The Dawn of the Aurous Blade

~3~ Nothing but Splinters

Don't cue music yet, lovelies.
~
Ruy tore off his tie, skidding to his office on the top tower. He body-slammed his door open, causing the poor maids to have a heart attack. The Black Swan, they were catching on to his work in the university! He had found the artifact months ago following a small lead. The Black Swan and the Neverseen were two of the same in Ruy's mind now.

He rustled around in his clusterfuck of an office before unearthing his minyama. The call rang three times before Keefe Sencen picked up. Keefe wore his teacher uniform, luckily on a break while all the Dunmer school children were on recess. Keefe actually hugged (yes hugged) Ruy when he offered the elf the position four years ago.

"Ruy?" Keefe snickered, "How can I help you, your royal highness?"

"The Black Swan, have you heard anything from them? Heard anything about them?"

Keefe blinked, "No, ever since what Leto did came to light, we all left the Black Swan, as did most of the other Black Swan members. They all disbanded."

"Okay, what about Juline? She was in the collective, right? Maybe she'll know?"

Keefe shook his head, "No, she left with the rest of us. Has mostly been working with the elven Council from what I hear. Ruy, what is going on?"

"We need to find them-" Ruy began to pace, rambling off, "I've been working too hard for all of this to go down the drain!"

"Okay, SLOW DOWN." Keefe snapped. Ruy quit his panicked rambling, and Keefe took a deep breath, "Did you see Leto? Is that what this is about?"

Ruy grimaced, "No? If I saw him, I would snap his neck. I was doing my normal rounds at the university, and I saw a swan carved under the anthropology door, the exact door where the artifact is."

Keefe stared in silence before hissing, "You found an artifact?! And you thought to keep it to yourself?! That's kinda important info!"

"Yeah, yeah, yell about it later. We need to move the artifact!"

Keefe opened his mouth to respond, but his classroom back door slammed open, and swarms of children stampeded into their classroom.
"Mr. Sencen, look what I made you! It's a mud pie from the dirt outside!" One of the children giggled, sliding the slop onto his desk. The child reached over his desk to look at the teacher's minyama. The kid was missing their two front teeth, and their horns were nothing more than knubs on her forehead. The little kid gasped,

"Is that the Prince? Are you friends with the prince? Tell him I think his hair is pretty! And his crown! And his-

"Romana, get back to your seat." Keefe sighed. Keefe turned to his minyama, "I will discuss this with you later."

"My mom says that if you talk to the royals like that, they'll chop your head off!" Another kid piped up.

"Kids, another word out of any of you, and I won't just tell you what the Great Gulon incident, but I'll force you to endure it! Great Gulon incident 2: Electric Boogaloo!" The kids gasped and screamed in horror, scrambling to their seats.

Keefe gave him a quick wave before the video snapped to a close. Ruy growled, throwing his Minyama aside.
This can't be good at all.

"Ruy?" Sarai's voice echoed from outside his door. Oh, he was absolutely not in the mood to talk to his mom right now. Sarai welcomed herself in any way, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers. They announced his engagement to Henrietta yesterday, and Ruy flew off the minute he was off that stage.

"Son, I know you are angry-"

Ruy flung open the door, "I'm not marrying that woman, Mom. I'm not."

Sarai fiddled with her fingers, "Can you just walk with me?"