From the moment your gaze locked on to me from that tallest tower,
I saw a fire stronger than love- put aside -
It was desire.
A desire,
not for romance,
but for freedom,
for hope.
It crackled on my flesh,
your eyes never straying,
a determined glare.
Your trust weighed on my palms,
heavier than my sword,
sturdier than my shield.
So I shifted it down the hilt
to the tip of my blade,
a weapon - sharper -
to slay this monstrous cliche.

I realised in this moment,
you were no damsel in distress.
Your door had already opened,
you just didn’t know the way.
I was but a single step
in the staircase of your escape.
Not a hero.
Not a knight in shining armour.
Your need did not lie with me.
Ah, perhaps we are kin.
Thus, I swung the sword
and impaled the beast,
just as the story goes,
but in this one,
my heart was not yours.
And neither was yours mine.

Our souls, however, would be forever intertwined.