Mischief Mage: By the way...anonymous reviews are welcome
"INNES!
Tana cried out her brother's name as she sped out of the castle out into the gardens where Innes was directing the laying out of furniture like an unhappy conductor with a twitch in his right arm. He spun around when he heard her urgent tone.
"What is it Tana?" he asked, as she flung her arms around his middle and made a see-through patch in his white shirt with her tears.
"Innes! It's terrible! Whatever shall we do?" Tana wailed.
"Tana! Tell me what happened immediately!"
Innes gasped, "Was it Ephraim?" he yelled, grabbing his sister by the shoulders.
"I'm sorry Innes, but I'm not capable of every despicable act that occurs"
Eirika and Ephraim had just arrived. Both looked shaken.
Innes, looked at their pale faces in fear, "Eirika..." he asked, "What's happened?"
Eirika gripped her hands tightly, "Your father is dead."
"Wh…What?"
"An explosion in the storeroom, the oil must have caught alight. It was a mage's fire"
Innes could only stare.
"But who? L'Arachel?" Once that woman got an idea in her head, there was no changing it.
"Actually…"
A short figure with flaming red hair stepped out from behind Eirika.
"YOU!"
It hadn't been Ewan's fault that he was scared, Rennac had told him the story of the phantom that haunted Frelia castle's corridors. And then Ross had dared him to go out into the corridor, bringing back some mead from the store room as proof. Why Ross wanted mead Ewan had no idea, but he set off down the dark corridor nonetheless. He strode through the narrow corridor, head held high so that Ross could see him. But as soon as his room was out of sight, he crouched down, hands over his head, his robe stuffed in his mouth to mute his howls of terror.
Once he had vented his fear and had soaked the corner of his robe, he sprinted to the store room. He came to the door to find it shut. Ewan pushed the knowledge that ghouls live behind doorways from his mind and kicked open to find…
A tall, dark figure looming over him. (Actually, the figure wasn't all that tall but then again, it's not hard to loom over Ewan)
Ewan's hands plunged into his robes to pull out his elfire spell book. Now was the time his training in the war to come through! What would master Saleh do in a time like this?
…
Run Ewan, use your scrawny legs!
That's not what Saleh would have done. So instead, Ewan sent a ball of flames in a random direction before running and screaming like a little girl, vowing to never bring the matter up. Ross could come and get the mead himself!
As luck would have it, that one ball of flames shot at random managed to zoom straight past the figure onto the crates of oil refills.
The figure had only two things to say before being engulfed by orange fire.
"Oh fuck"
An insane Innes had chased Ewan up and down the court yard for almost an hour, not counting when Ewan had hidden behind a hedge and Innes had thrown ceramic pots at him whenever he poked his head up to squeak out an apology.
"Prince Innes! I'm so sorr-OW" as a shard of pot cuffed him around the head.
The hunt eventually ended once Innes found a pot big enough to fit Ewan and had raised it as if to trap him in it but instead cracked it over the young boy's head.
Innes panted before looking up to survey the damage. It looked like a tornado had come through, done a U-turn and come back. The seats put out were definitely not where Innes had wanted them, the piranhas that he had put in the fish pond the day before flapped tragically on the grass, the servants hid quaking behind upturned tables, the largest piece of ceramic pot was the size of his thumb, the gardens were churned with foot prints that continued onto the paths, stamping the ground with mud, even the vicious hounds lay flat on the ground, paws over their eyes, whimpering. The frelian prince felt heat rising in his neck, he glanced at Tana and the royal twins who could not have looked as shocked as if Innes had asked Ephraim to marry him.
Ephraim recovered first.
"Tana, take Innes and Eirika to the study, you can work things out there. I'll counsel the servants and get them working again."
Wordlessly, Tana led Innes and Eirika up to her father's study. Tana sat down in Hayden's chair and broke down completely.
Innes looked around him frantically. He could understand Tana's feelings. It was his father who was dead as well. But Innes had a very two dimensional view on tears. Tears were bad. Something that stopped tears had to be good. It had always worked in the past so Innes started shouting.
"TANA STOP IT AT ONCE!"
"Why should I brother, our father is dead!"
Innes hadn't thought this far ahead. But Innes anger was like an elephant sliding down an oily hillside. It gains momentum fast and is hard to stop.
"SO?"
Tana stared at him.
"Innes, do you not understand? Father is dead. He's D-E-A- ---"
Another wave of tears burst through.
"I know that! But just…just STOP!"
"Why should I?"
"Because I'm your brother! Respect my sanity!"
"What's your point? It's not like your king!"
"Ahem"
Both turned to look viciously at Eirika. She was un-phased by the looks of pure venom that they shot her. This was a skill necessary to maintain a long term relationship with Innes. She spoke in an unwavering but sad voice.
"That's what the problem is. Now that Hayden is…gone, Innes is king"
"See? Now will you puh-lease stop crying!"
"That wasn't quite what I meant Innes."
But it didn't matter. Tana had stopped crying and was now looking very worried.
"Innes is…king?"
"Yes"
"King of Frelia"
"Yes"
"He has to sit on the throne?"
"Yes"
"He has to wear the coronet?"
"Yes Tana"
"The pointy one?"
"Yes Tana, Innes will need to wear the pointy coronet"
"But I thought that was the queen's coronet. So…who's going to wear the King's one?"
"Uhhh…"
Eirika looked across to Innes who she saw was looking back at her.
"Well I suppose," he began slowly, "that this would be a good as time as any for us to be wed Eirika. Are you opposed to the idea?"
Eirika fiddled with her sleeve. She had been doing that ever since the news of King Hayden's death. It now looked like someone like Marisa had tried to wash it, so she looked up instead.
"I think I'm ready"
Tana leapt up, all signs of tears gone. Eirika sometimes wondered whether her dear friend actually practised turning on and off the waterworks.
"Well in that case, then Ephraim and I should be married as well." She cried joyfully, clapping her hands like child being told that her arithmetic teacher had had an unfortunate run in with an insane butcher.
"WHAT?"
Tana turned to face her brother who was on his feet, seething.
"Why not brother? You gave Ephraim your permission a year ago."
"I was not aware that it would actually get to this. I hadn't planned-… Uh oh"
Innes stopped abruptly, the look that Tana was giving him would have made the Demon king cower under a table, eyes screwed shut no doubt.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD COME TO THIS? I'M TELLING EPHRAIM!"
Tana bolted out the door, Innes close behind her, vainly trying to bribe her to keep her loosely hanging trap shut.
Eirika was left alone in the study.
Two weddings, a reunion, a coronation and a funeral. The perks of getting over Lyon.
Shaking her head, she left the room, dragging her feet all the way.
