Wizards of the Otherworldly Court: Five, Twenty-three, and Twenty-nine Years

Chapter 6 Interlude Ronald's Collection: With the Illyers - Extra

Azhure: A bit short, hence an Interlude (and because the Court Wizards are absent), and I'm kinda burned out, so I'm taking rests here and there while writing in-between. Also, I have college work.

Voice: So apologies for all the future delays in advance!

---

"Dear, please..." Allister pleaded with a sad frown. "I still have work to do..."

"Absolutely not!" Marisa, his wife, expressed firmly as she dangled on his leg, soiling her wear on the floor. "I am not letting you go after what just happened!"

"Hah..." Allister sighed, gently tugging his leg so as to not drag his wife across the floor in a comical fashion. "This is just like when we were children..."

Everybody else could only stare with their jaws open.

---

"I... did not expect that sort of... behavior from you, mother," Elaine, the younger daughter of the duke, said dryly as she sat on the couch with her fiancee, prince Albert.

After the near-successful poisoning of the duke and the subsequent clinging of the duchess, three of the Illyers now rest in the living hall. Neptune was there too, resting on the mother in question's lap with his eyes shut, as his namer was with the Court Wizards.

"Yes, madam Illyer," prince Albert added in. "It was quite... unexpected."

"Forgive me, dear," was Marisa's reply, almost chuckling even. "It reminds me of how close your father is to death when we were still engaged. I could not help but to make sure he was okay."

"Ah, duke Illyer did say something like that when you were children," Albert realized.

"Yes," Marisa nodded slowly, reminiscing a melancholic past. "When we were young, Allister often found himself in harm's way; whether we spent time together as children, going about his day-to-day life, or practicing spirit arts with Neptune here.

"You know he was a clumsy one before he matured into an intermediate," she explained as she caressed the intermediate spirit's bald head. "And even though he had grown, he is still quite the baby."

"That he is," Elaine chuckled at her mother's remark about the spirit. "So you grew overly concerned with father because of that?" she then asked.

"Yes, but I did not become so... clinging to him when he runs into his near-death at first." Marisa rolled her eyes for a bit, reminiscing for what caused her erratic behavior in regards to her husband.

"Ah!" she recalled. "It was around a year after I was introduced to him as my betrothed. At that time, I viewed him as the boy I am to marry and nothing more.

"We were in a carriage en route to this city after Allister visited mine when a bunch of ruffians ambushed the carriage and abducted me."

That reminds me of lady Irene's/sister's predicament, both betrothed thought, recalling a similar tale. Marisa had quite the episode when its news came back home.

"I was told they were from a rival household but not much else," Marisa explained. "But anyway, as I was being dragged away along the pathway of a forest, it was Allister who came to my rescue, chasing after me on a horse he was too short to ride, alone."

Definitely lady Irene's/sister's predicament, both betrothed confirmed.

"I was fully conscious when it happened and was perplexed by his actions," Marisa continued. "We had only known each other for a few months and yet he went out of his way to rescue me, especially the prowess he had as a child and he had only named Neptune half a year prior."