Eve stared at nothing for a moment. She must have misheard. Had Seth really just said he was the Underking? "What?" she asked. Or maybe she had heard him correctly and he was just saying stupid stuff again. She was pretty sure that was something he'd used to do a lot when she'd known him before.
Seth nodded, with a look in his eye that seemed almost defiant. "You heard me."
Silence reigned for a long moment as Eve tried to figure out how to respond to that. She wanted to accuse him of making stuff up, but his tone didn't sound even slightly like a joke, and it felt somehow wrong to say anything. "Are you...serious?" she asked slowly.
"The most I've ever been."
That statement, paired with the completely serious look on his face, came across as very true. Eve wasn't sure she could actually believe that Seth actually was the Underking, but he sure didn't seem to be faking. And if he really was telling the truth… "You… you're the Underking?"
"Sure you're not hard of hearing?" Seth asked, and at the look Eve shot him, he added, "What? I did just say that like… three times."
"You did, I just… that sounds fake."
Seth snorted. "I know, doesn't it?" He laughed a little.
Eve, however, was not laughing. "Yeah, it does. I'm trying to figure out if you're legit." She paused for a few seconds before continuing. "I don't know why you'd say that if it wasn't true, but it also sounds just a little ridiculous. But it does kinda make sense with how you did what you did back there."
"I am legit!" Seth protested, then made a face. "Is 'legit' a word? I don't think-"
"It's short for 'legitimate,' which means real," Eve informed him.
"Oh, okay. That makes sense." Seth stopped. "Uh, where was I? …Oh, yeah. To be honest, I don't know what else to say to make you believe me. You asked how I made all those guys listen to me, and I told you." He shrugged.
Eve nodded slowly. Solid reasoning. That was the normal progression of a question and an answer; she just couldn't wrap her mind around the answer to her question. "Okay, yeah. You've got a point. Um… how did that happen? Last I heard you'd gotten your memories erased and then just disappeared off the face of the planet."
"Well, I was in the Under Realm," Seth said, as if that in itself was a whole answer.
Eve took a slow, deep breath to try not to yell at him. "Yeah, I got that." She fidgeted with Freya's reins, trying to phrase her next question. "And… you've been there because you are the Underking, not because you work for him?" It felt weird to even say that.
"Exactly!"
"So… how long have you been the Underking then?"
"Oh, only a couple years. They- I mean, I couldn't exactly do that while I was a kid, y'know?"
"Makes sense," Eve muttered. "What happened to the last one? Did he, like, die right while you were down there or something?" As her train of thought sped on, questions came faster. "And he had to be magical to be the Underking, right? So how did he die then? Was he super old or something?"
"Uh…" Eve thought this might've been the most uncomfortable she'd seen Seth look this whole conversation, even more than when he straight up told her he was the Underking. "Can I pass on that one?" he asked.
"I mean… sure, I guess. I was just wondering." Eve looked back at the road in front of her, and she suddenly started to wonder. Maybe… could Seth have killed the last Underking? That would explain how he got the position. She side-eyed him.
He eyed her back. "What?"
"Nothing," Eve said, looking away again. No point in talking about that. "So… if you're the Underking… then you're in charge of all the undead beings? You can make them all listen to you?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Seth said casually.
"What do they think about the fact that they have to listen to you now?"
Seth tilted his head back, apparently having to think on that one. "I don't think they really mind it too much," he said. "They liked me fine before just cause I was a shadow charmer. Plenty of 'em just want to make deals and trick me, but they can't really do that anymore." He shrugged. "Besides, it's not like they've got a choice."
"True," Eve agreed. "You were already a shadow charmer before, but now… I bet you've got some cool new powers. Besides making them listen to you," she added quickly.
"Yeah, I do," Seth said, and Eve thought he might've been having trouble preventing himself from launching into a rant about his new abilities. The thought made her smile.
"What are some?" she asked and was instantly rewarded with the sight of his eyes lighting up like the question made his day.
Seth did end up ranting a bit about his new powers for a while, but Eve didn't mind. She was happy to listen to him talk, especially about something that made him happy. Plus, she was just glad to get to spend some time with her old friend. She'd missed him.
He explained plenty of things that were really cool, and Eve couldn't help but be excited about it too. He could already talk to the undead before; now he could command them, sense them, and even sometimes see through them when they were other places. He told her that he'd been getting a lot of practice growing and expanding his natural abilities from being a shadow charmer, and the additional factor of Underking just increased on that.
She couldn't help but notice that he continued to avoid certain questions and certain subjects, but she didn't press him. Curious as she was, he had the right not to talk about things if he didn't want to.
They kept up a steady stream of chatter on the way back home. When Eve realized she could see Terrabelle in the distance, she reached the startled conclusion that they'd been walking and talking for a few hours. Even after that long (the same three hours as it had taken to get to the witch plus what must've been more because they were moving at a walking speed instead of going fast), Eve was disappointed when Seth said he had to leave.
"Already?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, and she noticed that he didn't look very happy about it either. "You're almost home, and I can't go there."
Eve sighed but nodded anyway. "Well… see you later, then, I guess?"
"Yeah," Seth agreed, sounding much more confident about it than Eve felt. "See you later." A familiar mischievous glint in his eyes, paired with a wide smile, was at the same time slightly unsettling (because what was he about to do?) and reassuring in its familiarity. "Imma head out," Seth said. He turned around, stepped off the road, and vanished instantly.
Eve lingered for only a moment, staring at the spot where he'd been standing, then turned back toward Terrabelle and urged Freya to continue on towards home.
The rest of the ride would be maybe half an hour or less now, but that was enough time for Eve to get a good amount of thinking done. She found herself wondering just how powerful Seth was now. He had already been a shadow charmer, a very powerful position that hadn't existed in hundreds of years, and now he was one of the five major monarchs. That train of thought made her wonder if he'd even thought about how powerful he was now. Knowing what she knew about Seth, he probably hadn't.
That thought made her smile. He probably didn't even realize how much he could do with his position, for good or evil, and if he did, he would probably just use it to play silly tricks and maybe help people who needed it.
Although, he was a bit of a different person now than he had been before he'd lost his memories. He wouldn't have retained any core beliefs or values he'd held before. But Eve didn't think he was that different. Seth definitely seemed a bit less trusting, maybe slightly more subdued, than before, but he was very obviously still the same person. He still joked around a lot once he'd gotten comfortable with her, still talked the same way, still seemed to care about doing the right thing (as far as she could tell).
Which led her off on a whole different train of thought about what made a person who they were. Memories were obviously a big part of development, but some aspects of personality seemed to exist anyway. Eve continued to contemplate the effects of nature versus nurture, reaching home much sooner than she'd expected.
She put Freya in the stables, then dashed home, sneaking in by a side door. It was still midday; she'd been gone five or six hours, but she still wasn't really supposed to be able to leave Terrabelle at all. Hopefully her family would assume she'd been somewhere inside the palace other than where they'd been or just outside somewhere in the village.
Eve began to make her way to her room but changed her mind and decided to make her way to the kitchen. She'd already had a long day, and she was hungry. She hoped that no one in her family would ask her questions about her day if they saw her, but she'd rather not take the chance in the first place, so she stayed as quiet as she could. Besides, she had plenty on her mind to distract her anyway.
i don't wanna live like this
something's gotta give
i don't wanna be unhaunted
