Miavel

Dance.

Like… touching.

Like staring at his chest from less than a foot away. 

At least it wasn't his bare chest. He was wearing clothes. Clothes definitely helped. There were layers.

As we got positioned in the center of the room, his scent seemed to engulf me. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind it. It wasn’t a bad smell at all. The second I thought that, I pushed the thoughts to the deepest corner of my mind and tried to focus on moving my feet. After just a minute, I realized I’d held my breath for too long in my focus.

The world was getting slightly fuzzy around the edges. A slight stumble of mine had him tugging me closer. Beads of sweat rolled down the back of my neck as I tried to say alert. It was then that he leaned his head down, his breath tickling my ear.

“You can step on my feet. Just try to focus on your breathing.”

How considerate. Now, though, of all the times?

“I can’t…” I managed to gasp out.

That was the problem.

I couldn’t freaking breathe.

For the rest of the song, we were moving, but I was barely hanging on to a semblance of looking normal, trying to find myself in the dizzying movement of the room. Or of him, moving me around said room, through the other people dancing around us. I couldn’t recognize faces anymore. Sweat was running down my neck and face. Everything was too hot, moving too quickly, and I was severely lacking oxygen.

I had glanced up at him a couple of times, to see his eyes already on me. Emotionless. Probably wondering why I couldn’t manage to even breathe properly when he was practically making me weightless. I’d noticed my right foot was barely touching the ground since a while back…

How long was this song supposed to be?

An eternity passed and the music died down and applause filled the space around us. When my feet tried to hold my full weight again, I nearly fell to the floor. Nobody noticed, however, as my new and slightly considerate husband kept me in place.

I mean, I could guess he was strong, I just didn’t realize that I was a feather.

“I think you should retire.”

I paused at the whisper that found its way into my ear. I hadn’t heard him say much since we met, but I had to admit it to myself. I was partial to voices like his. If twenty people were all speaking in a room, I had a feeling my ears, picking out the most pleasing sound, would hear that silky deep voice of his. Without a doubt.

It took me a solid moment to figure out what he said and what his words meant. I gazed up at him, still taking constant shallow breaths to give my lungs any kind of sustenance.

“The party isn’t–”

It was all I managed to squeak out before he cut me off.

“If you can’t breathe and walk properly, do you think you’ll make it through the rest of the party?”

If there’s no more dancing, sure. Sitting was good and fine.

“It’s my duty to.”

He stared into my eyes silently for what could’ve counted as another eternity, but I knew it wasn’t. It was ten breaths. Quick breaths.

And then a halted breath as his hand came up to my face, tucking a strand of hair that had come loose behind my ear.

“Your duty is to live, Princess. That’s what you need to do. It won’t look good to have you die like this.”

I, partly following and partly being drug, ended up on the dais with him again, where he announced our early retirement and to let everyone enjoy the festivities and evening without us.

Barely hearing him, I felt as if I were in a trance, continually going over the conflict in his words. My duty was to live. But it would just look bad if I died already. Was I just supposed to live and die as he commanded, in the manner he wanted? But then, what was with the strand of hair? He could have just left it… or was it that it looked bad too? But, he didn’t have to do it himself, or so gently.

Was I just overthinking it all?

I couldn’t figure it out. Gentle kindness and live or live until it doesn’t look bad for you to die?

Not even as we took a flight of stairs slowly upwards did it make sense to me. And then there was a group of three ladies in front of me and a door to my left. As they started making a fuss and ushering me in, I noticed him go into the next door in the hallway. As the ladies were taking all of the heavy layers off of me and my feet were freed of the torturous shoes, I noticed the door.

“What’s that door?”

The rest of the room had seemed like any other room, with all it needed. But there was an extra door.

“That? Your Majesty can join His Majesty through there when we leave.”

“Wait. Join?”

“Yes, this door connects your rooms.”

And then it dawned on me.

Married.

Wedding night.

I had forgotten it entirely somewhere on the dance floor.

We were supposed to…

I tried not to feel scared. Nervous. Worried. But I couldn’t help it as my hands started to shake.

The ladies didn’t mention anything of it. Especially not when it was time to remove the corset they’d stuffed me into.

“Dear lord!” The one who’d shown her leadership among the three of them exclaimed. Her uniform was different than the others too. She had to be in a higher position. Her hair was brown like mine.

The other two ladies gasped when they noticed too.

“Are you even breathing, Your Majesty?!” The redhead asked.

“How did they get this on you?! You’re being smothered!” Deep brown eyes contrasted blonde hair as the third lady looked up at me.

I didn’t really care to have a conversation about it, I just wanted it off.

Well, if I was completely honest, I wanted to throw it in a fire and watch it turn to ash, but that wasn’t really something I could hope to accomplish right now.

“That’s just… how they did it.”

The strings came loose and I gasped in a large breath for the first time since that morning. It had been a very early morning. The world became cooler and bolder to my body and vision as it was removed.

They all made a larger fuss at my reaction, putting a smile on my face to hear it for once. To hear people complaining about something for me.

“Good lord, what is this made of?!” The first nearly shouted as she tested the flexibility of it in her hand. “This isn’t a real corset!” Then she turned to me, her eyes determined and concerned. “Have you worn this before?”

A bit startled, it took me a short while to answer her, the other two ladies pausing to hear the answer didn’t exactly help either.

“Yes,” I whispered.

The shouts started back up almost instantly.

“That – that thing is at least three sizes too small for you! Look at your poor skin! All these red lines!”

“Who would dare do such a thing to a beautiful body like yours?” The redhead cried out, nearly in tears over the matter.

“This wouldn’t even fit my ten-year-old sister,” the blonde admitted quietly.

“Of course it wouldn’t!”

They bickered over the matter for several more minutes as they dressed me in a nightgown, all in agreement with me never even touching that corset ever again.

By the time they left, I was in higher spirits thanks to them. Not to mention, I’d finally gotten back a normal rhythm to my breathing again. Despite my nerves settling in the pit of my stomach, I went to the door that led to him, to his room. To my future as a married woman.

I paused, my hand turning the knob on the door, only, it wasn’t turning. I jiggled the knob, thinking it was broken, only to stumble back with the realization that it wasn’t.

The door was locked.

He had locked the door.

I trudged back over to the bed before flopping down gracelessly. After a moment, I sat straight up and glared at the door, imagining it was him. Silence continued on and I sighed heavily before letting my body drop back onto the mattress. I curled myself into the blankets as I thought about the day’s events.

King Talyn was the most confusing person I’d ever met.

And we were married now.

Sleeping in separate rooms on our wedding night.

Was he a germaphobe? I mean, he didn’t help me down from the carriage… yet he seemed fine touching me as we danced, though, my memory of that could've been faulty due to high stress and no oxygen.

Was he just wary of people? New people? I mean, we just met. Maybe he just doesn’t trust that I won’t do anything?

When a new thought raced into my brain, I sat up again.

Does he think I embarrassed us? He had to call for us to retire early because of me. Is he upset?

I laid down and stared at the ceiling as I thought over my options.

I’ll apologize in the morning, when I get the chance. Hopefully, this won’t be my biggest mistake.

Talyn

I locked the door connecting our rooms amidst their exclamations about Miavel’s corset. I felt my hands curl into fists as I heard them, but there wasn’t anything I could do for her like this. All I’d do is scare her.

I’d thought something was terribly wrong, but to think she'd been wearing that since she left Cita…

Walking quietly over to the wall, I reached a hand up to touch the weathered feather, my finger trailed down the scuffed and dented shaft, all the way to the damaged tip. I pulled the arrow off the wall, just for a moment, just to look at it again.

I could still hear the sound of it hitting a rock near me, could still feel the shock that raced through me at the sight of it.

How many years was it now that this decorated my wall?

How many years had it been?

I returned it to its place gently before stepping over to the window.

“Miavel…”

I couldn’t help but quietly utter her name.

“Mia… I hope you’ll forgive me someday.” I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated with myself. "I just couldn't..."