It has been an exhausting day for Elyon. First she messes up trying to save her kingdom, then she gets her powers depleted almost completely and now she's stuck with her evil brother in some weird timey-whimey stuff , having a shaky 'truce' that is bound to explode in their faces.
Elyon would rather be stuck in school solving complicated math ecuations or fixing Meridian's plumbing system. When she took the crown she did not think everything will be sunshine and roses but this is so not what she signed up for!
"I believe even you can utilize your brain and pay attention but for a small moment little sister. It is best if we don't make enemies here, we already look like Escanor bastards and I would hate to be thought of as one. Regarding our enemies pay attention little bother, they are extremely agile, have excellent horsemanship , use light weapons and are deceptive infiltrators"
"Is that one of them?" Elyon asked and pointed at a rider atop a brown horse dressed in light shimmery armour. The mysterious figure gave a wild war cry and charged straight at Phobos"
Elyon reacted quickly and summoned some sturdy vines from the soft , cold soil. The vines interwined between the horse's legs, tripping the animal and throwing the soldier off of him. Together the siblings blasted beams of power at the hapless intruder who ran away with his tail behind his legs.
Phobos frowned at Elyon.
"Your interference was unnecessary"
"You're welcome by the way" the light of Meridian answered cheekly
"You would have been better suited as a rose dear sister. Your impertinent mouth would have been sealed shut"
"Yeah, you seem like the type of guy to transform anyone you hate into a rose…but since you hate everybody you'd only get to talk to yourself in the end."
"And that would bother me because…?"
"You do know what the first sign of insanity is don't you?" Elyon asks and then starts laughing impishly.
"Believe me dear sister if it weren't imperative we stick together now…"
"Yeah, yeah I know. The skinning me alive threat or perhaps you would recycle your plans and transform me into a black rose again."
""You suspect me of such a level of unoriginality, I am hurt Elyon"
They traveled for a while with Elyon knocking on doors and asking for temporary shelter while Phobos lingered aroud, nose in the air and arms crossed.
Eventually a nice old couple welcomed them in. Their eyes widened when they saw them, perhaps recognizing their lineage. The robust women had red hair, which reminded Elyon of Will and the frail old man had twinkling ocean-coloured eyes and a glowing smile on his face. They were dressed modestly though because of the large welcoming dinner they did not seem very frugal.
The man's name was Torak and the women was called Lydia.
They gesture of kindness seemed insignificant to Phobos, like a fly waiting to be swatted, but Elyon considered their generosity food consisted of roasted pheasant, fish, boiled and seasoned potatoes, steamed vegetables and some sauce resembling sour cream. They also had frozen fruit for dessert and a gelatinous confection resembling pudding.
It wasn't the content of the food but the sheer amount which made Phobos suspicious. He'd read that during the war people barely had enough food to eat, let alone to throw a feast and he could remember when he was but ten years of age how they restricted food even at the palace…
Torak started talking "We are strangers in Metamoor and peaceful people who do not desire war, nor do we have any preferences. We only ask that not much blood be shred and that whoever wins the throne adhers to our principles"
"Alas the throne can change even the most tender hearts into tyrants " Lydia added
Elyon nodded understandingly, while hoping they did not refer to her mother and Phobos stared at them grimly.
The once prince of Meridian noticed how numisian-like their accents were. If they were mere uninvolved strangers why talk in the dialect of the enemy? They could be exiled or….worse, he suddenly realized. And their exotic spices looked oddly familiar.
After dinner Phobos dragged Elyon to an uninhibited part of the house and sayd " Do these well-meaning peasants seem shifty to you too, baby sister?"
"They gave us shelter, fed us! You're just mad you have to sleep on a hard couch…" Elyon concluded.
"No you airheaded, little…"
"Is there something the matter young ones?" asked Torak
"Everything's just peachy" Elyon answered forcefully and reassuredly.
Before the siblings' departure Torak and Lydia offered them a last warm meal. Phobos declined and forced Elyon to do the same.
The old couple became more and more insistent until Phobos answered
"My dear 'peaceful people', we refuse to eat your poisoned food. We will not eat one more bite of your numisian spices, a poison without effects in small doses yet that can be fatal in the amount you so graciously offered us"
"Poison?!" Elyon shieked in disbelief
Torak started smiling than laughing maniacally
"Is that what gave us away, laddie your good eye for poisons?"
"Consider your acting skills below could only fool naïve, good hearted simpletons like Elyon here. With your pitifully disguised numisian dialect, your overflowing buffet in the time of harsh war and let's not forget your loathsome 'neutrality'. Your plan to eliminate the Escanor line has failed, numisian spies! And the queen will be most displeased" Phobos sayd ruthlessly, with empty threats.
The couple was shaking (not knowing the enemy they planned to eliminate was royalty) and closed the door rapidely in the siblings' faces.
"You were wright" Elyon says dumbfounded
"Don't be so amazed little sister, after all big brother knows best" boasted Phobos
"This time...you were wright this time only"
The couple were numisian spies that gathered information from mouthy soldiers after Torak befriended them. Sometimes those soldiers would 'mysteriously dissapear'. And they (Lydia and her husband) thought they encountered bastards with royal blood exactly what Phobos did not want to happen.