"WHERE IS SHE!"

Loud running footsteps, boots pounding into the cobblestone path as the sounds draw nearer make both Sera and Lucy pause.

Sera was still on the ground, the adrenaline leaving her body after knocking the shears out of Lucy's hand leaving her drained. The blood from where the maid had accidentally cut herself smeared droplets on Sera's chest and cheek, the stain spreading even further when Sera had tried to rub it off previously.

"Your Majesty!!"

"SERA!!!!"

Tilting her head up from the ground, Sera cranes her neck in the direction of the noise, confused. That sounded like Lucien. Why was he here all of a sudden? Did someone already tell him about her fall?

But the time that passed from her fall till now was too short for a knight to run from here all the way back to the castle and fetch Lucien.

Crack!

A figure bursts out of the bushes, taking the shortest route towards where Sera was.

The shortest route, without taking obstacles into account.

There was a white dividing gate between the castle and the clearing Sera and Lucy were currently in as well as a pole to tether animals to.

Both were completely broken into two. Suddenly, and with no mercy, like a tornado that appeared from nowhere.

With the ferocious momentum at which the person continued forward, it was only when they drew closer that Sera finally realized it was Lucien.

Trying to sit up as he sprints towards them, she pushes back on her elbow, falling backwards when the grass under her arm pricks into her arm a little too sharply.

"YOU!!!"

Before she knows it, Lucien swoops in and lifts Lucy up by the throat, shaking her like a dog would a bone.

"No! LUCIEN!!!"

----------------

Moments after Sera's fall..

Lucien takes a running leap over a fence, then another, using a nearby rake to catapult himself over an especially tall hedge and land in an easy crouch, then smoothly transition to a sprint.

Sera was alive, that was all he knew. The only thing the ring could tell him. If she was near death, he wouldn't know. So Lucien ran, ignoring the flowers that were trampled into the dirt as he destroyed the flowerbeds heading straight for her location.

Flowers were replaceable. Sera was not. No thing, no one could replace her,

Eyes taking in the scene, Lucien feels his sight turn red.

The obstacles blocking his way disappear, revealing a peaceful clearing with some bushes off to the side. There, in a smaller circle of grass, was his lady. Trying to sit up from the ground droplets of blood scattered on her body. Another maid standing over her, looking upset.

Sera was hurt!

Guilt, anger, fear, worry, they all rear their ugly heads and intertwine into a hideous chimera of negative emotion.

How dare this- this thing! Do this to her!!! Right when he'd finally gotten her back!!!

He could see himself reaching for a hidden dagger and burying it in the foolish thing's chest. No, that was too easy. Anyone who hurt Sera would have to pay the price.

Other methods to kill it flash through his mind. Twist the neck.

The smell of blood was growing thicker in the air.

No, they were no good. Most of his methods of killing were the most effective, making sure the enemy died before they registered anything was happening to them.

For this thing that hurt Sera, it couldn't be so easy.

'Give in', the forbidden part of him whispers. 'Thirst for blood. Tear asunder from limb to limb'.

'Kill.'

'Kill.'

'Kill!"

Heart thudding in time with each horrifying call resounding in his head , Lucien throws himself into a stop and smoothly clasps his fingers around the thing's throat.

"YOU!!!!"

Not even registering that it was a maid. Not seeing the look of surprise and horror in the expression of the woman he so badly wanted to protect.

It was all too similar to that time on the battlefield; after Sera left him and his whole word turned dark.

Fingers curling and uncurling, testing the warm skin underneath the palm, feeling the windpipe that could be crushed oh so easily in his fingers.

"No! LUCIEN!!!"

With one hand wrapped around the throat, Lucien lifts it high and shakes. The body flops like a rag doll with the strength of his hold, trying to resist by clawing at his fingers with sharp fingernails.

Blinking, Lucien pauses. Was that Sera's voice? But she'd been hurt, down on the ground, with blood on her face and chest.

Light seems to bloom on the corners of his vision, the red receding the tiniest bit with the sound of her voice.

Then something soft fills his arms. One hand grasping the tightly clenched fist and lowering it around her waist, the other pulling down on his tense arm to release his grip.

As soon as he feels her warmth in her arms, the scent of her sun-kissed hair brushing past his cheek, Lucien releases his hold. The thing in his grasp drops like a sack of potatoes.

Shame washes over him, a tsunami breaking over the anger at what he'd done in front of Sera. This was it. Sera was going to hate him now, for good reason.

"Lucy, I'm sorry, I'm going to have ask you to go by yourself for help. Hurry! Get yourself looked at by Lois if she's here."

Nodding while holding her throat with teary eyes, the maid scrambles backwards on her bottom, getting the back of her dress completely dirty. Transitioning to all fours, she crawls away from the two, glancing over her shoulder, then scurries off, crying silently with tears dripping down her cheeks. After making it a good distance away where a company of knights had followed Lucien to the clearing.

Sera breaths a sigh of relief when one knight picks Lucy up in a princess carry and begins running back to the castle, leaving a few knights behind to keep watch on the King.

"I'm so sorry, Lucy." Sera whispers over Lucien's shoulder, closing her eyes and stroking the back of Lucien's neck. Lips knitted tightly together as she pressed herself tightly to him, to keep Lucien with her.

It was better to have Lucy as far away from Lucien right now. It was only Sera's body in between the two of them that was keeping it that way.

Even know, Lucien's body was tight like an iron, the edges barely melting as she practically molded herself to him to help calm him.

His back heaved heavily, great, shuddering breaths as he fought to catch his breath.

Lucien doesn't move, kneeling while he presses his face into the crook of her neck, just like Leo would. For a long time, Sera strokes his neck and back, runs her fingers through his crimson hair until his breathing finally evens out.

Though it took a while, Sera meekly lets Lucien gradually but gently curl his body around hers. He murmurs something into her hair, though his hands were still lowered at his sides, tightly clenched into white knuckled fists.

"Hmm?"

Sera asks again.

"It's too difficult.." He lifts his head the tiniest bit so she can hear him.

"What is?"

Raising his face from her shoulder, Sera sucks in a breath at the heartbroken look in his eyes. Lucien's lips trembled while he gazed at her with furrowed brows.

"I've been trying, Sera.."

Taking her hand in his, he kisses the dull pink gem adorning her finger.

"I know you told me about the independence of the women in your world...I've tried to understand, respect the boundaries you've set.."

Lucien looks down again, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead, as a knight would make his vows to a lady. Or a man paying penance for the sins he felt he could never erase.

"Am I no good? A bad person, what our son said...."

Sera knits her lips together. How could she say that what he'd just done wasn't bad? It was never okay to hurt someone like that without understanding the situation first. But how to tell him that...

"Holding myself back from tying you to me. Not thinking about what could go wrong when I'm not with you. Trusting the knights to do their jobs.."

"I'm sorry, Lucien. Look, I'm alright!" Sera takes Lucien's thick, calloused palm and presses it to her cheek. Yet, the dark clouds of dreariness surrounding Lucien fail to dissipate. His eyes were disfocused, no longer seeing her but the possibilities of the tragedies that could happen.

Death came easily. Too easily. That fact was made clearer seeing the countless horrible deaths: of men, getting their arms sliced off, horses, screaming out in terror while the enemies pierced long spears into their chests. Of men, drinking themselves to death in response to the horrors they'd witnessed.

Sera, his Sera, was no exception to the rule. She was even more susceptible as a woman from Lucien's perspective, her gaunt appearance

Lucien shakes his head.  "My heart won't last if things keep happening to you like this."

"Lucien, it was only a fall from a tree. " Sera tries speaking gently to him, trying to make him understand it was only a small incident before Lucien arrived.

"You don't understand. From what you've told me of your world, it was a strange, wonderful place. A safe place. Deaths don't happen easily, except for the rare accidents."

"Thornmere; This world is different. Death comes in all shapes and forms. Unpredictable as the first gusts of winter."

Lucien doesn't look Sera in the eyes, string down at his feet, at the long shadows the two of them cast on the grass.

A long pause. Then the hoarse whisper:
"My mother died falling off horseback."