To Love, Once Again

"So Miss Sera has returned!"

 Icaros quips as soon as the doors close behind Hilda and Miss Sera. His face twitches, trying to hide the joy that threatens to spill out. He was so glad that Miss Sera was back. Finally, the wheels of time that were frozen for so long, with a creak and a groan, were starting to move again.

He was glad Miss Sera looked well.

Thunk!

Tilting his head to the side, a knife whizzes past his head and sinks into the wood behind him.

"Don't speak her name so casually." Lucien says nonchalantly.

Icaros was used to this. His King wanted to monopolize everything when it came to the Queen. Her name was off-limits. Even the memories that people had shared with her. No one was allowed to speak of her in the castle. It was why the last Head Maid had left, blubbering tears as Lucien had pinned her maid's hat to the wall, cutting off a few inches of hair in the process, just at the mention of Miss Sera's name when he was passing by.

Lucien sat there with a thoughtful, sad look on his face. Sighing, Icaros sits down on the chair before him, pouring himself a drink.

This was a look he hadn't seen in a long time. His King looked like he used to 5 years ago, when Miss Sera was still here. He'd noticed it after hearing the news of her return. The ice that forever froze Lucien's face in a terrible scowl, was slowly melting, revealing faint expressions of anger, insecurity, and surprise. They were faint, but Icaros could detect them. He was Lucien's longest friend, after all. 

Emotions had all but disappeared after Icaros dragged him back to the castle, after Miss Sera left. Presently, the deep, dark lake of Lucien's blue eyes showed ripples of change, from the dead waters they'd been the whole 5 years.

Icaros would know. Before taking his current position as Captain of the Guard, he'd been Lucien's guardian knight. Only the strongest youth out of the Knight families of Thornmere had the privilege of becoming the guardian of the future King. Icaros had won, beating down all other opponents and coming out the victor, becoming Lucien's guard, but also confidant and childhood friend. 

He'd watched Lucien grow, first as a sad, lonely Prince, one who worked himself till he fainted of exhaustion, trying to prove himself to his old father, the King. With no affection from the Queen or the King, Lucien turned to winning the hearts of the nobles. He'd seen Lucien soon give up on court politics and the nobles. he'd become old enough to know they couldn't give him any happiness. They only wanted to use him.

 Icaros had followed his Prince when he decided for the first time against his father's wishes, to join the battle on the front lines against the Azarks. He'd fought back to back with Lucien in the bloody battles, saw him change from an unconfident youth to a mighty man of valor, a leader worth serving. His King's talent for fighting was unparalleled, overtaking his swordsmanship, and he was the top swordsman in the Kingdom. Instead of he as a guard protecting his King, the roles reversed, and Lucien protected him too. 

Seeing the other noble commanders throwing away soldiers' lives like pieces on a chessboard, Icaros was reminded again of how great the man he served was. Lucien was ever fair and hard working. The first to the training grounds and last to leave. 

Meanwhile, the anger within Lucien had been building up the whole time. Anger at the rules that bound him, the meaningless responsibilities he had as a royal. He was the first to hear from Lucien about how he didn't want to live only to fulfill his duties anymore. 

What war does, is open your eyes to the important things in life. Without the war to change him, Lucien would have been a completely different man today. An average King that did his duties, a puppet for the nobles his father chose.

Icaros was also there in the background, watching the coarse, angry soldier of a man, Lucien, struggle, and eventually fall in love with the foreign woman named Sera.

Icaros remembered losing his ability to speak when he first saw Lucien gently smile at Sera, hard at work treating the men in the medic tent. He didn't know his King's face could do that.

He'd accompanied Lucien through many mock fights to help clear his mind. Lucien had struggled with loving her because he knew it was something his father wanted, to fulfill the prophecy. He didn't want the woman he chose to marry and have children with, be dictated by his father, or the ministers. For the good of the Kingdom, as they would always say. Most of his life before the war was spent obeying orders. Lucien longed to meet and fall in love with a woman, like the other soldiers did, jealously seeing them write letters of love to send back home.

Icaros was there through it all.

He'd done a terrible job at trying to pick up the pieces, trying to keep the broken automaton that his King had become, moving. Icaros was the one to find Lois, and bring her to the castle for help.

Lucien groans, head in his hands.

"You made sure no one spoke of my condition?"

"Yes m'lord"

"Good"

Icaros was confused why his King was acting this way. Wasn't this what he wanted? Yes, there was the thing with his Majesty's condition, but he knew the Queen would understand. The important thing was that she was back, wasn't it?

"Sire, why did you make her the King's Maid? The whole castle is busy with strange rumors trying to make sense of it."

Icaros could see the conflicting emotions that cross the King's face in that moment. Anger at the people spreading rumors, resoluteness for his decision to make her his maid.

But he wanted to make sure his King knew how his actions could be viewed. Miss Sera was a good woman, and he wanted them both to be happy.

"Don't you know how she would feel? And with your supposed marriage-"

Icaros stops himself from speaking any further. The walls have ears. He can't let his tongue slip.

Lucien picks out his words carefully, trying to put his heavy feelings into words that can make Icaros understand.

"You've seen my mother."

Icaros is confused. He was asking about Miss Sera, not the Dowager Queen.

"Do you think she was happy?...Was Sera happy when she was forced to become Queen?"

Now it was starting to make sense. His King wanted to give Miss Sera the choice. A good choice.  If he made her Queen again, with the way things were now, where many of the decisions were still decided by the advisors put in place by the late King, it would be back to square one.

Miss Sera, who had been forced to be Queen. King Lucien, fighting for power with the nobles.

Icaros was glad to see His King was back to trying to do something about  the reality of their Kingdom. They could pick up the work that was left off when Miss Sera left. A major overhaul was on the horizon for the Kingdom of Thornmere. Icaros rolls the wine around in his glass, contemplating the new work that had to be done.  He would need to double the training regimen of the Knight's Order. 

Brows furrowed, Lucien holds up two fingers at Icaros.

"Do you know how many times a day I could meet Sera after the Great War ended?"

"Twice. Once every morning for breakfast, the second time for supper. We couldn't even sleep together in the same room." Lucien clenched his fist in anger. 

"All because of our duties. So much of it useless. Tradition is worthless if it takes Sera away from me. " 

Putting it that way, it did make some sort of strange sense. A personal maid needed to be available to serve their master at all times. If Miss Sera did become King Lucien's personal maid, they would spend more time together than they ever did as King and Queen.

Icaros processed the idea in his head. It was ingenious. 

Crossing his fingers, Lucien leans forward on the desk, eyes glimmering with a keen brightness.

"I simply found a temporary solution. Soon, I'll change it all."