The Damsel and her Knight

20th ☾ Dark and Light

Two brothers of the same blood,

One summons the light and the other calls for the dark.

20th ☾

Dark and Light

"Rise and shine, Cassandra dear," someone called, throwing a pillow to my face.

I was able to catch it, unsteadily getting up and seeing the trespassers. Bryce—whose expressions readily showed his thoughts, during unguarded moments, that is—had disappointment written all over his face. In my defense, I said, "Don't give me that look. I did hear you two approaching the bed."

"You were snoring," Bryce pointed out. He was standing behind the footboard. Picking up one of my shoes that was near his feet, he threw it to me. "And you should have heard us when we were opening the window."

"Where did you two go, anyway? I've been searching all over the town yesterday," I complained, rubbing my head where the shoe had squarely landed. He got me with that one.

"Have you been getting any sleep lately? You look like a ghost," Bryce said, aghast with my appearance.

"She's always like that," Anthony said, almost to himself.

"I'm just sleep-deprived," I deadpanned.

"Why?" Bryce asked, portraying a completely honest look.

"Because," I explained, standing in front of the mirror and seeing for myself what these two had been nitpicking. I had dark circles underneath my eyes, more pronounced than the last time I'd checked them ages ago. Furrowed brows seemed to be unchanging these days, too. Skin condition—of course, it was not good. With a sigh, I turned around, saying, "I haven't slept much lately. In fact, it hadn't been two hours since I hit the sack before you two barged in."

"Ah, this is our best hours," Bryce said, in his own pretentious manner, "a little after midnight, while everyone else's sleeping."

I asked, "Care to tell me where you two went?"

"We didn't have time to tell you that we were leaving for a while. Things don't look good these days," Bryce started, the flippancy in his voice quietly fading in the background.

"Is there something wrong?"

Bryce went over to me, lifting my arm. "Have you been eating?"

I shoved his hand away. "Back off."

"Cut the slack and tell her already, Bryce," Anthony said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"What's going on?" I was suddenly alarmed. "Bryce, did something happen?"

Instead of answering me right away, Bryce went to the door of my room and checked if it was locked. And then he shut the windows tight, pulling the curtains down. His actions were making me nervous. Something was awfully wrong and there were too many options to choose from.

Bryce sat on the bed, folding his arms over his chest. "We received a message from our allies in Moss. The king started to gather his army. We don't know the reason yet."

"Why?" I asked out of confusion, looking back from him and Anthony. "Did we start something? Did anybody attempt an attack? Was there a plan I wasn't informed with?"

Bryce shook his head. "Not that we know of. Something is going to happen, and the thing is, we can't figure out what it might be."

"Is our group in danger?"