Chapter 4: Inadequate Compensation

Evans all but ran up the stairs, Frisk and Chara hot on his heels. Rounding a corner the secretary came to a full halt and took a deep breath, adjusting his suit. Walking quietly, he went up to the double doors of the King's Room, a master suite that took up an entire wing on the second floor of the palace. He knocked and a young woman in a dark dress with the yellow blonde hair, blue eyes, and straight nose of the Dreemurr royal family opened the door softly. A golden, filigree locket swung from her neck.

"Do you need something Gerald?"

Evans reached back, motioning Chara forward. "She needs to see His Majesty right now."

The woman shook her head. "Grandpa is dying. He should just be with family."

Evans took her hands. "Emily, this is your Great Aunt Chara."

Emily looked at Chara for a moment and then back at Evans. "That's not possible…"

Chara held out her locket and Emily froze for a moment. The woman reached out, fingers almost touching the small heart, before pulling back. She grabbed Chara's hand and dragged her into the room. Walking quickly, she led Chara through the living room, office space, and library of the suite to a large bedroom taken up by an overly large bed. Family members young and old, mostly blonde haired and blue eyed, sat or stood around the bed.

Emily pushed her way through the crowd, shouldering siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles out of the way.

"Emily! What are you doing?" someone whispered.

She paid it no mind. "Just move it already!"

Chara pulled her hand from Emily's and moved up to the bed. Asriel, his face wrinkled under his thick, but white pale beard, slept in the middle, one hand resting on his chest. A middle aged woman sat on the bed next to him, holding his other hand. She looked up at Chara, shocked at the rude intrusion, only to have her jaw fall open as she stared. Chara blinked and turned her head. On the wall behind her hung a very large portrait of her and Asriel, a painting of a photo taken just before she'd gone to the mountain.

Chara sat down on the bed, taking the hand that lay on Asriel's chest. "Hey, Azzy. I'm home."

Asriel's pale blue eyes opened. He reached up, cupping Chara's face in both hands. "Chara!"

She leaned in, placing her forehead gently against his, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You're here!" He took a deep breath. "You came home." His eyes closed and his head lifted just enough to kiss her before settling back, holding her hand tightly as he fell back into a deep sleep.

Queen Toriel, long aged and white haired, came into the room, using a cane and the strong arm of her grandson James to steady her steps. She saw Chara and her cane clattered to the floor. Jerking away from her grandson, she reached for the bedpost and practically threw herself at Chara. Not letting go of Asriel's hand, Chara put her other arm around her mother, holding Toriel tightly. After several minutes of kissing her baby girl's face, the Queen Mother sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. They held onto each other, Asriel's hand held between them until he sighed in his sleep.

A faint smile touched the old king's lips. "Chara… you came home."

The heart locket on his chest turned to dust.

A few hours later found Chara sitting with her mother on a plush couch in the living room of the king's suite. Papyrus sat next to the queen, while Sans sat on the floor, leaning against her leg a little. While Papyrus maintained being proper, Sans smiled like a fat, satisfied cat. The Queen's hand, wrinkled and old, would occasionally reach down to pat him on the top of his skull. Frisk sat across from the lot, sighing at Sans.

Emily came in the room with a silvered tea set. She set it down on the glass topped coffee table and began to pour a cup for Chara. "I guess you made it in time."

Chara frowned. "No. I'm fifty years too late." She looked at the teacup in the shape of a lizard's head. "This was one of dad's favorites." She took a sip and nearly sputtered. "Hot chocolate?"

Toriel snorted. "What? Did you really think I would forget that my daughter was a chocolate fiend?"

Chara took a deep breath, sniffing the heavy aroma, and stilled herself to avoid a sob. She changed the subject. "The secretary called me 'Princess Chara.' When did that happen? The lesser nobles fought him tooth and nail about my having anything that might be construed as a title."

"After the…" Toriel sighed and shook her head. "Anyone who argued ended up on the end of a trident, and that's if they were lucky." She looked to Frisk. "Thank you for bringing my daughter home. I had hoped that, when my son sent you, that you could at least put her to rest. I never imagined that she might be alive and whole."

Frisk grimaced.

Toriel waved him off. "I understand that when you found her, she was alive, but not exactly whole." She reached over, petting Chara's hair.

Chara sipped her cocoa. "I guess that means you get access to the archive now."

"*it's not that important."

Frisk's jaw dropped as he stared at Sans. "Really? What changed?"

"*hey now! i have fifty two years of catching up to do now that i have tori to myself." He patted the queen's knee but those white, pinprick eyes slid over to look at Chara.

Chara groaned. "Was he always like that?"

Toriel smiled. "Only in private, My Child."

"*yeah. but now that doesn't matter so much anymore."

She swatted at him. "You hound."

Emily poured hot chocolate for herself. "I'm missing some part of this conversation."

Frisk eyed the brothers. "Yeah. Me too."

Toriel and Sans chuckled. Even Papyrus snorted.

Chara rolled her eyes. "She's my biological mother."

Emily's jaw dropped and then she burst out laughing. "Oh my God! That's what grandpa meant when he insisted we always referred to you as a blood relation. You are!"

Frisk blinked. "Pardon my rudeness for asking so plainly, but how did you pull off that kind of deception?"

Toriel set her teacup down. "I was sure that Chara was Asgore's child. It had been a singular indiscretion on my part-"

"*DO NOT GO TAKING THE BLAME FOR ALL OF IT, TORI. IT TOOK BOTH OF US."

She swatted at Papyrus. "Quiet, Dings. I'm telling the story. In those days, a man was not expected to help his wife give birth and Chara was very obviously not Asgore's child. Nor could I pass her as simply resembling my family. Not when she so clearly had her father's ruby eyes. So it was announced that the child had passed just after birth."

She sighed. "I learned later that Gorey knew the truth and while he'd been angry about that night, he loved Chara so dearly." She reached over again, petting her daughter's head. "I just don't know how he found out."

"*i told him."

Toriel's jaw dropped. "You what?!"

"ASGORE WAS MY BEST FRIEND. I WAS NOT GOING TO LIE TO HIM."

Sans shifted against her leg. "*i begged him to take chara. exile me, imprison me, execute me. just keep my little girl."

Papyrus smiled at his daughter. "I NEEDN'T HAVE WORRIED. HE WAS SMITTEN WITH HER THE MOMENT HE LAID EYES ON HER."

James, a middle aged man of blonde hair, blue eyes, and the spitting image of his father came in and leaned over the couch to kiss Toriel's cheek. "Hey Grandma. The undertakers have finished moving Dad. Chara is already organizing the staff for a state funeral.

Chara blinked at him. "Chara?"

He nodded. "When I say that your loss made an impression on the family, it's an understatement. If you gathered all the Dreemurrs together in one room and tossed a rock, you have a fifty percent chance of hitting someone named Chara. In fact, Chara is a popular name in general. Lots of girls and a few boys were christened Chara to spite the lesser nobility."

She looked down at the cup in her hands, unsure how to process that.

"Anyway, I've opened up your old bedroom. Grandpa closed it up and only opened it on your birthday to leave presents for you. Dad did the same thing after Grandpa passed, so you have a bunch of packages to open."

Chara looked at her mother. "Didn't you think I was dead?"

Toriel smiled sadly. "It was believed that the fog around the mountain was your vengeful spirit. No one was aware that anyone else had been at the house the day Harridon showed up with his cronies. The hope that you might have been alive kept your father going for a long time. And Asriel never gave up hope that you were simply trapped and he had no way to get to you."

James took the cup of cocoa his daughter offered him. "Provisions were made for you in Grandpa's and Dad's wills. They both assumed you would come home someday and wanted to be sure you were cared for."

Chara stared at her cup again, lost in thought.

Papyrus frowned. "DOES IT UPSET YOU THAT THEY THOUGHT OF YOU SO LONG PAST REASON?"

She shook her head. "No. Of course not. It's just, I went to the mountain expecting to be forgotten. A political inconvenience that had the decency to disappear. But none of you are unhappy that I'm here. It's as if those days never existed."

James smiled. "I will admit that it is strange having an aunt who appears to be younger than I, but…" He shrugged. "Dad got his dying wish, my grandmother has been reunited with her lost daughter and an old friend, and I don't have to worry about a cursed mountain that no one wants to go to anymore. I can deal with a little strangeness."

"*so what did asgore and asriel leave chara?"

Toriel smiled. "Gorey left her Mt. Ebott and Nariellia the Third's ruby tiara and jewelry."

"He gave me land and part of the crown jewels?!"

Emily smiled. "And every Chara in the family has worn that tiara at least once!" She snorted. "Well, the most recent of them hasn't. She's still a toddler."

James picked up where his grandmother left off. "Dad left you a monthly stipend, the land from the mountain up to the Nameless River, and all tax income from that land."

Chara blinked. "A stipend and tax income?" She shook her head. "I wouldn't even know what to do with the money."

James shrugged. "Think of it as a raise."

"A raise?"

"A raise to your salary for being the caretaker."

Chara shook her head again. "The caretaker of the old house doesn't receive a salary or any compensation. I got to live in the house and have access to a fund that pays for food and necessary repairs, but that's it. I received four days off every three months and that time was to be used to travel the passage under the mountain and be sure it was properly maintained."

Toriel's jaw dropped. "There is no way Gorey did that to you…"

"The old house fell under Lord Ephram's domain and he set the terms for its care. Though I suppose it's now under the Crown since Ephram was one of the people who showed up to murder me."

James nodded. "It is. I wasn't aware that those were the circumstances before the house returned to the Crown, but the caretaker of the old house and Mt. Ebott received a salary of six thousand dollars a year fifty years ago. With steady increases every year and inflation, it's now seventy-two thousand a year."

"That's insane… And Azzy gave me a stipend on top of that?"

"Dad was very clear to both my sister and I, and in his will, that if you should ever come home, you would be cared for, for the rest of your life."

Toriel patted Sans' head and Papyrus' arm. "Help me up you two. I've been waiting to see my daughter open all of those presents."

That ethereal third voice flowed from both of them. "*YEs, Ma'Am." Both stood, stretching the same way, before helping the Queen Mother to her feet.

"Come along, My Child."

Chara stood as Gerald Evans came into the room.

"Mr. Evernight? Her Royal Highness, Princess Chara, wishes to speak with you."

Frisk nodded and followed the secretary out of the King's Suite and back down to the offices. Evans knocked on one of those white doors before opening it. The white painted walls were cast an interesting blue from the dark navy carpeting and dark wood desk. Behind it was the blonde haired woman who'd been sitting on the bed, holding the King's hand when Chara had arrived.

"Frisk Evernight, Madam."

"Thank you, Gerald. Would you like the rest of the day, or even the week, off?"

"If I could have some time with him at the family viewing tomorrow, Chara, I'd much appreciate it. I'll take a few days after the funeral."

"Absolutely."

Evans bowed his head and left the room.

Princess Chara gestured to the open chairs in front of the desk. "Have a seat, Mr. Evernight. There is the matter of your compensation for breaking the curse and bringing my aunt home. I understand that my father promised you access to the royal archives."

Frisk sighed. "Yes. And I understand that you are not bound to any promise he might have made to some commoner."

"Some commoner? You are not 'some commoner.' I've done quite a bit of research on you and your family. You're the older brother of famed artist Allison Evernight. You graduated first in your class at Nightfall Academy, and are considered to be the most promising necromancer of the age. And then, two years ago you left a lucrative pharmaceutical career, as well as a long time love interest, to take up rather dangerous fieldwork. Often without any benefit to yourself."

"That would be because your royal aunt's biological father is stuck to me as undead." He held up a hand. "No. I didn't raise him. In a gamble to free Sans and Papyrus, they ended up stuck to me in a permanent way."

"So you've been looking for a way to separate Dr. Gaster from yourself?" She eyed the paper in her hands. "That makes sense regarding these reports." She read down a list of jobs he'd been denied payment for, payment that could have gained him a way to separate the brothers from himself. "Removing ghouls from Emmitstown. Destroying a vampire and his minions in Oswain. Laying a banshee to rest in Rainier. The list goes on and on."

Frisk groaned. "Will you just hurry up and tell me that any compensation I might be owed is denied?"

Princess Chara laid the paper down. "Why would I do that?"

Frisk shook his head. "Because that's where these conversations go. I've had enough of them to know that someone is waiting outside the door to kick me out." He sighed. "Dr. Gaster wants to spend time with his daughter, and I'm sure she's going to ask me to escort her back to the old house. Running me off would make it really hard for either of those things to happen, and I go back to having an angry pair of powerful undead making me miserable. So let's just pretend that I was paid something agreeable to all parties and I will disappear before anyone can make an issue of it."

The woman stared at him, slack jawed for a moment before regaining her composure. "My father's agreement with you stipulates access to the royal archives. It also stipulates that, should you release the curse and return my aunt, you are to receive three times the amount owed from all the contract work you have taken but were not compensated for as well as the offer of Dr. W. D. Gaster's office of Royal Wizard."

"He what?!" Frisk shook his head. "Again, I understand that you are under no obligation to honor any of that."

"We are honoring it."

Frisk paused for a moment. "Why would you do that?"

"Besides it being a personal matter for my royal brother and I, it is politically advantageous. We've had quite a bit of trouble with local mayors and small lords engaging in double dealings like the situations you have faced when acting in good faith. To be in a position where someone they have thoroughly mistreated is now above them in station is enough to pull the majority back in line."

She stood and walked over to a side table, pouring two cups of tea. "My father was a very good judge of character. That he would place the offer for a long unheld position in your contract after meeting you once is a not something I will simply dismiss." She handed him a cup. "I do not expect a decision about the offer to Royal Wizard anytime soon. Taking it will not require you to live here at the palace, but it will entail specific responsibilities, and net you quite a few benefits. I will have the papers delivered to your room."

"My room?"

Princess Chara leaned back against her desk, the hem of her black dress fluttering around her ankles. "You will be housed in the guest wing unless you'd rather stay off the palace grounds. But Papyrus mentioned that it might not be wise to have you far from my aunt. Would you care to explain why?"

"Her Highness has had nightmares every night since being released from the curse."

"Have you been giving her something for them?"

Frisk shook his head. "No. Just comforting her." He blanched at his own words. "I don't mean that in any way that is less than honorable."

"I'm holding you to that."

After a pleasant cup of tea, one of the cleaning staff was happy to show Frisk to Chara's room. He found the door wide open. Chara sat alone on a couch staring at a large pile of gifts, only a quarter of which had been opened. Frisk sat down next to her, both a bit shell shocked.

He looked to her, eyes still just a bit wide. "Are you all right?"

Chara continued to stare at the mound of presents on the table in front of her. "I think I'm now one of the wealthiest women in the country." She looked at him. "How about you?"

"I'm actually getting paid for breaking your curse. And I was offered the position of Royal Wizard."

"Woah."

"Yeah."

They both sat back on the couch, and stared out across the room.

Chara broke the silence first. "It's too much. I want to go home, but I don't know where home is anymore. I thought it was here, but… nothing is like I remember it. I thought I'd be ignored at best, but everyone seems genuinely happy to have me here." She sighed and looked at her hands. "Everyone here is living in a world in which my absence was made to be keenly felt and I'm still stuck in a place where my absence was most desired."

"So what do you want to do?"

Chara shook her head. "I don't know. I should go back to the old house after the funeral. There are things that need to be done at the house and I don't want to leave everyone there for too long."

"What about your mother? Don't you want to spend more time with her?"

"I…" She covered her mouth to muffle a sob. "I don't know what I… I just… I just want to see Azzy and Dad!" Her hand moved to her eyes and she wept.

Frisk put his arms around her and held her close.