To Love, Once Again

"What about Leo? I'm worried about him." Sera asks. If there were people after them, they would target their son too.

"I found Dorne with him.. he shouldn't be here, Lucien." Sera pauses in putting on a simple linen shift, something durable but light.

"Dorne's bait." Helping her pull the clothes over her head, Lucien tells Sera in a low voice.

"I've set a detail of soldiers to watch over our son and the cottage. As long as Leo stays inside, he should be safe." Lucien takes in a breath, stooping to put his lips right next to Sera's ear as he whispers.

"Right now, there's a very dangerous game going on in the castle. There's someone else behind Dorne, somebody that's trying to take away my authority as King. And I suspect they're the ones influencing the nobles" 

Sera eyes widen as things start to make sense. All the pieces were falling into place now that Lucien was diverging from the original plan. But the larger question still remained. Who was trying to kill them?

"The Elder will go stay in the cottage with him. There's no safer place for him to be than with the magician. When the cottage was built, I had him ward the cottage against intruders with malicious intent. No one can go near the gardens of the cottage if they harbored ill will towards our son." 

"But I found the cottage easily?" Sera cocks her head, unsure what Lucien meant.

Lifting his hand, Lucien places Sera's smaller hand on his open palm. 

"Do you feel it?" He asks.

"No?" Sera's brows furrow. Was she supposed to feel something? There was the warmth of Lucien's dry palm, the callused bumps and rough surface.

"I'm releasing some of my mana. A slight amount." Lucien grasps Sera's hands in his.

Their fingers interlace with each other as Lucien presses a kiss to the back of Sera's hand. "But you can't feel it, can you?" 

Shaking her head, Sera replies. "No." 

"Others would feel a low vibration with the amount I'm releasing, or see a color atop my palm if they're more talented in magic." 

Lucien continues:

"A Summoned One has no mana signature. It's easier for you to bypass the wards. For others, the flower garden will turn into a maze" That was an ingenious invention of the Elder's. Lucien had only asked for him to set a barrier around the cottage, but the Elder had taken it as a challenge and designed the whole groundwork beneath the foundations of the cottage, laying a magic circle beneath it.

Without the magic wooden tags that worked like keys to allow entry, most people even with good intentions tended to get lost within the layers of various flowers.

Ah. Sera had almost forgotten. It had faded to the fringes of her memory. In the past, it didn't make sense to her why people with magic would summon someone with no magic to their lands. But Summoning someone wasn't for their magic. Lucien had told her so in the beginning, when they were still at odds for each other. It was for morale, the hope they could bring to the people to fulfill the prophecy. Her job was to sit tight and look pretty.

The bath had done good for the wound in Lucien's leg and the cuts on his arms and chest. Sera used her doctor's kit to sew them up, bandaging them tight enough to not come apart with strenuous movement.

Together, they dress for the reckoning. Lucien, in his full armor, red hair styled out of his face, and Sera in a simple, but beautiful chocolate brown dress, tight sleeves and no corset, covered up in a cloak.

-------

The Throne Room was located on the ground floor deeper in recesses of the center of the castle, down a long hallway that began from the entrance in the courtyard.

"Sera. "

Sera looks up at Lucien, who keeps walking forward with his eyes straight ahead, the lamplight reflected in his blue eyes.

"Tonight will be a long night. These men that we hunt tonight, they're fiends that suck away at the lifeblood of this nation" Lucien sucks in a shuddering breath.

"I know the kind of men they are, and how they think...They won't go down without a fight. My men against theirs. "

Body tensing as she remembers the near-death experience she'd gone through earlier today, Sera

"It was one of the nobles that tried to murder us today." Sera makes the statement. It wasn't a question anymore in her mind. It was now a matter of finding out who.

"They hunger for the power the throne holds without paying the price to gain it." Lucien nods, brows knit together with a stern expression.

"Pray that this will be finished before the capital turns into a battleground. "

Lucien murmurs to Sera as they walk towards the Throne Room.

Servants holding lamps light the way as Lucien and Sera pass them. They walked quickly, Lucien with long strides with Sera's skirts fluttering as she kicked them up to keep up.

Stepping up to the side doors. The side doors were the only other entrance aside from the main doors into the Throne Room. Only the King could go through them, to enter from the back where the thrones were placed. Lucien pauses, making Sera halt alongside him.

Lucien kisses their intertwined fingers and escorts her inside.

"These were prepared for our wedding, but I thought it would be perfect to use now."

Gently pulling her forward to the dais so she could see what was placed there, Lucien puts an arm around Sera's waist.

The large golden throne with red cushion and inlaid with jewels Sera had seen from before when the old King used it. That wasn't the only thing there.

There were two thrones.

Sera sucks in a breath.

"Never before has Thornmere seen a Queen sitting on the throne next to the King." In low, dulcet tones, Lucien utters in her ear. And this was true. In the strict male and female societal roles, the King governed, while the Queen ruled the women's court. It would shock many to hear the Lucien had done such a thing for Sera.

Kissing her neck, he continues.

"You are the first."

Next to the giant golden throne placed slightly off center of the dais, a silver one sat. It's size was just as large as the King's throne, only the build of it was delicate. Next to the straight bold lines of gold carved to resemble swords and thick oak, the silver throne was like a shining willow tree. With slender leaves and branches twining around each other to form the shape of a throne, and jewels carved into vibrant fruits and pastel flowers, it was a work of art.

The bottom of the cushion had a crystal fringe hemmed around the seat of the chair, dripping like frozen raindrops. With its high back, and spindle wrought legs, it brought to mind the image of Sera herself, petite but with a strong backbone, regal in her own right.

He escorting her to the throne so that Sera can take a seat.

Sitting on his own throne, he pats his lap, raising an eyebrow at Sera.

"This throne is available as well."

Sera blushes, turning her face away to towards the wall where the two thrones sat. She didn't know if Lucien did it on purpose, but him being able to crack a joke like that was reassuring. It assuaged her worries, reminded her of who Lucien was with his easy confidence. He was King.

Trying and somewhat failing to hide the disappointed look on his face, Lucien coughs. He'd kind of hoped she would take him up on the offer. His expression quickly changes when the large entrance doors to the Throne Room creak open.

Men outfitted in shining silver armor march into the throne room. With their helmets at their sides, they salute their King. Their numbers were not enough to fill up the large throne room, as Sera could only count around 150 to 200 heads. Yet each man burned with purpose, bodies tense and muscles bulging from the harsh training that Icaros and Lucien had put them through.

BOOM!

The sound of steel covered fists meeting steel chest-plates in unison comes together to create an echoing reverberation that shivers through everyone present.

"Mhnm! Mrff!!! Fjhdds!"

It was the sound of several noblemen dressed in long pajamas dragged into the room, bound by heavy ropes. Some men even cried tears of fear as the knights brought them in. They couldn't speak, with cloths stuffed into their mouths to keep them quiet from awaking the castle denizen.

Lucien's strategy was to strike fast and hard while the iron was hot.

Icaros marches at the head of the knights with red capes swirling behind them.

"My King, we've apprehended the traitors in the castle."

Looking at their faces, Lucien gives a cruel smile. The righteous anger he kept simmering for the main culprits. These nobles before him now were only the weaklings. Men like them were the ones that followed the leaders in bleeding the people dry. Though weak, they would prey on those weaker than them like blood-scenting hounds.

"The more important names in our list had left the castle last night citing various reasons."

Waving his hands, Lucien mentions to Icaros.

"Good. Take them to the dungeons. We will try them for their crimes tomorrow."

"As for the rest of the leaders of noble Houses not staying in the castle, we shall go search their Capital residences as planned, Sire."

"Wait."

Icaros shows the resigned expression on his face to Lucien. With his back facing the rest of the knights only Sera and Lucien can see him moving his mouth to plead with Lucien not to go. He'd been expecting this. But his King was important! He needed to keep him safe, and having him participate in doing the dirty work wasn't helping.

Lucien ignores him, looking out at the other men's faces.

Icaros gives up his last-ditch effort. His King was no royal that would sit back and command the proceedings. King Lucien would always be in the thick of the action, leading his men.

"My men and I will go to House Norwood." Lucien stands up, armor clinking as it rubs together. Pulling back the hair from his face in the habit he'd acquired after 5 years of long hair, he puts his steel helmet on, his stature larger-than-life.

"He and I have business."

Icaros kneels, showing his respect.

"Understood, my King."

"Men, head out to the locations I've assigned each of you. Apprehend the noble Heads. Release the signal if you meet with resistance"

Icaros turns to the large men built like tanks behind him.

"As the captain commands!"

The men shout back in response.

Marching, the armed men knights into smaller groups of around 20, and depart the Throne Room, group by group.

Putting one hand on the back of Sera's silver throne, Lucien stoops down and surprises Sera with a long, wet kiss.

"Remember the self-defense skills I taught you. Don't push yourself too hard" He whispers, kissing her bruised cheek.

"Same to you" Sera whispers back, their lips brushing against each other again.

Lucien was the last to leave, giving one last look to Sera and then striding out of the Throne Room. Members of the King's Guard follow behind him, burning with purpose.