To Love, Once Again

Lucien sighs, staring out the window long after Sera and Leo's figure had faded away into the depths of the castle.

He wanted to be there too, proudly holding his son, Sera at his side. The duties were still there on his desk, waiting for him to go through them while the ministers waited at the side for him to finish his small break.

With a voice taut with anger, Sera speaks to him, holding a silver tray.

"Hello, King Lucien, sorry I'm late with your lunch tray"

Hiding the happiness that blooms like a golden sunflower to hear Sera's voice, Lucien fixes his expression to appear kingly and turns.

And freezes.

Lucien stared at her in shock.

What the hell happened to Sera??!

"What happened to you!? Who did this!!?"

He hadn't seen the dark stains or messy hair or the small cuts on her arms from the window. Taking the lunch tray and setting it on the ground next to Sera's feet, he turns her face for any injuries before ripping open the sleeves of her dress to check how far the cuts had gone.

"Come here!! Right now!" Pulling out the ring strung around his neck on a chain, he yells into it, while it glows white in response.

"Bring me a new dress and a comb." Next, Lucien snaps at the closest knight, who looks incredulous at the order.

"Quickly!"

"Understood!" The knight sprints off, acknowledging the urgency of his King.

Pushing the hair out of Sera's face, he cups his large hands around her cheeks.

"Tell me where it hurts. Whoever did this, I'll-"

"Oh, I don't know, I just had an encounter with your betrothed."

Scratch her plan about seducing Lucien. Sera wanted answers first. No more games.

"Who?"

"Your betrothed! Lady Amelia, remember?"

"I don't know any Lady Amelia! Sera, calm down. We need to get your wounds dressed."

"Shouldn't you be off wooing Lady Amelia instead of looking after your mistress?"

"Who the hell is Lady Amelia!"

"Somebody tell me who Lady Amelia is!!" Lucien grabs the nearest minister and shakes him.

"Uhhh, sire.. Lady Amelia? Your rumored betrothed? Daughter of Dame Gertrude?" The older man sweats through his finery, knees knocking together.

"Daughter of that cunning biddy!? I want her brought up here, right now."

"Th-the biddy, or the daughter?" One of the knights step forward, uncaring of the glare the nobleman shoots him with at the disrespect to a Lady.

"Both!"

"Yes, Sire" Two knights pound their chests and exit the room, ignoring the cries of the noblemen who try to stop them.

"You can't!"

"Dame Gertrude, she'll!"

"She'll what, try to fight me?" Lucien raises a dark eyebrow. He was getting fed up.

Why did Sera think this woman was his soon-to-be wife?

Sera stands there, arms crossed, waiting to see what Lucien would do. Though Lucien tries her best to get her eyes to meet his, she staunchly refuses to even turn her face towards him.

Catching wind of the drama happening in the study, Icaros runs into the room.
"You can't!!" He yells at Lucien.

"All our plans, they'd be ruined!!!" Pulling at his hair, Icaros looks like a vein would burst in his head at any minute.

"Make new ones!" Barking back, Lucien uses a wet cloth to wipe the blood off Sera's delicate arms.

"What is all this racket going on about?"
A deeply hooded figure suddenly appears next to Lucien, speaking in a voice that's neither feminine nor masculine.

"Perfect timing. Elder, heal her"

"Um, hello Elder..It's been awhile!" Waving awkwardly at the Elder, Sera is getting overwhelmed with the situation growing bigger than she'd ever imagined.

With a deep sigh, the Elder steps forward.

"I knew this would happen" Releasing the tightness of his shoulders, he goes to work, raising one spotless hand in Sera's direction and muttering under his breath.

"Good thing your wounds are light"

A blue light surrounds Sera, and within moments, the blood stops, and cuts seal themselves together, finally disappearing into nothingness.

"We'll talk later...Hopefully the whole plan won't be revealed today.." Turning to Sera, the scent of chamomile lingers as the hood of the Elder brushes by Sera's ear.

Stumbling backwards, drained of all strength, the Elder disappears, as quickly as they'd appeared.

Lady Amelia and Dame Gertrude appear, unwillingly escorted by the two knights into the room.

"KNEEL!" The booming voice of Lucien, full of a King's authority, makes the two women drop to their knees.

They don't have the capacity to be shocked. The dark presence that fills the room malevolently pushes down on them, making it hard to breathe.

"What did you do to Sera?" Quietly, Lucien asks them.

"Sire, this is no way to be treating your fiancée!"

THUD.

Lady Amelia falls backwards as a dagger buries itself into the wood door behind her.

"Wha-wha"

Even Sera is surprised to see the violence emanating in heavy waves off Lucien.

THUD.

Flipping the dagger that Lucien's produced from who knows where, he asks the question again.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

Lady Amelia cries out in fear, light green dress going an even darker green with her sudden cold sweat.

"I-I poured a drink on her?"

THUD.

Feeling something warm drip down her ear, Lady Amelia is shocked to touch her ear and look down at her hand to see blood.

Fresh blood. Her own blood.

"Was that a question to me?"

"I poured a drink on her!" She screams out in fear.

THUD.

One last dagger lands in the space between Lady Amelia's legs, pinning her thick skirt to the grounds.

A sour scent fills the air, and Sera crinkles her nose. Lady Amelia had just committed social suicide. There was a dark stain spreading out from the center of her skirts. In public, with noblemen and knights and in the presence of the King, Lady Amelia had wet herself.

"And what made you think I was going to marry you"

Looking at her in disgust, Lucien crouches down, staring at Lady Amelia like a beast he'd caught and was about to butcher.

Trying to back away from the King but failing, she responds in a small, broken voice "Because mother said so.."

"Oh?"

THUD.

A dagger lands right above Dame Gertrude's shoulder. Lucien was not holding back against the nobles anymore. Enough was enough.

"Sire, who else would you marry, but my daughter?? She's well versed in the arts, beautiful, and already trained to be a perfect Queen by me!"

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Dame Gertrude looked like one of those circus acts now, with daggers planted all around her.

This time, the sharpness of the knife, along with the force and speed with which it was thrown, was enough to split Dame Gertrude's hat in two.

"Why would I need anyone else, when I already have the perfect Queen at my side"

Lucien points proudly to Sera.

"B-but she's only a mistress!"

Sera's mouth forms into an o of understanding. So that girl really wasn't Lucien's bride to be? Was this all really a stupid misunderstanding??

"No. This woman is the mistress of my heart. She owns me."

With a sudden motion, Lucien turns back to her, falling on one knee.

"Noooo!" Dame Gertrude wails behind them

Icaros kneels on the ground, hands and feet in a position of utter despair.

"It's all over", he moans

Unclasping the chain around his neck and removing the ring from it, he holds it up to Sera.

The fingers holding the ring up to her visibly shakes a little.

Lucien's hoarse voice becomes clearer as he speaks, pouring out his heart and soul to her with his clumsy words. He'd never been good with words. The more he spoke, the more likely it would come out in the wrong way..

Words hadn't been a strong priority in his life when most of his time was spent fighting in the battlefield.

"Sera, you....you make me feel.."

Finally, Sera's eyes meet his.

"....you're the only one that ever truly made me feel human. Without you, I only knew how to kill.. but you changed that. We even created a life together. A beautiful precious life..."

"Without you, I know only to destroy...I fear that even now, the longer you're here, the further your heart goes from me.."

"I don't want just your body, I want your heart, your soul, that can breathe life into my own."

A tear drips out of the corner of Lucien's eye. Please, his eyes begged. Don't leave me. Don't abandon me. Don't give up on me.

"This time, I'd vowed to give you the whole world, on your terms. Free from the constraints of being a Queen. Free to simply be. Just the three of us Sera, Leo, and Lucien"

".....I never meant to hurt you like this..."

He trails off. Voice growing fainter as he speaks.

"Will you, Sera Duncan, do the honor of marrying me?"

The ring was still there, waiting, in his palm.

"....."

There were no words. Sera was shocked. Utterly flabbergasted.

Silence.

"I was never going to marry anyone else. It was all part of Icaros' stupid plan. I told you, didn't I?"

"This marriage, the wedding preparations, it was for our wedding"

What.

What!?

This man had a major communication issue. Sera gapes at him, mouth falling open. They'd been busy carrying out some sort of secret plan, when all they had to do was talk.?

Lucien grips his knee with force, making the bone creak as he does his best to work up the courage to say the three little words that Sera had never responded to, to this day.

"...I love you" the words burst out of Lucien, unable to be contained any longer.

The whole room falls silent.

The goal, the end purpose, the final pursuit, was always Sera. The whole plan had been for her.