Ruby Fridays

Chapter 46: The Rose

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N O W P L A Y I N G

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───── ❝ R U B Y  F R I D A Y ' S  P O V ❞ ────

║ Gregorian Calendar ║ 02 - 21 - 2027 ║

║ Sunday║ (D - 5) Before the Commencement of Olympia's Cup║

It had been weeks since the training for the sinister Olympia's Cup started. And those weeks turned to days were filled with grueling physical challenges and exhausting mental tests, pushing each of us to our limits.  A week of drills, combat practice, and preparations for the deadly challenges to come.

The training was relentless and demanding. Every muscle in my body ached constantly from the physical exertion. My mind felt like mush from studying maps, schematics, historical texts, puzzles, and ciphers on the challenges we might face. 

Still, my thoughts kept drifting back to that fateful afternoon at the training grounds, when the shadows had felt so alive and secrets had spilled from my lips, revealing the hidden passage that now lay between Killian and me, uncrossable, my confession hanging heavy in the air.

It had also been weeks since I had spoken or looked directly at Killian, after my unguarded slip of the tongue had revealed the secret passage I had discovered — a potential means of escape from the coming trials. The words had tumbled out before I could stop myself, a foolish mistake.

I replayed that moment over and over in my head, wondering if I could have said something differently. But the words were spoken and could not be taken back. Now I had to live with the consequences of revealing that secret and the strain it had placed on my relationship with Killian. 

That afternoon, I can vividly remember how he had stared at me with an unreadable expression, before turning and walking away without a word. An uneasy silence had grown up between us ever since, though we continued to train alongside one another. 

The training pushed forward, each challenge now feeling like a test of endurance as much as skill. But through it all, I felt Killian's eyes upon me, filled with a question I dared not yet answer. As we moved through exercises and drills, an unspoken tension hung in the air between us. His gaze followed my every movement, and yet he said nothing. The awkwardness of that silence weighed on me with each passing day, a barrier growing higher the longer the truth remained unspoken.

The challenges ahead were difficult enough without the added tension between us. Each day with him, the air grew heavier with the anticipation of secrets yet to be revealed, the truth lingering just beyond the grasp of the light of day. Our training continued in this strange limbo, caught between what was and what soon must be, as the question in Killian's eyes remained unanswered and the growing distance between us seemed impossible to bridge.

I had thought I saw something that night in his eyes as the words tumbled out, a fleeting emotion that he quickly masked. But that look, that brief moment of vulnerability, had haunted me ever since. I should not have told him about the passage, I knew that now.