"Ooh ! What is this?"
"It's a blueprint," River answered, clumsily stuffing the mess on the table in to drawers. "Put that down."
Valour looked around the candle-lit workroom, brows furrowed. The corners of his lips were tugged down in a slight frown.
"You need windows, Fuuko," he pointed out. "How do you work like this?"
He vaguely waved at the room, which looked like someone had tried to trap a whirlwind inside it. Tools and metal scraps were hazardously strewn across the floor, and the table was overflowing with parchments of sketched graphs. Hot wax beads rolled down the candle, pooled on the leather cover of Art of Warcraft, and hardened.
"Sit," River signaled at the single chair he owned, diverting the conversation from the depressing topic of absent windows.
Valour sank into the chair and grunted, "New chair, too."
River rammed himself into the overfilled drawer, struggling to close it."Humor me, what's going on in the world?"
"Azi has all her baby teeth!" Valour stated, sounding proud. "And she bites everything now."
River chuckled. "What else?"
Valour tapped his fingers on the table. "Nothing much; everything is peaceful out there."
He started drawing lines on the wooden surface with his index finger. "Ayla got you something for tonight's banquet."
River snapped his head to look at him. "What do you mean for the banquet?"
"You are coming to the banquet."
River stared at his brother, dumbstruck. His heart did a little blackflip at the idea of attending his niece's banquet, but that was not possible. They both knew it.
"Val, I'm not."
"You are," Valour said firmly, an uncharacteristic frown clouding his face.
River scrutinized the older man, trying to find a hint of suppressed laughter. This has to be one of his unfunniest jokes. The King would never permit such a thing. Even if he did, the Queen would not.
"What did you do to make them agree?" River asked.
"I told her that if you are not coming," Valour paused, tasting his words. "We aren't either."
Against his better judgment, River slapped the man- who would become the future King of North- on the head.
"Awww!" Valour whined, like a kicked puppy. "What was that for?"
"The Queen is going to roast me over a bonfire and serve me to guests!" River pulled on his hair in frustration. "What have you done!?"
"It's my daughter's banquet, and I decide who comes," Valour argued, "and her uncle must come."
River found himself rendered speechless. He could get angry at his brother for pulling a stupid stunt like that, but what was done was done. He inhaled deeply, forcing himself to calm down.
Despite his sunny temperament, Valour could be as stubborn as a mule at times. If he set his mind to something, he would see it through, no matter what came in his way.
"You do understand that Verlice of the North has only one prince, don't you?"
Valour looked up at him, looking like he might start crying, but said nothing. They both knew it was the truth. No matter how hard Valour tried, the Verlices would never accept their second son as a part of the family. They would never acknowledge his existence.
A few moments of awkward and tense silence fell on two brothers.
River's heart kicked up in elation. If they had permitted his attendance, one way or another, that meant he could go outside. Even if it was for a few short hours,even just to the other side of the palace, he would be let out of his wretched house arrest.
To a banquet, to boot!
"I'll come," River said at last, not letting his face betray the giddiness bubbling up in him. Valour's face instantly lit up, like a kid who had been offered candy.
River stopped himself from thinking about confronting the Queen at the banquet tonight or at any point in the future. He could almost see her narrow black eyes burning holes in his face.
She hated River to her core and was not subtle about it either. She could not keep her unfilial son from hobnobbing with his younger brother, no matter how hard she tried, and it made her furious.
River was born into a heavenly bloodline. This meant his god-knows-how-great-grandfather was one of four legendary warriors who attained godhood. But for some reason, the said heavenly relative, who oversees the mortal affairs of the kingdom, has abandoned him at birth.
This has never happened in the past thousand centuries, and needless to say, it was considered a worse omen than a torrential downpour on a wedding day.
Not knowing what to do with him, the Verlices assumed that the gods wanted them to pretend like he didn't exist as well. On the other hand, a son rejected by the gods was not exactly a good look for a royal family.
So the decision was made to put him under house arrest for, well, forever. Or at least until the gods said otherwise. And so far, it looks like this is exactly what the heavens wished for.
He had a shamefully tiny amount of divine essence, which was basically the blood of gods. This meant that, other than charming little artifacts, River could not perform higher magic.
Gods also speak to their descendants regarding important mortal matters. According to Valour, it's like a voice in their heads, guiding them. For the last nineteen years of his life, River had not heard the voice of a holy spirit either.
So that's how River ended up as a nameless nobody who was fated to rot behind the stone walls of the East Wing.
"Speaking of which," Valour gave River an unreadable look. "Do you know Raven Alistair?"
"The infamous King of the South?"" River asked. "Who doesn't know him?"
Even River, who had literally lived under a rock, knew about Raven Alistair. The name constantly popped up in Valour's letters, starting three years ago.
Valour's little pen pal arrangement and his blind valet, who was allowed out in the main palace, were his only sources of juicy political gossip.
Raven Alistair, better known as the slayer of Alistair, was the new king of South and was quite the talk of the town.
"Let's try again." Valour furrowed his brows. "Does he know you?""
"Unless he is North God, no," River replied. "Why ?"
"I met him in Seafort two full moons ago. He was disturbingly interested in knowing if I had siblings."
River felt his brows furrowing. It was indeed peculiar.
"He even went as far as asking if I was sure that our father didn't have illegitimate children." Valour scrunched up his face.
"Are you sure that your father didn't spawn another fucking hellion?"
Valour said in a deep,raspy voice, mocking the King of the South.
River felt a deep sense of unease settle in his stomach.
There were only a handful of people who knew of his existence. Besides Verlices, the High Priestess, his dead mother, and his blind valet, not even the royal physician knew of the second Verlice son.
From the midwife who cut his umblical cord to separate him from his mother's corpse to the master who taught him to read and write -the king killed them all,solely to keep his existence a secret.
To know the Verlice secret was to die.
So to hear that a man had been asking around for the couraged one's sibling, with the sure knowledge that such a sibling existed, was indeed disturbing.
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Ayla Yearwood