Chapter 578: Chapter 578
"... to hold hands, I am to agree even if support is not needed." — He stated true to his soul. Adding the hopes in a suggestion. — "I am not to contradict your wishes any more than this, my lady... Yet your eyes remain swollen...if you let me... I would like to help you with that."
"Oh... is it too noticeable?"
"No... yet it troubles my ease..." — Coming closer, his hands took hold of her visage that worried over her appearance. Leaning almost dangerously... that her heart stopped ignorant of his intentions.
"Umh, y-your highness??"
"Close your eyes." — As if indifferent to her stunned gaze, Zeleskiaz instructed strictly so she would do as told. Doing so nervously to later feel a soft and cold breath caress her eyelid.
"?! Your Highness, this is too much. I cannot let you do that!"
"But your eyes are still red. If we do this they might lose a bit of the swelling."
"N-no, I am sure it is not that bad..."
"Only for a tad."
"... I... I do not think it will make a difference..."
"If we try we shall learn an answer to that."
It was almost forceful a convincement he achieved. Letting herself feel the breath cool down the irritation on her lids for a tad as he had required. Troubled to know he was so close... and doing a task a prince should not offer.
"... does it feel better, my lady?"
"... yes..." — She said too comfortable in his hold. Taking in the silence that followed to open her eyes curiously as the breath did not continue, finding his intent demeanour looking at her comfort. — "!?! I-It feels much better now, haha! W-we should go up now!"
"... wait, my lady."
"?? W-what is it?" — Stopping two steps above the one he stood at they were a step apart from being the same height... and Zeleskiaz just as dazed by the comfort a moment of care allowed, took the hand they had previously agreed to link for part of their path giving the one step left so a peck could be laid on the flustered Marianne.
"Now we can go."
"..."
"We agreed to hold hands... as support for now."
Her shy nod followed the prince’s motion, moved by the delicacy of the graze and the compromise to their previous agreement which remained true even as they separated the limbs so she could now meet the sister.
Unlike the deep darkness in which Paul was a prisoner, even the air was fairly more breathable on the floor Theressa was kept.
Once meeting the warden, they were led into another level of the tower, where the light was one that allowed the steps to be taken without caution for the next one, and other prisoners, lost in the stay with no end could be seen as they walked down the corridor that would let the chosen meet the one a book had deemed as a villain.
"... We would like some privacy." — The crown prince told the men while Marianne got closer to see where her sister now spent her days and nights. Quietly dismissing them so his beloved could do as freely as she liked. Although, there was a matter the guards made sure to address before going back.
"However... Should we not wake her, Your Highness? The woman has been medicated."
"No... I do not think it will be needed." — Taking a glimpse of where Marianne stood, Zeleskiaz conceived. Gesturing with his head for the men to quickly leave while his gaze watched how his quiet love stared into the jail she had decided to visit.
"..."
The sight before her... was a cruel thing to witness when an image of her little sister differed so strongly. A young Theressa sat on her own on the harsh ground, next to a dirty and small berth, with tears marked on her visage as they burned their tracks on her skin... looking lost and soulless... like Marianne herself once was within the solitude of her pain...
’..... why... does she look like that...?’ — Aggravated by the overwhelming sight, Marianne hated the destiny this life had prepared for this meeting. Annoyed by the grief she felt even while she could recall perfectly how the girl inside that jail had bullied her into suicide her once naive and helpless soul.
It took a while for words to intrude in the silence of the sisters. An older one looking what had become of the youngest, questioning herself what else could have happened for Theressa to end in such a state... while the youngest watched blankly the dirt on which she sat, letting tears fall senseless and neverending, following with her blank stare the path some insects crossed around her to finally notice the presence of a visitor... Slowly lifting her head, expressionless and devoid of true curiosity to meet the familiar anthracite and the reddish brown similar to her red strands.
"... Sister..." — Theressa mumbled softly with tired delight. — "Yes... you are alive, sister Marianne..... I am so glad..."
"..."
"Izeneya was merciful..... prayers, they do listen to them, sister... sniff..... Father had told me you had survived. It made my days happy to know this..... what happened... do not worry about justice any more, sister. I am... welcoming this wait for death now that I am certain you are safe and sound..."
"... Do you truly plan to die?"
"... It is only fair after the wrong I did. Father must be hurting... but we earned this by hurting you..."
"..."
"I am sorry sister..... I should have loved you... like I... truly wanted to..."
"... Theressa?"
"..."
"... Y-your highness, she does not seem alright... She barely seems conscious."
"Like I told you before in the carriage, she has been medicated, my lady. It looks like it is little the time she manages to stay awake."
"Is this a common practice? It does not seem... legal..."
"It is when the prisoner does not follow the rules of the prison. I was told she was slightly ’loud’ so..." — Taking in the reasons behind this, Marianne recalled what her father had told her about the little sister. Gritting her teeth to make another attempt and continue the conversation.