Remember Eckhart, the shadow is your home and the light is your greatest enemy.
His eyes flung open and saw his right hand reaching out to the ceiling. He quickly realized it was a dream and he slowly lowered down his hand and covered his eyes. "God damn," he muttered. "How many times was it for this week…?"
"Another nightmare?" Hawkeye asked from across the room. Eckhart lifted his hand up and turned to the right. Hawkeye was standing by the door, his hands in the pockets of his grey shorts.
"It was nothing," Eckhart reverted to his original position and put his hand back to his eyes, letting out a sigh.
Hawkeye shrugged upon his friend's reaction and left him alone.
"Why does everyone have to be so bright?" Eckhart murmured alone after hearing Hawkeye's footsteps getting faint. His left hand clutched at the collar of his shirt. "It hurts…"
He continued lying down on the bed for thirty minutes to settle down his thoughts before he got out of the bed, wearing his expressionless mask on his face. "Good morning, Eckhart," Mihile, who was sitting at the dining table right in front of his room, greeted when he comes out. Eckhart nodded at him and went to the bathroom.
"What's gotten into him?" Mihile asked Hawkeye, who was sitting beside him and sipping coffee from a beige mug. "He's awfully cold today."
"Really?" Hawkeye grinned. "He seemed normal to me. You're seeing things."
Mihile raised an eyebrow from his answer and said nothing. They both continued sipping their coffee from their own mugs in silence until Eckhart opened the bathroom door. Eckhart noticed them staring at him and frowned slightly. "Yeah, maybe I am," Mihile muttered after a while before taking another sip. This had made Eckhart frowned deeper.
"Just ignore us and hurry up with your breakfast. We got to be earlier than she is today, you remember?" Hawkeye put down his mug onto the table. "Nineheart's going to give us the glare if we don't."
"Oh, look at the time!" Mihile said after looking at the wall clock near the entrance to the cabin. He then gulped down his coffee. "Thanks for the heads up, Hawkeye." He stood up with the mug and brought it to the sink.
"What?" Eckhart asked while Mihile washed his mug swiftly.
"It's the Empress's birthday today, Eckhart," Hawkeye explained. "Nineheart had it all planned out. We've got to make a surprise for her." Mihile paced to his room with a broad smile on his face.
Eckhart was silent for a moment. "Oh," he said upon remembering.
"She probably won't be waking up this early. She was up all night reading stories again, probably," Hawkeye added. "Just go to the garden before ten. Nineheart's going to start briefing us about it."
Eckhart nodded and went to the fridge to find some food. Mihile was already in his full armor, and under Hawkeye's stare he went out of the cabin with a beautifully wrapped present in his hands. "He sure is all worked up with the Empress's birthday," Hawkeye muttered. "What did you get for her?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" He looked at him in disbelief. "Don't tell me… you've completely forgotten about it?"
Eckhart stopped searching for anything edible in the fridge and stayed silent. Hawkeye sighed. "What are you going to do now? You have like, three hours to go to Victoria Island and get something nice for her!" Hawkeye swallowed the last few of his drink.
"I'm not going."
"Pardon?" Hawkeye raised an eyebrow, putting his mug down.
"I said, I'm not going to the Empress's birthday party."
"Why?" Hawkeye got up from his seat. "It's an important day for her and–"
"I said I'm not going!" Eckhart raised his voice. Hawkeye was taken aback by this and stared at him, shocked at his actions. Eckhart realized what he had done and wanted to apologize, but somehow his body moved on its own and instead slammed the fridge door shut and walked back to his room.
"What the hell?" Hawkeye muttered after a while of shock. He raked his mind for what had happened to him, and upon remembering the past, he realized what was probably going on and released a heavy sigh. "He isn't over with that yet, huh…"
Eckhart threw himself face first onto the soft bed. "Darn it," he mumbled as he clutched tightly at the pillow. "I've done it now…"
-x-
"We're lacking of one person…" Nineheart muttered as looked at the group of chief knights in front of him. Hawkeye, in his full armor, looked to the left, where the cabin was, in a daze. Oz realized this and nudged him. He snapped back to reality and looked to his right. Oz grinned at him, her hands behind her.
"What's wrong? You're not like yourself today," she said. "Something on your mind?"
"Nah, nothing," he shook his head and forced a smile.
"Where's Eckhart?" Nineheart asked the chief knights. "Anyone knows where he is?"
"He's probably not coming," Hawkeye replied, raising his right hand.
"Why?" Mihile turned around, frowning. Nineheart narrowed his eyes and closed them a moment later.
"We'll continue with the plan. The Empress is our highest priority right now," Nineheart announced.
"But this isn't a real birthday party if Eckhart's absent!" Mihile scowled at him. "All knights should be present here!"
"Do we have a choice right now, Knight of Light?" Nineheart looked at him sharply. Mihile gritted his teeth from his taunt and kept quiet, knowing that he was right. Nineheart continued after a short sigh. "Alright, here's the plan at noon..."
-x-
Cygnus felt something on her bed and fluttered her eyelids open. Oz and Irena, who was throwing rose petals all over her bed, noticed that she was awake. "Oh no!" Oz exclaimed before slapping her mouth with both hands. Cygnus stared at the both of them, confused. Irena tossed the remaining rose petals at the Empress before throwing the wooden basket at the floor and pulled Oz away from her chamber. They were gone in a moment.
Cygnus stared at the door for a while. "Huh?"
She shook her confused thoughts away and got out from her bed to change from her night wear. She opened the bathroom sleepily and noticed her bathroom was also covered with rose petals. "What's this?" she murmured to herself. "Is this some kind of prank?"
After washing her face, she went out to her chamber, hoping to capture the two knights who were doing ridiculous things to her when she was asleep. She saw Mihile standing behind a tree doing something. She called out to him. "Mihile, have you seen Oz and Irena?" she asked.
Mihile jumped upon hearing her voice and looked at her in shock. He dropped what he was holding and ran away, his face flushed. Cygnus cocked her head and walked towards where he was standing earlier. There were several thorny stems and a few rose petals on the ground. Her eyes widened in horror. "Gosh… even Mihile was a part of this? And roses… were they messing with my rose garden?" Cygnus slowly became infuriated of the matter. She stomped to the flight of stairs where it leads to the Chamber of Knights, where the chief knights would often linger around at.
On the way to the destination, she heard someone whistling. She scanned around the forest along the pathway to find where the noise came from. It was from Hawkeye, who was at her left. He was whistling while throwing something that looked like red confetti to the air, take a step back and repeat. Curiously, she tip-toed to his location to see what he was throwing – she feared it was the roses she planted at the rose garden. However, she was heard halfway through and Hawkeye turned, revealing the bunch of rose petals he was holding.
"Hawkeye!" she yelled. "Were you-" she trailed off when Hawkeye threw every last rose petals he had to the air and ran to the opposite direction where he was facing. Her heart ached upon seeing the rose petals on the ground. She assumed that they must be heading to her garden behind her castle. "I won't let them go!" she said to herself, and then pulled up the tips of her dress and ran to the garden.
She met Nineheart at the castle's entrance. Nineheart panicked when he saw her. "Your Highness! Where have you been?" he asked, worryingly. "I fear someone had taken you away!"
"Nineheart," she stopped, catching her breath after a run. "Have you seen… my knights?"
He blinked. "I was sure I saw them heading towards the back of the garden…"
"How dare they!" she scowled. Nineheart raised an eyebrow, acting he didn't know about the incident. "Do you know? I saw them playing around with roses! I am very, very sure that those roses they have are from my garden! I will give each of them a heavy punishment when I catch them!" She then stomped towards the rose garden. Nineheart quickly followed behind her.
She opened the gates to the garden. "Listen, you all –" she began, but saw no one inside the garden. The roses were still intact as they were yesterday. She blinked, confused. "Hello?" she called out as she walked down the pathway. The Empress saw a table placed at the end of the garden, where the view was the prettiest in her opinion, with a blue cake on the table. The cake had two tiers with five candles on it – two in which were bigger than the other three. The edges of the cake were decorated with whipped cream.
She noticed the words written at the top tier of the cake. "'Happy Birthday'… who's birthday was it?" she muttered. The sound of pops from the back made her jumped and she was coated with confetti. She turned around and saw the knights she was looking for standing behind her, each holding a cone-shaped birthday popper. Nineheart stood behind them with an apologetic smile on his face.
"Happy birthday, your Highness!" they said together with smiles on their faces.
She was confused momentarily before she realized what was happening. "Oh… Oh my… you all remembered my birthday!" she cried in joy. "I almost forgot it myself, too… Thank you, all of you."
Irena and Oz looked at each other and grinned. Mihile looked away with a wide smile on his face. Hawkeye gave her the present he had bought for her with a huge grin on his face. Mihile noticed it and gave his to her right after him. The other two, too, quickly took out their presents and handed it to the empress, along with another sentence of 'Happy Birthday'.
Cygnus looked around. "Where's Eckhart?"
The atmosphere suddenly turned gloomy. Nineheart quickly explained to her. "Eckhart… well, he…"
"Eckhart was sick, Your Highness," Hawkeye finished his sentence for him with a smile. "I'm sorry that he was absent for your surprise birthday party."
"Oh," she muttered, narrowing her eyes in sadness. The atmosphere was worsening and the five didn't know what to do to ease it up. The person who they wanted to be happy was saddened by the absence of one. Mihile was about to rush out in anger to find Eckhart but Hawkeye grabbed his hand and shook his head. He clicked his tongue.
"But, it's alright, your Highness! We're still here for you!" Oz replied. "C'mon, let's cut this cake! Don't look so gloomy on your birthday, Your Highness!"
Cygnus forced a smile. "Yes, of course. Let's."
Nineheart sighed in relief. Hawkeye gave a thumb up at Oz behind the empress. Irena aided the empress on cutting the cake. Even though the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Cygnus was happy to have her birthday celebrated along with the others. She looked a little sad throughout the party, which was noticed by all of the knights and her strategist. She pondered if he was still not used to his lifestyle as a knight serving under her.