Xara was twirling a flute of- something. Probably alcohol, honestly. She gave a barely audible huff as she regarded the situation between Jesse and Karen.
"Xara!" and Karen was immediately plastering on such a wide smile that Jesse wouldn't have been surprised to see the back molars in her mouth. "I-"
Xara leveled a cold stare at her. "You will refer to me as 'Lord Xara'. Only certain people are allowed to call me that," she said, in such an icy voice that Jesse felt like they'd just been frozen to the floor. She wasn't even directing that at them.
Karen's smile faltered, but she simpered, "Of course, Lord Xara."
"Mm. You said you're Karen of Ludiamet?" Xara asked, managing to sound utterly uninterested while twirling her wine glass around.
"I did! I'm sure you've heard of me-"
"No, never," Xara responded flatly, taking a sip from the flute of whatever-the-beverage-in-her-hand-was. "Otto doesn't talk much about the other nobles in Ludiamet. Too busy doing his scholarly activities, I'm sure."
Jesse resisted the urge to laugh at the affronted look on Karen's face.
However, Karen recovered quickly, the horrific 'smile' plastering itself back onto her face. "Well, it's an honor to meet you, Lord Xara."
Xara muttered, so low that Jesse barely caught it, "Wish I could say the same."
Then she adjusted her position, regarding Karen with a deadpan look while Jesse tried not to combust from laughter. "What's the problem?"
Karen's lip curled. "This... commoner," and the way she said commoner you'd have thought she'd said 'disgusting worm' or whatever was horrifying to a demon, "has been refusing to tell me their identity. I believe it is quite disrespectful of them to not give their name when asked."
"To be quite honest, it's not particularly rude of a child to say that they don't want to share their name."
Jesse debated being offended about Xara calling them a child.
Then they decided that if it made Karen go away, it was well worth it.
"I'd actually argue that it's ruder to insist on them giving private information." Xara set her glass down with a decisive clink and met eyes with Karen. "Now. Please leave them alone before I have to ask the guards to escort you out for harassing other guests."
Karen and her little entourage looked rather scandalized by that, but Xara picked her glass back up and took a sip, making it blatantly clear that the conversation was over.
With an absolutely scandalized pouty glare at Jesse, Karen flounced off to go bother- uh, socialize with other guests.
Jesse released the breath they'd been holding in to avoid giggling and turned to Xara, face lighting up in a grateful smile. "Thank you for that..."
Xara just hummed in reply, taking a fairly large swig and draining the whole flute in a single gulp.
Jesse nodded after a moment, awkwardly. Part of them wondered if they should try to stop her.
The other part didn't find it to be a good idea.
She set the flute down and regarded them, her lips pressed together. Jesse half felt like they were being interviewed with just her eyes.
After a moment, she gave a brief nod and stood. "I need to take a moment. Will you come with me?"
"What? Oh, um..." Jesse glanced around, half-hoping someone else would be available so that they didn't have to get trapped anywhere alone-
"It's just you and me, Jesse."
- even if they trusted her, to an extent.
But the other lords were engaged in their conversations; Jesse didn't want to bother them or offend Xara by saying no. Besides, right now the safest place to be was with another lord. And here was a lord, extending the invitation.
They concluded this moment of thought with a meek "alright".
Xara nodded and stood, setting her wineglass off to the side. "Alright. Let's go."
"Oh-" and Jesse scrambled to keep up with her, Xara brusquely muttering to the guard off to the side that she'd be in the bathroom for a bit, and that Jesse was coming along to guard outside.
Despite the slightly derisive look the guard shot Jesse, he let them pass.
Steam puffed through the hallways, warming them so that frost glazed the tall, ornate windows, obscuring the flurries of snow descending outside. Xara was brisk despite the amount of alcohol she'd consumed, feet tapping out a sharp, furious rhythm on the spruce floor.
They were a good distance away from the ballroom when Xara abruptly spun to face them. She stopped so suddenly that Jesse narrowly avoided clonking full-force into her.
Xara smoothed down her dress, brow furrowed. "I need to talk with you."
Jesse blinked. "You don't have to go to the bathroom?"
"No, that was just so the guards didn't declare a state of emergency upon discovering I'm not in the ballroom. Anyway, I need to talk to you."
"Oh," Jesse said.
She said nothing for a moment, still regarding them, lips pressed together- Jesse wondered if that meant she was upset, or just thinking- so they meekly continued, "Uh, about what?"
"About Romeo."
Jesse blinked at Xara. This was an unexpected development; especially considering her apparent hatred for him. It must be something important "What about him?"
"What do you know about Fred?" Xara asked, and the question was so blunt that it took Jesse a full few seconds to let the question sink in.
They blinked up at her, absently twisting their fingers together. Their brow furrowed slightly, the gears in their head churning. "He was the lord of Jupin... um, Jack said he's a half-demon... and people say you, Romeo, and he used to be friends," Jesse said honestly. "And he's... deceased?"
Xara gave a brief nod. "Anything else?"
"No... just that."
"Nothing about how he died?" There was a distinctly bitter overtone to Xara's voice. Bitterness that read of sorrow, of deep grief, of a strange, bitter hatred (of Romeo? Of something else?).
Jesse shook their head. Xara gave a brief 'hm' and crossed her arms.
"Well, what you've heard is right. Fred came to the lord of Jupin at the time. His wish was to be able to help as many people as possible. Help save people, and keep them safe."
"That's a very nice wish," Jesse said, brain on auto-pilot.
And it makes mine sound so much more selfish.
An almost wistful smile twitched at Xara's lips. "It is."
The smile vanished as fast as it had showed up. "The lord of Jupin was actually trying to retire. So, in a twist of the contract, Fred was stuck as the new lord of Jupin. He couldn't ever go home. But his wish was fulfilled, because he was helping keep Jupin in order, and helping people out with all the issues that were going on at the time. I think that was one of the fastest periods of growth in Cosmos history."
Xara's eyes shifted to theirs. Her eyes were dark.
Frightening, almost.
"Romeo and I met him only a few months after. We were replacements for Narvid and Yurin respectfully. Something about the three of us just... clicked. Your blonde friend would probably say we all got along like a house on fire with gasoline on it."
Jesse said nothing.
The lord took a deep breath, her eyes flicking to watch the frost-covered windows. "Well. Everything got along fine for a time. We ran our respective cities."
"Then... Romeo changed. I don't know what the fuck happened, but he started getting moodier. More paranoid, maybe." Xara shifted, watching the snow drift by outside.
"We went on a trip- into the forest, to investigate some negative energy reports- and in the middle of the trip, Romeo just blew up."
Xara's eyes fixed on the frost outside the windows. She sounded so far away, lost in a memory that had happened... recently? A long time ago?
Jesse didn't know.
"He was just... screaming. About god knows what, us not paying attention to him? Not spending enough time with him, even though we all ran separate cities, and he knew we didn't have time to just coddle him 24/7?" Xara's voice was cold. Crisp, but full of an anger that had iced over.
"Fred was trying to comfort him when... well, I told you we were there for some mild negative energy reports. Some of it took the distraction and shot right into him."
She took another breath, and Jesse thought they could hear a tremor in her voice- but before they could even think to say anything, Xara was continuing. "There wasn't much negative energy in Fred. Really, it was probably barely enough to cause him to be in a bad temper, if it caught him. He could've easily forced it out."
She gave a dark, dark chuckle- and the sound scared Jesse, because it was the sound of pure hate, pure fury, embroiled into a single, soft sound.
"But for some fucking reason, Romeo freaked out, in the middle of his little tantrum. He decided he'd take it out himself. And he did. He destroyed the negative energy with a clap of his hands."
Her eyes locked onto Jesse. They were frozen still, eyes wide, heart beating fast, listening to her in such silence you'd have thought they were just a doll.
"He just also destroyed Fred's heart along with it."
This might've been the part where someone would've gasped, shock and horror crossing their face.
Jesse was just frozen, looking at her.
"The negative energy had started trying to get a foothold. When he tried destroying it, he also destroyed the footholds- and the bits it was clinging to. Namely, Fred's heart."
There was a definite tremor to her voice when she spoke again. "We couldn't even get him to a medic. He was dead before he hit the ground."
The silence was so deafening, it almost drowned out her voice. "We didn't tell anyone what really happened. Not except for the other lords. In public, we said it was mysterious circumstances."
Xara's eye caught something just behind Jesse.
Her brow creased- actually, they furrowed so deeply she was genuinely glaring. Jesse shrank back, half-expecting her to slap them across the face, despite her gaze traveling over their head.
"But, if he'd never been our friend," Xara said, voice as sharp as daggers driving into someone's heart, spilling blood, eyes still boring into the space behind Jesse, "maybe Fred would still be fucking alive."
With an agonizing slowness, like they were trapped in gelatin, Jesse turned to look behind them.
Romeo was staring back from the mirror. It had floated into the air out of their pocket without them noticing. Judging by the expression on his face, he'd been listening the whole time.
How had the call been-
"In the future, if you wish to call me, just say my name and wait for a minute."
... oh.
Oh no.
"... hi, Romeo," Jesse said weakly.
Xara and Romeo were having a staring contest. The air was charged with such anger and tension and a uneasy balance of hatred that Jesse was terrified to even breathe.
Romeo's face was hard. There was a little crease in his brow. "I was angry," and his voice came out so, incredibly slow, so slow that every word almost felt like a punch in the face, "because you never talked to me. Because I thought we were friends, and when I requested assistance, for situations in Narvid that were so politically charged I was scared to get involved without assistance, I got nothing in reply."
"What the fuck are you talking about? You never sent me any shit like that," Xara snapped this at him, crossing her arms and stepping past Jesse. "Instead I got you suddenly screaming at the both of us for zero fucking reason-"
"I just told you why I was screaming at you-"
"And I'm telling you it's a bullshit reason!" Xara barked back, interrupting him, "Because I didn't see anything from you, right up until the second you freaked the fuck out and made his heart explode-"
"DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME THAT!" Romeo roared all of a sudden- so sudden that Jesse flinched, immediately bringing their arms up to cover their head, rage burning between the two lords so fiercely all of a sudden that it was a miracle that nothing was on fire. "I know bloody well what happened-"
"Oh, that's fucking fantastic, isn't it?! You're aware of the basic turn of events! That's amazing!" Xara snarled back, with such venom that Jesse almost wondered how Romeo hadn't dropped dead on the spot. "Meanwhile our best friend- my best friend, considering what you did to him- is fucking dead because of you!"
"You fucking bitch!" Romeo screamed back, and Jesse might've seen tears in his eyes, but he was yelling and the mirror was vibrating so much with anger(grief?) that it was hard to tell, "how fucking dare you-"
"How dare I? You killed Fred!" Xara raged at him, eyes wide with fury, "you fucking murdered him-"
Romeo slammed his hand down- presumably onto his desk, as there was promptly a deluge of sounds that sounded like he'd knocked over an inkwell or something like that.
"I didn't mean to!" he yelled back; really it was an absolute wonder that nobody had come charging in thinking that they were being attacked, "he had negative energy in him-"
"It was barely enough to give him a temper! You could've sat and done nothing and he would've forced it out of himself in less than a minute! Instead you decide to destroy it and fucking blow his heart up-"
Jesse was covering their ears, shaking and wide-eyed and frozen still and on the verge of tears stop yelling stop yelling stop yelling-
"And now my best friend is dead because you couldn't control a fucking temper tantrum and everything's a fucking political shithole because you misplaced your own fucking mail or some stupid shit and it's all your fault and I fucking hate you!" Xara screamed.
Dead silence.
Romeo was staring at Xara. An array of emotions flickered across his face- shock, anger, grief, pain- and then nothing at all.
"Fine." His voice was toneless and empty and nothing at all. "I won't bother you again, then. Goodbye."
His face vanished from the mirror, which hung in the air for a second longer before plummeting towards the wood floor- Jesse caught it, hands shaking, as they turned to look at Xara, her chest heaving and hair slightly disheveled from the screaming fit.
Her eyes were focused on the now-empty surface of the mirror, as if trying to follow where Romeo had gone with her eyes- and then she closed her eyes, and with a disgusted sound, Xara stormed back to the party, too incensed to realize Jesse was staying behind, holding the mirror in their hands, inches away from shattering on the floor and staring blankly at their worried reflection.
A/N: ...
Responses to reviews!
Squidzi Galaxi: Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far haha.
Happygoluckymegami: ;3 / Something's up with Jack, yeah. Wonder what it is. / Gabriel's not a lord and Soren is. late. / :P
DubstepDragon14: Xara's response is - "I AM the manager" xD
TheAmberShadow: It's easy to forget Otto, haha. / I wonder :3c / Basically, she is a classic Karen. mostly. almost.
jessicanightmarewolf: Not in this chapter haha / Party's been derailed slightly xD
ThePlayaJam765: Xara's trump card is she's technically the manager xD
Pog: They don't; Jesse finds the coincidence absolutely hilarious haha.
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x.X. A.L. X.x
