Reading

“Perfect.” Justinius smiled.

“Perfect? You have no idea how to duel! You skipped all the sword fighting classes to sit and read in the library!”

“Nevermind that. Lady Becking… First off, what’s your first name? I hate calling you Lady Beckinghall, it’s too long.” Lady Beckinghall looked aghast.

“But… but that is my title! You should always refer to me by my title.”

“No, it’s too long. What’s your first name?”

“And why don’t you remember my first name?!” She said, suddenly pouting. Justinius had been thinking about this. What would he say when it inevitably became obvious that he didn’t have the same memories? But luckily, what happened in class gave him a good idea.

“I think my brush with death may have messed with my memories. I don’t blame you!” He added quickly, as she looked down with shame. “But I’ll need you to take responsibility.” She looked up, somewhat frightened, but also ready to face justice.

“I’ll do what must be done.” She said, resigned to her fate.

“Good. Then teach me to read.”

“What?” She asked, surprised.

“I’ve forgotten how to read. I need you to teach me, and quickly, before anyone else finds out.”

“But I thought that you said your eyes were just hurting?”

“Clearly that was a lie because I was embarrassed.” He said, his face flushing slightly.

“Oh…” Her face flushed with his. “Then we better start right away.”

“Yes, let’s go to my room.”

“Your room?!” She jumped back in surprise.

“Yes, that’s the only place we can be alone.” Her face was beet red, and as Justinius walked away she spoke just loud enough to be heard.

“Lilith.”

“What?” Justinius asked, turning back to her.

“My first name is Lilith.” Justinius smiled.

“Then come on, Lilith.” She hurried after him. As they walked Justinius heard his tutor run to the door after them.

“We only just started! Where are you going!?” But they ignored him and continued on.

Justinius sat at his desk, waiting for Lilith. He looked around his small room again. He couldn’t get over how unprincely it looked. He should have a big room with a king sized bed and a nice mahogany desk. This was like a room in a small apartment. Suddenly a knock came at the door.

“P… Prince Justinius.” She said in a whisper. “I have the stuff.” Justinius went to the door and flung it open.

“Don’t act like it’s some contraband!” He pulled her inside. Her arms were filled with a huge stack of books. “Do we really need so many?” He asked.

“Well it seems like you’d forgotten a lot of stuff so I went ahead and brought a full history of Bizantos,” She plopped a massive tome onto the desk with a loud thud, “the most celebrated works of philosophy from the greatest minds of the ancients,” Several smaller books dropped in succession onto the desk, “the greatest works of literature that every noble should be able to quote from memory,” more books dropped, “and finally, my favorite romance.” She held the last book up shyly, partially covering her blushing face.

“This is way too much!” Justinius said, looking at the massive stack of books that almost broke the desk with their weight.

“Well you’ve read them all so many times I figured you’d have memorized the contents by now.”

“I forgot all those too!”

“Just how much have you forgotten!?” She began looking ashamed, but Justinius quickly sat down and opened a book.

“Can you just tell me what each of these words say, and how to pronounce each of the letters?”

“Sure.” She said, immediately cheering up.

It was easy enough for Justinius to learn. It was exactly like English, except with different symbols for each of the letters, and some of the compound letters combined into one symbol. After just an hour he was reading on his own, but the philosophy books were way too hard for him, and the history book was way too boring, so he was reading the romance book. It was about a girl who was sent far away from her home as the betrothed to a young prince. At first she resented him for being the reason she was taken from her homeland. He was so cold and aloof, but slowly she started to see his kindness come through when he dealt with his subjects, and how much he was willing to do for their peace and happiness. She finally came to love him, but in the final chapter, he was killed in defense of their country against an aggressive and tyrannical neighboring king. Justinius looked away, trying to hide his tears. Lilith smiled woefully.

“Yeah, it’s a sad ending. I hate books with happy endings. They’re unrealistic.” Justinius wiped his eyes, and looked over at her. She was sitting on his bed, swinging her legs restlessly as she looked down. He stared at her until she looked back up at him. Just remembering the ending was enough to bring tears to her eyes, which paired oddly with the sad smile on her face. Justinius took a deep breath.

“Why did you try to kill me?” He didn’t want to make her feel bad, but he had to know. If he was going to be a proper ruler, he had to know why he was betrayed before, and by Lilith of all people, who had been nothing but sweet, well, after he threatened her at least.

“They made me do it.” She said, averting her eyes.

“Who did?”

“I… can’t tell you. They’re willing to let you live, now that you’ve changed, but they wouldn’t be so kind if you knew who had done it and thought you would punish them.”

“So they killed me before because they thought I was weak?”

“Yes. They thought you wouldn’t be a good king, that you’d lead us to ruin. When I told them about how you’d been since waking up, they were willing to at least give you time, but I know once they see how you’ve changed they’ll think you’ll be a good ruler. I think you will be.” She blushed. Justinius turned away. That didn’t really help him. He certainly hadn’t been a weak leader before, when he was killed by his gang, but if they killed the old prince because he was weak, he’d probably be fine, for a little while at least. He certainly knew how to be strong.

He stood up and looked out the window. The entire day had passed while he was learning in the room, and the rays of the reddening sun slanted in through the small glass pane. He looked at the clouds gathering in the distance, dark, like a foreboding sign. An eagle swooped down in the courtyard, grabbing a rat out of the grass. Suddenly Justinius turned to Lilith.

“The duel!”