Skaia's Kingdoms
Disclaimer blah blah blah. Don't own Homestuck, etc.
Chapter 1: 🎂👻Father and Son🐰💨
A/N: Warnings: Shipping, none are final. Violence. POV alternation. Kingdom AU. I don't know if anyone has done this before, but I am, please tell me if there's a similar story/AU to this.
"No, no, no! It's all wrong!" Jade practically shrieked in your ear.
"Jade, cousin, it's my wedding." Jane responded to her bluntly.
"I know, I just want it to be perfect for you!" She grinned, flashing her buckteeth.
"Can't I get a say? She is my cousin, too." You interrupted.
Jade turned her head, and noticed how remarkably bored you were. "John! You didn't have to come. You are a boy. Aren't there duties to attend to rather than Jane's dress fitting?"
"The kingdoms are merging, shouldn't this wedding be our top priority?" Jade didn't look convinced, you sighed, and clearly she wasn't having your lies. Might as well tell her the truth. "The king wants me to work on some royal stuff. I really just didn't want to have any responsibilities. Weddings are great excuses."
"Speaking of priorities, isn't there a dinner with my soon-to-be husband this evening?" Jane asked, her dress's skirt dusting the floor as she looked away from the mirror. How that could possibly be the wrong gown, you didn't know; the once small and frail Jane looked so striking and prideful in it. It reminds you of days when things were simpler, but the family wasn't as fortunate.
Jane had been accepted as a maid in the palace. That was so great! Even though you were apprenticed at the bakery, she was the better one with homey kinds of things. Jade, however, did not even attempt to become a maid, she was cheerful learning the ways of magic with the palace witch. Had it been another kingdom, her practice wouldn't have been accepted. The king was a very kind man, though, and his son too. Speaking of the Prince, Jake had recently become a servant to him. What would your role be in this kingdom? A baker?
One day soon, news spread, mostly in rumors, regarding the prince. His relation to the king was questioned often. Eventually, Jake came home with a worried look on his face, it spelled trouble. He told you of a servant being killed. Another servant of the prince.
When the murder was investigated they could not tell what had happened. Jane stalked the progression and told you of her own theories on the case. When no solution was found, they turned to the palace witch for more help. Coincidentally, though, she passed away, from old age they said, but Jade hadn't believed it for a second. Your sister often spoke of the nice woman; a young soul in an old body. She would say that in her teenage years the witch abused magic, and was cursed to live old. A curse that made her live twice her lifespan fragile and disabled, with less capacity for magic. Old and deprived of its joys. There was no way she could have died naturally. Not yet.
As apprentice to the witch, Jade was called into the palace for continuation of the investigation. In fact, as the only living witch, who was almost of age for advancement, Jade was invited to attend a dinner. A dinner which would no doubt request her to become the new palace witch. A dinner your entire family was invited to.
The royal court attended the dinner. It was terrifying. What was even scarier was that they were all talking about two things. Why weren't your parents there? Also, the resemblance between the king and you was uncanny. Really, that had been the first clue.
"By the gods, Jake, Jane, how did you never notice how similar John looks to the king?" Jade whispered to the others anxiously.
"I thought I resembled him quite well." Jake said.
"The king has been a bit of a recluse since the prince's rebellious stages, and his several other kids' stupidity. They call him the shameful father around the maids' lounge." Jane explained. "I have only ever glimpsed him."
"This is really uncomfortable… he is looking at us, John!" Jade swatted at your thigh to get your attention.
"Umm, yeah… what?" Nobody could say you were proud of occasionally blanking out like that.
"I think he's going to say something to us…" Jane was now swatting at you as well, in a rushed panic. Everyone was glad that the table stretched all of the way across the room. As far as possible from royalty.
"Welcome to my palace." The king's booming voice made you jump a little in your chair.
When someone finally brought up the resemblance it was dismissed rather harshly for some reason. The rest of the dinner came and went like a blur. A very nervous and sweaty blur. You were just glad that the food was so good. If it wasn't, then the conversation would've been hard to carry, considering everyone talks about food, appearance, sports, and politics when they don't know what to say. Small talk has always been a boring but useful tool.
It wasn't until Jade discovered evidence indicating the prince's hand in killing the poor servant that you stepped into the castle again. Another dinner. Finally Jade said something without considering the reaction.
"Why did the prince kill the servant?" Somehow, she had said what was on everyone's minds. But still, she shocked them all by blurting it out.
A pause followed by a clearing of the throat. "The servant knew something the prince did not want him knowing." The king clearly wanted to move on. Jade would not have it; she was like a dog that had just found a scent.
"Oh, and that was?"
The king eyed her for a moment, making a decision that would change the rest of your lives. "He was not my real son. None of my supposed children were." An uproar came from the attendees.
"Who will be the next heir?"
"How did it happen?"
"Who are his real children?"
The king explained that they were stolen away at birth, and replaced with another women's children one by one. A conspiracy the queen had been involved in before she had supposedly died, probably running off with a lover and faking her death. He had no idea who his real children were. Jade suspected it was not a coincidence the children of the king were the same ages as you guys. One simple spell confirmed her suspicions.
The king asked about your childhood with sad eyes, so your only choice was to tell him about a woman who didn't love him. "Most of the time we were alone, mom got drunk at the local tavern more than she took care of us. It was just me and Jade at first. But then Mom's sister died. She had two kids: Jake and Jane."
"We had to provide for ourselves most of the time. Jake learned to hunt, and I got apprenticed at the bakery. It was a village famous for its treats. I showed the others most of what I learned. Not just baking stuff, but anything I could pick up on by seeing. Jane was a lot better at what I taught her than I was. And because of that, I was going to give up my apprenticeship for her, but then the accident happened."
"There was a big fire. It caught at the bakery, some houses, and the tavern. Mom didn't make it out alive. Afterwards, when we were helping cleanup the damage, a witch visited, she wanted to help repair things with magic. Jade was enchanted by it. One day she just walked up to the witch and asked if she'd teach Jade how to cast spells. Surprisingly, the witch said yes, but she couldn't teach Jade if we lived there."
"I told her that we could move to her town. Jane could get an apprenticeship there, and Jake could hunt in those forests. She laughed and said we didn't even know where she lived. It didn't matter to us, though, we said we could go anywhere, so she agreed."
"When we found out she lived here, Jane had an idea. Instead, I went to the bakery, and my cousins went to the castle. Since Jane excelled at cleaning, and do other maid-like jobs, she wanted to be a maid. And since most pages trained to be knights, Jake could watch them and improve his hunting skills. We couldn't achieve much more because we had no proof of lineage, but that was okay. The witch got us a small hut near her house, and we used any extra profits to add onto it. I guess that was our life until now." Jade, Jane, and Jake all nodded.
The king was crying by then. Over what, you could only guess. His advisor comforted him. The court was dismissed. Jade looked over, unsure of what to do. Then, even the advisor was sent away. You were all alone with the king.
"I'd like you all to live with me. To take over as the royal family. John, as eldest, will become the heir to the throne. Jade, it would make sense if you assumed the position of princess, but you're invited to remain palace witch. What do you think about that?"
Jade and you swapped glances. "I would love to remain a witch." She spoke first.
"In that case, perhaps your cousin Jane would like to be princess?" The king moved his gaze to Jane.
"I'd like that very much, thank you, sir." She looked happier than you had ever seen her before.
The king looked to Jake. "And perhaps with some guidance you can be the captain of our knights, Jake. I know it seems a bit late to begin training, but I see a great potential in you, one that can achieve many feats."
"That sounds quite grand, your highness."
After a brief pause, the king returned his eyes to your direction. "Could I steal a moment alone with John?" Everyone was looking at you. Within a minute they all stepped out. The king, your father, stood and waltzed over with elegant footsteps. "Would you like to be king one day?" He spoke quietly.
You swallowed air. "There is nothing I want more… Dad."
He beamed with a large curling smile and pulled you into a hug. Almost to himself, he said words of joy that he probably would've never imagined saying. "Finally, I have a son to be proud of."
Jake returned from one of his quests that day. You met briefly for lunch when it was brought to your attention that the border squabbles were getting worse. Why wouldn't the troll kingdom just be peaceful? One day that won't be the case. The train of thought was interrupted when it was time to go meet the prince betrothed to Jane.
The man Jane was marrying seemed kind enough. Definitely the crowd-pleaser type of royalty. For example, a new more modern eye protection device had become popular, much like your glasses for vision, they were dark for preventing damage from the sun. This prince wore sharp pairs of these. He also had sharply pointed hair. Yep, definitely modernized. There was no getting around how popular he must've been in his kingdom. Would Jane like him for this or reject the poor guy? There was always potential for an unhappy marriage.
"I'm Dirk Strider, Prince of Animus." He formally bowed, no doubt rolling his eyes at the formality he was using. "You must be John, right?"
You extended your palm instead, "This may be a different kingdom, but bowing is way too formal for soon-to-be-family. And yeah, I'm John Egbert, Heir of Libertas."
He firmly shook your hand, "Is Libertas Latin for something?"
"Is Animus?"
"Yeah, it means of the soul, and the heart."
"We like to think our name means freedom. Libertas, free, like the ancient breeze."
A/N: Did I mention how reliant the plot is on mythological roles? Hahaha. I've done my research and I've come up with a lot of theories. Heir of Breath. (Breath aspect=Freedom) Prince of Heart. (Heart Aspect=Emotions or soul) I'd just like to clarify that these are my theories, and have probably not been confirmed in canon. There's going to be more. Big surprise there. I like reviews, by the way, so please do submit them, they make me write faster.
End of chapter one.