Meeka came running out of Einar's chambers. And he would have continued sprinting away if his party hadn't stopped him. His guards blocked the prince's way, while his deputy reassuringly patted him on the back. "Calm down, my prince. Everything is alright."
Meeka had to suppress the urge to flinch away. Not because he didn't like his deputy touching him, but right now, he looked like a child being comforted by his mother. And that infront of Einar's guards. No doubt they will share what they see with their prince, Meeka thought.
The last thing he wanted Einar to know was that he got pampered after receiving a mission he didn't like.
It is embarrassing. If I continue like this, I will never lose the status of a naive child in my siblings' eyes.
"Everything's alright", his deputy reassured Meeka again.
No, nothing is alright. I just told my brother, I will kill my niece or nephew. NOTHING IS ALRIGHT!, the prince wanted to scream, but he restrained himself.
Not here, not now. He would talk about it with his deputy privately when they were back in his chambers.
"Calm down, calm down, and... my prince, where is your crown?"
My crown? Meeka touched his head...
Right, my crown, I only thought about putting my veil back on when I stormed out of Einar's chambers. But my crown...
Yeah, I think I left it.
His deputy seemingly came to the same conclusion.
"Wait a moment. I will retrieve it for you, my prince." She was about to face Einar's guards again, to ask them for permission to enter, but Einar grabbed her at the sleeve and unceremoniously pulled her back.
"My prince?", she asked, baffled, clearly unhappy with how he handled the situation.
"Don't touch me so carelessly!", she whispered, and acted as if she were cleaning her sleeve, where Meeka had just touched her.
Despite his guilt and anger, the prince couldn't help but roll his eyes. So dramatic, he thought.
"We can leave the crown," he finally told his party by using sign language. "The crown was ugly in the first place."
I don't want to enter these chambers anymore, nor do I want one of my servants to go in there... I just want to return to my chambers.
Besides, Meeka felt like anything but a prince right now. He felt dirty, and guilt was clawing at him. Furthermore, he felt powerless, like those poor commoners who never got a say in anything political.
No, I definitely don't feel like royalty, Meeka thought, and wondered if a sibling of his were in his stead, would they have handled the situation better?
Most likely, they wouldn't have gotten into that situation in the first place, because Einar would have viewed them as too dangerous to work together- or USE them (since that's the actual term for what he's doing with me).
Meeka sighed in resignation. There was nothing he could change now. He had made his choice, so he better get on with it and handle the situation like any mature person would.
He straightened himself, nodded towards his party as a signal to leave, and strode away, making sure his steps were measured and not rushed.
"So what did he say?" his deputy asked as soon as they were a good distance away from Einar's room.
At least she used sign language. Still, it wasn't discreet to ask a prince such a question in a public hallway.
Apparently, though, she couldn't wait until they were alone. She was so curious that she had to know everything right then and there.
"Nothing special, he just complained about my looks," Meeka signed back. He threw a fleeting glance at his deputy.
She understood his message, as she looked away and fell back, walking behind him instead of beside him.
The rest of the way, they walked in silence. Even though they were quicker this time, because they didn't stop in any garden to pay their respects to the dead, to Mekka, it felt like almost an eternity, until they reached his underground chambers.
He told his guards to stay outside while signaling his deputy to follow him as he entered his private chambers. Different from Einar's rooms, the entrance door didn't lead from the public hallway into a private reception hall, but directly into Meeka's bedroom- a room that was so simple and plain, it could pass for a servant's sleeping quarter.
Only its size hinted at a royal resident.
Without any worry about protocol or dignity, Meeka flung himself onto the large bed and exhaled loudly.
He stared at the plain white ceiling and would have liked to stay like this for a few minutes, since he wanted to sort his confused thoughts and feelings, but with his deputy in the same room as him, such a thing wasn't possible.
"So, what was so bad in there? Did he threaten to murder you- or did he actually try? Because when I saw you running out of there, I swear, you were running for your life."
Meeka just stared at her. Watching as her confident exterior crumbled with each passing second, he stayed quiet.
After a while, his deputy chuckled nervously. She seemed unsure of what to do.
That was the moment when Meeka sniffed.
Immediately, his deputy rushed over and petted him- again.
"Oh, gods, my prince, don't cry. It can't be so terrible. Whatever Einar said or did, it's not worth staining your beautiful face with tears, believe me."
"You don't even know if I have a beautiful face", Meeka said weakly.
"But- you're a prince. You're royalty- stemming from the only family with gods as their ancestors. So, of course, I know you all look like gods. Long hair and baby face and whatnot."
"Are you sure about that?" Meeka asked and, without warning, tore the veil from his face.
His deputy's eyes widened in surprise before she stumbled back in surprise.
"My, my prince! What the hell! Cover your face again, you aren't supposed to show it off like that."
"And you are supposed to turn away when I uncover my face, not to stare at me so hard that your eyes are about to fall out of their sockets."
His deputy was too stunned to speak. She only gaped at him with wide eyes. Even an apology she could not mutter.
But that wasn't what Meeka wanted in the first place.
Actually, he wanted to introduce himself to his deputy, since she was new.
Meeka had a dfiifernt one before. An old man, who had turned 70 last month. With that, he was allowed to retire. So he did, and Meeka's father gifted Meeka a new deputy. This time it was a young woman in her mid-twenties- a bit older than Meeka himself. She was a count's eldest daughter and a duke's widow. After her husband fell in battle, she refused to remarry immediately. Instead, she chose to gather further experience at court before marrying again.
Her husband was well-respected in court, so it was no wonder the emperor chose her as Meeka's deputy. Furthermore, she was headstrong and stated her opinion without beating around the bush. His father probably thought such character traits would aid his shy and introverted son, who was interested in political affairs, a lot.
Meeka had accepted the gift. At first, he hadn't cared much about her. Well, he didn't have many duties that required the aid of his deputy since he mostly spent his time underground, away from all the other people.
Today was the first real instance where he needed his deputy. So one could call it his deputy's first day at work.
And he thought she had done well, which was why he decided to introduce himself.
The real him.
Meeka sat up and faced the wide-eyed stare of his deputy without batting an eye.
"So what do you think, do I look like the prince you imagined?"
There was silence before his deputy stammered a quiet. "I- I don't know, my prince."
Meeka raised an eyebrow before he bent down and grabbed the hem of his long robe.
Then he straightened again, thus pulling the long robes he wore over his head.
His deputy watched in stunned silence, with an open mouth, as the prince undressed infront of her eyes.
It was evident on her face that she didn't know what to make of it.