Dreams of the Dark

Where am I?

Ísar was suspended in total darkness. There was no up or down nor left or right, it was an abyss of total darkness where all he could see was his own limbs.

Xinghua?! Osayi?!

He couldn't speak and that was when the panic began to spread. There wasn't a soul around him and the abyss started to get so painfully cold.

Xinghua! Osayi! Where are you? Where's everyone?!

He tried to run in the darkness, ignoring his confusion. He was scared. He could admit he was scared. He ran so much that his feet felt like they could bleed yet the darkness continued and so did he.

Count? Anyone! Please!

He only stopped running when his legs finally gave way and he found himself on his knees. His small body shook and his eyes stung with tears that never fell.

Is this where I die? In this unknown place? But I tried so hard? I did everything to survive.

Just why did I try so hard?

Ísar laid on the darkness and curled into a ball, his body shaking in pain, fear and tears in his eyes he refused to let fall. He half-hoped that he'd feel Xinghua's fingers running through his hair to force him out of what he hoped was an overly detailed nightmare but his hopes didn't come to pass.

Ísar feared death more than anything and he wasn't sure where such an intense fear had come from. He'd never been targeted as far as he could remember and he'd never been threatened. He was too insignificant for any of that, but the fear of anything causing his death had always been there, causing so much of his paranoia as a younger child.

Even with such a deep fear, he had a greater one that ate him up from the inside.

The fear of being alone in the world.

He feared such a thing so much, that he hoped the darkness would swallow him whole so he didn't have to think about being all alone in there.

"We are with you, our king."

That voice made him jump upright, head swiveling from left to right in hopes of finding her in that cursed abyss but he saw nothing.

He wanted so desperately to scream at her, blaming her for once for all the stress her mad actions had plunged him into.

He knew in his heart that it was their father's fault for forcing an already unstable child to fight monsters, saying her powers should've been used for the good of the kingdom. He knew it was their father's fault for not adhering to the palace doctor's suggestion that she be sent to a mind healer at an early age.

He knew. He knew but in that moment, he didn't care.

In that moment, it was all Sigrun's fault. And even with that mindset, he also wanted his big nutty sister to hold him and sing one of her made up songs.

Sigrun!

"Yes, my king!"

Ísar turned around to find his sister giving a knight's kneel in the darkness. Her black armor gleaming and her previously tanned face now a blurry, ghostly pale. Her neck was covered in dark red blood.

She was so close to Ísar that he almost jumped back.

Where am I? How are you here? You died. I killed you!

She kept her head down, her wet silver, blonde hair sticking to her face.

"You have finally awoken, our king. Your destiny begins. Now you must open your eyes."

What?"

He blinked and her face was now close to his. Her crystal blue eyes stared into his soul, unwavering and unblinking.

"Open your eyes, little brother!" she screamed and his eyes flew open.

_______________

"…two days…wake up?!"

Ísar could tell it was Xinghua speaking through the hazy fog clouding his mind, his hand tiredly reaching out for the other boy.

"Ísar?" He blinked his heavy lids slowly, coming and turned his head to look at the other boy's blurry face.

"Xing?" he said softly, entering into a small coughing fit as he tried to sit up.

He felt a small hand on his back that helped him up, rubbing his back as a cold glass was pressed to his dry lips.

Everything slowly became clearer and he saw Xinghua worriedly looking at him on his left and two of the palace's medical staff on his right.

"Drink. Slowly." Ísar did as the prince commanded, too tired and confused to argue about being told what to do.

"What happened?" Ísar immediately asked after taking a few small sips. With his reasoning slowly coming back to him, he realized he was in his bed and wearing pajamas.

"How did we return? Oh my goddess, how are you?" Ísar immediately began to panic when he remembered how much Xinghua's head was bleeding and the prince's twisted ankle.

He grabbed Xinghua's face without thinking and began moving the other boy's hair out of his face, inspecting in case of a scar.

"Ísar, I'm well," Xinghua said, not fighting to get out of Ísar's hands and even leaning into them for a split second before taking a step back. "Your healers were exceptionally gifted. It is you that should be fretted over as of now. You were asleep for the past two days."

Ísar's eyes widened and he immediately tried to leave his bed, the doctors keeping him from doing so as gently as possible.

"Your majesty! You still need to rest," Healer Ingrid insisted, panic forming on her aging features. "Your body has been through a lot of stress."

"You say I, the King, have been asleep for two days and you are asking me to rest more? Do you take your King for a figurehead?" Ísar sounded foreign even to his own ears. He had spoken harshly many times before but this was different. He sounded almost threatening.

The way both healers' faces went pale only emphasized how out of character he was being.

"General Björn and Count Pierre have been working in your stead while you rested," Xinghua informed him as the prince placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "They can continue to do so while you get better. You're still shivering, Ísar."

And he was, his teeth nearly chattering. His bedroom had never felt so unbearably cold and Ísar usually ran cold but this felt like he'd been in the snow for hours with no warm clothing.

"Please go get King Jovevski some more blankets and warm soup then proceed with checking his vitals," Xinghua ordered them easily, like he'd been doing so for a while.

Ísar waited for the heavy doors of his room to shut close before he turned to Xinghua, finally letting the brewing fear of uncertainty show in his eyes.

"What happened? Where's Osayi? Has he left? How are you, really? Were those men apprehended?"

Ísar vaguely remembered screaming and pleas as well as the thick metallic scents of blood and steel. He also had a vague memory of hearing Osayi's voice but there was nothing after that. Only the strange dream he barely recollected.

Xinghua pursed his lips as he looked at Ísar with knotted eyebrows. The prince looked torn.

"…Osayi was able to find us in time with Sir Erik. Those men were apprehended but quickly executed for trying to harm the King. You had been harmed by the skinny one. He used magic and you've been asleep for the past two days since then," Xinghua quickly explained as he slowly got into the bed beside the shivering king and wrapped him in a hug, trying to help warm him up.

Ísar actively tried not to think about being in Xinghua's arms as the moment did not call for swooning. He was still agitated about the gaps in his memory as well as a detail that didn't fit with Xinghua's explanation.

"Then who was that other knight in the black armor?"

He felt Xinghua's whole body stiffen at his words, the action only making Ísar's anxiety grow.

"I think that was merely part of the criminal's magic. He'd conjured up illusions," Xinghua mumbled but was actively avoiding Ísar's gaze.

Ísar stared up at the prince either way, not sure what to make of the words, then went back to pressing his cheek to the other boy's chest. Xinghua's explanation didn't make sense but he didn't dare doubt what he'd been told. Upsetting Xinghua was the last thing he wanted.

Even though that didn't explain why he could remember that 'illusion' knight kneeling before him, Ísar decided to trust Xinghua and let it go. At least for the moment.

"Osayi returned. I didn't even get to send him off," Ísar stated, his sadness seeping through his words.

He'd been better at dampening his emotions before meeting those two princes. He wondered how he was supposed to behave when even Xinghua returned to his homeland.

"Don't speak like you are never going to see him again," Xinghua said with a small laugh. "I even feel a little bad for you. When Osayi likes someone, he'd follow them till the end of the world and back. You are never getting rid of him."

Ísar finally smiled, yawned and responded with, "I'd never even want to. You both have been an absolute delight to be around. I got lucky."

Xinghua laughed as the two doctors walked back in but he didn't let go of the young king. Not even when the doctors checked his vitals and had him sit up to eat some plain soup. Xinghua was always holding him.

The warmth from the soup and blankets paired with Xinghua's body heat was lulling Ísar back to sleep. He tried staying awake because he'd been asleep for far too long but his eyelids were not paying attention.

"You can sleep, your majesty. You deserve to rest," Healer Ingrid told him softly, still a little pale.

"I can't," he said with a yawn while trying to sit up but failing. "There's much to do and I've rested enough."

He would've liked to the think the sound he made when Xinghua pulled him back down was not a yelp. He really would've liked to pretend it wasn't.

"Sleep, Ísar," the prince practically ordered as he hugged Ísar tighter. "I'm getting sleepy myself."

"Then we will take our leave. I'll come back to check on you in three hours. My liege." The two healers bowed before practically running away, both simply taking Xinghua's order as a sign that Ísar would simply listen.

They were right, but he didn't particularly like it.

"I still have so many questions, Xinghua," Ísar mumbled, looking up at the prince who had closed his eyes.

"They will all be answered in due time. Sleep," he said as he practically buried his face in Ísar's hair and sighing heavily.

"I'm so glad you're safe."

Ísar wished he could've seen Xinghua's face when he'd said that. The prince had sounded like an actual child for once, terrified and small. It made the young king move his arms to hug the prince as well.

"I'm glad you're safe too. I'm really glad you're safe," Ísar mumbled back as his eyes closed.

He wasn't sure what he would've done if Xinghua had been hurt badly beyond return. He just knew that if such an event happened, something in him would've broken. He just knew that he would've never been able to come back from that.