"Do you not know that you ought to dress appropriately when met with guests. Or was that not a part of your royal etiquette in your fancy castle?" Lila said as she gestured to Kion's bare upper body.
"These are my quarters. Had you sent me a letter of your arrival, I would've sought it more to appear decent." Kion said as he sat back on his bed.
"Calm your nerves, prince. I was only joking." Lila giggled.
"I thought you were already on your way to Port Tabara?" Kion asked, still shocked at the idea that someone who almost murdered him was in the same room with him.
"What's the rush?" Lila teased. "Besides. I have much swifter ways of getting there. If I was really up to it, I would be in Port Tabara come nightfall." She added, wiggling her fingers and flaunting her magic.
It was just how Kion had remembered. The pink streaks of light that danced across her fingertips. The way the loose strands of her hair floated all around her in a halo of light. The way her rose-tinted irises lit up…
It was just as mesmerising as it had always been.
"…an easy trick that I use to boost the speed of my horses so I can get there faster."
Kion blinked. Apparently, Lila had been talking.
"Pardon me?" He said in a polite manner.
"You weren't even listening to me, were you? Well, you've missed your chance. I'm not repeating myself." She folded her arms across her chest in a mock stubborn gesture.
Kion didn't know what to say.
For the first time in a while, he'd found himself tongue-tied. Sitting this close to someone who he'd thought dead felt so unreal. It seemed like something directly out of a fantasy.
"When do you plan on leaving?" Lila asked after a moment's silence.
Kion cleared his throat, realising that he was still staring.
Get yourself together. She is still your enemy.
He chided himself.
"We plan to leave at twilight, just before the sun completely dips below the horizon. How about you?"
"Maybe tomorrow." Lila droned. "I have some unfinished business here in Styria."
"Hm."
Lila's head snapped towards Kion.
"Speak your mind."
"It's nothing really. I just thought that I was the only unfinished business you had here in Styria."
Lila eyed him from the corner of her vision.
"You overestimate yourself, second prince. I am perfectly capable of handling you and your repulsive brother. However, the matter I talk about is something far beyond the level of you royals."
"I see." Kion responded. "So why did you really come here?" He asked.
"Perceptive as ever." Lila remarked.
"I know that a cutthroat leader such as yourself will have no time for small talk."
"You guessed well."
"So, why are you here?"
Lila turned to stare him in the eye.
"I have been thinking lately? Back at the forest clearing, How did you know who I was?"
Kion's expression changed upon hearing that.
"Let's just say that I did a lot of research before coming here." He said.
"What kind of research" Lila asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You are the first person that has ever found out who I really was through and through. I'm notorious in this city. People have tried to unravel the mystery of the Sacrilax leader but have all failed. That was until you showed up, killed half my men, and are now about to have me travelling across the kingdom to run your errands."
Kion raised up his arms defensively.
"Don't put it to me like I'm a bad person." He cautioned. "Afterall, you were the one who crossed me first, attacking and stealing from me."
Lila kept quiet for a moment, and Kion wondered within himself if he'd said something wrong.
"Honestly. That's fair. Except that I've never met anyone quite like you. You must be really resourceful." She commended.
"We run a tight ship." Kion sighed.
"My father demands nothing less."
"He sounds like mine." Lila said.
"Really?" Kion asked.
"Why do you think I refused your offer to go back to my hometown in the first place?" Lila said, crossing her arms over her folded legs.
"Growing up, my father demanded so much from me. It was so exhausting. Too exhausting, even, that I had to leave and start out a life on my own, away from his overbearing expectations."
"Now here you are." Kion said. "A fearless mercenary leader."
"I started Sacrilax with one goal in mind: to save the soulless from the streets and give them a place of refuge. A space away from all the contempt and mockery that they would get if they were a part of the system."
A strong wave of deja vu hit Kion. That was exactly why he had started the gang as well.
"So…" he asked after soaking it all in, "the invisibility tricks they were pulling off earlier was all you? You must be a really skilled warrior."
"No, not skilled. I would say that I'm decent, though. That's the limit as to where survival will take you: becoming a decent warrior."
Lila let out a sigh of relief as she adjusted her position to become more comfortable.
"As for the skilled warriors out there, I would say that getting to their level is a combination of adequate training and survival. That's the very treatment you royals are getting."
"Did you just call me a better fighter then?"
Lila side-eyed him once more.
"You wish, prince."
"So what of the other two mercenaries. The blood and earth mancer?"
Lila looked at him with a cheeky grin.
"I wouldn't just haul around a squad of powerless misfits. On the off-chance that I face some kind of crisis that's much bigger than they can handle, I would mobilise my other skilled mercenaries."
"Did you just compliment me twice?" Kion teased, and this time, it seemed to get the better of Lila as she lightly punched him in the arm.
"Back there, you had narrowly escaped Maia and Khyaal. Don't think you'll be so lucky next time." She warned.
…
"What do you plan to do when you get to Port Tabara?" Lila asked after a short while.
"To be honest with you. I'm not sure. But I'll have to report in with your father to get a better understanding of the situation. The Port Tabara papyrus back in our castle was our scarcest one yet. We know next to nothing on the situation due to the sheer number of people that have died on that mission." Kion explained.
"And that's the mission your dear old father decided to give you?" Lila inquired.
"Yes, unfortunately. But I'm looking at this whole thing as a chance to work on my cultivation, really. I honestly don't care if we accomplish the mission or not, even though the king would sooner have our heads on a platter than have us come back tail between our legs if we fail."
Lila let out a hearty chuckle.
"It seems that fate dealt us both a rough hand when providing us with fathers."
"Yes it seems so." Kion chuckled back. He turned to look at her just as she did the same. And somewhere in the middle, their eyes met not long before they both averted their gazes and cleared their throats in an anxious manner.
Lila finally stood up. "I'll be leaving now. You need your beauty sleep and I have a hungry gang to get back to." She said as she walked towards the open window and climbed onto the sill.
Kion watched her leaving, and something unexplainable settled in his gut, a heavy sensation that felt like lead.
"Please wait!" He blurted the words out before his brain even had time to stop him.
Lila turned back from where she stood, fixating him with her rose-tinted gaze.
Now, he had to say something.
"What you're doing, with the soulless in your mercenary group…" Kion started.
"I suppose it's admirable. And I fully understand why."
"Really? Do share." Lila said as she sat at the window side, her legs dangling over the edge.
"You hadn't told me, but I assume that somewhere along the line, you'd failed to meet your father's expectations. Now, you move around, recruiting similar people who also failed in meeting their society's expectations. You don't want them to have to suffer anymore, just like you did."
A look of warmth flickered in Lila's eyes for a fleeting moment.
"Are you getting sentimental on me, prince?" She teased after a short while, and Kion couldn't help but chuckle out of slight embarrassment.
"Don't do that." She chided. "You might just let your guard down and make it too easy for me to backstab you when I get the chance. A quick slit to the throat would do quite nicely."
She briefly exposed her concealed dagger from her leather cuffs.
"See you in Port Tabara, prince." She said as she jumped from the window and vanished into the shadows of the hot afternoon.