CHARACTERS IN THIS SCENE:
LIA- Princess of Albion.
KENT- Son of the Duke of Kent, a suitor for the Princess of Albion.
Bors’ Castle kitchen
Enter Lia and Kent
Kent: Are you sure you wish to be here, Princess? It does not seem a place for somebody as highly appreciated as you.
Lia: I am not appreciated. I am blind.
Kent: Why, what dost blindness have to do with how you are appreciated? You are still Princess.
Lia: [lies down on floor] I shall stay here, cradled by the floor and playful with the knives. It is all that befits me in my foolishness.
Kent: Princess…
Lia: You should not call me that. In these kitchens I am Lia, the maid, the servant, the fool. If I am to be a burden I may as well only be burden to the dishes.
Kent: You are Princess, Princess. Do not talk as if you have not been born to deserve such a title.
Lia: And what of you? What title do you deserve?
Kent: I am Kent.
Lia: You did not answer as to what you deserve to be your title.
Kent: What is’t you mean? Is it not the same?
Lia: Many fools are given wrong titles. They deserve many more but the one they are given.
Kent: I was born Kent.
Lia: You do not sound like old Uncle Kent.
Kent: I am son, not father.
Lia: Then you cannot have title. It has already found its host.
Kent: I am young Kent, Princess. That is my title, swear.
Lia: And I am young Lia, man-without-true-title. That is my title, swear.
Kent: If you wish it so, it shall be so.
Lia: You could use that message you give to yourself and apply it to your leave. Lia does not need escort, she needs peace and sacrifice.
Kent: I cannot leave. King does not wish it so.
Lia: I hear in your voice your reluctance to be here. You wish to be out in battle, so go.
Kent: I will not. I wish to leave, tis true, but I will’t do my duty by my king, first and foremost.
Lia: And what of your duty to the Princess?
Kent: As you have already claimed no ownership for the title, I owe her no duty other than the duty of care.
Lia: Why would you put duty of care on such burden? She only stops you from accomplishing your strongest desires.
Kent: Duty of care must always rein over desires. I cannot leave you in such state. You, a fool or a Princess, dost not deserve such a fate.
Lia: You rhyme like a fool.
Kent: Indeed, I have floundered in speech.
Lia: Ars’t you not ashamed of yourself?
Kent: What have I to be ashamed for? I merely rhymed. I did not act the fool in serious matters.
Lia: And what is’t you define as a serious matter?
Kent: A serious matter is defined as when one’s kin is in danger, when a wrong must be righted, and when a lovely maiden believes such horrible untruths towards her own body.
Lia: It is an oddly specific definition.
Kent: I know only my own feelings.
Lia: You have personal interest in the war? That is why you desire to leave. You wish to correct a wrong.
Kent: I do.
Lia: Well, then you are fool. A wrong cannot be corrected but only reflected.
Kent: You and Sommers are a fine pair, are you not?
Lia: I miss the sight of him.
Kent: He is not much to look at.
Lia: No, I suppose that is so of all of us. But, our minds, they are a pleasant sight.
Kent: You can see a mind?
Lia: I am blind to anything else.
Kent: I suppose that is so? [long pause]
Lia: What is it you think of, fool-without-title?
Kent: I was wondering what my mind must look like to you.
Lia: It is desperate.
Kent: Desperate?
Lia: Indeed. You put too much weight on your young shoulders. You are not much older than I, and yet you hath lost your youth in your desperation for hard work.
Kent: I am not desperate for hard work.
Lia: Then why are you here?
Kent: In my honesty I must admit I do not know. I know it is right. I suppose that is my answer.
Lia: It is right to protect a girl that has already made error? That has caused only misery upon the household?
Kent: Only a villain can cause misery, and you are no villain, Lia.
Lia: Finally, you title me as Lia.
Kent: That is your title.
Lia: It is better than ‘blind one’, I suppose.
Kent: I profess, I wished that you would not be dreamer, as it would make it easier to do my duty, but as you are I cannot call you mere Princess.
Lia: What do you know of me?
Kent: Only that what your foolish Sommers said hast been right about you. I find you quite charming, despite my wish that I did not feel so.
Lia: Young Kent?
Kent: Yes, Lia?
Lia: May I confess something to thy heart?
Kent: You may.
Lia: You are good man. A good fool.
Kent: That is all you wish to say?
Lia: I wish to say more, but I cannot. I wish this darkness would leave my eyes, but it has always been so. I wish I could gaze upon my sword again, but he hast left and ran to the war.
Kent: You refer to the Medi Prince?
Lia: Do not say his name with such scorn. He is good, but needs guidance to overcome his own blindness. Kent?
Kent: Lia?
Lia: Please, promise you shall help him, not hinder his sight? Do promise.
Kent: If you wish it, I shall, though it shall’t be hard.
Lia: It will not. I believe you are loyal and worthy of trust, despite your desperation. You will do right by him and I and Sommers?
Kent: Why him, thy and thy fool?
Lia: Because we are heroes of the story. And you are to be another, once you have faced your conflict.
Kent: You see me as hero?
Lia: Noble sir, I see nothing except a fool that could be one or the other. It is your choice which you will be.
Kent: I will take you to your bedchambers, Lia. You must lie down on softer sheets.
Lia: See, you are already choosing.
Kent: I hath already agreed to your title, do not make me choose a new one.
Lia: Yes, independent.
Kent: Why, what is this title?
Lia: Independent? Why it is your new title. I believe it suits you just right.
Kent: Then as independent I say come.
Lia: And as Lia I say, yes, independent.
[Exeunt]
The Literary Onion 