"Your Highness, I hardly think?—"
"The worst that can happen is a branch catching myseretand undressing me, Rhazir. Relax."
If anything, this assurance made him look more stricken. The idea of me naked and vulnerable, even accidentally, painted such obvious distress across his features that I had to bite back laughter.
"I'll be fine," I promised, already moving toward the door. "What manner of danger could possibly find me in paradise?"
His expression suggested he could think of several, but he didn't voice them. Instead, he bowed with stiff formality that told me how deeply my dismissal had wounded him.
"As you wish, Your Highness."
I paused at the threshold, wanting to say something that might ease the tension between us, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, I stepped into afternoon sunlight that seemed less golden now, leaving behind the one person who'd never asked anything of me save the privilege of keeping me safe.
Even in paradise, it seemed, I was destined to walk alone.
Chapter
Five
RHAZIR
The grand chambers stretched around me like a gilded cage, all marble and silk and impossible luxury. I stood at the center of it, still as stone, feeling the weight of my own displacement like chains around my limbs. Everything here spoke of wealth beyond measure, the furniture carved from precious woods, the carpets woven with threads of gold, the windows that offered views of paradise itself. Yet none of it belonged to me, and I did not belong to it.
The silence pressed against my ears with suffocating intensity. Without Serin's presence to anchor me, the rooms felt vast as an ocean, empty as a tomb. I was a warrior without purpose in a place that had no need for warriors, a sword grown dull from lack of use.
Here, the priests walked unguarded throughstreets where flowers bloomed instead of blood pooling. Their soldiers, the few I'd glimpsed, wore armor polished to mirror brightness, ceremonial pieces that had likely never tasted battle. I'd heard tales of their navy clearing pirates from shipping lanes, but nothing that would inspire songs or raise monuments. This was a land where peace reigned so completely that men like me were relics of a harsher age.
And Serin... Serin was beginning to bloom in this place like a flower finally given proper soil.
The thought twisted in my chest like a blade between ribs. I was both protector and poison to him, the reminder of duties he wished to forget, the chain that bound him to a crown he'd never wanted. How long before he realized he could be truly free if only he sent me away?
He is never going to be mine,I reminded myself with brutal honesty. Even if he stayed forever in this paradise, even if he found the happiness that had eluded him at home, it would never be with me. I was his shadow, his faithful sword, nothing more.
The walls seemed to press closer with each breath. I needed air, movement, anything to escape the suffocating luxury that reminded me how far I was from belonging anywhere at all.
The corridor beyond our chambers was a marvel of architecture, one side open to gardens through graceful arches supported by columns ofrose-veined marble. Breeze carried the scent of jasmine and orange blossoms, the sound of water singing in fountains, the distant laughter of young men at leisure. On the opposite wall, statues of gods stood in alabaster glory, Aerius with his scrolls, Elyon crowned with light, others whose names I didn't know but whose beauty was unmistakable.
All of them naked. All of them perfect. All of them watching me with stone eyes that seemed to whisper accusations I couldn't quite hear.
My throat constricted as I passed beneath their silent judgment. Even the gods here were beautiful, untouched by the harsh necessities that had shaped my world. What place did I have among such divine perfection?
I stepped onto the gravel path that wound through the gardens, seeking solace in movement. The grounds sprawled in every direction like something from a dream - hedges trimmed to geometric precision, flowers blooming in riots of color, fruit hanging heavy from branches that bent low with their bounty. Fountains trickled and sang, their pools filled with fish that darted like living jewels through crystal water.
It was beauty made manifest, nature shaped by loving hands rather than conquered by iron will. Everything the Three Isles were not.
Laughter drew my attention to a fountain where several young men splashed each other with abandon,their joy infectious despite my melancholy. Water caught the sunlight as it arced between them, and their skin gleamed with moisture that made them seem carved from living bronze. They were utterly unconscious of their beauty, completely at ease with their partial nakedness, and I found myself envying that careless confidence.
Here, I was the strange one. The foreign curiosity who wore armor like a second skin and carried weapons to a place that had forgotten war. They belonged; I was merely tolerated.
"Lost in thought?"
I turned to find Ander approaching along the path, his arms full of scrolls bound with ribbon. The young acolyte moved with that fluid grace common to all Eletherians, as if walking were a form of dance he'd mastered without conscious effort.
"Forgive me," I said, stepping aside to let him pass. "I was simply... exploring."
"No forgiveness needed. The gardens are meant for contemplation." He gestured with his burden toward a building whose spires pierced the sky like prayers made stone. "I'm bound for Aerius's temple with translations. Would you care to walk with me? I could show you the scriptorium, it's said to be the largest in the world."
The offer was kindly meant, but I shook my head. "A scriptorium has no use for a soldier like me."
