Destinare: A Destined Tale Of Time

IV Face To Face With The Sky.

 “I’m not Victor.”

The voice was hard and cold, not matching the small silhouette that it was coming out of. Azmeralda stood petrified realizing the mistake she had made. It was weird how she felt so scared of such a small figure. She stumbled back as it started to approach her. In less than a minute, the silhouette was illuminated by the moonlight as it stepped away from the shadows.

Azmeralda made out the raven hair and eyes that matched it staring at her with stern and blank eyes, Tiberius. She recognized him underneath the moonlight, she suddenly felt a leap of heart. Now that she was looking at him closer than before, it was even harder to believe that he was a brother to Romanus and Victor.

“Tiberius,” she breathed out in relief, her knees almost giving in under her weight. “You scared the life out of me.”

“Tiberius…” he quoted his own name in a distant tone, as if it wasn’t his own.

Azmeralda soon figured the puzzlement in his voice. “Victor and Roman allowed me to call them by their names,” she said formally, fixing her posture as she addressed him. “I apologize if that didn’t imply to you too, Prince Tiberius.”

She was sure to put boundaries between them if he wasn’t the type to be friendly, even if they were the same age. Now that Azmeralda paid attention to him, he hovered over her with a good 10 inches even though they were almost the same age.

“T-That’s not what I meant,” Tiberius stuttered, feeling frustrated at the sudden formalities. His introverted self was not used to talking to people, and the last thing he required was to cause a misunderstanding with the guests.

Or perhaps, he wasn’t used to the sound of his name being said so sweetly without hate or vexation, or loathing that he could never comprehend. The girl before him was looking at him like her equal, with no degradation or meaningless hate.

Honestly, he has spent too much in his room, and when he barely comes out, Queen Blandia somehow finds a way to make his life harder. It was such a small gesture from a relatively small person, but it meant so much to Tiberius at that moment.

“Then what is it that you meant to say?” Azmeralda questioned, tilting her head to the side to take a better look at his face that hung low on his neck. “You can feel free to express your mind for me, Prince…it’s not like we have anything to do as we are lost in this maze.”

Tiberius watched her rattle, and the warmth in her voice wasn’t something that he misheard. Tiberius bit down on the answer *I find peace in your voice*, he said silently. His heart was soothed like never before in his short life, and that was something he couldn’t rattle about to a princess he had just met.

“I’m not lost,” he said, changing the subject.

“Eh?” she mumbled, blinking ignorantly as the silent moment lasted long enough for her to assume that her talk was buried as time passed.

“I said I’m not lost.”

“I heard you the first time,” she instantly replied. “Then what are you doing here?”

“I like walking here,” Tiberius said, finding it hard to keep up with her talk as his own frustration took hold of him. “I walked by and heard someone call, so I came to check.”

“You know the way out of here?!” Azmeralda exclaimed, her eyes shimmering with hope.

Tiberius stared oddly at her before he nodded his head, fixing his weary eyes on hers.

“Then what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” Azmeralda exclaimed, turning on her heels to lead the way.

“It’s the other way.”

Azmeralda jolted to a halt, feeling the shame eat at her *I should’ve let him lead the way instead!* she lashed at herself as she squeezed her eyes and reopened them to turn around to face Tiberius with the same smile as before.

He barely nodded as he turned on his heels to walk down the path that he came from. Azmeralda kept a safe distance between the two of them as she held her head high to finally admire the view of the navy sky.

Now that she had got the time - as well as the company, she was able to see the meaning behind these tall walls of bushes surrounding, or at least meaning that her young mind could comprehend; the walls isolated you completely from the world, leaving only you and sky one-to-one to enjoy the moment of the silence.

However, silence here wasn’t much appreciated. Azmeralda kept sneaking peaks at Tiberius as he led the way in complete silence. All she could see was his broad young shoulders.

“Why weren’t you at dinner earlier?” she said, breaking the silence and coming to regret it almost immediately.

She saw the way his shoulders flinched at the pitch of her voice, and she soon remembered her talk with the two brothers *They don’t have a good relationship because of the Queen*, she thought, and lashed at herself in silence, hoping that he would ignore her question.

“I don’t eat with the Royal family,” he said, his voice being calm and neutral…distant yet again, as if the word *Royal family* was excluding him from the circle.

“But you could’ve joined in at least for today,” she said, holding her hand behind her back as she tried to lighten up the mood of the conversation. “It would have been fun.”

“I bet it would have been,” he mumbled under his breath, a hint of sadness hidden in his words. *All until the Queen comes to me with her wrath* he silently added.

“You make me want to puke!” the Queen once told him. “Don’t you dare sit again at the same table as me and my children.”

The words were poison that still took effect on him even to this day…even this moment. He would have very much enjoyed the evening with the Princess and his two younger brothers, but then, when it’s all over and he retires to his room…the whole setting of the day changes for the worse as the Queen comes banging on his door.

“Your brothers miss you a lot,” Azmeralda uttered, hoping to take him out of his dwelling as she saw his shoulders hanging low.

He snapped at the words and turned to look at her in genuine surprise. “They do?”

She nodded eagerly. “They just told me that,” she said. “If you appeared a little earlier, you would have gotten the chance to meet them.”

Tiberius fell silent yet again *How long has it been since I last seen them?* he wondered. They live under the same roof, so how is it so hard to get to meet their own brothers?!

“I don’t have the luxury of seeing them,” he said, after a long moment of silence. “I have many lessons to attend.”

Perhaps that’s the only good thing about his day; his lessons were the responsibility of his father, as he is the firstborn son and the legal heir to the throne. So he, at the very least, got decent tuition.

Azmeralda somehow figured that any further questions weren’t going to be appreciated. *How in the world did you manage to put yourself in this awkward situation so fast?* she scoffed at her own ignorance. Finally, she decided that it was time to keep her mouth locked, and save the poor boy from further frustrating questions.

She took in a deep breath and exhaled, turning her attention back to the sky. “I’m not interrogating you or anything,” she said, making up her mind yet again that she couldn’t leave it at that. “I was just curious, if you want to ask something go ahead. I won’t bite.”

Tiberius glanced over his shoulder at Azmeralda as she gazed up at the night sky. He followed her line of sight and knew why she was so occupied with staring at it. The night was clear, the sky was a deep navy blue adorning the stars scattered across its area.

Something inside him told him that she was okay *this girl was okay*, he thought. Perhaps, if he allowed himself to get closer, he wouldn’t regret it.

“Don’t you dare go near the princess!” The Queen’s words have still lingered in his mind since this morning.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to stop him from accepting the first friendly gesture he had been given by someone.

“Do you have any siblings?”

Azmeralda darted her head in surprise to look at Tiberius. She never thought that he would actually ask something in return. Nevertheless, it made her heart leap for some reason.

“N-no,” she said, finally remembering to answer. “I’m the only child.”

For the first time, Tiberius matched his pace with hers and looked her eye to eye, curiosity was clear on his fair skin.

“Oh yes, I know that it’s not common for emperors to have only one child,” she said, almost speaking her own thoughts. “You see, my father was deeply in love with my mother, and sadly she died giving birth to me.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Tiberius said, regretting his questions.

“No, it’s alright,” she waved him off. “I never actually saw her, so…you know. I long for a mother and I’m sad for her death…but I never actually met her.”

“I know,” he simply said. Strangely, she found comfort in those words.

Azmeralda didn’t exactly know what he meant by those words but didn’t bother to ask. Now that they were walking side by side, before long they finally found the exit from the maze.

“Woah,” she exclaimed, welcoming the lights flickering off the palace around them. “You really did know the way.”

Tiberius never replied, not knowing what was the reply to such words. But something told him that no answer was desired.

They stood there for a couple of minutes. Azmeralda felt something itch in her mind, as if she had forgotten something.

“Oh God…” she mumbled under her breath. “Tiberius, have you seen Roman and Victor?”

Tiberius simply shook his head. “I’m sure they already got out,” he said. “I thought about how to get out of that maze myself.”

Before Azmeralda got the time to wonder anything, she heard muffled yells coming from the palace’s direction. The look she shared with Tiberius made her know that it wasn’t just her hearing things, they both turned in the direction of the sound. In the distance, they could see the silhouette of what looked like a crowd of people moving all at once.

Azmeralda closed and reopened her eyes, and the sight remained. In fact, it got clear as the voices got audible as well.

“Azmeralda!”

She was able to spot the two brothers, dashing at her at the same pace. Their faces were tainted with worry. One look behind them and Azmeralda figured that they weren't coming alone. *I must have been away too long* she wondered silently.

Behind the brothers, she saw Julianus walk past them at a hurried pace. On his face was something that she had never before seen in her father. His honey-colored eyes were darker as the anxiety got to them, tears were held back behind those orbs, causing his eyes to shimmer under the moonlight.

“Azmeralda!” Julianus cried out, falling to both his knees as he yanked her into an embrace, holding her head tightly against his chest.

The feeling of her heart beating at a constant tempo helped calm his disastrous heart. The moment that the two princes came running saying that they lost her, he felt his heart sink to his knees to the point that he almost lost his footing on the ground.

“Thank goodness you are okay…” he whispered against her head for only her ears to hear.

“I’m alright, Daddy,” she said. “I got lost in the maze and Tiberius helped me out.”

They stood like this for a moment, the crowd behind them came to a stop awkwardly watching the situation. Among the spectators, was the king and the Queen Blandia who had her brow frowned almost too painfully. Her glare was fixed on the sight of Tiberius next to Azmeralda.

The queen started to approach the little prince. Tiberius noticed her movements, and his eyes were fixed on her every move till she stood hovering over him. She was once the scariest thing in his life. Now…he wasn’t scared anymore. He just wanted to be at peace.

“I warned you from coming near the princess!” she lashed out. “How could you cause harm to the princess?”

Azmeralda followed the pitched voice from next to her, to see the Queen lashing at Tiberius as he stood still and took it all in without even explaining himself.

“He did…”

“I have heard that he didn’t do anything, Queen Blandia,” Julianus interrupted his daughter, placing his hand on her raven hair as he got to his feet. “Azmeralda says that he was the one that helped her out of there.”

The queen panicked as she shot a glare at Tiberius before she bowed and stepped away, dragging her sons along with her. Before the two brothers were completely out of sight, they looked back at their brother and waved him goodbye.