Kingdom Rivalry

Chapter 5

Black Mist was thrown in his room roughly by his father. He growled menacingly.

"Father, I have no reason to-"

"You have every reason to lie!" Pluto exploded. "Now stop acting like a child!" He grabbed some rope that was in Black Mist's room for reasons of practicing knots and bound his son with it.

Of course, the dark prince put up a big fight. Every time the rope went to gag him, he bit it until it snapped. Pluto would then slap him and do it all over again until Black Mist no longer had the energy to fight back. Pluto left the room when he was satisfied and locked it.

Black Mist waited until the footsteps died away before biting through his gag and spitting it out. He smirked, his arms getting to work in breaking the rope.

Looks like training my muscle strength was worth something, wasn't it, Father?

Once his arms were free, he calmly undid the knots that bound his feet together, melted into a puddle, and slipped out the door.

~.~.~

Astral was led to the throne room with Kai, who wasn't really being very forceful at all. He was more polite than the Cosmic prince had initially thought.

It was unsettling.

"I assure you that my dear aunt and uncle will keep you safe while you are in their custody, prince," the cousin sneered politely. "Unfortunately, you will be unable to go home. See, you are our enemy and heir to the throne. If you stay, they will have no heir."

Astral's expression darkened. "My sister is still there, if you must know. Keeping me here will not change a thing except for raising the tension." He didn't bother fighting this aristocrat, not until he knew what he was up against. After all, he managed to stop Astral from teleporting; what else could he do? He had to assess how powerful this Number was before trying anything sneaky.

"And? Aunt and Uncle will be more than willing to fight with the likes of you and win." He then stopped and turned to Astral. "Tell me, how many times have we waged in battle, hmm?"

"Many times over the centuries," was Astral's immediate response.

"And which side always won, may I ask?"

Though the prince knew he had to answer, he cringed at the thought of satisfying this snobby aristocrat. "The Obscure won."

"Exactly. My relatives will be more than confident in their chances of winning, so I do not care whether the tensions rise and neither will they."

Astral crossed his arms and tapped his finger against his arm. His magically enhanced senses picked up on something moving underground, but as usual, his face was stoically frozen so as not to give anything away. "Is that so? Well, I will have you know that as of recently, there have been no battles. That definitely gave us time to train soldiers and develop new tactics to beat your kind. Trust me when I say that you will not like it."

Kai only chuckled elegantly. "Oh, my. I have to say that you argue much more intelligently than my cousin. Maybe I can have Uncle replace him with you. After all, I imagine you have more intelligence than him and are much more well mannered."

"Manners and intelligence do not always make the better prince. Sometimes, brashness and strength are just as well."

"I am starting to think that you have taken a liking to my cousin." He then stopped. "Tell me, when did you go from fear to..." He searched for the word he was looking for, stroking his chin.

It was at that exact moment when Black Mist shot out of the ground and grabbed Astral, dragging him out the window. The Cosmic prince went along with him, giving a dumbfounded Kai a knowing smile.

As they ran throughout the town, Black Mist and Astral were silent until they were well away from the castle. Then, they settled in some kind of site to rest. They were panting slightly, but both princes were conditioned to run long distance.

"That man, Kai," Astral started, forgetting that Black Mist was the one who got him into this mess, "he is related to you?" He peered closely at Mist, as if trying to see the resemblance.

"Not by blood," Black Mist shrugged with a sigh. "He comes from an aristocratic family, and then things happened, my mother happened to be a good friend of Kai's mother, and then she insisted that she could be his aunt or something. At least, that's what Vector and I came up with. In reality, I have no idea why he's my cousin."

Astral nodded. "He was rather intimidating..."

A small grin cracked out of the black face. "Tell me about it! I may put up a tough front, but he scares me half to death sometimes."

The Cosmic prince chuckled a little. "Hard to imagine."

Black Mist looked over to his mirror spirit with curiosity. "Why are you laughing?"

Astral shrugged. "I don't know." The smile faded, and he pulled his golden cloak tighter around himself. "Trying to keep the nerves away, I suppose."

"Nerves? Why would you be nervous."

Astral laughed darkly. "I'm in territory that I am unfamiliar with, the prince of that territory literally kept me here against my will and might try to stop me from leaving, not to mention the terrifying cousin who will more than likely kill the both of us now that we've made him mad!" He was bow trembling, his eyes showing his complete terror. "The king and queen are rumored to be heartless and cold and will kill any enemy on their turf, so I have every right to be absolutely terrified!"

Black Mist's eyes widened in surprise at this sudden outburst. He had been led to believe that the prince was as stoic as the first Obscure heir, but this completely contradicted that rumor. He averted his gaze, feeling a little merciful. "You can go back if you want," he mumbled. "I don't really feel like keeping you here if Kai might get the credit for capturing you. The only condition is that you tell no one about what happened between us."

Astral looked up in surprise. Was he for real? "Really...?" His eyes hardened and turned cold. "This isn't just some cruel trick?"

"No tricks. I can take you to the border of our lands, and you can go back from there."

"Th...thank you?"

"Come on." The Obscure prince got up from his place on the ground. "Let's get you home."