A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 2089: King Patrick - Part 7

Chapter 2089: King Patrick – Part 7

Their worlds were too far apart. They had sworn that they would do all they could to stay together, despite the circumstances. Oliver had made her swear, when he had come back wearing a crown, declaring that he didn’t want it. Nila had gladly accepted. Now that same man had learned that he could not run from his responsibility. He had accepted it entirely. He didn’t need her anymore.

The weight of that loneliness was enough to bring her to tears. She had no place in such a grand world. As he stood before the fire, she looked at his back, and studied it, as she had so many times before. She was sure that the next time she saw it, it would only be from very far away.

She turned on her heel, ever so slowly.

“Nila,” Oliver’s voice came sharply. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She stopped where she stood.

“I find a certainty in myself,” he said. “I will fetch victory for the Stormfront.”

“I see that in you,” Nila said. “You’re strong, Oliver. Always impossibly strong. Always sacrificing pieces of your heart, so that you can match the responsibility that others would ask of you.”

“A world in which I can be this certain only exists if you’re in it,” Oliver said. “Do you understand?”

He turned to her then.

“To cut off a King’s head. My hands most definitely are stained from it. But it is a decision that I can make without hesitation, because there are people around me that I can trust – enough that I can take risks that I would not be able to take alone,” Oliver said. “Do you understand what I am saying, Nila?”

She paused, and tried to think on it, but her frozen mind would hardly move. Beneath those eyes, as intense as they were, she found herself immobilized. She knew not the terrifying man in front of her well enough that she could relax.

“You are one such person,” Oliver said. “More than anyone else. You, I rely on, to take care of me before I become something that I am not. Just to look you, reminds me what I am. Just to be near you, it brings me comfort. I understand that what I have brought to our doorstep is not what you would want. There’s no quietness in it. I know that you would rather be anywhere else in the world. But I require you, Nila – properly. We have courted for a time, after I asked you to marry me. But I would ask you again. Not here, and now, but when this war is done, marry me, Nila. And whilst we fight it – let all know that you are betrothed to a King, and do so shamelessly. You don’t need to wear dresses that you don’t feel comfortable in, you don’t need to act in ways that you feel weaken you. I attempted as much, and the result was a weakness that our Emerson allies could not rely upon. Do it, but do it in your own way. Find comfort in it, and stress. Whatever you decide on, I shall accept.”

He had closed the distance between them as he spoke, until his face was just a short distance away from hers. She looked up into his eyes, finding the intensity of the emotion there. A swirling storm, the Tempest that he was named after. The wind of forward momentum that others mistook as certainty, she saw the courage that was needed to hold it altogether. The weakness that only she was privy to, and along with it, a knowledge of an even greater strength that no other would ever know.

She knew not entirely what he spoke of, when he mentioned his experience in adjusting to what it meant to be King. But no matter how subtly he were to put it, she could not miss the unmistakable fact that he loved her. It was like a club to the side, it took the wind out of her. She wanted to say a thousand things, but she kissed him instead.

“Dummy,” she said when they had separated.

Oliver grinned. The same boyish grin that she remembered, and delighted in. “Never disappear from me, little Nila. You’re far too important.”

“Uh huh, important enough that you’d saddle me with extra duties, right?” Nila tutted at him. “You’re a realllllllllll piece of work, Tempest. You’d ask all the effort in the world from me. And thanks very much for telling me what I can wear – your permission was definitely necessary.”

“Such a pain,” Oliver said, putting a hand on her head, and messing up her hair. She glared at him in mock dissatisfaction.

“But if you’re going to be that insistent about it, I suppose I don’t mind pretending to be your fiancee. And mayybeeee I’ll even consider marrying you one day, if I’m feeling particularly generous,” Nila said.

Oliver laughed. “Generous? You? I’m going to be waiting for a long time.”

She hit his shoulder. Not awfully hard to the likes of him, but hard enough that it might have knocked over a normal man. He laughed again, and messed up her hair again, before bringing her into a hug, and swaying her from side to side in the joy of his embrace. She drove her nose into the back of his neck, gripping him tighter. The strangest surge of happiness – that the Gods would allow it for them, in the midst of all that was going on. She knew it was likely to disappear soon enough, vanished like like a ripple off the surface of river water, so she enjoyed it all the more. She knew that whatever was to come, she could cling to the warmth of the moment, and have it guide her towards warmer times.

Finally, did she force him to separate, feeling far better than she had in months. She found her own strength, as he had found his. The stern Nila, that was able to lead villages, and cities, and who had seen Ernest guided back towards normalcy in the aftermath of the fire.