Arslan Senki: The Witch

Night of Rest

A.N.
This is just a sweet, easy chapter. I mean it's long to read (almost 2,500 words) but it's easy-going and isn't action packed like the others. There are bits of lore dropping here tho...🤫
Happy reading <3

Gieve had slipped away from the group during introductions; not that he wanted to be there anyway.

It took quite a long time for Zofia to become stable. Gieve still didn't know if she had, as he left once the Prince had gotten there. He concluded this as a personal matter, and not one he should be there for.

After a long day, all he wanted was peace, so he made his way into the spacious and luxurious baths that Peshawar had to offer.

He'd been there so long his skin was starting to wrinkle and prune, and when he slipped out of the steaming baths, he wrapped a robe around himself and made way to one of the seats nearby.

A refreshment in hand, there was still one thing on his mind, and it was bugging him.

He sighed deeply. "Well, that's a few weeks wasted. All that trouble and nothing to show for it."

Gieve started to gesture with his hands. "No, I got to fret over a child like some nursemaid. Narsus on the other hand managed to snare himself a charming of rustic beauty."

His shoulders started to shake in annoyance. "I don't begrudge him. What does sit ill with me though-" he said, grabbing a peanut. "Is that since our company split, it was not I who travelled with mistress Farangis, but the glory-prince Daryun."

Gieve snapped the peanut between his fingers.

"...seems I owe you an apology, Gieve." Prince Arslan said.

It was only then that Gieve saw the crowned prince sitting by him, nearly covered by the fog.

He jumped back instinctively. "Highness?!"

Arslan paid his reaction no mind. "I ask too much. I should've been more sympathetic to your feelings."

"Oh. Not at all." Gieve shifted in his seat. "May I ask you what has kept you up so late?"

"I was looking for you, to thank you for all you've done. You not only protected Elam and I on our journey to Peshawar, not you carried Zofia on your horse while she was injured."

Arslan smiled. "Truly, I am in your debt."

Gieve drank his drink and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes. "It's nothing, please. I don't care for the Lusitanians are their brutal cult either. If there's something I can do to frustrate their plans, well that's so much the better I say."

"You're quite an interesting man."

"Well, thank you I think? And as for what I said earlier, I hope you found think me faint hearted."

Prince Arslan furrowed his brows in confusion.

Gieve continued. "In the pursuit of beauty, obstacles must be overcome! Yes! It is ever thus, I know that much. I'm not a stranger to hardship, your highness! I'm no soft-pampered court minstrel!"