"The contract ends when either of us dies. That's like, When death do us part? Literally!" Celena exclaimed.
"That's right." Prince Quentin answered like it's normal circumstances to have an amicable marriage and bind themselves with each other.
Except nothing is amicable.
"I could have just killed you and run away, abandoning your mission and you." Celena said it with a smug look.
"Perhaps you could, but you forgot one thing: we'd made a vow at the entrance of the mines, and that wasn't a mere vow.
"You said it wasn't important and wouldn't be counted as an official wedding ceremony!" Celena gave Prince Quentin a quizzical look. With all the formalities and whatnot, why not just have one wedding ceremony and be done with it?
"That was indeed somewhat true, in the pretext of imperial official matrimony, but as fellow mages, the wedding ceremony we had bound us together with cords that cannot be broken. There was only one matrimony ritual that was the most important to all mages and that's the sacred matrimony in the eyes of the Lord."
"What are you talking about? I am not a mage!"
"And I am telling you, you are a mage by blood. That talent of navigating your way around the labyrinth without sight was magic, my dear manhunter."
"So, I don't feel different after the so-called binding ceremony."
"Physically, no, but magically, it activated your capabilities to unlock your magical prowess quicker. I had shared my magical latent talent with you through our matrimonial bond; we shared latent energy and could sense each other over time. That being said, when one perished, the other would follow."
"What?!"
"Oh, didn't I mention that earlier, before we married?" Quentin jokingly responded. Celena mentally thanks God for not killing him now. He did seem vulnerable and relaxed, which made her suspicious of his intentions.
The significance of the magical binding vow shocked Celena because she had not anticipated to intimately connecting with the prince.
"We are one body in this one world now!" The prince announced he had triumphed, as he had the upper hand.
"Why would you choose to link with me, sire? Surely there are other maidens who are more beautiful and talented than I am."
"I didn't choose to marry you for political reasons, Celena Raveniel," Prince Quentin said, his tone suddenly serious.
"I chose you because I am invested in winning this war and restoring the power balance and the state of the kingdom once more." Prince Quentin's expression grimmed. "If the situation persists, my brother will be the empire's tyrannical ruler, which will send the entire civilization into ruins. It will be beyond repair."
"You don't have to invest so much; in fact, aren't you relieved for not shouldering the burden that has been given to you since birth?"
"If my brother is a wise ruler with a kindred spirit, I am more than happy to oblige and step down from my claim to the throne, but every day I see killing and dying, children are hurt and I can hear them crying whenever I patrol the streets of the capital. So, I have decided to practice what I preach and believe, and I will not turn the other cheek to abandon my people. So, Celena, join me in this noble quest to destroy this empire and rebuild a new kingdom of peace."
"Your ideals of peace and tranquility are hard to achieve; I knew this firsthand since I'd joined the assassination guild at the age of six. The family I once knew and thought that I would be safe if I stayed within their circle was a lie. So, I don't believe in your ideals, Prince Quentin, but I will take down the ones who planned to persecute me. I will avenge and reclaim what's rightfully mine."
"That would be good enough for me." Prince Quentin said with a warm smile across his face. Celena blushed as she heard him, and for the first time in a while, she acknowledged that her fiancé sounded absolutely handsome.
'He will be the talk of the ladies for sure.' Celena thought. But she quickly brushed away her thoughts, reminding herself that this was nothing more than a business transaction.
There was absolutely no way that the previous crown prince of the empire would spend the rest of his life with a defective human being like her. Everything was a farce for him to get what he wanted.
Suddenly, the carriage shook as if it were flying through a whirlwind.
"Wind turbulence!" said the prince, his explanation barely audible at the sounds of items knocking everywhere around Celena.
"What does that even mean?" cried the blind girl. Celena, who never once let her feet off the ground where she felt the safest, was perspiring in fear. Her usual extension of her senses, which was her only way to navigate her way around her, was no longer working since she took off with the prince on the flying carriage. Currently, she is really blind.
"Prince Quentin, what the f*** is going on!" She abandoned the honorifics in addressing her fiancé and yelled with all her might. Suddenly, she felt the energy pulling her somewhere. The entire carriage is tumbling into the sky along with its passengers.
Celena could only feel absolute chaos around her; she was hovering and knocking every edge of the carriage and finally successfully hovered across when the prince grabbed her hands and embraced her immediately.
"I am going to put on a cloak over you, and we are going to dissipate together."
"Dissipate?"
"Listen, the carriage is under attack and will explode at any minute, I want you to embrace me as tight as you can without struggle and trust me."
"What are you going to do?" Before Celena managed to complete the obvious question, Prince Quentin was muttering incantations to enforce the forcefield around them.
Celena felt as if her energy had seeped out of her, fueling the magic that Prince Quentin was casting for them. A huge magic circle appeared before them, Celena could not see the manifestation of the circle, but she could feel a similar force pulling her towards it. She recognized the sensation and cried, "Did you create a magical porthole?"
Prince Quentin did not answer. Celena may not be a trained mage, but she knows magical port holes needed several high-level mages to manifest together or else it might bring you somewhere else besides the intended destination. She realized her fiancé is really a powerful mage—probably the most powerful one in the empire.
An animal entered through their magical force field and shifted into a man. "Your highness, are we ready?"
"Go!"
The man transformed once more and flew right through the magical port. Prince Quentin carried the blind Celena and walked into the port. The eminent light from the magical port shone so brilliantly that it penetrated through the darkness that was shrouding Celena's vision. Celena was overwhelmed by the light, her vision hazy and dull, but for the first time she saw a blurry figure of a man who was embracing her through the whirlwind situation.