“Why not? Are you going to tell me about something as foolish as love, perhaps? Don’t bother, then. Keep living in your fairytale, Princess. But this one won’t have a good ending.”
She suddenly reached one of the tables in the banquet hall, and pulled out a medium-length sword from underneath it. Cessilia frowned. Had that been hidden here all along? Or did Jisel put it there? The red-haired woman swung the sword easily, as if she was familiar with it.
“Surprised?” chuckled Jisel. “I needed a place to hide it quickly after killing that idiot Pangoja girl.”
It suddenly hit Cessilia. The murder at the banquet! Jisel had vouched for her being on the balcony with the King during the murder, but she had no alibi herself, aside from her brief appearance during their interaction. So she really was the one behind Vena’s brutal murder. Cessilia couldn’t even say it came as much of a shock. She had her suspicions from the beginning...
“You were working f-for the Yekara all along?”
“Not that long. But when I heard about the competition and you arrived, Lord Yebekh was smart enough to offer me a deal... If one of his candidates got the throne, he would happily offer me a mansion to live in comfortably, as long as I got out of the picture. At first, I had no intention to betray Ashen, but when you appeared... I did try to extend a hand to you, but sadly, you refused, and the choice was quickly made. I knew Ashen marrying you would have a very different outcome than him marrying any other candidate. He didn’t care for them, but I knew he’d get rid of me if he was worried about what you’d say... and I was right, once again.”
“The Yekara t-tried to use you all along, Jisel. They were never g-going to let you live!”
“I know that too,” chuckled Jisel, “but I also had my own hidden card.”
Jinn growled in response, trying to chew a bit more of the window’s frame. For now, it was too small for the dragon’s head to come in, but at this rate, Jinn would surely break enough of it to actually get in...
The two women finally stepped closer to each other. Cessilia held on to her weapons a bit tighter, trying to evaluate the situation. She had never seen Jisel actually fight, but from the amount of strength displayed earlier, she definitely had inherited the Dragon Blood too. Not only that, but the way she moved her sword showed she had received decent training. How? During her years fleeing the Empire? She couldn’t tell. Either way, she was not expecting that woman to fight fairly. Jisel wasn’t even glancing at her dragon trying to break into the room and wrecking the balcony, meaning she expected Jinn to step into the game at any time. The worst part of all was that Cessilia couldn’t feel any real hatred coming from that woman. It was even scarier than if she had really intended to kill her. This was like Vena’s murder: brutal and cold-blooded. A faint smile even appeared on Jisel’s lips as they got closer.
“It feels like it was all bound to come to this, right?” she muttered. “You and I. Two women fighting for a man.... no, because of a man. I’m not that interested in the King anymore. He’s about to die, and the Yekara will marry their daughter to his adopted brother before getting rid of him too. Such a simple plan, but then again, this Kingdom is already on its knees.”
“You d-don’t know a thing about this Kingdom,” said Cessilia, lifting her weapons.
“And you do?” Jisel mocked.
Without waiting, Cessilia jumped forward, launching the first strike. Surprised, Jisel frowned and lifted her two blades just in time to block her. The two women’s blades loudly clashed, and for a few seconds, they measured each other’s strength, trying to push the other’s defense, their faces only inches away from each other. Their styles were somewhat similar, using the flow of their movements, rather than brute force, and trying to outmaneuver their opponent. For a while, it was as if a red fire and a purple-scaled creature were dancing around each other, trying to burn or bite the other, looking for a weakness. They never split up for more than a couple of seconds, before throwing themselves at each other again. Their style was superb, flawless, and fierce. It was nothing like the rugged fights from before, or between men using only their brute strength. Each woman was using her best skill, her wits, and showing off impressive fighting choreography. Jisel was dancing with her two mismatched blades as if they had been extensions of herself, while Cessilia balanced herself perfectly with her identical weapons. Despite the difference in their respective styles, the flow of their movements was sharp and swift, looking for the smallest window to attack, using speed and reflexes to try and best the other. Neither of them were showing any mistakes, always in motion, their light steps never touching the floor for more than a second. Their dance was like a death ritual, with the thunder and dragon’s furious growls as background percussion. Pearls of sweat appeared on their skin, as each woman was getting frustrated with the other.
After a while, they broke apart, by just a few steps, catching a quick break. The two women were now circling around each other like two furious wolves ready to bite one another.
“You sh-should have left, Jisel,” muttered Cessilia.
“You already said that, Princess. But you know what? I think the same of you. You don’t belong here. You’re a coward. And without your dragon, well, you’re nothing.”
The furious Princess thrust her swords at her again, and Jisel blocked it with a smile on her lips. They began fighting for real, their four blades hitting each other for a few minutes, the metallic clashes echoing throughout the banquet hall. Their fight was violent, cold, and merciless. Both of them were glaring at one another, looking for the next place to viciously hit and try to hurt the other. The more hits their weapons exchanged, the more Cessilia felt her blood boiling. Jisel’s repeated smirks were annoying her, as if that woman always mocked her.
She tried to keep fighting and remain focused, but it was too late, the venom from Jisel’s words were slowly poisoning her mind. She kept thinking about what she had said, and about Cece.
Was she right?
Probably. At least, when it came to her being a coward. Cessilia felt the same. She had felt that for a long time now, but the more she tried to push that thought away, the more vivid it came to her mind. Saying she was afraid of her own shadow wasn’t a lie either. It was just as Kassian had said… she was scared of looking back at the Cessilia from before. She couldn’t even remember what kind of girl she was before she had lost Cece. All she could think of, whenever she tried, was the painful result of her mistake. The guilt that was choking her up and tightening its claws around her voice all the time. Was it really love that had brought her back to Ashen, or the need to prove she was right to do what she had done for that love of theirs? It was suffocating just to think about it. Jisel was right. Her own anger, sadness, and remorse had been slowly building up inside, in all those words she had never dared to say. She resented herself for the weakness she had shown back then when her dragon needed her. Even more today.
“You don’t deserve a... dragon,” grunted Jisel, as their weapons clashed again. “That’s right. You’re too weak! Too much of a coward!”
She suddenly managed to graze Cessilia’s arm. Not a deep wound, but the sharp edge of her blade suddenly sliced the skin that was showing between the parts of Cessilia’s armor, leaving a vivid red line. Far from being bothered by the pain, Cessilia suddenly swung beautifully, and sent a violent flying kick toward her opponent, throwing Jisel far across the room. It wasn’t enough to injure her, though, as the redhead fell back on her feet, a victorious smile on her lips.
“Ha! See! The precious daughter of the God of War is nothing but...”
She stopped herself upon seeing Cessilia’s eyes.
The Princess was now standing completely still, suddenly looking different, almost taller. Her eyes were shining with a dangerous, vivid green fire in them, as if lit up by some inner flame.
Cessilia stepped forward, and despite the distance between them, Jisel stepped back, scared. Something felt off, as if she was suddenly faced with a completely different person. Someone that was not human.
“...You were right,” she said with a strangely calm, almost mesmerizing voice. “I am done being a coward. ...I am done being sorry and afraid.”
She looked down, frowning.
“There is some truth in what you said. I was always... dependent on Ashen’s love. Not because I didn’t truly love him, but because I could hide behind that to excuse what had happened to Cece.”
Cessilia’s heart ached painfully at the mention of her deceased dragon. Yet, she took a deep breath in. She’d had enough of resisting this pain. She didn’t even try to hold back her tears.
“...It was all my fault,” she muttered. “Although my family was there to tell me it wasn’t... Not because I went out. Not because I was captured while trying to reunite with Ashen. What those men did... none of that was my fault, that much is true. Whatever they were seeking, their misdeeds are their fault only. And they paid with their lives for it. The one thing I can never forgive myself for is... that fear.”
Cessilia closed her eyes. She was done pushing that memory to the back of her mind, silencing it like her own voice had been silenced for so long. She didn’t care anymore. No, she wasn’t going to allow herself to flee from it any longer.
“You said it,” she continued. “I was... paralyzed by fear. I was so terrified of what they’d do to me, of the pain I had already endured, that I couldn’t react, even when they did that horrible thing to my dragon.”
She lifted her fingers, touching the scars on her neck.
“For a long time, I couldn’t even bear to see these. I couldn’t bear the memory of that pain. I felt like they were still hurting like the first second their blades had opened my throat. I’d wake up in horror at night, terrorized. My mother had to drug me, just so I could endure it... but it wasn’t the pain that really hurt me. It was to relive the fear, and the pain in Cece’s eyes, over and over again. My dragon didn’t die for me. She died because of me. Because I was too paralyzed by fear to fight back.”
Cessilia suddenly reopened her eyes, once again burning with a green, scary flame inside. Jisel could feel something was completely different about her. It was as if she was facing an entirely different woman. Even her posture was straighter, taller, looking like her real height. When the Princess resumed walking toward her, she backed off again, realizing she only had a few steps left between the wall behind and herself. Right now, her whole body was screaming to get out of there, to put as many walls as possible between her and that woman’s green eyes...
“And you know what? The worst part is that I am still afraid to fight back. I’ve been afraid for so long, because I’ve seen the monster in those men’s eyes. And I knew that if I let go, even just one bit, of my fear, the anger I was building up inside would eat me up, and make me a monster too.”
She did have the eyes of a monster right then. The eyes of a furious dragon, stuck on her prey with a murderous, terrifying intent. Jisel kept backing away, raising her blades in a protective stance, but Cessilia’s cold and composed approach was just paralyzing her with fear. She felt like she had unleashed something in that woman, and would only regret it once she got over there much too soon.
“You... You’re just thinking this is because of Ashen?” said Jisel, in an attempt to say something, anything to save herself. “You think his love has made you stronger?!”
