The Daughter Of Dawn

The Lost Love - ZENO

Hundreds of years ago, when Arcogantia was a newly made nation, the time when the King led his Army to many victorious battles. After the last gruesome battle, the soldiers bequeath their swords to their King, to show their loyalty towards their great King. On the day of unification of all the states, all the knights pledged with their own blood that dripped on the white marble floor of the King's assembly,  showing them that as long as the blood that stained the white floor of the Castle will remain, their loyalty will stand forever by the side of their king. It was known as the "Word of Honor." As years passed, we started celebrating that day, we called it the Foundation Day. Now we wear white on this day and glorify the sacrifices of our ancestors and their knights. Today is Foundation Day. We all are in white today, as we all are supposed to be, as we are told. I'm standing on the temporary built platform, it was specially made for today so that the officials can give their speech to respect our Ancestor.

I looked at her, no amount of time will be enough to capture her in my memory, every different shade of her is special, every moment with her is different. I see her, like everyone else she too is wearing a white T-shirt. Her hairs weren't tied up like everyday, her hairs were down today. She had kept them short. I used to tell her how alluring she looked with her hairs long, maybe that's the reason she cut them short. But it's not the outworldly beauty in her that attracts me, it's her. No matter how she looks, no matter how scarred she is, I'll always yearn for her. Even when she is standing far away from me, I feel her presence, I feel content everytime I see her. Her presence reassures my heart, this is the power she has, the power over me. Even if I ever wanted to break away from her I can't, I couldn't. Something that started years ago as something so innocent, something pure turned into a scary obsession as time passed. She is like a bad habit to me, I can't let go. But I never wanted to, never once I thought of leaving her, we are meant to be together.

"If today I'm standing here in front of you all as people of the same nation, if today we all are independent and have our right to choose for ourselves, all the credit goes to our Great Ancestors. They sow the seed of responsibility and commitment in this land, and now we are growing up fruitfully because of their hard labour." I ended my speech, waiting for the noise to cease down. I looked at her again, I saw her smiling, no matter how mad she is at me, no matter how far she wants to go away from, she can never let me go, just like me. She is the one who made me like this, now I'm her responsibility, she cannot leave me just like that. I smiled looking at her, our eyes crossed each other. She stopped smiling the second her eyes fell on me. I'm not sad, moreover I'm happy, I affect her, it's better than being treated as a non existing person in her life like she did before.

The end of my speech indicates the beginning of the rest of the events. The events included sports, competition among the soldiers. The first event was the match of volleyball. They picked up members for two teams. Ila, that's what I used to call her, she hated it, but she never asked me not to call her that. She joined the red team. 

I volunteered to join.

"Your Highness, is it alright for you to play?" Major Angus asked. He was the one who had greeted me when I arrived here first, he had led me the way to Ila. I looked at his eyes, feigning to be shocked.

"It's there any reason why I cannot?" I questioned him, of all the people, he should've known this. 

He looked at me confused. I raised my eyebrow at him. He needs to be replaced.

"Ah. Yes, your Highness. Of course not." He replied, surely even he didn't know what he meant.

"So..??" I asked him, showing him my hand to take the lead. He continued staring at me with confusion written all over his face. How can I choose someone so dumb to work for me? 

"My team?" I said smiling tightly at him.

"Oh. Yes yes, You're Highness. I'll be back in a moment." He replied walking away from me. I waited for ten minutes before I saw him walking hurriedly towards me, hoping he did his work well this time. I looked at him, waiting for answers.

"Your Highness, you're in the Blue Team." He came running with a Blue armband in his hand. What? Really? How can he not do even a single thing right?

"Is this what you got for me? The blue band?" I looked at him. He really knows how to piss people off. I can see stupidity dripping from his face, the sad thing is that there is no for stupidity. I grabbed the armband from his hands and walked towards the court. I could see eyes all over me, I used to be so scared of these states, those eyes, they used to eat me up from inside. But not now, not since she gave her hand to me, not since held my hand, not since she was by my side.

I looked towards her, she was stretching with her teammates, smiling at them. I haven't seen her smiling for a long time. It is gorgeous, her smile, just like her. I walked into the court, standing where I can see her perfectly in the opposite of her court. She glanced at me once before the whistle blew. The match started. I looked around. Everyone gathered around the court. They were all shouting, cheering for their teams. I suddenly felt nauseous, I felt a familiar feeling in my gut, the feeling when someone expects so much from you, but you aren't worth it, you aren't capable of it. The feeling that followed me since childhood, I was always terrified for not being the one my parents, my teachers, the citizens who'll follow me someday see me as. Who knew someday someone so common can get those scary demons away from me just by standing beside me. That one sentence that Ila told me, it changed my way of thinking, it changed me. But this couldn't be happening again, not now, not in front of everyone, not in front of her. I looked at her, her eyes were wide open, she was saying something, I couldn't hear it, I wanted to hear her, but I couldn't. She was waving her hand at me, deliberately trying to say something.

 She looked the same, just like when I saw her for the first time. She was rushing in my direction at that time. Her hands were bloodied, her face showed distress. She was running beside the stretcher, rushing towards the ER. She was waving hand, asking people to move out of the way. I couldn't see her face, maybe because of her big thick glasses that covered half of her face, or maybe because of her long hairs that swayed around covering her other half of the face. She walked past me, her hand hitting my chest accidentally. She turned back bending her head slightly, apologizing for her hand. Her hand left a mark on my shirt, the red blood left impression of her hand in my shirt. That's when I was marked for the first time. I saw her face then, that one second was enough to remember that face. I saw her walking away, my eyes followed her back till she disappeared in the crowd.

I felt a hard thing hitting my face. That hit brought me back to reality. It was the ball, I was hit by the ball, I looked around, people were starting at me, everyone's eyes were on me. I started feeling nauseous again, my head started spinning, just then someone came in front of me, blocking my view from everything, from the rest of the crowd. I looked up, it was Ila. I knew it, she will always be there for me.

"Are you okay?" She asked, holding my shoulders. Her eyebrows were tightly kneaded, she really is concerned. I'm glad. 

I nodded my head in response. I can't be happier. This was the nicest conversation we had in years.

"Oh my God, you're bleeding, Noh!" She said touching my face. I closed my eyes, it was almost like a reflex, back then whenever she touched my face I used to close my eyes, feeling her fingers on me. I loved the way she used to caress my eyes, my nose, my lips and then tracing them with kisses. 

"Your Highness?" I hear her voice. I opened my eyes, she wasn't calling me Noh anymore. I saw her fingers blocking my nostril.

"Look up, Your Highness." She said holding my chin up. That momentary warmth in her eyes were gone, they were cold again.

"Help him to the medical room." She said, looking at someone. She moved her fingers away from my nose, letting someone else do the job.

I stopped her holding her wrist. I looked down, I now can feel the blood gushing down my nostrils.

"You're coming with me." I said to her.

"You don't need a doctor for this." She replied, taking her wrist out of my grip. She took a step back to let the other man take her place. I glared at him as he tried to fill in the gap. I took a step in trying to close the gap between us.

"I'm not going anywhere without you." I said looking at her. 

She stared at me with disbelief, maybe with annoyance too. After a few moments she sighed.

"Fine!" She said. She started walking. I followed her, waving at other men to stop following us.

"Babe, how I'm supposed to stop this?" I said, catching up to her. She turned back, she looked annoyed. 

"Where are the others?" She asked. She did sound annoyed.

"You're enough." 

 She rolled her eyes on me, she thought that I couldn't see it, but I just know. She lifted my chin up with one of her hands and with another she blocked my nostrils. I saw my blood smearing her fingers. Her hand was bloodied.

This will be the last time. The third marking. The Word of Honor. It became widespread all over the newly made nation. It became a form of oath to swear their sincerity towards someone. As time passed parts of the oath changed. The one who offers becomes the master, the one who receives became the follower. Instead of offering blood in the feet of their master, the masters marked their followers by smearing their follower's garment with blood. If blood is offered once, the follower will remain lifelong loyal to his master. If offered twice, the life of follower is offered to their master to be used as a shield or to be the sword. If offered thrice, the last one, it's the soul that is offered to the master. They're called Marking. As more time passed, the oath lost its meaning. Now the youths symbolise this oath as a promise of Love from a person in love to their lovers . It became the oath of a man and his lover. The man became the master and the lover became the follower. The man once marks his lover, she cannot leave him. She becomes bound by him, in the name of oath. If marked once, she gives him her loyalty to him, if twice she has to give up on her right of dying, she gives him her life and if she is marked for the last time, the third time, her soul becomes a part of his, so that they can be together in the afterlife.

We reached the make-do medical room. It was a storage room which was temporarily turned into a medical room.

"Keep looking up." She said and removed her hand. I wiped off the remaining blood.

 She went in. I followed her. Before she could find a tissue or anything, I grabbed her wrist, and pulled her closer to me. She tried to push me away, this time I won't let her go.

"Babe." I whispered in her ears.

"What do you want?" She asked without looking at me. She used her other hand to open my fingers.

"Look at me, Babe." I said, pulling her closer to me. I lifted her chin using my free hand. Our eyes met. Just like every time, I got lost into her eyes, her gaze.

"Now what?" She said looking back at me. Does she never react the way I react to her? I let go of her wrist. She takes a step back immediately. 

"Don't run away from me." I said, filling that one step between us.

"Stay where you are, Zeno." She said, calling me by my name. That was more colder than hearing Your Majesty from her.

"Babe, why are you calling me that?" I asked her, reaching out for her face. She turned her face away as she took a step back again.

"I'm leaving." She said, walking past me. I grabbed her by her arm and pulled her close to me, close enough that I can hear her breathing. 

"Do you know how crazily I missed you?" I said softly to her. I pushed the strayed hair away from her face and gently tucked it behind her ears.

"I thought about you everyday, Babe." My thumb started caressing her cheek. I can hear her breathing, it was ragged. I saw her closing her eyes momentarily. She was flushed. 

"I almost went crazy missing you." My fingers reached her lips, slowly rubbing them. I can feel her heart racing against mine. She tried to push me away weakly. I can see her bloodied fingers almost touching my chest, ready to push me away anytime. I see her lips quivering. She wants this too.

"I wanted you so bad." I looked at her lips as my thumb rubbed them gently. Her eyes closed. I closed my eyes as our lips touched. I kissed her. I kissed every part of her. I kissed her again and over again. She kissed me back. Her lips parted, making way for me to get in. She sucked my lower lips, biting them lightly. I moaned. I didn't want this to end. I kissed her lips, her tongue touched mine, I could feel the shiver ran down her spine. I pulled her closer to me. I rubbed her lips with my thumb as I continued to kiss her.  I've yearned for this for years. The softness in her lips, the deep kisses from her, I missed them every time. I could feel her grip getting stronger around my shirt, as she crumpled my shirt tightly with her fingers.

"Babe, you drive me crazy." I said taking a short breath. I continued kissing her, my hands went behind her ears, gently touching them. She slightly whimpered, a little moan came out of her mouth. My lips never left hers, they continued to feed on them, as if they were starving for years.

Bammmmm.....

I heard the door closing, someone was here. She looked at me, I can see how her face changed when realisation struck her. She was looking at me, her eyes wavered. She pushed me away. She wiped her lips with the back of her palm and walked away. I looked at my blood stained shirt. I smiled. I've gotten what I needed. I've been marked for the third time, now even my soul belongs to her.