The Shut in

"It's exciting, isn't it?"

That voice was the same and yet, it wasn't. Viaan knew the speaker but he was still unfamiliar with him. He waited for the speaker to turn and reveal his face. The speaker was in a black cloak standing near the White crystal fountain with the overhead light shining like a halo around him.

Viaan knew who it was before he fully turned when his mind accepted what his ears heard. Rudra's whisper filled the silence.

"Your highness!"

The laugh was cold like the air biting against Viaan's skin. He couldn't place it on the angelic face before him. The same face which was always in his mind. The person who sang him to sleep was standing before him with an aura of dark magic so strong that it was charging all the sun stones.

Viaan finally found his voice.

"What's exciting?"

"The fact that every kind of rejected, royalty or not, is here. Two princes, a princess, and a shadow master are here, huh?"