When Marcus returned to his flat, Ersonia was naked and waiting for him on the bed.

  “Ersonia, we don’t have time.” Marcus waved as he went to change into his fine attire.

  “I love when you say that,” she rolled onto her back and stretched her arms and legs back and forth in the covers of his bed, “because I know you’ll make time.”

  “I’m not playing around today.” Marcus said. “We need to go, and we need to have already gone ten minutes ago.”

  “Oh, you’re no fun, Marcus.” She sat up and crossed her arms over her large breasts. “What’s gotten into you lately? You looked like you were having more fun talking to that child at breakfast than you would have spending time with me.”

  “Because this person is a unique person with a different life perspective. It was interesting.” Marcus waved.

  “And I’m not interesting?” Ersonia asked.

  Marcus came back in only his dress pants. “Unfortunately, Ersonia, the truth is that you are not interesting—not in the least.”

  Ersonia opened her mouth and closed it without saying anything. She looked down, frowning.

  “It’s not a bad thing.” Marcus put on his dress shirt and began buttoning it. “Some people are looking for boring, uninteresting partners.”

  “But you’re not.” Ersonia’s eyes cut to his.

  “Not what?”

  “Interested in me because I’m not interesting.” She answered coldly.

  “You’re twisting everything I’m saying.” He protested.

  “But you’re still not answering the question.”

  “What question?”

  “You’re not—Why aren’t you interested in me?” Ersonia reflexively pulled one of his bed sheets over her body.

  “Because…I’m….” Marcus realized that he genuinely had no interest in perpetuating this charade of a relationship any further. And there was no more painless time to do what needed to be done than right now. “I’m not going to marry you.”

  “WHAT?” Ersonia got to her feet, keeping the sheet covering her person. Her eyes had become like that of a demon.

  “I’m not marrying you, Ersonia, because you’re a boring, helpless, drain upon any free-thinking person. You contribute nothing to me but pointless sex, and I’d be happier being alone and doing what I want than having your constant monologue compete with my own self-deprecating thoughts. You only want to marry me because I’m next in line for the throne, and I know all about all your other exploits with other prominent members of royalty from the other cities. It’s been fun, but you and I will never be anything more than a casual fuck.”

  “I hate you! You’re ALWAYS mean to me!” Ersonia yelled, throwing off the sheet so that she could find her undergarments. “You only talk about yourself and act like you’re so sophisticated with your knowledge of things and places!”

  “Would you listen to yourself?” Marcus pointed at her with the sharp stab of his hand.

  “I can’t believe I’ve wasted the last year with you!” Ersonia stepped through and pulled on her tight under-dress.

  “Yes, finally something you and I can agree upon.” Marcus nodded. “Time that most definitely could have been spent elsewhere.”

  “The things I’ve put up with in this castle thinking you and I were going somewhere,” said Ersonia. “Putting up with your creepy, perverted father staring at me, looking at you and using me through your eyes the way he does. It’s disturbing, and you should have known it wasn’t right.”

  Marcus grabbed Ersonia by the arm. She looked at how hard he was holding her and then looked into his eyes as the darkness that ran in his family could be seen there. “You always run your Omne-damned mouth, Ersonia! But this time, you’d better shut it and shut it permanently. You know what I mean.”

  Ersonia swallowed and glared at him defiantly, but as much as Marcus could tell she wanted to shout and scream back at him, she didn’t. Always the submissive, Marcus thought. And that’s why the two could never be together. He was a wolf and she was a sheep. She needed to be with one of her own. Marcus released her.

  Saying nothing more, he left the flat. He walked through the morning beams of light cascading through the arched windows lining the halls.

  He met with a guard escort that was to take him and Ersonia to the vorago. Marcus informed them that the lady wouldn’t be joining them, and that they should depart right away. The feeling of knowing things were bad with Ersonia began to leave him…and a strange anticipation to see Susi greeted him upon seeing the vorago from the top steps of the castle.

  Marcus had been through four big relationships, and a bevy of girls when he was younger—and a number of lovers between those relationships. Usually, the loss of a relationship put him in a terrible place mentally, but he couldn’t deny that a weight had been lifted. No more useless commentary. No more of Ersonia's short father’s terrible jokes, although Duke Gharish was far superior company to his goose of a daughter.

  It was over now, but it was somehow fortuitous, like everything in his life lately. Was it Susi? Something inside him told him yes, though in all likelihood she would be dead within the hour. Could he take a commoner as a wife? It had been done in the distant past, but not in the recent three hundred plus years. Marcus recalled seeing her at the balcony, both in life and in vision.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Whatever rules he needed to break, he was willing to break them for Susi. It was his father who would vehemently oppose the arrangement. If it cost him his claim to the throne, could he give it all up for her? Yes, I could, and it would be so easy. As if realizing at last that Susi was to be executed for sport, the horror of knowing this and that she was the woman he could leave everything for became one and the same.

  Marcus began to run through the streets toward the vorago. His two guard escorts called after him, but Marcus was only thinking of Susi. If getting her out cost him his position, he would find her and get her out. He might be one of the only people in the city who could pull it off. He found the entrance where he had given Susi over to the guards. When he approached, the two guards blocked the entrance.

  “It’s a beautiful morning, eh, Prince Marks?” One of the guards asked.

  “Yes, I need to find that prisoner that I left with you earlier. It’s very important that I find her.”

  “Mmm, don’t think so, Sir.” The guard shrugged. “Strict orders not to let anyone through.”

  “Don’t make me pull rank,” said Marcus.

  The guard cleared his throat. “I should clarify: we’re under strict orders not to let you through—not for any means or reason, and it doesn’t matter how important you’ll tell us it is.”

  “What?” Marcus glared at the guard.

  “Strict orders from the chancellor, Sir: throughout the whole guard. Best you go find your seat in the vorago stands.”

  Marcus could see his father’s work in play. That meant there would be a dozen or more barriers between him and Susi. Damius Marks knew a little something about conquest. He knew how to control the entirety of whatever battlefield he was fighting upon. Susi was but a piece on the opposing team, the only piece other than himself, and even Marcus was surrounded and barred from interfering with the outcome of the battle.

  “Well played, Father.” Marcus muttered, cutting his eyes to his left. “Carry on, then,” he said to the guard.

  “Sir.” The guard nodded.

  Marcus made his way around the ornate columned vorago coliseum. He joined the other nobles at the royal entrance and was allowed passage through. Marcus was a little surprised his father didn’t arrest him to his quarters if he knew enough to prevent him from going after Susi.

  Just how much did his father know about his feelings for Susi? Is that why he invited her to breakfast: to parade his level of control in front of both of them while allowing them to later realize that they never did leave the battlefield? Manipulative bastard. Marcus thought at his father, not for the first time.

  He climbed the steps to his box. Damius Marks was already there with a drink in hand. He wore a fresh toga, and had his bare feet upon a stool at an angle from his seat so he could see over the balcony.

  “What a beautiful morning.” Marks glanced at him and was able to read the unpleasant look on Marcus’s face. “I’m going to teach you an important lesson today, Marcus.”

  “Oh, what’s that?” Marcus asked sarcastically. “Another lesson on how you have no heart to speak of?”

  “A lesson in the nature of reality.” Marks spoke in a neutral tone. “You see, things like love only stand in your way. It’s best to see the things you love, even if you’ve only loved them for a short time, not only depart from this world but be decimated from it. It’s a sort of sacrifice. Once you realize that you are more powerful when you are uncaring: only then will you be a true ruler.”

  “That sounds like a miserable way of going through life.” Marcus feigned boredom. He was well into adulthood, so the idea that Marcus knew nothing about the nature of rulership was a little patronizing. But the mere idea of being with Susi made him feel like he was eighteen years old again. Their small dance so far; he would look back on this time and remember the smells differently. He would recall the orange tint of the sun in contrast to the games, the late morning sunlight, and the invigorating feeling of fresh, new love.

  Part of him wanted a drink, but that would allow him to dissociate from his situation. He would become one of the patrons enjoying the games while this person he had grown to care about on another level was potentially slaughtered.

  What kind of man was he? How could he just sit here? Marcus’s eyes fell to the stone balcony floor beneath him. The man Susi deserved to be with would fight for her, fight until his very end. And yet, Marcus was trapped like a prisoner here next to his father.

  Marcus had been staring at the floor in thought over Susi for quite some time when Auctor Ralvese stepped out onto the stone speaker’s platform that overlooked the arena below.

  The audience suddenly began to boo him as their energy picked up from the previous day. They didn’t want to watch Susi effortlessly eliminate opponent after opponent. They wanted to see her skewered with swords, demolished by a mace, or her body impaled upon a lance. Auctor Ralvese had previously only brought news of her victory so he was therefore to blame.

  Ralvese waved the audience down, and for whatever reason the boos transformed into cheers. They were still pissed off about yesterday, but they were also excited to see what entertainment had been formulated for them.

  “People! People! People!” Ralvese waved, then lowered his arms as the crowd in the stands surrounding the vorago quieted. “What a game we have for you today! What a phenomenal, thought-provoking masterpiece today’s experience will be! Let’s all give a warm welcome back to yesterday’s challenger, SUSI!”

  The crowd was mixed as a platform raised on one side of the field. Susi in her black uniform was lifted to the arena's surface. She looked altogether different than she had the previous day, and the audience liked it. She carried two short swords today since her staff had been destroyed. Marcus knew that anything staff-like or staff adjacent like a lance or spear would have been removed from the equipment room.

  Concern met Marcus as he leaned over with his hands pressed together. She stepped out, looking encumbered, slow even. Something wasn’t right with her. The only thing he could do is give her his blessing and hope her skill could carry her through.

  “And one of our returning champions: REMUS V.” Ralvese called. The second platform rose.

  “WHAT!” Marcus looked from the field to his father. “That’s not even remotely fair!”

  A beefy man rose upon his lift to the sandy floor. He had wild black hair, and a big beard, but the first thing anyone noticed about him was that he had a gatling gun attached to each of his arms. A green target sensor covered his right eye. The man was forty percent machine, and a clone of the first Remus that died in the Roahian arena twenty years prior.

  No one considered Remus V to be a legitimate contender in the arena for how simple it was for him to end his opponents. The audience, however, seemed enthusiastic about the opposition.

  “We rule this world, my son,” said Damius Marks. “Don’t ever let anyone—anyone—tell you, let alone show you, that you have no control. This is how we deal with people who defy us and think they can stand against our empire!”

  “Do we have your approval, Chancellor?” Ralvese called to Marks.

  “You have my approval, Auctor!” Marks called back. “Carry on with the execution!” The cheer that resonated could have been heard all the way to the mainland, perhaps even all the way to Chartan across the sea.

  Marcus shrank into his seat, his heart aching in his chest already to know that Susi would in all probability fail to defeat Remus V. The man had guns for arms! She would be dead in minutes.

  “You heard him everyone!” Auctor Ralvese called. “Let the second day of the Tornetum BEGIN!”