The princess smiled. It was a beautiful and enchanting smile, usually high above all others. Far from the 'simple rabble' as Keir was. The blonde-haired beauty usually waved at the common folk from carriages and high balconies. The gulf between nobility and commoners never felt more acutely than in these moments. Many longed for a glance. A tiny second of her attention. Now she was only a few feet from him but seemed as far away as a star in the sky. A distance she maintained, just with the way the princess jutted her chin and how upright she sat in that noble chair.
"Why do you tell me these stories?" repeated Keir when she did not answer his question.
"They tell many tales of you too, Mirror Walker," the king now returned, suspicious eyes clinging to the thief. He drew his arms behind his back and placed his palms together as he slowly turned to face him. "They tell of a man who is said to possess no reflection. Who passes through no gates of wood or stone, but the paths of the Eternal, and who can see through silver and mirrors." The king inclined his head and stepped closer to the prisoner with unhurried steps.
So this was he... the legendary King of Thieves. The mirror walker. The changeling. Scion of Doom. This man possessed as many names as his painter kept colors. The people were creative in naming their heroes and terrors. But in the end, how much of it corresponded to the truth? And what was no more than flourishing imagination germinated out of fear, admiration, or ignorance?
"My captain told me of a thief like a shadow... who kept slipping through his and the soldiers' fingers," he continued as if talking about a fairy-tale figure. The king turned his gaze to the thief, who could barely stand alone. He wore a long coat with faded ornaments on it - presumably, it had once been the property of a nobleman. A wide leather belt lay around his hips, and a dirty shirt of dark blue linen wrinkled untidily. Everything else had been stripped from the thief.
He no longer seemed so unique, kneeling there like that. Instead, he looked like a simple young man, perhaps in his mid-twenties, who could have been plucked from any corner of the streets. That is ... not quite. Unlike everyone who surrounded him, from the guards to His Majesty himself and the princess, this man possessed a strange, striking complexion. Not pale like the snow covering them everywhere, but sun-kissed, almost coppery. The distinguishing feature of the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom where there were blue seas and islands instead of vast forests and mountains. However, they worshipped the Sun Lord Emadan just as they did here.
"Oh please ... all these praises are almost too much of an honor, Your Majesty," croaked the thief with clearly too little respect.
"Are they all just stories, then?"
"What?" Keir blinked in irritation.
"The things they tell about you. Is it just talk?" the king repeated, and now the princess in the seat shifted her weight too. The cushion beneath her sighed softly as she did so, and Keir frowned, not liking the look she was giving him so casually.
"Don't tell me you brought me here to show you my tricks?"
The king hummed as the princess rose from her seat. The numerous small gems on her dress clinked, and the fabric made waves of silk as she stepped to her father's side.
"Indeed, this is the only reason, Mirror Walker, why you are still alive, and your head has not yet been removed from your shoulders for all your crimes," she purred, the bright voice pronouncing the deadly cruelty far too lightly. Then the noble beauty bent a little and pulled a small hand mirror from the flowing fabric of her dress. Precious gold in elaborate coils and shapes of birds and branches cradled the polished silver surface to which Keir's gaze instantly attached itself.
Mirrors ... they had always been his blessing and his curse. The reason why he had been shunned and thrown stones at ... but also the reason why his stomach had always been full. Maybe this time, too, it would be his chance to change his fate for the better once more? He licked his chapped lips, which seemed even drier than before."What do you want from me?"
"As you have correctly guessed ... we want to see your ability," the king explained to him with an impatient tone in his voice.
It sounded like the warning growl of an impatient hunter. Keir just couldn't explain what put his majesty into such restlessness against his outward composure. The thief, however, recognized the signs beneath the façade. The way his majesty kept pushing and loosening his fingers behind his back and the hard pull around the ruler's lips, who indeed had found himself in far more nerve-wracking situations than a thief relieving him and the nobility of their belongings?
"Show us your magic," the princess demanded, and a strand of blonde waves slipped over her shoulder. She wasn't even wearing jewelry or a crown. The guards were tense, too, the air thick with cutting. They had gone to so much trouble to keep him trapped here ... to have him show them his skill, like a juggler?
Keir had often stolen from the rich snobs. They thought they were safe behind their thick walls, with all the guards and locks on their chambers. They hoped to keep the 'rats' out of their beautiful home ... but HE had no walls to climb, no locks to pick. He took what the rich were so protective of. That's why he was a hero to some shady people but a terror to the rich... Surely that had to worry His Majesty. But ... So much? No. There was undoubtedly more to it than that.
"What if I do it? Will I be set free then?" he ventured on the thin ice.
Beside him, one of the guards emitted a noise that sounded like a grunt - probably a suppressed laugh. But His Majesty's sharp gaze immediately brought the man back to a stiff, straight posture, and the grip on Keir's arm clarified painfully again.
"That depends on how well we like what we see," the king replied, darker now. He didn't have to voice the threat that lay behind it: 'We rather like it. Otherwise, your head will roll right now.'
The thief inevitably had to swallow harder at the lump that had been sitting in his throat since he had been locked in darkness in the chamber and that had refused to go away ever since. Slowly he nodded, and the princess immediately beamed as if he had just placed a unicorn's horn at her feet. She straightened up again, and the king raised his hand in a commanding manner. The two guards released the thief from their firm grip, and he could not help shooting them a nasty look.
"Well, in that case, I certainly wouldn't want to disappoint Your Majesties."
I preferWith somewhat stiff movements, he patted the dirt off his clothes to get a little more feeling into his limbs. Keir ran a hand through his hair from his forehead to wipe the dark strands out of his field of vision. He was still dizzy and his tongue sickeningly dry. But it took more than that to take away HIS optimism. Instantly his lips pulled apart into a grin that only dared to overshadow the throbbing of his nose. Even the dull ache could not stifle the flicker of fire in his irises.
"Bring me a larger mirror, dearest princess. Then I will convince you that I am undoubtedly more amusing alive than dead."
So your highnesses wanted to see his trick?
They could have that!
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