A/N: This was an experiment on my part to complete a writing challenge I came across on tumblr. The goal was to write a piece in which one of the characters is royalty (+ bonus points if it involved an execution) with length between 200 and 1000 words. You can tell how well that last part went. We get a new AU, though!
Griffin stepped on the terrace on her mother's left, the noise from the crowd like an angry sea splashing all around her but she remained untouched by it, her gaze focused on him as he walked towards his execution. He was still as beautiful as the night she'd met him even now that the title of terrorist had ripped off the mask of gentleness and well-intentioned power flowing from him. He'd been anything but that, and she hadn't seen it until it'd been too late. The people, her people, were rightfully outraged and crazed in their desire for justice, for he'd dragged them into the war with the Council by executing a strike against members of it on their land, and yet, she couldn't hear their cries of vengeance over those of her own heart that had been bleeding and tearing itself apart from the moment he'd gotten caught as he'd come back to her because he hadn't wanted to leave her with the wrong impression. As if there'd been anything right about him. And she had to shut up the feelings she still let him awaken in her.
"Quiet your heart, Griffin," her mother had told her when she'd come to get her for the execution. She had to be there and oversee the punishment of the man who'd dared hurt the people she was a princess to by putting them in the line of political fire. But she couldn't stand the thought when she was no longer the ruler of her own heart. "You already let him make enough noise with it," her mother had said, scolded her, almost hissed at her, in a tone that wasn't typical for her. It had scared her with all the change he'd brought in their lives just like that. Because she'd allowed him. He'd told her he wanted to change the world and she'd eaten every word, letting him poison her with his sweet promises and nothing could've saved her from him. Not even her mother with her will of iron. Not when she'd gladly surrendered herself to his pretty face and his touch of magic.
She'd met him at a party, a distant cousin of Icy, the crown princess of the kingdom of frost, and he'd entered her life so smoothly she never would've guessed how hard and jarring the fallout would be. She'd given him a dance, and then another one, and then the whole night that they'd spent talking and laughing and flirting under the stars. Harmlessly, she'd thought, even when she'd known he'd been nothing but danger, her heart skipping beats and rushing as if to leave her chest and go to him. And she'd given it. She'd given him her heart, her love and what was worst of all for a woman of her status – her virginity.
She had to stay proper and chaste so that they could marry her off to a self-righteous, self-absorbed spoiled brat of a prince from a kingdom with light magic that the Council would pick for her and she would have no choice but to accept and let them kill her spirit by making her a tamed wife if she didn't want to get her kingdom and her mother in trouble. And even if she could keep her crown and not have her kingdom annexed, she would lose all her power and agency. So she'd let him be the first to touch her body, truly touch it with his voice and hands, and soul, and she'd wanted him to be the last to do so. She still did. She was all his. And he was on death row. And her heart was writhing in pain, wailing its sorrow to all who'd listen but there was no one there for her. They were all gathered to witness his death, and as their princess she was obliged to be happy when her people were.
It was a happy day for them, for the whole magical dimension. A dark magic kingdom had caught a dark magic terrorist–though, those were the only kind, or at least so the Council told them–and they were "finally" joining the side of light and securing the alliance between dark and light magic by doing good. It would all be forgotten the minute another kingdom refused to bow to the obvious discrimination of their kind and it wouldn't matter one bit what they'd done when the Council came out with their propaganda and tried to pit them against each other, most certainly with the very fact that they were hunting down their own and executing them.
If it had truly been an alliance they'd sought, there would be light magic users with them now and Faragonda would be standing at her side but she couldn't even have the support of her best friend, for all light magic users had been forbidden from attending. To shine the spotlight where it needed to be, the Council had said. It was to assure that the blame for any death couldn't be thrown their way. And she'd begged her mother not to do it, to let the Council handle the whole thing, but she'd told her she couldn't. They wouldn't let her, wouldn't risk angering anyone by getting their hands dirty. They were just happy to pull the strings behind the curtains and get the royals at each other's throats. And they let them, each wrapped in their own problems and refusing to help the others stand together against the real monster. It was painful and enraging.
She could feel Ediltrude and Zarathustra's quiet presence behind her, her adopted sisters offering all the support they could silently through their magical bond, for they knew her tragedy. They didn't understand it–no one could because no one understood him–but they loved her more than was healthy for them and she knew she could count on them. Always. The knowledge had brought her comfort in her darkest hours but she didn't know what to do when the light was shining in her eyes, hurtful and threatening, promising a period of thriving for their enemies.
Her fists clenched tighter, her nails sinking in her palms and she only put more force into it, aiming to draw blood. Both to keep herself grounded and as a rebellion. If she had to suffer it would be on her own terms, her torture would be one of her own design and she would bow to no one. Just like she'd chosen to walk into love with a dark wizard with powerful magic and promises too good to be true. She'd known that as she'd opened her heart for him–she wasn't stupid–but it hadn't stopped her. If anything, it'd made her want to love him more, cut her heart open and pour out all of her love in the blood spilling from the split organ. It would've been a sacrifice she was willing to make, for no one dictated her fate. No one had the right to tell her how to live her life and how to love her wizard when they'd kept telling her her magic was unnatural when it'd come from the Great Dragon just like its light counterpart. And he had the fire of the Dragon, all woven in him and making him burn, making her want to burn with him, and she would. She would burn away when her love perished.
Her mother's hand covered hers and the gentle touch had her muscles relax. It was an instinct she couldn't fight. Her mother had always been her light, the one who'd taught her how to fight for herself and be independent. And it was what pained her so much when she watched her getting trampled by the Council but she had no choice if she wanted to keep her daughters safe, if she wanted to keep her people safe. A burden that would befall Griffin with her mother's death the inevitability of which she shoved out of her mind with indescribable force–it was too painful on the background of her father's untimely demise and the current situation threatening to take away the love of her life–and clutched tighter at her hand to ground herself in the present where at least that tragedy hadn't happened yet.
She didn't want that, any of it, didn't want anyone's death. The Great Dragon had created all life so they had to be able to get along and coexist peacefully. But the Council was spreading death sneakily and so was he, only he was doing it openly. And loving him would bring more of it, had brought more of it, for he'd come back to her when he should have fled, yet she couldn't help her feelings, circling around him like he was the sun of her planet.
He looked up at her, as if he'd read her thoughts, and maybe the crowd quited down, or it was the pulse pounding in her ears and the slipping of her mind when her emotions took a hold of her being but she couldn't hear anything when he couldn't speak to her, just the echoes of the words he'd spoken in the past coming back to haunt her with the knowledge she couldn't find it in herself to doubt them even when it'd turned out he was a skillful liar. He looked at her and smiled at her, his eyes meeting hers from all that distance away as if there were no other people, as if he wasn't headed to a certain death, wasn't kneeling at its threshold ready to tumble in when his head rolled on the ground, and she forgot sense itself even when it had been her companion ever since she could remember. All she could remember currently were his lips tracing kisses on her skin and murmuring declarations of love in her ears between her strained moans that she'd tried to hold back both for their safety and so that she could hear the elusive words and his fingers caressing her curves, those of her body and those of her thoughts as he'd listened to her, holding her hand to encourage her to venture further into her dreams and dare to want more, dare to want a better future for their kind and for herself. And it would all die with him.
Her pulse sped up, her heart rising high in her throat just like the blade made of magic that was ready to execute him. It was sort of a special treatment that Griffin had never seen before. Granted, there hadn't been many executions in their kingdom, her mother a respected but kind ruler even though she could be fearsome, and even her father's death hadn't changed that as she hadn't let it darken her heart despite the suspicious circumstances, and she'd also done her best to keep Griffin and her sisters away from the bloodshed.
It was different this time, though. They had to be there whether they liked it or not. Though, Griffin knew she would've gone even if she hadn't had to, she couldn't have missed seeing him one last time if that was all they'd get. And considering his crimes and his magic, he was not only chained in magical cuffs that would suppress his powers and keep him from using them to escape, but also getting executed by a special blade that was supposed to cut through any magic in his being trying to resist it and destroy his soul too. He was too powerful and they had doubts he'd be able to build himself a new body if they let his soul roam still after his death. So her mother and her councilors who were also her coven had combined their magic into forging a blade that would tear his soul to shreds even the Dragon Fire wouldn't be able to revive the moment it sank into his skin. It would be agonizing and terrifying, and–according to the consensus–exactly what he deserved. And she knew there was no way of escaping it, even if he had his magic at his disposal, for he stood no chance against her mother and her convergence with her coven. They were the most powerful witches in the kingdom and their synchronized magic was a weapon their enemies were lucky not to know.
The blade of magic sank down and Griffin's heart did the same, dizziness filling her mind as the memories flashed in front of her eyes and she thought she'd fall as everything inside her felt empty only for a burst of energy to fill her until it was painful, tearing at her flesh like lightning and a loud crack sending her heart in panic. The thought she'd broken in half under the intensity of the emotions quickly lent its place to shock as she realized it wasn't her that was the victim of it.
The black crystal of magic that was supposed to take his life was crumbling into dust under a greenish violet vortex of power that looked so familiar to her it felt like she was looking into a mirror. It was her magic demolishing the dreadful presence of the thing that threatened to take him away from her and she took a step back, fear of it draining her to feed itself and its mad force trying to fill her but there was no place for it among the emotions already running through her and erupting into a flow that only fueled the magic at work until there was nothing left of the black doom her mother and her sister witches had taken so much effort to forge.
The surge of power relented a bit then, letting her pull it back and inside herself where it slid under her skin and remained there, ready for a battle she could feel coming in the deadly silence only broken by the mad, triumphant beating of her heart when she'd protected the love it sheltered. And the sound of magically reinforced metal cracking and hitting the ground.
Valtor was free, rolling his shoulders and rubbing his wrists for a moment but not wasting too much time on that as he let his magic burst out of him and reach for hers, the two tangling deeply and truly like they'd never done before. They'd been too wary, only letting their magic barely on the surface and feeling the other's like a ghost touching their own ghost. It was all they–or at least she–had dared to go for, crippled by the fear of the pain her actions could bring her people. And it had been a good thing because their union was so potent that a pulse of magic came off of their joined powers as they sank into each other and wove themselves into one, the energy bursting from that bond sending the crowd to the ground. And not just the crowd.
Her mother's hand wasn't in her own anymore–though, that might have happened earlier but she'd been too full of feelings for him cutting her off from everything else to tell–and her sisters' calming presence was drowned out by his power floating all around her like a moon circling its planet. She had nothing tying her to her life and everything tying her to him.
Valtor seemed to have had the same realization as he tapped into their entangled magic and drew enough power to rise into the air and fly up to her. He came closer, almost drawing her to fly off the terrace and meet him halfway with the self-assured, confident energy coming off of him that had seemed arrogant at first but she'd come to love when it'd given her the strength to imagine a life for herself where she wasn't always coordinating all of her actions with what the Council wanted and it had inspired her to reach for that life. And their joint magic felt just like freedom with how effortlessly it flowed around them and the endless feeling she got from it, the only thing holding her back from taking her place at his side being the unconscious people all around and, most importantly, her family. She couldn't leave them just like that.
"What happened?" Griffin forced herself to turn to her logical side and demand an explanation before she allowed herself to fall into the softness of his being that she could feel through the edge of angry magic coming off of him and reach to stroke his face. That would be the death of every rationality and that was what had gotten them in the whole mess in the first place. She couldn't allow the intoxicating feeling of shared magic and emotions take over her brain when it was her last saving grace with how hopelessly in love with him she was.
"Don't you know, Griffin?" Valtor spoke, his tone mocking as it usually was but the obvious sense of superiority retreated when it was her name in his mouth. Just like the malicious and taunting shade left his gaze every time he looked at her. "Love is the most powerful magic of all," he said, letting the word ring through the quietness around them now that it was just the two of them. But it always was just the two of them when he was with her and nothing else existed, and her world was beautiful with the freedom he gave her when he dragged her to the depths of her emotions where no rays of light could reach and scorch her and his flames painted beautiful pictures for her in the darkness, making it their own, making it her home that was safe from an outside invasion.
Griffin swallowed, a frightening realization creeping up her spine and waiting for the right moment to snap it in half and leave her paralyzed. "You were using me?" she asked, allowed herself to give him the opportunity to lie to her and weave her in his net once more. All she was praying for was that he'd want to do it, that he'd still deem her useful and wouldn't toss her aside now that he'd gotten what he needed from her. It made sense, of course, why he'd gone after her. Who better to manipulate than the princess, the daughter of the woman who would have the task to execute him? The blood relation made her mother's magic vulnerable to attacks from her own and, combined with the power she'd gotten from her heart, had been the end of the weapon meant to send him into oblivion.
Valtor gave a small smile with a hint of sadness woven in it and it had her heart jumping to help him get the mirth back in it but she pushed it down as it'd already caused enough trouble. "Even I can't fake such a pure bond," he said, his eyes on hers still, locking the rest of the world away where it couldn't disturb them while he got the chance to convince her in his feelings. "You feel it, don't you? The tangle of our powers?" he raised a hand and buried his fingers in her hair as if to illustrate what was happening to them on a magical level and she leaned into his touch readily. "That's not something that can be forged." The ice of his gaze looked so pleading, begging her to give it soft light from her own golden eyes that wouldn't turn it into a hostile ocean for him to drown in. "I love you, Griffin," he said, the words making their way inside her and wrapping her heart into a softness unlike even the finest silk her fingers had ever touched, and it made her want to cry, the tears filling her eyes to fall and soothe any wounds the burn of her judgment might have left on his soul.
They froze in their place when she sensed another presence invading their bubble and forcing her senses to start perceiving the world again and everything that came from outside. Her mother.
"I warned her to stay away from you," she said, her gaze focused on Valtor when Griffin turned to look at her, forcing Valtor's hand out of her hair, but to her surprise there was no threat in it. There was anger, of course, but beneath those flames there was worry that had always flown from her mother's heart when it came to her or her sisters as she only scolded them for their own good. Griffin had never doubted that. "Now I can't protect her anymore," she spoke, the sound like a slap in Griffin's face with the truth it forced in her head.
She'd saved his life in front of the whole kingdom which put her on an equal level with him now. She'd opposed the Council's decision that he had to die and she'd be claimed a terrorist as well. And even her title of princess wouldn't be able to outweigh that. Not even her mother's title of queen would be able to do it. They'd be out for her head now too, and she hadn't even for a moment stopped to think what that would cause her mother and her sisters, and Faragonda, and her people. She'd been blinded by her feelings and it was too late now. Her heart had let her down again and she was safe in his hands but what about all the people she had responsibility for?
"You'll have to do it for me," her mother spoke again, startling her once more, for she'd been so opposed to the whole relationship with Valtor from the very beginning and she'd never fallen for Griffin's reassurances that it was innocent and just a friendship. She'd known what fire burned there and she'd been afraid it would turn on all of them, and rightfully so. So Griffin had expected that her mother would try to hunt Valtor down and finish the execution she'd interrupted but instead she was... entrusting her to him? Her heart swayed in confused happiness, for she didn't want to fight her mother.
"Of course, Queen Emalyn," Valtor said, bowing his head slightly with respect. "You have my word," he said, striking Griffin with the promise contained in that statement. She'd seen the skillful deception he'd woven around them all unfold but she knew that when he gave his word, he kept to it. He'd never told her anything that wasn't true even if he'd withheld a lot of information from her while they'd been working side by side on their shared project and falling in love. And if she with her distrustful nature could believe him, she hoped her mother could be convinced as well.
Her mother kept her gaze on him until she'd made sure of his honesty and even Griffin had started feeling uncomfortable before moving her gaze to her daughter. "Griffin, I wanted to save you from being persecuted, my darling daughter," she said as she placed her hands on Griffin's shoulders, her grip so light, so loving and gentle that it made Griffin's eyes fill with the tears that had retreated once again when her love for her mom spilled from her heart as well. "It seems that I couldn't save you from your love, though, and perhaps that is a good thing despite all the danger it puts you into," her mother said, her own eyes filling with tears now. "You have a path written in the stars, darling, and they'll guide you down it whether either one of us likes it or not," her mother said, expressing distrust in the stars for the first time in Griffin's life since she'd always taught her to trust them and their light, and the magic coming from a sky full of stars. It only spoke of her mother's worry for her and she wished to comfort her but she had no idea how to do it when it was true her fate was uncertain now.
"I can promise you nothing will harm your daughter as long as I have the power of our love flowing through my veins and charging my flames," Valtor cut in, perhaps not in the right moment but Griffin still felt profound gratitude at his attempt to soothe her mother's pain even when she wasn't certain how successful any endeavor towards that cause could be, for she'd always worried for her daughters, and that instinct had most certainly been reinforced right now that the danger was more real and palpable than ever and making it hard for Griffin to believe she would ever have the chance to be a mother herself, or even get to live past next Tuesday.
Emalyn looked at him, the hard gaze of the queen befalling him like it rarely did any of her subjects and it always scared anyone who'd fallen victim to it with the criticism it harbored in it but Valtor didn't budge and the emotion in his own eyes didn't harden in an attempt to resist the attack until the look in her mother's eyes softened. Just a tad but it was almost tangible as the pressure drained from the atmosphere and melted away, allowing Valtor's flames that had proven truthful to her to warm the air around them with the promise he was giving her mother.
"This isn't how I imagined giving my daughter away," she spoke, making Griffin's heart jump once again, leaving her with the feeling that it hadn't landed in the right place, that it hadn't landed at all and was reeling freely in space, uncaring even of the danger looming over their heads when it was full of happiness. "I don't support any part of how this all happened, least of all the one that put my daughter in grave danger," she said, her gaze full of ice needles all directed at Valtor and her voice lacking the sweetness it usually carried when she spoke in her honey-soft manner, "but I don't have anything else to do other than let you protect her because I certainly can't do it now. Perhaps I should have taken action earlier to ensure your union wouldn't be overshadowed by all the ugliness it is accompanied by now. And while I understand your desire for a change in our unfair world, you are going about it the wrong way and I am imploring you to stop before you've made my daughter pay the price, if it isn't too late for that already."
Her words seemed to hit Valtor hard, making his head bow and his mouth fall open to release the air that had gotten trapped inside him but he quickly seemed to come to his senses and looked her in the eyes. "Queen-"
Emalyn interrupted him before he could say anything. "I know what a love like yours is which is why I'm not trying to stop it," she said, looking him dead in the eyes and Griffin felt a crushing emptiness inside her now that her mother mentioned the absence at her side. "I lost my husband and I don't want you going through the same pain. But most of all, I don't want to lose my daughter," she said, the firmness of her voice nowhere to be found now that it almost broke just at the thought. And Griffin herself didn't want to think of what it would be like for her mother to have her greatest fear come true. Even if it was still happening in a sense as she needed to flee from her birth palace and from her family and friends, and there was no telling when–if–she'd see them again, which especially hurt now that she couldn't even say goodbye to her sisters who were still unconscious from the pulse of their shared magic like most everyone else except for her mother and a few of her covenmates who were standing a respectable distance away and giving them their privacy, loyal to their queen and princess.
Valtor's own gaze softened at her mother's confession of selfishness that she never really allowed herself but he seemed to understand. "I don't want to lose her either so I'll make sure neither of us will have to go through that torture," he said and offered his hand and it was such a powerful gesture, for he'd kept away from contact with anyone and especially her mother while he'd been planning his scheme but something had changed now and he was ready to let go of anything that could put Griffin in danger and form an alliance with her mom the purpose of which was to protect her.
Griffin felt her mother's fingers closing around hers and bringing her hand up, placing it into Valtor's awaiting palm and the contact with his warm skin washed over her like an elixir for her soul that had been ripped apart by misery ever since she'd seen him being dragged to the dungeons, defeated by her mother's magic and that of her coven. It was so overwhelming she felt the tears fall, landing on her mother's hand and chasing it away from hers but only so that she could wipe them from her cheeks.
She looked at her mom and the teary smile she got practically had her falling into her arms and wrapping her free one around her while she never let go of Valtor's hand, not wanting to feel him slip away even for a second after what they'd just been through and what still awaited them in the very near future. It was a hug that lasted seconds but they still felt like decades when she had all the warmth of her mother spilling into her body and trying to tangle itself into her and follow her wherever she'd go and she wanted to soak up as much of it as she could, for she'd have Valtor's flames from now on but it wasn't the same. It was the support she'd thought she didn't have but had always been there and she would miss greatly now that she had to part with it and leave her mom behind. But she had to do it not only for herself, but for her kingdom too. They could eventually come to see Valtor as something other than a threat and accept him as her choice of a husband but the Council would never forgive the treason and she couldn't drag her people deeper into that hole than she already had.
"I don't think you deserve her," Emalyn said when she disentangled herself from Griffin and looked at Valtor, "but she already gave you her heart so that doesn't matter. Make sure to take care of her, though, because if you don't, you'll wish her love had never saved you from this execution," she said, her voice low and so menacing like Griffin had never heard it before. And she didn't dare protest because she could see in her mother's clenched jaw and rigid posture, her back slightly bent over under the invisible load they'd piled on her shoulders without thinking, that she had her own emotions to deal with and she had every right to feel the way she did. So she didn't speak a word of it.
"I will," Valtor said, only pulling her closer when her mother released her and wrapping her in his arms protectively, only affected positively by her mother's words it seemed as he wished to prove he deserved the trust she was giving him. "I will make sure she's happy and that all the trouble I caused all of you was worth it," he said and Griffin could feel the determination burning in his heart as she placed her palm on top of it. It was so warm she could cry, but not from pain. "We need to go," Valtor said, to her mother who nodded before he turned to look at her.
"Where are we going?" Griffin asked as she looked at him, terror trying to creep in her voice when she remembered all that was waiting for them, all the danger and obstacles. There was no way the Council would just leave them be and she already felt tired from the fight she knew was coming, for she'd been in it ever since she'd been born. But it all retreated when Valtor's hand cupped her cheek, the touch protective and making her lean into it and the safety it provided as it shielded her from the worry with the reminder of the shared power they could yield. It changed everything, for she wasn't alone anymore, and she knew they would face what was coming for them head on like she'd wanted to for so long.
"Home," Valtor said, the word filling her whole being with happiness that burned with its intensity and the promise of a place she could call her own made all the better by the knowledge that that was his heart. She lived there now and they had the power to change the world to fit their visions now that they sheltered each other inside their souls and could combine their powers.