Villainess Of Hearts

A pebble went flying over her shoulder and skidded across the water's surface, the once tranquil lake now rippling and even shaking. The woman… Rosalyn Lockhart blinked and found herself glancing behind her with some furiousness in her tone, "Do you know what would have happened if it lodged itself in my skull—"

Her words trailed off after a moment.

The sight of a cloaked person striking her mute for once and the haze in her mind slowly lifted itself up. It was him? "What are you doing here?" She narrowed her eyes at the man.

"I believe the question belongs to you, Your Majesty." Blue eyes sparked in that moment, his gaze filled with emotions but then it stilled as he held out a hand to her, "You have your ways of arriving here although it's much better if you try not to take yourself far off from my own jurisdiction if you are to keep yourself fully intact."

The Queen of Hearts pulled herself up to her feet and dusted off her hands on her white dress? But more than that, she realized that she had actually been standing on desert lands. Not too different from the sands in the Spades Kingdom. So what she saw wasn't exactly a lake but an oasis—when she turned back however, multiple images flashed in her head.

Of an elderly woman hunched over standing alone on a dark bridge, the waters raging and beating against it were crimson red. Soulless eyes beckoned at her to come forward and accept the bowl in her hands. 

A river that was dark as death. It no longer had any bridge for one's soul to come across but instead someone was on a ferry, shadows looming all over them at the edge of the banks—

Vast blue and never-ending, the ocean stretched out to her with the sun just over the horizon. The sight of a ship setting off to find where the sun would end—

The oasis was a haven to the worn out and thirsty traveler seeking to shelter under the shade of the palm and date trees and to eat of its fruit. But even as he carried himself forward—the fountain continued to stretch out from afar.

It was always out of reach.

A warm hand laid itself on her shoulder, the man's touch breaking her out of the reverie once again. The Queen of Hearts forced herself to look back at him with a small frown on her face—ignoring the stuffiness in her chest. She stared into his eyes, but despite them now standing almost shoulder to shoulder, his face continued to be hidden from her.

Not one clue to spell out who this man was—but he was the Time Man. She could tell that much. But that didn't change or calm the bewilderment in her eyes, each image still seared her mind and all of them had formed the...

"I would rather have you elsewhere than here." He sighed at last, once again granting her with his voice.

Rosalyn Lockhart looked up to him and refused to look anywhere else—but then the background noise happening around her cleared itself at him speaking. The buzzing and ringing in her ears were gone and she could no longer feel as if wool was stuffed in her ears.

She heard nothing now, but that was very much the only clear thing to her.

Her back was turned to the mirage behind her, and yet it felt so real. It was convincing her that what she saw was actually true. She could even feel the heat of the sun's rays beating down on her back. But somehow, despite the man's questionable wardrobe choice of wearing a cloak at all times—a wind blew around him.

This might have been her imagination, but she thought that she saw the traces of his face.

And the Time Man might have actually smiled resigned when he reached for her hand and interlaced it with his, somehow letting out a sigh of what may have been disbelief. "I think you have seen enough, Your Majesty. Let us go at once." 

Before she could finally raise her voice and speak up, their surroundings shifted. The entire space around her bent and changed until what might have been the location of a beach, river or a desert were now long gone and without a singular trace.

Instead another scene showed itself to her and this one was more familiar and even comforting than the last. The space around them had a dim hue, once again everything was unclear except for the tea party that laid in the center of this all. The same old crystalline-esque table adequately filled with numerous treats and delights, two comfortable chairs on either side of the table.

No more and no less.

It was just two.

And there was nothing else in her horizon, no soulless elderly people and no shadows shrieking at one another as they tried to call out for the ferry and neither was there any daring ship or worn out traveler here seeking for rest.

"Now it's simply the two of us—and I cannot believe that I would say that this is relieving." The Time Man let go of her hand and walked over to his seat and plopped down. 

With a motion of a hand, her own chair flew out into the air and hovered right in front of her. He inclined his head and placed a hand over his chest, "Forgive my manners for sitting before a lady, more so a Queen, but may I offer you a seat, Your Majesty?"

She looked back at him and then at the chair still floating in front of her.

"Ah, do you find it difficult to sit down?" The chair lowered itself to something that might have been the ground, the same cube tiles that she had run across from before. She gave him another look, but ultimately sat down. It was there that the seat flew off into the air and landed in front of the table.

No excuses were added this time but he gestured to the treats on the table.

"Please refresh yourself with these instead, it's definitely much better than the brackish water you would have drunk if I hadn't been there to stop you." Another sigh escaped his lips, and he might have even smiled from the way he sounded.

Someone smiling in complete disbelief.

Now Rosalyn Lockhart couldn't even take her eyes off of him, but unlike before where it might have been an entrancement of some sort, this was for another reason.

She could not exactly understand him right now.

He acted like the two of them had traversed through a thousand miles journey. His movements now were less refined or calculated, and he seemed more human now than any of their meetings before. 

And yet she could tell that she once again owed him a great deal for saving her.

This was the man who had allowed and even forced herself to go on time after time with her own goals and desires—and she had hated him for it. She didn't completely get why, but she did find herself finding faults in his own decisions. And that was regardless of the actual competencies he had on hand for a man of his position.

"What seems to be on your mind, Your Majesty?"

She raised her head at his question and forced down her surprise. Was he serious? The Queen of Hearts looked at him in the eye and smiled brightly, "Why, who else but you?"