be enacted.” She looked at him warily. Was she now having second thoughts trusting him?

“So, there’s no way I’ll ever be able to speak it here? We can’t just have a conversation in it?” Eclis smiled. No. it would appear that wasn’t the case. The tension he hadn’t realized had built up over that thought disappeared.

“No. It is not a language you can use casually.” After a moment, she repeated his words in Elder granting him access to her memories. Eclis turned to face her again, placing his hands gently on both sides of her face. His eyes glowed and their minds connected, except this time every barrier that would prevent him from seeing and doing everything he pleased was gone.

The urge to see everything about her took him but he restrained himself. He planned on having all the time in the world to get to know her. He summoned her memories of the novel. Every word flashing through his mind as he read it through her eyes. There were moments in time where he’d stop to watch a memory of hers play out in full. Her gushing to her friend about a scene in the story. Her talking about her predictions on what would happen, or what she thought he was thinking in a particular scene. With their minds connected like this, Jazz could see which memories Eclis was watching. After a moment she began to struggle, clearly not wanting him to see her inner thoughts about him.

Reluctantly, he moved on. As he watched the novel play out many things stuck out at him. Most importantly, the fixation Donner had for him. Even after giving up his succession rights, Donner often summoned him for the most mundane things. Throughout the entire novel Eclis watched himself grow more and more desperate, losing everything he cared about yet Donner never let him go. Even Julia was thrust upon him by Donners command. After the hour it took to read through all of Jazz’s memories, Eclis ended with far more questions than he had answers. Julia’s limited world view had meant many of the important events that lead up to the wars, as well as the political strife within the capital were just background noise to her mundane adventure. It left a lot to the imagination.

Having your memories read was like taking a back seat in your own mind. You watch each piece brought up and played out without any control over what was focused on. It didn’t help that Eclis seemed to sort through and understand things far faster than I could. A pounding headache was already beginning to form while I collected myself. It felt like burning hot nails were being raked through my scalp during the process.

“Are you ok?” When he reached to touch my cheek, I brushed him off. I hated being touched while I was in pain.

“I will be.” I inhaled slowly, trying to will away any unshed tears before they spilled. “So, what do you think?”

“This ‘romance’ novel of yours could be more accurately described as the story of the slow downfall of house Dumont. You weren’t joking about my madness. In fact, I can’t understand how you came to love me at all. You’ve only seen all of the worst sides of me.” Gingerly I touched my face while he spoke. Pins and needles were spreading throughout my body and my skin felt like paper; tight and frail. While I did this the light in the room dimmed. “Does that help? You should rest, we can talk about this later.” He got up to summon Maybella, but I caught his sleeve.

“No. No I’d rather have this conversation now. It hurts but I’d rather talk things out than stress about them until we do.” He sat back down.

“Then at least let me help.” When I didn’t move to block him again, he traced his fingers through my hair leaving behind a cooling sensation in their wake while he spoke.

“Can you explain just how you came to the conclusion that this story was anything other than a political murder?” The throbbing in my skull eased.

“What do you mean? It’s about Julia, she falls in love with you but you sort of push her away and-“

“She was never in love with me.” He dismissed the thought so carelessly, as if all her struggles were nothing to him.

“Yes, she was.” My eyebrows knit together. Did we read the same book or what?

“For one, my telepathy never worked on her. Even for one immune such as yourself, if you love the person, it nulls the effect as you’ve already experienced.”

“There must be-“ He cut me off, annoyed.

“Did it ever feel odd to you that the Emperor himself set us up together, that he would personally have tea with Julia to talk about our love life? An Emperor at the helm of an Empire locked in strife. On the verge of civil war while facing down an enemy that wants your entire people enslaved or eradicated?” My mouth opened and closed a couple times.

“Well, when you put it like that it’s a bit weird sounding, but It was a romance novel! You suspend disbelief when reading one. I just thought he was something like a cute fairy godfather.” When I was met with disbelief I continued, “Besides, he kept calling you like a son.”

“Yet the crown prince meant nothing too him?”

“A long-lost son?” I was feeling a lot less sure. It was true, Donner appeared to really ‘favor’ Eclis compared to the crown prince. In a lot of ways, the crown prince too was the under dog, his accomplishments were always met with rejection by Donner. It was one of the reasons why Julia initially began to open up too him.

“Jazz, its worrying to know you’d fall for such blatant lies.”

“There’s a huge difference between reading a book and reality, okay? Not everything made sense in it, but you want it too, so you look past that. Don’t tell me I’m stupid for wanting to believe in some fated love story between you and Julia ok? This was escapism for me. I wasn’t reading this story to critique the futility of the characters plights or find the plot holes. I just wanted to enjoy something.” My eyes flashed and the pain in my skull was forgotten. I was not going to be criticized for how I enjoyed my novels, warts and all. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. I hadn’t meant to yell at him. “Sorry… And just so you know, I do admit the ending was shit, ok? Absolutely unfair.” He was quiet for a time.

“Were you able to understand what spell I had used at the end?”

“The spell you cast with your ‘dying breath?’ No. You encoded it or whatever so of course I wouldn’t understand. It wasn’t in plain Eng-Elder.” Michael had expressly warned against ever speaking the name of my language here. I trusted Eclis with it, but when my mouth went to form the word, an unfamiliar energy filled me. Eclis was thoughtful for a long time before responding.

“I apologize. It was unfair of me to make judgements about you and your understanding of a book you didn’t believe was real.” When I looked at him, I could tell he was being sincere.

“And I apologize for yelling about it. It must’ve been an uncomfortable read for you, given that it was about your life from an outside perspective.”

“More than you know.” He looked grim, “I didn’t even recognize myself in that book. It was like watching yourself drunkenly stumbling through life doing everything you would regret but being unable to stop it.” His eyes softened when he looked at me, “What exactly did you see in me?”

Embarrassed, I broke eye contact. “I have a thing for dark hair?” I immediately regretted saying that, but there was just no way I could put into words what attracted me to his character in the book. I just… In the end I just really wanted him to be happy, but I couldn’t put that into words.

“Is that so? I’ll have to remember that when we arrive at the palace. No dark-haired men anywhere in sight.” When he began to snicker, I racked my brain for anything to change the subject too.

“I am curious about the last wish you had though. You sound like you’d recognized it, though it was gibberish to me.”

“Perhaps someday I’ll tell you.” He spoke softly, a hint of emotion in his voice that I couldn’t quite place. “You should go rest now though. You’re pale and I can hear your heart slowing down periodically.”

“Is it?” He stood and offered his elbow to escort me. Without it, I would’ve fallen back down.

“It appears I’ve done a number on you. I apologize, I should’ve-“

“Don’t apologize, honestly. This is fine and its not like we need to do that again… Right?” He smiled and shook his head. Maybella was standing exactly where we had left her in the hallway. I felt bad. I should’ve thought to give her a task or dismissed her. Eclis left me in my parlor while Misa drew a bath. They had to be extra careful bathing me, and I needed their help getting in and out of it. Thankfully, sleep came easily that night.

The remaining days left before we went to the palace slipped past me. Before I knew it, the day was upon us and I was trapped amidst a storm of activity. Misa and Maybella spent the better part of the morning working on my hair and makeup and this was after we had spent days figuring out exactly what style I was to wear. The trend at the capital was to have your hair in a complete up do. Not a strand was left loose. Your neck would grow tired under all the hair pieces they’d fit into it as well. I was willing to meet them halfway. I wore my hair in a half updo, with the top part of my head beautifully braided and woven into it was flowers from the wild garden and various purple gemstones, including a larger purple butterfly that sat on the left side of my head.

The dress I wore symbolized the colours of house Dumont, black of starry tiger and purple from the Pegasus. Little diamonds representing the stars on the tiger was interwoven throughout. It had a gradient effect, with a royal purple bodice that gradually turned darker as your eyes trailed down its skirts. Ethan had toiled and practically pulled his hair out to make the colours of the Dumont house work in comparison to my golden hair and emerald eyes. He had used silks woven with magic threads inside giving it a lustrous shimmer that turned multiple shades of purple as it caught the light. At the bottom of the dress was where the gems were thickest to offset the darkness of the fabric. The skirt itself also didn’t plume out as wide as what was in fashion right now, instead it flowed gracefully with my movements allowing the fabric the best opportunity to play with the light. As the time drew near, my anxiety over my choices began to grow.

I met with Eclis at the palace doors, being escorted by Alphonse who couldn’t help but shower me with compliments. Wordlessly, Eclis dropped to one knee, kissing my gloved hand before escorting me to the carriage. Both Heinrick and Richard were joining us. I sat beside Eclis, while they tolerated each others company on the other side. Fortunately, I wasn’t someone to get anxious about something until the second before it was happening. Now, cold sweat was beading through my makeup and my heart was pounding erratically.

Noticing my condition, Richard was trying to subtly comfort me without bringing attention to how nervous I actually was. Heinrick on the other hand had no qualms teasing me when he finally noticed.

“Ok but like. Everyone is going to be looking at me.” Queasiness was making the carriage ride uncomfortable.

“You’re beautiful so you have nothing to worry about Madam.” Richard spoke as if beauty was the only thing I’d ever need to be concerned about. It took every ounce of will power to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

“Don’t worry lass. All you have to do is not fall. If you do it’ll be the talk of the empire for centuries to come.” Heinrick gave me a toothy grin just begging to be punched. I glared right back at him and tried in vain not to think about every opportunity I would have to fall tonight.

“You won’t fall. Don’t listen to him.” Eclis draped his arm around me squeezing me closer to him, “I’ll catch you before you do.” I gave him an equally poignant glare.

“Gee, thanks. Your word of confidence fills me with great joy.” My dry voice caused a crack in his mask, and I caught a glimpse of a smile. It would be a while before I got a chance to see it again. “Are we going to be using this carriage all the way to the castle?”

“Yes. Once we’re through the teleporter Heinrick and Richard will be riding in front and behind our carriage.” Eclis answered, his voice returning to that of indifference. It was less hostile feeling than the day we ‘practiced’ and I found it a little easier to deal with.

“Ahh I see.” All thoughts about falling were gone, completely replaced by the fact that Eclis’ arm was still wrapped around me.

“The portal is about to activate.” The carriage drew to a stop and that familiar sense of being upside down and inside out hit me. Inside the carriage nothing looked amiss, but when I looked out the window, we were no longer on a groomed white gravel road amidst fragrant gardens. Instead, a worn cobbled road, wet from a recent rain had replaced it. On either side were rolling hills of farmland, cut up into different crops in different uneven shapes. The sun was high in the sky at mid afternoon. The entire road was closed off by armed knights of house Dumont mixed in with knights clad in white and gold armour.

“Heinrick, are those the Imperial knights then?” He leaned forward to take a look.

“Yes, though you should start addressing me as Sir Heinrick from now on. We won’t be training while we’re here lass.” He and Richard exited the carriage. Before the door opened, Eclis loosened his grip on my shoulder but didn’t drop his arm. It didn’t matter though, once Heinrick and Richards seats were vacant I moved to the other side.