The sound of gentle and light waves crashing upon the shore of the beach did little to help calm Sairek down. He sat far enough away in the sand that the waves didn’t slop against his clothes with his staff lying alongside him. He himself was seated with his knees bent up, his arms wrapped around them, just staring ahead into the water. The sun had dipped below the horizon of the ocean water, while the moon was now rising, giving the water an almost ink black appearance, occasionally glittered with blue-white from its glow.
“Why doesn’t he care at all how I feel anymore…?” Sairek sighed to himself, burying his face in between the crook of both of his knees as they were pressed together. He was sulking and he knew it, but he couldn’t help it. He just felt so… desperate, yet helpless. Powerless. He meant to release a sigh, but it turned into a half choked sob mid-way. “It’s no different than being a bird locked into a cage, never learning how to fly… I would gladly trade the pointless mountains of riches and this ridiculous title of ‘Prince’ if it meant I could finally earn my freedom…! Damn it all!”
He raised his face up from his knees and half buried it again under his left arm, his teeth sinking into the cloth which completely soaked up him biting in a pitiful attempt to control his emotions, but he began breaking out into choked sobs anyway, tears beginning to stain his eyes. Recognizing that he couldn’t bottle up his frustrations any longer, he just allowed himself to sob quietly alone to himself for a couple of minutes. He supposed he at least owed it to himself after having been penting up these emotions, especially in the last couple of months in particular.
After those couple minutes passed, he lifted his face from his left arm and wiped his eyes with his right, sniffling his nose gently, moving to push himself to sit up and turning around to look back up at the castle—
“UWAH-!!”
He fell backwards on his butt again and scrambled backwards while reaching out for his staff with his left hand. He didn’t see the castle, but instead a girl that looked to be at least a couple of years older than him. She had butter blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail and stretched a fair way down to the midsection of her back. Her clothes were a little bit worn looking, wearing mostly leathers and tans. She wore shorts were long stretching past her knees, but ended at her calves. Her shirt was also short, exposing the lower section of her stomach and the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. Despite her being a young teenager, she certainly had some muscle which meant that she wasn’t shy of any sort of physical labor that may come with any sort of chores that would come from a career like farming, or blacksmithing or being a butcher.
Sairek’s eyes wandered lower in his examination of her frame, noticing that a pink sash she had tied tightly around her waist also sported two knives which were currently seated into sheathes.
“G-Geez!” He shouted in surprise, raising his right arm to wipe his eyes again quickly so she couldn’t see he had been crying to himself. “Wh…Wh...What are you doing here?!”
“...Um… this is a public beach.” She answered him in a confused tone of voice and gave him a credulous look as if he had just asked her if water was wet.
“Well… uh, y-yeah.” Sairek mumbled, embarrassed as he pushed himself to stand up and put his staff back into his right hand. He didn’t want anyone to see him sobbing and muttering to himself while he sulked. Practically nobody came here anymore, the village had made its own beach closer to the actual village which was more convenient. So why would she be here? “W-Well, you must have just came here and—”
“Nah. I heard everything~” She interrupted him with a tone that was far too cheerful with words that he was loathing to hear.
Sairek felt his face flush quickly in even more embarrassment. “O-Oh…” He sighed with a droop of his stature.
“Why are you blushing, kid?” She asked him with a small tilt of his head.
“I... I am not blushing!” He protested immediately, righting his posture.
“You totally are.” She said, stepping closer in front of him and leaning down slightly to examine his face more, causing him to lean back and flail slightly, nearly losing his balance and footing. “Look, I know I’m cute and all, but I think it’s a bit too soon for both of us to be performing that kind of thing together, you know what I mean? Look kid, we just met!”
“W-What?!” Sairek let out as he took a few more steps back. “No, I don't know 'what you mean' at all! Just what are you accusing me of?! That’s the last kind of thing I’d think about with you!”
“Ah, so you’re still at the ‘girls have cooties’ stage, huh?”
“What...? No!”
“So then you do think about those things? Sheesh. Make up your mind.”
“Aaahh! No! I don’t think you’re cute at all! Quite the opposite, in fact!” Sairek retorted, all semblance of composure having been lost by now.
“Ouch! That’s not a polite way to speak to a girl, y’know. You’ll never pick one up that way.” She frowned, making a wounded gesture to her chest.
“You’re one to talk! Just who are you anyway!?”
She took another step towards him, causing him to take another step back and he winced when he felt his boot splash against the water. Any more steps back away from her and he’d be swimming in the ocean itself at this rate. He watched her in surprise when she suddenly swung out her hand, holding it out, before taking a slow bow.
“The name’s Nayleen Lachiel.”
Sairek blinked at her. “...Did you just give me the male Kiorian greeting?”
“Yeah I—Oh... Oops.” She murmured, realizing her mistake, then shrugged. “Oh well, who needs formalities anyways!” She chided, grabbing Sairek’s left hand to pull him out of the water that was licking at his boots. He yelped, stumbling forwards a couple of steps. “What’s your name, kid?”
Sairek began tugging at his left hand to get it free. She didn’t let go. “Clearly, you already know my—”
“NU-UH!” She cut him off. “If we’re gonna do introductions, then we’re going to do it properly!”
“Didn’t you just say who cares about formalities...?” Sairek drawled.
“Name, kid!”
A twinge of annoyance began to burn inside of him. “Fine…!” He grumbled, then took a deep, breath, speaking quickly; “I am Sairek Ceareste son of the deceased Queen Melina Ceareste and Prince to the Kingdom of Ceareste owned by King Aayron Ceareste now if you don’t mind would you please unhand meee–!!” He yelled in a single breath, pulling with his left hand multiple times desperately. She suddenly let go of all grip as he tugged, causing him to release a startled yelp and he fumbled onto his back once more into the sand with a groan.
Why was this happening? Why couldn’t he just be allowed to sulk alone in peace?
Then the waves of water splashed over his head, making him flail on the ground and sputter.
Nayleen sighed at Sairek’s helplessness, once more grabbing at one of his flailing arms and she pulled him upright. He coughed and sputtered a bit. “Ah, that’s cold…!”
“You’re not very good at this, are you?” She sighed again, moving to sit down beside him. “What’s a Prince like you doing alone on this beach anyway?”
Sairek grumbled at her, combing his now-very-wet hair back into place with his left hand. “I needed some alone time away from the castle…” He continued to grumble. “So I snuck out…”
“Sneaked out?” She repeated, then slowly glanced back towards the castle. “Why was there smoke coming from over there?”
“Umm, well, I wouldn’t define the way I exited the premises necessarily as ‘stealthy’ or anything…” Sairek murmured. “I’m pretty sure they know where I am and will come to fetch me before too long and drag me back here even if I kicked and screamed the entire way. But I am just so sick of the expectations everyone has for me. Most people would think it’s awesome being a Prince, but I can assure anyone that being a slave to your father’s wishes like I have to is anything but ‘awesome’. I just… I want to get away from it all.”
Sairek hadn’t meant to start going on a tangent, but he was so frustrated at the whole thing that once he started talking, he just couldn’t stop.
“...Soooo in short, you are the Prince, your father is the King, and he is being an asshole to you.” She asked.
Sairek blinked at her language. That was a... blunt way to classify his father’s behavior. “S-Sure, that’s um… one way to put it, I suppose.” Was it okay for people around his age to speak in such a fashion…? Well, he did it when he was incredibly frustrated and nobody else except maybe Laure was around, but she was just doing it so casually.
“And so you barged out of the castle just to mope on the beach?”
“You tell me. You’re the one who apparently caught me crying my eyes out not even five minutes ago…” Sairek replied dryly.
“Why just stop here? Why not actually go do something?” She asked
“Well, it’s a bit too late and I don’t feel like playing any games right—”
“No, no, no. That’s not what I meant at all!” She cut in, wagging a finger in front of his face. “I mean do something to actually get your point across! Something that’ll prove how you feel for real and show how serious you are. Fight for your rights! Show you’re not gonna put up with your daddy’s crap!” She said with such enthusiasm and energy. She even pumped her right fist up into the air. “Run away for real! Or… Or something like that.”
Sairek watched her, and finally broke into a small grin and released a faint chuckle. She had such… enthusiasm and energy. “You make it sound like it’s easy, but it’s far more complicated than that.”
“Is it?” She asked, tilting her head and lowering her fist. “It’s what I did.”
“You what?”
“Yeah! I got bored at home, so I left a note at home saying goodbye for now and went places. I’ve been perfectly fine. Of course, I had survival training and stuff, but it’s getting kinda lonely by myself after these past couple of months.”
“...Okay, maybe it’s not so complicated for you, but not for…” He paused and hesitated. “You seriously had just up and ran away, just like that?”
“Yup.”
“B-But—What about your parents?”
She shrugged. “I’m a big enough girl now.”
“You’re not much older than me!”
“So? I have the knowledge, I have the survival training, I have the tools to protect myself, what else more is there?”
Sairek sighed in frustration. “Well, for me there’s a lot more things at stake. If I ran away, the entire country would be in an absolute uproar. I couldn’t hide forever, everyone would be on the lookout for me. I’d give myself a week at most before I got caught and that’s probably still being generous while also assuming I didn’t get kidnapped before then by bandits or something who would also hear the eventual news of my running away and would probably also be on the lookout for me for some type of ransom…”
“Well, the way I see it, life is full of risks. You can either go out and do what you want, or you can just submissively stay and… not.” She said in a much more serious tone. “I wanted to see the world and I couldn’t do that at home, so I left. I mean, sure there’s the side bit of danger, but that’s what makes it exciting to me and all the more memorable. Have you ever seen Yggdrasil up close?”
“Y-Yggdrasil…?” Sairek repeated slowly.
“Yeah! That’s the first place I went to visit. Luckily for me, my family lives alone in the woods in a cabin and that is already pretty close to the cave, though still a couple days walk away and stuff. The council’s security is totally lax! They’re set up to spot an army, not a single girl. It was easy to get by them! So I went into the cave and wooow~ Yggdrasil is so pretty! And so big! The tree’s leaves span out for miles! It’s like if the entire sky was just covered by this GIGANTIC tree!”
Sairek fidgeted a little. If she lived near the cave, then that only proved that she was indeed a citizen of Kior. How… interesting. That was not an insignificant distance away, either.
All he had about the inner cave where Yggdrasil rested were descriptions in books and maybe the odd inked illustration that, from the sound she was making of it, did the location no justice at all. “I mean, of course I want to see it… but it just isn’t that simple for me... Even with how badly I want to leave as much as I loathe to say it.” He grumbled, moving to stand himself back up and beginning to dust himself off. “Unfortunately, the only way I’ll probably ever get to experience the world is probably only reading about it from other people’s perspectives.”
“Where ya going?” She heard him ask.
“If I don’t head back now, they’re going to come here. I wasn’t joking about the whole ‘kicking and screaming’ thing.” Sairek grumbled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already on their way. I need to get back to my little prison.”
“Hm, well, I’m not going out anywhere for a few days. Kinda nice here. Maybe I’ll see you here again?” She asked in a tone that may have even sounded hopeful.
Sairek snorted in amusement. “After tonight, I’ll be surprised if I’m allowed out of my room for the next month after the rounds of punishments I’ll be forced to do, but well, I suppose I hadn’t planned to just abide with my father’s punishments anyway, but I’m also sure he’ll have begun to prepare for such things. So who knows.” He shrugged. He began to walk along in the sand, taking a few more steps before he stopped.
“...But for what it’s worth, you made me feel a bit better tonight. Thanks.”
He began walking back towards the castle, where she called back to him with a very cheery “No problem. Byeeee~” as he departed.
* * *
Sairek hiked his way back up the rounded steps towards the pillar of a hill the castle nested upon. Realistically, he had only been gone for probably a little more than two hours, but as he reached the top and turned at the last bend, he could already see a ‘welcoming party' that was waiting for him. A welcoming party of nothing more than elites, of which Samuel was leading the pack and they were initially approaching him, but stopped upon seeing him. A couple of them looked somewhat surprised to have seen him return. Sairek kept walking until stopping about twenty-five feet away from them.
Samuel unlike before was now dressed in more heavier and official-looking clothing. Now that the day had burned into late evening and had cooled off considerably, and probably because while considered trivial at this point, he more likely was sent on a ‘mission’ to go ‘retrieve the runaway Prince’, he was dressed in his full robes. Robes which were white, laced with golden-orange patterns at the bottom at his legs and along the sleeves. In the middle was the faint blue pattern of the Cearestian logo which was the same as on Sairek’s tabard.
“Sairek Ceareste…” Samuel growled. He used his full name... that usually meant he was in big trouble. He paused for a moment, then tried again, his tone more soft. “Sairek Ceareste, I’m more than sure you understand what happens next after disobeying your father like you did. Again.” He added.
Sairek resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That wouldn’t win him any favors at all right now. Instead, he just adopted his ‘formal stance’, waiting for Samuel to continue.
“You are to report to the tower, where you will be handling the messages that have been received to the castle all night until you are finished. You will come with us and—”
“No.”
Samuel blinked as Sairek cut him off. “Excuse me?”
“I said no.” Sairek repeated flatly.
“You can’t refuse your fathers’ orders…!” Samuel growled.
“I can,” Sairek began, his tone equally as soft as Samuel had given him. “It’s not what I’m doing, but I can, whether father likes it or not." He looked everyone over slowly, before resuming. "I was headed for the tower right now anyway, but I am not going there with any of you.” The softness of Sairek’s tone disappeared, his voice coming out in a raspy growl. “I am not going to be dragged around in my own home like some animal bound by a leash or some type of prisoner, thank you very much. Unless my father’s ego is so big that he believes me not following every word he speaks to me is somehow a sin as grave as breaking the law, and even if he did believe that, I would still refuse to go with any of you. Leave me alone and I will go there. Force me and I intend resist. Your choice.”
“You set the courtyard on fire! One of the other men behind Samuel barked out.
“A shame, isn’t it? It only happened because my father tried to stop me again. Unfortunately for him, it’s my home as much as it is his. I can do whatever I want with it.” Sairek lowered his glare. "This whole 'you are the Prince' thing I've got going on... you can't just shove all the responsibilities of such a position onto me while keeping me back from all the benefits such a position holds. It's a give and take thing."
“You misunderstand me, Prince. This isn’t a choice.” Samuel glared at him. “You’re coming with us. Whether you do so walking on your own two feet as we escort you there, or we have to forcefully drag you there is the only option you have. Right now it seems you want us to drag you there. Stop it with the bratty behavior and comply with us immediately, or else.”
“Bratty behavior? Well, you clearly have no understanding of what I did or why I did it.” Sairek said evenly, before raising his head back up slightly to glare directly back at Samuel with an icy look in his eyes. “Don't leave me to criticize, but I suppose it must be an easy job, not having to think critically, to just be someone's little pawn, never having to question if your ethics and morals are sound. Just follow daddy's orders to the word. Must be so easy for you.”
A glint of rage flashed in Samuel’s eyes. He began storming up towards Sairek, grabbing the Prince hard in his left hand and moved to pull him along. Sairek yanked his hand back hard before Samuel could drag him a single step.
“Do NOT touch me.” Sairek growled through as intense of a voice someone his age could manage to muster. Despite that though, Samuel and the other five men with him all approached and surrounded Sairek as if he was a criminal they were about to apprehend. Sairek raised his staff instinctively. He would begin to toss magic if he had to…
“Stop. All of you, stand down!” Samuel ordered with a raise of his right hand before the other men got too close to Sairek. “There is no need for this. I can make him comply without resistance.”
Sairek kept his staff close to him, looking around, feeling a bit nervous now, but he kept his mask up and refused to let it show. “Well, you’re right about that at least. Just let me walk there on my own. That's all that needs to be done.” He grumbled.
“As I have already stated Prince, you are coming with us. That’s the King’s orders and, I suppose in a way, you are correct. We do perform his orders to the word.” Samuel stated, raising his hands and clapped them together once.
“Auunngh…!” Sairek hissed out, doubling over partway before his motions just… stopped. It felt like something just hit him in the gut, then wrapped around him tightly, immobilizing him. His muscles felt like they were seized and locked in place. He couldn’t even relax the grip on his staff if he wanted to, his grip on it forced to remain tight. He couldn’t even move his lips to speak and breathing was hard, having to be done in quick, short little breaths. His chest could barely expand to take in the air. Short little breaths he made which started to become hasty pants of air in his growing panic.
Then with another clap from Samuel, he felt his feet being lifted up above the ground, causing him to levitate. His staff was pried away from his hands, causing him to remain gripping on nothing. His eyes darted around him nervously before he felt both of his arms grabbed. Panic rushed through him as he struggled against the magical hold. These weren’t his fathers’ elite guards for no reason, but what kind of magic was this? Samuel hadn’t even uttered a word. He knew silently casting magic like that was possible, but it sure made using the magic even more difficult. Not only that, but Samuel had done it so stealthily. He hadn’t even felt that the man had been brewing up such a thing!
When Sairek had every limb of his grabbed, he felt the magic fade and he gasped deep lungfuls of air that was finally allowed to enter within the confines of his chest and lungs. After a couple, he immediately began to writhe and struggle in all of their grip with all of his might, but a single lone child wasn’t enough for six men in total.
“Ugh… grhnn...! St...Stop this…!” Sairek hissed in demand, still wriggling in their grip, uselessly. They weren’t even needing to put much effort into holding him and they began to walk closer towards the castle.
“You may not follow orders Prince, however, we do.” Samuel said with a wry smirk. “You must learn to stop being the selfish boy that you are and to just do as you are told. I will be sure to tell his Majesty about your unwillingness to cooperate with us. Hopefully this next round of punishments will get the lesson your father is trying to teach you within your head.”
Sairek let out a yell of frustration and effort as he tried to pull his right arm free with all of his might, but he only accomplished exerting himself further while he was carried off. As they went through the doors into the castle proper, Sairek lifted his head up to see Laure just exiting a doorway into the entrance hall, where she turned and her blue eyes became icy at seeing the scene in front of her. She stepped forwards to approach them, her posture made it evident that she had ‘business’ with them. The men holding Sairek stopped their approach and waited for Laure.
“What is the meaning of this?” Laure asked when she was only a few feet in front of them. Her tone was calm and collected, but her posture was anything but that. Her eyes locked on Sairek, who could only look back at her helplessly with a begging look.
“Ah, Laure. His Majesty would like to speak with you too.” Samuel said.
“For what?” Laure continued in her calm tone.
“To inquire as to why his son escaped and why you were not supervising him.”
“What…!” Sairek growled, trying another futile tug with his limbs and struggling to wrench his body free.
“...Are you an idiot?” Laure questioned him, her eyes moving from Sairek to Samuel, with a judging stare. She still had that calm tone in her voice. There was a pause before Laure continued. “Don’t give me that look, Samuel. Of course I wasn’t supervising him. That was supposed to be your job, remember? You attended with him this morning, yes? As a result, my schedule until afternoon was otherwise changed for today and today only to attend myself with other chores in the castle since the Prince would not be here. You were supposed to be watching him until then.”
Samuel’s face turned a little bit pale. “But… you—”
Laure reached underneath her apron, pulling out a piece of paper. “I’ve got the schedule right here if you’d like to see.”
Samuel reached up, snatching the paper from Laure, his eyes scanning over it. “This… must be some kind of mistake. I thought it was only until noon–!”
“Oh, but the schedule was handed by His Grace himself personally.” Laure contested with an amused smile. “Of course, if you’d wish to come with me, I will be more than happy to get this clarified, but I am quite sure you are the one in the wrong here, Samuel. As a result, I should do my due diligence and report this failure to him, should I not?”
“Pah.” Samuel scoffed, tossing the paper back at her. Despite it swirling and whirling in the air, she caught it cleanly with only a glance and folded it gently and brought it back under her apron.
“Of course, we are friends Samuel I am not cruel, so I will overlook this. However, as a result, that would mean that if my responsibility is to fall on the Prince today as you claimed, that I will be the one to take him to the tower, not you.” She finished, eyes falling back down on Sairek. “You know the rules, yes? The one who is responsible for the Prince when he misbehaves receives the same punishment that he does. Though if you wish to join him—”
“Silver-tongued wench. Fine!” Samuel snarled and waved a hand at the other men holding Sairek. “Let him go. Let this woman deal with him.”
“Are you sure, sir?” One of them asked.
“If she wants to be punished with the Prince, then who am I to stop her?” He shook his head. “Spoils the brat, she does…”
Sairek felt himself finally released and he immediately rushed over to Laure, hugging her tightly. She smiled down at her gently in a motherly way, running her gloved fingers through his hair.
“Let’s get out of here.” Samuel growled. He and his little group began to walk past him except one man, who moved towards the entrance. Sairek glanced as the man stood by the door, presumably guarding it against him.
"My staff..." Sairek began to utter in protest.
“There's nothing that can be done about that now. I will retrieve it for you later. Come, let us go.” Laure ushered him gently, moving an arm to his back and began to walk with him slowly out of the entrance hall and down another hall.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Sairek hiccuped in apology over and over again.
“It’s okay. Easy now.” Laure shushed him.
Sairek fell silent for a few seconds as they continued towards the tower. “Laure… I think I finally did it today…”
“Did what, Master?” Laure asked, looking back down at him again with a hint of confusion in her features.
“I… I think I managed to make a friend today…” Sairek croaked out, blinking wet eyes. “A girl, about my age… and she—she actually wants to see me again…”
Laure looked down at him in genuine surprise and gave Sairek a smile that was absolutely beaming in pride.
* * *
“I am sorry Master, I believed I could at least get through to him a little bit this time…” Laure apologized to him as he sat slumped in a wooden desk chair. By now, they were both locked in a fairly small room with basically only a chair and table and a shelf that held only a few basic materials which were to be used for the task ahead. There wasn’t even a window in the room.
On the way to the tower, Laure had spotted his father and ushered Sairek into a nearby room, where Laure had pursued the King and an argument had of course ensued. Sairek hadn’t been able to hear everything from the nearby room, but he had heard enough. Enough that he didn’t dare talk right now, or he may have begun to sob in front of his maid again.
It was the usual argument and had happened many times by now. Laure demanded what the heck he was doing with his son, and his father demanded that nobody should criticize how he should raise his child. Back and forth, arguing and arguing, until Sairek had to step in and just demand himself that the bickering should stop and that his father punish him already.
Sairek shook his head and sighed. Laure was to be punished as he, but she didn’t even have the authority to read most of these letters, let alone answer them. That basically meant she had to just stand here all night, watching him doing the most boring and trivial task all night, and she couldn’t leave until he was done.
“I’m the one who should be apologizing.” Sairek managed to say to her after a couple of minutes, his voice strained and weary.
“Nonsense.” Laure scoffed. “It’s not your fault that your father is being a close-minded bigot.”
That made Sairek snort in amusement and feel a tiny bit better.
“...However, it wasn’t the right time to engage him in such a way. I should have done it without you being in proximity. I am truly sorry.” Laure continued. “I am unfit to be your maid.”
“Now you’re just being humble.” Sairek drawled, giving her a sideways glance. “Let’s just get this over with so we can get out of here. I already skipped out on both lunch and dinner, if I miss breakfast tomorrow too, I’m going to be in trouble. There can’t be that many to deal with, right?”
Laure frowned but nodded in understanding, reaching into her apron and pulled out a small purple box. “See? That doesn’t look like much…” he began, until Laure placed the box down, letting it drop a couple of inches from the table, where it released a hefty and heavy slam onto the wooden table. Sairek swore he also heard it creak and groan a bit in effort.
“Young Master, you should know by now that most storage containers can hold much more than they seem. Magic and all.”
Sairek moved to grab the box with both hands and struggled to lift it before putting it back down. “...All of this weight is just from just letters and envelopes…?” He asked, his voice dry. “Won-der-ful…” Then he looked at Laure wearily. "You just... carried this thing underneath your apron? But how? It weighs so much."
"I am much stronger than I look."
"Apparently. But still—"
"Young Master, did you not say yourself that we should get this done as soon as possible?"
Right... there was no time like the present. Sairek opened the lid up where the inside of the box was illuminated in a faint white light, tinged with a speck of green. Sairek removed his gloves and plopped them together onto the left side of the table before he reached into the box, his hand disappearing in it. He scarcely rummaged around before he felt himself grab something and pull it out, it being a folded piece of paper which he unfolded and lay flat on the table to read it.
Since you seem to like reading so much and reading so many books in the library so late at night, this chore should be a snitch for you. If you aren’t finished before morning, there will be no breakfast awaiting for you either and that will include Laure as well.
Get to work.
~ Aayron
“That asshole.” Sairek growled in rage, borrowing Nayleen's language from earlier. Sairek crumpled the letter up into a tight ball and tossing it behind him before digging his hand into the box again to try and find something actually important for his work. Laure, it seemed, had decided not to criticize him for his language.
Thus began a long night of Sairek reaching his hand into the box, pulling out an envelope, opening the envelope, reading the boring contents of a letter, getting his paper, having to think up responses of the letter, sign his own signature, then put it back into a separate box. It was long, boring, menial, and by the second hour, his wrist was already beginning to hurt. This went on for far more than just two hours, though.
It didn’t help that the vast majority of the letters were what he would call “junk”. Useless questions, baseless or trivial complaints, worthless business ventures demanding a loan, people writing, just to get a response to be heard.
Then there were the letters he had to sort out manually. Letters to people who worked inside the castle, letters that were less letters, but reports, statistics of the goings-around in the country, like how business in Lamen was going. How many people entered the border this month, from where, how many people left the border of Ceareste, and to which destination, how did this trade deal with Malodia go? Here was the rent fee from the Kior equipment they used to make his staff they for some reason still had. Here was The Council’s tax this month, everybody's wages in the castle—a particular one who he gave a raise to as he had promised he would today.
Yes. All of the usual…
Except one.
When Sairek pulled it out, he was momentarily confused. At this point, he had mostly been on autopilot, not even acknowledging Laure who had the boring task of just watching him doing a boring task of his own and having to stay standing on her legs the entire time.
This letter was different, because the seal showed that it was from Masirean, not Ceareste. Secondly, after Sairek tore the letter open, he saw that it wasn’t just a random letter, but a royal letter.
“This is… This is from the King of Masirean.” Sairek said, quickly looking down at the signature. Sure enough…
“The King of Masirean, are you sure?” Laure asked him, stepping closer.
Sairek shifted in his seat to turn around to face her and also turned the letter around so she could see, pointing at the signature. “It’s got his official seal on it and it does not seem to be a forgery. This is also his handwriting, right?”
“...Yes, without a doubt.” Laure agreed, leaning back away. “But you should know better than to show me the letter, Young Master.”
Sairek snorted. A ‘simple maid’ like Laure had no right to read the contents of the letter. Neither did he, technically. It was for the King and meant to be between Kings alone.
So of course he read it. Out loud.
Greetings Dear King Aayron Ceareste,
Ever since the alliance, business continues to be fantastic over here and I sincerely hope it has been increasing just as well in Ceareste. More people are coming to Masirean, with just as many people from Masirean going into Ceareste, some for business, some to set up permanent residence. I hope the relationship continues as I strongly believe this will help the people from our two countries bond closer the more they mingle with each other like so.
However, I am afraid I must inform you of some ill news. Only a few moments ago from me writing this letter, though it would no doubt be at least a couple of weeks by the time you receive this, I have been informed that Kiorian soldiers were spotted trespassing along my borders near Karvadean. Or in the Northwest, to put it simply.
They were removed calmly without incident, however what their intent may have been concerns me greatly. This was clearly a breach of law and this was not the first time either as of late, though it was clearly the most blatant. They were not just breaching ocean borders, but were clearly on my land.
Unlike Ceareste, my people and myself included are unfortunately quite ignorant in the workings of magic, nor do we have much in the terms of equipment to deal with it. I’d like to have Karvadean taken a closer look at.
If possible, I’d like to ask to ‘hire’ a small group of soldiers who are well versed and knowledgeable on the subject of magic and to come over to help give a clean sweep of the area to see if any tricks are amiss. Of course, I’d pay you for the rental of their services and would reward them personally on the task being completed as well, however the sooner they can get here to perform the job, the better. I believe no fewer half a dozen would do to get a thorough job done in a couple of days, though if they find something, I may need to keep them further but again, I would be more than happy to pay generously for this service.
I look forward to hearing your response and our continued business ship.
~ King Avotash Masirean
At first, Sairek had the idea of writing a response himself, but he quickly abandoned the idea. For one, he was sure “Avotash Masirean” would be able to tell the handwriting was different. Two, the letter was of an actual legitimate matter. Messing up relationships between two countries just for a petty jab at his father was unreasonable and unfair.
Sairek set the letter back down on the table. “First Kior intruded on our borders, now on Masirean? Are they intentionally trying to provoke a war?” Sairek frowned.
“If what he says is true and they were on Masirean soil, then there is no way it could be accidental by now.” Laure mused. "In regards to the breach on our territory, it was by a four miles and it was a patrol party. Usually in the cases of patrols, a little leeway is given and small infractions are usually overlooked unless it is a repeated offense, but this as well makes it look more suspicious."
“Well they better stop doing it. It’s been over three-hundred years since the last war. That’s a remarkably long time. It would be a shame to break it now and I certainly don’t want to deal with whatever responsibilities that will come with something like that. I’m up to my neck in all of this crap already.” Sairek groaned, running his fingers through his hair. “If we send men out and Kior did do something particularly nasty, then… oh dear. If Masirean wants to go to war, we would have to choose to go to war with them, or abandon the alliance. Neither option is great, though I doubt Masirean would go to war if we didn’t. They don’t even have close to the military strength we have, let alone Kior. Kior probably still would beat the both of us in terms of raw strength even if we combined our forces.”
Sairek began to fold up the letter and put it back into the envelope. “Well, I guess I’ll keep this one personally until I can give it to my father. He would want to see this as soon as possible.”
“That would be wise.” Laure agreed. “Though, he’s going to question you about it.”
“Whatever. I’ll just make up some excuse. Reading a private letter is far from the worst of ‘terrible acts’ I’ve done to him.” Sairek grumbled. “For now, I have to get through the rest of this garbage so we can both get out of here and maybe get at least a couple hours of sleep...”
No comments:
Post a Comment