Heir to Light | Fablehaven AU

X - bloody hands

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If there was one thing Seth didn't miss about Fablehaven, it was the throne room.

Sure, Kendra had always waxed poetic about the stained glass, hanging flowering plants, and vines that climbed the walls. And that was definitely her right—she controlled the garden in the throne room through her magic. That's how no leaves ever obscured the windows and the foliage always bloomed. (Well, Kendra would always diminish her power and point to the fairies that often flitted about, but, to be completely honest, those spiteful sprites were the bane of Seth's existence. He really wished they weren't always in the castle. The times he rarely got his wish were due to another court visiting or a festival bringing in lots of foreigners because the fairies would return to the forest or hole up in people's attics. But don't get him mistaken, Seth didn't advocate for magical creatures to hide—he advocated for himself to prank the little pixies back. But. No. Apparently, not allowed. Protected species or something like that. Anyway—) Besides the irritating fairies, the throne room also held all the boring court proceedings where his butt would ache in the wooden chair and where two thrones had disappeared four summers prior.

But, while the throne room in Fablehaven was at least familiar, the throne room in Terrabelle struck terror into his heart. There were no crawling flowers or bright leaves. It was only the place where the temporary, unstable future of his court had been decided.

It was this foreboding recollection of Seth's last time in Terrabelle's throne room that accompanied him as the doors stood in front of Seth, just as imposing as his first night in Terrabelle.

Servants had pulled the velvet curtains tight across all the windows in the castle today, and the frigid air caressed the skin of the people unlucky enough to be trapped inside. It felt like the Grimm was whispering in his ear, hinting at what was to come. Good thing he'd never been too good at listening.

In front of him, the jewels sparkled on the wood of the doors, and Seth wondered if any of them held the magic-dampening crystals. Personally, he was not shackled with them. But, Kendra was, and she was right behind him. So, they affected him anyway. Her cuffs seemed to affect him within ten feet, but Seth was curious if the radius was affected by the size of the crystals. Or if there were crystals of higher quality that were more powerful. Either way, considering he didn't feel an increase of that cursed dampening feeling as he had approached the doors, he figured that the crystals did not adorn the door.

Boredom stretched even as the prisoners and their personal guards lingered outside of the doors. Seth's adrenaline had deserted him after the first few minutes of stalling, and now it seemed like he would die of boredom before an executor would even get the chance to chop his head off.

It was torture to stand still.

As the guards continued to wait for some signal, Seth glanced back at Kendra.

Until this morning, his last sight of Kendra had been early yesterday at breakfast before he and Patton had left to go to the market. This morning, there had been no breakfast, but he had seen Kendra when they had retrieved him from his cell and began the procession to the throne room. Kendra's transformation since yesterday was astonishing. Anger had sharpened her eyes, and her mouth was set in a grim line. Her constant companion of a golden diadem was absent, and her wavy hair didn't seem to understand how to fall without the guiding tiara.

Their whole lives had been upended in 24 hours, and after the incredibly rough sleep the night before waiting for some sign from Eve but receiving none, Seth's hopes had steadily fallen for a way out.

The guard shook his shoulder to force him to return his forward stare. Back to cataloging the varieties of jewels wrapped in the wooden door.

He and Kendra still hadn't exchanged any words, but Kendra had reached out for his hand when they had first brought him out of his cell. The guards had not liked that and had made sure Kendra felt the sting of her misaction.