The mania that encased the room had lasted for hours, and the silence that came after was a harsh reminder to Neo of his old life. All that remained was the soft, small sobbing that could only be heard by him, and him alone. He sat there, one knee to his chest, his other leg laid out, an arm on the knee that was folded and staring at the ceiling.
There was nothing except for her cries, yet somehow, that made him strangely calmer. He felt an odd tinge of sympathy for her, but at the same time, he knew she didn't need it. He couldn't ever remember feeling that way for anyone, and he was slightly surprised by it.
After the minutes turned into an hour, then the hour turned into two, the door was finally unlocked and opened. Quilliene stood there, as elegant as she had ever been before - except there was something different. When Neo scanned her, he realised; her hair was just a bit shorter than it had been.
Somehow, she had managed to cut it, and rather well, so that it hung neatly at an inch or two above her shoulders. The braids were loose at the end, but that was an easy fix she could manage later. She ran her fingers through them, her eyes shifting over to Neo. Her gaze was soft and calm, but there was still a hint of a cold cover to them.
"You look surprised," She commented, lowering her hand. "And relaxed. I'm guessing you heard…" Her brown eyes scanned him for a moment before she brushed through the doors. "Don't worry - I cleaned up my mess."
As he peered past her, he realised that she was right. The place was completely spotless, the clattering he had heard from the knights being torn to shreds utterly vacant of reason. Everything looked fine, appearing even cleaner than the bloody mess it was before. He looked back up at her, raising an eyebrow, but still refusing to speak.
"I'll be getting to sleep now," She announced, and he moved his leg as he walked past him. "There's an empty room somewhere in these halls that you can sleep in, considering I had them refine the entire castle so that its condition did not appear as it previously had." She glanced at him, narrowing her brows at the dark circles under his eyes. "You should get some rest, also…"
I haven't slept in a long time, Neo thought to himself, looking down the hall before climbing to his feet and returning his gaze to Quilliene. "Where is your room?" He questioned, stuffing his hands in his pockets with his thumbs sticking out. "I'd prefer to be nearby in case something happened in the middle of the night."
She stared into his eyes for a while, scanning him and searching, before she turned away when he rested his gaze back upon her. "My room is upstairs," She said, stepping forward. "You can sleep in the one next to it. That one should be empty."
Neo watched her as she started down the hall, her dark dress flowing behind her elegantly. He hadn't noticed before, but the black dress with green inlay was perfect for the day - a day of grieving and melancholy. He could tell something was wrong still, and even though she was obviously still upset about her parents, there seemed to be something else hiding behind her cold exterior.
He followed Quilliene as she walked up the staircase, which was a medium warm wood with a red carpet across the steps that led to the hallway. Her dress hovered just above the stairs as she travelled up them, and he strayed a step or two behind, scanning the area. The world was dark outside, the garden visible from the rising quarter circle staircase, another hedge maze seen with scarlet roses in the bushes.
The paintings were all of the previous families that once ruled, one of them being Quilliene's parents, but she didn't even seem to send a glance to the frame. There were guards everywhere, at the bottom and top of the staircase, at almost every door, at the entrance to the castle. They must have been transferred from some other places for the night when he had been waiting for the princess.
Queen, He corrected himself, narrowing his eyebrows as he looked at the back of her head. She's a queen now.
As she reached the bedroom, she stopped and turned to him, nodding to the door that was at the right of her own. "That bedroom should be free."
He scanned her for a moment - her high cheekbones that made her look slightly elven; her round face that still held some childish features about it; her brown eyes that gazed right back at him in a cold expressionlessness. Neo frowned, looking past her at the door, and nodded slightly. He moved by her, stopping at the entrance before glancing back at her. She rested her hand on the bronze handle, looking up to him.
"Goodnight, Neo," She spoke, before she pushed open the door and disappeared inside, shutting it behind her.
Neo stood there for a moment, staring down at the knob before him that led to his own room. His own room… he repeated that in his mind, finding it hard to believe he actually had a place to call home. Still, it felt wrong, as if he didn't belong. It was true - he really didn't - but he failed to let that stop him from pressing the door open and entering his new humble abode.
The room was small for a royal's bedroom, with a king-sized bed placed in the middle between two windows with thick black curtains. A small table and a bookshelf occupied the left corner of the room by the bathroom door, while a dresser and mirror was on the other side. The bed was dressed in dark blankets, of which had spiralling grey designs of sewn in leaves.
A petite plush brown couch with black inlay and trims sat at the end of his bed, a small bit longer than the mattress itself but not enough to trigger an OCD habit. Neo smiled slightly as he took it all in, closing the door behind him and shoving his gloved hands in his pockets. It was perfect.
The first train of thought that came to his mind was, he had a bookshelf; with books. One could hardly doubt he would spend the entire night reading. The next thought was, he had a bed, and he would use it most definitely. What came after was an assured thought to take a shower, as he hadn't experienced a full-on douse of water in far too long.
Yet, the first thing he did, despite all the thoughts, was stop and listen. Silence. That was what met him when he paused for a moment. He frowned and shook his head - he had enough of silence and yet there he was, in his new home, met with the most awful of things. Pure, utter quiet. He wondered if his nightly mumbles when he rarely rested would travel through the walls and bother Quilliene.
With a sigh, he trudged over to the bookcase, scanned it, and picked out a title that was called Bound in Honour.