PENUMBRA // Tamaki Amajiki x Reader Royal AU

Chapter 9

After a mere hour since the scene in the market square of District 4, the king had already heard about it and demanded my presence to dismiss me, or so I assumed. The servant's usual stoic gaze was almost cold, expression laced with what appeared to be either disgust or disappointment. They were walking with much more vigor than normal, and I was almost struggling to keep up. Almost.

We turned many corners in the confusing castle but none of it was familiar this time, even climbing a flight of stairs. Ultimately, he took me to the king's sleeping quarters, I could tell from the large 'King Amijiki' lettering plastered onto the door.

The servant knocked on the door, "King Amijiki, Miss Y/N is here as you ordered.". We waited in the hallway as we heard a huff, a clatter and stomping towards the door.

"I suggest you come in Miss Y/N, if you have any value left for your position here." Never had I been under a gaze as stern and disgusted as the king's was, he appeared to be struggling to keep his composure. I entered his bedchamber as he promptly slammed the door behind us, leaving the servant to himself. "Did I not make myself clear that you were not to allow ANYONE besides the prince and I to learn of your identity?" The king was breathing heavily, crescent moons indented into his palms, clearly he had been vexed by me since before I arrived.

"I-

"Not only did you put your own self at risk but you put my self at risk and subsequently the whole kingdom at risk." The king was not swathed in his usual jewels and expensive cloak but instead wearing  a a shirt and tie, which was slightly askew, "Did you not even think for one minute about your actions, the harm it could cause? Do you even care about the people around you or are you so self-centred that you would put the kingdom at risk just to put on a show?" He mockingly elaborated by waving his hands and waited for me to answer.

"About what happened in the village-

"Get to the point, miss Y/N." The way the king spat out each syllable of my name caught me off guard and almost made me feel...hurt? "It was an accident, your highness, a carriage came rushing for me, in the heat of the moment I protected myself-

"Not stopping to think about the consequences of your actions, I see." The king begin to pace back and forth, around his very large, very neat room, "Well, unfortunately that is not good enough. Self-preservation should have been the last thing on your mind, you should have been thinking about the people around you and me." He turned to face me and for the first time ever, he looked me in the eyes.

"You should have died today you filthy beldam," I let out and audible gasped and cowered away from him, my back hitting the door. At school they told us that no one used the b word anymore, were they sheltering us? I felt sick. It was after this that the king lost all sense of self-control.

"I WISH YOU THOSE VILLAGERS HAD FOUND YOU AND BURNED YOU ALIVE BECAUSE YOU ARE MUCH BETTER DEAD THAN IN MY CASTLE," He was completely off his head, spit emerging as he spoke and knocking things off the desk and cabinets, "I WISH IT WAS A SLOW, AGONISING DEATH WITH YOU CRYING OUT IN PAIN FOR HOURS ON END BECAUSE IN THE WEEK YOU HAVE BEEN HERE YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT EAT MY FOOD, SLEEP IN MY BED AND WEAR MY CLOTHES WITHOUT GIVING ANYTHING BACK."

I should have ran out of there back to the safety of my room or even left the castle completely. I could have teleported anywhere but I stayed. I could have shut him up, killed him if I wanted to, showed him who the one with the real power is but I did nothing. Even if I wanted to, I was helpless to do anything, rooted in place like a tree and for the first time in my life, terrified. Genuine fear coursed through my body but I didn't fight or flee, I froze. The only thing running my mind was one word, beldam. So I endured.

"YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A PAIN IN MY SIDE. YOU ARE THE EMBODIMENT OF EVERY HAG WHO EVER LIVED. I HAVE BEEN KIND ENOUGH TO LET YOU INTO MY KINGDOM KNOWING FULL WELL THAT YOU WERE A DISGUSTING WITCH WHO SHOULD ROT IN A DITCH, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME." He began walking towards me and curling his hands into fists, "AFTER DISOBEYING ME MULTIPLE TIMES AND SNEAKING AROUND THE PRINCE IS STILL NOT FIXED AND CONTINUES TO MAKE A MOCKERY OUT OF ME AND THE AMIJIKI NAME."

The king walked right up to me and slapped my face, leaving a sting where his palm was but my body continued to render me useless, "I am being kinder than anyone will ever be to you, and giving you one last day to make any progress on the prince or you are banished from my kingdom and I will send word to every single kingdom I have communication with and warn them of you." He spit on my boots, "Now GET OUT."

Suddenly my body resuscitated and every nerve in it burned like ice. I turned away from the king and fled the room, ignoring the servant who had waited outside to escort me to my room, ignoring every worker in the halls trying to intervene and take me to my room, as I flew - literally flew - through the halls, I did not stop to question what was happening, everything felt so natural.

Consumed with rage, shame, fear and detest for everything around me, I was emitting magic from every crevice. Not a single thought filled my head besides escaping this wretched place. I wanted out as soon as possible and the only way to make that happen was to fix the prince once and for all, no messing about, as in my fit of emotions I had forgotten about what made me avoid him in the first place.

Roaming through the castle, I needed no help getting where I needed to be, my magic was strong enough at this point that I could sense what little life force was in the prince and follow it to his tower, never had I felt such confidence in my power.

The prince was staring out the window, when I flung the door off its hinges and burst into the room. He let out a squeak and dared not look at me. That did not affect what I was about to do.

In my fury I used my magic to drag him by the neck up to eye level, unlike everyone else in this place, he actually made eye contact with me, pleading in his eyes, "Make it quick." He let out a whisper.

"Ugh." Disgust was added to the amalgamation of emotions swelling up inside of me as I remembered why I had avoided him. I threw him against the wall and wrenched the iron bars from the windows and twisted them around his wrists so he would stick to the wall. "Not everything is about YOU."

Like my original plan from the other day, I would make him eat bread, only with more force this time. Without touching him at all, I forced his jaw open and ignored his efforts to speak, something along the lines of 'please don't'. A small loaf appeared in my hand and I used magic to send it down his open throat.I watched as he let out strangled cries and chokes, all traces of remorse had left my body, the king had made sure of that.

Not very smoothly but the loaf slid through his throat and entered his digestive system, I assumed it would not be long before this manifestation of the food I had been told about, appeared on his body, and I was right.

Before my eyes, the prince's right arm morphed into huge strands of wheat shooting out all over the room, trying to suffocate anything it could, wrapping itself around the bed posts and the chair, splintering the wood and making a deafening screech as the wood rubbed against the floor. One strand even found its way around my neck before I stopped the whole thing in its tracks and pinned the wheat against the wall.

After seeing the 'curse' in full bloom, I began to sober up and got control of my rage, lowering myself onto the floor and taking a deep breath. "I know how to fix you."

Observing the pathetic man in front of me, my gaze softened and I tried to understand that what was in front of me was really a broken little boy, who could never hurt me.

As silence won the war against the ringing in my ears I fell to the ground and finally cried. My despair escaped from my body in waves and the room began to shake aggressively. Curling up in the fetal position, I let out big sobs as tears ran down my cheeks. Little did I know, the tears would never stop.