As he walked down the hallway accompanied by Alexandra, he thought about the myriad reasons why his mother would want to see him so late into the evening. She’d never called on him past sunset so why now? Was it to discuss his actions in the trial? Maybe she knew about his participation in the tournament. Or, did she just want to see him? Alexandra’s complete and total silence didn’t help narrow the list down.

The sound of their footsteps grated his ears. Shadows dashed across the walls and scurried along the floor with the flickering of the lantern. Sconces, meant to keep the palace bright and the way forward visible, weren’t emitting their light.

He wondered if the light the sconces held were powered by crystals too.

“What does Mother want from me?”

“Her Majesty will explain once we arrive.”

They went through the guard room, where a portion of the royal guards stayed in case of emergencies, and out the door into another hallway. The light in the Queen’s private chambers was on and the door was guarded by two men.

Alexandra, with a wave of her hand, relieved the two. Once they left, she knocked on the door. A firm yet gentle voice answered, “Come in.”

Inside the room were his mother, his oldest brother, and Teal who knelt on the floor. Drastan bowed his head slightly, though not at him. Alexandra returned the gesture and stayed by the door. The queen beckoned him closer, “Come here, My Dear.”

She rose from her chair and held his face in her hands. Her caress was gentle and her voice soothing, but it didn’t stop the anxiety building up inside.

“I apologize for not seeing you sooner after your return from the Loftus Manor and for calling you so late at night but circumstances dictated I act so. How are you?”

“I’m fine, Mother. What’s going on? Why is Teal kneeling?”

Teal was doing more than just kneeling. Her head was bowed too.

She gave him a thin smile, “This is the unfortunate circumstance I spoke about.” She sat back in her chair and gestured for Teal to stand. Drastan’s cold glare switched from Kieran to her.

“Second caretaker and personal attendant of Prince Kieran Reyteour,” said his brother, “did you steal from a member of the royal family?”

What!?

Teal’s head was still bowed and she barely moved even when asked the question. All of a sudden, the warm glow of his mother’s light and Alexandra’s lantern felt blinding. Was it the maids trying to frame her again?

“No,” she managed to say.

“Lies.” Drastan reached for something on the table and brought out the bracelet. “How come this was in your possession then?” Although his words were directed at her, a subtle challenge was issued to Kieran through his eyes. He told Drastan about the missing bracelet and if the maids told him about what happened the other night, then he’d doubt his story.

“I-I… That item…”

“I remember this one vividly,” said Mother, “Kudlirk and I believed this one would match Kieran quite well.”

“Wait, hold on-”

“I am not asking you the question, brother. Answer me, servant. Why was this bracelet with your things?”

Teals eyes darted to Kieran for a second and then back to the floor. “I-I’m not-”

“Do not lie to me. Even in the presence of my mother you dare flaunt your blessing? Answer the question and answer with the truth lest we flog you for your transgressions.”

Her horn shrunk an inch, “I-I did not steal it.”

“That is not the question I asked!”

“Drastan, your voice.”

“My apologies, Mother,” he took a breath. “This is the last time I will ask. Why did we find this among your things?”

“They-”

“I gave it to her,” Kieran suddenly said. He didn’t care about the repercussions of speaking out of line. “The bracelet is her gift.”

The stuffy room grew cold. His brother seemed confused as his brows knit and a frown formed. He felt Alexandra’s stare boring a hole through his skull. His mother tilted her head, just as confused as Drastan.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “You gave Teal your bracelet?”

“Yes.”

Drastan shook his head, “Are you lying to us? You came to me mere days ago talking about having the bracelet stolen. Now you claim you gave it to your servant?”

“Teal wasn’t the thief.”

“Then who is?”

“I’m not sure… I think it was probably one of the other maids in the cellar.”

“Ridiculous. How is it that we did not find this bracelet in their belongings then?”

He didn’t seem like he was trying to pull one over on him. Was it possible that the maids didn’t squeal after all? Then, his brother must’ve gone on the initiative and searched through their things.

“They tried to frame Teal the other day. She was in a bind so I stepped in and helped her. After it was all said and done, I decided she could have it.”

“Is this true?” asked Mother.

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty,” Teal replied. “I believe they were the culprits and their plan from the start was to remove me from my position.”

His mother seemed to think the situation over while Drastan fought against his boiling anger. When their mother stayed quiet and contemplative, he broke the silence first.

“How do we know the others were lying? What if your attendant deceived you?”

“Teal wouldn’t do that.”

“I had little faith in you, brother, but it seems you are more foolish than I thought. We have conceded enough to accommodate her and now she believes we are soft like you. I will not take the word of a child who knows nothing over what I have witnessed with my own eyes.”

Against his brother’s unyielding belief, he and Teal couldn’t win. No matter how much he tried to convince him, even if he pleaded with everything he had and lowered his head, his mind wouldn’t be changed.

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“I apologize for overstepping, but if my understanding of the situation is correct, then she was with Her Majesty during the Young Master’s absence. Although there exists a period of time between that and the Young Master’s return where she may have done such a thing, the servants who brought the luggage had much more time,” Alexandra said. “Regardless, I believe in the Young Master’s judgement.”

He could feel the tides turn in an instant. She was like a beacon of light in the darkness. Drastan was completely taken aback. His boiling anger evaporated when confronted by Alexandra’s statement of support.

“Is that so?” mused Mother.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Drastan still doubted them. From the table, he pulled out more jewelry. Four gold and one silver necklace. The light reflected off their polished exteriors. He breathed in relief when he didn’t see the pendant in there. Teal must’ve had it on her.

“What are those?” Kieran asked. “More jewelry you found during your raid?”

They were plain compared to the other ones he had but there was no way a servant would have them. If they already found those then what was his brother raving on about anyway? How come the culprits weren’t in the room too? Was it because they were regular maids?

“Are you pretending not to know?” his brother asked, venom in his voice.

“What do you mean? That’s my jewelry.”

What’s this asshole rambling about now? Just apologize to Teal and me already so I can go to sleep.

“Do you know where these were found?”

“No?”

Drastan revealed a twisted half-smile and said, “These were confiscated from inside the pillow of your attendant.”

“What?” Why would they hide the jewelry inside her pillow? If they wanted to frame her, putting it with the rest of her things would have been a better bet. He glanced at Teal who wouldn’t look him in the eye. Her head slowly moved down lower and lower, until the light gleamed off her white horn. He felt something in his stomach.

“From the accounts of multiple maids sharing her quarters, she refused to have her pillow cleaned by others or even replaced. They also reported hearing muffled ‘clicking’ akin to the sound of metals colliding at night.”

A pit. It was a pit. A pit was forming.

“One of the maids claimed she saw your servant stuff something into her pillow and acted strange when confronted. When the guards looked at the pillow, the stitched area seemed a bit loose and the string worn as if the stitches were months old.”

Like a black hole that swallowed anything and everything, it tore apart his insides, violently, cruelly, relentlessly. It wasn’t possible. This had to be an attempt. Some kind of long term scheme cooked up by those bitches who just wanted to see her fail.

“The metal-like sounds also apparently stopped when you were at the Loftus Manor.”

He recalled a complaint he had right around the time when Lilith visited. He’d lost a gold necklace that connected to a triangular piece and he remembered thinking how Teal, the one person who always seemed to put his wants and needs first, who validated and reassured him at every turn, brushed off that incident.

His insides had collapsed and his heart, somehow still holding on, broke too. In his brother’s hands was that odd necklace. His thoughts were jumbled.

He felt like he’d gotten hit by a truck.

The same necklace he lost.

And sent to another world.

The one he told Teal about.

Where all the horrors he thought gone were back again.

His voice caught in his throat. Chills running down his spine trying to feel for life. He was numb. Numb. Numb. Numb all over.

He forced it out. It was a feeble croak, “Those…”

Teal flinched.

“I gave those to her,” he said.

She finally looked at him.

“Teal’s always kind to me.” That was true. “She works hard too. I thought it was unfair that those maids who bullied her weren’t getting punished. I thought it was unjust that she was used as a matt.” The more he said the easier it got. “She never complained, never asked me to do anything about them.” He had to keep going. All he was saying was the truth.

Drastan didn’t interrupt.

“Teal was too kind to them. I couldn’t stand watching it anymore.” More truths. It was easy speaking the truth. Why was it so easy? Because it was the truth, right? “I wanted to punish them for her but she wouldn’t have it. She insisted over and over that things were fine.” She was too kind. Too much of a pushover. She had no evil, no vile components to her.

“But because she didn’t want that, because she kept quiet, I thought that instead of punishing them, I should reward her. I don’t have power or influence. There wasn’t much I had but at least I had what Mother and Father gave me. So I gave those to her. To show her that I appreciated her.” Truths mixed in with lies. Guilt had crawled out from somewhere and infected his mind. His mother didn’t deserve to be lied to. Things were getting harder.

But he couldn’t stop.

“I don’t think what I did was wrong. If it is then I’m sorry. Teal is someone that I-” his voice cracked. “I appreciate her company. She’s helped me so much. I couldn’t just ignore things. So I rewarded her. So all those claims of the other maids were true. Teal had the jewelry in her pillow the entire time but that’s because I told her to hide it. I didn’t want them to steal from her, to walk over her any more than they already did.” The lies mixed in hurt his voice.

But if he stopped he’d break.

“Teal would never steal from me!”

Why was such a line, a statement he now knew was false, so… heartrendingly easy to say?

“My Dear, here-” Mother moved to wipe the tears forming in his eyes but he brushed her away.

“I-I’m fine.”

He wasn’t crying. The tears were there but they hadn’t left.

“I think I’ve heard enough,” his mother said. “Kieran, we won’t do anything to Teal, so it’s okay now. I understand you want to help her. But here,” she gave him the bracelet. “At least keep this one, okay?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“You three may leave now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

They closed the door and walked through the palace in silence, the clinking of the jewelry and their footsteps being the only sound through the empty halls.

Alexandra guided them to his room and with a bow, left. Teal stood there, right on the edge of his vision. He turned to leave.

In his mind he still wondered. Wondered why it was so easy to tell that lie when the others had wracked him with some pang of guilt.

“Y-Young Master I-” Teal’s voice stopped him. “I… I’m sorry.”

Was he breathing? He wasn’t sure.

“These things I-I needed them. It’s incredibly selfish of me and thoughtless, cruel, even, that I would steal from you. But- But my family has been struggling back home. I-”

“Why?” he managed to ask even though it came out worse than a croak.

Why was the lie so easy to tell?

“The lord of our land has been demanding more money ever since-”

“Why didn’t you just ask me?”

Oh.

“I-I… I couldn’t bear to take advantage of your kindness. I, Young Master, I did not want you to think I was useless, or pathetic. I did not want to burden you, to make you believe you must make up for my inadequacies.”

He finally understood. He understood why it was so easy to say that lie and why he’d spoken out when all the evidence was so damning…

“I do not want to strain things between us. I’ll give all of these back and work even harder than before. I-”

“Teal.”

“...”

The words were easy to say because, in spite of everything else...

“When the other maids always picked on you, I tried to stand up for you. When they accused you of stealing, when they framed you, I threw myself in there, claiming that you would never steal from me! I lied to them. I lied to my own family that I gave you all that jewelry because- because I-”

He was a breath away from collapsing.

“Because I believed in you.”

It was belief. His utter and sheer belief in her made the lie so easy to say.

“My oldest brother was right. I am just a fool.”

“That’s not true! Young Master you-”

“You must’ve had a good laugh right? To- To play me like an absolute idiot. I protected you and humiliated myself. It’s my own fucking fault. Those servants, the haughty nobles, my own family, they’re all right to laugh at me!”

“Please-”

“There’s this quote that goes, ‘There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.’” he chuckled, “Turns out they both fit me perfectly.”

“Young Master-”

“Just stop. Please. Stop. You don’t need to convince me. I’ve apparently already convinced myself. Don’t worry. I keep my promises. Go and sell all that jewelry for all I care. The only thing I’m asking from you, Teal, is not to laugh behind my back like all the others, okay…?”

“Young Master, please wait!”

“Good night.”

He slammed the door shut. The sound hardly registered. Even the endless pounding on his door seemed like muffled pattering of rain.

He slid to the floor with his face buried in his hands.