The Anachronists

Everybody knows about the ancient prophecy. "The one who breaks the magics of Time shall perish forevermore in the depths of the Void." He's no different—he knew it, too. He knew it as well as the back of his own hand. And yet, he did it anyway. With one single kiss, he managed to seduce me and destroy all we've known.

Now, down here in the oubliette, my eyes scan through the darkness, in search of his unmistakable purple eyes. It’s not that hard to find them, but my legs do tremble as I walk towards his cell, on the other end of the corridor. I barely smell the excrement in the corners, nor do I mind the eyes following me down the long hall. Some prisoners scream ugly words at my back, as if I were the one who betrayed them instead, but even that is too easy to disregard, when the man I’ve been seeking for years is sitting on the floor, on the other side of the bars.

Static as a cursed statue. Chained wrists, head down, and crossed legs. Nothing as the man I once knew decades ago.

“What are you doing here?”, his voice echoes, a thunder exploding across the dungeon, and inside my heart. “Doesn’t Your Majesty have better royal duties to get done rather than visiting a poor, insignificant prisoner?”

“We both know you’re more than just that to me, Axel…”, my voice is steady, but not my hands. I hold them both close to my stomach, a failed attempt to disguise my sickness. It’s useless though—once he lifts up his head, his eyebrow arches in a clear sign I’ve learnt to despise long ago. He notices my weaknesses, and has them right where he wants them.

“Well… if that’s the case, I’m glad to know we’re still good acquaintances.”

“Careful! Those are not the words I would use. We both know why I’m here, and it’s not for pleasant small talk. You know what you did is wrong, and you ought to suffer the consequences to your actions.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”, his tone is plain. There’s something in the purple hue of his eyes, though. He’s trying to dig into my soul, for a sign of the love we’ve once shared—something he could effortlessly hold against me—, but he won’t get to it as he used to. I’m the Queen now, I can’t succumb to his shallow charms. Not anymore.

Yet, there’s still something I can’t leave behind.

“Why did you do that?”

He doesn’t say a word. Not at first. He simply leaves my voice to echo alone in between these four walls, letting its subtly trembling tone stand out more than I’d like it to. And the silence that follows is as deafening as thunder, if only it exploded from inside of my heart.

Then he finally responds. Something I was not expecting. “Which part, exactly?”

There it is. The entrance into my soul, he found it. The question I thought I could avoid if only I asked my question first. Well, he managed to walk around it and return the interrogatory in such way I can’t be wise enough with my words.

Which part, exactly?

He knows my question is ambiguous—my only weapon against the cruelty of our kingdom’s last law. “The monarch shall not ask more than one question to each traitor, lest they are considered an accomplice to the latter’s sins.”

Which part, exactly?, he asked back, knowing I’d have to answer with another question, even if obliquely. So, I ruminate over those words, picking wisely my next sentence—how I may gain the information I want. However, which information do I want?

Do I want to know why he broke the most precious law our kingdom ever swore to protect, or do I want to know why he broke my heart along the process, too?

Do I want to know why he seduced me into believing in his good intentions, or do I want to know why he was never intentionally true to his own words?

What do I want to know?

Which part, exactly?

Careful with your next words, Amina, I tell myself.

“You know which part. You’ve been dancing on the edge of this kingdom’s timeline for a long while now, and it’s about time you faced the consequences. Your actions were more than just a mistake—it was betrayal.”

“Are you talking about the clock you gave me, Mina?”

My heart nearly melts with the usage of my old nickname—the one only he used in the secrecy of a bedroom I used to be comfortable enough to call mine. Now it’s just a cold, royal chamber…

“Amina?”, he calls, an almost grin shadowing over his lips.

I clear my throat, gaining back my posture. He won’t get the inquiry he wants, not from me.

“I entrusted you with an invaluable object of my people, it’s true. But you’ve known all along you’re not supposed to mess with the balance of time, regardless of the privilege you’ve been given. Our Time is not a toy. It is sacred.”

What were you trying to do, after all?, I want to scream.

I bite my tongue, instead.

“It’s actually comical how you speak as if you had no fault of your own…”

“As you may already know, I tried to rewind time to save us all from your catastrophe,” I say, firmly over his voice, “But that’s when everything shattered for good.”

He raises one eyebrow, a typical behaviour of his I’ve learnt and unlearnt to love over and over throughout the years.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have touched what was already broken, but I was bleeding for you long before you honed the knife. You left gaps in the past, gaps that were supposed to contain the most unimaginably valuable historical events that made our kingdom the empire it is today. Now, it is all gone because of your foolish ways.”

“So let me see if I get this straight,” he mocks. “I can’t manipulate the magic of Time, but you can, if you do it to fix what I’ve done? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“It is explicit in our laws that the monarch can interfere in the historical events, if there’s an error in time placement. As long as it’s managed properly, the monarch shouldn’t make any more damage to what’s already been affected.”

Except for their own scars.

"So you came off as the heroine, again?", his smile disappears, a serious semblance taking place instead.

“There are no heroes in this story, as well as there are no villains. We’re all trying to get back the time we’ve lost, but you’ve done it in a reckless way, appealing to crime. That’s inexcusable.”

“I’m not trying to excuse myself, with all due respect, Your Majesty. But I do want to know... Do you regret entrusting me such important secrets of the kingdom?”, he asks, licking his bottom lip.

“Don’t lie your blames upon me.”

“I assume that’s a yes…”

“Maybe I’m filled with regrets, and maybe you’re the one fighting grief. But as reversed as our roles may be at this given moment, I wish you find hope in the loss of us…”, I quote him lastly. He lowers his head, probably being invaded by the memories of our last conversation, and all the stars he promised me in the heat of a nuptial paradise. But I continue, “Even though I won’t.”

He lifts his gaze once more. “You won’t?”

With my teeth pressed against my tongue, I ponder my next words. As the only two souls awake now in this oubliette, I dare quote him once more. “I’ll be mourning you till the day I die.”

“I’ll mourn you till the day I die, Mina”, he had said once. Clock hung around his neck, gloves on his hands, one foot out the portal, he touched my cheek with the back of his knuckles one last time. I closed my eyes to feel his soft touch, but it was gone as soon as I saw the uncoloured darkness.

As I opened my eyes, the portal was closed, the room was silent and empty… and he was gone.

Before I could even say goodbye. Before I could even say the truth. About me, about him, about my feelings, and about everything else.

That was the night I firmly believed I would never see him again, not like that. And in fact, I don’t see him the same way tonight.

I tried opening the portal again, but it was useless. In fact, it only made things worse. The portal shattered into millions of pieces at my feet.

“No!”, I cried, getting onto my knees. I pondered putting them back together, but you’re not supposed to try fixing broken magic—it’s too dangerous.

That’s when I realised… It was useless to try and apply adhesive bandages to our cuts, the pieces the portal left on the floor barely fit with one another—I couldn’t fix us when there was no way to tell his parts from mine.

He was gone. Perhaps forever.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Now, here he is. Sitting on the floor, cross-legged before me, he displays a confident look in his purple eyes.

“But if you were that much of an honourable monarch, ready to save the kingdom from any danger that may befall it…”, he gestures, almost joyful, “why are you here?”

“I’m here for answers— ”

“No! I mean, why are you here? In this palace?”, he tilts his head, perhaps in pity, perhaps in sarcasm. “We both know you know you don’t belong to royalty… Remember?”

My heart pounds. I bite my tongue.

He remembers, I spiral. How come he remembers? It’s impossible!

“Come on, Mina. You know what I’m talking about… my beautiful, beautiful queen.”

He certainly knows. He knows what he prayed over me that night, before leaving.

“Because as reversed as our roles may be one day”, he had said. “I wish you find hope again, even in the loss of us…”

And so I did.

I’ve found triumph whereas he found my fate.

He’s now a traitor, and I’m the Queen. Our roles are reversed.

I want to ask how he remembers it. What happened while he was gone? What allowed him to remember all I’ve done?

I can’t make a single question, though. It is the law.

One more word, and I’ll be destined to the same final fate he’s facing, shortly after this conversation—the same Void I had once escaped from.