It’s like this...

"Eight pieces, three days, four kings, two nights. Don't ask me which night. Night or knight, I've no idea. But that's what I got for you."

You blinked at me for a second, and I flinched. It was always so much to explain, wasted so much of their precious time, and never made anything any clearer. There were things I was never allowed to say, things they always wanted. Yet here we are, about to embark on the same old dance.

"The hell does that even mean?"

Yep, here we go again.

"Okay, um, let me backtrack."

There were certain words I was supposed to avoid, in order to gain trust and respect, and portray that my information was in fact, factual. Um, was one of them. I was never good at my word choice- never passed that part of the course. Desperate times, I guess. Something else we're not supposed to mention.

"You're first question, was whether or not you should embark on your quest to usurp the Queen?"

Your gaze darkened beneath the fading colors of dusk, and I thought you might push me off the edge.

"Sure, yeah. I did eventually ask that question," I rolled my eyes at you, "to which you responded, 'Should you?' like I should know! I'm asking you!"

Okay, but now you're getting on my nerves.

"Oh, my apologies, your majesty, I thought you wanted information! I didn't know you needed people to make your decisions for you as well?" I crossed my arms, smirking as you bristled, this time of indignation rat the cold.

I actually almost began to possibly maybe like this cliff.

Yeah, right.

"I told you not to call me that," you growled, looking over your shoulder. As if you thought you seemed so important that someone would actually be following you. Heck, if I was following you, I'd be grossed out and be on my way in an hour. If this was the runaway rebel leader prince, then find me another rebel leader. This guy was a prick.

"Well?" I sighed, "you know the answer..."

You frowned at me.

I wouldn't have cared. I would've played the part and sent you on your way, gone to take care of things that actually mattered, if... If you weren't the key to everything. So much pressure relied on this meeting, and I couldn't tell whether or not you saw how much that pressure was killing me. The pressure I wouldn't have to hold if it weren't for this cliff, the cliff that started taking them... The people who mattered. They would know what to do. The future they so delicately crafted... And I might screw it all up. Stupid word choice.

"I'm going to kill her." You snapped me out of my reverie, back into this hell of a conversation.

I'm not allowed to approve. But we needed him to kill the queen. So I just nodded, adjusting my cloak.

"And your second question?"

I needed you to repeat it, just so that you understood.

"What do I need to do so?"

I nodded at you, taking a deep breath.

Give them a hint, and they'll create their own solution. Make them think it'll happen if they do it a certain way, and they'll do it. Be vague.

"Eight pieces, three days, four kings, and two knights."

"Or nights."

Then you started doing the most curious thing.

You started laughing.

"Yeah, that's not an answer. You're coming with us."

"I'm- what?"

And before I could even register your words, or the scars on your face as you lunged closer, I was falling- the stars shining above me in the sky, growing farther away as I joined the others, falling ever closer to the waves of the unforgiving sea.