Chapter Text
The kingdom reeked of grief. The scent of anxious fires and foggy deaths clouded the oncoming night.
"Stay back!" Shuji flung his arm, sending the young prince stumbling back in the moonlit corridor. "Has the North State killed your common sense, too? Stay here."
"I refuse. There's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind. Release me." The guards holding his arms looked between him and his brother, confused on who to follow. "You try so hard to be like our father, Shuji—niisan. Why? Was sending sixty more fleets still not enough?"
"Be silent. I am the king, and you are the heir to the throne. We cannot—"
"So you truly think Natsuomi—niisan is dead?" The guards gripped harder.
"You sound just like the witch sisters."
"So the witches are sisters but we are not brothers?"
"You sound so proud," he grumbled. "But you acted nothing like this when our honour was at stake. You fought harder for your knight than for our kingdom."
"He gave me a kind of belonging that never came from honour." He raised his head, his anger unsheathed. "Am I a prisoner to you? Am I not your brother? Is that the reason have me captured like this?"
Now, almost two clock turns later, Toya stood at the gates, cape billowing and stance firm, watching the horizon for the first crunch of snow.
The clock chimed. Its shrill call rung across the expanse, calling its people home.
Toya used to mark lateness by how far his father's eyes furrowed. Since the first Northate war, every one has since been on time. As for Toya — it rung its third call — Toya could wait.
Men piled wood into the palace fires, a dozen-a-chime, fanning the flames to their fallen brethren, sleeping in the stars, but in the wake of war, even fire loses its appetite.
"How can a fire feel hunger if it cannot eat?"
"What a good question," his mother giggled. "Everything that owns something valuable, must provide what it has to others. This is your father's kingdom, so everything the kingdom has: homes, happiness, peace, must come from him. In return, the people must follow him with loyalty."
"And fire gives us light, so the fire-keepers give it wood."
"What a clever son." She pinched his nose, closing the book and kissing his forehead.
For the first time that night, his eyes shifted from the distant earth to the distant sky. Stars of every quality littered the expanse, twinkling like rasping diamonds. He fixed his watch on one in particular, the one that burnt brightest of all.
"Look for me when I return," — he yelled the night of his departure — "I'll bring you the brightest star when I come back."
It had been a long few years since that promise, and the prince held it dearer to his heart than the day they were spoken.
"I live for you and I will die for you, and I am your knight and you alone are my prince. Please, wait for me!"
He set his eyes back on the skyline, waiting for his brightest star.
The trumpets blew and the crowds stilled. Every pair of eyes turned towards the skyline; mothers watching for sons, fathers for daughters, children watching for parents, trailers in the snow. Then a girl clutched her hand-sown toy and whispered, Denka?
There, where the snow touched the moon, a hoof crossed the line,then another, and another, and another, until.
"Woe! Woe to our glorious King Haru, and his arm of sorrowed men!"
What.
Toya sharply turned towards his brother who looked onwards without as much as a flinch.
"Woe?" He spoke to the wind. His brother's eyes were full of it.
"Woe to glorious King Haru!"
"Woe!"
"Woe to noble King Haru!"
"Woe!"
"Woe to the courage King Haru!"
The people chanted as the army marched forward.
Toya refused to believe it. He moved past the guards, closer to the drawbridge. Surely the man was going blind, just as his knight used to joke. Surely.
Yet as the army approached, the black flags could not be clearer in their message. They waved, taunting through the snow as the first fleet approached the castle.
The army, the pride of their kingdom, was not half the size it was when they left. The image of strong men and women, hardened by the strike of war was shattered as they neared the drawbridge. Soldiers piled on soldiers piled on horses. Some with a few bodies sandwiched between their surviving comrades, creating the illusion of a live team and others with bodies strewn across the back like sacks of flour, a single doctor or sorcerer or whoever else they could find holding the reigns. There were more, he knew, that did not receive the welcome of the Nocturne people, that had ridden directly to the castle infirmary. There he stayed, eyes passing over every horse with increasing panic as they rushed the last of their half-finished army into the castle, dragging a river of blood behind them.
"Natsuomi—niisan is…"
"I saw."
"He is—!"
"I already saw, Toya. The whole kingdom saw."
Toya went silent.
"Go in, Toya."
He had never heard so much panic in his brother's voice.
"Go in! These daft men won't move until they're told." Toya stood for a moment longer, the image still burning into his mind. "Go!"
He scrambled to turn around, walking briskly back into the warm light of the castle after the last horse of flour-sacked men as his brother gave the speech to close the battle.
Inside, the soldiers helped each other off their sore and sullied horses, dropping pools of blood onto the ballroom floor. He ran towards his brother at the front, three servants on either side of him watching him struggle to hold himself up on his steed.
He lay collapsed against his steed's slender black head, his navy cloak and hair draped over his neck and shoulders. She whinnied under the weight, and for a moment, he worried that he might be—
"To—ya," he coughed out, all the servant's figures relaxing at the first word of their king since his return. "Toya."
"Yes, Haru—niisan."
"Toya—" He burst into a fit of coughs again.
"Dear brother please do not speak if you are in pain." After a few more feeble attempts at speaking, he complied, resting his head atop his steed's as he looked upon Toya for the first time in five years. Toya's eyes did not leave his as they stared at each other, half in concern, and half in awe. Then, for the first time he had ever seen in his life, Natsuomi—niisan smiled. He placed his hand over Toya's head gently, and he could not help but be reminded of the way their mother would do the same to him whenever he succeeded in his studies. He wondered if she would do the same now. "Do you feel well?"
"Has Shuji done a good job of taking care of you?"
"Do you truly doubt that I have?" They both turned towards the door, where Shuji stood weary and cold. "Have you spent these last five years doing nothing but doubting me, brother?"
"I do not waste doubt on my family."
"I thought as much. How do you feel?" He removed the burdensome cloak off of their eldest's back and passed it to the maid. His entire being was stained with blood and bruises, the sight of which was enough to make the unflappable faux king flinch by the bottom of his eyelid. The king sighed.
"The ice in the North state is as beautiful as the rumours say. If we weren't at war, we should have gone to see it." He paused, eyes passing over them again, their bewilderment hidden behind faces trained to withstand the coldest judgements and scrutiny. When it became clear they were not going to speak further, he continued. "I wonder if father noticed it too. The first time he came back was when you had been born. Do you know what your name means, Toya?"
He gulped under the sudden attention. What had happened in the North state? What had he seen that had him so poetic? The war, what of the war?
"I do." Natsuomi—niisan's gaze did not leave him, but softened all the same.
"I wonder. How could father have returned from such a valiant battle, only to name you something so cold? Doesn't he know ice doesn't melt with more ice?" He rambled to no one in particular. After a few more moments of him laying silent on his horse, Shuji ordered the servants to bring him to the nurse.
"Is… Is he is well?" Toya stuttered.
"He's being foolish, keeping the kingdom so worried," he replied, his finger tapping frantically. "See to it that these soldiers are treated." With that, he led the servants away from the ballroom towards the infirmary.
Toya watched them disappear down the dark corridor for a few more seconds before turning around to the sight of a hundered-some soldiers coughing and sneezing and bleeding onto the golden floor. Some vomited, others spun in a daze and then dropped — one held onto the stairwell railing before fainting, taking the decorations with him as he fell back into—
"Akiyama!" Her head flicked around.
"Ouji—sama," she breathed in relief, bowing her head with a smile.
"Are you well?"
"I am."
"Are you sure?" Her shoulders sagged and he quickly moved to catch her should she fall.
"Okay, but tired, Ouji-sama."
"Okay but tired. What about Tsukasa—senpai?"
Her face darkened, more serious this time.
"He took the other half of the army straight to the infirmary."
"To the— why only half?"
"The army of Nocturne deserves to return with their heads held up, don't you think?"
"He… hasn't been hurt, has he?" he whispered, fearing the worst.
"Our valiant captain? I should think not."
"I hope…"
She smiled, setting the fainted soldier on the staircase.
"And how has our prince been doing?"
"I have not spent a day without worrying, I fear."
"Is your fear is the only reward for our struggle, Ouji-sama?" Akiyama's smile softened.
"I…" Then he remembered. He spun around and moved closer, not realising until she was backed against the railing. "He— How is he?" His entire body trembled, breaths no longer stable as he looked around frantically through the hordes of scattered soldiers. I have not seen him. He was not there, I have not seen him.
"He followed our captain into the infirmiry, Ouji—sama."
Toya ran towards the door without thinking before looking back at Akiyama once more. She nodded her head — I'll help the soldiers here — as did he — Thank you, Akiyama — before continuing back towards the doctor's ward.
This corridor was one of the castle's longest, but even from the end he could hear the agonising groans and screams of hundreds of injured soldiers begging for the sweet release of death. If the soldiers in the ballroom had been deemed 'strong enough' to walk through the gates, he could not begin to imagine the monstrous wounds these men and women harboured. Nevertheless, it was not something he was unwilling to see if it meant being close to his knight.
"D-Denka!" The nurse stumbled into a bow in front of him. Over his shoulder, Toya could see a group of doctors sigh in relief before quickly running back to their duties. Strewn about every where, leaves, gauze, leeches and like, bloodied sheets barely holding onto sunken bars, to guard last string of privacy of the injured soldiers.
"Please, nurse, let me in."
"I-I-I am deeply sorry, but I am afraid I cannot, Denka."
"Why not?" But he already knew why. "Ask the king, he will let me."
"It was the king's orders, in fact, Denka."
…Natsuomi—niisan?
"Please, nurse. I must see my knight."
"I-I-I—"
"Shinonome—Kakka is not here."
They both turned sharply towards the doctor. The nurse looked at her in relief. She smiled at him and the prince.
"He is not?"
"He is in a separate ward, Denka. He was in need of special treatment."
Special treatment.
"He— is he—"
"If you would like, I can take you to him—"
"Please." She smiled and turned around, leading him further up the castle.
'How could she be smiling?', he wondered. Special treatment. What did that entail — that his wounds were the worst of them all? He couldn't picture it — all those people, strewn about in critical condition — what in the stars did he look like then?
They were going further up. Was he in Kamishiro's tower? Have they resorted to necromancy? Would he… do it? For all his hatred of the practice, for the first time in his life he considered that perhaps that was a price he was willing to pay if it meant he would be able to see his knight again. If… If they were only wounds, then their sorcerer could easily heal him, right?
Right?
They stopped on the fifth story of the castle. This was one of the lesser used wards. Of course this is where they would keep him, he realised, his situation being so critical, of course would have brought him where people would look the least. Oh Nocturne, what had been done to his dear knight?
The doctor stood at the door patiently, waiting for him to enter. With a deep breath, he stepped forward, the door being brought open for him on command.
Unlike the mess of bloodied white cloth downstairs, this room was painted over in soft beiges and greens, almost like a garden. Lavender flowed down from flower trays across the wall, each hung over the hook of candle holders made for three. Moonlight shone mercifully through the windows, right onto the bed of the injured knight. But first,
"You all may leave."
The doctors and nurses by his knight's bedside gently rose, bowing at his command and exiting the room. As soon as the last nurse closed the door, he ran over to his knight's bedside.
"Akito— Akito, are you well?"
Akito — his precious Akito — turned over in bed, and the sight sent him speechless.
Stubble grazed over his chin; slight cuts and bruises were littered around his jaw and cheeks; his freckles were less visible than they were before, yet he could still identify almost every single one. A cloth had been bunched up next to his neck, the red stain on it faint and showing little sign of spreading much further. His hair had grown long and wild, tousled in every direction, creating a mop that framed his face — a little less round, yet alll the more handsome than when he left many moons ago. And among it all, his eyes. Glassy and olive, mixed with the murky drops of pain and devastation. But there, at its centre, blazing a hole through the moonlight, was that fire that promised to never extinguish. As their eyes met, it only burned brighter, almost blinding him.
He missed him so much.
"I am, my prince."
"Akito."
"Yes, my prince."
"Akito."
"Yes? My— Toya—sama." He remembered. "Yes, Toya—sama. I'm here, Toya—sama."
Toya smiled. His heart swelled with incredible fulfilment at the sound of his name in Akito's voice. All this time later, and he was still rendered breathless by his beauty.
"How was your journey."
"Can't say there weren't problems, but it was still worth it."
"What kind of problems?"
"War."
"What about war? Akito, do not lie to me."
"What truth is there to hide, my prince? I'm all yours," he huffed as he tried to sit up only for his prince's hand to waver worriedly above his neck, silently pleading him not to move. Ever his knight, he obeyed. Toya notsed his lack of struggle.
"You have not changed, but you have grown."
"My heart has too."
"What have you all seen in the North State that has made you all so poetic? Akito, tell me, are you well?"
Then Akito laughed, and Toya forgot what he was worried about. It was a laugh dripping in so much honey and affection it almost didn't sound like his own. It was deeper and more full and condensed into so few seconds that its sheer density made him stop in amazement.
"Yeah. I saw things in the North State."
"What did you see?"
"You."
"Me?" Akito nodded. "How? How can you have seen me, when I have not been outside the castle all this time?"
Akito smiled.
"Soldiers see the people they love the most when they're scared of dying."
"They— Akito." He gripped the edge of the bed with one hand, the other splaying across his knight's face for anything he may have missed. "You…"
"I'm not scared of death, Toya—sama."
"I know," he sighed, "I know you aren't."
"I'm only scared of breaking my oath to you."
"Akito…"
"To serve and protect you"— he put his hand over his prince's — "To bring you peace and tranquility" — he kissed it. "To fight for honour and glory, with justice and respect, for the Crown and his people." His hand fell to his Toya—sama's wrist. "And to love you beyond life. I promised you all of this when I vowed to be your loyal knight. Dumb as I am, I haven't forgotten my prince."
"No, you are not dumb Akito. It's been so long, how do you still remember?" He huffed in gentle disbelief.
"Twelve whole pages. Can't forget that."
"You couldn't read a market sign before."
"But I learnt, didn't I?" He turned onto his side, hand now rubbing up and down his prince's arm. "There's nothing I won't learn for my prince."
"I know, my darling knight. I know." He rested their foreheads together. "And you should know there is nothing your prince cannot do for you either."
"I don't need anything from you, my lord."
"I will bring you the brightest star."
"But, Toya—sama," he said, blush in full view of the moonlight, "you already are."
Toya's face flushed in warm silver.
"I can assure you, my knight, you're more than that. A star burns into nothing, but your light is always consuming."
"Consuming?"
"All-consuming. You consumes my mind, and when you're gone you consume my chest. You consume my heart whole."
"I lived when I remembered you."
Toya's breath hitched, everything slowly making sense now. But now was not the time for such trivial questions.
"What kind of sickness do you have that you need to be in this ward?" he asked, worry seeping back into his body.
Now Akito's face fell.
"It was a witch, Toya—sama."
"A witch? So the rumours are true?"
'Yeah. Unfortunately."
"What spell did they cast?" He clutched Akito's hand, fearing the worst.
"She came down like some kinda wind and at plucked at my uniform, and next thing I knew there was a seed in my chest."
"A seed?"
"Yeah. The doctors don't believe me, but I can feel it."
"I will call for Kamishiro immediately—"
"Nah. You don't have to do that. I won't kill me right now
"And that on its own is too much of a risk."
"Please, Toya—sama, don' worry about me. I can't do anything with it."
"All I can do is worry about you."
"If you gotta, then why don't you worry about the other guys instead?"
At that, they spent a minute in silence, lamenting their fallen soldiers.
There were far too many consequences of losing this war. The most apparent was the scarred army, but beyond that. The economy of the kingdom had just seen what scholars had promised to be its greatest years, but with the state of the army there could be no doubt that much of the kingdom's finance would be re-invested into growing militia. With King Haru in critical condition, Prince Shuji would need to continue governing the land and already many were unhappy with him playing king, most for no apparent reason other than having an attachment to King Haru. With the previous King and Queen's death, Shuji covering for Natsuomi and Toya still being perceived by the kingdom as immature, and their lack of heirs, the line of monarchy was becoming unstable which, in conjunction with the ongoing war with the Northate left Nocturne at its most vulnerable in a thousand years. Not to mention the land they lost as a result of losing this battle.
"Your sister," Toya suddenly spat out. "Your sister, she— your home. Akito, I apologise, I—"
"Toya—sama, what are you apologising for? 'S not like this was your fault."
"I could've stopped the deal."
"And who would you have stopped? The king? Your brother?"
Toya went silent, but not without anger. He knew Akito was correct, but he could not help but feel he had not done enough."
"Toya—sama, please. You got enough stuff on your plate, you don't gotta add more. You gotta rest."
Toya nodded, sitting down next to the bed and leaning his head against his side. "Toya—sama?"
Toya hummed. "Toya—sama."
Toya expected a small retort, somewhere along the lines of 'You shouldn't stay here. It is improper.'
"Tch— You havn't changed either, Toya—sama." He dropped his hand for Toya to hold. "Sleep well, my prince."
Toya kissed his hand.
"The sweetest dreams for you, my dear knight."
Like that, they fell asleep again. Toya first, and then Akito once he heard the peaceful breathing of his happy, safe prince. Then, just like that, for the first time in years, holding hands, they fall asleep together.
Written by a human in Ellipsus.