His mind still felt like someone had tied a noose around it, and the more he was awake, the tighter it grew. Roman knew he should have just put an arrow through her knee and left her to the healers to deal with… But the smugness of her display of magic. He was sick of chasing after Lord’s and Ladies bratty children.

And Lord and Lady Graceline’s daughter had been the last straw.  His father had brought up a possible match at dinner the night before, and he just couldn’t help himself when she turned around to mock him from that roof top. Had the audacity to flip him off. There was no way he would marry any kind of Noblewoman.

“Who pissed in your ale?” Kalila said, her thin lips pulled back in a tight smirk. Roman made an effort to thrust his sword hard, into her ribs.

Roman shouldn’t have done that, for only one reason.

And that reason slammed his knee into Roman’s thigh. Gritting his teeth, the Lord’s son whirled to stare at his friend, Jed, stare at him through narrowed eyes. Kalila made an effort to pretend she hadn’t seen it.

“I’m not sparring both of you right now,” Roman snapped back, trying to subtly rub his thigh. Jed knew how to hurt a man. His friend was built larger than him, and had already discarded his green uniform to stand before him shirtless. His dark hair, nearly black, reminded the both of him that he was a High Lord’s son. Even if he had been orphaned at nine years old.

Jed spared no time for Roman to ogle him, sending his sword flying for his head.

Roman was sick of Jed and Kalila toeing around the fact they were inevitable.

“I thought we were supposed to be able to work on stamina?” Jed taunted, his voice insanely deep.

With a slap of his own sword, he swatted Jed’s sword form his grip. Their wooden training swords splintering and cracking. The Captain had reduced them to wood, after they had nearly hacked each other to pieces last time they were given steel. Roman swung out again, watching Jed duck out the way, using his hand to block the swinging sword at Roman’s wrists. Roman simply sent him a solid kick to the stomach.

Kalila was quick to combat him. Her own sword flying at his head, Roman leant back just enough for it to nearly poke Jed’s eye out.

Her eyes widened in horror, no doubt in the idea of hurting her precious Jed, but the distraction cost her. Roman caught her arm, throwing her into Jed.

The two ended up in a pile on the ground.

Roman let out a huff, staring at their blushing red faces.

“You were saying what, about stamina?” Roman asked, his thick eyebrow arching.

Unlike the two higher born warriors sprawled at his feet, Roman barely qualified. His were only just above meeting the cut off line to being commoners. The other Lords and Ladies made sure he knew that. That him and his family knew that.

He had brought them honour by serving, and thriving, in the Palace guards.

Well, perhaps not after today… Where he had successfully knocked Jysmn Graceline out with the wave of his hand. His actions may have put a sour feeling with the High Lord who sired her.

His magic is what he was sure had him competing with the High Lord’s children for Captain of the Palace Guards. They’d know after the tournament this fortnight. The winner took the position.

“Captain,” Jed said quickly. He and Kalila elbowed the other awkwardly in their scramble to stand to attention.

Roman had his chest puffed and hand in a fist to his chest as soon he saw the familiar form of their Captain, Lord Ravish.

The Captain’s head was baled, his face giving away that he was in his early forties. The longest reigning Captain of the Palace Guard’s in a very long time. He stalked along the other guards, eyeing them incredulously, his chest forward, arms behind his back. There was no doubt he had been handsome in his youth. The way his jaw, which was now soft, had once been sharp and hard. His eyes a glittering brown. His eyebrows had thinned from their original dark brown.

The opposite from Roman’s light coloured hair and crystal-like hazel eyes. They almost threatened to be green. Proof of how low his family had been bred to.

“Did I see Kalila and Jedidiah on the floor again?” the Captain asked, stopping beside the three of them. The two, not so subtle want to be lovers, shifted awkwardly.

Roman took it upon himself to answer. “We were sparring.”

“Good work, Roman,” he said slowly, eyeing him. “I need to speak with you. I hope you can take a break form sparing to do so.”

“Yes, Sir,” Roman said instantly. He always followed orders. Even if they were as informal and leisurely like Captain Ravish divulged.

Passing the remains of his wooden sword to Kalila, her rich, almost blood red hair brushing against his hand. He followed after the Captain, who led him across the guards yard. The wooden fort that surrounded the large patch of dirt, which would turn to mud when it rained, as their training ground.

The Captain’s quarters consisted of a wooden desk, a cot for his bed, and a couple draws and shelves. It wasn’t where the Captain slept, unless he and his wife argued, or they were in the middle of a serious political issue. Otherwise, it was unlived in.

“You know why I called you in here,” he said, taking a seat in the creeking old chair behind the desk. There was nowhere else for anyone else to sit, so Roman stood. His hands tucked by his sides.

“Yes, Sir,” he answered, his throat tightening.

He had used his powers on Lady Graceline, and she had fallen from the roof at his hand.

“You’re lucky that Lord Graceline and your father are on such good terms, and he doesn’t feel the need to execute further punishments,” Captain Ravish said. He ran a hand over the small spikes that endeavoured to grow on his head. He called it his Captain hair. Apparently every Captain had inevitably ended up bald. A tax from the job. “Lord Graceline does look forward to you in the arena. He told me he sends his good wishes.”

Roman clenched his fists at his side. It was a bait from the Higher Lord Graceline. Who served on the council, unlike Roman and his family. Lord Graceline was expecting him to lose. Or at least excited to see him get his arse handed to him.

“That was kind of his Lord, I will thank him personally next time I see him,” Roman said, nodding his head to his Captain. They both knew there would never be an occasion for the pair of them to meet. 

“It’s this kind of attitude that is making me put you on courtyard duty tonight. The most exciting thing you’ll be doing is protecting young peoples virtue,” Captain Ravish said, his expression and tone hard. “Make sure no one goes near the lake, and avoid Lady Jysmn, whose party this is for.”

“I thought it was about how fruitful the fishermen have been this season?” Roman asked.

He really shouldn’t have used his magic on Lady Jysmn. Now he was put on the least favourable duty tonight. Out in the cold, alone. Having to steer drunk noblemen back inside.

“That too,” the Captain said, basically brushing the subject off.

Roman ground his teeth together, waiting to be dismissed so he could share his bad luck with his friends.

“You’re dismissed,” the Captain said, as if he were an after thought. The Captain had never been a warm man. He had lost his first child when he was three, being killed by who he had thought was his closest friends.

He had never been the same.

Roman never held it against him. Especially when the Captain was like a second father to him, and many other guards in the guard yard.

Saluting his Captain once more, Roman made a beeline back to his friends.

Kalila and Jed stood at least a solid foot apart, their pair talking to one another with hushed voices. Roman doubted they were making their moves, like he had been waiting their whole childhood to happen. The two never seemed to have that spark of conversation, or action.

Roman didn’t know why. Why they would waste valuable time they could be together, apart.

Then again, Jed was not one to talk about feelings. Or talk in general.

Roman was uneasy for how long Jed was able to keep silent on missions. They once travelled up the mountain while there were bandits throughout the woods. Neither of them were supposed to make themselves known. So they had kept to themselves and quiet.

Jed didn’t talk a word for nearly three days straight.

Roman respected him thoroughly for that. It wouldn’t be like his friend would sell any of his secrets, considering he only talked to Roman and Kalila. He was pretty sure the other Guards and Nobles thought he was a mute.

Kalila was the same. She couldn’t hold her words in as long as he could, but she didn’t have a lot to say, either.

Roman was different. He never knew when to stop talking. And he had a short temper. Hence the current predicament he was in.

“I got demoted to garden duty tonight,” Roman said, starling the two. Their heads snapped to him, their backs straightening. Roman still doubted they were having the talk.

“Sucks to be you,” Kalila snorted, cracking her knuckles. A sign that she was uncomfortable. Perhaps they were having the talk.

By the look on Jed’s face, the way it twisted like he was in physical pain, maybe they were.

“I was invited, so I’m off duty,” Jed said with a shrug. “I might actually go, if it involves seeing you being shunned to outside duty.”

Roman wished these were one of the instances where Jed didn’t talked.

Jed rarely went to the big fancy parties thrown by the Royalty or any Nobles alike. But… Kalila was going to this one. Roman wondered if Jed had ever gone to a party for the higher class since his family died.

Kalila was the fourth born daughter of a fairly neutral Lord and Lady family. Meaning she was not low like Roman, or high like Jed.

“Well, if you ever have a drunken escapade outside to plant your seed in my or any garden, I will have to stop you,” Roman warned him, holding a finger up for emphasis, a hand on his hip. In mock authority. Roman’s mother had done it to him nearly over a hundred times. He was not the most well behaved son, but he was the only one.

Kalila’s heavily freckled, pale face, turned almost as red as her hair.

Jed’s throat bobbed, but he looked away from her.

Roman simply felt like rolling his eyes at the pair of them. Completely unaware of why they didn’t just take each other to bed already. Roman had never had nearly half as their chemistry with someone and had been invited by nearly four women.

He had refused of course. Afraid of having a bastard. It had made his mother and father’s lives hell. That his mother bore another man’s child.

A part of Roman was disappointed when his sister had been carted away to live with her grandparents on her fathers side. He wished he could see her, she was nearing her sixteenth birthday, and they hadn’t seen one another since she was five.

“I’m surprised the Captain didn’t ban you from competing in the arena. That’s the usual punishment,” Kalila said, clearing her throat. Changing the subject from what Jed did with his spare time.

“He wants you to be captain,” Jed said.

“You should be competing,” Roman pushed, shaking his head. He and Jed were the top two contenders. But Roman knew the Captain had already picked his favourite. And it had been Roman.

“I’ve got High Lord duties,” Jed dismissed. “High Lords don’t get to be Captain. But Lords do, you especially,” he said, his dark eyes gleaming with the desire for his friends succession.

Especially against Flint and his small gaggle of friends. They were all low born. His band from all over the city of Balance. From the truly feral parts, to the even more tamed docks. But they were brilliant with swords. They also had been downgraded to wooden weapons because of their ferocity.

As if sensing they were being spoken about. Flint sent them a particularly filthy look, baring his almost blackened teeth.

If Roman’s mouthful of pearly teeth looked like that, he would have yanked his jaw apart. He had no idea how Flint withstood the pain of the cavities. But he did. And he snapped his teeth, as if in emphasis of the bacteria that could be passed on.

Roman glowered right back.

“Disgusting,” Kalila said, cringing at the state of their opposers mouth. The boys couldn’t help but agree.

“I’m going to get ready for tonight,” Roman dismissed himself, dreading the walk back to his family home.