To be a monarch in the Dark Age, an era of war and betrayal, meant many
different things.
A protector as well as a conqueror. Those who reigned as well as those
who were cast aside. According to recorded history, the king with the
shortest reign was murdered immediately after coronation.
In those days, the one on the throne needed to keep all of that in mind—
if, that is, there was something they wanted to accomplish during their rule.
"Lady Tinasha, you're covered in blood again," Lilia remarked upon
Tinasha's return to her chambers. Tinasha gave a weary nod. Splashes of
crimson marred the front of her white mage's robes.
As she headed for the bathroom, Tinasha said flatly, "Lots of executions
today. I need to get these stains out…"
"You should have a proxy do executions for you. Someone or other will
always be sending assassins after you," Lilia advised.
"Yes, which is exactly why I need to strike fear into their hearts," the
young queen said tartly. She was only seventeen. As the most powerful
mage with more magic than anyone alive, she alone qualified to sit upon the
throne of the Magic Empire in this Dark Age. "And with executions, people
start to blame the executioner. If I had someone do them for me, things
would only get even more complicated," the queen explained.
"So it's all right for you to become the object of their hatred?"
"That's what a ruler does," Tinasha said as she strode into the bathroom,
slipping off her bloodstained robes and getting into the steaming water.
After rinsing the blood from her skin, she washed her robes in a bucket of
water.
Events like this one had become common since her coronation. It had
practically become habit. She had ascended to the throne by dint of Lanak's
insanity and forbidden curse, meaning that she was the target of constant
hostility and perpetually in danger.
But a weak, powerless monarch was not fit to rule at all. That was how
things operated in that era and in Tuldarr itself.
After languishing in her bath, Tinasha returned to her bedroom. She
lived in the spacious chamber all alone. There had only been one month in
her life when she'd had someone by her side. During that time, everything
felt so natural and warm. She would go to sleep feeling protected and
happy.
So when she lay on her huge bed alone, she couldn't help the waves of
loneliness that would sweep over her. Tears formed in the corners of her
eyes, but she squeezed them tight and wouldn't let herself cry.
Just before falling unconscious, she would reach out—but no one was
there. He was gone.
So she would go to sleep with the half-formed hope in her heart of at
least seeing him in her dreams.
"Ah, Oscar?" she cried, jerking awake from a shallow sleep. She looked
around the large bed.
It was still the middle of the night, and no one else was there. She was
alone. It had felt like someone had grabbed her hand, but it was just a dream
in the end—one she'd had many times now.
When she went to wipe away the wetness from her eyes, a sense of
unease suddenly struck her.
"Hmm?"
The room was different. While it was still one belonging to the queen of
Tuldarr, it was a new room built in the past four centuries. Tinasha rubbed
at her temples as she sorted jumbled memories.
She still felt uneasy, so she opened up a teleportation array leading to a
set of coordinates she knew by heart.
For Oscar, it was entirely natural to be asleep in a large bed in the middle of
the night. He couldn't rest with someone next to him.
He had gone to bed as he did every night, alone. Half dreaming, half
conscious, he had reached out—only to catch hold of someone's hand. The
person let out a yelp.
Unconsciously, he wrested that hand closer to him. The sound of her
astonished cry had woken him. "Mmm? What are you doing here? What's
happened?" he asked his fiancée with some surprise. She should've been in
the next country over.
"Y-you weren't asleep?" came a question in reply.
"I was halfway there. Is something going on? I can get up," he said.
"No, you don't need to," she replied, curling up next to him like a cat.
Judging by the white nightgown she was wearing, it couldn't have been a
crisis.
Tinasha put her arms around Oscar and closed her eyes. "Let me stay
here. I'll go back in the morning."
"Did you have a scary dream?" he asked.
While she was a coolheaded queen from four hundred years in the past,
she occasionally acted like a needy child in front of him.
Sighing ruefully, he stroked her hair as she pressed her soft body closer
to his. Her eyes went half-lidded as she gazed up at him. "I want to sleep
with you."
"That's all you have to say for yourself after coming here?"
The statement could mean many different things, but knowing Tinasha,
the most direct meaning was the intended one.
Her eyes were already fluttering closed. As she squeezed her arms
tightly around him, Oscar resigned himself to his fate. He had been drifting
off to sleep himself, so he gave her back a gentle pat. "All right. Good
night, then."
"Also, wake me up at five in the morning tomorrow…"
"Hold it," Oscar interrupted, reflexively catching hold of the soft flesh
of her earlobe.
Tinasha gazed up at him with big, piteous eyes. "What…?"
"Get up on your own. Don't make me do it," he said. Once Tinasha fell
asleep like this, she would usually not wake until after noon. Shouting at
her and shaking her would do no good. It would be like she was rooted to
the bed itself. All anyone could do was wait for her to rise on her own.
If Tinasha put the task of waking her on Oscar, it would significantly
throw off his schedule for the entire day. He gave a light tug to her ear.
"Listen. You need to get up. Without me dragging you out of bed."
"Mm-kay…"
"Hey! Don't go to sleep! Maybe I should just keep you up all night if
you have to get up that early," Oscar suggested, though his threats were
empty and had no effect on her anyway. She had already drifted off.
It had all happened so fast. Oscar was left speechless. "Unbelievable…
Who does this?"
She was like an intractable child, but he couldn't do anything about it;
that was just how much she loved and adored him.
Oscar sighed, suppressing the desire growing within him. After one last
stroke of Tinasha's hair, he shut his eyes.
If only his beloved would fall asleep at peace and free from the demons
of her loneliness.
With that wish in his heart, Oscar passed into a dream.