Reunion at Sea

Mercenary

"I am." He nodded firmly. "Even if several fools believe otherwise."

"I'm not asking details." Ambrosio waved his hand dismissively. "I'll do the job if I can have you for the rest of the night."

Frederic stepped back, his cheeks going pink. "'H-Have me'?"

"I promise to be gentle." Ambrosio licked his lips.

"Go on then, Fred." Lucas laughed. "You might even enjoy it!"

Frederic looked at Lucas, then back at the winged faun before he sighed and nodded. "Alright. One night."

"Great." He grinned. "I'll go get the kid tomorrow, then." He offered Frederic a hand and he took it before letting him lead him away.

"We'll be back tomorrow to pick you up!" Lucas called. "Selina, you coming back tonight?"

"Nope, I'm good here." She assured him.

"See you tomorrow, then." Lucas grinned and walked out with Tromus.

Melina noticed them and followed them out. "Soo...will he do it?"

"He took payment." Lucas nodded. "We'll have our little bird soon."

–

The other Disciples had been unnervingly quiet. Ruddiger and Gothel sat together on top of the roof of Rapunzel's tower, looking out at the Kingdom.

"What do you think they're planning?" Ruddiger asked.

"I don't know." Gothel clutched at her skirt. "And, honestly, that frightens me. We have no way of knowing, even Kline can't see that clearly, or is not allowed to tell us if he is."

Ruddiger sat back on his hands. "...It's nice to be able to do this again."

"Hm?" She looked at him.

"Just...you know, sit, talk, spend time together. I know that could be a little shit before, I pulled pranks and, frankly, I hate who I used to be. But, we had some good moments, right?" He looked at her.

She smiled a bit. "Yes, we did." She looked down at where Rapunzel, Elsa and Varian were training in the courtyard – more like showing off, really. People loved watching them show off their powers together. "Such a peaceful moment...all those smiles, easily wiped away by an animal attack or something." She frowned.

Ruddiger nodded, then sat up properly. "We have to do what we can to make sure that they don't succeed, whatever they're plotting."

"How can we do that without any hints, though? The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow isn't even in Corona anymore, last we checked." Gothel shrugged.

"We keep our eyes and ears open." Ruddiger got up. "C'mon, let's get back to the others. I bet they're wondering where we are."

Gothel nodded and then she flew down as Ruddiger used his Disciple form to do the same.

"Hey, Ruddiger! Hi, Gothel!" Varian greeted, then summoned water that Elsa turned to ice before she shattered it into little flakes of snow that fell onto the people watching and melted quickly.

"Okay, that's enough playing around." Eugene walked over to them. "Sunshine, you have Queen stuff to do. Your mom is waiting to advise you through it."

"Oh, okay." She pouted. "I'll train some more later."

"See you later!" Varian grinned and turned to Elsa. "Alright, let's keep going!"

"Actually, Anna is looking at me with puppy eyes, so...I gotta go." Elsa chuckled a bit and walked over to her sister. "What do you want to do?"