I had been trembling the whole time.

I was so tired, so, so tired, when I got out of bed to wash and dress to meet our visitor. At first, I planned on meeting him in the greatest ballroom of the castle to hopefully impress him and so gain power over him, but in the end, I decided against it. Playing my flute always soothed my soul, especially in the kaleidoscope where the moving pictures saturated my head's desire and took my mind off things. So that was where I went.

As I had been playing, I had tried to take my mind to a meditative state as the waiting was agony, I was so nervous. This was a man that had sliced off the arm and leg of two of the best guards in the kingdom without getting himself as much as a scratch. He held the amethyst sword that the Great Planetarian had said would kill me, if he didn't gift it to me willingly. But that wasn't the source of my nerves...

I had somewhat succeeded in putting my mind into a trans while playing as I didn't notice when he came in. Suddenly, he was just there, casually eating the chocolates of the king as if it was the most normal thing in the world. It surprised me how little it bothered me.

And his eyes... I had suspected it, but now it was clear they were the same warm, brown ones as the amethyst planet had showed me. They bore into your soul, yet spoke of a kindness that nothing in this world could cause to wither away. Even when he looked angry, the kindness behind those eyes shone through.

I swallowed, and looked out over the grass in front of the entrance to the castle, where my army was currently training, came back to the now. I was not only the king but also the leader of the army, and wore a light chain mail so I could participate in the training if needed. My shoulder-length, white hair was free, blowing in the warm wind that came from a pearly grey sky that still couldn't manage to drain the valley of its never-ending autumn colours.

I walked to two of the soldiers sparring, corrected their grip around their swords. Will he come? I swallowed, tried not to look over my shoulder. I walked in between my warriors, sometimes drawing my sword and clashing it with theirs, continuously perfecting their techniques. I was a firm believer that each soldier needed to be an excellent warrior in order for me not only to win the war but also lose as little men as possible. Human men were small and not as strong as us, but we were outnumbered. The prophecy of the Great Planetarian had been that Izuna killing me or not would depend on the ownership of that sword, but had said nothing about the outcome of the war. We just had to be better than the men to compensate for our small numbers. I stood on the grass, looking out on my army of hundreds, when suddenly, there was a tenor voice behind me.

"Hi."

I turned round.

He stood there, a worried expression on his face, clad in a clean, grey silk robe I'd asked my seamer, an incredibly flamboyant elf that was the only elf I knew that wasn't constantly serious, had sewn for him the evening before on my command. Or not strictly on my command... I had asked Erika to tell him because... I shook the thought away. Izuna had his own broad leather belt around it and his sword stuck on his back. Most would have their sword at their side to minimise the time lapse between realising you needed to take action, to drawing your sword. The way Izuna had his sword in such an inconvenient place spoke volumes; he was exceptionally fast. He probably didn't even consider this fact but just put his sword behind him as a natural part of his attire. 

"Hi", I said. I tried to collect myself. "This is my army", I said. "You are to help me train them."

"I will do no such thing."

I felt myself become irritated. Why was he here, then?

"Then I won't hand your brother over."

"You and I know I will find him sooner or later anyway."

I bit my tongue. "You have no idea of the secrets of this castle. His body is impossible for you to get your hands on."

"I still value the lives of the extra men who would be killed if I trained your army more than the dead body of my brother."

"You're really that confident in your own abilities?" I asked. "You believe you training my army would make them that much better?"

"Yes. And you are, too. Or you wouldn't have asked me."

Touché...

"If you weren't going to bother, why did you come?"

Izuna shrugged. "I was kinda forced."

I looked behind him, where two guards stood with swords in their sides.

"You've amputated more skilled elves than that."

"You might not have realised, but I don't desire walking around amputating people for every inconvenience. Yet, you can lead a horse to water but not force it to drink. I'm the horse in that metaphor. Training your army is the drinking-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know", I said to hurry him up.

"Sorry. I thought elves kind of didn't do humour."

"We do, but humour is supposed to be funny." I saw out of the corner of my eye that he raised his eyebrow at me. I might have been mistaken, but I could almost swear he had a small smile playing on his lips. 

Then, Izuna looked back over my army.

"I'm kinda glad I came, though. It's nice here. But I won't train your army."

I turned to him.

"So be it. I will try to convince you again tomorrow."

 I looked at him for a while. Then, I turned back and kept supervising my army with Izuna. 

His shoulder touched the sleeve of my arm the entire time.