Mischief mage: Sorry that this chapter took so long. I got sidetracked by other fics
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The wedding that was celebrated the next day throughout all of Frelia was a roaring success; if by success you meant Ephraim's organs weren't evenly spread out over the large city like pate and if by roaring you meant that despite how much Innes roared at people to find his sister, Ephraim and Tana were successfully married in the dungeon of the castle by Natasha so that Moulder wouldn't be charged with treason and hung up by his ankles with the prisoners who had witnessed the marriage.
The coronation which took place immediately after was followed by Ephraim and Tana's departure while Innes was having Ewan swear his life to him. Saleh had tried to intervene, saying in a much more eloquent way than I have used that Ewan was essentially already his personal slave. Innes didn't bat an eyelid and proceeded to point out that Frelia's warriors had been an integral part of the defeat of the demon king and that he was king, in fact, that he was king because Ewan had killed the late king HaydenHe also added that if it wasn't Ewan it would be Myrrh. At this, Ewan's suitability for the position was made clear to Saleh and he was back in Caer Pelyn with Myrrh before his pupil had even been informed about his sudden class change.
And so, several weeks after the weddings, Ewan was immensely grateful for the letter addressed to the King of Frelia as it was an excuse to stop cleaning out the Pegasi stables. You know how a Pegasus would need to be a bigger than a horse to accommodate the wings to get them and their rider off the ground? Yeah well, their bodies aren't the only things that get bigger. With a literal orb of stink radiating around him, Ewan padded up the stairs to the King's study. He creaked the door open and stuck his red hair in around the door.
'Errr sir?'
'Yes eternally bound slave whose head is on fire again?'
'What?' Ewan put his hand to his head. After not having his fingers burnt off, he realised that Innes had been making fun of his hair. Again. Having a hall full of servants had given Innes time to be creative.
'What do you mean "what?" I asked you a question.'
'I didn't mean anything…'
'Then why are you here?'
'Well, I did mean something-I mean, I did have something to tell you- I mean, give you- I mean…'
The poor boy trailed off. Innes wasn't actually a bad king or a bad man. It's just that he was still peeved about how his father had been murdered and how only a pile of ashes had remained to be buried. His sense of compassion kicked in just as the boy before him looked like he might soil himself.
'What's the letter that you have there?'
'Oh, that's right; it's the letter that you were expecting from the provisional government of Grado'
'Give it here.'
Ewan reached out so that he could transfer the letter into his master's hand while not actually taking a step any closer to him.
Innes told him that that would be all and that he could return to the stables.
Ewan turned to go just as the king, looking hard at the wax seal of the letter in his hands, added,
'Boy, put you're hair out'
Ewan forced a laugh while internally considering dying his hair mauve, pulling the door shut behind him with a small click.
Alone in his study, Innes shook his head, grinning. He knew that Ewan's hair and the low-hanging candelabras and would come to aid his boredom one day. He looked out the window towards the immense Pegasus stables, hoping that the beans that he had had Gillam sneak into the feed would be coming through before Ewan figured out that he was a fire hazard.
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It hadn't been much of a honeymoon. The new king and Queen of Renais had been trying for weeks to seize a day that wasn't disrupted by some national matter. Although Ephraim had slightly more tolerance for such matters, Tana was having difficulty putting wild dracozombies flattening villages into perspective.
Just as his Frelian counterpart was doing, Ephraim was in his study, pouring over a letter from Grado which had been delivered by a faithful servant with flaming red hair. However, unlike Innes, Ephraim hadn't set Seth's head on fire to match its natural shade.
The letter read:
'To the Amazing, awe-inspiring, cool, extraordinary, fabulous, great, groovy, incredible, marvellous, phenomenal, spectacular, stupendous, superb, super-duper, terrific, valiant, wonderful, tremendous King,
'On behalf of the Provisional government of Grado, I have here outlined that which is to be transferred to the victorious nations as of next month. This includes: all of forces in Grado, excepting those brought in by victorious nations are to be demilitarised; all forms of psycho dragon-like zombies are to be eradicated no matter number of soldiers eaten in the process, the next leader of the country may only be chosen after consultation by the provisional government with the leaders of neighbouring nations; any use of necromancy will result in the user being imprisoned for life in a pure white chamber filled with furry animals, fields and artificially produced rainbows and the zombies will be put down; finally, Grado's nation will be reduced to that it's borders lie along the Taizel coastline, the Renvall highway and along the border of Jehanna as it had previously. The land that has been confiscated as a result of Grado's war crimes may be divided between the victorious nations by the discretion of their leaders.
'Your recently faithful slaves,
'The Grado Provisional Government'
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Innes looked up from his letter which was identical to the one in Ephraim's study miles away. Eirika had appeared and had been reading it over his shoulder.
'Notice that your adjectives have been alphabetised' she said, pointing to the top of the letter.
'What? Oh, I hadn't noticed that'
There was a brief pause as husband and wife stared at the letter, rereading specific areas.
The king then added, 'I suppose I'll have to contact Ephraim a few eternities earlier than I had expected'
'Why's that?'
'Who else is going to decide which nation the land goes to?'
Eirika was beginning to feel that a holiday to one of the coastal islands might be in order.
