"Your highness, your highness?" Yeran could barely hear Ruth's call, muddled and hazy with rage as his mind was.
He continued on his path, going ignorant.
The destination lay so innocently, barely a sound within.
Yeran was at a stage that is far past courtesies and pleasantries, he kicked the door open, uncaring.
The doors crashed open, hitting the other side of the wall. His eyes swept the room, dark, no candles lit, barely illuminated by the light of moon.
But it was enough, it was oh so enough to illuminate the figure by the window, again clad in white sleeping robes, though his eyes were alert, still awake past the wee hours.
Aki's hair was lose over his shoulders, strands curling against his cheeks, soaked in night moisture. For the first time, he looked utterly surprised, bemused even.
"Your highness...what...." his puzzled voice broke through the stalemate they were in and Yeran charged forward with determination.
With Yeran still in his heeled boots and Aki standing barefoot, their height difference was barely visible, Yeran peering into Aki's eyes at the same level.
"Waiting for results, darling husband of mine?"
Yeran growled into his face, Aki slightly leaning back with the proximity.
"What..."
For all he asked a question, Yeran did not wait for an answer, the sharp crack of flesh hitting flesh resonated against the room.
Aki turned his head from where it was whipped around, pale cheek already blossoming into a myriad of reds.
"How dare you?!" Yeran hissed, hand still raised.
"I...what?.."
Aki stood still, hair in his eyes, cheek red, already bruising, he still looked confused. Neither angry, nor pained, just confused.
"You!"
This time, it was the fist that landed, straight across Aki's cheek bone, which sent him sprawling against the floor.
"Is that what you wanted, is that why you tried to kill him?" Yeran knelt over him, knees bracketing the fallen body, both hands fisted against Aki's robe collars, lifting him off the ground.
A thin treacle of crimson dripped down his face, skin split under both the blow and a heavy ring of Yeran.
Aki put his hands over Yeran's, his face marred with a hundred emotions, passing over far too quickly to decipher.
"What are you doing? Kill...? Who..?" to say Aki was bewildered, would have been an understatement.
"Did you thought that if Zeke died I will come crawling to you? Is that it? Is that what this is about? well let me show you what you were begging for!"
Yeran pulled at Aki's robes, both wrestling on the ground. The cloth clasps holding the robe together tore against Yeran's manhandle, the robes falling open the reveal pale milky skin.
"Your highness!," there were hands at Yeran's shoulders, pulling him away from the sprawled figure at ground.
"Ruth! Let me go! Let go!" Yeran struggled against him.
"Not until you calm down your highness," Ruth's tone was stern, not open to arguments.
"If you do this, you are going to regret it for a long time your highness,"
"He...he...he almost killed Zeke!" Yeran raged, still fighting against Ruth's hold.
"You do not know for certain that it was him your highness, you cannot start a war on just a suspicion." Ruth explained calmly.
"Who else could it be!?"
"That, is what we need to find out,"
Yeran threw another look at Aki, who had picked himself off the floor and was now standing far away from them, a hand clutching the torn robes together. He looked sufficiently spooked, instead of the usual blank face.
"Fine! Fine! But I'm going to lock him up till I solve this," though still angry, Yeran could see sense in Ruth's words.
"That is your right your highness, he is the accused of an attempted murder, but you can't punish him without proof."
Ruth agreed, slowly releasing Yeran, but still cautious, ready enough to catch him if he were to launch himself at the Prince consort again.
But Yeran didn't, he swept his eyes over Aki, who was staring as if at a wild animal, eyes wide.
"You better pray I do not find anything Prince Aki! Or you would wish you were never born." With last passing words Yeran swept out of the door.
"Keep the Prince consort confined until I order his release, he is not allowed to leave this room."
Yeran ordered two guards who must have appeared at the sound of scrabble but was prevented from entry at presence of him.
The guards shared a confused look. But they were not in a standing to question.
"Yes your highness," they both bowed low.
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"I sure hope you did not prevented me just because you wanted to save your brother Prince Ruth, trust me, I do not take well to breaking trust." Yeran warned, examining Ruth's face, who didn't so much as blinked.
"It was only for the logical reasons your highness, if he was proven to be guilty, I will gladly execute him myself." Ruth replied.
"Hmm...." Yeran hummed.
"Your highness, the servant is here."
Yeran gestured Ruth to open the door at the sound of knocking.
The same servant who babbled that the bottle of wine came from Prince consort stood there, hands bound behind his back, a soldier clutching him by the elbow, already shaking like a leaf.
Ruth grabbed the servant, waving the soldier off. He pushed the servant to go down on his knees in front of Yeran, sitting at his office table, legs crossed, ankle over the knee.
"This servant did no wrong, your highness, please forgive this servant, your highness, please, please, please,"
The servant is already begging and Yeran had yet to even start questioning.
"Stop crying and answer me honestly, if you have done no wrong, you will be let go without harm."
Yeran narrowed his eyes at him, not that the servant saw, his face pressed against the ground in prostration.
"You said that bottle came from Prince consort, how? Why? Did he gave it to you?" Yeran asked.
"No, no no no no, his....hi....his highness didn't gave me the bottle, I.. I...I...I... was supposed to g...give it to his highness" the servant stuttered.
"What?!" The servant flinched at Yeran's yell.
"You said that bottle came from Prince consort," Ruth questioned, crouching down beside the servant, pulling him upright, who flinched, again.
"I..I.. I did...did..not...your highness...went...before..." he stumbled over his words.
"Then who the fuck gave you the bottle? And how did it end up in my room" Yeran shouted, standing.
"Calm down, just answer the question," Ruth said to the servant who threw himself into a prostrate again.
"This...this servant doesn't know, my..my lord..it was a kitchen maid who gave me the bottle, to serve it for dinner." The servant broke off...
"Then?" Ruth questioned, sparing a glance at Yeran who had taken to pacing the length of the room as if a caged beast.
"His...his highness didn't even broke the seal of the bottle, but he ordered for it to be brought to his room,"
"Stop stopping! Go on!" Yeran scowled.
"This..this servant was bringing the wine to his highness' chambers when Lord Zeke came, he..he...he ordered for the wine to be given to him and bring another to his highness,"
"And you just gave it to him?" Ruth questioned.
"I...I...did not question Lord Zeke, this servant wouldn't dare, there were many other bottles of wine of same, unopened, this servant complied with Lord Zeke,"
Yeran remembered how Zeke stormed out of his room after that small argument only to appear again in a couple of hours, already a bit drunk, with a bottle of wine in hand.
"Prince Ruth," Yeran addressed.
"Yes, your highness?"
"Keep the servant for further questioning , inform the ministry of investigation of all that happened and make them take him to the kitchens to see if that maid can be found, and see if any other bottles contain the same poison." Yeran ordered.
"I will, Your highness, will you be here till I return?" Ruth asked, pulling the servant to his feet.
"No, I will retire to my room, I must stay with Zeke, you are free to retire after that is done as well." Yeran replied.
"Yes your highness, what of the Prince consort?"
"Leave him be, this seems as if he is not a culprit, but I cannot decipher another suspect who would have the intention to poison Zeke,"
"But was that wine not intended for Prince Consort in the 1st place your highness?"
"The fact that he didn't even touched the wine but ordered it to be brought to his room is highly suspicious, don't you think so Prince Ruth? All that could be an elaborate ploy of him."
"Or the poison could have been intended for you, your highness, were you not to join Prince consort in dining? Before you changed your plans?"
"No, like I said before, I do not prefer red wine, there was some other intention. Have all the suspicions informed Prince Ruth, and pass the order for a full investigation. I must go."
"Yes your highness," Ruth bowed.
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Zeke
Hi,
Plot is thickening hmm...? Who could be the suspect? 🤭🤭 keep in touch to find out.
Peace out,
Arkhane.