This takes place eighteen years after the God of Madness was defeated and the Guardians had set forth to fight amongst the Cosmos. Chris, James and I all collaborated on this one, so sit back and enjoy! If the text is too wide for you, feel free to paste it into Word or something similar.
Chapter 1
Alexis came down the stairs of the pub into the joined kitchen of the inn and pub. "Good morning," she said to everyone.
"Morning," they called back. Claire piped up in her normally cheery mood, "What has gotten you up so early this morning? You normally don't do your room check until nearly noon."
As if to answer her question six year old Alexander came running down shortly after. "Momma, if the chores are done can we go now?"
"My little bottle of energy here woke me up before dawn and wanted to make sure we could go to the opening of the festival this morning."
"Can we please, momma?" Alexander begged.
"Yes we can, but go get your cloak. It is chilly out." In his excitement he ran to find where he left his cloak.
"I don't know where that boy gets his energy." Claire sighed.
"From his father. I had forgotten how much trouble Jen use to get into when he was little."
"Oh, and you were perfectly innocent?" Claire gave her a wry smile.
"I didn't say that." Alexis grinned. She didn't get to say more because Alexander had returned.
"Momma, look who I found!" he was dragging someone by the hand. "Aunt Rachel."
"Good morning Rachel. How are you this morning?"
"Much better since I got a hug from this guy," she ruffled Alexander's hair.
"She was patching the hole I had gotten in my cloak." He smiled.
"At the rate you are going, I will have to make you a new one because you have destroyed this one, before I have to make you a new one because you have out grown it." She smiled at the boy. She looked over to Alexis, "Other than this guy, why are you awake this early?"
"Honestly?" She held up a letter, "Ladies club business."
Rachel nodded knowingly, "Hey Alexander, want to go for a walk down to the festival grounds?"
"Sure!"
"Then let's go. I'm sure your brother and sisters are already there." Rachel and Alexis walked out the door with the boy.
As they walked through the streets Alexis held the boy's hand but she spoke to Rachel the whole time.
"So what is that letter and does it affect the Ladies club."
The Ladies club was something that Alexis, Rachel, and Mildred had begun not long after the men had left. Alexis was the unofficial head of the three. While every day the three of them went about typical peasant lives, the Ladies club ran the family business. The three of them were actually rather powerful in the non-religious political world. To be patronized by the Ladies club was an honor that few attained. Few people could understand the loneliness, and heartache that the loss of their husbands did to them and it had bonded the women together into a sort of sisterhood. If it affected one of the families it affected them all.
"It is a letter of intent." Alexis half smiled. "Intent to court for marriage letter."
"Everyone knows better than to present one of those to the three of us. Our husbands may not be here everyday but we are all still happily married." She stepped to evade a cart. "Besides, our husbands arrive tomorrow at dawn. Why would someone send an intent letter when they know they return tomorrow?"
"Because it isn't for the three of us, it is for one of my daughters."
"Jenos isn't going to like that." Rachel whistled.
"At least this guy is going through proper channels this time."
"The guy last year who asked for Tirai's hand is lucky a broken hand is all he ended up with."
"What do you expect of a guy who demands her hand in marriage, and Tirai can't stand him one iota? The guy is lucky she didn't cut his bits off." Alexis chuckled.
"So is this one for Tirai again? She is turning into quite a beauty."
"I'm afraid she is already spoken for." Alexis gave her a wry smile. "That is if the guy would pull his head out of his butt and see what is right in front of his eyes."
"Give the boy a break. He is his father's son. It took his father a while to get his head on straight." Rachel chided.
"Does his father really have his head on straight?" Alexis raised an eyebrow.
"Point taken." Rachel sighed. "Are you sure you want him as part of your family?"
"Rachel, you know as well as I, he is already family, though not by blood."
"Momma, I can see the banners." Alexander tugged on her hand. "Can we find Daniel, and Tirai?"
"I think they have guard duty this morning, but I'm sure Irina and Art are at the sporting ring sparing."
"Oh!" Alexander grumbled.
"His name is Artorus, Alexis." Rachel said aside, "Why can't you ever call him that?"
"I'm sorry Rachel but there is a reason that I gave Alexander the name I did. I liked my father in law, but I never cared for his name. It meant the world to Jen to have your son named for his father, but…" Alexis shook her head.
"Come on, let's see what they are up to." Rachel rolled her eyes, and pressed on through the crowd.
"Be careful pretty maid, you wouldn't want to put a scar on that face of yours," a rather burly man taunted from the other side of the fighting ring.
Irina Idanian merely saluted him with her weapon. This was just a practice match between the competitors with training weapons, but others took them far more seriously than they should. She gave him the first strike but it did him little good. It was over in less than thirty seconds. He was on the ground, unconscious, while she stood there with her wooden sword at his throat with hardly a scratch on her.
"Well done," Alexis clapped from nearby. "Though I wish you didn't do that last move. It scares me half to death."
"You weren't supposed to see me do those." She came over and hugged her mother.
"That was cool!" Alexander cheered for his sister.
"Oh, calm down squirt!" Irina pulled Alexander's hood over his head good naturally.
"Have you seen Artorus?" Rachel asked looking around.
"Artie? He was right here." Irina looked around for him. Rachel glared at her for using his nickname.
"There he is," Alexis pointed him out at a nearby food stand.
"I swear I can not get that boy to stop eating." Rachel sighed.
"He is a growing boy Rachel, what do you expect?" Alexis chuckled.
A couple minutes later Artorus joined them, "Good morning Aunt Alexis," he bent and kissed her cheek, "and Mother." He kissed her cheek as well. "What bring you up here this morning?"
"Sure kiss your aunt first," Rachel teased.
"This guy," Alexis hugged Alexander, "wanted to see the start of the faire, and your mother and I needed to talk to Irina." Alexis looked to Irina with a serious look. "Would you mind showing him around Art?"
"Sure," Artorus was tackled by the six year old, "Come on squirt, I'll show you all the neat stuff." He picked up the boy and put him on his shoulders. "We will meet you back here in an hour."
After the boys had left Alexis turned to Irina. "We need to talk."
"So I gathered. It takes a lot to get you near the fighting pens." Irina growled.
"Let's go find a place to talk." Rachel gestured them away from the other fighters who were starting to stare at them.
The three of them found a small grove of trees in which to talk, "So what is it you want to talk about?" Irina looked over at them.
"A courier dropped this off at the inn last night. It is a letter of intent to court."
"Well good for Tirai. I'm glad he finally got off his butt."
"It isn't for Tirai," Rachel glared at her. "It's for you."
"Me?" Irina took it from her mother, and read it, "Why would someone want to court me?"
"Oh I don't know," Alexis ticked off things on her fingers, "Your family is one of the most well to do and influential in the kingdom, your brother is 2nd Lieutenant to the captain of the guard. Your father is one of the Celestial guardians; oh, I don't know any reason why a man would be interested in you."
"Mother… I would hope you think more of me than that. "
"I've never lied to you, and I won't stop now. " Alexis sighed, "As beautiful as you are, and how good in battle you are, are not the things that most men are interested in about you. So who is this Darren Crawford? "
"He is captain of the southwest garrison. His father is a powerful merchant over there. "
"That is the same garrison that has been berating you to join them, isn't it?"
"Yes. They have been trying to lure me to join their garrison for the past few months."
"And this may be another ploy to get you to join them?" Rachel asked.
"Actually I think it is the other way around. Darren is charming but he is also quite the jerk. He handles a weapon well, and is a bit of a historical scholar, but he is ba…"
"Don't say it young lady!" Rachel scolded. Alexis tried not to grin.
"So what do you want to do about it?" Alexis looked the letter over, "That is unless you want to let your father deal with him."
"Dear goddess! I think the guy is a slimy gitt but no man deserves what poppa would do to him."
Alexis laughed, "Okay… so what do you want me to do about this guy?"
"Turn his offer down, and tell him that I am not ready for courting."
"That won't work for long Irina. You are already of age and have yet to have a serious suitor," Rachel warned her.
"Why is my marital status so important to you? To both of you?"
"Irina, you are like a niece to me, always have been. I worry about you like you are a daughter. All you do is spar, and train. You don't seem to think of the future." Rachel stated rather frustrated. "Who is going to look after you?" Rachel knew she said something wrong soon as it left her mouth.
"I don't need some man to look after me. I can take care of myself. I am not anyone's puppet to play with. I will not be forced into something I don't want."
"Can you convince her to see sense?" Rachel turned to Alexis.
"She sounds reasonable to me," Alexis held up a hand to both of them, "However Rachel does have a small point, even if she didn't express it properly." Alexis sighed, "Irina, you are of age, which means society says you should be looking for a spouse. I will say that sometimes it take a while to find the right guy who will treat you as you want to be treated."
"Yeah; dad had to get his mind off other things first." Irina rolled her eyes. "I know what you are trying to say but frankly I haven't found anyone who does treat me like that."
"That is all I ask. Just at least SEE some suitors at the house on occasion to keep the wolves at bay. "Alexis pleaded.
"Alright I will, but I won't like it much."
"Good, now come on before Art feeds Alexander so much junk he is sick." Alexis coaxed her daughter along.
The ladies headed off and soon ran across Artorus, with Alexander sitting atop his shoulders. "Thanks for watching him for me, Art." Alexis took her son from him.
"No problem. He is a good kid." He ruffled Alexander's hair. "Irina, I've got a match in a few minutes; would you mind being in my corner?"
"Sure, that is if you don't mind mum. We will head back to the inn to help get everything ready soon as he is finished."
"That sounds fine, just come back in one piece please." Alexis smiled.
"This is me you're talking about, Aunt Lexie. I'll put Uncle Jenos to shame one day."
Irina chuckled in spite of herself. "I'll tell dad that tomorrow when he arrives, if you'd like?"
Artorus went slightly paler. "Um…no thanks. I said one day, not tomorrow."
"See you later Mum." Each of them kissed their mother's cheek before they left.
As they were walking back to the inn, Alexis was uncharacteristically quiet.
"Penny for your thoughts, Alexis?" Rachel nudged her.
"Oh, just thinking. "She smiled.
"About what?"
"How young people can't see what is right in front of them." Alexis chuckled.