To hell

Daren walked slowly down the dungeon stairs leading to the prisons, followed by Jared. The air was heavy, and the humidity pressed against his skin insistently. He couldn’t wait to get back into the sunlight.

"What are you doing here?" Marcel's voice hit him like a slap. He was in one of the cells with Erika, who was huddled to one side, muttering something.

Next to them, in another cell, were the Roliands together with the maid who had tried to poison Candace. Daren and the guards had managed to capture her following Candace's directions, who had revealed the existence of a secret dungeon that even Daren didn't know existed.

The emperor walked slowly towards his cousin, ignoring his persistent gaze. He hadn't slept or eaten for days, and he had continued his investigations about the poison without stopping, in the hope of being able to deny the obviousness that had confronted him.

"You want to question us yourself?" Marcel teased him, getting up from the ground and approaching the bars. He too was pale and had deep dark circles under his eyes.

"And is that a problem?" Daren asked. His voice was hoarse and weak as it had ever been. He felt as if he had aged suddenly, as if someone had drained him all the energy of his youth.

"Is there anything you could change by questioning Lord Marcel?" Count Roliand instigated him.

Daren turned and glared at him. "I wasn't talking to you," he hissed.

"You found the evidence you needed, didn't you?" Marcel was more serious than ever. "It makes no sense to ask for further explanations. The Roliands gave us the devil's tear and Erika worked it to extract the venom. All this on my orders."

"Lord Marcel!" Edora screamed in despair as her mother tried to hold her back. "Why are you selling us like this? You promised us we wouldn't be in danger by helping you!"

Marcel gave her a cold, resigned look. "And you really believed the words of a potential assassin?"

"Why?" Daren's voice was a whisper. "Why did you do such a thing? Whatever you wanted to achieve, it's not like you to risk that much."

Marcel sighed and ran his fingertips over one of the rusty bars.

"In fact, that wasn't the original plan. We had to be the ones to have the incarnation of the goddess on our side, and use her as we pleased. Then, we would have killer her and frame you as her assassin."

For a moment, Daren couldn't even breathe. His mind couldn’t process that mass of terrible information.

"What?"

Marcel's hand moved quickly, until it reached the collar of Daren's uniform and grabbed it, pulling the emperor towards him.

Jared tried to intervene, but Daren stopped him with a gesture.

"Your father was the sole emperor of Intial. I adored him, and he would have left me in charge, we had talked about it… But he died without leaving a testament. And you, you did nothing else than tarnish his name since you gain the throne!" Daren had never heard Marcel speak so loudly, expressing anger and frustration without caring about anyone or anything. "I wanted to achieve what he dreamed of! I wanted to kill the incarnation of the goddess and finally free men from the gods, I wanted to be the one to lead them as your father should have done! As his true and only heir!"

Daren grabbed Marcel's hand firmly. The purest frost reigned in his eyes again, and he suddenly felt again the cold and ruthless emperor that everyone feared.

"Kill the incarnation of the goddess?" he whispered. "And then what would you have done? What path would you have taken? Crops thrive thanks to the goddess, vegetation flourishes thanks to her, our nation is not a perpetual blanket of ice thanks to her." He tightened his grip. "Is this the gratitude you show for someone who just gives us without asking for anything in return?"

Erika jumped into the conversation and pulled Marcel away from Daren's grip. "Gratitude? What gratitude should you have for a goddess who does nothing but make you depend on her? Belsia has stood on her own legs for a long time, relying on no deity! We would have led the people of Intial as well as those of Belsia!"

Daren stared at her, smugly. "Do you still defend him after what happened? He would have sacrificed you without batting an eye, and you know it well."

Erika looked down and bit her lip.

"It's true,” Marcel confirmed. “I would have sacrificed anyone to get to my goal."

"And that includes me too..." Daren murmured, exhibiting a bitter smile.

"Yes, you too," Marcel admitted. "My original plan certainly wasn't going to fail, but then… that woman came along. She's the one to blame for all of this."

The emperor clenched his fists. "Candace..."

"She's a demon!" Erika exclaimed. "She acted like she knew everything! How did she know the tea was poisoned? And how did she get hers poisoned too? Things weren't supposed to be like this!"

Edora clung to the bars, turning again to the emperor: "I'm sure she did something to set us up! I'm not to blame for all this, I didn't do anything! You must free me!"

The count glared at her indignantly, probably shocked that his own daughter was abandoning him and his wife.

Daren didn't even look at her and turned away. "All of the Roliand family members were aware of Marcel's plan, isn’t that right? Then your guilt is the same, there is no one more innocent than another."

"And what would you do? You’ll keep us imprisoned forever? You’ll kill us?" Edora yelled after him.

"You know very well the fate that all the traitors of the kingdom met..."

He turned one last time to look at Marcel. "As for you, the government of Belsia will decide your fate. But I think you will never see the light of the sun again under any circumstances."

Marcel laughed softly. "I'm not interested in seeing the light of a world that's not what I wanted. Goodbye, Daren."

Daren hesitated a moment at the prison entrance.

"Goodbye, Marcel," he said, before starting to climb the stairs, towards the upper floors, towards the light.

* * *

The main stairway of the castle seemed to Daren more immense than usual seen from the last step, the one where he used to positioned himself to admire the hall. He had always liked to observe everything from up there, but now, looking at things from above, only gave him a sense of bitterness.

He thought back to the days before the winter party, to his peaceful life without anxieties, to his solitude, to his frozen heart, which now seemed to have become hopelessly fragile.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the silence, broken only by his breathing.

A sound of footsteps roused him, forcing him to turn and identifying the figure of Candace.

After the tea party incident, the girl had changed: she was much colder and detached, much more elusive.

And Daren hadn't felt like asking her the reason for her change.

"So you were here..."

Daren said nothing and looked back up the stairs.

Candace stood at a distance, as if she didn't want to disturb him more than necessary.

"Is that what you wanted to protect me from?" he asked.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Did you know that from the start?"

Candace said nothing, and Daren finally looked at her.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"Would you have believed me?" she provoked him. "Would you have questioned everything and everyone for me? A girl you didn't even know until a month ago." Daren noticed that something had changed in her expression. She looked almost hurt.

She was right. He probably would never have believed her. He was having a hard time believing everything that had happened even now.

"How did you know all this? Who are you, Candace?"

The girl smiled with a hint of bitterness. "Just one of many hell fiends who has taken a liking to you, Emperor of Intial." She pulled the earrings Daren had given her from her lobes and placed them in his palm. "I can't be your empress, Daren. Not after the execution of my family. The woman beside you can't be related to traitors."

But Daren put the earrings back into her palm. "The wedding will not be canceled. We will get married after the execution," he decreed, without losing his impassive expression.

Candace smiled a bit. She almost looked like she was about to cry. "If that's what you want..."

"Just tell me one thing. Could all this have been avoided? Could you have avoided it?"

He couldn't accept that he had lost Marcel, someone he cared about and trusted.

He had never felt so helpless in his entire life.

Candace parted her lips and Daren saw a gleam in her eyes. "Yes," she whispered. "It could have been avoided... But I could never have done it, ever."

Daren felt disappointed by that answer. Betrayed by her words.

"I understand," he said before walking away. "I would have done it in your place."

* * *

Daren was going through his papers for hours now. It used to be easy for him to fill out all the documents that were placed in front of him, but lately he just couldn't keep his concentration.

Yesterday he had gone to attend the Rolians' execution with Candace, watching her reaction the whole time as they executed her family before her eyes.

Candace had stared at them impassively, almost without blinking. Sitting still beside him, she had watched them die one by one, ignoring even Edora's last pleas.

When the execution was over, the girl had risen and walked back to the castle with him, apparently indifferent to the whispered comments of the people.

Marcel and Erika had been transferred to Belsia the following day, both sentenced to life imprisonment.

Daren had watched them leave from the sidelines, without saying a single word.

Everything seemed to have resolved itself and calm had returned to Intial. The preparations for the wedding were now complete, and Candace was probably trying on her wedding dress right now. Daren should have been doing the same that afternoon.

The emperor looked out the window, getting lost in contemplating the landscape.

A world without gods... he thought absently. Would it really have been better?

He had never fully reflected on the possibility of facing adversity alone, without the help of a deity, but now he found himself wondering if the future that Marcel dreamed of, could have been better than the one Daren would create.

At that moment, someone knocked timidly on the door, and shortly after Dia appeared from beyond it, with a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

She approached him a little hesitant and handed him the flowers.

"Daren, I miss you…” she confessed. “Why don't you show up anymore?"

The emperor stood up and approached the little girl, then took her in his arms and hugged her.

A world without gods means that Dia should have died.

Could it really be a great world if someone had to die for the sake of others?

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I've been very busy."

Daren looked up and saw that Jared and Eldan were also in the doorway.

"Good morning, your majesty. How are you?" Eldan asked, entering the room.

"I'm fine," Daren replied without much conviction.

“Dia wanted to see you, so we accompanied her,” Jared explained.

"You did well, thank you."

Eldan watched him with a note of concern.

"Why are you sad?" Dia asked suddenly.

"I'm not sad, I just have a lot to think about," Daren replied, trying to smile a little.

"What happened is very serious, and certainly must have left you in shock… but withdrawing into yourself won't help you," Eldan said, as he sat down on one of the sofas, followed by Jared.

Daren sat down in front of them, Dia still in his arms. "I can't react any differently," he admitted. He felt defeated, trapped in a gray and lightless future.

"Your majesty, you have faced countless hardships and eliminated countless enemies. I know that betrayal from someone you trust is terrible to face, but I also know that you have the strength to carry on," Jared encouraged.

Daren shook his head. "This is not the problem. I feel like this is all wrong, like things could have been different.”

"They could have," Dia said, meeting Daren's eyes. "For all of us."

Daren frowned at those words. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When Candace came to save me, she asked me for a favor in return, telling me she wanted to change the future."

"Change the future?" Eldan repeated. “Did Lady Candace know what was coming? But how?"

"That doesn't matter now!" A glint of resolve gleamed in Dia's eyes. "Candace saved us all, Daren. The future you're thinking about would have been much, much more painful than this. Think about it…"

Daren realized in that moment that Dia was right.

If Marcel had went through with his plan, Dia would die and he would be accused of her murder and executed. Or it would have been Candace who would be accused… and who knows what other plans his cousin had…

"You're right," he said. "But I keep thinking that I could have done something, that I could have changed the course of events."

Jared intervened in the conversation: "No, your majesty. I don't think that things could have changed. Lord Marcel had worked out a perfect plan, who knows how long he had been plotting against you."

Daren looked down. It hurt, but he had to accept the truth. He couldn't change the past, he couldn't go against the state of things. He thought of Candace, how he had blamed her lately for keeping him in the dark, and wondered if, in addition to not ruining her plans, she had also done it to spare him as much suffering as possible.

Dia's light eyes appeared in front of him. "Lady Candace is very sad, go meet her."

"Strange as it is that Lady Candace knew everything, she always acted for your good," Eldan said. "And for that I can only be grateful to her."

“We all are,” Jared pointed out.

"You've decided to trust her, haven't you?” Eldan was very serious as he asked that question.

"Yes, I trust her," Daren replied. "But it's so hard..."

"Love is hard. And if, after all that has happened, after all the secrets and unanswered questions, you still believe in Lady Candace, then you are in love with her, Your Majesty.

Daren stared at the ground, getting lost in the weaves of the carpet that lay on the floor. "Maybe I am." Admitting that truth gave him an unexpected sense of relief. He had always perceived love as a weakness, but at that moment he felt that, between the desolation and confusion that reigned in his heart, that feeling was the strongest of all.

"Then tell her!" Dia exclaimed, enthusiastically. "Candace loves you too! She gave everything for you!"

Everything?

Daren was suddenly struck by the reality the little girl had brought before his eyes.

What was left for Candace in all that story?

She no longer had a family or a home, and had quickly shown herself willing to relinquish her position as future empress.

She had earned nothing.

"You're right. It doesn't make sense for me to take my frustration out on her. But it’s stronger than me, it's as if something is missing in this whole story, as if I have something unresolved."

Eldan smiled at him. "I think it simply takes time for you to realize and accept everything. Lord Marcel was very close to you, and Lady Candace chose to help you over him. Perhaps, in some part of your heart, you blame her for that."

Daren thought about it for a long time. "No, how could I blame her? She saved both me and Dia. We should have died because of that poison…"

"Then stop making that long face!" Jared exclaimed standing up with his usual energetic air. He walked over to Dia and picked her up. "Now finish your work and then go to Lady Candace! This time tomorrow you will be married, right? Enough of this hesitation!"

Jared left the room under the incredulous gaze of Daren and Eldan. The latter started giggling after a while, trying to compose himself as quickly as possible. "Sorry, that man always manages to amaze me in one way or another."

"You like him, don't you? Jared I mean."

The adviser looked uncomfortable for a moment, but then he sighed and nodded. "Some time ago someone gave me an advice: 'Don't let your pride rob you of the ability to tell the person you care about that you love them. Because regrets are the worst thing in this world, and our time it’s limited.' "

"Who was this person?"

"Oh, you know her very well. She is a woman full of surprises."

Candace...

Why had she said that to Eldan? It was an advice too intimate and heavy… Perhaps she had found herself in a similar situation?

He suddenly remembered Candace’s words: “A long time ago, I knew someone who looked a lot like you. He was the only person who showed me what true kindness was.”

Maybe that person she was talking about was someone really special to her...

At that moment, Galiel entered the room and closed the door behind himself.

"Your Majesty, I'm here to let you know it's time to try your wedding uniform."

"Already?" the emperor asked, then turned to Eldan. "Sorry but I have to go."

"I'm coming with you,” the other said. “There's always a need for an objective aesthetic opinion."

"You're right," Daren agreed with a smile.

"It would be better not," Galiel intervened.

Daren furrowed his eyebrows. "Why?"

He didn't have time to realize anything. A blade flashed in the air and Eldan fell shortly after. Daren felt a twinge in his abdomen and slumped to the ground, trying to get up immediately afterwards.

"It would have been better for him to have let you go to hell alone."