Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Roy and Marth do not belong to me. (cue heavy sigh) They belong to their respective creators Nintendo. However, General Rein, Art the Archer, General Ward (who was brought back for another brief and shining moment) and Lord Adams (who is here for his first brief and shining moment) do belong to me. Hoorah.

Special thanks to RedHawk2.0 for the awesome review. I intend to keep this writing as long as people are interested, so please don't be shy about reviewing! ;)

(I apologize in advance for any character OOC-ness. For whatever reason I had a hard time writing this chapter. ;_;)

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Art fiddled with the sleeve of her dress as Roy gave the order for Marth to be brought in. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do; part of her wanted to leave the room quietly while she could, while the other part wanted to stay and help as much as she could. She didn't know which side was winning.

The room was cold, she noticed. It had a large fireplace, but nothing was lit. It was just the torches lining the walls, and those didn't give off much heat at all. She was grateful of Marth's thick cloak and wondered absently if she'd ever get the chance to give it back to him…But that thought was ridiculous. Of course she could give it back. What was the worst that could happen?

"Roy?" she whispered to the boy-general, pitching her voice so that not even Lord Adams, on Roy's left, could hear.

"Yes?" Roy answered quietly.

"What do you think he could have done?"

Roy hardly needed to ask who she meant by 'he.' "I don't know. We will just have to wait and find out, right?"

"Do you think he did whatever they're accusing him of?" Art asked nervously.

Roy leaned back in his chair, his expression one of a person who no longer is sure what to believe. "I don't know that either, Art." His blue eyes hardened a little as he glared at General Rein, who was still lounging in his chair. "Look at him. He's got them all where he wants them. He must have pulled some big strings. I suppose it's no mystery why nothing of this meeting was said to me."

"What do you mean?" Art asked, trying to distract herself from an awful sinking feeling that was growing stronger by the second.

"I argue with the prince a lot," Roy admitted ruefully, "But when push comes to shove, I'm probably the most devoted general out of all of us here, not to toot my own horn or anything."

Art nodded. It was true. Everyone in the council besides herself and Roy seemed to have no qualms about accusing their own king. She couldn't picture them doing something like that lightly.

And unwelcome vision intruded into her head; all the council members, including herself and Roy, wrapped in string like puppets, and Rein and Marth were fighting over the strings. She shuddered at the thought of what would happen if Rein assumed control of the kingdom.

Suddenly, the heavy council doors creaked open. A brawny man stepped through, wearing Rein's crest. Art scowled. What had happened to all of Marth's men? Had they all abandoned him? Her hands clenched beneath the folds of the gossamer fabric. She wouldn't leave her kingdom without good reason.

Another man stepped through the door, and then Prince Marth stumbled through. He stumbled because the second man had a strong grip on his elbow and had practically yanked him through the doorway. Marth looked furious.

Art breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that his hands were unbound. And why would they be? He wasn't convicted, and he was still royalty. She wasn't sure why she had been worried.

"What's the meaning of this?" Roy exclaimed, barely keeping his voice to a reasonable level as Rein's man propelled Marth to his chair at the end of the table and proceeded to stand ominously behind it with his partner once the prince had sat down. Art noticed that his pale face was flushed, and couldn't decide if that was because he was embarrassed, angry, or just because he had been in the cold corridors.

"You said you wished to ask him something," General Rein said quietly. Marth shot the older general a look that Art couldn't quite place. "Ask away."

For a moment Roy was speechless, and then he looked over at Marth hesitantly. "Highness?"

"Yes." It may have just been Art's imagination, but she thought that Marth looked shaken. But by what?

"General Rein says…." Roy began slowly. Too slowly, in Art's opinion.

"General Rein has been hinting at some heinous crime of yours," she blurted. "What have you done, if anything?"

His face went ashen, but he tried to disguise it with a strained smile. "Art, why are you here?"

"You were asked a question," Rein growled.

"And I am still the prince, so I can choose not to answer it," Marth retorted coolly. "You haven't taken that right from me yet."

"Yet?" Art asked nervously.

"The girl is General Roy's second," General Ward supplied.

Marth leaned back in his chair at the head of the table. "Oh. I wasn't aware of that change."

"It was a sudden decision," Roy said tightly.

Marth looked down at the floor for a moment, then he looked back up at Art. "You look…different than what I'm used to. You should wear dresses most often."

Art blinked. She had almost completely forgotten that she was wearing something out of her usual wardrobe.

"Speaking of flattery," Roy said dryly. "You seem to have people literally hanging on your very person." He was glaring at the two men hovering over Marth's chair. "It must be nice to be so adored."

"Yes, I noticed that as well," Marth said, equally sarcastic. "It's not as nice as you'd think."

Rein scowled. "The girl has asked you a question, Highness. Perhaps you should answer it for her."

Marth shot a furious glare at him.

"Evidence has come forward," Rein said, throwing a piece of paper onto the large table. Marth flinched away from it, but Art was the only one who noticed his movement. "That you have committed an act that, had someone else committed it, would be regarded as treasonous. Due to the nature of this, the council has decided to investigate, and has decided that perhaps Altea will no longer be ruled by the Lowell family."

"That's ridiculous!" Roy said, but he was already reaching for the paper.

"Read it out loud," Rein suggested.

Roy scowled, but then his face paled as he skimmed the paper. "'To the Gra Council: As specified in our previous correspondence letters, I believe that a merge would be beneficial to all of us. You may have the eastern fields and shipyards on the Altean coastline. Of course, you will be allowed total control; it will be annexed into your own country. There is only a score of men there; you will be able to take it…'" he trailed off miserably, and looked up at the prince with an awful expression on his face. "…You wrote this?" he whispered.

Before Marth could answer, Adams spoke up, "Read the rest, General."

Roy held up the sheet of paper again, his face grim. Marth's eyes were firmly fixed on the opposite wall as the general spoke.

"'You will be able to take it with minimal loss to yourselves and minimal loss to the Altean people. In return for these lands, I expect you to pay me well in the gold and silver amounts we talked about earlier.'" Roy's voice wavered a little as he read. "'There was once a time when I would not accept your offer, but since the monetary value has been raised, I can no longer resist. Perhaps we can do more business in the future?'…"

Roy's face was a mask as he shoved the letter away from himself as if it had burned him. "Your signature's on it, Highness. Do you deny writing this?"

Marth turned his gaze towards the wall on his left, avoiding all eye contact with everyone at the table.

"Do you deny it?" Roy asked, his voice suddenly quiet, almost pleading.

Art held her breath, waiting for the answer.

The prince took a breath, shooting a desperate glare sideways, but Art couldn't figure out who he was looking at.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he looked down at the floor and whispered three words, his voice thick with an emotion that Art couldn't place.

"I do not."

Well that was interesting, wasn't it?

I must confess that when I initially wrote the first draft of this thing, I was extremely vague about what Marth was getting in trouble for, but I went back literally ten-minutes ago and rewrote the majority of the whole thing, so now it's more interesting, hopefully….But my point was that I wrote this all almost completely on the fly. I think I caught all the mistakes, but let me know if I missed anything.

The plot also starts to majorly pick up here, so….yay!

Anyway, I hope you liked it. More will follow ASAP. (And even sooner if you review—wink wink) And I apologize in advance if I don't get to update until next week. I have a huge school project that I keep procrastinating on, and I might end up having to spend the entire weekend working on it. ;_; Sorry! I'll get back to this ASAP!