The castle looked formidable as Natsu approached, a blot on the horizon. As he got closer, he realized why. Shadows buzzed around it like flies around a corpse, his brother's magic permeating every nook, every cranny.
Happy shrank back behind Natsu. The rest of the company did as well, trading looks back and forth, whispering as people would before a storm hit. Natsu wished he had someone to shrink behind as well, but of course, there were just his ideals. He held them up like a shield as he passed through the gates.
Dimaria was at her usual post as he entered. She took in his countenance, raised her eyebrow. "His Majesty requests your presence in the Throne Room." It wasn't very hard to decipher what she was thinking—he was in deep waters and no one was going to help him swim.
"Take the prisoners to the dungeons," Natsu ordered and was thankful his voice still sounded authoritative.
A group of soldiers gladly broke off and corralled the caravan away. The rest escorted him to the castle. He dismounted and handed his reins to a waiting squire and turned on Happy. "How do I look?"
"Battle-rough," Happy said.
"But presentable?" He didn't think his brother would allow him to delay by returning to his rooms to change. Nor did he want to. He wanted to prove to Zeref that he could be the person Zeref thought him incapable of being.
"Well enough," Happy said.
Natsu nodded stiffly and summoned his fire, using it to burn away the shadows that sheltered the door. The rest retreated quickly after that, granting him entrance. Zeref knew he had returned.
Happy tried to fall into step behind him.
"I want you to return to your rooms," Natsu said.
"My spot is beside you, Your Highness."
Happy was as loyal as could be. But still. It wasn't worth it. "That's an order."
Happy pursed his lips as though he'd sucked on a lemon. "That's unfair."
Life was unfair. "I'll take tea when I return."
Happy muttered as he walked away. Natsu wended his way to the Throne Room. Guards eyed him as he entered and pretended that they didn't. The entire castle was enshrouded in tension.
Inside the large doubled doors, the Throne Room was empty, save for Zeref, who slouched in his throne, sullen, his many-ringed fingers tapping on the bronze arm. He looked up through a fringe of hair as Natsu entered; his expression frozen on fury. There was a goblet of something overwhelmingly sweet in his hand and when he squeezed his fingers tight, his magic slipped out and crushed the goblet, shattering it into a million pieces. Pottery and mead, Natsu could see now, dripped with blood from several cuts on his fingers.
"Brother." Natsu even went so far as to bow low in front of Zeref, beseeching his forgiveness.
"Look at me," Zeref commanded.
Natsu's mouth was suddenly dry but he lifted his head and addressed his brother properly.
Zeref was imperious looking down at him through his dark lashes. The golden crown he wore was tipped slightly to the left on his surprisingly messy locks. "Tell me what you've done."
Natsu jutted out his chin. "I infiltrated a criminal's home in search of the slaves he kept, which was within my right as the Crown Prince."
"Oh?" His dark eyebrow shot up into his hairline.
"Slave trading is against the law in our country." Just in case Zeref forgot the laws he helped write.
Zeref didn't look like he forgot, though. The air blackened around him and the bronze of his throne weathered as if it'd been exposed to the elements for hundreds of years. Natsu took a step back when the blackness started edging across the floor, reaching for his toes. He'd seen that magic rot grass and trees, stop ten birds' hearts, all at once. And worse. The last time Zeref had an episode, they'd been children, their parents had just died, and he was upset. The courtier his father kept by his side had been the only one affected, falling to her pretty knees and breathing her last, but Natsu never once doubted the reach of his brother's magic, its terrifying capacity to end all that it touched.
"Zeref…" Natsu began.
The sound of his voice cleared the shadows from his brother's eyes. They both looked horrified, both clearly remembering the day the courtier was carted from the Throne Room beneath a shroud and Miss Porlyusica's tight-lipped retrieval of both boys. The silence that followed encapsulated the castle for weeks. Rumours of the new boy king and his frightening power.
For all that, Zeref never lacked those around him. The world was hungry for power, the more vicious, the better.
Zeref blinked. He looked more himself. "I had a morning planned for you. With our delegation. Your presence was missed. Along with half of my army."
Natsu opened his mouth. "It was a deserving mission."
Zeref's cold eyes looked fathomlessly black. "Who gave you the order to act?"
"No one," Natsu said.
"Then why the sudden interest in marshalling our men into battle against a Fiorian ambassador while their delegation is visiting us?" Each word was sharp as jagged metal and looked to draw blood.
Natsu said, "I heard the rumour."
"Rumour," Zeref repeated as though it was a filthy word.
"Yes. And you were indisposed. Silver and his lieutenant were nowhere to be seen. There wasn't anywhere else I could turn. I knew I had to act. Those people needed help."
"Silver and his lieutenant both mysteriously came down with a case of ember fig poisoning."
Natsu bit back a wince. Ember figs were almost identical to ostrich figs, except for a thin red vein of toxin that ran down their centre. If consumed, they caused cramps, vomiting, and delusions. In high doses, they could be deadly.
"The cooks are being questioned, but I think it's more likely it was slipped into their mead at the tavern last night." Zeref removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his bleeding hand, seemingly noticing for the first time in several minutes that he was cut.
Natsu tried to maintain a neutral expression. "That's horrible."
"It is, isn't it?" He looked at Natsu too long, too smart by half. "A measured dose like that would be easy for someone of Lucy's skill to mix, wouldn't it?"
"I imagine," Natsu said. "But that doesn't make her guilty."
Zeref looked as though he had other opinions on the matter. "I wonder, where was our venerated healer last night?"
"In my bed," Natsu said without missing a beat, but in his thoughts, Lucy was rising and leaving his rooms for quite some time, stealing into the night to cause havoc on Lady Eileen's behest.
"Before, or after your ridiculous revelling?" Zeref drawled.
Natsu felt his cheeks heat. He dropped his brother's eyes. "I can explain."
"Which part? Lady Juvia's concern over seeing you stumbling drunk in a gown much too small for you? Or your destroyed rooms? Invel's unwillingness to discuss your imbibing? And how, I wonder, were you conscious enough to get up the next morning, gather troops, and, again, raid a Fiorian ambassador's home?"
"I suppose I wasn't as drunk as the castle thought."
"Which is very. Perhaps someone made you a tonic?"
Bringing them back to Lucy. She was forever going to be a target in his eyes.
"You're being ridiculous."
Silence slung between them, thick enough to cut through. Natsu was afraid of whatever was coming next so he let it lie, hoping like a storm it would all pass. Zeref wasn't as generous as that, though. He rallied his thoughts and said, "Let's say against all odds, you weren't manipulated and were able to hold your liquor." He was very much the condescending big brother at that moment. "Did you find your evidence in the duke's home?"
Natsu scrubbed the back of his neck. "Well…"
"Well?"
"Not definitively. But the duke's men weren't going to let us enter, and the duke fled. I haven't figured out how he knew we were coming. Happy thinks he was tipped off," Natsu rushed. "Which means we have a traitor in our midst."
"The sea is thick with them." Zeref's lip curled.
Another bout of silence so thick, Natsu could hear seagulls calling from beyond the leaded windows.
Zeref heaved a sigh; the anger ran from him, now he just looked resigned. That did not bode well for Natsu. "You've put us in a very precarious position. The delegation is demanding we make amends and I find myself unable to deny them. We've wronged them on our own soil."
True enough. "What will you do?" Natsu asked.
"They're requesting your imprisonment on their ship until they've decided whether or not you should return to Fiore with them where you'll face trial."
"In their savage land," Natsu rolled his eyes, but his brother wasn't acting with him. "Zeref."
He looked at Natsu plaintively. "What am I to do? Go to war? We'll wait until their duke is found and he will decide your fate."
"You're not serious."
He was, though. "You're my brother and I love you, but I've long told you, you're too impulsive. Normally your games are humorous and harmless, but this time, you've gone too far, Natsu."
Natsu's heart beat like the ocean pushed by a storm. "Yes, and yes and yes, but I can prove I was right that the duke was keeping slaves in his mansion."
"No." Zeref tapped his fingers more aggressively. "You've been played for a fool and you need to answer for yourself this time. Politics won't let it be otherwise."
"What do you mean to do?"
Zeref lifted his hand and the door swung open. The Fiorian delegation entered, Juvia heading the pack, and fanned out around them was a contingency of Alvarez guards. Among them was Eileen's scarlet hair.
"Lady Eileen," Natsu said desperately but she would not meet his gaze.
"You'll need magic-resistant shackles," Lady Eileen said. She stepped forward with the chains in question and took Natsu's wrist in her clawed hand. Natsu's stomach sank into his feet as the metal locked in place. Surely this was a game. Or they were teaching him a lesson. A very good lesson.
"Zeref."
His face was impassable.
Lady Eileen's magic crawled over Natsu like a million termites scraping out of their hill. He was chilled all over, itchy. Impulsively, he tried to use his magic, but his magic only bubbled up inside of him and fizzled away painfully. Lady Eileen's spell had already taken hold and he was helpless
"You can't do this," Natsu insisted, looking into Eileen's icy features. "I helped you."
"Do not speak of me," Lady Eileen commanded. There was power in her voice and Natsu found he could not get out any word pertaining to Eileen. He screamed in frustration and writhed.
"Zeref!" At least she hadn't silenced him completely, though she may as well have. He couldn't speak the truth as to who led him to the duke's home. Zeref made it seem like he didn't see Natsu at all. He watched the delegation with schooled features.
Desperately, Natsu spat out, "I know about Lisanna. I saw her. Hiding. In the duke's home."
Natsu felt Eileen start beside him. Zeref finally looked at him, however, his expression was bored. "I've put you under a lot of pressure, brother, and I'm sorry for it. I'll have Lady Lucy cook you a salve for the mind to bring you back to your senses."
"I saw her!" Natsu insisted. "She turned into a snake at the duke's home. And before that, she was lurking in the servants' tunnels. She—"
"There are no such things as ghosts." Zeref waved his hand. Lady Eileen stepped aside and Juvia stepped forward. She took Natsu by the elbow and guided him from the Throne Room. He fought but there was no escape, on either side were armed guards and there wasn't a friendly face among them. He tried again and again to use his magic.
"You'll burn yourself up from the inside," Juvia warned in her lilting accent. "Please, Your Highness. Don't fight."
There was an audience as the Throne Room doors were thrown open, three thick all the way down the hallway. People stared at him with wide eyes, perhaps remembering the last unfortunate soul to be dragged out of the Throne Room in chains.
Typical, I didn't intend for this story to go on for so long. Or to be so involved. Sorry I'm late, I did NaNoWriMo this year and I've been working on other projects. But I have not/will not abandon this. I'm quite fond of it, actually.