Regal |Fantasy Ryden AU| DISCONTINUED

-8-

"You look troubled, kid."

The sound of the royal mage's voice snapped Ryan out of his suffocating thoughts.  He jumped, nearly hitting his knees on the underside of the table he sat at, and his startled reaction only made Jon laugh more.

"Yeah, something definitely has you worked up."  Tankard full of mead in hand, Jon lifted his robes off the floor and joined Ryan at the table.  "All right, what's on your mind?  Along with being an incredible mage, I also happen to be quite good at listening to people talk about their feelings.  So go ahead.  I don't bite."

The fire from the torches on the walls snapped and popped into flickers of embers.  The atmosphere inside the Dragonheart Inn had calmed down significantly since the arrival of the quartet, but that didn't stop Ryan's mind from swirling with thoughts he couldn't keep track of.  If anything, the soothing silence only fueled his incessant pondering more.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of it all.

Glancing down at Jon's tankard, the sharp scent of the mead stinging his nostrils, Ryan heaved a sigh.  "It's nothing,"  he replied.  "It's probably far too complicated for me to explain, anyway."

"Well, not with that attitude."  Jon flashed him a smirk as he took a swig of his mead.  "We're all in this exhausting journey together, kid, so we might as well open up and get to know each other, right?"

Ryan couldn't hide a frail smile as Jon winked over the brim of his tankard.  He wasn't wrong.  The four of them were going to be together for weeks, perhaps even months, in order to finish the journey the Fates had prepared.  Their travels would be far from enjoyable if they didn't get along.

He nodded in agreement.

"That's what I figured,"  Jon continued with a mischievous smile of his own.  "Now come on.  Tell me what has you so deep in thought."

His smile faltering, Ryan's vacant gaze fell to the table once again.  Hundreds upon hundreds of bothersome thoughts were swarming his mind, and he wasn't quite sure how to articulate them.  Nonetheless, he knew he needed to start somewhere, otherwise he would never be able to lift the pressure weighing down on his chest.  "It's about the prince.  Everything I've experienced so far only confuses me more and more."

A knowing glint in his eyes, Jon pursed his lips.  "Ah, so that's why you've been sulking ever since we got here,"  he remarked, a pensive expression passing over his face.

"I just don't understand why he acts the way he does,"  Ryan went on.  "Ordering the royal adviser around, always snapping at you.  It doesn't make sense to me, and it's frustrating.  Isn't it frustrating for you?"

For a fleeting moment, Jon merely watched Ryan with an unblinking gaze.  Then he heaved a sigh, tracing the brim of his tankard as he readjusted himself on the bench.  "Listen, kid, since you're gonna be spending a lot of your time with the lovely prince of Asturias, you're gonna need to know some things about him,"  he said, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping.  "I mean no disrespect when I say these things, of course, because I'm still employed by his family, but I'm just stating the facts."

Ryan frowned.  He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into.

Swallowing a belch, Jon continued.  "First things first, the prince is an absolute sex addict.  He flirts with anything that has breasts and is naive enough to get in bed with him after a couple of offhand compliments.  Although, I'm sure you figured that out after he tried seducing that poor innkeeper."

Nodding his head, Ryan absentmindedly traced a pattern on the old wood of the table.  That was one of the first incidents that made him begin to question the prince's morality, and it had only spiraled downhill from there.