I'd just finished  another meeting on trade negotiations with our neighboring countries.  How can someone make everything they say sound so dull? It seemed almost  like they were hoping to bore you until you were no longer listening  and would agree to just about anything they wanted just to shut them up.

Sighing yet again, I  turned down another hallway and began walking past a young (h/c) lady as  she carried a basket filled with carefully rolled scrolls. Suddenly, I  was stopped by her soft voice calling out to me for help.

It seems she had gotten  lost trying to find the office of the Assistant Pharmacist, a room on  the complete opposite side of the palace. How could someone become so  lost as to get that far from their destination?

Trying not to laugh at  her hopeless sense of direction, I smirked and her and told her just how  lost she was. She seemed rather used to such answers and politely gave  me her name. (y/n), it rang through my mind over and over as she pushed  her lovely (h/c) hair out of her (e/c) eyes. I had to stop myself from  shaking my head at such odd thoughts.

"Follow me, (y/n). I'll  show you the way while you tell me about why you have so many scrolls." I  smiled and turned from her to head towards our destination, telling  myself that I was only curious about why she had so many in her basket.  It never hurt to learn about the people staying within the palace  grounds after all.

It was most certainly not because I thought she had a lovely voice.

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I found myself running  into her often over the next week, learning things about her that  surprised me. None shocked me so much as when she mentioned her opinions  of both my brother Zen and myself. She admired Zen for how he spent  time among our citizens, something that was not too surprising of an  opinion. I guess the real shock was how much she knew about me and that  she admired me for all of it.

She admired me. She told  me to my face, not even realizing who I was, that she thought 'we  couldn't ask for a better person to become King.' She said we, not they.  Did she even realize she had started counting herself as one of my  subjects? Or was I putting more into her words than what she really  meant to say? She was confusing me so much, without even trying.

What worried me though,  was how she got all this information. It was not normal for a simple  Herbalist's scribe to gather so much information. Why would she need to  do so? Please, don't be a spy. I knew I would have to have my men  investigate her and check into anything she claimed.

Trying to hide my  concerns, I smiled and asked her about her wealth of knowledge. Her  response made sense for one who traveled across boarders for a living,  but that made me wonder about why someone who worked for a Herbalist  would need to travel so often and to so many places.

Suddenly it hit me. She  wasn't an Herbalist's scribe. She was a Scribe. It may not seem like  much, but the difference was huge. A mere scribe was often considered  lucky to find a regular job that would pay for their living expenses,  let alone anything else.

If she was a Scribe,  then that meant she could find herself working for Nobles on a regular  basis, often traveling to where they lived to complete her work.  Crossing boarders would be a common thing for someone of her position.

Upon carefully wording a  question about her job, she confirmed my thoughts without hesitation.  She even admitted that she usually worked for nobles, even documenting  meetings with political groups, which explained how she new so much of  the goings on in the world around her. And she seemed to keep a sense of  morality when choosing jobs, something I found added to how much I  found myself liking her.

I almost flinched when I  realized what I had just thought. Liking her. She is just a Scribe,  even if that is a respected job. She was not even a noble, there was no  way this could go anywhere. There was nothing to go anywhere!

Giving a few more words  and saying goodbye, I smiled quickly before waving and turning down  another hallway. I remained deep in thought about my errant mind for the  remaining hours of the day, wondering when I had started feeling like  this about the (e/c) eyed lady I had only met a week ago.

--------

I watched her seeing the  Herbalist off at the gates, hiding in the shadows of a distant balcony.  I'd already received confirmation of her being exactly who and what she  claimed, with the surprise information that she seemed to have  originally come from my own kingdom of Clarines. I began to wonder why  she had never mentioned it, but figured she had her own reasons for  avoiding the subject.

Perhaps it was due to a  soured relationship with her family, something that would explain how  rarely she came back to these lands while also explaining how she had so  much information on Clarines, as well as my brother and I. She would  have been learning about it all as she grew up and studied to become a  Scribe.

As she walked back into  the palace, I returned to my room, deep in thought about the information  I had received and what it might mean for any dealings I had with the  Scribe who found her way into my thoughts more and more with every day I  saw her.

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I'd tried to spend time  away from her, to see if I could perhaps wean myself from this need I  seemed to have for her. I gave up after the first day, when I found  myself wandering the halls in search of her, my heart filled with a need  to just see her once.

Just one glimpse of her  (h.c) hair, a moment to gaze into her (e/c) eyes and the need to hear  just one word in her beautiful, soft voice. Not even two weeks and I had  already lost my heart to her, but I couldn't blame her for it. It was  my fault for not being more cautious, for allowing myself to spend so  much time around her.

Then again, how could I  not be drawn to her. She radiated a warmth that I had never felt before,  a welcoming smile upon her face every time she saw me as her eyes lit  up with joy. She had quickly replaced the very sun itself in my eyes,  becoming a beacon of light in the world of political maneuverings that I  lived in each day.

It was only natural to want that light as close to me as possible, right?

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The fourth day since the  Herbalist left and she began working for me and the palace instead, I  managed to acquire her services to document the meetings I had with the  visiting nobles, writing down when they came and left, what was talked  about and what she knew about them on her own. The look on her face when  she noticed me was quite entertaining.

"You!" She had shouted  in surprise. I had to fight down the laughter that wanted to spill out  at seeing her wide (e/c) eyes as she gaped at me. It was rather adorable  how she keep looking at me, likely trying to fit my current royal dress  with the casually clothed man she had been spending the evenings  conversing with, unaware of who I was. I had never given her my name in  the time we had spent meeting each other in the hallways.

"Yes, me. I hope you are not disappointed?" I smiled at her, still enjoying the almost bewildered look in her eyes.

"No! I mean... No, I am  not disappointed. Just surprised that you would have wasted so much of  your time talking to a mere scribe these past weeks. Surely there were  more important things you could have been doing?" The small blush that  tinted her (s/c) cheeks made me fall for her that much more. She looked  more lovely than any princess or nobles daughter I had ever met, her  innocence dazzling me.

"If I had thought it was  a waste of time, I would not have kept talking to you whenever I saw  you. I actually found our talks to be rather enjoyable and informative.  You have quite a bit of knowledge in that pretty head of yours." I could  only try to hide behind a mischievous smile as my heart raced in my  chest. I attempted to calm myself as I showed her the desk she would be  working at for the remainder of our day together. Together...

I watched the blush  spread across her cheeks once more as she began checking the papers and  other supplies that had been left for her use, double checking the  points of each pen and the levels of the ink wells. She really was good  at her work.

"I hope after our work  is done today, we can talk more. I always look forward to our  discussions and would hate to think they will stop simply because of who  I am." I barely managed to hide the desperation I felt, keeping my  voice calm but slightly hopeful instead. My heart skipped a beat as she  looked at me with her wide (e/c) eyes.

"I... I look forward to  talking to you also, once our work is finished..." Her soft voice filled  me with joy, the smile that spread on my face only hinting at the  warmth I felt inside my chest.

I almost hated the person who interrupted us by knocking on the doors.

--------

I worried at the dark  circles I noticed appearing slowly under (y/n)'s eyes over the next few  days, but her work and her attitude never seemed to suffer from whatever  was causing it. I did my best to make sure she was never overworked,  that she had plenty of time to rest each night, but I could only do so  much.

I was happy when I  managed to subtly convince one of the palace Scribes to take a few weeks  to visit his family in a distant town, giving (y/n) a reason to stay  longer. I couldn't let her leave so quickly, before I had figured out  how to convince her to stay with me forever. I could tell she was coming  to care for me, I just needed to get her to love me enough that she  would never leave me behind.

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Today was the day. Did  she really still insist on leaving me alone? Couldn't she tell I would  do anything for her if she would just stay with me? Didn't she know how  dangerous it was out there, that something could happen to take her away  from me forever? I couldn't let her go, I couldn't chance her being  hurt, lost, stolen from my life.

(Y/n), I love you so  very much. Please forgive me this tiny sin. Slipping behind her as she  exited her room, I brought the handle of my dagger down on her head,  wincing from the pain I knew it brought her. I caught her as she  collapsed, unconscious and dropping the basket she had held. I smiled at  the number of scrolls inside, seeing the small note with my name on it  attached to the handle.

I slipped it into her  room to retrieve after I had placed her in the room I had prepared for  her. She would be far safer in there, where nobody could try to take her  away from me. Where I could treat her like the princess she should have  been born as. Where she could be mine forever.

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"I'm sorry I had to  restrain you (y/n), but I didn't have much choice. You were going to  leave and I really couldn't allow that to happen. Until I know that you  won't try to leave again, I am afraid I will have to keep you locked up  here. But don't worry, I promise that other than the restraints, your  stay here will be most pleasant. After all, I plan on treating you like  royalty. Right now you just happen to be the princess that is locked up  in a tower." It broke my heart to see tears slowly fill her eyes.

I reached out and  brushed the tears away from her now closed eyes, slowly tracing her  (s/c) face as my fingers followed the curve of her jaw. I wanted to kiss  her so badly, but I didn't want to alarm her more than she already was.

"Don't worry, someday I  will be able to release you from the ropes. Once you have fallen in love  with me enough that you won't try to leave me again. Once you love me  as much as I love you. Maybe then you can even tell me how you managed  to make a Prince fall in love with a Scribe." Perhaps she could help me  understand what it was that had drawn me in so deeply, but even if I  never found out, I would be happy just having her by my side. And I  would do my best to make her happy as well.

"I love you so much,  (y/n). And I always will, forever and ever. I'll keep you here so you  can't try leaving me again. Nobody knows you are here except me and I  have given orders that nobody else is allowed here. I'll take care of  you and keep you safe. And by doing this, I'll keep my own heart safe  too. If you can't leave, you can't break my heart like that again,  right?" My eyes met her as I gave her a sad smile. I would never give up  hoping that she would come to share the adoration I held for her, to  return my love in equal measure. "I'll make you love me, don't worry my  Princess."