After a few hours of hiking, the prince and I finally reached our destination. A small house, not far from Elino forest, which is where I lived.
Sorry, used to live.
The house was cosy, small and made of wood. It seemed comfortable with the smoke coming out of the chimney and the cute fence around it. It looked kind of like our old family house and just the sight of it made me smile.
"Here we are," the prince said as he opened the fence door and went to the door. "You will be living here with Melian and Evren, they, too, work for me. You are here to train together and to learn to trust each other. I will visit you as often as I can, without it being suspicious and every time I'll bring you an assignment or two."
The inside of the room, unlike the garden, was cold and barely decorated. "This is the main room," prince said with his usual lack of emotions, "it's a place where you can train, safe from the nosy eyes of villagers."
The room was spacious, square-shaped and bare-walled. I understand that was for practical purposes, but it looked sad.
"The bedrooms are upstairs and the bathroom is the small shed outside. Tomorrow, I'll bring you new clothes and introduce you to the Melian, for she is on a mission at the moment."
"And the other one, Emmett?"
"It's Evren, actually." I turned around and saw a twenty-something tall brown-haired boy enter the room. His round face and kind smile made me wonder how he ever got entangled with his visciousness. "But at least you got the first letter right."
"Sorry," I shied, slightly embarrassed.
"This is Diana," said the prince, his voice still bare of emotion, "she is my new recruit and I wish you to train her."
"Actually, I am a pretty good fighter. I doubt I'll need training." I, oh so ruddely, interrupted the heir to the throne.
"Sweetheart," the irritation and pettiness poured out of prince's tone, "the magic you do is a great weapon, but you still ought to learn combat fighting."
"You're a witch?" Evrem said excitedly, "I've always wanted to meet one, can you really grow trees out of nothing?"
His reaction made me smile, it's been long since the knowledge of my abilities ever left such an impression-usually there was a lot of groaning and cursing involved.
"Calm down, Evren. I'm sure Diana will be happy to show you her abilities, but now is not the time." Shockingly, when talking to the boy, the prince didn't seem as angry as he was when conversing with yours truly. "As I was saying, she must learn how to …"
I didn't bother listening prince's instructions. Since he wouldn't bother with listening to me, maybe I should demonstrate my skills. I dropped my bag in the corner of a room and stretched a bit. Then I lounged at his royal highness and attacked him with all my might.
It's safe to say that the attack wasn't expected, so I have actually managed to knock the prince down. I straddled his lap and secured his wrists with mine next to his head: "As I were about to say, I don't need training." With the words I have also served him one of my most charming smiles.
He, apparently, wasn't convinced with my little display of power, because he started fighting back.
I quickly rose up and put my body in a defensive stance. As I observed him, I was surprised to see an amused smirk on his face (at first I thought that there may be a bit of respect there, too, but that's just impossible): "Alright, puppet. Let's dance."
His voice sent a delicious shiver down my spine, the pure thrill of danger.
He lounged at me, attacking me straight forward.
First mistake.
He gave me a great opening on his side, which I hit with my fist as I moved from his attack. The force of his jump and my punch made his stagger and fall on his knees.
This time it was I, who shot him an amusing smirk: "Your highness, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you should do the kneeling."
Evren tried hard to supress his laugh with cough, but based on the glare he got from prince, you can imagine how successful he really was.
Unfortunately, my big mouth only made prince angrier and when he attacked me next, his blows were swift and precise and maybe a bit too forceful than necessary. He served me quite a few nice blows, but I made sure he wasn't left hungry, either.
I really hope I didn't take this metaphor too far.
After what felt like centuries, we were both barely standing on our legs, exhaustion dripping from our foreheads. But we were both to stubborn to forfeit.
"I think she's proven her abilities, Covyn." Evren said, probably tired of seeing us fighting and accidently spilling the prince's name.
"Covyn?" I smirked. "A pretty name for a pretty face, but honestly I imagined you would be call something else."
"Called something else?" The prince roared, "What am I? A dog?"
At that I just shrugged playfully.
"He didn't tell you his name?" Evren asked all curious.
"No, I believe his majesty didn't think I was worthy of knowing it." I winked at the prince and continued, "But maybe now, that I won, he's changed his mind."
"You didn't win." The prince happily pointed out, just like I hoped. "The last time I checked, we are both still standing and I can go on like this for the entire night."
"Well, I don't have the entire night." I said and blasted the prince, Covyn, with a blast of magic.
He flew into the wall and I could see his eyes closing. I approached his barely conscious body and challenged him: "I'm sure you can agree now. I won."
"You cheated." He said breathily. "It's a tie."
"Sure, your highness, if that's what will help you sleep at night." I patted his shoulder.
"Is he going to be OK?" Evren asked.
"Yes, he should be used of the feeling by now." I smiled down at the prince, bid him one last "Good night, your highness," and left to my room, with Evren not far behind.
"Diana, wait!" Evren still sounded a bit worried, but it wasn't the prince's wellbeing he wanted to discuss with me. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Oh, my mothers taught me. They were amazing fighters and I'm pretty sure I learned how to throw punches before I could even walk properly."
I chuckled at the fond memory and he laughed at my joke. Cool guy, Evren. I think I'm going to like him.
"And Evren my real name is Alexandra, but I don't want the prince to know that. I am his prisoner after all." Maybe I shouldn't have told him the truth, but I don't think I would stand being called 'Dian' till I-don't-know-when.
"Prisoner?" He wondered and I know it may sound bizarre to him since I wasn't really treated like a prisoner.
"A golden cage is still a cage, Evren." I explained and went to my room.
And don't be mistaken, it is a prisoner that I am. I may have a deal with the prince and this may seem like something I entered willingly, but that's not entirely true. It was just the better alternative. I doubt prince would ever really let me walk off or kill me, I am too valuable. so by agreeing to this I have avoided some unpleasantries, like nail pulling, waterboarding and beating.