"So, what is the reason for your visit?" Loy questioned Jared as Selice joined them for dinner in the royal family's dining hall.
"I'm traveling to different countries to learn of their cultures and customs when it comes to how they work magic into their societies," Jared stated. It was the excuse he came up with years ago when he started traveling with Lucy. And no one ever doubted such a long-winded boring answer, but the prince's eyes narrowed.
"And what other countries have you been to?" Loy pressed.
"I've actually been overseas exploring the western continent," Jared replied, which wasn't a complete lie.
"That's a side of the world I've yet to find my way to," Loy said, taking a sip of his drink. "Is it worth the trip?"
"I didn't find it to live up to my expectations," Jared responded, his voice dropping as he recalled the attack in Atexul.
"Well, I have quite a list of places for you to visit on this continent," Loy declared, settling back in his seat. "I'm quite the traveler myself. Isn't that right Selice?"
Servants weren't usual guests at the crown's dinners unless that servant was Selice and Loy was in town. Tonight, he did it to see what her relationship with this man was.
"He's more like a runaway prince," Selice clarified.
"But I always come back."
"Annoyingly so," Selice mumbled under her breath but loud enough for Loy to hear. Jared worried the prince would grow angry at the insult, but he only laughed.
"I was actually hoping to see the great library of Etilia," Jared said, glancing at Selice. She looked scared every time Jared spoke, but he tried his best to assure her with his eyes he wouldn't out her. "I'm quite the reader but I don't often get to see anything as grand as the library is said to be."
"That's because it's the only library that is as grand as what it's said to be," Loy explained, though he himself didn't much like spending his time there. He preferred learning about the world through experience, not the words on pages. "Selice probably knows enough to show you around. Is there any specific topic that interests you?"
Jared paused, grasping for an answer that wouldn't reveal his search for the last good king's diary. He looked at Selice and the only thing he could think to say was, "Stones. Enchantment stones."
Selice's entire face flushed white.
Loy looked at Selice, laughing to himself as her mouth gaped open with a spoon of rice hovering right in front of it.
"You may be in the exact right place then," Loy said, over a sip of wine.
"Loy!" The door to the private dining room burst open with a thud as loud as the yell that preceded it. A man as tall as Jared had ever seen, stood in the frame, almost taking up the entire length of it. Devane glanced around to finally notice Jared who looked like he had just about had a heart attack. His eyebrow rose in curiosity seeing someone from the western lands in their castle, but he also saw his target, the prince, who was currently evading the council meeting.
"You're coming with me now," Devane fumed, gripping the back of Loy's chair.
Loy was notoriously unflappable by almost anything, but Devane when he was angry, was the one point of fear that still held influence over the prince.
"Devane, have you met our guest?" Loy asked, trying to re-channel some of Devane's fury. "This is Jared."
"Hello," Devane greeted, with near no hospitality.
"It's nice to meet you," Jared replied while taking in the incredibly imposing chiseled features of the man. He also had a dark brown tan to his skin and fluorescent brown eyes that added to his drastic but attractive appearance.
The man looked him over, but Jared could only meet his scrupulous gaze for a second.
"So, our prince has time to host a guest from another country but not the time to discuss the ever-growing agricultural problems of our cloud lands?"
Loy half smiled to ease the aura of malice. "You're always talking of foreign relations. We almost never have a guest of Attwood in attendance."
Devane's guard raised as did the harshness in his voice when his attention veered back to Jared. "You went to Attwood?"
Jared nodded even against such obvious derision.
"Do you ever stop to think why we never invite Emorians to court?" Devane asked Loy but glared at Jared.
Loy watched as his guest shrunk under the excessively critical glare of his advisor. "Because you treat them so poorly?"
"Because they can't be trusted."
"I'm not here as someone to represent Emora," Jared urged after working up the courage to speak. "I don't have anything to do with the wants of my country."
"Then why are you here?" Devane challenged.
"Because I have my own," Jared declared, regaining his backbone as he remembered his responsibility to Lucy.
Devane's eyes seemed to dissect everything about Jared in just one glance, and though he didn't appear much older than himself, there was a remarkable gap between the two indicated by the intelligent and well-lived look behind the advisor's eyes.
Loy grinned to see someone go up against Devane which was near as uncommon an occurrence as it was to see him smile. While Selice, feeling as if a fight might break out between the two, grew increasingly unedged.
"Well, I want some lemon cake," Loy announced casually like there wasn't such drastic hostility about the room. "Do we have any?" He asked Selice.
"I don't know." She sighed; annoyed Loy seemed entertained by such alarming tension.
Devane ripped his scowl away from Jared back to the prince. "If you don't come to the council room right now, I'm going to make you swallow lemons whole."
Loy took a sip of his wine as a profound chill rushed his spine.
"Alright." He complied, knowing there was no room for disagreement when dealing with Devane in a foul mood. "Selice, why don't you take our guest to the library," Loy said, standing up to depart with his advisor.
Selice nodded more than keen to do whatever got her out of this uncomfortableness.
"Afterwards I could use your help in the baths again," Loy said with a lopsided smile back at her which ended in Devane grabbing him by the collar and jerking him out of the room before he could sexually harass Selice anymore.
"I'm not doing that last part," Selice said to Jared as she got up to lead the way. "But I will take you to the library."
"Thank you," Jared replied, following after her, but wondering if the prince knew of Selice's secret. She had panicked when she told him not to tell him, but with the way Loy teased her, it seemed like he might already know. Jared was certain that the advisor must have already figured her out with his astute clear eyes. The same ones that had pierced right through him and didn't seem to like what they were seeing.
~~~~~
"Why is someone from Emora here?" Devane asked once he was far enough away from the subject at hand.
"He's looking for something," Loy said as carefree as ever.
"And what is that?"
"I don't know exactly what yet." Loy hadn't bought his explanation at dinner, but he thought it too impolite to call him a liar before dessert. "But he might have something I'm looking for."
Devane read over the prince apprehensively. "You think he knows something about the rumors coming from Emora?"
Loy smirked to himself, but it masked a deep feeling of brewing doubt and insecurity. "Maybe he knows if they aren't just rumors after all."
Devane kept quiet but examined the prince. Loy was quick to dismiss any and all concerns, so witnessing him put any kind of effort or thought into these rumors let him know just how much it must be weighing on him.
"I've never sensed something like this before. Such a drastic rise in power." Loy explained as the weight of his necklace had never felt as heavy as it did lately. The artifact made him connected to the energies of the world in a strange way. Wherever great power pooled it called to him like it was informing him of a danger he needed to address. "Before that happens, I need to find out who this person is. If he's what they say he is, and what he intends to do with that power." Loy's eyes narrowed as his chain necklace caught the last of the day's sunlight. "While I can still kill if need be."
The advisor noticed the solid resolve in Loy's eyes. "Killing him would ensure a war with Emora, one that we are not likely to win."
"And leaving him alive could mean something much worse," Loy returned as he had considered his options a thousand times now, "Not just for Etilia but the entire world."
"Careful Loy," Devane replied, halting the prince right before they entered the council room, "Or your only choice will be the lesser of two evils."
"It's a good thing I'm so comfortable choosing evil then," Loy shot back with a forged easy smile as he opened the door to the conference hall. His father sat at the head of the table and was the reason Loy had tried to skip this meeting. The prince's smile faded upon seeing the king, but he held his head high as he took his seat.
The king disregarded his son's entrance to instead meet his advisor's eyes.
Choosing evil? Devane thought, working to ignore the monarch's stare as it reminded him of all the evil, he had been a part of in his time as an advisor to Etilia. You were born to it. He sat down between Loy and his father, bowing his head to the king who glared down at him with eyes old and bitter. An evil I've been trying to protect you from your entire life, Devane thought while avoiding the king's eyes in hopes his hostility would falter, by lying with evil myself.
The king's stare eventually shifted, but his resentment remained. Devane could feel it in the air as everyone there could, though Loy just thought it was his father's disappointment in him as a son he was sensing. The prince neglected to see how his father scowled at his most competent advisor and was thankfully ignorant of all that meant.
Devane meekly sighed as he worried for Loy's sake. He knew there was no comfort in choosing evil, it was necessary pain, and the only choice that mattered was the one that prevented evil from growing. He hoped he did enough in Loy's life that the evil that had grown into his father didn't grow inside him because he knew from all he had seen in his wicked life, that once evil takes root in the heart it doesn't become a choice, it becomes you.