STOLEN HEART

The Royal Seal

Zane (P.O.V)
I grab her hand forcefully and shove the ring onto her finger, before she can protest there's a small flash of bright white light radiating out from the green emerald. I let go of her hand.
"What was that? What did you do?" She winces as she struggles to pull the ring off but it's no use, the spell is already set. I get up from the floor expressionless and head to the door, Aphmau repeats but her voice is raised this time, "What did you do?!"
"The ring is yours like I said," I say frozen in the door frame, back turned to her, "So it will stay with you. That ring won't budge until the day we're married so don't even try". She raises her voice once again,
"You think I want this evil reminder that I'm bound to you?" I say simply,
"No." my last sentence before I disappear is, "You will join me for dinner tonigh, feel free to wear that dress in there, I don't care". I exit out of the room leaving a wimpy girl on the floor.

Laurence (P.O.V)
I don't want to get out of bed, I would rather dream over and over again about how I could have saved Aphmau. When I do manage to pull myself out of bed, I head to the guard tower and join Dante and Garroth.
"There go some more." Dante says pointing towards a group of heavily packed people leaving through the gates.
"That's the fifth group today!" says Garroth sitting down on a stool looking at the floor.
"They're all afraid because Lady Aphmau's gone," I say, "Phoenix Drop is in a state of panic." Dante turns around to look at me,
"You're lucky Laurence." he says,
"What? Why am I lucky?". Garroth stand up from his stool a hand on the stone wall and says,
"because we all know that sooner or later there will be no one left here but us the way things are going. You can go to Metali but Dante and I have nowhere to go. We're outlaws from where we come from".
He sits back down. Dante stupidly says as a joke,
"What about O'kasis?" Garroth looks at him not in the slightest bit impressed,
"That's the last place I want to go!" He says. I look at the floor and speak with complete candour to him sternly,
"because of Zane or Aphmau?",
"Both!" He says, "I don't want to see her shut away, like a prisoner to my brother." He hits the wall slightly eyes still fixed on the floor. I can't keep it inside anymore,
"So like you did to her before she left?" Garroth stands up looking right at me.
"What did you say?" He says slowly as I look right back at him,
"You locked yourself up in your room, barely talked to her and didn't support her in anyway when we were faced with war from your city! You just spent that time sitting in your room feeling sorry for yourself!".
He says sternly, "That's not true!"
I almost shout, "Real Garroth? Tell me, tell me what was exactly going through your thick head!"