The Last Promise
Rain fell the day they buried her.
Not the gentle kind that whispered peace, but the kind that wept with the sky heavy, endless, unrelenting.
The nobles gathered in silence, black umbrellas bending under the wind.
At the center stood Arthur, expression carved from stone, cloak soaked through. He said nothing while the priest spoke of light and mercy.
When the coffin was lowered, he took a single violet from his pocket the same one she once found pressed inside the crimson book.
He placed it atop the coffin lid and whispered, "It should have been me first."
Jeremy's voice trembled. "Your Grace, you should return inside… the storm"
Arthur didn't answer. His gaze remained on the earth swallowing her away. Only when the last shovel of soil fell did he whisper,
"Now she's safe from the world."
That evening, the palace was empty. The halls echoed with rain tapping against the windows a rhythm too familiar to be comforting.
Arthur walked through each corridor, touching the furniture she once arranged, the curtains she had chosen, the chair where she read under candlelight.
Every corner breathed her absence.
He entered the study last. On the desk lay a letter one he had written a hundred times and never sent.
He read the first line once more before tearing it in half.
"I love you."
The words felt foreign on his tongue.
He had spent an entire lifetime never saying them. Now they meant nothing but regret.
He poured himself a glass of wine, not for courage for silence. The world outside blurred behind the rain.
On the table beside the candlelight gleamed a small dagger the one she once asked him to keep close, "for protection."
He smiled faintly. "I never learned how to protect, did I?"
Then, with the same calm he carried all his life, he pressed the blade beneath his ribs. The pain came and went like a sigh.
He sank to the floor, eyes still open toward the window where dawn began to break.
Blood bloomed across the marble like spilled roses.
"I'll find you… Viv," he whispered, voice fading. "And next time… I'll love you loud enough for the heavens to hear."
The candle flickered once then went out.
Outside, the rain finally stopped. And so did his heart.