Legacy of the Remembered

30. Protection

Ollyah vowed to never let Xuun hurt Eske ever again.

It was her first thought when she woke up and assessed the situation. Eske, leaning on the wall and slightly curled in on himself. Xuun, standing between them with the Tear of Jule in his hands. Her hands bound behind her, ankles tied together. The dark, cement room they were locked in that had no windows and one door. The unknown man standing beside the door, unmoving but attentive.

As strategic as it would have been to stay silent and try to see if she could use her consciousness to her advantage before Xuun noticed her, the anger she felt at seeing him again overruled that.

"What are you doing?" Her voiced echoed louder within the confines of the room. She earned both of their gazes, although Eske had already been looking at her with fear.

Xuun's lips curled into something unpleasant that she would not call a smile. "Ah, the princess is awake. Nice to see that. I was almost worried that one of you may have suffered brain injuries from the rather impolite way of rendering you unconscious."

Ollyah frowned. Part of her wanted to contest that statement for multiple reasons, but the other, stronger part of her could not focus on such a minor matter when compared to the bigger picture. "Answer my question."

Xuun clasped his hands between him, Eske's pendant swinging back and forth as it dangled there. "You are going to be my guests for the foreseeable future, Your Highness."

Considering all of the factors up until now, Ollyah did not like the sound of that. "You're taking us to Panjuun."

"Of course. Your brother needs to come home," he shot Eske a quick look over his shoulder. "And you, my princess, should've been with us all along. It is only now that we saw just how important you really are."

She definitely did not like the sound of that.

"Where is Lord Yras?" Her search of the room had already proven them alone, but on instinct she looked around again, as if his own prone form would suddenly materialize out of thin air and answer her question.

But Xuun waved that off with a flick of his free hand. "Unimportant. You won't have to worry about them any longer, either of you. We'll be departing once it's safe."

"What did you do to them?" Eske asked, sounding more angry than scared to Ollyah's surprise. But his glare was telling, and all she needed to know to see where his priorities lay. It almost warmed her to know that he cared, but the timing was not one for positive reinforcement.

When it looked like Xuun was going to roll his eyes and leave that unanswered, Ollyah pushed again. "Why am I here, and they're not? Surely they would be good political hostages." Not that she wanted them to be in a similar fate, but if it brought her answers, she would pretend to overlook that.

And it worked, Xuun brightening with the mention of his apparent plan. "Oh, my dear, dear Princess Ollyah. You really don't understand yourself, do you?" She regretted the attention immediately after he began stepping over to her. She squirmed, and Eske yelled at Xuun to get away, but that did not deter him. He crouched to Ollyah's level, a hand under her chin in a soft grip that kept her gaze steady. "You're like your brother. You've remarkable powers of life, you know. Or death, I suppose." He chuckled, letting go of her only after staring for a few more moments with a hungry gaze.

She shivered upon being released, looking down at the concrete flooring so as to look anywhere else from him. What did that mean, about her being like her brother? Did Xuun mean Eske or Bohjin? Must be Eske. She chanced a look towards him, but he was not looking at her. He had his eyes closed and continued to mumble something to himself that she could not pick up, not even in the echoing room.