Chapter 5: A Great Escape

“Ugghh…” Sairek groaned, flopping face down onto his bed. He was so hungry and so exhausted. The hunger was probably feeding into his exhaustion. He didn’t know which need he wanted to take care of first.

He rolled over onto his back and his head lolled towards the bedside table where he spotted the book from yesterday. He wanted to take a deeper dive into it still, but his body was crying at him for his needs to be taken care of first.

If he went to bed now, he might be able to get a couple hours of rest, but then would skip out on yet another meal, but alternatively, if he ate now, he would have to skip out on sleeping. No doubt his father would resume another round of punishments soon. “Lands… I don’t know how much more of this nonsense I can take…!” He grumbled to himself.

He sighed, reaching into his pocket to pull out the letter for his father he had stowed away. He gave it a quick read over once again before pushing himself to sit upright and stand up with a grunt and placed it on the other bedside table that he had.

There was a sudden knock on his door and he apprehensively walked over to answer it. Laure was there, holding a plate of food in one hand and his staff in the other.

“Didn’t I tell you to go rest?” Sairek frowned.

“Well, we both are bad at following orders, aren’t we, Young Master?” She said with an amused smile and held up the plate closer to him in a gesture for him to take it.

Her response made him chuckle. He took the plate and staff and bowed his head graciously. “Thank you, Laure.”

“Of course. It is my duty. Good night, Young Master.” She smiled at him and closed the door.

He moved to sit back on the bed, placed his staff beside him and began wolfing the food down. Honey bread with stew in a bowl to dip it in and fresh cold spring water, though he was too famished to even bother with the whole dipping thing. He just wolfed down the bread and drank the stew directly from the bowl, then drained down the water from the cup. He had to hold his tummy after he finished eating in near record time as if food was some foreign thing and his stomach needed time to settle the new contents that just arrived into it.

Then there was another knock on the door, but before he could even stand up to answer it, the ‘guest’ opened it and entered on their own.

“Father…” Sairek grumbled. He inhaled and exhaled slowly through his nostrils. So much for hoping for maybe a few minutes of shut eye...

“Sairek, what is the meaning of this. Why are you not in bed?”

Sairek tightened his jaw. “Seriously? I just got here and I just ate my first meal since breakfast yesterday. Just what is it that you want from me–?!”

“Watch your tone, boy.”

“Watch my tone? You just barged in here and started accusing me of things! ‘Sairek, what is the meaning of this’. How else do you think I or anyone for that matter would respond to that? Do you want me to give you an apology for being famished and dead tired because you think starving and depriving your child of food and sleep is apparently a good method of parenting?” Sairek ranted heatedly and stood up from the bed holding his staff tightly. "If you want me to 'watch my tone' then how about treating me with some damn respect!?"

“You just don’t understand, Sairek.”

“You don’t understand!” Sairek argued in frustration. “I want to live, not exist, dammit! What can possibly be so terrible out there in our own village?!”

“A lot of things.”

“At least those ‘things’ out there won’t parent me by starving me or sleep depriving me for wanting to read a damn book and just wanting to take a walk and get some fresh air!”

“Boy, I keep warning you—” Aayron began and sighed as he rubbed his temples with his fingers. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Fine - tell you what; I will let you do whatever it is that you want... on one condition.”
Sairek eyed his father silently with an icy glare and his father eyed him back in equal measure. “If you can defeat Samuel in a duel, I will let you leave the castle. No strings attached.”

“What–!?” Sairek snapped. “He’s an elite and I’m barely just starting off as an apprentice! It could take me a decade of constant practice and learning to even match up to him as he is now and that's assuming I'm a prodigy which I'm clearly not! You’re insane...!”

“Those are my terms. If you manage, then I would know you have the capability to protect yourself out there.” Aayron smirked. “You could leave the entire village and I won’t stop you. I would consider you an independent, able to make your own decisions and learn from them, able to protect yourself. Defeat Samuel in a duel, that is my one condition.”

Sairek glared daggers at his father, then he turned around, wordlessly pulling out a drawer and grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. He closed the drawer back shut again with his knee and held the items up to his father.

“...If that’s how it’s going to be, fine... However, I have a condition of my own; I want you to promise me that you will follow through and to ensure that you will, I want it in writing in the form of a contract.”

Aayron looked at his son in a bit of surprise, but he also looked pleased after a moment. Sairek studied him carefully as he took the items from Sairek, bent down towards the little table and began to write the ‘deal’ down. No doubt in his mind that his father believed that he wouldn’t be able to beat Samuel or even come close in several years, probably well after he was an adult even, but if he was going for it, then hopefully he would stop his rebellious behavior until then and perhaps even be persuaded by this 'hope for freedom' to take his tasks and studies more seriously.

He would have been right normally, but that was not Sairek’s plan at all.

Sairek watched his father finish writing and stood back up, turning around to present the paper towards his son. “Is… this acceptable?”

Sairek took the paper in his left hand and read the terms. The terms didn’t particularly matter to him. He made sure there were just the usual couple of details that he needed. Aayron Ceareste, would allow him, Sairek Ceareste, to claim his independence if he defeated Samuel in a duel, all in his father’s handwriting, with his signature. Samuel would recognize it was real if he saw it for sure. Sairek made sure there was no fancy wording so his father could wriggle out of the deal. There wasn't.

“Acceptable.” Sairek agreed dryly and held the letter up to the royal jewel at his breast. The gem glowed for a faint moment and so did the paper, before the paper disappeared right from his hand. “And this contract is going to stay safe being stored right in here.” He said, tapping the jewel with his left index finger.

“Of course. I expected no less.” Aayron mused, then turned around to grab the other letter. “Now what’s this?”

“For you, from Avotash Masirean. I’d read it right now, despite our own squabbling it is quite important.” Sairek answered, walking slowly back away from his father.

“Don’t go anywhere. I’m not finished with you yet.”

“For crying out loud. I’m just going to the bathroom! I've been in the tower all night without break, you know!!” Sairek shouted, though it pained him to admit that it was a complete lie. He was making it to the door out of his room. And he had used the bathroom earlier.

“Fine, but after that, it’s more work for you. Your punishments still aren’t done for what you did.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Sairek grumbled, tip-toeing his way towards the door. He had his own private bathroom, but he wasn’t headed for that. With his father’s back still turned to him reading the letter, Sairek quietly opened the door, stepped through it, then shut it behind him.
When it was closed, he hovered his staff towards the metal knob, then whispered “Balinzer.”

He kept the flame low, but heated up the knob of the door intensely. He was sure the amount of heat would make it quite painful and hot to the touch of bare skin on the other side of the door for a while and unlike Sairek, his father wasn’t wearing gloves. In a couple moments, his father would realize he was gone and then would probably make for the door. The heat from the knob would buy him a couple of precious minutes, preventing his father from immediately opening the door and rousing anybody nearby in alarm that his son was escaping.

Rounds of punishments after punishments for never following everything to the word?
Constantly being ridiculed, missing meals, missing sleep and constantly expecting to be the top of the crop?
Freedom only after he defeated Samuel? A task literally designed for him to be unable to do for years to come showing his Father had no faith in him at all?

Screw that.

He hated it. He hated all of it.

He didn’t care about his title. He didn’t care about his responsibilities. He didn’t care what his departure could do to the country anymore. What about himself? What about his life?

Nobody else cared what everything else did to him. Nobody else cared for what he wanted. Nobody else cared for how he felt... so why should he?

Sairek took a few quiet steps in the hallway but quickened his pace and picked up the noise of his footfalls as he got further away from his bedroom door until eventually he was in a quiet sprint on the soft carpet of the marble floor.

He began to run away.

Sairek made it to the end of the hallway and down the spiraling steps, bouncing down them quickly until he made it to the ground floor. He glanced towards the gates to see if was manned still and it wasn't. No doubt the elite from earlier probably finally went to bed. It was nearly six in the morning, after all. If he had been trying to escape from the tower, he would have already done so.

How fortunate.

Sairek dashed towards the door and glanced behind him just in time to look up the stairs and see a few men beginning to appear from the upper floor hallways. Not good. He thought he would have had a bit more time than that. Which only became worse when he suddenly heard a loud bell ringing in his ears, which was used as a state for alarm, which would alert everyone in the castle that something was amiss. They wouldn’t know exactly what yet, but that something dire was happening. The alarm concerned him greatly, because when the alarm went off…

Sairek pushed through the doors and his feet thudded against the cobblestone pathway until he made it to the steel gates that lead out of the wall and thudded uselessly against it with his much smaller body.

“Dammit! NO!!” He cursed in frustration and desperation, slamming his staff against the large locks of the door uselessly. The magic that activated in such an alarm was meant to keep whatever was outside, to stay outside, but it did also had the small side effect of also keeping what was inside the castle unable to leave through the front doors as well...
...And there was only the front door gate. Not unless he improvised, like going over the wall or something… Somehow. Not that he would have much time to do that, either.

Sairek gripped his staff in two hands and swung down at the lock with all of his might, but all he got from his efforts was from the magic around the door and the lock to bounce the force of his attack, causing him to skid along the cobblestone path and nearly fall backwards as it repelled him.

“DAMMIT!!” Sairek swore again, slamming his left fist into the steel door in frustration. “I just want out! WHY...?!”


“For the love of Yggdrasil, you are punching a steel gate kid! Of course it’s not going to give away!”


Sairek looked up in the direction he heard the voice, which was up above him and somewhat to his right. There, he spotted the girl from before that he had met at the beach, up on top of the walls to the gate, currently looking down at him.

“What…?! Y-You!” Sairek let out in surprise.

“Yo.” Nayleen greeted casually, with an equally casual wave down at him from below. “I think that may be the second time I caught you crying. We really need to stop meeting up like this.”

“You–!?” Sairek repeated again, then hesitated.

There was a small awkward silence between the two of them as the bell continued to ring in the background. “Um… are you like, going to ask how I got up here or something?” She asked.

“Yeah! How did you get up there?!” Sairek called out.

“There it is! Answer? Grappling hook—” She replied back quickly just as the doors of the castle opened and they both looked over before looking back at each other. "Well, I guess there's not enough time for that." She shrugged, looking down at Sairek as she knelt down to look down upon him. "Well kid, what are you going to do? Are you going to give up and continue to sulk at your situation? Do you want to give up and be forced to go back to your familiar lifestyle? It's boring, but it's still more comfortable than what a lot of other people go through, you know..."
She paused as she reached beside herself, holding a bundle of rope in her hand, brandishing it to show him. Her face cracked into a smirk. "Or are you too bored to go back to that lifestyle? Instead of doing how others tell you to live, do you want to try to make your own choices and consequences for once?"

Sairek stared up at her, his fingers curling tightly around his staff hard enough that the knuckles under his gloves turned white. "Nh—! I want out of here. Now—! I want to explore who I am! I want to decide my own role in the world! I don't just want to be Ceareste's Prince. I just want to be me: Sairek Ceareste! I'm not afraid! I will face any of those hardships that the rest of the people in this world must endure day-by-day!
"I want to explore not just the world, but myself to aspire to things! To achieve things of my own volition, things of my own choosing, to live my life as my own person... so please, take me with you Nayleen!"

She laughed at him, not cruelly, but still amused. "You know, a simple 'yes' would have been enough and worked just fine right? But I love that kind of passion! Great answer, Sairek!"
She let loose the rope, letting it furl down the wall towards the Cearestian Prince. "Your first test is to trust me, bud! Throw your staff up to me or over the wall and climb up here! Your answer won't matter if you get hauled back, you hear?"

Sairek was out of time to think of anything else and immediately obeyed, tossing his staff up to her, which she tried to catch, fumbled it, and it sailed over her shoulder and on the other side of the wall. "Don't worry, it's fine! It'll be waiting for you on the other side of the wall!"

Sairek groaned, but she just looked down at him with an apologetic shrug. Regardless, he jumped up and began climbing the rope as fast as he could, while she held the rope as best as she could manage. The wall with her hook didn’t have the best leverage which was only proven more as Sairek neared the top and it suddenly slipped. Sairek yelled out as he felt the rope slacken and he reached up with his hands just in time as she grabbed his arm, using her feet against the indents of the wall to keep herself from topping over with Sairek.

“Agghhh… What the heck…! Just how heavy are you…!?” She demanded. “Y-Y'know, b-before coming here, th-there was a book on you that I read..."

"S-So? And what the heck, reading about me–?" Sairek blanched.

"The book said... that you weighed eighty-four pounds! Eighty-one pounds! You do NOT weigh eighty-one pounds!” She shouted in complaint.

“A-Are you calling me fat!?” Sairek scoffed.

“You weigh as much as a cow carcass! And I’d know!”

“Is now seriously an appropriate time to be judging my weight!?”

“It would certainly help right now if you weighed less!”

“Listen you, I am NOT fat! I don't even have the baby fat anymore—!”

“Then drop whatever you have that weighs so much!” She demanded, slowly beginning to pull him up. Sairek managed to reach up with one hand, gripping the wall and could start to pull himself up a little on his own.

“It’s my clothes! They are heavier than they—they look, j-just hurry and pull me up before they start pulling me back down–!” Sairek demanded.

She grunted with a heave, pulling Sairek up a few more inches and with more leverage, he grunted himself with his own effort. Their combined strength finally managed to come together to pull him over onto the wall, where he flopped down on top of it and they took a few seconds to catch their breath. Sairek moved to sit up and glanced back down, a few soldiers were staring up at them.

“Sairek Ceareste, get down here this instant!” One of them yelled at him.

Sairek rolled his eyes and ignored him, then looked at the castle again, just in time to see Samuel come out, along with his father beside him. That gave him goosebumps. He turned back around towards Nayleen. “We gotta go. Like, now.”

“Yeah, before they open the gate. Follow me.” She ordered, then she knelt down and jumped right off of the wall onto the other side.

Sairek gulped and looked down.

Like, it wasn’t that tall of a wall that falling would kill you, but… well…

He watched as she dropped down onto the ground and landed in a smooth roll forwards, carrying her momentum. She reached over and grabbed his staff and stood up and turned around. “Your turn, Prince! Come on~!”

“B-But—”

She sighed. “When you land, let the gravity of the fall allow you to tuck your legs in as your feet make impact, but keep them firm and carry the momentum of the fall forwards so your legs don't take the full impact. Convert that forwards into a roll! It’ll cushion a lot of the impact of the landing! It’s easy to do!”

Sairek gulped again. The explanation kind of didn’t make sense to him but he did see her do it, so that helped him figure it out in his head... or so he believed, anyway. "Th...This is absurd...!" He whimpered to himself as he realized what he was seriously about to do. He took a deep breath and yelled as he jumped off the wall. When he felt his feet make impact, he tucked his legs in and carried the momentum forwards—

“Ow! Crap, dammit, ow! Ouch!” Sairek cried and cursed out as he began to sprawl halfway down the hill and past Nayleen, who slowly turned her head to watch him tumble and roll past.

She slumped and loosely shrugged her shoulders. “...Good enough, I guess.” She carefully skidded and slid herself down the hill to meet the groaning Prince who was sprawled out onto the ground. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”

“I, I think so…” Sairek grumbled, slowly pushing himself back up onto his feet.

“Good. Now, can you run?”

“I don’t think I have much of a choice.” He huffed.

Nayleen reached a hand down. He grabbed her with his left hand and she hoisted him up with relative ease and handed his staff back to him, but kept her hand clasped around his. “Let’s keep riding down the hill to the west. That’ll take us past the town walls and lead us into the forest. Hopefully we’ll lose them in there.” Nayleen nudged her head in the direction she gestured in, pulling him around at a brisk pace.

“O-Okay.” Sairek accepted without struggle. He was confused on why she was helping him in the first place, but he wasn’t about to argue. He would have been swiftly caught and probably would have been about to face a fresher, even harsher round of punishments right now if it weren’t for her, but that threat still loomed over now just him, but her. They would be less kind to her.

Going adjacent to the spiraling stairs from where Sairek tumbled down to, there was a small incline they had to hoist themselves up first, and then the hill continued to slope downwards, past the walls, until descending into the next set of steps that spiraled down to ground level. Eventually if they kept going this way, the steps would end, and the hill would continue to slope downwards past the walls which weren't built, but that's because this continued down to a sheer cliff face.

Sairek wasn’t quite sure about this, but it’s not like it was one continuous slide. Rather than running down the stairs, they would slide, then meet the next set of stairs on the way down, climb another lip and continue, up to a point they would reach past the town walls, though that’s also when the hill became steepest. The cliff was naturally a part of the wall and that was the part he was most afraid of trying to scale down. It was nearly a direct drop, and the town walls were much taller and more grand than the castle walls. It wasn't particularly a mere drop you just jump and roll off from.

They both skidded themselves down two more sets before Sairek dared himself to glance behind him and clenched his teeth. By now his pursuers had made it past the gates and were moving down the stairs faster than he’d anticipated. He could also see both his father and Samuel looking down at them. They weren’t out of casting range either. At this rate…

“We gotta go faster. Hold on to me, I have an... an outrageous idea.” Sairek commanded.

“Oh? Well, if you say so~” Nayleen replied.

Sairek turned around and held his staff out and then he chanted “Waert!”, creating a more controlled and not too powerful jet of water, but enough to soak the grass in front of him. He sat down as he kept the spell going into a stream to wet grass. “Sit and hold behind me and push… then make sure to hold onto me extremely tight!” He ordered Nayleen.

“Roger!”

With a big shove, she pushed their momentum down the hill and they began to slide down it like a slide, picking up speed as gravity began to pull them mostly downwards, the wet grass reducing their friction considerably. So fast they began to move, and each end of the hill that would proceed into the next set of stairs had a small lip to them, allowing them to “jump” over one set of stairs, and land onto the next, where Sairek kept his spell going to maintain most of their momentum until the next set of stairs.

"WOOHOO–!!" Nayleen cheered loudly, completely uncaring of how dangerous this was.

Sairek screamed too. It was much less dignified than hers.

They jumped one more set of stairs, then the next and then the next and… then there were no more stairs; just a long curve that became steeper and steeper until it was near drop as they continued to slide down the hill at an alarming rate.

“H-Hey that’s a bit too fast!” Nayleen warned him. "If we go off from this height and speed—"

Sairek cut off his water spell and quickly concentrated energy not from around him, but from the royal jewel instead. A limited, but far faster method of channeling energy that would could also help amplify his more simple magic and could also have some consequences later depending on how all of this went, but for the moment, not slamming into hard earth at the speed they were currently going at took precedent. As they got closer to the ground, he held his staff out and chanted “Ethirul!”

The ground below them began to shift and churn, dirt turning into sand and creating a generous soft mound of it below them that he hoped would help cushion their fall. To slow their speed, Sairek tightened his legs and dug his heels as best as he could into the dirt, clenching his teeth with the effort. His legs immediately burned and ached from the attempted effort.
A short moment later, the attempt caused them both to be flung off from the hill and into the open air. Both he and Nayleen screamed, or, maybe Nayleen cheered again—he wasn’t exactly sure, but they both fell down a good twenty feet before slamming hard into the pillowed sand below that Sairek had formed.

It didn’t exactly cushion his fall to stop it from hurting. His head spun and ringing was in his ears, but after a minute to collect himself, it at least felt like nothing was broken and he clearly wasn't dead. Nayleen landed somewhere behind him and he heard her let out a woozy groan, but was picking herself up faster than he was.

“That was crazy. But fun! I kinda want to do it again.” She chided as she sat up, looking back up the hill.

“I’ll… I’ll pass… I think I'm going to vomit…” Sairek groaned, pushing himself onto his hands and knees.

They took a moment to pick themselves up and both turned around, looking back up the hill. They could still make out figures, some of which were looking from the stairs down at them both. He could still just barely make out who was who in the new morning sun. His father’s gold and sapphire jeweled crown glinted in the sunlight and Samuel's white and gold robes next to him made it easy to tell it was those two.

“Well, I got you out! You happy?” Nayleen asked playfully.

Sairek was about to answer, when he heard his father calling for his name from atop of the hill, then a few seconds later watched Samuel raise his hands in the distance. His eyes widened in alarm, he knew what that meant.

Instinctively, he grabbed Nayleen in a hold, which made her yelp in surprise. He kicked his feet from the ground, diving them both out of the way, just as the sand where they had been standing on top of suddenly dropped, sinking down into a giant deep pit into the ground like a mini sinkhole. One just big enough to pull two children down with it had they been standing there. He hadn’t known that was coming specifically; just that diving and getting out of the way seemed like a general good course of action.

“H-Holy shit!” Nayleen yelped in a curse.

Sairek had to agree. This far away and still Samuel was able to target them both, with just a damn clap of his hands! There was no way he was going to duel that!
Sairek stood up and pulled her back up onto her feet with him. “If you really must know, yes, yes I am glad. I am freaking overjoyed and you just witnessed why! So shut up and let's run!”

There were no complaints from her as Sairek took her hand and she led them to quickly retreat into the thick cover of trees.

Chapter 4: Lots of Letters to People; Lots of Letters to One

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 from the water that the waves didn’t slop against his clothes with his staff lying alongside him. He himself was seated on the sand with his knees bent up, his arms wrapped around them, just staring ahead watching 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 the light reflecting off of the moon's glow.

“Why doesn’t he care at all how I feel anymore…?” Sairek moaned 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… defeated. 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 and cheeks. 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—

“GAH-!!?”

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 quizzical 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 a-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.

“What...? I... I am not blushing...” he protested immediately, righting his posture somewhat.

“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 kiddo, 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 a boy who is still at the ‘girls have cooties’ stage, huh?”

“I am not–!”

“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, thus causing Sairek 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 and nearly crashing into her. “So, what’s your name, kid? Y'know, so I can stop calling you '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 in agitation.

“Name, kid!”

“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...! Dammit! 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. “If you insist on knowing, I needed some alone time away from the castle…” He continued to grumble. “So I sneaked out…”

“Sneaked out?” She repeated, then slowly glanced back towards the castle. “Why was there smoke coming from over there?”

“Umm..." Sairek hesitated. "Well...~ I wouldn’t define the way I exited the premises necessarily as ‘stealthy’ or anything…?” Sairek weakly shrugged. “I’m... I'm pretty sure they know where I am, and they will come to fetch me before too long to drag me back there, 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 do 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…? He did it when he was incredibly frustrated and nobody else except maybe Laure was around, or he directed it at his father like earlier today, but she was just doing it so casually.

“And so you barged out of the castle just to mope on the beach?” She continued to press.

“...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. Y'know? If setting something on fire doesn't work, you need to do something even more extreme!”

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. “...wait, hold on... You seriously had just up and ran away? Just like that?” He pressed.

“Yup.”

“B-But—What about your parents—?”

She shrugged. “I’m a big enough girl now.”

“You’re not much older than I am!”

“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 Neutral 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 dozens of miles, no exaggeration! It’s like if the entire sky was just covered by this GIGANTIC glowing tree with all of these shifting and dazzling lights!”

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 either reading or hearing 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 exhaled sadly. “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 and started 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, Nayleen. Thank you. I needed someone to talk to.”

He began walking back towards the castle, where she called back to him with a very cheery “No problem, Sairek. Byeeee and good luck~” 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 at most, 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 what was on Sairek’s own tabard.

“Sairek Ceareste…” Samuel growled. He used his full name... That usually meant Sairek was in big trouble. He paused for a moment, cleared his throat, then tried again, taking a more... softer approach this time. “Sairek Ceareste. I am more than sure you understand what happens next after disobeying your father like you did... Again.” He added that last word tersely.

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. “I'm not going to ignore them, 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 either serve my Father, or you serve the Ceareste family. Which will it be?”

“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. I guess you serve my Father instead of the family then.” 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 my dad's orders to the word." Sairek sighed, narrowing his eyes at Samuel. "...Maybe that's how you're able to so easily attack and humiliate children with magic, not having to think about the morality of it all.”

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. "Earlier today I still couldn't muster the fight against one of my father's men, but you touch me like that again and you will see first-hand what the royal jewel can do...!" Sairek warned as he 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. And that's because it's our job to.” 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? This is no way to treat the Young Master.” Laure demanded 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 for help.

“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 until the scheduled time...!”

Samuel’s face turned a little bit pale. “Scheduled time...? 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–!”

"Yeah, and you humiliated me within two minutes, you ass...!" Sairek hissed at him. "I told you to at least try to put on a show, but noooo, you rather bully a child instead to inflate your damned superiority complex—"

"Shut up." Samuel cut Sairek off, who growled at him.

“Samuel, 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? Although, given that you are dressed the way that you are, I'm sure a lecturing from His Majesty when he's in a sour mood will be next for you after retrieving the Prince.”

“...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 means it is the responsibility of his assigned caretaker to take him to the tower.” 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 for their failure to "discipline" him. Though if you truly 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 croak out 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...I-I’m sorry-y…” Sairek hiccuped in apology over and over again. "H-He just doesn't care... or he doesn't show it... I-I don't know what to do anymore... I, I just had to get out for a while... That's all I w-wanted..." he sniffled.

“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, Young 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 tears out from his eyes. “A girl, about my age… H-Her name is Nayleen... 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. I swear, if I knew the boy I served back then would be such a... well, never you mind.”

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…” Sairek 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.” Laure tutted.

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."

"A-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


“Grrr...!! That... That asshole...!” Sairek cursed in rage, borrowing Nayleen's language from earlier. Sairek angrily crumpled the letter up into a tight ball and tossed 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, merely watching the tossed ball of paper as it rolled out the doorway in confusion.

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 form, 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 a lease to. 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 auto, working like a drone without trying to put too much brain power into the work, 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 muttered, quickly looking down at the signature. Sure enough…
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. Of course, given that he was being punished... he had to check the letter and its contents for its validity. And as for Laure...

"Hmm. You're right." Sairek sighed, turning back to sit upright in his chair. "It would be a shame if a certain Prince's habit of reading to himself out loud just happened to reach the ears of any individual who happens to be close by! <A-Ahem...>"


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. “Seriously...? First Kior intruded on our borders, now they do so on Masirean's? 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, especially if those were on Masirean soil. There's no mistaking that with Masirean being on its separate land from mainland soil."

“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 compare to 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 of wanting to confirm the letter. Reading a private letter is far from the worst of ‘terrible acts’ I’ve done to him. Even he isn't that kind of petty, at least.” 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...”