As the night deepened and conversation was had, and even the Stygian King and his near limitless energy needed some reprieve. He found a moment to excuse himself from socializing, instead elected to enjoy his own company. He did not walk far from the ballroom to find a quiet balcony to gather his thoughts. The air in Talterra was not nearly as cool as it was in Iliad and even with winter approaching it did not do much to change that. Nevertheless he leaned against the balcony and looked down to the city below, still embroiled in celebration. He wondered if they enjoyed themselves more than the nobles did here high up in the castle. At the very least the authenticity must have been far more natural.

He rubbed his tired Akashic Eyes. As phenomenal as Antares was at events like these, there was only so much he could stomach as he looked into people's true nature and their souls and saw what they said never matching how they truly felt. There was a great exhaustion in that, the need for many to hide their true selves in fear of what others might believe. Often times these actions were done subconsciously a natural mask that all wore, it was nights like these he wished he was not cursed with the malediction. These eyes had only served to remind him of the pain he was constantly drowned in.

"You lasted far longer than I had expected."

He did not need to turn, hearing her voice was enough to soothe his aching wounds, "It may surprise you but even I have my limits." He ran a hand through his hair.

Faye smiled as she moved to stand next to him. The space between them a respectful distance, she too gazed out into the city below. She allowed the silence to linger, unsure of what to say to him as a thousand questions ran through her mind.

"I hope you took care not to scold your…son too much." The word was foreign on his tongue.

The Queen of Talterra huffed, "That boy is barely three and already has a mind of his own to do as he pleases. I always wonder where he learned such a thing from." She shook her head exasperated.

" Yes I wonder," Antares responded mockingly with a sly smile.

Freyja looked at him slightly annoyed, "Oh do not start with me Antares Xerxes. You may have forgotten but I remember what you were like when we were children too." She wagged her finger dismissively.

"I would dare not ever forget a single second spent with you."

The casual tone in which he said it as he held her gaze threatened to carry her back to her youth. For the cheerful look he had was one she had known for more than half her life. She hated him for still looking at her like that. Why did he have to look at her like that? With a kind of yearning that looked to swallow her whole. Ever since she had laid eyes on him, she did all she could to maintain her dignity and air of royalty. Yet with the simplest of gestures or words he could disarm her so thoroughly. Her heart ached for him and she had ignored the pulls of it, but now she found it difficult to deny her emotions; the way he made her feel.

Freyja looked into the city hoping to hide her face from him. "You cannot just say and do what you want like that without giving me some warning…"

He laughed at how easily he could fluster her, "I have been on my best behavior since I arrived. I even refrained from doing the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw you again." He nodded proud of himself for his restraint.

She stepped closer, "What was the first thing that crossed your mind when you saw me again?"

"To kiss you."

Another step, "Why didn't you?" she asked. It was an honest question.

Antares scoffed at it.

"I have already dealt with a near rebellion soon before I was made king. I do not think it would be easy to explain to the Elders or my council members that we are now at war with the entire south because I passionately kissed the Queen of Talterra upon seeing her again after so long."

"Passionately?" Faye repeated, enjoying the thought of it. "Am I not worth a couple wars at least?" it was now her turn to tease her old friend.

"More than that," he professed. "You are worth more than the very air that all of Aurum breathes, Freyja Stormborne."

Her lower lip quivered at the profound honesty in his words, but she forced herself to not linger on it for too long lest she embrace him and make her question the validity of that claim. Rather she focused on the topic of rebellion. She had meant to ask him how he was truly feeling about a great many things, one of those things being his own brother plotting his assassination. When she had heard the story she refused to believe it to be true. The little Daimion that she had known could not have been capable of such a violent plot, least of all not towards the elder brother he so desperately looked at as his hero just as Guinevere and Anastasia did too.

"Speaking of rebellion," she searched for the right words. "How are you feeling?"

Antares looked at her curiously, "I am alright, these things happen." There was an air of apathy to him as he spoke, as though he had practiced the words. "I am not the first to have been plotted against, nor will I be the last."

"Such a thing may be common for humans, but I know it to be rare for Stygians."

The Stygian King shrugged, choosing not to dwell on it. Freyja would not let him bury the feeling. Indifference was the hallmark of all Stygians, but she did not care about their culture when it came to him. She would not let him ignore the humanity he inherited from his mother.

"Faye truly it is fi-"

"It is not fine," she declared. Her storm-silver eyes, resolute in her conviction. "Your little brother–the boy who looked to you as an example to strive for–plotted with others to kill you. How do you feel?"

A burden reappeared on Antares' shoulders that he had done well to ignore for so long. The volatile sensation that simmered beneath slowly rose to the surface. He never once tried to acknowledge what his little brother had done, for he did not know how he would react to such a thing. He still recalled Daimion and Guinevere's birth, his twin siblings crying out as they were introduced to the world. All their lives he had done what he could to be there, to be the big brother Hyperion was to him, for them. So he could not understand how things had turned out so horribly wrong. Why Daimion had become the man that he was and hated him so. He so desperately wanted to blame himself for it, there had to have been something he did wrong. He scoured his memory for every mistake he could have made, every time he could have possibly failed Daimion, and every time his thoughts came back to his exile as the cause. Yet as he looked into Faye's eyes she would not let him put this sin on himself. In her eyes he was forced to recognize the truth that was Daimion had become an entirely different man of his own volition, a hateful man. A man who believed he was owed in this life because he was the son of Barranagan Xerxes and if he was not given that, he would take it.

Antares turned away from her and leaned against the balcony. Fleeting streaks of ice started to form around where he placed his palm on the railing. He wished that Hyperion were here, to guide him. His older brother had always known what to say and do whenever the moment called for it. So effortlessly in constant control of all around him, he often tried and failed in his eyes to mimic his older brother's air of authority. He did not want to hate his younger brother, but the more he allowed himself to feel what he had suppressed for so long, the harder it was to hold that emotion at bay.

"My little brother wishes me dead…" he muttered to himself. "My little brother wishes me dead." The pain in his voice echoed through the air.

The king could feel his body getting colder, until he felt the warm sensation of her hand over his. She did not force him to feel just to abandon him now. The warmth from her soul bathed him in a loving glow, he could feel himself coming back from the depths that he was sinking into. The clutches of oblivion slowly let him go with her help. At every point he thought he loved her as much as he possibly could, and she would commit and act, say something that would prove his love for her was boundless, unrestrained and raw.

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"Look at me," she whispered.

He could not bring himself to do so, he did not want her to see him like this. See him this weak after so long.

She delicately caressed his smooth face, a smile escaped her lips as he snuggled into her hand. She led his face towards hers, "Look at me my love." She spoke softly again.

As he did, Faye pressed her forehead against his lovingly, they both closed their eyes. Nothing needed to be said. All she wanted for him to know was that he was not alone. That no matter the distance between them, or what it was he faced, that she was always with him and nothing could change that. Their essence were linked in a way that only they could understand. They were soulmates and that afforded them more than any titles could ever give them. Which is why Antares did not need her to speak for him to know the true question she so desperately wanted to ask him. The question that all of Aurum wanted to know. He had dreaded every day since he had returned from exile for he knew he would see her again. However this was the one thing he could not give her, of all the sins he shouldered this was one he would not share with her. He could not. He pulled away shaking his head.

"What happened?"

"Faye…" he began.

"Why?" she asked again.

"I cannot."

"You cannot or you will not tell me?" she pressed. "Because I have known you my whole life Antares and not once have you denied me. So I will ask again, the question we have both dreaded to hear. What happened with Nykolas all those years ago? Why are we not together?"

There it was, the query that had created the chasm that separated them for half a decade. What he believed to be among his greatest sins. All he had done, all he had strived for the countless trials he had overcome all undone by that single accursed day with Nykolas. It was on the lips of all who knew him and those who did not. It was the first thing they thought when they saw him, the burning question that so many wanted to know. How he a being many regarded as perfect in every way could have fallen so, to commit an act that shook Iliad and still continued to do so. So many had wondered, none would ask him, but she would. She always walked the path others were too scared to do so when it came to him. She found the confidence to do so because as she had said, he had never once denied her and yet...

"Why will you not tell me?" she begged.

"Because if I told you what truly happened that day you would leave here with me tonight, and not look back." The assuredness in his voice was terrifying.

"Do you think I do not want that? Can your eyes not see the guilt I feel that I would leave my first son, for you? That I would forsake my duty for you? From the first moment I laid eyes on you again, all I have wanted is to leave this place with you!"

"That is precisely why I cannot tell you! I bear too many faults as it stands. To add another, to take you from here, from your son? I am many things but I cannot be that kind of monster too. Not to you, not to you Faye."

Tears rolled down Faye's eyes, with ever steadying intensity. For so long she had pretended that all was as it should be. She embodied the perfect queen, the perfect wife and the perfect mother. She did as she was told, carried out her duties to the best of her abilities. All because she believed that one day he would make her understand why things had become like this. Why they had been ripped from each other. In her soul she knew they were destined, so why had things taken this path? What had she done to upset the gods that they would torture them both like this? Had he not given so much already? The constant expectations that were heaped atop his head from a mere eight years old. Each time he surpassed them only to be met with another, and he would rise to it all the same. Was he meant to only know suffering? If so, she who so desperately wanted to be by his side, would join him in it but fate had said No. In their passion in this moment, she found that there were a great many things that she too had suppressed, chosen to bury. Only he could bring it out of her, the truth of how she felt. And that truth was that she hated the Stygian elders, she hated Hyperion, and most of all she hated Barranagan Xerxes. The Stygians had taken so much from her with Myrra and her brothers, and now they looked to take the last of her soul as well.

"So even after everything we have sacrificed-I have sacrificed," she tried to laugh to stop the tears. "I will never know the taste of your lips against mine again, your hand through my hair, or to wake to the sound of your breathing? Am I fated to never know why I will not spend the rest of my life with the only man I love?" She spoke in the language of the Storm Islands as thunder danced on her tongue, one Antares knew too well. She looked out into the city as though for the first time acknowledging where she was, as though waking from a terrible dream, into a living nightmare. She took a deep breath.

"Faye-" Antares approached her, himself on the verge of tears.

But she stepped back and raised a hand stopping him from coming any closer.

"Forgive me King Antares," she steadied her voice. "I have...overstepped, I am neither a Stygian nor the Queen of Iliad. It was rude of me to demand things of you. I...I think I will retire to my chambers now. Enjoy the rest of your night."

She bowed and departed, not giving him the opportunity to say anything. He watched as she disappeared back into the castle. On the back of her head she wore the frozen butterfly broach he made for her when he was merely eleven years old. It meant to symbolize their ever lasting love, for as long as he drew breath it would never break or shatter. All these years later and she still held on to it. To his eternal proclamation of their love.

Antares was reaching his limit, of all the scars he had accumulated throughout his life and the countless warriors he had crossed on the battlefield. No moment dared compare to what he felt now as he faced back towards the city. None perhaps since the day he lost Nykolas. So much had been demanded of Faye over the years, he could see it on her face. His presence was nothing but a reminder of what she had lost. He had been so preoccupied with his own fears and concerns not knowing that her love for him still remained as strong as his was for hers, perhaps even stronger. He could not help but ask himself why he had come south. Was it truly worth it all to bring so much pain to her? Was that all he would ever be, an emissary of pain as the Lords of War had always been?

It took him a moment to feel her presence before he saw her approach. The darkness that enveloped her made her dress look as though it carried on into the shadows of the castle. In fact it was more accurate to say she wore the very night itself as a dress. However what caught his attention the most, was her emerald eyes that glowed with a pensive sadness to them. One he had not noticed when he first met her earlier. It looked as though she understood his pain.

"Forgive my intrusion, Stygian King." She bowed low showing him greater respect than he believed he deserved.

He looked at her in a way asking if she had heard his exchange with the queen, and what she planned to do with that knowledge.

"I believe conversation between lovers should remain as such. It is of no business to others." She did not hide that she was all too familiar with the feelings he struggled with. "If it is any consolation, know that such a passionate…exchange will not change matters. The words of the mouth pale in comparison to the language spoken by the soul." She was unsure if she was consoling King Antares or making her own case to the ghost of Barranagan Xerxes.

Antares' attitude softened, "Thank you for the kind words…" he was allowed a moment to collect himself before he raised his eyes to look at her again. "...Forgive my directness but what do you want?"

"Your presence has been missed at the celebrations. I informed them all that you had retired to your chambers." she grinned as she recalled a memory, "You have a very doting sister, it is a rare thing."

He offered a half smile in return, "I am aware." He made a mental note to apologize for his absence to Guinevere when he had the opportunity. "Why did you lie to them?"

"So that I can talk to you, privately."

The king took a pause before he exhaled.

"What is it you wish to discuss, former Queen Tereza Altieri, Black Witch of Laconia and hero of the Third Great War?" the familiar air of royalty had returned to King Antares. He stated all her titles to show her the respect she deserved.

Tereza hesitated now faced against the man she had decided to bet everything on. There was no guarantee that what she was about to say would yield anything positive, much less a definitive response, given that she herself did not know the true depths of Nero's plans for Reza. Nevertheless today alone had shown her, her fears held some truth. As she looked at him, they were too similar for them not to be the same in some ways. She sorely wanted to trust him as she did his father, but there was no way that would be possible if she herself did not necessitate their interaction and show how honest she was.

"It involves my daughter." Tereza allowed her emotions to show, a rare sight for the famed witch. "I know I have no right to ask this of you. After everything your father has sacrificed for me and all of Aurum. But I beg you not as a Black Witch or a former monarch, or a hero, but simply as a mother who wishes for the safety of her daughter in a world that is as unpredictable as our own. Irrespective of any offense that Nero will levy your way throughout your stay here, please accept my Reza's hand in marriage. Please protect her from his madness King Antares. "

A single tear ran down her face, and in it his Akashic Eyes saw everything.

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