Ayaz imagined a thousand and one ways in which he would die an honorable death, but he never thought a punch in the stomach was the way to end.
When Badriya struck him senseless, the only thing Ayaz could see was light. A light so bright and searing he thought he had gone blind.
Is this what happens when a person dies? He wondered.
A violent tremor sent Ayaz back to reality. His eyes snapped open to the mounds of treasure around him.
He wasn't dead. Well, at least not yet.
Ayaz struggled to set himself upright, grimacing at the slightest movement he made. The quaking made it even harder for him to stand up.
His eyes widened as the thought sunk in. The gold coins rattled and shifted beneath his feet. Rocks and debris began to rain down.
The cave was going to collapse.
"Badriya." Ayaz searched around him. "Badriya! Where are you?"
As if in response, someone cried from above.
At the top of the golden hill, Badriya was on her knees, her back hunched over. Ayaz couldn't see what caught her full attention for her to ignore the sudden earthquake. But one thing was clear to him: the jewel that once floated and glowed in the peak was nowhere to be seen.
"Laa, laa." He could hear her say in panic. "T-this can't be happening. This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"Get down there!" Ayaz shouted. "We have to leave before the cave goes down!"
Badriya turned around, peering over him. "N-no! I have to fix this! I have to—"
Like a clap of thunder during a rare storm, a loud boom sounded inside the cave, and the quaking became more relentless. Ayaz stumbled and fell on his back again. Badriya yelped as the hill of gold came tumbling down into a tide.
In no time, Ayaz was buried under the treasures, almost crushing him as if boulders sat over his body. He tried to move and get himself back at the surface, but with the weight of the gold pressing him down and his injuries making it even harder to pull a muscle, he was essentially stuck.
No. I will not die like this.
Gritting his teeth as hard as he could, Ayaz used his good arm to sweep the coins away from his body, kicking his legs along. He pushed and kicked until he was finally up the surface, gasping for his breath.
When Ayaz calmed himself and regained a little of his strength after a while, he looked around and Badriya kneeling down nearby as if she were still at the top.
"No no no. . ."
"Badriya." Ayaz attempted to go to her, but his hand clutched his side as a searing pain flared from it. He stopped in his tracks.
"H-how could this be?" Badriya asked no one in particular. "The cave had called for me. I am worthy of the jewel, just like the glyphs had. . ." Her gaze strayed to Ayaz. "You. You did this. This is your fault!"
"W-what?" His brows shot up. "I don't understand—"
"Don't pretend that you know nothing!" Badriya snapped as she stomped towards him. "Unworthy are the worthy and the loved. You came in here and the jewel turned to dust!"
A stalactite dropped nearby, taking Ayaz by surprise.
The shaking was getting worse. They had to get out of there. He should've been glad that the jewel was gone for good, but he couldn't help but feel frozen in his feet at the sudden revelation.
"The jewel is gone?" Ayaz muttered.
"Look at what you did!" Badriya showed him a small pile of sand sitting on her palm. "It's no thanks to the great Prince of Zecaj that the Jewel is destroyed!"
Ayaz couldn't help but seethe at her. "Why do you blame me for your misfortunes all of a sudden? I wasn't even the one who touched it!"
"Oh, so now you're blaming me?" She threw the dust onto his face, and he hacked a cough. "Didn't you read the warning before you came inside the damn cave?"
Ayaz faltered. The warning. . . it said something about full moons and the loved being unworthy. He wasn't sure what the former meant, but he was a bit sure he fit the words of the latter.
"O-of course I did." Ayaz swallowed. "But I didn't think it would matter."
"Of course it matters, himar!" Badriya exclaimed. "You're the goody-two-shoes prince loved by the people, and that makes you one of the unworthy!"
Ayaz barked out a bitter laugh. "Me? Loved by my people? How could they love me when they don't even know who I am? You didn't."
And you still don't.
Badriya crossed her arms. "Well, you have your father. . ."
"Are you even hearing yourself?" Ayaz threw his head off, a hysterical cackle escaping his lips. He wasn't sure if what she said was genuinely amusing or him losing blood messed with his head. "After what my mother did, you think that bastard still loves me?"
His laughter was cut short when another quake occurred in their wake. In the distance, a chasm appeared on the ground and started to swallow heaps of gold and treasure.
"We have to go," Ayaz said. "Now."
"Indeed." Badriya turned to him, poking his chest with a slender finger. "This is not over, you hear me? This is not over."
Ayaz nodded gravely. "It sure is not."
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along. Even with him limping, Ayaz forced the last of his strength to carry on.
"Will you just stop taking my arm all the time?" Badriya yanked her arm from him, hooked it around his back, and placed his good arm over her shoulder. "You're slowing us down. I'll take the lead."
They continued onward, stumbling on their feet. Ayaz could hear and feel the strain in Badriya's breath as she heaved the both of them toward the cave's exit. The thing seemed to stretch with every step they took, and with every step he hissed in pain. And so, instead of wallowing in thoughts that they were going to die in the cave, he turned to Badriya.
Ayaz's vision had been swimming ever since he was hit on the chest and left Badriya for reinforcements. She was still herself, but why did her features suddenly look. . . surreal? Her moon-stained face seemed to glow like the very moon in the sky from the dim firelight of the trembling cave. Her eyes of night were dotted with tiny stars that sparkled and—
Badriya shot him a glanced. "Stop staring."
Ayaz averted his gaze, his ears turning hot. She was right. He should stop if he wanted to preserve his rationality. She clearly didn't have any mutual feelings for him, and after breaking her trust, he couldn't blame her.
The cavern suddenly groaned. The chasm widened even further up to their feet.
"Take cover!" Badriya cried and pushed him away as a large stalactite rained down on them.
It was a mistake.
Ayaz moaned while he rolled on the sinking floor. Nausea hit him like a sandstorm, blurring his vision more than it should have. Everything in him throbbed and burned, especially his head and open wounds.
Just when Ayaz thought his body finally decided to halt, his heart dropped when he felt no solid ground on his back to catch him fall.