Chapter 2 - Prologue 2

A small chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting a buttery light around the room. After a quick inspection of the room, Rosalyn headed to the bed. She brushed away some invisible specks of dust with her left hand, then took off her cloak, and sat.

Jayden chuckled.

Being high born, Rosalyn was used to luxuries. And clean houses. While he barely made enough to live from one month to another, he was determined to work hard so that one day, he could give her the life she was used to.

“What did you want to talk about?” Rosalyn asked. She knew Jayden wouldn’t summon her during the week if it weren’t something really important.

After locking the door and removing his cloak, Jayden sat next to her. He cupped her cheek and kissed her tenderly. “My Rosalyn. I’m afraid I have to give you unpleasant news.”

Her heart started beating like crazy in her chest. “Did something happen with your apprenticeship? Did your Master throw you out?”

In spite of being born and raised in a brothel and never going to school, with the help of his mother, he learned how to read and write. He had spent many hours practicing each rune of the alphabet until it was perfect. Even Rosalyn said he had beautiful handwriting. Despite working in a brothel as a caretaker, his mother had some connections in the city so, before her death, she had secured him a job as a scribe. He started his apprenticeship later—after he took care of the remains of his mother—and for the last four years the Scribe, Mihel, had been his Master.

Jayden gave her a sad smile. “No.” He took her hand into his and gazed into her soft, brown eyes. “You know my Master is one of the most important scribes in Athea. Now, with the war between our kingdom and the Kingdom of Litus, King Baswein asked Master Mihel to send scribes to the front line. Even apprentices. I too, am to leave for it.”

Rosalyn’s eyes filled with tears. She did not expect that. “For how long?” her voice sounded like it was cracking.

His chest hurt. He hated seeing the woman he loved cry, especially since he was the cause of her distress.

“For as long as I am needed,” Jayden let her know the truth. He brushed his knuckles against her left cheek, his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Wait for me,” he begged her.

“Always,” Rosalyn promised him.

A grimace appeared on his face. He was scared of leaving her. Scared that she would find another man, one that could give her everything he couldn’t—a family name and a big house. “Do you swear it?”

After a moment of hesitation, Rosalyn said, “I swear it upon our love.”

He let out the breath he held in. Now, he could go to war, knowing that the woman he had chosen for himself would faithfully await his return. “You have no idea how much I love you.”

He pulled her into a hug and buried his face in the hollow of her neck, inhaling her sweet scent. She always smelled like lavender and jasmine, and he could never get enough of her sweet scent. A few strands of her blonde hair tickled his clean-shaven face, and he brushed them to her back, his mouth moving along her neck.

Her breath hitched. “When are you leaving?”

Jayden lifted his head. “Tomorrow morning. Another apprentice was supposed to go, but he fell sick last night and the Fire Mages are still trying to heal him. I am to leave in his place.”

Rosalyn’s lower lip trembled. “So soon? I wish we had more time before you leave.”

“Me too,” Jayden said before his lips found hers.

She put her palms on top of his shoulders and kissed him back.

He broke the kiss. “Can you stay a little longer? I don’t know when we will see each other again, and I want to be with you tonight.”

“Just a little longer,” Rosalyn let him know. “My new maid, Juicea, is making sure Mina doesn’t suddenly barge into my room, as I told her I have a headache. You know how my cousin is, constantly checking what I do or to whom I speak. I wish my father would send her away to an orphanage or  another city.”

Jayden knew all about Minerva, “Mina” as her family and friends called her. Mina sounded… odd to him. He preferred to think of her as Minerva. Not that he especially spent time thinking of Minerva, since Rosalyn was always in his thoughts.

While Rosalyn was sweet, gentle, beautiful, and generous, Minerva was cold-hearted, arrogant, even cruel. At least from what Rosalyn had told him, as he had never interacted with Minerva. Well, they had had one brief encounter, but he was sure Minerva did not remember him. Nor did he want her to.

When he would return from war, he would purchase a house and find a way to have a family name to give to Rosalyn so that he could ask her father for her hand in marriage. He might be one of the many bastards living in Athea, but he wanted to make things right for Rosalyn. Even if it cost him his pride.

A small wooden box was in his pocket. He had been carrying it with him for quite a  while, but he felt like he couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to know the answer to a question that had been on his mind for many months now.

Taking the box out of his pocket and opening it, he revealed a cheap silver chain bracelet and said, “I know you deserve so much more, but when I return, I will talk to your father and ask for his blessing to marry you. If you want me.”

In the Nodor Kingdom, as in many other kingdoms and continents all over the world of Aylarra, when a man gave a woman a bracelet and she accepted, it meant she promised him that one day she would marry him.

Jayden felt like his heart had stopped beating as he waited for her to make up her mind. She had already sworn to wait for him, but it didn’t mean she was willing to marry him.

Rosalyn stared at the bracelet. She looked disappointed. He felt like a failure. She deserved so much more than a cheap silver bracelet.

He was about to close the box when Rosalyn said, “Of course, I want to marry you!”

Relief washed over him. She had accepted his proposal. “This is just temporary until I can buy you the bracelet you deserve,” he promised as he put the bracelet around her left wrist.

Rosalyn lifted her left hand in the air and moved her wrist left and right. “My dream bracelet is made of solid gold and has diamonds all over.”

His heart sank. What Rosalyn was asking cost…a small fortune.

“I will do my best to make all your dreams come true.”

She smiled before starting to unbutton his shirt, helping him undress.

A few hours later, they left the tavern.

The port was still busy with activity as more drunk men were out on the dark streets. Jayden led Rosalyn to one of the safer parts of the city and helped her find a carriage to take her home.

Before Rosalyn could enter the carriage, Jayden pulled her in for one last kiss. “I’ll miss you terribly, Lyn. I’ll write as often as I can,” he said against her lips.

“I will also miss you. Return to me quickly.”

“I’ll do my best.”

After a goodbye kiss, Rosalyn got into the carriage and the coachman instructed the horse to start moving.

Jayden stood on the sidewalk, hands in his pockets, watching the carriage disappearing down the street. Moments later, he started walking.

He was on his way to the small room he rented above the flower shop in the market when someone bumped into him—a young man, a few years shy of being of age, from what Jayden could tell.

His face was covered by the dark brown cloak’s hood, he appeared nervous. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” he apologized before rushing in the port’s direction.

Except it wasn’t a young man, but a woman.

Minerva.

Why was she going to the port in the middle of the night?