Work Text:
Winding up a music box , a gentle and quiet melody soon started to flow through the silent room , it rained that afternoon and the fae prince looked through the window. Such a nostalgic sensation , bittersweet in nature , there he was again trapped inside . Closing his eyes the melody grew closer to the ears , it filled the mind as Draconia dozed off into the land of dreams , not those of marvellous fantasy , but ones of melancholic memories . A scenario so familiar to him was what he saw in his wake , that was not real life , he knew it was only the days he would constantly relive in his mind's eye . Alone in the castle in Briar Valley , the way he spent the first five years of his life , a caged child , imprisoned for being the firstborn and the only heir to the throne .
He'd wander the empty halls of the great castle , the windows , so much he looked out the window , he'd see the many races that coexisted in his kingdom , children playing on the street , shopping carts , wandering vendors , yet looking was all he could do . "It is simply not safe , you must be protected" the prince would hear such words again and again , his tutors would change weekly as they could not succeed in their task , and to this day he was still surprised the green in his eyes did not grow duller as he did . Lilia was the only one that was able to teach him , only he could get Malleus to understand any of the subjects , soon he became his only tutor . Still the prince was alone , he who was before an energetic child was now dull , diligent , already calm and collected at the age of five , "natural disposition" was but a lie he told himself , he was trained to be that way , conditioned by isolation and taught the manners of a proper regal gentleman .
Fleeing from the kingdom , he hugged Lilia's body as they galloped through the forest , no notions of where they would go , where would they live now ? ... Wherever it would be the fae thought it could be different , that he would not be caged , still it was a naïve assumption . Days , weeks , months and years , they passed like a blur in living in the forest , the time between Silver joining them and their enrollment in Night Raven was like and instant in Malleus' mind , what had finally become clear was that he was doomed to a pedestal ; there was no escaping that isolation , his highschool experience proved to be the nail on the coffin for that conclusion .
As the sounds of the gentle melody vanished the fae slowly opened his eyes , the trail of a single tear adorning the left side of his face as he , once more , looked out the window , out of his eternal cage .
