“Marius, I need to talk to you in private.”

“What is it, Elsurion?”, his friend responded once they were alone in Marius office.

“I wish your input.”

“What input? That you suck at archery?”

The king pushed the arising chuckle back down his throat. “No. Sarenya.”

“You want me to punch you again?”

“Sure. But let the last one heal out first. Marius. In all seriousness. I wish to honour the guards that fought alongside us, giving the fallen a proper, honourable burial.”

“Good idea. The subjects will like that. They saved our lives after all.”

The king took a deep breath. “Partially. You do realize that, if I wished, I would have turned them to ashes?”

“Ah yes. I…tend to forget you can do that.”

“No one can know. I can never use my magic publicly. It would be catastrophic.”

“I know that.”

“Then I hope you also know, that is was not just the guards, that fought bravely, I take?”

Marius avoided his friends’ eyes.

“Yes, I know.”

“I wish to also publicly introduce her to the people. As my guard. It is a good opportunity.”

“Was afraid you would use this ‘incident’ against me.”

“I am not using it against you. I ask for your approval. Because I value your trust. And I wish you to instruct the heralds and be right next to me when I give me speech.”

Marius looked upset, angry even. But he also had ‘disarmed’ written all over him.

“She aided us well. You know she could have just switched sides and tagged along with those poachers. But she stood true to us and helped us fight. They outnumbered us; she did not need to take that risk.”

There was a long pause. After which Marius announced: “I want to talk to her. Alone. Then, maybe, just maybe, I’ll ride that boat.”

“You are leaning out the window there. Very far out. But I grant your request.”

The king left and sent Sarenya in. To this day, Elsurion had no idea what Marius said to her. Neither she nor Marius told him. But after that, Marius stopped making a fuzz about her. For the most part anyway. It was all the king wished for, so he let it stand and did not ask. He told Marius to instruct the heralds. They should announce the executions and distinctions.

“Sarenya”, the king addressed her later in his quarters, “I would like to thank you for what you did today.”

The woman avoided his eyes. Her gaze wandered all over the room instead of looking at him directly.

Absently, she stated: “I thought that’s my duty.”

“It is. Regardless, I appreciate what you did. I am happy to learn that I backed the right horse.”

The woman looked uncomfortable. Still, the king continued: “Tomorrow, a distinction will occur. For you and the guards that fought alongside us.”

Sarenya did not comment on it.

“Our first public encounter during my father’s funeral was not exactly inspiring confidence. The people shall be shown that they can trust you as much as they can trust their new king.”

“Honouring the guards is unnecessary. They had their duty, and they performed it.”

“Were you never praised for a performance? Rewarded? Anything?”

“No. We knew what we had to. We weren’t rewarded. Only punished when failing.”

The king hesitated to ask at first, afraid of what the answer might be. Still, the words escaped his mouth: “How?”

Sarenya looked at the king. Her eyes bespoke pain. Elsurion felt a chill crawling over his spine. Something took a hold of him; the king felt an enormous wave of fear and misery as if he lost everyone he had ever liked and all hope in his heart was locked away in a dark room, never to be released again.

“For minor failures, we were just beaten”, the woman’s voice ripped the king back to reality. He shook his head barely noticeable and blinked. Sarenya did not seem to notice.

“Sometimes they locked us away in the pit.”

“The pit?”

“A dark room with no sound.”

“No sound?”

“In there, nothing was hearable. Not screams, not the punches against the wall. No light. Nothing. It drove you nearly mad.”

Elsurion gulped.

“Those were the minor punishments.”

A pause emerged, where Saranya took a few deep breaths.

“The worst thing was ‘the leash’”, she said coldly.

“The…what?”

“We called it ‘the leash’. If you were punished with it, a sorcerer would establish a connection to you. It wasn’t visible, but you could feel it, like a second layer of skin was put on you. Through that connection, that sorcerer inflicted pain on you. Pain that left no wounds, and you wouldn’t bleed. But it hurt. The pain of a leg-breaking, or a hand being cut off. But your body was unharmed. They’d do it over and over until you lost count.”

Lost in telling this, the woman noticed not the tear that ran down her cheek. The king was horrified. He did not want to believe this. He was also unaware that such a spell even existed.

“By Solaria’s mercy…”, he whispered. “But I still don’t understand what that has to do with a ‘leash’.”

Absent, Sarenya explained: “When we went hunting. Then, the spell was also cast on us. It somehow limited the distance we could walk away from the sorcerer we were bound to. If I tried to wander off to far, every fibre of my body started to hurt. With every step I took, the pain got worse. It was no use.”

Elsurion’s mind, though horrified still, instinctively, started to try finding a solution. Plainly, he asked: “But…if out in the woods, could you not kill the sorcerer and run away? Surely, they could not keep a spell like that up if they were dead.”

Her eyes flickered with a spark of madness when she whispered: “One of us tried it once. It didn’t work. The moment he killed the sorcerer, he dropped dead next to him. I haven’t heard of another one trying.”

Elsurion was at a loss of words. What sort of place was his guard raised in? Who would create something like this? He could not imagine.

“Go to the royal bath, Servants will arrive shortly to fill the tub. Enjoy yourself but return to my office before sunset.”

Sarenya’s eyes asked: “Why”, yet she spoke no word, turned around and left. The king nodded, more to himself afterwards. Elsurion then went for his office to work on his speech for the next day.

"Dear people of Solaria”, Elsurion opened his speech the next day, “Today, I stand here before you with a few announcements to make. I stand here, with a sad and a happy eye, likewise.

For just yesterday, there was an assault on my life."

The king paused to let this sink into the crowd for a moment. Murmurs could be heard; the crowd chattered immediately. Elsurion rose his hands to calm them down, then went on: "You heard right. Your king was attacked. By these men!" Elsurion waved and the poachers were

brought to the stage. Prudently, the king had them muted.

"These men aimed to take my life! While in the woods, they were caught by me and my party.

They illegally hunted down a bear, when we arrived. Bear meat is very expensive in our land, as you are surely aware. I personally wanted to arrest them, yet they cowardly attacked us, thereby defying justice and their right for a proper case. Today, they will answer for this with their lives. The crowd cheered as the men were lined up, the king noted satisfied. “Deathsman, do your works.”

The executioner stepped forth and beheaded them. One after the other. The crowd cheered and applauded. Elsurion calmed the crowd once again and spoke: “But let me not waste any more words on those criminals. I want to point your attention to these soldiers over here.”

The soldiers from the hunt lined up on the stage.

“These men”, the king pointed at the soldiers, “risked their lives to protect me.”

The king glanced over to his friend and Marius handed Elsurion the medals that were prepared. “Marius, I also thank you in the name of all of Solaria, for protecting me. Truly, I am proud to have you among my closest friend and my most trusted advisor.” Elsurion had to swallow down how shallow he felt while saying this. No matter, this was for the crowd. “Marius, if you may?”

The tributes were bestowed by Marius and Elsurion continued: “Unfortunately, one of those who risked everything to protect their king, has paid with his life. I wish to speak my most sincere condolences to his wife, Elizabeth.“ Elsurion looked swept the crowd with his eyes. “Is she with us today?”

A woman rose her hand. “Please, come to the stage”, the king said. Once the woman climbed up the stairs, teary-eyed, Elsurion shook her hand. “My dear, I am truly sorry for your loss. Your husband died, protecting what is most important for this kingdom: Its ruler. He has done a true and great service to us all. He is a hero, we should all take his bravery as an example. Of course, the kingdom will cover all the burial expenses. And rest assured, I will personally compensate you for the loss of income that the situation evoked. I am sure, that my dear, late father would have acted in the same, generous way.”

Elsurion waved with his hand. “The bear has been processed and equal pieces will be handed out for free to the families of the aforementioned, brave men!”

The crowd cheered. Now, Elsurion thought, was the moment. “But there is someone else I wish to honour this day.” The king turned around and waved Sarenya forward. As she took a stand next to him, the crowd began to whisper and chatter. Elsurion could not tell if the citizens remembered Sarenya’s face or if they were wondering who she was, to begin with.

“My dear citizens, I wish to introduce to you: Sarenya, my personal guard. After such a despicable assault on my well-being, the royal security will be improved. Some of you perhaps remember the ‘incident’ at my father’s funeral. Rest assured, it was all a misunderstanding. Sarenya has my complete trust, I expect all of you to follow my example.”

A few people started to clap their hands, sluggishly. It took a moment, but eventually more and more of them joined in. This would have to do.

Back in the palace, once they were alone again, Sarenya reached out to Elsurion with her hand.

Elsurion was confused, at first, then he understood. The king took her hand and shook it. This time, the gesture felt honest.

“You made up your mind, then?”, Elsurion asked her, without letting go.

“Yes, my king.”, Sarenya responded, without letting go as well.

The king hesitated, then said: “Welcome to the palace.”

The woman nodded. Both let go of each other’s hand at the same time, and the moment passed. The king had not touched her hand again since.

Sarenya looked on the sleeves of the uniform, wiped a bit of dirt from the day off of it and announced: “It ain’t that bad.”

“Hopefully. It almost cost the tailor his arm.”

She chuckled and so did he.