Nanowrimo 2023 Best Bit and Word Count - Holiday Update

Due to the holiday I haven't been able to update for a few days, but since the 22nd, I've added 5,434 words to my project, bringing the total to 41,000!

Ayden stared out the grand windows at the lake as the sun rose over the horizon. The water reflected the warm pink and orange tones of the sky, the light not yet to the point where it was blinding. She looked down at her legs, noting that they too reflected the warm tones of the sky through the window. In this moment, she could almost call them beautiful.

At least, she might have if she wasn't having such a hard time with her shoes. She regretted sending Addie away to tend to other matters. She'd hardly slept a wink the night before, too tired to try and conjure enough magic to properly bend her glass knee.

A knock at the door pulled her from her frustration. Perhaps a savior had shown themselves. "Come in."

Percival slipped through the door. "Adelaide sent me to check on you."

Ayden simply nodded in response, watching him closely as he approached. He looked less tired than she probably did, or else his round glasses hid the shadows that clung to his eyes better than expected. His hair hair was styled much better than it typically was, the maids having pulled it back in a sharp ponytail that was common among the younger noblemen. Ayden found she couldn't remember if it had been long enough for such a thing when their journey together started or not. It must not have been, because she didn't remember recognizing how strong his cheekbones were before. Or perhaps he'd simply lost weight while they were on the run, and his babyface had finally faded.

He paused at the end of the bed, his eyes drifting to the shoes that still lay on the floor. "Do you need help?"

"Please?" Ayden pleaded. "I haven't the strength to conjure the magic necessary."

"Sleepless night?" Percival asked, kneeling at her feet and picking up the first shoe.

"One of many," she admitted, watching his gentle hands lift her right foot up by the heel.

Percival glanced up at her before returning his focus to his task. "What plagues you, Your Majesty?"

"Anticipation," Ayden pondered. "Or perhaps anxiety. Whichever it is, it's the waiting that kills me."

"You'll wait no longer," he assured her, setting her right foot down and moving on to the left. "We leave as soon as the sun has turned the sky blue."

Ayden watched him as he delicately handled her left leg, a hand cradling the glass calf as he lifted her foot unto his lap. He was so careful with her, and she still couldn't wrap her head around why. Even if you could explain his loyalty with guilt, surely guilt only led you so far. Why did he not leave the moment the Oracle revealed death was the only cure for her curse? Why did he lower himself to do the duty of a servant when he was a lord? Why do this for her?

He must have felt her gaze, carmine eyes glancing up at her over the top of his glasses. "Your Majesty?"

She leaned forward, cupping his jaw with one hand and bringing his head up to face her properly. Her brows furrowed in heavy contemplation, and his matched hers in confusion. She watched as his cheeks turned rosy, his eyes darting about shyly.

"Y-Your Majesty?"

"What will you do?" she wondered, "When I set you free?"

"Free?" he echoed, voice barely more than a whisper. "What do you mean?"

"When this is all over, when I have burned the kingdoms down and rebuilt an empire from their ashes," she said, feeling the desperation in her words as they left her throat. "There will be no more need for you to assuage your guilt. You will be free. I wonder what you will do then? Will you mourn the kin I took from you? Will you bury the queen in a manner befitting a monarch, dig her up from the pauper's grave I gift her and place her in a mausoleum or family crypt? Will you turn yourself over to your family's judgement, finding new guilt to motivate you?"

Percival's eyes flooded with sudden understanding, and then something else that Ayden couldn't place. But it was warm, and it was gentle. And yet it filled her chest with something heavy and undefinable.  Percival's face slipped from her hand as he bent down. Ayden let out a shuddering breath as his lips pressed against her foot. There was no pressure, no sensation of true touch, and yet it was warm. Warm in a way that not even the stray embers from fire had ever been.

"There is no freedom from this because it is no burden."

"Percival..."

"Ayden." She flinched at the use of her name, as he so rarely said it. "Nothing you could do would drive me away from you."

It was Ayden's turn to look away, made uneasy by his unwavering gaze. "You don't know that."

Percival laughed, a breathy, apologetic sound. "True. Perhaps one of these days you will have an insatiable desire to devour infants."

She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the idea. "Be serious."

"I am," Percival insisted, standing. He offered a hand, and, out of curiosity, Ayden took it. She let out a small noise of surprise when he pulled her up to meet him, the gentle smile she'd come to know on his lips. "I ran from this place with you knowing what your goal was. I've never been blind to the knowledge that conquering the kingdoms would include violence or death. I was always willing to fight her for you."

"Would you have killed her?" Ayden asked cautiously. "Before we knew?"

"If it was between you and her? Every time."

Ayden watched his face, desperately searching for any cracks. Any proof of a lie or hesitation. Just like with Addie and with Laurent, she couldn't find any. Why? Why did they care so much? Why did they insist on following her to the gates of death? Why her?

"I don't...understand you," she said, her words coming out like a sigh on shuddering breath.

"That's alright, isn't it?" Percival asked gently. He smiled, and she could imagine how he might have been when he was young and full of boyish mischief like Laurent. "I admit I don't fully understand it myself. I just know that I am devoted to you, no matter what path you walk." His brows furrowed despite his smile. "And I think it's always been that way. From the moment I reached out to offer you a dance. Even if you hadn't been cursed, I would have followed you." He laughed again, looking sheepish. "Perhaps the women of Blue really are that irresistible to the men of Red."