A start to something...
Or rather, the end of something. This bit comes towards the very end of "The Ordeal" and may have some slight spoilers, but it was the scene that spoke to me most right now. I'm as stuck as the two characters are at the end. I know who I want to speak first, but not what he will say. It will be revealed to me in time.
The Encounter
The mid-day sun cast a golden glow throughout the ornate room. Dust, illuminated by the light rays, hovered in the stagnant air. It was a fitting room for the Sun King, Keio thought as he stood in the doorway. He hesitated to enter, to face the monster that had so brutally tortured him since he left Pater and practiced the healing arts on his own. He didn’t even want to be there, but the guards who knocked on his door all but dragged him out and onto his horse, flanking him on all sides to ensure he wouldn’t escape. Keio knew it really didn’t matter. He was an expert horseman and could easily break free from the pack if he chose, not to mention he owned one of the fastest horses in the domain. A sharp point poked him from behind, bringing his mind back to the present. The guards led him to the foot of the king’s bed. There he lay, greying gold hair splayed out on countless numbers of pillows. He wore a silken nightshirt with gold thread detailing. His hands laced together and rested on his abdomen, which looked a tad swollen. Keio dared to look at his face, to look into the monster’s cold blue eyes. They were the same color of Iliana’s, a painful reminder that this was the man who provided the seed of her life, the only worthwhile thing about this brute. As far as Keio was concerned, the monster could crawl into his grave at any time.
King Aliard stared back with a blank expression on his wrinkling features. Before him stood his true enemy, the man that had broken the laws of nature and performed indescribable feats of magic. No punishment was dreadful enough to break his power. He had survived the front lines of a grueling war against the land’s most barbarous warriors, and he had survived imprisonment and torture in the land’s harshest penitentiary. Yet he bore the scars of a man who has suffered much. He was still only a man.
Pain seared through the king’s body. He clenched at the bed dressings, and his face convoluted until the pain ceased. Keio knew at once why he was dragged to this monster’s bed chamber. The king was dying.
They stared at each other in contempt for what seemed like hours. Neither felt inclined to begin the conversation that hung in the stale silence of the room.
The Encounter
The mid-day sun cast a golden glow throughout the ornate room. Dust, illuminated by the light rays, hovered in the stagnant air. It was a fitting room for the Sun King, Keio thought as he stood in the doorway. He hesitated to enter, to face the monster that had so brutally tortured him since he left Pater and practiced the healing arts on his own. He didn’t even want to be there, but the guards who knocked on his door all but dragged him out and onto his horse, flanking him on all sides to ensure he wouldn’t escape. Keio knew it really didn’t matter. He was an expert horseman and could easily break free from the pack if he chose, not to mention he owned one of the fastest horses in the domain. A sharp point poked him from behind, bringing his mind back to the present. The guards led him to the foot of the king’s bed. There he lay, greying gold hair splayed out on countless numbers of pillows. He wore a silken nightshirt with gold thread detailing. His hands laced together and rested on his abdomen, which looked a tad swollen. Keio dared to look at his face, to look into the monster’s cold blue eyes. They were the same color of Iliana’s, a painful reminder that this was the man who provided the seed of her life, the only worthwhile thing about this brute. As far as Keio was concerned, the monster could crawl into his grave at any time.
King Aliard stared back with a blank expression on his wrinkling features. Before him stood his true enemy, the man that had broken the laws of nature and performed indescribable feats of magic. No punishment was dreadful enough to break his power. He had survived the front lines of a grueling war against the land’s most barbarous warriors, and he had survived imprisonment and torture in the land’s harshest penitentiary. Yet he bore the scars of a man who has suffered much. He was still only a man.
Pain seared through the king’s body. He clenched at the bed dressings, and his face convoluted until the pain ceased. Keio knew at once why he was dragged to this monster’s bed chamber. The king was dying.
They stared at each other in contempt for what seemed like hours. Neither felt inclined to begin the conversation that hung in the stale silence of the room.