White Knight Boyfriend: Amir 2 (rough draft)

It has become a nightly thing to go and visit Amir atop the Queen Piece. We meet every day, often spending hours together talking, sharing, maybe just watching the sky until the stars come out. Amir had a big family too, but unlike me, he was the youngest of his brood. His parents had also been Chess Piece pilots, but they had passed away during the Battle of Alice when their King Piece was destroyed. Amir was then raised by his elder siblings, all of whom despised the Chess Board.

“I don’t remember much of what happened before the Battle of Alice,” he confesses. “I was just a baby. But my siblings all remember, they remember our parents, everything.”

“They aren’t one of the Coup Talkers, are they?” I ask.

Amir sighs, rubbing the back of his head. “Not exactly, they’re more into the idea of removing the wall. They don’t care about taking the throne back or anything.”

“My parents are Coup Talkers, and it’s starting to seep into the heads of my little siblings. All they talk about is war and fighting these days,” I huff.

Amir looks at me and moves a little closer. “I can understand the want for revenge some of the elders have, but right now, all I want is freedom, and I think as long as we do have Coup Talkers, we’ll never see that from the royal family.”

I look up to the sky as it becomes painted in pale blue, baby pink, and wisps of orange that almost smell like citrus. “I’ve been to the palace before.”

Amir’s antennae stands on end and his amber eyes widen. “You’re kidding?”

I shake my head. “The palace was holding a birthday party for the princess. Her favorite color was black, so some of us in the Dynastinae Court were selected to serve as decor for the party.”

Amir looks horribly offended. “Wasn’t that embarrassing?”

Looking back on the party, I had felt uncomfortable. People stared and pointed, some tried to touch me. But the royal family had set up guards to protect us, and watch us too, I suppose. “The princess was cute. She asked us to play with her, which was fun. Apparently, they turned the Court of Chess into a board game.”

“I have heard,” he scoffs. “All our lives were devoted to those battles. I mean-”

“Our lives?” I giggle. “Neither one of us has ever fought in a battle!”

Amir sticks his tongue out at me. “You know what I mean.” He leans back to look up at the sky. “It is too bad the Chess Pieces have been disabled. It would be so easy to knock down the walls with them. Then we could just leave and live our lives as we wanted. We didn’t have to worry about there being Courts or old feuds. We could just be in this world.”

I follow his gaze up into the stars. “What would you do in the world?”

“I’d go to Pirlipat, just leave Miror alone. I hear Pirlipat is sweeter anyways,” he sighs heavily.

“Does the White Knight prefer white sugar?” I tease.

He smirks as he looks back at me. “I think you’re the one with a preference for white sugar these days.” He reaches over, putting his hand underneath mine.

I giggle nervously as he sits up, stretching his neck to place a soft kiss on me. “I have barely a thought in my head when I’m with you. How could I have a preference for anything?”

He cups my cheek in his hand. “I want to be able to spend my time with you, and not worry that someone is going to start a fight. It wouldn’t matter where we went, just so long as it’s away from feuds that don’t make sense anymore.”

Holding his hand close, I give him a soft squeeze. “I know. I know.” I slowly move his hand down from my face. “I wouldn’t mind just staying here if the feuds would end. But that won’t happen anytime soon, it’s all some have that’s normal for them.”

Amir sighs heavily and places both his hands around mine. “It’s getting late. We should go back home.”

I dip my head down so he doesn’t have to stretch too far to kiss me in return. I gently move in closer, putting my arms around him so he doesn’t pull away too soon. These moments on top of the Chess Pieces are all we have, so I try to make them last as long as possible, or at least, be as memorable as possible.

Amir touches my cheek and smoothes his hand down. “You don’t have to hold me like that, trust me, I don’t want to pull away either.”

“Do you not like when I hold you?”

“Not what I meant. I’m glad when you do. I just want you to know, I’m not in a hurry when I am with you.” He kisses me one last time before we both stand up. He looks over the side for a second, glancing up to the wall just above us.

I tug on his hand. “What are you looking at?” I know what he’s looking at. I know what he’s thinking. How could I not after the conversation we just had.

“Just wondering a bit.” He glances up at me with a smile. “But it is nothing, really. Let’s go.” I hold him fast as he tries to spread his wings.

“It isn’t nothing. You’re thinking about just running away.” I give him a good solid glare. “We can’t do that, it wouldn’t be right. We have family here, and it’s selfish to just think we can run away from them.”

“That's why I said it was nothing. I know it’s foolish.” His wings close back and his shoulders slouch down low. “But it is easy.”

I kiss the top of his head. “Easy to escape, but hard to live with. Now come on, let’s get down from here.” We float down from the Chess Piece and stand across from each other, waiting to bid our final farewell until we meet tomorrow.

Amir keeps a hold of my hand. “Zari.”

My antennae perk up. “Yeah?”

“I love you,” he says strongly.

My chest pounds and I feel tears come into my eyes. “Amir, I-” Before I can speak, a bright light rips through the darkness. It cuts along the shadows in a perfect line before ripping down into a brilliant beam. Amir puts himself in front me, shielding me with his wings unfurled. We gaze into the light, seeing a door opening at the base of the Queen Piece.

“It can’t be,” he says in awe. “They were disabled. They shouldn’t be able to do this!”

The lights begin to dim, and only a faint glow comes from inside. We hesitantly step closer, seeing the sets of stairs that lead up to the cockpit. All around it there are gears and metal that make the Queen Piece work.

“This is wholly impossible,” Amir whispers as he touches the open door. “The power source was taken out, there’s no way!”

I look up at the Queen’s Piece, covered in moss and dirt, vines growing all around it. It occurs to me that Heartwood grows in the Tulgey Woods, and that the Heartwood trees grow vines that spread out, and often, when attaching to another tree or even stones, have been known to bring them to life.

“Maybe the Heartwood vines have something to do with this,” I murmur. “What if they grew up into the empty place where the power source used to be?”

Amir looks away from the open door. “Maybe if it was something small. But this is a giant machine, there’s no way a single Heartwood tree could make enough vines to power one of these.”

“But what about a whole forest?” I point towards the walls. “There must be countless trees in the Tulgey Wood!”

Amir’s expression is confused, but he’s seriously considering it. “That still seems impossible. But-”

I look back up inside the Queen Piece. “We wouldn’t be able to go far if that was the case. The vines probably could only go ten feet.”

The look on Amir’s face as he stares at me. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

“Well don’t you want to see if it works?” I ask. “Even if we could get the Queen Piece to move, it’ll move far enough that we could take down the wall.”

His eyes widen and his antennae stand erect. “That’s crazy! All of this is crazy!”

All of a sudden, the gears inside begin to turn and crank. They squeal and grind, slowly working through the years of stillness and misuse. “I stand by what I said,” Amir scoffs.

I go to step inside but Amir pulls me back. “It could be dangerous in there. Better let me go ahead just in case. It has been ages since these things were last even open.”

“This is a black piece,” I say with a smirk. “Wouldn't it make more sense for me to go inside? Or are you still playing the White Knight?”

Amir stands on his tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “For you, my Zari, I will always play the White Knight. But I am serious, let me go in first and you follow behind.” He walks inside, standing there in the entrance for a moment as he gazes upward at the spiral staircase that coils all the way around and around the center beam where the power supply once was.

“Wow,” I whisper.

“I’ve been told countless times what they look like inside,” he whispers. “I never assumed it was this much.”

I grab his hand and hold it tight. “Before you go up, I got interrupted.”

“Oh?” His antennae stick up again.

I kiss him softly, dipping over to reach him. “I love you too.”

“I knew that,” he chuckles.

The core starts to glow bright pink, illuminating from within with thousands, if not countless, vines of the heartwood trees in Tulgey Wood.

“Did they know what they were doing?” Amir whispers about the heartwood. “Did they do this on purpose or because there was just an empty hole?”

“Phrasing, dear.” I tug on his hand. “Let’s go upstairs, maybe we’ll be able to find out if something is there.”

We slowly walk up the stairs that coil around the core. The vines inside glow brightly, fiercely even. They twist around one another, making a pillar that is tightly wound. I hold my breath from nerves, but find all too quickly that is ridiculously foolish. Going up, up, up a flight of stairs will wear you out.

Amir stalls before me and looks back. “You’re breathing really hard. Is everything okay?”

I have to laugh. “I’m fine, just stupid. Let’s keep going.”

Once we come to the top, Amir has me wait on the stairs while he steps onto the platform. He looks around inside the pink glow then waves for me to join him. The window looking outside is unopened, but I can see slight slivers of light from outside. On either side of the platform there are controls which will operate the Queen Piece.

“My mom and dad were the last pilots of this Queen Piece,” I say quietly. “They’ve told me countless stories about their days as pilots.”

Amir looks at the controls, which have yet to light up. “I don’t think this is operational. Nothing has completely come on yet.”

I glance back to the power core and I can see the tips of the vines reaching over the edge. Heart shaped leaves are scattered all over the control floor, some old and turning to dust, others look new and freshly fallen. I walk over to one of the control thrones and sit down on it. I smooth my hands over the armrests and there’s a loud pop and squeal. The chair topples backwards and I yelp.

The control panel flashes on at the same time. As Amir moves to help me stand up, the window to the Queen Piece opens up wide. Outside the view is the same, but completely different as well.

“You okay?” Amir quickly remembers I had fallen onto the floor.

“The chair was old, I shouldn’t have sat.” I sit on the ground and look up out the window. “I think it came on because the Heartwood is laughing at me.”

“Is that what is causing this?” He scoffs. He stands with me and goes over to the now lit up control panel. “Is this thing coming back on because the Heartwood is reacting to us?”

“I’ve been coming here all my life, maybe it knows me or something.” I can’t take my eyes off the open window.

“Maybe the heartwood is excited to finally meet you.” Amir goes to pull a switch but he stops himself.

I move away from the window and go to stand before the power core. The vines shift inside, turning and pressing closer against the glass. I wave at them and the Queen Piece shifts and knocks me over. The right side of the controls are flashing and beeping, and from the window I can see the hand of the Queen Piece waving.

“What’s happening?” Amir stumbles and falls on his behind, sliding with the shift of the entire structure.

“Stop!” I hold up my hand to the power core and the Queen Piece stops moving. I wave again and the Queen Piece waves in return. “Amir, stand to the left.”

He walks around, standing where I point. “Now what?”

“Move.”

Amir raises his arm and the left arm of the Queen Piece lifts up, pulling free from the ground and scattering rock, striking it against the wall. We both stare at one another in awe.

“What do we do?” Amir asks. “Should we…” He begins to smirk. “Should we?”

“There are a lot of ramifications of this if we do decide to tear the wall down,” I murmur. “But if we make an exit and just leave the Queen Piece sitting there, we can at least protect ourselves and we can come and go as we please.”

“This could still mean a world of trouble.” Amir says breathlessly.

“Didn’t you want the world?”

Amir’s grin breaks wider. “Okay,” he says with a breath. He reaches his hand out to me and I take hold of it. The vines glow brighter and, as Amir and I lift our hands, we drop them down, causing the hands of the Queen Piece to break through the wall. Amir swings his legs, moving the Queen Piece forward, breaking her legs free and kicking the wall down. We move through the wall, breaking it down brick by brick then sitting the Queen Piece down in the center.

We walk off the Queen Piece and people from inside have already started to gather. I take hold of Amir’s hand and we walk out beyond the wall.

“What do we do?” Amir asks. “What do we say?”

The crowd gathering around the Queen Piece is murmuring and whispering. I just stare out into the woods and take a deep, deep breath. I let it out slowly, imaging it like the seeds of a dandelion floating out into the world.

“The world is ours again,” I smile at him. “Let it come.”

Of course, the story doesn’t end here. Amir and I got into a lot of trouble for opening up the wall. But because of that, it got both sides talking about what should be done. It was the first time the two courts had come together since the Battle of Alice had begun. It was agreed that there was nothing to be done. If people from the two Courts wanted to go out into the world, there was nothing to hold them back. Same for if people wanted to stay. It was also going to be a while before the royal family would even hear about the break in the wall, and when they did come, we had the Queen Piece that was now active. Stationary, but active. Granted, the one hiccup in our plan was that the Queen Piece only seemed to fully activate with Amir and I present. Fortunately, it would at least activate and move a little if my parents were in the cockpit. So, at least they could bluff if they had to.

It still wasn’t too smiled upon for the two Courts to hang around, but with the wall open and the two sides coming and going as they liked, things were slowly beginning to change. The line in the center of the Chess Board didn’t matter anymore, it wasn’t the exact center. There was no side to protect anymore without it. Of course, people still feuded, but that was the elders. The younger ones, well, they seemed to be happy to just let go and get going. They wanted to move on from the past.

“Where should we go?” I ask Amir one day.

“I had said Pirlipat before,” he murmurs. He stares out into the Tulgey Wood where a path seems to stretch out before us. “We can go there, see what’s beyond these walls.”

I take hold of his hand. “If we go to the Polar, maybe we can learn to fly again.”

Amir sniffles and tilts his head up, looking into the sky. “We can go anywhere really, the door is open.”

I walk out beyond the wall and stand there as a wind blows around us. “Pirlipat first,” I say decisively and then my voice wavers and I hum to myself. “Or nowhere at all. As long as I am with you, I’ll go anywhere in the world.”

Amir stands beside me with a smile on his face. “Anywhere sounds good.” He takes hold of my hand and kisses my knuckles. “But only if I am with you.”