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Ace stayed up sipping wine from an expensive crystal glass as he watched the grandfather clock in his living room tick the time away. He couldn’t get any work done that day, he was too distracted by the passing of time.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Clay was playing chess against himself in the corner. “You ought to stop waiting for him to come back, he’s not going to.”
“What do you know? Aren’t you suppose to be a five year old mortal or something?”
“Actually, my memories from my past lives, well past life, singular, are coming back. I died at ten in my only previous life so technically I’m more like fifteen,” Clay told him with a tad of annoyance in his voice. “And when the Vampire genes started to wake up, so did the embedded memories mother had given me regarding how the Nine Rings worked, it’s a handy thing to have.”
Ace sighed. “Teenager, lovely.”
Clay threw his hand over the chess pieces and knocked them over rather violently. He was sick of it. He had been paying chess for the last three hours, since Ace sat down in the lounge room. “I really don’t get what Claude sees in you. I suppose love is blind but honestly, you’re unbearable and frankly useless.”
“Thanks for the confidence boost,” Ace muttered feeling awful. He had already been feeling horrendous.
Clay sighed. “Actually, you make a good couple.”
“No need to force it,” Ace said drily.
“No, as in Claude looks less like a walking zombie when you’re in the room,” Clay elaborated. “You just never noticed it. His eyes would go out of focus and he would stare blankly at nothingness. His skin loses temperature along with all other signs of life.”
“I didn’t know that,” Ace muttered.
“He really liked you, loved you, even,” Clay assured him. “If there is a possibility to return, I’m sure he would take it, but given the nature of Shadows as I know them, I’m afraid it’s bleak.”
As the clock ticked away, Ace felt his eye lids grew heavy and soon he was fast asleep.
*
When Ace woke up, he was in bed, though he would swear that he fell asleep on the couch the night prior waiting for Claude who did not return. He felt a warm body next his own, curling around his. With a deep frown, he got up to see who was there. It was Claude.
“Claude!” He exclaimed in surprise, throwing his arms around the love of his life who he thought he would never see again. “You came back!”
Claude rubbed his eyes as he woke up with a slight confusion on his face. “Of course, it was just trip downtown to sort out some complications with Clay’s adoption, why wouldn’t I come back?” He had the most charming smile on his face that Ace was almost inclined to believe him.
As they ate breakfast together with Clay, the young boy with a teenager’s mentality clearly thought it odd too. He pulled Ace aside for a quick and serious chat.
“Does he seem off to you?” Clay asked.
Ace nodded. “And I would swear I fell asleep on the couch last night but I found myself in bed this morning, and he was there.”
Clay raised an eyebrow. “I believe I fell asleep on the couch too, and also woke up in my room.”
“Something wrong?” Claude rose from the table, clearing away the empty dishes. “Ace, you have a meeting with the Heads of Nobilities, please try not to miss that as you did with military one.” He pecked Ace on the forehead with a kiss as he went off to do his duty as the Crown Prince’s personal adviser.
Ace looked dumbfounded. “Did I somehow miss a year of my life or something?”
“You and I both,” Clay muttered.
Just as Claude was about to leave the room, a man in sweeping black robes, not unlike the ones Claude wore when Ace first met him, glided into the dining room. He had long black hair piled on top of his head filled with glitter and held in place by a plain silver hair stick. His eyes were black and sloped, surrounded by thick black eyeliner which made them pop. His lips were the colour of the night sky and also covered in glitter. He snapped his ring filled fingers at Claude who stopped moving as if frozen in time.
“Warlock,” he introduced himself, “I’m one of Prince many half-siblings that he does not recognise.” He swept around Claude using his magic to scan his half-brother for anomalies. Suffice to say, anomalies was all there is.
Ace and Clay both had that surprised yet not too surprised look on their face. Given Claude’s surprise reappearance, they figured it was only time before another immortal of the Nine Rings, likely a Shadow, stepped in.
“What brings you here?” Ace asked cautiously.
Warlock waved a hand in Claude’s direction. “I thought he actually faded this time round. I was going to erase your memories of him so that it wouldn’t be painful, but it seems the situation has changed.”
Clay laughed. “You don’t say, Mr Obvious.”
Warlock raised an eyebrow. “Unruly teenagers, best of luck Prince Acelin Yonsor.”
Ace rolled his eyes. “Just tell me what’s going on?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Warlock swept around the room and poured himself a glass of whiskey. “I knew Prince did not fade and I found him before Edith did, though I thought he would fade soon regardless.”
“So why does he seem as if he’s lived in a completely different universe to me?” Ace asked. “He said for months prior that he was dying and this morning he woke up and told me he went downtown last night to sort out a complication with Clay’s adoption papers.”
Warlock shrugged. “In case you haven’t notice, his lungs are breathing air, he has a regular heart beat and he ate normal food this morning.”
Ace raised an eyebrow. “Is that not suppose to be the norm?”
“Shadows are the walking dead,” Clay reminded him. “So Claude is basically alive and mortal like in every sense which does not actually make sense because he was born dead.”
“Bingo,” Warlock snapped his fingers and a spark of electricity bursted out of his finger tips. He sipped his whiskey. “Now the question is how, or who.”
“And you have someone in mind?” Ace asked.
Warlock placed the empty glass down. “I have a working theory in mind, but that would be none of your concern. I imagine Prince paid a hefty price to live a mortal’s life with you, his last too. If I were you, Acelin Yonsor, I would cherish these times.”
“So I should pretend I don’t know anything?”
“I can help by adjusting your memory,” Warlock suggested.
“No,” Ace looked mortified at that idea. “Memories are what makes us us.“
“But is Prince no longer the Claude you know?” Warlock fired back.
Ace recalled Claude smiled the same way that morning, did the same things, gave him the same type of witty advice. The personality and most of the memories were still there, but the facts were slightly altered.
Warlock saw that Ace was not about to accept their offer of altering memories, he sighed. “Of all my half siblings, I loved Prince as a brother, but pity he never saw me as a sibling, yet whenever his heart shattered from a bad breakup, he would turn to me. I wish only the best for him, for he never knew what it meant to be alive. If you truly cared, then pretend you know nothing of the Nine Rings, until the day you grow sick of him, then he would fade.”
“What do you mean I grow sick of him?” Ace demanded. “I would never grow sick of him, he’s the kindest and charming soul I know, and mysterious too.”
Warlock shrugged. “They say Shadows would never know love, yet it is always love that destroys a Shadow. I imagine his presence in the Nine Rings is now bound to you, young Prince Regent. If you ever wished for him to disappear from the bottom of your heart, then he would be gone, poof, just like that.”
Clay rolled his eyes. “Can’t you see Warlock here is just doing what Claude does best, changing the conversation when they don’t want to talk about something?”
Warlock gave him a nod of approval, “Prince’s protection curse, spell, ritual, thing, will protect the two of you for this lifetime, you can rest easy that Edith would not be foolish enough to try kill either of you. I shall take my leave, and remember, not everyone gets second chances, you are very lucky Acelin Yonsor. Cherish it.”
*
Ace looked down at the flood of emergencies he was required to attend to and sighed. The destructive locust swarms were still not under control, the famine just got worse and now Parisora’s ally in the north had teamed up with Opalian to retaliate against Parisora.
“You really ought to start contemplating grasshopper delicacies,” Claude reminded him as he brought in tea on a gold platter.
“I’ve suggested that, but catching enough locusts to feed a starving populations has proven difficult for the military.”
“It’s better to teach a man to fish rather than to give him a fish,” Claude told him. “The military also has more pressing matters to argue over, such as who to send a commander for the most recent war, though it appears that the military leaders have forgotten to suggest suitable candidates.”
Ace sighed, rubbing his weary eyes. “Yeah, that they have.”
“Last I heard, they were arguing over funding,” Claude informed him.
Things had gone relatively back to the way it was before and Ace liked it that way. He got up and hung himself over Claude with a loud excessive groan to express his dislike of royal duties. “Can’t I go myself? I’d have you to advise me.”
“And I would advise you to retreat, my Prince,” Claude kissed him, a smile creeped onto his lips. “For your information, that idea came from the same book as the empty castle plan.”
“Retreat? What about the people?”
“They’ve suffered more from the consequences of war than they ever will suffer elsewhere, regardless of what nationality they are,” Claude told him. “Sign a peace treaty, one that will hold for good half a century, or preferably as long as you’re alive. War does no good to anyone.”
“The nobles will give me an earful,” Ace muttered, he was not looking forward to his next meeting with the heads of houses.
“They are shorted sighted, blinded by their own greed, perhaps it is also good time to let some non-nobles have power,” Claude suggested. “Nyal Sachley turned out to be a great Major in contrast to the Hollers who kept trying to shift the blame and get in your way when you were commanding the forces based in Glisten Fort.”
Ace thought about it. “I’ll see what can be done.” He pulled on Claude’s collar, forcing the lean young man closer to him. “But first, I want you.”
Claude didn’t try to pull away, instead he smiled and leaned in for deep and passionate kiss. His hands slid up Ace’s chest slowly unbuttoning the latter’s pristine white shirt. “I love you, Ace,” he said with absolute certainty. That much he would never forget.
### A/N ###
The overarching story doesn’t end here, in fact it’s only a snippet.
What was the Eternal Chalice for? Find out in After Dark!
AFTER DARK TRILOGY: A dystopian contemporary fantasy mystery where a feared magical assassin meets a socially outcasted mortal noble boy. Available on AMAZON! (please support me, it’s only a dollar)
#1 : The Games of Cordella
#2 : The Academy of Cordella
# 3: The Military of Cordella
ARTEFACTS OF DESTITIA TRILOGY: A modern contemporary fantasy mystery where Bounty Hunter apprentice and his ghosty best friend navigate some conspiracies lining the existence of the Nine Rings. Available on AMAZON!
#1: A Mirror of Truth
#2: A Circlet of Dream (coming soon)
#3: A Staff of Warlock (coming soon)
website: ninerings.mailchimpsites.com
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