Jaid tried to scream but her voice was only muffled. Drim made a bewildered noise too, but it wasn’t coherent either. It only drew more attention to the point of contact, forcing Jaid to focus and feel it. She tried to scramble off of him, but she couldn’t. Her body was dead, unable to move at all.
The two of them were stuck like that for way too long as gasps filled the room. Eventually, Jaid felt strain on her arms as she was hoisted into the air. She now got to see Drim from a better angle. He had respectfully closed his eyes and his hands were spread out far to the side to prevent him from accidentally touching her further.
Jaid was spun around a bit which let her catch a glimpse of everyone else and their shocked and dumbfounded faces. It seemed Tize had been the one to pick her up which she should have been thankful for. No one else would have placed her as gingerly on the ground after that as he did.
“No, Cosdamn it! That was my first kiss! I was saving… I was saving that for—” It was at this point that Jaid realized she was saying this all out loud and stopped herself. She’d thought that her mouth would be disabled by this point, but turns out it was functioning perfectly fine.
“Saving it for who?” Jaid heard behind her as a heavy weight pinned into her back. A moment later, she felt equally strong pressure on both of her arms. From what she could just make out in her peripheral vision, Kada and Xard were holding them down to prevent any further escape attempts.
Jaid then felt a hand on the bottom of her chin as her vision was hoisted upwards. Phon stared down at her with a murderous gaze. She was sitting on Jaid’s back, with her knees digging between the shoulderblades. Phon had craned back Jaid’s neck and was forcing their eyes to meet as she spat, “That zjikmawhg prince of yours?”
How dare she insult him?! What did she know anyways? Who was she or even the world to judge? That was what pissed Jaid off about Fiends more than anything: their creation. As she ruminated over the events throughout the past few years, she had always believed it to be the assassin that she’d killed that had turned her into a Fiend.
But when the Drazah’s revealed the truth behind Fiends, it became clear to her that the world blamed her for Prince Lyke’s death, since only he fell under the category of someone she cared about. The only logical conclusion was that since it was her body that had knocked him to the edge to begin with, and maybe her weight that caused the cliff to collapse, the world saw it as her inflicting the fatal blow. That was something she had come to terms with over this past year.
But what had never made a single shred of sense was the idea that the person killed had to be someone evil. Prince Lyke hadn’t been a beacon of purity and perfection, but he had been a kind soul. That’s how Jaid had always seen him, her belief never waning for even a second. So the fact that the world would judge him as someone who deserved to die, that his death would warrant her becoming a Fiend, it was ludicrous.
The system itself must be flawed or mistaken. Whoever or whatever passed judgment was biased and must be the real evil. After all, they’d created something as abhorrent as Fiends. Such a being certainly couldn’t be seen as benedictive. Rewarding killing with power? It was atrocious.
Not every Fiend became one at their own hands. Some, like Jaid, had been purely accidental or circumstantial. But that didn’t forgive or condone what they were. They were still monsters that needed to be stopped for the sake of humanity. Fiends were not cursed by those they killed. They were cursed by whatever changed them; merely pawns in their twisted perception of reality.
Was it Cosmos himself or something else that created Fiends? It didn’t really matter. All that mattered was what Jaid knew to be true. She knew Prince Lyke as if he was her own family, so the notion that he could be evil was laughable to her. Anyone or anything that judged him as such was out of line. Just like Phon now, so Jaid couldn’t help but scowl back in return.
“Hmph,” Phon let out a slight huff of amused discontent. “I can see by your confusion and aggression that you disagree. Funny that’d you’d still hold feelings for him after he tried to have you killed.”
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Jaid grumbled with her jaw clenched. It wasn’t exactly easy to speak while she was being grabbed by her chin.
Phon let out an amused, malicious laugh as the look in her eyes became evermore sadistic. “You know… I was never actually going to tell you this—let you keep living in your blissful ignorance. Even I have a nice side. Yet for some reason, that side’s just gone right now.”
“Your darling, charming prince was an evil little bastard. He was scheming to have you and that princess killed. What was her name again? P-something? Oh, I don’t remember. It’s been so long. But you and her were supposed to die on the edge of that gorge. At least that was how the prince planned it with the assassin.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Jaid couldn’t believe her ears. What Phon was saying was ludicrous to the point that she couldn’t even imagine it. Yet, there was something pricking at the back of the spy’s mind. How did Phon know all these details? Something didn’t quite add up. Even if they looked into her background, those specifics should be lost to time.
“Oh, don’t believe me?” Phon feigned sadness and frowned at her. “And here I was trying to help you out by giving you the answers you’ve always wanted. Well, I guess they always say that hard evidence is better than word of mouth. Give me a second while I search back through my emails.”
“Lucky for you, I’ve never deleted anything in case it would be relevant one day. But who knew a message that I barely gave any thought to all that time ago would someday be so important? You see, the famous and skilled killer that I am, I, of course, was the naive prince’s first pick for a hired killer.”
“Lucky for you again, I ignored it because I only killed criminals. If I had accepted it, well I wouldn’t have failed like whatever unreliable Draz he hired in the end. And don’t bother asking me who it was. I didn’t keep up with the other bounty hunter rabble, and especially not hitmen.”
“Ah, here we are. Wow, he really did put a lot of thought into this and way too many details. If I was someone more lawful, I could have gone to the police with this. Brat gave it all away. Enjoy! Oh, and don’t worry about forgetting it. I’ll send it to you later so you can reread it as much as you like.”
There Phon went on again about forgetting things. It didn’t give Jaid hope for her future, but that would have to wait. Phon let go of Jaid’s head and then placed her phone in front of Jaid’s eyes. There was just a simple letter displayed, but Jaid couldn’t pry her eyes away from it
> Dear Esteemed Vixen,
>
> I am writing to you today to offer my humble request. You see, I am a prisoner of my own birth. My entire life is laid out before me just because I was born into royalty. While I can’t say I want for much, what I do want is forever out of my reach.
>
> In a few weeks, I am to meet with my soon-to-be betrothed. It is said that it is to test the waters, to see if we are a good fit for each other, but it is all a farce. The union is already set in stone and wedding plans have already begun. This is to solely be a political marriage with my own feelings not taken into account, hitching me with a woman I find boring, insufferable, and far too old for my tastes.
>
> Life with her would be a miserable life, solely so our parents can bolster their political power. But I understand my position in this and my shackles to this country as its ruler one day. So, I believe there to be an alternative solution to cement our country’s relations without having to sacrifice my own happiness.
>
> What I’m about to suggest may sound cruel, but I assure you that you will be handsomely rewarded for assistance. I plan to take Princess Parano to a secluded location, far away from the main force of our army. Unfortunately, we will be accompanied by my personal knight, Jaid, a lackey that my father has bound to me my entire life. There will be no avoiding her accompaniment, but she should be of no issue to someone of your skill.
>
> Once they have been lured to the gorge, all I would ask of you is that you kill them and dispose of their corpses over the edge and into the river. There would be no finding their bodies once they’re swept away. For these two small acts, I will bestow upon you all of my riches through a private account of course.
>
> You may ask yourself how their deaths could possibly lead to closer relations between our countries, but I have it all figured out. It is the worst kept secret in the world that Jaid has feelings for me. I plan to lean into that and declare Parano’s death to be a fit of jealousy. Then, I will have taken revenge for their dear princess by killing my closest comrade with my own hands.
>
> While I can not find any flaws in this plan, I would be foolish to not account for your expertise. Please let me know if there are any alterations you would suggest.
>
> I look forward to your expedited reply and discretion in this matter.
>
> Prince Lyke Guzmeir of Guzrinn Kingdom
Jaid read through the whole thing, then she read it all again. She didn’t quite make it the entire way on the third pass, stopping at the part where he planned to frame her for the entire thing. It’s not that she didn’t intend to read the last bit, but she physically couldn’t—tears completely blocking her vision.
It was too precise, too detailed, too personal to ever be a forgery. Her mind had been racing from beginning to end, but what she kept coming back to were those words the prince had yelled to her while he was clinging for dear life. She had never been able to process them fully until now, her mind rejecting the impossibility of what had been said. But now, she could hear it clearly, word for word.
“Forget Parano! Save me!”
A purely selfish demand; one Jaid couldn’t believe in the moment. Words so cruel could never be uttered by her prince, so she’d convinced herself that her mind must have been playing tricks on her, and her hearing became selective. She’d warped those words into what she wanted to hear, and it cost the prince his life. Jaid had gone against his orders and let him die. It was her own selfish choice.
But did he deserve to be saved, or had she actually done the right thing? Above all else, Jaid’s heart ached. It felt like it was crumbling to pieces while her mind went into overdrive. Everything she’d known with absolute certainty was being ripped to shreds, and her mind couldn’t keep up anymore. It almost felt like it had gone blank in self defense, refusing to think about it any further out of self preservation, but she was snapped back to reality when the phone was taken away.