THE DARK PRINCE

ASHER AND KESHAI

Episodes 7 and 8

Asher and Keshai

"Please, take a seat upon the log of wood. We have sufficiently distanced ourselves from Keshai. I shall seek out some Chromolaena and Vernonia leaves. Kindly wait here," Keisha instructed Asher. "Wait, is it truly safe for you to venture out there alone? And what do you mean by leaves?" Asher inquired. Keisha smiled and replied, "I am a member of the village's soldiers, alongside my sister. We are both warriors, hence the presence of the weapon," she indicated the arrows on her back, "so it is indeed safe for me. Additionally, we are the Physician's Daughters, thus we possess knowledge in these matters. Are you apprehensive about being alone?" Asher attempted to respond, but before he could speak, Keisha laughed in a teasing manner, "Do not worry; the leaves are not far from here. I shall return shortly, and my sister will arrive soon as well."

"Arrive soon? There were more than forty non-humans!" Asher exclaimed. Keisha merely smiled and said, "I shall return." With that, she turned and walked away.

Ten minutes later, Keshai became visible, and she called out, "There you are," when she was approximately ten steps away from Asher, who remained seated on the log of wood. Asher looked up with a shocked expression on his face, "How... ho... what... what did you do?" Keshai reached him, dropped the sack of knives on the ground, and settled beside him, placing her sword next to him. "What do you mean by what did I do?" Keshai inquired. "I mean, you're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to still be fighting those things; we left you not long ago!" Keshai simply chuckled, "Hey, have you got water there?" Asher replied, "No, I do not," yet he continued to gaze at her as if she were another creature. "Hey, stop looking at me like that! I am the Warlord Queen and the daughter of the greatest physician you would ever know. What do you expect?" Keshai said in a feigned irritating manner but with a proud expression. "Warlord Queen?!" Asher exclaimed. "But she never reveals her face; she only provides her crest to her assistant when attending meetings," Asher stated. "That is because I wish to live like other ladies. If my face is shown, the respect would be uncomfortable, and I desire to walk freely around the village without any disturbance," Keshai replied. "Then where is your crest?" Asher asked. "Why would I show you? See, you're not her. Stop lying!" Asher said with a disdainful look. "I cannot believe you're foolish too," Keshai said, shaking her head. "What is that?" Asher asked, pointing towards the sack of knives. "The knives the Rogues held, I need to send them to physicians to study the poison on each of them," Keshai responded. "Wow, and you emerged unscathed," he said, staring all over her body. "Is that your sword?" he said, picking it up without her permission. "Wow, The Warlord Queen's crest, you are truly her," Asher exclaimed while examining the sword. Keshai's demeanor changed immediately, "Return my sword to me, return it." Asher raised his hands high, keeping the sword out of her reach. Keshai struggled, but Asher pinned her down with his other hand. "Oh, oh, the warlord queen struggling in the arms of an ordinary villager that resides in the forest," Keshai struck the face of his wounds. "Argh," Asher groaned. Keshai seized the opportunity to slam his back on the wood, causing him to lay on it while she fell on him. They stared at each other for two seconds. "Do not push it, Grey Fool," Keshai said and snatched her sword from him while she glared at him. She stood up from him, dusting herself. Asher sat up, groaning while holding his arm. At that moment, Keisha walked towards them, "What is transpiring here?" Keisha inquired. Keshai looked up and said, "You have arrived." She moved away from Asher and instructed her sister, "Treat him immediately, and let us proceed." Keshai walked towards Asher and sat beside him. "Are you alright?" she asked, checking his wound while applying the herbs immediately. Asher merely nodded. After a few minutes, "All done," Keisha stated. "Good let's go" Keshai said, lifting the sack of knives, slinging it across her shoulder, "Ughn, Hold on, would you leave me like this??" Asher said, "Leave you like what??, you've been treated already, don't you reside in the forest??, just go home and take proper care of yourself and try put on some shirts stop being a show off" Keshai responded while she dragged her sister with her other hand, "Bye, Long haired" Keisha waved with a sweet smile, Asher smiled back at her too, once they were out of sight, Asher smirked and opened his palm, Keshai's crest lay there, glowing peacefully, he was sure, she'd come back to him, He suddenly just love her around him, he found her interesting.

An hour later, the girls entered The village,

The village was loud with the usual evening noise when Keshai and Keisha rode in. Keshai dismounted first, handing Keisha the sack of poison knives without breaking stride.

"Take these to the physicians. Tell them to start their study tonight."

Keisha took the sack and hurried off without argument.

Keishi made her way to where the soldiers had gathered, their voices low and tense around a fire. They straightened when they saw her. She pulled up a seat and they began, the Rogues had been spotted again at the eastern border, closer than last time, bolder than last time.

She was mid-discussion when one of the soldiers leaned forward and squinted at her sword.

"Warlord Queen." He said carefully. "Your crest. It is no longer on your sword."

Keisha's hand dropped to the hilt. Her fingers found the familiar grooves of the blade and then, nothing. The place where the crest should have sat was empty.

She went very still.

Asher.

She rose without another word, sheathed her sword, and found Keisha coming back from the physicians.

"Get your horse," she said.

Keisha blinked. "We just got back,"

"Get. Your horse."

They rode back into the forest.

The forest knew Asher the way old things know each other quietly, without fuss. The tall trees had kept his secret well. No roads led to him. No rumors carried his name into towns or taverns. He existed out here the way the moss existed on the rocks, simply and without announcement.

So when the birds stopped, he noticed.

He was sitting outside his wooden house, the log walls warm behind him in the afternoon light, when Keshai stepped through the trees. She moved through his terrain without hesitation, like she had mapped it in her mind long before today. Her deep black eyes cut through the dappled shadows and found him before he could even straighten up properly.

She was not what the forest was used to. Her long white gown moved around her as she walked, the splits at the hem revealing white trousers beneath, and a single white rose was pinned at her chest, clean and deliberate against everything wild and green around her. The physician's daughter. And yet the sword at her hip said she was something else entirely today.

On the railing beside Asher sat the crest.

Her eyes went to it. Then back to him.

"You took something that belongs to me."

"I was wondering when you'd show up," he said.

"Give it back."

"Come and get it."

She drew her sword.

The fight rolled off the porch and into the clearing, the tall trees standing witness like they always did, silent, unbothered, keeping another of his secrets. Keshai was ferocious. Her blade moved with purpose and her temper gave it weight, driving Asher back across the dirt, giving him no room to think. She caught him hard and pressed her advantage, sword at his throat, white gown catching the light between the branches.

"Done?" she asked, barely winded.

He wasn't.

He shifted her momentum and the fight turned over itself until Keshai was on her back in the clearing, Asher above her with her wrists pinned, both of them breathing hard into the forest quiet.

Five seconds.

Her deep black eyes looked up into his and neither of them moved. The trees stood very still. The fury in her face didn't disappear — it just became something more difficult to name. Something neither of them reached for.

Then she moved her knee, just slightly, and Asher let her go.

Keshai stood. She smoothed her white gown with quiet composure, straightened the rose at her chest, and walked to the railing without looking at him. She took the crest, tucked it away, and walked back into the trees the same way she came.

The forest swallowed her up. The birds started again.

---

Down the path Keisha was waiting by the horses, bright eyed and barely patient.

"You got it? What took so long? Are you alright? You don't look — well you look fine but you have dirt on your—"

"Keisha."

"—gown, just there on the side, and your hair is — did something happen? Did he put up a fight? What is he like? Because I've been standing here thinking and I just—"

"*Keisha.*"

Silence.

She mounted her horse with full dignity, smoothed her gown over the saddle, and looked straight ahead down the forest path.

"Don't," she said quietly.

"I didn't say anything."

"His name. Don't say it. Don't think it."

Keisha bit the inside of her cheek. "I was only curious because—"

"He's a fool," Keshai said, already moving. "A gray dummy. That's all he is. Leave it."

Keisha followed, watching her sister's perfectly straight back and perfectly composed shoulders and the small smear of dirt on the side of her perfectly white gown.

"You were gone a *long* time," she said softly.

"Ride, Keisha."

She rode. Smiling the whole way.