Chapter 4

"I hate coronations," Sabin muttered. "I run away from one and sixteen or more years later, they find a way to coronate me." he stalked away from the coronation feast, pushing the crown a little further back on his head angrily. "Stupid crown..."

"He-e-e-ey! Sa-a-a-bin! You're not gonna forget about a buddy, are 'ya?" Locke grinned at him, holding a four year old's hand, and supporting a baby with one arm. The baby cooed and pulled at his headband. "Ah, c'mon Locket, give Daddy a break! Does Locket want Mommy's attention? Yes she does! Hey! Celes!" Sabin stared. "You haven't taught them to steal, have you?"

Locke went red in the face, and would have stomped up and down if it weren't for baby Locket on his arm. "I'm not a thief, I'm a treasure hunter! Got that, Kingie Boy! Little Lok here'll be the best, wontcha Lok?"

The four-year-old nodded, his bandana slipping down over his eyes. "Yeah, I'll be the bestest treasure hunter ever!" Locke grinned. "That's best, kiddo, not bestest. Named him after my old man you see," he poked Lok playfully. "Looks just like the old guy, heh. Miss him a lot." he ruffled his son's hair, and retied Lok's bandana.

"What happened to him?Did he die?" Sabin asked. Locke snorted. "Him?Die?Maybe in forty years, but not now. He moved out of Old Narshe, and into New Narshe when they relocated everybody. It's a huge port and industry town nowadays, but I can't see him that often, he's so far away." He tickled baby Locket and let her bite his fingers to keep her occupied.

"These little guys are a handful, two more on the way." Sabin fiddled with a button on his overcoat idly. "I think two is enough for me." Locke winked at him. "An heir and a spare, eh buddy? Is your brother alright? He is gonna recover, right?"

"Yeah, I think he'll get over it." Sabin glanced over at his wife, watching Junior and Luca play together. And she was drinking water, that was odd. Selena usually never passed up the chance to drink a little wine whenever Sabin had enough money to bring it home. He pushed it out of his mind and decided to puzzle over that later. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then, eh Sabin?"

A man stopped next to Locke, regarding Sabin with thoughtful brown eyes. "Yes, you'll have plenty of paperwork to do that Edgar didn't finish, now won't you?"
Sabin started. "Who are you?" The man bowed elegantly. "Lok Cole, little Locke here is my son." Sabin glared over at Locke. "I thought you said you missed him!" Locke winked at Sabin. "I did say missed didn't I? Well, I couldn't resist inviting my parents to a grand old party like this one!" Locke shrugged his shoulders.

Lok rolled a pair of dice in his fingers without looking at them. "You know, being king is like playing dice. You have to be a good guesser. You have to know where the dice will land." He threw the dice in the air and caught them in his other hand, a pair of sixes. His eyes glinted. "And you have to know when to turn things to your advantage," he slipped the dice into a suit sleeve and retrieved a pair of look-alike with three sixes on it. "And how to turn it to your advantage. Alliances have to be forged," Lok Cole stored away the weighted dice and spun two green clear dice on his index fingers. "And you need to know how to break them," he dropped the slower spinning die and broke it with his other hand, the pieces trickling out of his hand, all the while spinning the other die. "And of course you have to keep running smoothly," he retrieved a deck of cards with one hand from his suit and flipped them all at the die. "while trouble overtakes you, and look strong," the die had somehow evaded the onslaught of cards."when you really aren't." he showed Sabin the die, cracked in all of its sides. He pocketed the die. "That's how kings become legends, and that is how your father ran this kingdom. Unfortunately, he forgot one thing." He took out the green cracked die again, and another red one. He spun them both on his hand and red collided with green. The green shattered and the red spun on. "Kill or be killed." Sabin nodded mutely and Lok nodded, satisfied that his message was through, and strode away, leaving Locke with an apologetic grin on his face.

"Don't mind Dad, he's not usually like that. Looked sorta grim to me, don't you think?"

"Yeah, grim..."

"Look, why don't you look through Edgar's paperwork, and call it a night, eh?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Sabin headed off to his brother's workroom quickly, the noise of the coronation party fading behind him.

Sabin sat down at the desk, riffling quickly through the papers after the strange lecture from Locke's father. "Man, how could he do all this, this stuff?" he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, letting his tired mind drift. "And this... is what Edgar has felt every night for eighteen years..." he murmured. Junior opened the door quietly and slipped inside, his young mind open and excited, exploring his regal surroundings, so different from the mountain that he had called home. His twin sister was with their mother, still talking with his aunt, Lynna, or, whatever it was that his mother did.

He lifted himself into his father's lap. "Dad? How come Uncle Edgar lives in a castle, and you live in the mountains?"

Sabin answered, his eyes closed, mind adrift. "It was what Galahad wanted," he mumbled tiredly. "Gala-had?" he asked, but his father was already asleep. "Galahad..." he got off of his father when his mother opened the room and wobbled inside unsteadily, accompanied by Luca. "Mommy needs to rest, so here she is! Good-night Mommy." Sabin's wife mumbled her good-nights, and sat on the bed. "Mommy, who's Galahad?" Selena shrugged, leaning back on the bed.
"I'm gonna find Galahad Mommy!" Selena murmured something that sounded suspiciously like a 'that's nice dear' comment, to Junior's distaste.

He stomped on the floor. "I will! You'll see!" Sabin barked a gruff laugh. "We'll see..."