A sharp stare, it was as if the air was made of glass. The only one brave enough to be so audacious towards the queen was Glolieh. However, it seems the elves have found a new contender.

“Alright, what do you suggest?” the queen responded, the hand holding the king’s gripping tighter. In return, the king became even softer with the caressing of his thumb.

Truthfully, Drokn hadn’t thought this far. Even more truthfully, Drokn hadn’t thought much at all. He finally managed to have the queen listen, but as he considered himself to be faultless, he didn’t have any consideration to take any sort of responsibility for his previous actions. Looking to his left, he saw the elf, his silver hair covering his face like gauze. Quirking a brow, he glanced at Glolieh, then at the queen, then at the guards and the few other random elves present. Who, by the way, flinched when their eyes met.

Who are those elves? Why are they here anyway? Drokn thought of those dainty elves standing off to the side. If it was for security, there would be more guards, not these seemingly unrelated elves who were scared of a single demon. If they were scribes, they’d at least be taking notes. Rather, they looked like starved rats who had no other purpose here than to react to what was happening. In fact, they didn’t seem to want to be present at all.

Who are they?

Why are they here?

…Why is Eial even here-

“Y-Your Majesty,” Eial voiced, gazing up at the queen. “You said that Drokn would be forgiven as long as I took on this… as long as I listened to your requests. There’s no reason to get him involved when you agreed that I was enough…”

Drokn’s brow twitched.

“That would have been the case if, like you had said, you came in proxy of King Drokn because he was too busy to show himself. However, it seems that not only was he not aware of this, but it seems he does have time to come. This being the case, you being involved does not forgive him as much as it only forgives your own transgression in the destruction of our prison.” The queen’s blue eyes locked onto the demon whose eyes scrunched towards Eial before lowering in contortion.

An itchiness raked the demon’s mind as he barely heard the queen’s voice. Anger? Frustration? Was it pain? It swept through each vein, pumping with the strum of his blood. Evidence of Eial’s self sacrifice, without regard to himself or the demon’s thoughts littered their every meeting. Even if they’d moved on, the shadows left behind followed, possessing him with reminders of the elf’s habit.

“From now on,” Drokn snarled with a heated chest, glaring upward, “Eial will no longer take over for anything I’m responsible for. In the future, too, never let him.” Ignoring the worried elf who quickly turned to face him on his left, Drokn inquired, “So now tell me exactly, in detail, what he agreed to do here anyway. Perhaps I can join in on this secret, too.”

The night before, the demon and the elf were full of the emotions of their reunion. There was no mind to think of anything else. The morning of, neither Eial nor the elven guard revealed to Drokn about whatever reason Eial was at the palace for. No matter how much he prodded.

“I’m hoping you will receive the answers to your questions today, Drokn. Please be patient,” the guard had said.

And so, he was patient.

Too fucking patient.

Therefore, when the queen replied with, “I cannot trust him enough to reveal this information,” Drokn was ready to melt into lava and burn everyone in the room. Everyone but Eial, of course.

Speaking her turn again, Glolieh voiced, “I know he hasn’t done enough to earn our trust, but-”

“Yeah, she’s fucking right. I haven’t done shit to earn your trust,” Drokn yet again interrupted, causing Glolieh to be unable to hide her emotions any longer as she closed her eyes and breathed out what could have been a sigh.

“Frankly,” Drokn continued, “I don’t trust anyone here either.” He wanted to say, anyone of you fuckers, but managed to hold back those words by the bite of his tongue. “We’re on the same page. But you know what? Now that I’m a king, we’re going to have to deal with each other at some point. As much as I hate it, we have to trust each other a little bit to hold onto our word about laws we make for interterritorial peace.”

Promises of trust were tested with Drokn and Eial time and time again. How did Eial come to open up to him after their shattering first encounter? Seeing the brick wall he was talking to now, Drokn came to realize how privileged he was with the small elf. The little elf was open minded, more than the demon deserved. And what he had given the demon was an abundance of–

“Like you said, you can’t trust me. But if you don’t even give me a chance to test my trust, there’s no hope for building it.”

What the sweet elf had given him was…

…a chance.