"What we promised we wouldn't judge? I knew she had to be powerful when I deduced where she was from, but this much?
"Promise it, please."
Her voice no longer sounds calm or soft, like when you ask for a favor, but firm and rigid, like when you demand something.
"Keith, Luke, please..."
"I promise," I interrupt her. I lift my head, still not opening my eyes, and place my hand on top of hers, seeking to reassure her. "I promise."
Her hand loosens, and while before it was clenched into a fist, now she leaves it slightly open for me to take hold of.
Will I feel this desperate as soon as we reach the castle gates? Will I also plead for their forgiveness? Will I also fear being repudiated for having killed those monsters?
"I promise," I repeat, "but only if you promise to forgive me too."
Her hand squeezes mine slightly, and I take it as a sign to open my eyes. I do, and what I see leaves me stunned. All the bandits, without exception, are on the ground, charred, as if they had been burned alive by the light of a giant magnifying glass.
"Maia, what...?" Luke silences himself when he sees her bow her head. "Why did you never tell me?"
"I didn't want you to be afraid of me."
Afraid. She's right. Because that's exactly what I feel now, although I try to hide it for her. Maia could have burned me to ashes when we fought, but she always looked so calm and was so kind that she waited until my annoyance from our fight passed so that I would feel comfortable talking to them again.
"We'll stay at the bandits' camp tonight," I speak, breaking the silence that had formed.
"And speaking of bandits," Luke seems to have suddenly calmed down after talking to Maiara. "I'm sure they were Lacronians*."
"I don't think so," I murmur.
To leave the topic behind, I start walking toward the camp, still holding Maia's hand, since she is blind and could stumble upon one of the bandits' bodies.
"Yes, they had features typical of the Lacronians. Like the height, dark eyes, and black hair... just like you."
Maia stops, thus stopping me too.
"Do you have black hair, Keith?"
"Well... yes."
She smiles, causing dimples to appear on each cheek, giving her an angelic air, which, along with her long, brown hair tied in two braids, contrasts with it.
"I would like to see it with my own eyes," she whispers, rising on her tiptoes to touch it, but still she doesn't reach.
The Brickellians, from the realm of Brickelwhyte, where she comes from, are naturally short in stature. Pitying her diminutive size, I lean forward to do her the favor. When I think she will touch my hair, I am surprised when she grabs me by the neck and locks me down, knocking me to the ground.
"Haha, now I've won against two Lacronians. Take that, nature, for saying that in the food chain the bigger one hunts the smaller one!"
"It's cheating," I try to speak, but she doesn't even let me take a breath to continue complaining.
When I find myself defeated by a girl who measures barely four feet, I give up completely, when Luke comes to my aid and removes her from on top of me, allowing me to breathe freely again. Hurrying to eat our last ration of food, Luke carries Maia on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and only then, when I can breathe, do the dark eyes of Luke come to my mind.
"Wait, who's the other Lacronian?" I ask Maia, but she's busy hitting Luke to put her on the ground.
The latter turns to me and smiles.
"Who do you think it is?"
"But your hair..."
"My father is not Lacronian," he explains to me. "So I'm, so to speak, a half-breed."
I blink twice, believing impossible what I'm seeing. Lacrontte is not the realm with the best economic position, but it is extensive, and being the second-best realm economically positioned, no Lacronian ever leaves the realm to live in another realm, but others enter the realm legally or illegally to live there.
And having two parents from different realms is quite an honor, more possibilities of being powerful, because from having fifty percent chance of having a mark, you go to having a hundred.
But even with all that, I am surprised that Luke doesn't know how to use even one mark. I'm curious to know his story and how he ended up here, but I don't think this is the time to ask.
"My parents met in Lacrontte," he starts speaking as soon as we arrive at the bandits' camp, as if he had read my mind. "My mother worked in a circus since she was six. She was part of a famous family of beast tamers, so she and her family used to travel all over the continent. When they met, she and my father fell in love. They were in Lacrontte at that time, and although my mother didn't have a mark, she asked to be his wife. Years later they got married and had me."
"Then your parents were delighted by your arrival, so much so that they toured the continent," Maiara interrupts him. "Your parents must have been very rich."
Luke laughs, but as seconds pass, his laughter fades.
"We were, and also very happy. But when we returned, law 013 had come into effect."
That damn law. The one my father proposed behind my mother's back and the five members of her family without marks. The law that decreed that any markless person who lasted more than ten hours in the realm would be decapitated. That law...
It was a massacre. So many people died that for a while Lacrontte was known as the red realm, alluding to the red that dyed the main road of the realm. At that time it was only Lacrontte and a somber realm from the continent of Nuxvar, the realm of Haashir.
"I'm sorry," I murmur.
"Don't worry, it's not your fault."
Of course, it is. I'm the king's son, from the royal family, I could...
Something hurts inside me, forcing me to kneel on the ground. It's not a burning sensation, it's the pain of when someone tries to tear off a limb. I scream in pain and hold my head tightly.
I don't know where the pain is coming from, but...
"Keith," Maiara's voice sounds distant.
"Keith...? You're... You're bleeding from your eyes!"