The man was kneeling with his hands and legs tied. An apple was on his head and he was sweating profusely. The crown prince Alexandro and Celine stood watching him not saying a thing.
The crown prince Alexandro looked at his princess, he couldn't believe she was this evil. They wanted to kill him right there or take him to the queen, but, she stopped them and said she wanted to hear his side of story. When he had said nothing, she said she knew how to make him talk.
And that was how this came to be. The man was shaking seriously trying not to drop the apple. Celine smiled at the man. This was how they usually treated their enemies. It was torture to both the soul and body.
The victim wouldn't wish he were dead... He prayed to die.
An apple or an orange would be dropped on the victims head and he would be tied hands and feet. Then the main game would start; they would start throwing shrapnels at him and anyone who hit the fruit's eye - an eye was drawn on it, would have the chance of killing the man in the most torturous way that pleased him.
But this was different, they wanted him to speak and would keep throwing shrapnels. Anyone that hit the apple had a chance of doing what he wanted.
The crown prince Alexandro wanted to kill him himself but Celine waito know who really sent him knowing he might lie.
Two soldiers came with the shrapnels in a box and dropped it on the floor. "That's nice", she said smiling evily.
"Let the game begin", she said smiling as if she had won a lottery. Well she did. Just that this was something she missed so badly... Making your enemies suffer...
***
The man who later said his name was Sisten, knelt shivering with fear as they played the game. The crown prince Alexandro threw the shrapnel and it hit the apple, that was the third apple he was hitting; well what would anyone expect from the rising sun of Cilia, if not victory.
Celine smirked, " You're pretty good at being evil, your highness, just look at the way you threw the shrapnel", she said throwing the shrapnel and it hit the man tearing his shirt and straight into his skin.
The man screamed and the apple fell. That was another problem. How could he make the apple fall.
"Oops", she said covering her mouth smiling. " You throw this bad, Cel", he said and she hit him laughing.
What I'm i doing hitting the rising sun of Cilia?
She stopped hitting him and pouted. "I'm sorry, your highness", she said really meaning it and well with one prayer in mind - let my head be on my neck.
The crown prince Alexandro smiled at her. The so called Sisten saw this smile and wondered. The great stories of the legendary king and his son, Alexandro the second. One of them was that they never smiled.
But he seeing this prince smile at somebody, a woman to be precise meant something... She had hit his weak point.
He jerked back to reality when the lady Celine looked at him and said something about killing him.
" Please, your highness, spare me. I'm just a poor man", he said.
This was a legendary irony and would one day go down in history, if this world ever changed its current era to something more peculiar. That a trained assassin would cry that he was a poor man with children and would shiver while shrapnels were thrown at him.
" Now, tell us who sent you", Celine commanded with something on her mind. Goldcrest. Those bastards.
The man whose face was beet red from fear, tears and shrapnels that were still stuck in his skin.
" I'd kill you myself, Sisten if you don't say who sent you", Celine said, but she knew that this man knew it was impossible to let him go. Wondering why victims believed when the villian said if they told the truth, they would let them go.
It was impossible. It never happened.
The man, Sisten suddenly started laughing.
Strange.
" Do you think you have friends, lady Celine?" He asked laughing. " No, I don't have friends", she said and the proposed psycho- action- scene dissipated like steam. She spoilt the whole play in his head.
It was meant to be the psycho laughing and the main character shocked and pained. And he began to suspect this lady Celine. Come to think of it, she didn't really look like a Xavian.
Right, she was Garcian.
But still...
" So tell me, do you know me?" She asked and he said nothing. And she slapped him in that gangster way that surprised even the crown prince Alexandro.
The man began bleeding. "Tell me who sent you?" She asked and the man laughed once more revealing and starting that psycho scene.
" The queen sent me to kill you and no matter what you do she will protect me. I've worked for her for years and I know she would never allow you to put me to death". As he had finished, the crown prince Alexandro punched his already beet red face.
" How dare he say the queen planned to kill the lady Celine. That is treason against the heavens ", he said very annoyed that his dark eyes shown like eternal damnation.
But she believed. Celine believed that the queen wanted her dead and he knew too. She knew that the crown prince Alexandro knew this too, he just couldn't accept it.
" Should we kill him, your highness?" Celine asked and he shook his head. "We shall take him to the queen ", he said with such finality that she, the head of a notorious cult, Celine could not object.
***
The queen sat on her throne looking annoyed at being awaken by this time. The lady Celine was standing at the side and that irritated her the more.
" Your majesty, the queen, I greet the falling snow of Xavier", the crown prince Alexandro bowed and without waiting for her to answer his greeting he started. "There was an accusation about you", he said.
" Who dare accuse the queen who does no wrong", she said getting interested.
" You were accused of planning the death of the lady Celine", he said and the queen looked shock.
How did he know. That...
" Go on, Alex", she said and he bowed. " It was a man we found trying to sneak out of the palace. He poisoned the lady Celine's drink", he said and the queen knew instantly that it was that moron.
" Bring in the young man. How could such minor accuse the falling snow of Xavier, when the majors have never done that ", she said visibly annoyed.
The man was brought in chained hands and feet. He was already beaten to a stupor and was now being dragged like a piece of rag.
" You openly accused the queen of doing evil", the crown prince Alexandro said and he nodded looking at the queen to save him.
" Your majesty, the queen you told me to..."
" How dare you accuse me of such thing?!" She screamed as if she were the only begotten saintess of God himself... As if she were the first saint and martyr in the world but was reborn into this evil era.
" But..."
The queen stood from her throne and carried a sword without thinking, she cut the man's head. " How dare he accuse me openly Infront of everyone" she said fuming.
We're only four in here.
" My mood has been spoilt. Leave", she commanded and they bowed and left. The crown prince Alexandro looked at Celine who was quiet. " What? Why's your face like that?"
" I didn't want to kill him", she said and turned to him. " You know she did it. Your mother sent him. No one would openly accused the queen and he trusted her to save him", she said and the crown prince shook his head .
" She herself denied it. The queen can do no wrong", he said and she sighed. "You believe that nonsense. By the way you're the one who said that everyone is everyone's enemy in the palace. Guess I so many", she said and sighed . Turning to leave, he dragged her back and made her lean on the wall.
The crown prince Alexandro was breathing fast. " I'm sorry", he said and kissed her. That was the only way he could apologize. What this woman was doing to him was what he could not explain.
Why was he breathing fast? Why was he slowly trusting her?
He shouldn't trust anyone. The person he trusted so much betrayed him. If he trusted this woman now... He just didn't want to trust her.
He just wanted to have her.
The crown prince Alexandro let her go and she looked at his eyes. They were soft, so she kissed him this time and the soldiers standing guard shifted and left the hall way.
And this was when that invisible witch resurfaced. The lady Gwen was coming to meet the queen and saw them...
She gasped...