(thank you Nashobafor being so talented and making this beautiful moodboard❤ everyone please be sure to follow her!)
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"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" Azade asked as Vardin pulled her down the halls, passing windows as they tried to beat time. He walked faster by every glance out the window as the sun was getting closer to the horizon. Time was running out.
"Vardin—" She repeated, not receiving a response. They both kept walking, their pace going into a run soon enough. The palace was huge and they didn't have the time to make it to wherever they needed to go by walking. Their pace was brisk, and time was running short.
"Vardin!"
He turned, still leading her. "Be silent, we don't have much time left before he turns." His hands clasped tighter around hers, every stride they took seeming farther and farther away from wherever they were supposed to go.
'Before he turns? What does that mean?' Azade wondered, she knew that something would be different about Rukun tonight. He had said it himself the night before, when he started talking about the mysterious 'they'. Perhaps tonight she would finally discover what was exactly not human about the young King.
"In here!" Vardin pushed her towards an open door, letting her stumble inside before she caught herself mid-fall. He turned around and slammed the doors shut, taking one of his daggers from his side and wedging it between the handles. Azade turned back around only to find the room they were in.
The painting room.
It was the same room where just a few nights ago she found the strange painting that depicted look-alikes of her and Rukun, before she was carried away screaming. "Why did you take me here?"
"There's a secret passageway, beneath the floors here." Vardin passed her, pointing to a painting of some long-dead Kroos King. He walked over to it and peeled back the frame to reveal a small opening, just small enough for Azade to fit through.
"You think both of us will be able to fit in there?" She asked, keeping her voice low. The opening was positively tiny, a black emptiness that probably wouldn't have fit Azade if she was a bit bigger than she was.
"I don't think both of us will fit in there, I think just you will."
"What if he comes in here? You're going to let yourself be killed just so I can maybe escape to wherever that leads to?" She pointed to the passageway, the creeping feeling crawling up her spine.
"That passageway was made so the children of the King could escape if there ever was an invasion." Vardin leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. "By keeping you safe, we are keeping the entire kingdom safe." His hand stayed steady on the hilt of his sword, eyes never wavering from the door.
