Chapter 3
"Edgar... why did this have to happen now? Remember what you said we'd do after you negotiated with the Arlordens, Edgar? You said you'd take us somewhere special. All of us, Edgar, me, you, Gerad, and the new baby... Remember?" Edgar stared at her, his eyes blank. He shivered and muttered something. Tomas watched worriedly. "My medicines should have taken effect by now... something... is keeping him... away."

Lynna's body trembled. "Away?" Tomas nodded. "He is reliving something he never thought he would relive again, something horrible that happened in his lifetime... or maybe a series of horrible events."

"What kind of horrible events?" Tomas sighed and sat down on a stool. "I think some of his worst memories might be of his parents dying. His father didn't die a happy death. He too, was poisoned, and it killed him. Edgar and his brother Sabin were still young boys when their mother died. No one knows exactly how she died, but I think Edgar does... and it's haunting him. There may be other memories too, but I'm not too sure of those. Some are just rumor. But there was one that I found disturbing." Tomas leaned closer to her. "I'm not old enough to remember, but older people say Lord Enri had a first wife by an arranged marriage named Petra. They say that it was not a happy marriage for Lord Enri, and that they seperated after he found the Lady Sabil. After Edgar and his brother were born, people say that Petra tried to poison Edgar and kill him while he was a small child, to get rid of him. Since he was the weaker one, nobody would think twice about it.

"But Sabil heard of it from a close friend, a servant woman named Cecilia, who had seen Petra putting poisons into Edgar's food, after the cook had left it. The poor cook was terrified when Sabil questioned him; he had nothing to do with it.
Edgar was horribly weak by then, much weaker than Prince Sabin, and Enri too, thought something was amiss. He caught Petra in the act and exiled her into the desert for her treachery. She was lucky not to have been executed. Lord Enri couldn't deal with harming women for some strange reason, so he spared her."
Lynna stroked Edgar's hair again. "No wonder... my poor Edgar..."

"Edgar! Edga-a-a-a-a-ar! Big Brother!" Sabin burst into the room and went straight to Edgar. "Brother? Hey, c'mon Edgar, it's me!" Edgar turned his head slightly. "It's me, Sabin... you're baby brother, Edgar!"

"Dad, don't let her poison me again, Dad..." Edgar's head fell to the side. "Edgar! Edgar... Big Brother... I won't let anything happen to you. I promise. You just rest." Sabin got up, a bit shaken. He turned to Tomas. "Why did he call me Dad?" he whispered. Tomas looked at him for a while. "Well, Lord Sabin, it does strike me that you look almost exactly like your father. It might have confused Lord Edgar in his... vulnerable state."

Sabin looked into a mirror hung on the wall over a dresser. "I do, huh? I don't even remember what he looks like. I guess Edgar looks like Mother, right?" He sniffed loudly and coughed to cover up his cracking voice. "Uh, well... my family is here too... my wife and kids and... I guess I'd better get ready or something." He strode out of the room quickly and closed the door.

He went to his old room, well, the room he had shared with Edgar a long time ago. "It's been too long huh, Father..." he studied the picture hanging over the fireplace. "I guess I am the spitting image of you. But you wouldn'tve been too proud of a runaway. You know what they call me now, Mother? The Rogue Prince. I don't think it's very flattering and I don't think they'll take kindly to me as King." he looked at the picture again. His parents, happy and alive. He wished it were still that way. "Who killed you? I wished I knew, so I could hunt them down and finish them off myself!" he clenched his fists and looked down at his shoes. "But I couldn't do anything. I was a coward, and I let you die! I-"

Selena held his wrists and unclenched his fists. 'You expect too much of yourself.' She looked at the picture thoughtfully. 'I'm sure they forgive you for any cowardice, but...' she hugged him. 'You were never a coward to me. You saved me, and you're my hero.'

"That's good to know," he murmured. He opened the closet doors. It was a dusty and old, and he sneezed a little. "Ugh, nobody dusts around here?" There wasn't much in it. A couple of old, forlorn, clothes, spools of thread and cloth, yarns, and needles. "Mother liked to knit and stitch Father's clothes..." A couple of old suits Edgar and himself had long outgrown, and many of his mother's ripped dresses. Well beyond repair by the looks of them. He put them gently on the floor and paused as his hands found a large box. He pulled it out gingerly. "What's this?" Selena came to look out of curiousity. He rummaged through the box carefully. An old family portrait, he put that aside. Letters, bottles of ink long used up, pens long dried out, odd assortments of clothes and mementos, another portrait, a frame, a telescope, Edgar's backfired tools, Sabin's many failed tests on Figaroan history that had so frustrated his father, Edgar's perfect grades in the same subject, Edgar's swords that Sabin had broken with his small, unscathed claws, also in the box, which had made his father very proud, various tournament prizes and medals, and another box.

"Geez, what a packrat." Sabin opened the smaller box and lifted out the armor. "Hmm...Looks like it just might fit. There's obviously nothing else in good condition that's my size..." He changed and let Selena scrutinize the new outfit. "Mmm..." she dusted of the suit. Sabin looked in the mirror. It looked basically like Edgar's, except bigger and a lot more armor. And it was red and gold instead of his brother's green and blue. He took off the shoulder plates and the stomach and knee guards, as well as the shin guards. "I don't know how he wears all of it..." Sabin muttered. "It's too confining for me." He dropped the excess into a box. "At least it doesn't have sleeves." Selena wagged a finger at him. 'But it does have a cape.'

Sabin blanched. "Do I have to?" she sighed. 'It's only the for the waist down.'
"I suppose I can deal with that..." he put it on and looked in the mirror again. "Hmm... Something's missing..." Selena pulled at his spiked up hair. 'Or not missing. You'll need to flatten this down too.'

"Aaargh! You can put me in fancy clothes and make me king, but you will not flatten my hair." Selena gave him her most imploring look. "Look, no is no." She held up part of her hair and made a cutting motion. He grumbled and plucked at his ponytail. "I've been meaning to cut it. I just forget." She beamed and rummaged around for a pair of scissors, and with much bravado, cut his hair short at last.

She looked proudly at her handiwork and then wondered what she would do with the hair. Junior and Luca came bounding in. "Hey, hey Dad! Are you gonna be sitting on the big chair thingie?" Junior asked. "Daddy got a haircut!" Luca exclaimed. The twins then proceeded to fight over who would talk first. Luca won.
"There're two thrones! Does that mean Momma sits up there too?" Selena squeaked and shook her head while Sabin ushered them out of the room.

He held her face in his hands. "See? You're coming with me." She blushed and shook her head. "You're just nervous, that's all. You'll be fine, and the prettiest Queen I've ever seen." He kissed her cheek and she laughed nervously.
"But now," his face was serious."I have to... announce my stand-in for the throne in Edgar's place." He breathed deeply and exhaled. "God, I'm scared stiff." Selena patted his arm reassuringly. 'I'll be right behind you.'