donghyuck has stopped crying. perhaps the fact that his body didn't have enough water anymore to allow him to waste it through useless tears, he couldn't be sure. but all he knew was that he had stopped crying.

the first three days of staying locked in a small cell were painfully hard for donghyuck. royal guards had brought him leftovers of food and water for lunch and dinner, but for the remaining of the time, donghyuck was on his own, alone with his solitude.

his father's body had been removed from the cell adjacent to donghyuck's in which he was previously locked in, leaving only a trace of dried blood behind him for donghyuck to remember him.

the first three days, donghyuck hadn't been able to look at that cell without bringing tears to his eyes and making him feel the urge to throw up. each time he managed to calm his breathing down and stop his tears, a small glimpse to the splotches of red on the floor had brought back to him the vivid memories of his father's life being snatched before his eyes. and of course, this was enough to make him spiral back in an endless sorrow.

however, it had now been five days that donghyuck was locked in this awful cell, five days that he let his thoughts run wild and five days that he had accepted his fate. executed on the public place, the regent queen had said. donghyuck had no idea what it would mean. would he have his head cut off or a blade thrusted at his heart? would he be hung or poisoned? he hadn't been told yet, neither about the 'how?' nor about the 'when?'.

each day that donghyuck was passing in this cell was perhaps his last. each hour passing made him closer to his death. but he still had no idea if he were to rot in here for a few days more or for longer. not that it really mattered anymore, he had no one to go back to, his mother had passed years prior, his father had been killed, and his lover – could he still be called that? – probably didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.

in the first days of his imprisonment, a lot of his tears had been linked to mark, and more thank because of what he did, these tears were linked to what he had lost.

with mark, everything was perfect, amazing and dreamy. never in his whole life donghyuck had ever thought that something this good could occur to him, not when he was just a mere peasant. but it had, his encounter with mark was the greatest gift he had received from the gods above, and he would have abandoned it for nothing in the world.

but well, things changed, and now that mark had discovered about donghyuck's true nature, it wasn't all perfect anymore. donghyuck felt rather dumb for thinking that he could hide it forever, that he could pretend like everything was normal and that he wasn't the main cause of mark's ills. too naïve of him, once again... his father had repeated him that countless of times already – but well, it wasn't like he would repeat it ever again now...

for some curious reason, donghyuck couldn't really blame mark for being mad at him. sure, he loved the man dearly, and having him far from him hurt donghyuck like hell, but at the same it, it's as if he understood the royal for his actions.

after five long days locked in two meters square, donghyuck's brain must have short-circuited. it seemed like he didn't think as rationally as he did before, and his perceptions had somehow changed... this was surely why he couldn't find himself to blame mark and hate him for what had happened.

speaking of which, something had somehow shifted in donghyuck's brain the 4th day. perhaps was it what had caused donghyuck to stop crying – he could never be sure – but something had changed in his perceptions of things.

somehow, ever since the 4th day, donghyuck felt free, but not free in the way he felt when he was with mark and when he forgot about the rest of his life. right now, he felt freer than ever, as if he had been liberated from a huge load that had been weighting on him for ever.

it had taken a few hours for him to understand what it was on his 4th day of imprisonment, but as soon as the thought had come to his mind, he had understood perhaps a bit better why he couldn't find himself to blame mark.

in fact, the load from which he had been lifted was the huge mental pressure that his father placed on his shoulders. all of the man's critics and false words of encouragements, all those times he asked donghyuck to do something wrong and justified it by saying that he would be proud of his son if he ever did that. and of course, all those times he used donghyuck's mother as an argument to make donghyuck do something, because he was aware that donghyuck loved his mother more than anything and that her death had been donghyuck's worse memory.

but now, after three days of imprisonment and of crying all of the tears lift in his body, donghyuck had understood that these words were barely true.

did his father even have respect him or his wife? he had never visited her tomb with donghyuck, and donghyuck wasn't even sure he had visited it twice a year.

did his father even care about him? he always prioritised his own well-being above anyone else's and abused of his own power on dongyuck.

did his father even have love him? he didn't say so nor showed so, always too preoccupied by his duties to know whatever donghyuck was doing or wanting.

and it wasn't only that...

all those times the man had raised his voice on donghyuck, threatened to hit him or actually came to harm him. all those fake-attentions that he showed donghyuck because he wanted or needed something. all those times he had complained about donghyuck's naiveness or childishness, always keeping him away from adult topics and things that donghyuck deserved to know...

at first, donghyuck had thought it was because he was too young to understand and participate. but now, taking a step back on the whole situation, he had come to understand that it was just because his father didn't want him to understand and make his own mind about things. he knew that donghyuck asked thousands of questions, and that he wouldn't be able to have an answer to all of them, which would give donghyuck to find the opportunity to show him that what he thought wasn't the right way to think. and so, he had rather hid it all behind his toxicity.

donghyuck could see clear now. his father was dead, there was no reason anymore for him to stress or to believe that someone would stand behind him with a strong hand on his shoulder to tell him exactly what he needed to do and to think.

right now, donghyuck could be his own being, he was fully free, and the person who had allowed that was no other than mark, his father's killer.

too bad this freedom wouldn't last much longer, because as little as he knew about it, the day of his execution was nearing, and it was only a matter of days before the tanned male would join his father again in hell.

but anyway, for the time being, donghyuck was contented with how he felt.

sure, he was locked in a minuscule cell under the royal palace of aes, having barely enough to live, and a sword of damocles metaphorically floating above his head and ready to end his life at any moment now, but at least he was free. free of his father's hold and void promises, free of his toxicity and of his lies.

and right now, even if he was the prisoner of his lover, locked in a cell with no possibility to ever be out again, donghyuck felt freer than ever. and freedom had never tasted so good.

♕

the future king of aes sat straight on his armchair at the end of the table, chin high and chest puffed out to present well in front of the many other lords that were sitting around the giant table. his mother, the regent queen was also present, seated on the armchair next to him and moving around as she spoke and argued with the lords.

they were discussing important topics, and particularly mark's coronation which was meant to happen in the next week. they were still arguing over the number of people invited for the crowning ceremony and the banquet, complaining about some people that the invitations had been sent to and annoyedly chattering on the back of those who had already answered that they wouldn't be able to attend this matter. other topics were brought too, like the food that would be served at the banquet, the question of the cutlery and the colour of the napkins, as well as the seasonal flowers that would be used as decoration.

although all of this fuss was organised – or rather lacking organisation – for mark himself, the future king couldn't be bothered about the chit-chat.

ever since the beginning of the meeting, he was sitting on his armchair perfectly still, his eyes following the person that was speaking, eventually getting lost when too much people spoke at the same time and the whole room became a cacophonic mess.

to be honest, he was about to be crowned king, but he couldn't care less whether lamb or beef was served for dinner or whether the colour palette of the decorations was closer to silver tones than to bronze tones.

his only preoccupation right now was to become king, to have someone placing atop his head the heavy crown that carried the story of all of his ancestors.

"what do you think about that, my little gem?"

the royal blinked for a second before focusing his attention on his mother who had just talked to him. around the table, the dozens of lords that were present were also all looking in his direction, some having more expectant looks painted on themselves than others.

"why not gold?" the future king questioned, placing both elbows of the armrests of the chair and crossing his fingers as he looked at the queen.

most of the lords stared at mark wide-eyed as the regent queen let out a surprised huff.

"g-gold?" she repeated. "we were just asking you to choose between bronze and silver- "

"but why should we limit ourselves to bronze and silver?" mark raised a brow. "we use gold, we have always used it in our decorations and clothes and everything."

"sure, but only as a secondary tone." the queen explained. "it is in aes' roots to use bronze and silver, it's... it's what marks the silver age of aes, mark."

"well..." the future king muttered under his breath. "it may be the time to head into the golden age, then..."

"what did you say?" the regent queen leant forward. "i couldn't hear you."

"i said that i would rather have my coronation happening in a gold-toned atmosphere." the royal replied firmly.

the lords who had been silent ever since mark had started speaking exchanged looks once again, some of them even whispering stuff to their neighbours – surely about the weirdness of mark's request of changing the tradition.

"are you sure about this request?" the regent queen questioned, holding her arm out to place a hand on mark's shoulder.

"yes, mother. i am sure." the boy answered.

"well..." the queen turned to face the lords. "any of you have an objection to make?"

neither of them dared speaking for a few seconds, and only then did a few heads start moving from left to right, others soon following.

"words." the queen ordered. "loud and clear."

upon her orders, a chorus of "no objection, your majesty." echoed around the room, making both mark and his mother nod in approval. as if one of the lords would dare make an objection anyway... mark knew that they were too scared of leaving their place around this table to dare saying something that wasn't going exactly in the way the royals wanted.

"then it's settled." the regent queen announced. "we'll work on gold tones as a primary colour for the coronation ceremony."

"good." mark nodded, sinking back a bit in his seat now that he was done and hoping that the next question from his mother wouldn't be coming so soon.

there was nothing to lie about, these meetings were boring as hell. they somehow made mark think twice about becoming the king. sure, this must come with great responsibility and reconnaissance from the people, but all of the inside logistics and implications of being the king of a land were way too annoying to make it a pleasant occupation.

anyway, it wasn't like mark had any choice right now. he would become king; he would be at the head of the kingdom of aes in less than a week. and there was nothing he could do about it.

mark let his thoughts wander away for a while as the lords and his mother skipped to another boring topic that mark probably didn't have an opinion on. instead, the royal focused on the details engraved in the ceilings, the little flickers of gold, silver and bronze melted in the mouldings to reflect the light coming from the immense windows of the room and give a metallic hue to the room; a reminder that they were in aes, the land of rich metals.

looking at those, he wondered what had happened when his ancestors had decided to put an end to the bronze age and to skip into the silver age, the one in which they currently were. did one of his great grand-fathers decide that it would be the end of bronze and the beginning of silver? or did something major happen that made them change the name of the age? or did nothing change and people simply started to use 'silver' instead of 'bronze'?

mark couldn't help but wonder.

what if he could help changing the age they were in?

what if he could say goodbye to 'silver' and hello to 'gold'?

what if he could be the change that would put an end to the silver age?

what if he could be the first ruler of the golden age?

but at the same time, what would the golden age even mean...?

"great." the regent queen's voice raised a bit, breaking mark's trance and forcing him to forget about the ceiling mouldings to look at the lords surrounding him. "now that we're done with the coronation, there is one last thing we need to organise before you all leave."

"what would that be, your majesty?" one of the lords questioned.

"the execution of the resistant."

the words spat by the regent queen caused a shiver to run down mark's spine, his eyes slightly widening and his heartbeat accelerating on its own.

"we've settled it for the day after tomorrow, if that's alright with you, your majesty." one of the lords furthest away from the royals spoke.

"it is." the regent queen nodded.

"we will be sending guards to announce the event in the various villages of aes this afternoon, then." the same lord informed.

"perfect. i want the people to see what can happen to them if they ever decide to oppose to those in power."

"of course." the lords confirmed.

"well, i guess that's all we needed to- "

"wait."

once again, all eyes ended up on mark. however, this time, the royal would have rather not been the centre of attention.

the boy gulped, turning his head to look at his mother.

"what is it my little gem?" the lady asked with a small smile, hoping to encourage her son to speak.

mark closed his eyes for a second, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat. "can we postpone his execution?"

it was the queen's turn to blink after those words. she stared at her son incredously, crossing her arms over her chest.

"what for?" she raised a brow. "the faster he's executed, the better. he'll end up rotting in his cell and letting himself die without our help if we wait too long."

"just a few days." mark continued. "a few days more won't change anything."

the regent queen huffed. "and what would change in a few days, huh?"

the royal marked a pause, taking a deep breath before looking right into his mother's eyes.

"in a few days, i'll be the king of aes, and as the new ruler of the kingdom, i'll show my people that i do not fear resistants and that i am ready to kill them myself."

something glistened in the regent queen's eyes at those words, as if mark has spoken magic and had made her mind clear again. the previous frown that had taken over her features smoothened in a smile as she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands palm down on the wooden table.

"well, that is perhaps the best first resolution you could take as a king." she announced. "let's postpone the execution. it will be much better that way."

and now, neither of them could wait.