Queen of the Broken

Chapter Sixteen

𝔉ilipendula Ulmaria
- Uselessness
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Ankai walked through the maze of halls with a look of utter confusion. Since he couldn't remember a single direction he and Rhaegar made when he was brought here for the first time, he just made random turns that he hoped would lead him somewhere.

But his patience wore down rather quickly. Especially as guilt also tugged at his form and made his steps stagger several times, before he pushed it away and walked twice as fast again.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe... something something... by the toe... if it something something...go" Ankai whispered, his gaze landing on a tunnel at the far right. He quickly made his way to it and entered it before he could give it a second thought.

Surprisingly enough, luck seemed to be on his side today as he managed to avoid all of the guards patrolling inside the maze. He always just about managed to take the right turns before they could spot him.

However, despite this, Ankai knew that luck was only a temporary thing. It never remained on one side for too long, constantly shifting. This became clear as he after so many lucky turns grew over-confident and sped up his pace, which of course resulted in him bumping into a set of guards.

One of them was tall and board, white skin contrasting deeply to the tattoos coating his entire neck.

The other was smaller and a lot tanner, the tattoos covering both of his arms almost blending in completely with his dark skin.

Ankai found himself swallowing hard but masked his intentions swiftly by smiling at them friendly.

«Oy, I haven't seen you here before. Were you moved to this position?» The lighter-skinned guard asked and Ankai bit the inside of his cheek.

«Yes, I am filling in for someone»

«Who?» The darker-skinned guard asked, and Ankai found himself frowning at his abnormally dark voice. On the outside, he looked like a kid, to be honest, but his voice was as if taken straight out of a fifty-year-old version of James Earl Jones.

When the smaller guard narrowed his crystal blue eyes, Ankai flinched a little.

Fuck, I was hoping he wouldn't ask that... the incubus thought to himself as he felt his confidence falter. But he forced his lips to remain tugged upwards in a friendly and somewhat relaxed smile.

Ankai moved on to bite his lower lip as he swallowed hard, hand curling into the fabric of the uniform hanging loosely on his body. He tried to remember the name of one of the guards that he had heard when he first got here. But... his memory was truly terrible.

«Em...An...Al...Der...»

Both guards stared with a deadpanned expression at the incubus that kept making random phonemes, before they moved on to watch each other with an equally confused demeanor.

«Der...Dar...ren, yes! Darren. I'm filling in for Darren»

The guards' frowns grew deeper as they both turned to look back at Ankai.

The bigger guard pointed to himself, his face pulling into a confused expression that made him remind of a giant puppy.

«I'm...Darren»

«Oh! Did I say Darren? I meant...E-Eren»

«There's no Eren here, and what kind of name is that? Who the fuck would name themselves Eren?» The smaller guard scoffed while rolling his blue eyes.

«It's a fucking name okay?» Ankai snapped, crossing his arms. «I'm filling in for Eren. And frankly, I don't have time for this mindless chatting. So, I'll be on my way, see you later»