Verrat didn’t notice her absence. She stands at the entrance of their bedroom while he scrolls through comments on social media. It looks like he hasn’t moved since she left. He’s even wearing the same clothes.

Fear and foolishness sift through her body causing a shiver. She doesn’t realize she’s on the floor until she feels rough carpet.

Wait. She cannot let her emotions show while there are cameras. Memories of repression flood her mind until she forces herself to full height.

At least he didn’t notice her suspicious behavior, is what she tells herself. Maybe this is for the best. Her lungs still cling for breath so she emerges into the living room and sinks onto the glowing couch.

She doesn’t awaken for two days until Verrat shakes her awake.

“Baby we have to be on set today!”

“What day is it?”

“The twentieth.”

“…I see.”

Why did she sleep that long? Was she drugged? She doesn’t remember drinking or eating anything suspicious. Her body is incredibly exhausted.

Moving is a chore. Crawling is undignified yet it’s all she can manage while Verrat is too busy staring at comments while a mad grin adorns his face.

It is then that she thinks of the nursery rhyme ‘Magnitude.’

“Two little ravens fell

From the mothers womb

Onto the sodden ash, failure wasn’t determined

But begot sea and wine conflict

War drew blood and thus the kingdoms were born.”

As she applies makeup to her tired face, thoughts drift towards her family. Sometimes they’d send Digital Birds to the window as a sort of message. It’s an outdated form of communication but there are still a few in circulation.

After finishing her makeup shock spreads across her face when they step outside. A MAINS vehicle sits in the front lawn. It’s a mechanical horse drawn carriage, the kind the nobles use.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Like it?”

“How did you afford this?”

“A fan sent this as a wedding gift and it’s the newest model!”

“And you just accepted it?”

“Yeah how couldn’t I? Baby it’s already sold out everywhere.”

There doesn’t seem to be any foreign devices on the vehicle yet darkness permeated from the corners of its eyes.

Logically, her hand finds Verrat as he helps her into the carriage.

Rationally, she leans against him as they go down Main Street.

External, she peruses the sky and spots airships when the carriages cover lifts with the click of a button.

Reporters are clamoring for their attention on motorcycles flecked with gold that flickers in the dawn, and a strange set of madness curls through her lungs.

She flashbacks to a strange time in her life.

“I can’t do it!”

She’d plead with her mother, years ago. She’d been thirteen, an age which the matriarch deemed fit to toss her in the woods with only a knife to spare.

Strange men chased her through the foliage until she scrambled up the tree. That’s when they shot. Her body fell from the trees as she struggled for breath, when a fierce adrenaline took hold.

Somehow, the knife lodged itself into a man’s stomach but it was all her own doing. Another tries to grab her waist but she whirls around to bite his forearm in such a way that blood drips down his dark skin.

Then she stabs him. The third man aims but she leaps like a leopard and has him stumbling for balance. The knife grabs him in the heart, and the second man pulls her by the hair like a menace.

However, a sword comes through his chest and he falls forward. Her father wipes the blade on his jeans and she realizes that her mother hadn’t sent her out to die, only to experience her first mission. Why else would she send her father?

Her eyes are still wild when she gazes upon him, yet the rational part of her brain recognizes him as an ally. Family. Still a snarl rips through her at the injustice of it all. It’s probably the point.

Her mother called her ignorant when she returned home, but still tended to her wounds and pulled out the bullet.

“Ignorant. Always watch out for any assailants and trust no one, even family.”

“B-But it was a t-test. You sent father.”

“Your father allowed you to get shot.”

“The M-main House is the same a-as the Branch.”

“You know nothing of the cold or heat, girl. Know your place and use it.”

Anmutig returns to the present as Verrat puts an arm around her. He smiles and shouts pleasantly to the reporters.

Ignorance can only contain so much until failure heats the ice.

“We made a contract, you and I?”

She says.

“Hmm? Yes, of course we did since we’re married.”

“Before marriage.”

“Oh you mean at the lake. Why bring it up now?”

“The terms were that we would never cheat nor destroy each other in any capacity.”

“Of course though it sounded a bit dramatic.”

“Another term was that we’d love each other unconditionally.”

He nods, clearly done with the conversation.

“But what does love mean to you?”

“Uh just caring about other people, what of it?”

“To some love is doing anything for anyone regardless of circumstances, or even the people themselves.”

“Yeah.”

“Though I think some people put different kinds of love in boxes.”

“What do you mean?”

“One box is reserved for those in familial relationships while others are of the romantic kind. Sometimes they merge or are reserved for friendships.”

“That’s kind of complicated.”

“Some find it easier to label than others, even subconsciously.”