I woke early the next morning, quietly slipping into my clothes for the day and going outside, leaving Jackson asleep to wake up when he wanted to. I walked outside and tried calling Rapier, but his highness was obviously too busy catching up on his beauty sleep to answer his phone. I then tried contacting Glaive who picked up, which I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised. He sounded happy and excited.
"Hey man, how are you?" I asked, while looking out the window, looking down at the hook look shape that one the spurs of the mountain made. I really badly wanted to hound him for an explanation, but at such a critical point in time, small talk was better than jumping straight to his rebellious ventures.
"Hey guy, I'm good." Glaive yawned, he sounded like he had been up the entire night, and was about to fall asleep, but he seemed like he had just enough energy to hold or conversation. "I haven't slept like, at all, but I'm now King Duke, that antidote worked, because apparently both chalices were poisoned, so the king had also had an anti venom to the viper venom, but when I survived he got confused and confessed it to the public, which made them turn on him and killed him, while he tried to defend himself with the glass. It was funny, I'm going to lie."
I laughed at that, it was just too good hearing Glaive's voice alive and happy and still cracking jokes. I went out onto the balcony, where I was able to look at the spur in it's full glory. I watched as birds circled over the marketplace, which could be seen from the rising of homely like smoke, which was from the open-air cookers that were stationed there. "So how did his family take it? Or did you order to have them all killed as well?"
"I'm not that sort of person Braedon, I simply let the power of the people come into effect, it was interesting when the public was given access to guns and other firearms to shoot at that family. I would say I was slightly sad, but that would just be me trying to be sympathetic, which isn't one of the traits I would put on my CV. But enough about me, have you heard from Raven yet?" His tone of voice went serious, dead serious, making me scared that something had happened during the time that I was away from them.
"The only thing that I have heard is that she became queen by winning a debate over it and becoming the first unmarried woman to rule in over 500 years. Why do you ask?" I was now convinced that something was up, I didn't know what, but there was definitely something odd that was happening or had happened, and I was going to find out what it was, one way or another.
"Oh, no reason, I was just wondering." Now I knew that something was wrong, Glaive would have explained it, and in great detail to, if there was nothing to worry about, with information that meant nothing to me and so I therefore blocked it out of my memory soon after hearing it. There was no way that I was going to be able to forget this, no matter how much he tried to pretend there was nothing, I knew that something was up, it didn't matter how long I had to pester, I would find out, with or without his help.
"I said, why do you want to know, and I know that you know that I am not going to leave you alone until you tell me, so why don't you just hurry it up and tell me, both you and I have a long day of ruling ahead of us and I would prefer it if I could spend it talking about peace negotiations with you, not comments about your girlfriend." I swear I could feel the heat in his cheeks rise through the phone, which made me smile, knowing that there was no way that I was going to let this slide, not even if he told me everything, he had lied to me and I was most definitely not going to let him get away with doing that.
"Fine, I'll tell you," He sounded so defeated for someone who wasn't even doing anything serious. "I may or may not be thinking about marrying her, I know what you will be saying 'but you are too young Glaive' let's be reasonable Knife, at the stage we are at, if we are not married, but still in a relationship, that leaves people to speculate and pester both me and Raven, and I will not stand for it, I would never be able to live with myself if I put her through such a trail, and you should respect it." He was convinced, and unfortunately, when Glaive is set on something, he doesn't turn back, he dives head first into it just to prove his point to everyone, even if he ends up on the losing side, he is too stubborn to back down.
"Fine mate, I can't stop you, but you have to realize that the others probably will try, and if you do anything stupid, there will be no way out of it, for you or Diana." I was good at being devil's advocate, but not so good at being anything else, I often was called pessimistic by the others, but I did not really care, the point wasn't to be happy, it was to make informed choices and stay alive, something the others would have failed at if it hadn't been for my help on numerous occasions.
"Like you said Braedon, you can't stop me, I will do as I please, don't get in my way please, I would hate to be forced to keep up this war." He was now bringing politics into this argument, that was taking it a bit far. "I will see you here in two hours let us say? I hope you are not late, my advisors hate anything that is not done to the book." and with that, he cut the line, making me want to shoot him myself.
I went back into my room and sent a message to Raven which simply read 'be at Glaives speech, he will want you there' which wasn't exactly true, but if it meant that there was a possibility that Glaive would calm down then I was willing to take it any day, whether or not it turned out to be helpful was a completely different matter that could be attended to later. As I was already dressed I woke Jackson and told him to get dressed as we were going to be going to a meeting, which he was surprised that I was asking him to come, not one of my advisors but, when a kid is two years younger than you, you tend to prefer them to a fifty or so year old man who is too busy asking you to marry someone than to actually focus on the job at hand. Jackson got changed into a crimson business suit with the rearing stallion emblem over his chest. It was slightly too large for him, but it still gave the appearance of someone of importance, which was exactly what I needed to do for the point to get across that I run a country too, and that I was not going to be pushed around by someone a head shorter than me.
Sam drove us there. He was so nice about it, there was never any complaint about it, he just did what he was supposed to, making him invaluable to me and I silently made a note to give the man a promotion to the level of chaperone or something like that. He dropped us off out the front of Government Building in Graten, where any diplomatic venture was to take place when in Gambrene. Jackson stared up at the modern architecture, which was unheard of in Sloce, as it was designed to be similar to a Roman-Medieval settlement, although with the benefits of modern building techniques such as concrete stilts. He was so busy gawking at it that we were almost late into the foyer, however, we made it precisely when we were supposed to, which was an achievement for me, as I am normally terrible with time. Glaive was standing there, and next to him stood Raven, in a flowing gold dress that made her ice-blue eyes shine out of place, almost too cold in contrast with the warmth of the golden tinge of the dress. We all stared at each other for a second, before our eyes drifted to our advisors, however, for myself I made my own decisions, but Jackson was still there for moral support and to remind me of what I stood here for, the people of Sloce.
We all were escorted into a large room with high windows and a dusty and dry atmosphere, which just made my mouth cry for the wind that hurtled past me when I was on the mountain. I stood there, before realizing that I was required to stand in a place facing Glaive, who gave a cheeky smile like he had already won, even though he hadn't. Raven took the place of judge and sat and waited for the negotiations to begin, which took a while as no one had expected such a thing to happen at such short notice. My stomach turned inside out, sure I could public speak, but against my friend? On top of that, people started coming in, taking a seat, like this was some sort of public entertainment, which of course it wasn't. I started to get sweaty hands and my vision became blurry, but I shook it off, there was no way I was going to back down from a challenge of my leadership such as this. On top of that, Glaive was gambling hundreds of civilian lives, most of whom I had never met, but I was ready to defend to the death, even if Glaive brought it down to a fight between just the two of us, which I hoped for both our sakes wasn't going to happen. Still, his actions towards this debate seemed to relaxed to be like a normal human reaction, which supported my ever growing theory that he did not care for his country, which was a horrible accusation to make and I was sure was false, but still, you could never be too sure of yourself, especially when you are facing them as friends in a battle for peace, which is ironic in itself.
There was shouting outside the room and my military advisor burst in, with a look of murder in his eyes. He came up to me and tried to hold his shaking voice while he asked why I had left without him, which I replied bluntly to by stating that while he was good with war planning, it took a child and a child's imagination to think of peace, as well as the lack of reasons why I should not have left without him, as he had not been ready at the correct time, nor had he been able to get in the car at the assigned time, which we had agreed upon. He was fuming and I knew that I was not going to be able to let a scene like this continue in front of such people, so I told him so and said to either sit down and shut up, or go and wait with Sam at the car, or alternatively simply leave. He slumped down in the chair next to Jackson, who gave me a thumbs up for good luck. I turned and face Glaive again, only to see a similar scene being acted out for him, which almost me laugh at the coincidence, but I controlled myself enough not to, as he had done me the service of not laughing at me, so I should at least give him that.
Glaive looked at me, the grin was gone, he was not playing games anymore, this was serious Glaive, the one that would defend his friends to the death. The one that, given the chance, would rip anyone who threatened him or anyone he cared about to shreds.