"Make yourself at home," Adia smiled, opening the door to the attic. The insides were much larger than Boris had expected, it was able to take his height and maybe a few more feet taller and was definitely much larger than he had thought. But still, it's a bit small, he thought, the high ceilings of the castle and the wi- Boris stopped himself from going further. It hurt him that the life he had once treasured was now becoming small in his eyes.
"Please don't say that Adia," Boris smiled nervously, standing beside a couch and locking eyes with Adia, "it makes me feel distant."
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Adia spoke up, "what? are you waiting for my permission to let you sit down?"
"Ah…" Boris mumbled as he remembered his location and awkwardly bent down to sit down.
"Makes you distant huh?" Adia sighed staring at Boris as he nervously sat down, her eyes analyzing him, "You sure don't seem to recognize it as your home anymore."
"Sorry,��� Boris apologized, avoiding eye contact.
Adia continued to stare, slightly amused and annoyed at his improved posture, "even mum had a struggle taming you, and all it took was two months at royal castle camp huh?" she continued even after his uncomfortable shift, "but it looks like both sides don't accept you huh? Why did you go out of your way and leave just to get rejected again by another group? Now you have nobody on either side to save you when you fall."
Boris sat there and listened while the comments started being thrown at him. He knew from the beginning that he was going to have to face this and walked in here ready, but now as he sat in the hot seat as the heat is slowly increasing, every ounce of confidence he had built up started to slip away and was replaced by crippling guilt.
"This is why I don't understand you at times," Adia growled, her anger building, "you say you'll stay loyal to us and escape everyone who pins you down to rescue us but when you are pinned down, you instead succumb to the people on a higher level than you, and let them use you as they please. Who are you trying to please?"
Words were stuck in Boris' throat as he let every remark slowly stab him, it wasn't his right to stop them anyways since they were right.
"Now you lie in limbo, to stay in place because you know the moment you fall, no one will catch you,"
Right again, Boris thought.
"You're pathetic Boris, in the eyes of me and others around me. The people downstairs are on the edge of being eaten by my people and yet you protect them, knowing that they won't do so in return,"
Right again.
"Do you know how many days and nights have passed Boris?" Adia scolded her voice choking up as she fought the urge to cry, "How many days I sat outside waiting for you to return? Begging for you to show up on your knees and beg for forgiveness for keeping me waiting? While you sat on the comfy seats of the palace being fed daily, forgetting those who were waiting for you,"
Right again.
"And you stood beside that prince. THAT DICTATOR PRINCE WHO CAN'T EVEN SEE HIS KINGDOM SUFFERING AND SITS THERE ON THIS THRONE WHILE PEOPLE BEG AT HIS FEET. You- YOU STOOD BESIDE AS SUPPORTED A PRINCE LIKE THAT… A PRince," Adia's voice crackled as her frustration hugged the sides of her throat stifling her words as they came out. Tears started to run down her face, "a prince… that just watched while other royal families stepped on us and robbed us dry of our money and kicked us out of the families we had forced us to work, beg and steal for our everyday meals."
Righ- wait a second- Boris' head perked up as insults about Dominic rolled it and none of them were right.
"And now, more and more people are put out on the streets and the prince goes off the war, once again evading his duties. I bet he's not even fighting at war but took this chance to go off to someplace for a vacation while others fight the war for him,"
That's not true either, his hands clenched as Aria threw out more insults about Dominic.
"You stand for a prince like that… once that ruins his people and lets the rich govern the kingdom while he watches from his highchair. A tyrant and brute in the mak-"
"That's enough," Boris interrupted.
"-ing- what?" Adia asked her rant halting when she heard the words roll out of Boris' mouths.
"I said stop," Boris repeated.
"S-stop?" Adia muttered, her ears refusing to believe the comment Boris had made, her eyes shut tightly as her emotions doubled inside her, slowly filling up her cup again, ready for the next outburst, "WHAT FOR?! Is it unfair? YOU KNOW I'M RIGHT!"
"I SAID ENOUGH!" Boris yelled, his voice rising over Adia's.