Master Sky noticed the sudden change on the Third Prince's face. Blinking, he answered, "From what I heard, the princess has followed after the Second Prince on his quest to gather those herbs for the First Prince. General Lector and the Black Knights are tasked to bring her back to the palace within three days."
"Princess Carrie... left?" Kyle muttered, eyes widened and slightly trembling. "With... brother..."
"Didn't you hear me? It was for the First Prince. You sound as if they purposely ran away together. That's not good, Third Prince," the archery lord teased, enjoying how the prince's face changed into different expressions as he was teased.
To his surprise, the usual silent and unbothered young prince stared at him, eyes filled with a dangerous hint of something Master Sky hadn't seen since the last time he engaged in the battlefield.
"Where are they?" Third Prince Kyle asked.
"S-Southern borders..." Master Sky said, not clearly knowing how to respond as he was too surprised by the sudden reaction of the prince before him.
Not saying another word, Kyle turned around, leaving the room, his alpha pheromones leaking as he did.
Master Sky stared at his pupil's figure from behind, frozen in place as he slowly tried to collect himself. It was the first time he had seen the third prince react this way and if he could guess it right, it was because of the princess. When she was mentioned, the young prince's expression changed immediately.
... Exactly how the Second Prince's would.
"Now, now... it couldn't be, right?" Master Sky told himself, sweating as different thoughts began to swirl inside his head. If what he was thinking was true, then it wouldn't be as simple as he had expected it to be. The Oracle, the Moon Valley's future rulers, the relationship between werewolves and humans, the princes and the princess...
Master Sky sighed as he stared at the swords hanging by the walls. It seemed the bloodbath would come sooner than he had predicted.
. . .
"Legend says that witches have the strongest hearts in the world. It continues to beat until the end of time - seemingly immortal like the celestial beings above. If they wish, they can live forever and stay young, beautiful, and free. Whenever and wherever, they can go however they wish to."
Tamara looked around the group, receiving silence as a response. The night was cold as the moon continued to shine down on them, its light enough to keep the group comforted despite the open area.
"What else do you know about them?" Keagan asked, deeply entranced at the stories he considered boring during lectures in the academy but suddenly became too interested when he heard Princess Carrie's dreams earlier.
It was a pure accident that he heard the two talking. Princess Carrie and Second Prince Gavin - these two who seemed to be becoming closer and closer the more he took time to notice.
Although he never intended to know more about witches, when he heard the two speaking intimately about them, Keagan decided to intervene, thus, asking Tamara to tell the entire group what she knew about witches. It just happened that the more he listened, the more interested he became and the easier it became to distract himself from Princess Carrie and Second Prince Gavin once again.
"They are immortal but they have one weakness," Tamara said, eyes staring at the flickering fire at the center. Her shadow dancing as the light coming from the fire hit her figure, she softly said, "Their weakness is love. The only thing that stops their immortality is this thing. Because when they fall in love, their hearts no longer beat for themselves but for their beloved. So the more they learn how to love, the more they seek death for themselves."
Second Prince Gavin, one of the people who had become silent since earlier, spoke. "It's a sad weakness, probably the saddest one in this world... but it is also what mirrors the witches to werewolves and humans. This weakness tells us that in the end, no matter how powerful and great one may be, everyone is still susceptible to fragility, to love, and to death."
Princess Carrie stared at him, suddenly remembering what he had told her when they reached the Southern borders. Similar to her, the prince also had nightmares about witches ever since he was a kid. But these dreams were being erased to the deepest part of his brain, all thanks to the medicine Miss Shantal, the physician from the higher court, had been giving him. According to some rumors in the palace, the second prince encountered an evil magic when he was abducted, resulting in head injuries and trauma.
In order to let him have a good life after that incident, it was only necessary to remove some of his memories.
That, or people were just preventing him from remembering something that was related to that incident.
After hearing more things about witches she herself had already known from reading books, Princess Carrie stood up, leaving as she headed to the nearest spring. Noticing someone had followed her, she asked, "Do you feel unwell again?"
"No," Keagan answered, surprised as he was only about to say something but Princess Carrie already knew, somehow, that it was him. "Princess... I want to speak with you about something."