A night of cordiality

"I met Athos on my way here and he told me I could face imprisonment for leaving the palace without issuing a notice." Urban's voice boomed over the silent batter of the frogs. 

The night sky had finally settled in, eating up the last rays of bright light. The lowly hanging moon was softly illuminating its white light romanticising with few vibrant shining stars. 

"He is right." Mircea replied not moving her eyes from the moon, which had quite a number of dark patches on it's holy circle. 

"Leigh said you wanted to talk about something. He wouldn't say what you wanted to talk about." He complained trying to capture her attention. However Mircea did not look away. "This is what I wanted to talk about. Take a look at it." 

She handed him the container, finally adjusting her neck so she was staring at the bottle and not at Urban. She could see that he was wearing the same coat he wore when they rode here. 

Mircea deliberated if Athos had asked Urban to give them the invisible cloaks for their ride. Athos hadn't mentioned anything about it earlier. 

"Why do you have this?" Urban questioned Mircea. She glanced at him with annoyance written clear on her pale white face. 

"What I mean to say is this poison is rare." 

"I know." She folded her hands and gazed at him, "What I want to know is-can one build a tolerance for this and not die in the process and do you know how to make its antidote?" 

Urban pondered on her question before answering her, "To build a tolerance one needs to have a particular diet. And yes I know how to make it's antidote but it will require time and herbs." 

"What kind of diet are we talking about here?" 

"I have to see how concentrated this poison is to give you the exact figure. After I return I can work on this." He said. Mircea looked at him unwaveringly for a moment as he promised her to work on it after he returned. 

"And when will you return?" There was hesitation in her voice as she asked him that.

"I am returning with Lilith and Anstice. It will take two weeks at least to finish up everything there and settle here." Lilith! She had forgotten Lilith was still in Gyyza healing from the poison. Mircea's heart swelled up at her mentioning how she could forget about her. Last month had been so overwhelming she had forgotten about her best friend. 

"How is Lilith doing? I haven't heard about her since…" She trailed off feeling ashamed of herself for not asking it sooner. 

"She has almost recovered from the poison." He apprised, keeping it short. Urban could see it in her eyes how bad she felt about forgetting altogether about Lilith. He pondered on changing the subject before she started overthinking. 

Urban took a seat beside her and covered her hand with his. "Mircea I'm sorry about the other day I didn't mean it like that. I really did not. Forgive me." Mircea gazed down at where their hands were connected. Her face was a pictureless painting of indifference. He could not tell if she wanted to slap him for touching her hand without consent or kiss him.

"I hate it when people say what they want to say and then say they didn't mean any of it." Mircea calmly stated it as a matter of fact. Urban's hold on her hand loosened at her sentence. 

"You have to trust me when I say I didn't mean it. You know I am more than a hundred years old and I have served and seen many rulers. However I have never seen a kingdom like yours. It's unreal how you people run the kingdom. No kingdom in the realm has a council." He got on his knees in front of her, taking her face in his hands as he explained to her what life he knew and was accustomed to. 

Mircea stared at his white rugged face which was a lot closer to her face. Urban did not look a day older than thirty one summers. To say he was a hundred years old. There was no wrinkle on his face, not a white hair in his luscious dark curls.

"I don't want to talk about it, Urban." Mircea croaked. "I don't want to talk politics with you." 

"That is okay. However, don't stop talking to me altogether. This past month was nice. I haven't felt like this in a long time." He disclosed staring at her. His fingers were cold against her warm cheeks. Urban unwittingly traced the bone of her jaw with his thumb. Mircea leaned in his touch. 

"You haven't? How can I trust whatever you say?" She placed her hand over his.

"I don't know. You will just have to, I guess." 

"But you never talked about the kiss. Why are you talking about your feelings now?" Mircea spouted.

Urban's eyes palliated at her question, "I thought you didn't want me to mention it… there are rumors you will soon be married to Wylan, the second prince." His deep voice was nothing but a croaked whisper.

"So if you knew I was getting married why did you kiss me the other day?" Mircea's eyes darkened-she had wanted to ask this question from the moment they had shared the kiss that night. No one knew she was planning on getting out of that alliance. The moment she gained the knowledge that she had to marry the second prince in order to fix the alliance she knew she had to break it off. 

Mircea was still working on it and no one but she and Carsten knew she couldn't marry Wylan, the second prince. 

The risks were too high.

Urban took a moment to respond. "I don't know, I just wanted to. It didn't matter. I know we can never marry. I'm an ordinary witch with no political background." 

"If you know everything then why are you on your knees right now? Why do you have my face in your hands? Why are you sitting so close to me?" Mircea was glaring at him by the time she finished asking him questions. Her chest heaved heavily while breathing. 

Urban leaned in closer until their noses were touching. He gazed at Mircea with hooded eyes before he spoke with a deep hoarse voice which Mircea found difficult to recognize, "Because then I can kiss you here," He pecked her nose before returning back "and here" He kissed her left cheek "here" he went to her forehead "and here" lastly, he lightly pecked on her right cheek. 

Mircea's eyes fluttered open when she lost her body warmth. 

"How old are you, Urban?" Her little question catched him off guard, however he pulled himself and answered her truthfully. "A hundred and forty summers old." 

"Saints, I'm twenty three summers old." Mircea recalled.

"You think I'm too old?" Urban asked with worry etched his handsome face. Mircea shaked her head. 

"It's just you know this is going nowhere." 

"I know."

They gazed into each other's eyes without saying another word. The darkness surrounded them with nothing but soft warm wind that was flowing in through the forest that was present behind the palace. 

Mircea pulled Urban closer to her-she relished in his warmth that was unknotting her nerves. She put her forehead against his, studying him through her eye lashes. He didn't say anything as he drew little circles on her exposed shoulder. 

They sat for as long as their bodies let them, and appreciated the little innocent touches. Urban eventually pulled her onto his lap and massaged her shoulder showing her the stars that had come out, to shine brightly, after the storm that lasted for a month. 

Mircea learned about how their goddess had created the stars so the moon won't feel lonely without the sun. He told her tales about soul mates and true love that made everyone shed a tear in his kingdom. 

"I think the moon is the most beautiful of all." Mircea said, glancing up at the moon who had risen up high in the sky.

"I cannot disagree" Urban gazed at her from behind as she was staring up, fascinated by how nature was so ridiculously perfect. Urban contemplated how she even liked him and how she was sitting in his lap. She was the queen and he was, well, no one.

"You know" He mused "nothing is as appealing or alluring and prepossessing as you are... When you first fainted in front of my door I knew I had to save you no matter what." 

Mircea craned her back to see his face-he was peeking at her with a captivation she couldn't quite understand. She laughed at his silly statement. Shaking her head she retorted, "You are stupid to think that." 

"Perhaps I am." He beamed at her.