❝You are the peace I crave in this chaotic world.❞

---

THE queen stood outside the humongous doors which reflected the perfect mixture of darkness and the subtle glow of the moon as the doorman announced her arrival to the dining room. The gateway was pulled apart by two guards and she walked into the gigantic room. In the middle there was a long mahogany table adorned with silverware and twelve seats around it which were occupied by various courtiers and friends – all of them standing to welcome their ruler. The head of the table was empty indicating that it was Akira's place to sit.

Kartik got up from his seat and walked over to the queen to escort her to the table. He bowed down in front of her and took her cold hand in his warm one, placing a gentle fluttering kiss on it. The queen didn't think much of it, after all, it was a common courtesy.

The only thing she could think about was how a spy was in front of her but she tried to push that thought out of her head, she couldn't kill him right now. She had to get the information.

"You look more radiant than the moon." He said in a low voice loud enough for only her to hear as he smiled at her, looking straight into her kohl-lined eyes.

Akira slightly shrugged with an unimpressed look and muttered, "Very unoriginal. I have heard this one far too many times Yuvraj, try something new."

The suitor cursed under his breath with a defeated look even though a clear smirk lined his physiognomy. They both walked to the table where everyone stood out of courtesy. Akira and gestured all of them to sit down along with her. The seat next to her right was occupied by Kartik, the one to the left by Aziza and the one next to her by Veer. Her mother sat at the opposite end of the table and the other seats were filled by a few courtiers and Shree.

Akira smiled at the guests, "Today we have gathered to welcome Yuvraj Kartik Chauhan of Kirtipuram."

The room was soon filled with claps from the guests, a few courtiers gracing a confused look to see a suitor who was still alive. Akira's mother looked particularly happy as she looked at the two monarchs sitting side by side in front of her. It pained Akira to see that her mother was perhaps getting happy over the fact that this person could be her son-in-law but she didn't want to rob her joy by telling her the truth. It was the first time her mother had approved of her. 

Akira saw Shree and Aziza giving the stranger cold looks and she silently gestured them to stop, to wait till they had what they wanted from him.

"Let the feast begin."

The royal cooks and handmaidens came to the table, serving portions to everyone. Just as they were done serving, Kartik leaned in the queen's direction.

"Is the food poisoned or can I eat it?" Akira could feel his warm breath slightly fanning her neck and jaw as he whispered to her, barely audible.

Akira held the goblet of wine in her hands firmly, wanting nothing more than to crush the metal under her fierce grip. She turned her head towards him and answered in a whisper loud enough for only him to decipher, "Don't worry Yuvraj, I am not this heartless. I won't kill you-"

She could hear a small sigh of relief leave the threshold of his lips as she continued, "here. I would much rather kill you in privacy. In a deathly silent room, a room where you could hear your own heart thumping wildly, threatening to burst out of your chest just moments before my lethal blade meets with your neck, painting the marble floor in beautiful rivers of crimson shades."

A smirk settled over the queen's otherwise stern features as she heard the suitor inhale sharply and lean away just a little.

"Oh" This time the queen leaned in with a small smile, she could feel that he was intimidated and she was enjoying every minute of it, "Did I perhaps scare such a great man like you, Yuvraj? I feel like you're scared."

Kartik took a moment to recompose himself and answered back with a smile. His hushed voice came out in a small sigh, "No."

The scared expression on his visage satisfied the queen. She just hummed in response, leaning away from him and smiling, "Sure."

The rest of the night flew by very quickly. It was filled with much of political talks and just eating, a pretty formal night to say the least. Finally, the night came to an end and it was time to go back to their respective chambers.

"Akira" Her mother addressed her from across the table.

"Yes Maa?" Akira looked up to see her mother smiling at the man sitting to her right.

"Don't you think you should escort the Yuvraj to his chambers?" She replied with the same bright smile, her eyes twinkling at the foreigner.

Akira squinted her eyes slightly, "Mother, the handmaidens can escort him and besides," Akira glanced at the crowned prince, "I do believe he remembers the passages by now."

Her mother's eyes widened with slight anger but she managed to keep her tone composed and authoritative, "It's a pretty huge palace Akira and he has been here for only a day. Help him out, escort him to his room." It was a command, not a suggestion.

Akira sighed and put on a plastic smile, knowing she couldn't fight her mother in front of others. She looked at the prince who sat there awkwardly, looking back and forth from the mother to the daughter, "Let's get you to your chambers Yuvra-"

"No." Kartik cut her off in a rushed tone, "I mean it's absolutely fine, I can go on my own." He looked back at Akira's mother, trying his best to cover his confused expression with a smile, "No worries at all."

"No Yuvraj, it's our duty to make your stay as pleasant as possible, so let Akira walk you to your room." The former queen gestured Akira to walk the man to his room with a curt nod of her head.

"Pleasant stay? He's not even gonna stay here for a long time." Akira muttered under her breath, clicking her nails faintly against the table.

The queen stood up reluctantly and finally convinced herself by thinking that this little detour was only going to help her forge a deeper connection with him, "Let's go, shall we?"

Kartik hesitantly nodded an uncertain 'yes' and they made their way out of the gigantic room, leaving the others inside.

---

They walked as the soothing silence enveloped them. The only sounds around them being the rustling of leaves and the soft music from the queen's anklet, which the silent shadows hummed along with.

They had crossed a hallway in stone-cold silence, both of them too intrigued looking at the pathways they were walking on to actually look at each other.

The tranquil quietness was broken when Kartik suddenly spoke up, still looking ahead, "So, why do you think this is the wrong place for me to be at?" His voice sounded less smug, more curious. 

"Pardon me?" Akira asked, the confusion was prominent in her voice as she looked at him. The moonlight casted a faint light at everything, making the place look strangely angelic.

"I mean..." He dragged out the word as he finally looked at her, both of their gazes met at the same time and lingered at each other for a still second, "Why do you think that I won't find love here?" The curiosity was straining against his calm voice.

Akira looked away from the man beside her and focused on the path, her eyebrows were knitted together as she racked her brain for an answer. They kept walking through the concealed ambiance - not one of them saying a word - until she answered back.

"Because love is for the weak, Yuvraj," Akira looked the man straight in his eyes as she gave him a cold look, her eyes gleaming with the silent echoes of her past, "And contrary to popular belief, I am not weak."

"I think you're wrong." Kartik retaliated calmly. He looked away from the puzzled monarch but even then he knew that she was taken aback by his reply.

"Pardon me?" Her tone was quite harsh as the amazement permeated her physiognomy. Never had the sovereign ever faced contradiction from someone whose life was at her mercy.

"I said you're wrong." He smiled and looked at the fuming yet composed woman next to him. It amazed the crowned prince to see how someone could be so deadly yet delicate at the same time. His eyes scanned over her slightly agitated figure, a smile still playing over the expanse of his lips.

"Care to explain?" Akira raised her eyebrows, her eyes filled with venom.

A chuckle escaped his lips, illuminating the otherwise dark hallway, "Don't look at me like you might kill me, Maharani."

"I just might, you're quite annoying." She muttered under her breath, glancing at the sword secured against her waistline.

"I don't have time to discuss such a," Akira continued with some subtle hand gestures, "pointless thing like 'love' anyways."

Kartik's shoulders rose and fell as he loosely shrugged, "Sounds like you're shying away from the conversation."

The queen balled her fists and her nails carved crescents into her already scarred palms. Akira stared at the stone path ahead as she took her sweet time to put strain on each word, "I am not shying away from anything."

"Then why would you not talk about love?" Kartik raised his eyebrow in a challenging manner.

Akira didn't let his words get to her. 

"It's part of his plan," she thought, "he wants you to open up, don't you dare open up.' 

After a highly calculated thought the queen answered back, carefully choosing her words as to not say something regretful, "Because this conversation is pointless, worthless and absurdly time-consuming."

A small chuckle left the threshold of his lips, his head tipped back ever so slightly, "It almost sounds like you're scared of love to me."

Akira traced the edge of her long nails with her index finger, "I am not scared of anything but since you're so hell-bound on wasting both of our times." She spoke with ease, "Go ahead and tell me what you think about 'love'."

"Okay, well, I don't think love is for the weak as you said, it's quite the opposite according to me." He started slowly, ignoring the harsh comment from the sovereign, "I think the people who love? They are the most brave-hearted."

"How is that even minutely explainable?" Her eyes were filled with a unknown curio.

Kartik shook his head with a smile, "Let me give you an example. Like," He paused for a moment and looked out of the balconies they were passing by. The clouds ran wildly, overlapping the moon once every while, providing a strange sense of comfort. The only sounds in the corridors were now their footsteps which echoed loudly and a few guards which were on patrol.

After a moment his face lit up in an unexplained contentment, "Aha! It's like fighting a war, you know?"

Akira knit her eyebrows as she gave him a look but he kept talking, "When you go to a war, you don't know what the outcome is going to be. You might emerge out victorious, yes. But you might lose everything you ever had too, absolutely losing yourself in the process and shattering down in pieces.

The point being that you never know the outcome of a war, Maharani, yet you go and fight it, hoping that all the energy and work you put into it was actually worth it and not the biggest mistake of your life."

He gave her a knowing smile as he concluded, "The weak-hearted can't survive a war. Hence, loving is for the brave-hearted and not the weak."

It was now the monarch's turn to shake her head, the few years of experience and the ages of training took hold of her features, "You never go into a war 'hoping' for anything, Yuvraj. You don't go 'hoping' that you win, you go into a battle with months and months of relentless planning and strategic warfare so that you emerge out victorious. If you sit around waiting for your victory, you will never succeed, you will never win. Winning isn't a work of fate but one of our own."

Now she gave him a knowing smile, a hint of smugness visible, "Even the weakest people could win a battle with a smart plan, Yuvraj. Hence, winning a war is not out of luck but rather intelligence and your explanation makes absolutely no sense."

"Maybe that's the difference between loving and fighting a war." He gave her a small smile and she could see the curtains laced with subtle grief cloud his eyes, "One is much deadlier than the other."

Akira paused for a second and looked out of the open balconies, "Sounds pathetic to me." She finally muttered, rolling the ring on her middle finger, "Why would you willingly decide to give your whole..." She struggled for the right words, "self to this one person when you don't even know how it will turn out? Fighting a war is much easier than this...  this love and whatnot."

He gave her a sure smile, "It's the perspective that matters. Maybe it will turn out good, maybe it won't. Regardless, I still stand by what I said – love is not for the weak."

The two monarchs submitted to the silence that lingered between them yet again, leaving both of them with thoughts to ponder over. They both yet again focused on their surroundings and not each-other and Akira realized that she liked him much better - minus the fact that he was here to spy on her and possibly kill her - when he wasn't acting like a smirking smug buffoon who pretended he was the commander of this cursed world.  

"Then..." Akira's voice infiltrated the silence against her will, "According to you, am I the weakest person?"

She looked at the man who stayed silent, still listening to the invisible hums of the skies and the sweet lullabies of the moon, "Considering I don't believe in all of this?"

They both came to a halt in front of a pair of huge doors. They had arrived at their destination. Kartik looked at the huge doors for a moment and spoke out, "No, you aren't weak."

He glanced at the queen who stood beside him, looking like a innocent child who didn't know why the sky was blue, "You just don't know how to be strong."

A plastic chuckle escaped the threshold of her lips, masking the fact that she was slightly impressed, "Aren't you quite the poet, Yuvraj Kartik?"

Kartik mockingly bowed down, "I try my best, Maharani, I try."

Akira sighed, the smile on her dying out and dissolving in the unknown shadows, "Shubh ratri, Yuvraj."

Kartik nodded as he turned towards the doors and opened them while the queen walked away from the foreigner. Akira had paced a few steps when she suddenly halted. The monarch called out over the ghastly silence of the corridors, "Try not to die."

She could make out a faint laugh as he answered back, "I will try my best."

---

Akira lied awake on her bed. Her eyes refused to close even though every inch of her felt exhausted. Her body and mind were tired, absolutely ready to collapse but her soul - as tainted as ever - could only think of one coherent thought.

What had he even meant?

Akira knew she had better things at hand but she just couldn't stop thinking about that one phrase.

"You just don't know how to be strong."

---