Chapter 4 The Night That Should Have Killed Him
The heavy stone doors slammed shut, sealing Darius and Mara inside the marriage chamber. Torches on the walls cast long shadows that seemed to shrink away from her. Darius released her hand and flexed his fingers once, testing if anything felt different. Nothing burned. Nothing rotted.
Mara stood motionless in the center of the room, her infected gold eyes locked on him. The air felt thick and wrong, like breathing through wet cloth.
Darius glanced around at the sparse furnishings. "They prepared a proper wedding night. Table, chairs, hearth. Even left some wood. The skulls on the shelf are a bit much for romance though."
Mara said nothing. She simply watched him.
He moved to the hearth and crouched down. "Seven years in exile taught me to make fire in bad conditions. This isn't the worst." He struck the flint and coaxed flames to life. The wood caught slowly. "You just stand there most nights?"
Mara's voice came low. "I wait. They send men. The men die."
Darius filled the kettle from a jug and hung it over the fire. "Must get repetitive after three thousand years. I get bored rewriting the same trade logs every week." He pulled out his packet of tea leaves. "Brought this from the border post. Last good caravan. Not much, but it's honest."
He measured leaves into two cups with careful movements. Mara took one step closer. The temperature dropped noticeably.
"Why do you not fear me?" she asked.
Darius straightened up. "I didn't say I don't fear you. I said screaming won't help. They dragged me here as a joke. Weakest prince for the plague goddess. Political theater. Figured I'd at least try conversation before the dying part."
Mara tilted her head slightly. "Conversation. With me."
"Yeah." The kettle started to heat. "How was your day? Before they brought me in. Anything interesting happen out there?"
No one had asked her that question in centuries. Mara stared at him as if the words didn't make sense. "My day?"
"Simple question," Darius said. He tested the water with the back of his hand. "Armies moving? Empires plotting? Or just another long wait in this shrine?"
The flames danced, throwing strange patterns across her still face. "They send offerings. They send sacrifices. They send husbands. They all die screaming my name. That is my day."
Darius poured the hot water carefully over the leaves. Steam rose between them. "Sounds exhausting. No one ever stays to talk? Ask how you are?"
"No one survives to ask." She looked at the cup he slid toward her. "You made tea. For me."
"Beats standing here in silence waiting for one of us to drop." Darius took his own cup and sat at the table. "Sit if you like. Or stand. Your choice completely."
Mara remained standing but picked up the cup. She held it like something foreign. "They expect your body by morning. Black veins. Flesh falling from bone. That is what always happens."
"I've disappointed people before," Darius replied. He took a sip. "Family. Kingdom. Now the empire. Not dead yet. Tea's decent, right?"
She lifted the cup to her lips and drank. The act seemed to surprise even her. "You speak to me as a man speaks to a woman. Not a weapon. Not a curse."
"Hard to see you as only a weapon when you're drinking my tea." Darius leaned back. "Tell me something. What do you do when there are no husbands to kill? Just... exist?"
Mara set the cup down. "I exist. The pantheon made me this way. A tool for balance. Fear keeps the empires from total war. I am the reason they behave."
"Tool," Darius repeated. "Doesn't sound like much of a life. Anyone ever ask what you want?"
Her golden eyes narrowed. "Want? I end things. That is what I am."
"Maybe," he said quietly. "But you're here talking instead of ending me. That's new for both of us."
The night deepened. They spoke in fragments. Darius asked about the old rites. Mara answered with pieces of her long memory. He told her about fixing caravan disputes at the trading post, about reading patterns in lies people wrote in ledgers. She listened like no one had ever listened.
"You are strange," Mara said after a long silence. "Your calm unsettles me more than screams."
Darius smiled a little. "Good. Something different for you then. I spent years being underestimated. Turned it useful. People say things around me they shouldn't."
The fire burned lower. The lethal presence in the room pressed against everything, yet Darius kept breathing normally. He made a second cup for each of them as the hours passed.
"Why do you continue?" she asked once. "You could run. Beg. Curse them."
"Running didn't work for seven years," he answered. "And I'm curious now. First man to survive your touch. Means something. Maybe the curse on my blood does more than they thought."
Mara stepped closer to the table. "Or maybe you are something they did not plan for."
"Wouldn't be the first time." Darius met her gaze steadily. "What happens in the morning when they open that door?"
"They will find death," she said. "They always do."
The conversation continued in quiet waves. Not forced. Not frantic. Just two beings in a room that should have become a tomb, sharing tea and words instead.
Morning light finally crept under the thick doors. Footsteps approached. Metal keys scraped in the lock.
The envoy's voice carried through clearly. "Open it. We collect the corpse and send word to the capital. The joke is complete."
The doors groaned open.
Guards and officials poured in, faces grim, ready for the smell of decay.
They froze.
Darius sat at the table, alive and finishing his tea. Mara stood nearby, still present. Still watching him with those golden eyes. Not gone. Not finished.
The envoy's face went white. "This... this is impossible."
Darius looked up calmly at the stunned crowd. "Morning, everyone. Tea went cold hours ago, but you're welcome to whatever's left."