Yvar stood there looking at Una as she quickly ran to a curtain to cover her nudity. He had heard everything she had said, including the fact that Una loves him, somehow, someway.
Yvar walks over to Wilona's wardrobe and pulls out a silk nightdress. He stares back at the bruised body of Una.
"What did she do to you?" Yvar asked softly, handing Una the dress and taking back his sword.
"Everything," Una said.
"Tell me," Yvar said gently.
"What do you care? It's not like she broke me." Una mumbled.
"I can see the bruises on you. I'm sure there are far worse ones on your heart."
Una sighed as she patted her dress down. She looked at the floor.
"Yes, she hurt me, but she didn't torture me."
"How so?" Yvar asked, sitting down in a large wooden chair and crossed his legs over.
He was genuinely interested in his future wife's behaviors when he was not around. He knew she wasn't the kindest individual, but for her to hurt Una made Yvar break as well.
"Well, today, she kicked me in the ribs a few times and emptied her chamber pot on me. Her strength isn't great since she is frail bodied, but her nails are long, and they sting." Una said softly.
Yvar sighed and sat further back in his chair.
"How can you marry a woman like that? She's my aunt, and if she treats me this way, I couldn't imagine your children." Una said, turning her head away from his gaze.
"She's your aunt?" Yvar asked.
"She was my tyrannical mother's sister. I should have known all along, but my family lineage has always been so vague." Una said, thinking about Arawn.
"Wilona never said anything," Yvar said.
"Why would she? I am the enemy, I am your enemy, which begs me to ask you the question. Why are you here? Were you not my friend?" Una walked over to him.
Una sat on her knees a few feet in front of him, looking up at him, showing her respect as a friend. If she were acting like a queen, it would be a disrespect for herself to sit below the gaze of Yvar. Yvar sat staring down at Una with a neutral expression. Una clenched the dress at her knees and sighed.
"Have I forsaken you? Why is it that you are consulting yourself in the arms of the Pendragons? Do you want power, riches? I could have given you all of that if you had asked." Una said bitterly.
"This isn't a good time. I was asking because you don't seem like yourself." Yvar said honestly
"When is a good time, Yvar!?" Una exploded.
Yvar was taken back and gulped as he crossed his arms.
"Don't get all defensive, answer my question. You at least owe me that much for leaving me." Una said.
"I left you?" Yvar scoffed and turned his head from her eyes.
"That's rich coming from you." He said under his breath.
"What!?" Una crossed her arms now.
"It's not the first time either." Yvar's voice began to rise.
"Why are you shouting at me? What did I do to you?" Una begged.
"No, you are the one who is getting wroth!" Yvar turned his head back and leaned forward in the chair.
"Listen to yourself for once. I am trying to understand!" Una shouted back.
"Understand what, Una? You understand everything, apparently. Figure it out!" Yvar snapped back.
"Why you are so angry with me! I know you, Yvar, better than anyone I know. I know when you are mad. And this was before you started shouting. I knew you were mad the moment you walked through the door!" Una said, clenching her fists.
"If you want the truth..." Yvar hesitated but still yelled loudly at her.
"What! Tell me!" Una said with furrowed eyes.
Yvar remembered Una's words, seared into his mind from earlier. She revealed to Wilona that she loved him, and he couldn't rationalize it. How could you abandon someone you love? It wasn't possible.
"You've hurt me more than you know," Yvar said, looking down and clasping his fingers together as he hunched over.
Una took a deep breath.
"How can I make it up to you?" Una said softly, wondering what it was.
"Nothing. Can you fix a jar once it is shattered or stand a tree up, once fallen?" Yvar asked.
"What did I do?" Una said earnestly.
"Tell me, please. I want to fix this," Una said.
Una felt her eyes burn with anger and sadness. She hated her self now. How was she so blind that she could not see the suffering she had inflicted on her closest friend?
"You left me, without so much as a word. You broke my heart." Yvar said.
"What are you talking about!?" Una said carefully, not to raise her voice again.
"We were children. I waited for you for so long. It had snowed afoot, and I was still sitting on our rock in the woods, waiting for you, freezing. You never came." Yvar said, clenching his jaw.
Una sighed deeply.
"Yvar, please..." Una said softly.
Yvar interrupted her.
"Just stop! For once in your life, stop making up excuses!" Yvar stood up and looked down at Una, pointing his hand at her.
Una looked up and squinted as her tears fell from both eyes and her lips trembled.
"You don't know how painful that was for me, Yvar!" Una shouted, but not in anger.
Una was genuinely upset now, from sadness. That was one of the worst memories of her life, how her father forbade her ever to see Yvar again so long as she lived. Yvar was her only friend, so being separated from him was a fate worse than anything Una had ever known.
"Oh, spare me your pity!" Yvar seethed.
Una bent her head down and placed her hands on the floor.
"I tell you true! My father forbade me from seeing you, and I never knew why until now. I have to tell you the truth since I know it now. I can't make up excuses for myself or my father anymore. Just please, give me your time. It will not be wasted." Una begged Yvar as she was hunched over on all fours.
Yvar was done listening to Una, but he would give her these last moments as a token of their lost friendship.
"I will give you these last few moments in remembrance of the bond we once had, but know what you say will never convince me otherwise. The Pendragons will quell your last troops. It will be hard for you to accept, but you won't win." Yvar said softly.
"I know that, Yvar. Do you think I would give up so easily? I am not one to back down, you know. I have never given up on anybody, even you! I never gave up on you, Yvar, and I never will!" Una knelt her forehead to the ground and wept.
"My father tried to kill the man who killed his best friend. His attempt was fruitless, and he knew an army was coming for his head. He knew it would be anyone who was a Dane or Viking. We had many in our kingdom. You were one of them. He couldn't take chances having his daughter so close with a boy whose mother or father might kill his eldest daughter. He forbade me to see you again so he could protect me." Una admitted.
She put her hand on her heart, feeling her chest tighten. She couldn't look up at Yvar to see his expression. She has waited so long to get closure, but still, deep down, it was not satisfactory. Una always felt empty and lonely.
"He didn't know you, Yvar, the way I did. I know you were raised as a slave, and there was no way a boy could kill me. I think it was foolish for my father to do that. He destroyed our friendship forever. I tried to console myself over the years, and I wanted to ask for your forgiveness. But how could I when I know that there was no way you would ever forgive me for that? That was when I saw you in the Gwynedd army. I couldn't ever forget you, Yvar. Your face and body had changed, but when I gazed into your eyes for the first time in so long, I saw you again. When I saw you, I wanted to bow to you and tell you how sorry I was. I wanted to apologize, but I couldn't, so I walked away."
"You couldn't?" Yvar said softly.
"I knew in my heart that you couldn't forgive me, so what was the point?" Una said honestly.
"My father took away from me the only thing I ever loved." Una cried, burying her hands over her face.
Yvar looked down at her on the ground, kneeling in front of him. She was sincere. He could hear it in her voice.
"My heart goes out to you, Una," Yvar said softly.
"That's something we both have in common," Yvar added.
Una quickly stopped crying and took her hands away. She stared down at the ground, wide-eyed.
"What?" Una whispered.
She could hear Yvar stand.
"That's all I needed to hear." She could see his boots turning in front of her.
Una could hear his heels against the floor as he slowly made his way to the door as if he was coaxing Una to say something. Una was speechless. She was a mute. Nothing could come from her mouth, for millions of thoughts surfaced in her head all at once. How could her fate be this cruel?
"I'm sorry, Una, but we can't go on like this. Our friendship was just a chapter in our lives that needed to end long ago. There is no use in keeping this wound bleeding. I'm sorry it had to end like this, but we are no longer companions. You have betrayed me, and all I needed was that apology to move on with my life. This will be our last moment together as familiars, as best friends as you say. After this, we can no longer be together. I don't want to dig up old bones. Just let us die peacefully." Yvar said at the door, hesitating to leave.
"That's it!?" Una jumped to her feet.
Una squeezed her fists until her knuckles were white. Her face was sorrowful, tears streaming down her downcast eyes.
"I poured my heart out to you, and all you bid me is good riddance? How is that a peaceful end? You ripped my heart out!" Una sobbed.
"Now you know what it feels like to be abandoned by the ones you love," Yvar said.
"How dare you!" Una marched up a few feet behind Yvar.
Yvar would not turn around.
"I've had to live every day with that feeling. Everyone I ever loved has left me through death, betrayal, or fleeing! You are all that I have left, what is left of everything that has shattered in my life!" Una cried out to him.
Yvar opened the door.
"Guards!" Yvar shouted.
"Don't do this!" Una beckoned him as she realized he still had her sword in hand.
"Where are the guards, damn it!" Yvar shouted louder.
"I implore you, Yvar. You promised me that we would never grow apart again!" Una cried.
Yvar turned around, emotionless.
"We can never be together again, Una, not as friends, not as love, but through hatred only, as enemies," Yvar said mercilessly.
"Yvar, no! I cannot! You don't know how much you mean to me! You were my first love, and I always believed that you would be my last!" Una collapsed on her knees as Yvar stared down at her.
"Maybe it could have been that way, but you obviously have chosen your path, and I have chosen mine," Yvar said, turning as the guards stormed the room.
"Wilona says you are with child." Yvar bent his head down, feeling his eyes burn.
He always dreamed of being with Una and often thought about their children together, who they would look and act like. He wanted that life so badly, but now he sees a path not blocked by Una's blood lust. It is his own path against Una. His most generous friend was now his greatest enemy.
"Is that what this is about? It can't be true. How would she know? I don't even know! I have never laid with a man but just that once because I was heartbroken! I know you have done the same!" Una said as the guards grabbed her arms and picked her up off the ground.
"Wilona is everything you are not, and I love her, and I will give her all the things I would never give you. We are going to be happy, and you can never destroy my happiness ever again." Yvar said, closing his eyes as the guards led Una away.
"You don't mean that!" Una cried as she willingly gave up.
"Where to, Lord?" One of the men said.
"Put the whore in the tower with that other Celt," Yvar said monotonal.
"Yvar, please!" Una cried.
"You know I love you. I can never love another!" Una wailed.
Yvar bent his head down and covered his mouth as his silent tears streamed down his face.
"Yvar!" Una screamed down the length of the hall until her voice trailed off.
Yvar finally got his wish, for Una to understand what it felt like for him, but now he feels something greater than pride, his remorse. He hated that he had to shun Una away from him. He did love her still, so very much. He couldn't blatantly say it outright, that he had loved her just the same. He was so torn up.
"Oh, wow, the guards are fast! I sent them from the throne room!" Wilona said, stepping into the room.
"I sent them," Yvar said, concealing his face from Wilona.
"Yvar, what's wrong, my love?" She said, walking up to him.
Yvar had his head bent down. His hand was against his forehead. His tears silently fell, and his body involuntarily trembled.
"Yvar!" Wilona said, putting a hand on his forearm.
Yvar knelt his head up. His eyes were red and his cheeks. He looks like he had been crying for a while even though barely any time passed.
"Why are you so upset to see her go? I thought you hated her?" Wilona said, shocked at his melancholy.
"I'm not sad. She was talking about my childhood, things that hurt to this day." Yvar said, sniffling.
"Aww, it's alright!" Wilona said, wrapping her arms around him.
"Don't worry. You will have your chance to kill her soon when the time is right!" Wilona whispered and patted him on the back.
Yvar clenched his jaw and pushed Wilona away.
"No...I...I can't!" Yvar said nervously as he looked away.
"What do you mean, you can't!?" Wilona said with a harsh tone.
"No, no. She can't die by me?" Yvar said, looking around the room.
"My father has entrusted you in doing so. Do you wish to release your position as his right hand, Yvar?" Wilona hissed, putting her hands on her hips.
"No, but I can't do that to her. It's unfair!" Yvar said, walking around, touching objects to distract him.
"You can, and you will! This is not some silly game. There is no such thing as fairness in war!" Wilona screeched.
"Damnit, yes there is!" Yvar said, slamming down one of Wilona's peplos pins.
He jerked his head and stared angrily into Wilona's eyes.
"A good king is fair and just, and there is no room for any injustice. If there is, that means the king is weak." Yvar said.
"Oh, Yvar. You must be so tired. You need to quit reveling in your past and remember that soon you will be a king!" Wilona said and grabbed Yvar from behind his waist.
Yvar calmed down. He knew he couldn't kill Una. They were matched in every respect. Yvar and Una were equal in intelligence, diplomacy, strength, and agility. A fight to the death would cause both of them to die from exhaustion. Una was similar in every regard, and to defy her meant he must withstand himself.
"And don't worry about Una, Yvar. I will make sure that you will win against her. Now, take me to bed, will you?" Wilona grinned manically.
Wilona still had some Magick up her sleeve that would indirectly cause Una's destruction. Even Arawn couldn't pinpoint the plan that was about to come into fruition, the demise of Una Elisedd. It will be disguised through destiny and masking. Wilona knew Una loves Yvar, and she will use him to do her dark bidding one last time. Una would never suspect Yvar to hurt her, even Yvar himself. Now both were in jeopardy, for darkness was soon to come, and Una was soon to fall to it.