After seeing that the duel was finally over, Shourya stood there watching Pavitra. His wide-open mouth clearly showed how shocked he was that she had become so talented and skilled with her magic and the sword. He still remembered the days where she would drag him out to the courtyard and they would play would wooden sticks and pretend sword fight each other.
Shaking his head, trying to forget the old memory. He looked back over at her and noticed that she still had not moved. It was weird, she should have moved by now. He quickly looked around to see if there was anyone else going over to her, which he found that there wasn't. No one had noticed how she was acting and yet as well as that he was the highest-ranked officer that he could currently see.
He looked around one more time, remembering how she had stormed off before. Then he took a deep breath and slowly began to walk over to her. Each and every step felt like an eternity to him. He slowly got closer and closer, though as he got closer he could see that she was shaking ever so slightly. Just before speaking, he took one last look around, seeing if it was him who had to do this. No one else had appeared in the five seconds since he last looked around, which was not that surprising to be fair.
Pulling on all the courage that he had, he reached out and patted her shoulder. "Your highness are you alright?"
He waited for a few minutes but soon found that there was no response. Then he reached out and patted her harder on the shoulder. "Your highness?" This time she finally seemed to break out of whatever was holding her in her mind. When she looked up at him, he saw confusion and pain. It was written all over her face. He was unsure what to do then as he looked around, he saw that no one was watching.
Using this chance, he picked her up and took her inside of one of the many rooms that were attached to the courtyard. After making sure that there was no one inside, he took her and in and placed her down on the table. He then quickly turned around and rushed to the door and closed it, so that they would hopefully not be disturbed.
Then he looked back around to her, he quickly noticed that she had moved a bit, in the time he had been turned around. Now she was just sitting on the edge of the table with her legs dangling down. She was just staring into space, not looking at anything and yet also looking at lots of different things. It was a little weird to see, and Shourya after he had seen this, quickly walked over to her. Once he stood in front of her, he fidgeted around about. His palms had quickly become sweaty and nervousness had begun to set in.
Then he finally spoke again. "Pavitra, What is wrong?"
His voice caused her to focus on him for a bit. Her eyes suddenly regaining the focus that they had lost.
Her mouth opened then it closed again. Shourya did not move through and just encouraged her to speak with his hands. Then she opened her mouth again. "He knew my mother. He was her guard. He said that he was ordered away. Shourya nothing with my mother's death makes sense. The whole thing is suspicious, it's like the crown...my father knew something about it. Not only that how does an ex-royal guard end up as a rebel. The whole thing is just...I don't know. There is something wrong here."
Shourya did not say anything and just looked at her, confused by everything that she was saying. It didn't make any sense at all. She was almost accusing the king of having something to do with her mother's death.
In the end Shourya still unsure about what was going on, just gave up and walked over to her. Then he wrapped his arms around her back. She moved her head into his chest and began to cry slowly and quietly. Shourya only knew that she was crying due to his shirt getting wet.
He smiled to himself as she began to cry then she brought her arms up and hugged him back. They were there like that for a few minutes. No words were needed, both of them knew that they needed this.
Then Pavitra broke away the hug. "Shorya," she whispered. " I missed you...I am sorry for how I acted...do not leave me again. Please."
Shourya felt something inside him break when she said that. It was like something from long ago had finally been let go. In a way, he felt liberated from everything that had happened. The guilty from her sharp words were gone. He just felt whole again and as he looked down into her beautiful yet wet eyes. He swore to himself and her at that moment. "Pavitra, I swear. I will never leave you again. Not even death will hold me back from you. Forever and always I will be by your side."
The words were heartfelt and truly showed how he felt. She felt it too, though then she began to get redder and redder.
Then he shoved him away. "Shourya! I don't want you to marry me!"
Then hearing her words and thinking about what he had just said. It did sound like…
His face suddenly got redder and redder.
Then someone knocked on the door.
Pallavi's voice could be heard from the outside. "Pavitra? Your highness are you in there?"
Pavitra suddenly looked up and Shourya in fright. Unsure of how her friend would react if she saw the two of them in there together. Alone.
Frantically she then jumped up and began shoving Shourya around, here and there. No space quite being correct to hide him. Giving up, she shoved him behind the door, or at least where it would be when it is opened up.
Then she slowly opened the door revealing Pallavi, her amour was covered in blood head to toe, in a way she was similar to Pavitra except that a lot of the blood that was on Pavitra had been burnt off in her fight with her mother's old guard.
Seeing her and that she was fine, Pallavi relaxed a bit. Then she looked past her into the room, seemingly trying to look for someone. After she looked around at least for what she could see thoroughly and found no one, she looked back at Pavitra. "Who were you talking to?"
Pavitra just looked at her questioningly. "I didn't say anything. Or speak to anyone, you must be imagining things. Now let's go. I see that we have some prisoners over there." Then as she redirected the captain's attention, they both walked off allowing Shourya to breathe again. He then slowly made his way out, and carefully walked around the courtyard where he could meet the two who were now standing near to the prisoners that he had captured.
Walking up to them both. He then gave a full salute.
"General, Captain. These surrendered to me, as I was clearing out the rooms." His words were decisive and strong leaving nothing out, at least not really.
The two looked at each other and began to discuss what should be done. In the end, it was Pavitra who looked back up. "Lieutenant Shourya. We have no supplies for prisoners. These men are rebels. Traitors. As such they are sentenced to death by execution. Effect of immediately. I trust you can do the honors." She then looked over at him, daring him to say otherwise.
Shourya gripped his hand. And looked back. "Yes, general." He did not agree at all. But he still could not argue. In the end, she was right, the supplies would run out anyway and if they took the prisoners they would only run out even quicker.
He then grabbed a few soldiers and his sword. With them, he forced the prisoners up and away from the fall. At first, the rebels did not know what was going on. Then they saw the hard faces of their captors. It was like an unseen message had suddenly been passed among them all.
They started to scream and beg. Not only that some of them tried to kick and bite. Their bound hands meant that they could not really do any damage though. After they were far enough away from the wall. Shourya kicked the one he had dragged to the floor. Then he brought his sword up to stab down.
He froze at the moment. Tears were running down his face. This just didn't agree with him. Not only that, the face of the rebel was looking up as well. He was talking but no words were coming out. He was clearly begging. Yet Shourya knew what his orders were.
Driving the sword down, the noise came back as the sword. Nailed his body to the ground, killing him.