Chapter One: When Hinges Creak

A week earlier, Flynn was just finishing a report before heading to lunch. He was feeling good; tomorrow was his day off and he had all of his work done on time. He'd be able to relax tomorrow without worrying about it, and maybe celebrate his birthday a few days early, since he would be busy on the actual day. He placed the report in his out box and stood to head for lunch.

When he opened the door, he found Sodia on the other side, reaching for the knob. "Oh! Hello, sir."

"Good afternoon. Did you need me?" He silently hoped she didn't. It was so rare he got uninterrupted lunch breaks.

"Yes, sir. There's a situation by the training grounds that needs your presence."

He held in a sigh. "Very well. Lead the way."

Sodia walked quickly, her arms stiff and her face stern. He could tell she was nervous about something, and asked, "What exactly is the situation?"

"I'll brief you when we arrive, sir."

Curious. His mind filled with possible disasters, trying to find the right balance that it wasn't severe enough to have the whole castle in an uproar, but important enough to require his presence. He didn't come up with anything in particular, but when he arrived at the training grounds, it still wasn't what he expected. Chiefly this was because he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Did the problem get cleared up?"

"Not yet, sir. Follow me, please." She led him through the hall and toward the door that led to the street. A pair of knights approached, but still no commotion to be seen.

"Sodia, I don't mean to doubt your judgement, but is this really something that needs my personal involvement?"

The knights passed them, and then one of them threw a bag over his head and the other grabbed his arms, twisting them behind his back.

"Hey!"

"Quick, get the door!" one of them said as he was shoved forward.

Someone opened the door, and since both knights were occupied with pinning his arms behind his back and forcing him forward, he had to assume it was Sodia. What the hell was going on?! Sodia would never betray him like this, but she wasn't making a single move to help him. Flynn stumbled out the door and nearly tripped down the steps, but the knight holding him kept him from falling.

"Let go of me! What is the meaning of this!?" He heard a horse and then another door opening. Furious, he kicked his abductor's shins but his feet just clanked against metal. "Sodia! Dammit, Sodia, help me!"

Another set of hands grabbed him from the front and he was yanked off the ground and pulled into a carriage. "Unhand me!" he bellowed, praying someone on the street would notice that he was getting kidnapped. His heart pounded with both confusion and fear; where were they taking him and could Sodia really be in on this? The knights finally released his arms, just in time to slam the carriage door shut. His fists flew out and landed squarely in a man's stomach with a satisfying thump.

His captor grunted, and then a familiar voice said, "Aw, geeze, Flynn, that hurt."

He froze, certain he'd misheard. The carriage started moving and he wobbled, falling into a padded seat. Then he whipped the bag off his head and got a good look at his kidnappers. "Yuri? What the hell?"

"Yo." Yuri massaged his stomach and leaned against the wall across from him.

To his right, Estelle gave a little wave. "Hi."

Flynn leaned out the window and looked back, to see Sodia and his knights waving goodbye from the side entrance. He turned to his friends in confusion. "What's going on?"

"We're going on vacation," Estelle said. "But we knew you would never agree to go. Every time I suggest we go somewhere, you find some excuse."

"They're not excuses." He was still a bit shaken from thinking he was being kidnapped, and more than a little annoyed with his friends for scaring him like that. "They are legitimate reasons. For example, I have a lot of work to do next week. I can't afford a vacation, so we're going to need to turn around."

"No can do," Yuri said. "You haven't taken a proper vacation in years. Next week is your twenty-fifth birthday, and Estelle and I are going to force you to celebrate whether you want to or not."

"Sodia is taking care of all the arrangements while you're gone," Estelle said. "She knows exactly where you'll be in case of emergency, and she's prepared to deal with your workload until you get back next week."

"I see. So all my friends were plotting against me."

Yuri smiled. "Now you're getting it."

"You didn't need to abduct me."

"Ha. You would have found a way to wriggle out of going if we gave you a choice."

"I'm sorry, Flynn," Estelle said. "It was Yuri's idea."

Flynn leaned against the wall, watching buildings roll past. "I'm not the least bit surprised to hear that. So, not that I would have any say if I disagree, where are we going?"

"Capua Nor," Estelle supplied. "Actually, just outside the city. We're renting a cottage by the sea for a week. I've already made all the arrangements, and Sodia helped me pack your trunk this morning while you were at work."

"Fantastic." He'd been wondering where she was all morning. Apparently the answer was: in his bedroom preparing him for a vacation he didn't consent to. "Is it just going to be us?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah. We're stopping in Halure on the way to say hello to Rita, but she's too busy to join us. Repede is staying in Dahngrest with Judy and Karol to run some missions."

"Don't you need to be there?"

"Nah. They can handle it. Besides," he smirked, "nothing could possibly be more important than making sure my best friend celebrates his birthday properly."

Flynn sighed and tried to make himself more comfortable for the long trip ahead.

Estelle did feel a little regret for dragging Flynn off like this, but she knew he'd have a good time once they got there. He loosened up within an hour out of Zaphias, and they spent most of the trip catching up with Yuri's adventures in Tolbyccia and regaling Estelle with increasingly embarrassing tales from the boys' childhood. They stopped for the night in Halure to visit with Rita, and then set out again to reach Capua Nor in the late afternoon.

"We're here!" Estelle cheered, jumping out of the carriage and onto the street.

"Too late to back out now, Flynn," Yuri said, following her.

"Oh well. To be honest, I'm starting to look forward to it. You're right, a vacation would be nice."

"See, I told you it was a good idea to kidnap him," Yuri said to Estelle.

She still wasn't entirely sure, but her excitement at arriving drove it away. "Thank you for driving us," she said to the coachman. "I need to pick up the house keys, so please wait here for a few minutes."

"Sure thing, Your Highness."

They were on a bright street in a residential area, with a view of the sea at the end of the road. Estelle took a deep breath, letting the salty air fill her lungs. There was no better way to relax than a vacation by the sea. Flynn was already smiling as he gazed down the street at the glittering ocean, and even though they may have been mean about taking him so abruptly, she was sure bringing him here would be good in the long run.

She knocked on the door of the address she'd been given, and a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair opened it. "Good afternoon. Princess Estellise, correct?"

"That's right. We're not late, are we?"

"Not at all, please come in."

Flynn and Yuri accompanied her into his sitting room, and he motioned to the sofa while he went to another room. The sitting room had a huge bay window that filled it with light. It was sparsely decorated and the fabric of the sofa and chairs was worn, but the man kept it tidy.

"Who exactly is this man?" Flynn asked, sitting between the other two.

"His name is Mr. Yates, and he owns the house we're staying at," Estelle explained. "I found him through an advertisement in the newspaper. Don't worry, I had the Knights do a background check and everything is fine."

"I wasn't aware my knights did any such thing."

Estelle smiled sweetly. "Well, no, because the commandant doesn't need to sign off on every minor activity and Sodia made sure the paperwork for it never reached your desk."

Flynn sighed, more amused than annoyed. "I never knew my friends could coordinate such an effort to keep me out of the loop."

Yuri leaned back on the sofa, folding his arms and stretched his legs. "It wouldn't be much of a surprise birthday present if you knew about it in advance."

Mr. Yates returned with a paper and a ring of keys. "Sign this, please," he said as he sat in an armchair across from them and slid the paper across the coffee table.

Estelle glanced over the contract, which was a simple lease agreement. "You already received my payment, correct?"

Yates nodded. "Aye, the payment came from the castle a few days ago. Everything is in order."

Estelle carefully read the terms and conditions before signing, just in case. As she read, Flynn asked, "So, where exactly is this house?"

"About ten minutes out of town by carriage ride," Yates explained. "You would have passed the lane leading up to it on your way here. It's on the north shore of the peninsula, at the top of the cliffs."

"Excuse me," Estelle looked up from the paper, "what does it mean where it says you aren't responsible for any injury that may result while on the property? The house isn't dangerous, is it?"

"That's just because there's a staircase leading down to the beach. It hasn't been maintained for a few years, so it might be dangerous if you don't watch your step."

"Oh, ok." She went back to reading.

"Did you used to live there, Mr. Yates?" Flynn asked.

"Me? No, no." He shook his head. "It used to belong to a family. They disappeared during the Adephagos, and the city auctioned it off. I was going to move up there with my family, but wouldn't you know it? My wife left me for some cocksure guildsman a week later." He shrugged. "What can you do? I let it sit for a while, not sure what to do with it, and recently decided to fix the place up and rent it out. You'll be the first tenants, so I can guarantee everything is still good as new."

Yuri straightened up. "What do you mean, 'disappeared'? What happened to the family?"

"No one really knows." He held up his hands in a shrug. "It was a confusing time. Lots of people up and left, hoping the weird crap in the sky was a local phenomenon. The man of the house - Bram Caverly was his name - was a retired sailor. He'd settled down after his kid was born and dealt with shipping, if I recall, but I used to see him in the pub talking starry-eyed with the young lads heading off to sea. If you ask me, he took one look at that mess in the sky and considered it the final straw to take his family and set off to sea once more, hoping to find a safe harbour across the ocean."

"They didn't come back when the Adephagos was eliminated, though," Flynn said.

"Aye, that's true, but sea journeys are long and tiresome, especially with a young kid. I'd bet my left ear they settled down over in Mantaic or what have you and see no reason to come back. Either way, worked out well for me!"

Estelle reached the end of the contract and, finding it all in order, signed her name. "Here you go, Mr. Yates. We promise to take good care of your house."

"Thank you very much, my dear. These are for you." He passed her the keys. "One is for the front door and the other is for the back. Don't feel pressured to keep the doors locked, though. There's nothing much up there, so monsters never come close and hardly anyone passes by. The cupboards are stocked with food and I got a generator set up for electricity."

"Electricity?" Flynn said. "I wouldn't have expected it in such an isolated place."

Yates grinned. "Well, I do like to go the extra mile, especially for such prestigious tenants."

"Thank you very much," Estelle said. The promise of electricity was one of the things that made her pick this place to begin with. Electric lighting had become common in the wealthier areas of major cities in the past few years, while most secluded or lower-class homes still made do with gas lamps after blastia power disappeared.

"There's a generator on site to keep your lights running, and hot water, too. I've completely renovated the bedrooms, so don't worry about one of them still looking like a little kid's room.

"Sounds good," Yuri said, standing up. "Anything else we need to know?"

Yates shook his head. "Nope. Have a nice vacation."

They thanked him once again and then returned to the carriage.

As Yates said, it took a little over ten minutes for their carriage to make its way up the hill out of town. When Capua Nor was a cluster of buildings in the distance, they turned off the main road and trundled along a lane that was little more than a pair of worn wheel tracks. The carriage jostled them about, but in no time at all it stopped and they hopped down to the grass.

The cottage was just as cute as the advertisement described. The two-storey house was covered in pale blue siding with white trim, and surrounded by short, browning grass that crinkled under their feet. Behind the house, the cliff extended into a rocky point, and waves beat against the side of the cliff from far below.

The coachman began pulling their luggage from the back of the carriage, and Flynn and Yuri were quick to run to his aid. Certainly Yuri would never stand for letting a servant carry his things, and his luggage was the lightest in the first place. He tossed his bag over his shoulder and gave the coachman a hard look, just daring him to try to take it.

Estelle smiled at them, and then walked up the steps to the front porch. A pair of wicker chairs sat to the side, and it was roofed by an outcropping of the second story. The door opened easily, letting them into a dark foyer. Her heels clicked on the wooden floors as her hand ran against the wallpaper in search of a light switch. Finally her fingers found a little wooden panel with a round metal switch. She flicked it on and bright light filled the room. The light came from a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but it was obvious the chandelier was now just for show. It had empty sockets where blastia lighting used to be, and a bare bulb was crudely attached to the middle with wires still visible.

"Which way do I take the luggage, ma'am?"

"Upstairs." She pointed to the stairs to her left. She wasn't actually sure since she didn't know the layout of the house, but she guessed that was where the bedrooms were. She led the way up the L-shaped steps to the second floor landing. The others came more slowly, navigating the turn in the stairs with bulky trunks, so Estelle ran ahead to figure out which bedroom was which.

The first one she found at the front of the house was the master bedroom, with a huge window overlooking the lane. "Flynn, you take this one."

"Why?" He reached the top of the stairs and let his trunk thump on the landing.

"It's the master bedroom and you should take it."

"Oh, no, I couldn't. You take it, Lady Estellise."

"Don't be silly. This trip is your birthday present, so you get the big room. I insist." She crossed her arms and set her jaw, daring Flynn to defy her.

As expected, he smiled slightly and shook his head. "As you wish."

Estelle tried the next door and found an office, but the one after that was a bedroom with soft green walls and a floral rug in the middle of the wooden floors. "I'll take this one. You can put my things in the closet here, please."

"I'll sleep in here, then." Yuri swung open the next door. He paused in the doorway when he was confronted by a bathroom. "Uh… maybe not."

Estelle giggled. "I'm sure you'd be very comfortable in the bathtub, Yuri."

He moved to the next door. "This one had better have a bed." The door swung open and revealed a small bedroom with dark blue walls and a double bed near the back window. "Much better." He tossed his bag on the bed and then leaned against the doorway. "We all settled, then?"

"I think that's everything." Estelle turned to the coachman, who closed her bedroom door as he walked out. "Thank you very much. You can come back and pick us up next week."

He doffed his cap and nodded. "Will do, ma'am. Have a nice time."

As soon as he left, Estelle ran past Yuri to the window in the back corner. Even after seeing so much of the world on their journey several years ago, she still adored the sight of the sea. They'd explored all the land across Terca Lumereis, but the ocean still held many mysteries. Seagulls kited through the air and even from inside she could hear the rush of waves.

"It's certainly a nice view," Flynn said, standing behind her now.

"Isn't it? This house is simply adorable."

"Geeze, Estelle, I haven't seen you this cheerful in ages," Yuri said. "You look like it's your birthday we're celebrating."

Her smile widened further and she looked away from the window. "Why wouldn't I be happy? I've got a lovely house and an amazing view and a week to share it with my boys."

Flynn frowned. "Your 'boys'?"

He looked like he wanted to protest further, but then Yuri said, "I'll pay you back, by the way."

"What for?" she asked.

"My half of the rent. This is a joint present for Flynn, so I'll pay half as soon as I have the money."

"Don't worry about it. Your presence is enough."

"No way, I can't let you pay for my share. I don't have the gald at the moment but I will as soon as we run a few more missions."

Yuri was never going to let up on this, but Estelle would do whatever she could to make sure he never gave her any of his hard-earned money. He needed it far more than she did. "If you insist."

"What are we doing wasting time inside?" Yuri said. "I heard there's a beach. Let's go check it out."

"Can we eat first?" Flynn asked. "I'm getting hungry."

"Oh, I have an idea!" Estelle started toward the door. "Let's make sandwiches and take them down to the beach for a picnic!"

Flynn and Yuri followed her back downstairs to the foyer. She ignored the white-painted double-doors to the front sitting room to her right and walked through the archway across from the front door. This led into a huge room, with a kitchen to the left and a living room to the right. The walls were covered in pale blue wallpaper with a pattern of ships around the top, and soft rugs under the chairs and sofa on the side with the fireplace kept sound from resonating off the hardwood floors. She hadn't turned the lights on yet, but there were so many windows they weren't needed.

"Alright, Estelle!" Yuri sprang behind Flynn and wrapped his arms around his chest. "Quick! I'll hold Flynn away from the kitchen if you get the sandwiches ready!"

"Hey!" Flynn easily shook Yuri off and then shoved him into a wall. "I can handle making a sandwich, thank you very much."

"There should be food in the pantry." Estelle pointed to a little door in the corner.

The boys fetched sandwich ingredients while Estelle looked over the kitchen. It had smooth, lacquered wood counter tops and rows of cupboards, an island with barstools, and a big table in the middle of the room. Mr. Yates had done his best to prepare the house for them, setting up vases of flowers and making sure the place was dusted. There was even a pile of freshly chopped wood by the fireplace.

Despite Yuri's hesitations, once their pile of sandwiches were made he had to admit that Flynn's looked the nicest. Part of this was because Flynn spent a long time perfectly arranging tomato and lettuce in exactly the right position to ensure the most efficient distribution of flavour, but as soon as he started explaining this Yuri shoved an apple in his mouth. The rest of their food went into a basket found in a cupboard, and then Yuri grabbed a blanket out of the linen closet and they made their way outside.

Estelle ran to the edge of the cliff to get a proper look at the ocean. The strip of white sand was at least a hundred feet down and the curve of the cliff formed a shallow cove. One end of it wrapped around more than the other, as a rocky outcropping jutted out from the cliff wall. Down below, Estelle could faintly make out a dark shadow where the outcropping met the sand and wondered if there was a cave of some sort.

"Careful," Flynn said, coming up behind her. "There's a bit of a breeze and no railings. Mr. Yates was correct, this is rather precarious."

"Yes, I know." She took a step back. "I wonder why the Caverlys never put a fence or anything here? If they had a child, it would have been dangerous."

"Especially these stairs," Yuri said, about ten feet away. "They don't look like they've been maintained in years."

A flight of stone stairs curved down the cliff without a railing. They were wide, but invaded by moss and pebbles. Yuri took a few steps down. "Seems stable enough, though."

"What would your plan have been if they weren't stable?" Flynn asked wearily, following him down.

"Trust you to catch me, of course."

"Keep your eyes on the stairs, Yuri," Estelle said. "You don't want to fall."

They kept close to the cliff wall and made it down to the beach without disaster. As soon as they hit the bottom, Estelle slipped off her shoes and let her feet sink into the cool sand. It was late in the evening, but at this point of summer the sun wouldn't set for at least another hour or so. Despite the time of year, it wasn't particularly warm and Estelle was glad to be wearing a sweater.

"This looks nice enough," Yuri said, tossing the blanket to the ground.

Estelle stood on the beach and watched the waves rush toward her while Yuri and Flynn bickered about the proper way to set up a blanket and how important it was or was not to keep all grains of sand off it. This argument might take a minute or two, so she turned her back to them and strolled toward the curving wall of the outcropping.

She'd been right; there was a cave in the side of the cliff. It was just close enough to the beach that when the tide was lower, the entire mouth was probably exposed, but now waves lapped the entrance and frothy water flowed into the darkness. A band of dry seaweed marked the high-tide level, further up the beach. When the tide was high, the cave would be completely inaccessible without wading.

"Lady Estellise," Flynn called, "we've got dinner set up."

While Estelle walked back, Yuri punched Flynn's shoulder. "When are you going to start calling her 'Estelle', you dolt?"

"When she is no longer the princess."

They'd set out plates piled with sandwiches, sliced fruit, cream-filled pastries and thermoses of lemonade. She couldn't help but notice that one half of the blanket was notably more ruffled than the other, and could only imagine Yuri purposefully scuffing Flynn's half just to irritate him. "You know, Flynn," she folded her dress under her knees as she sat in the middle of the blanket, "Yuri is right. We're such good friends, you should call me Estelle, too."

Flynn smiled gently and picked up a sandwich. "I'm sorry, Lady Estellise, but if I let myself get into the habit, I'm certain to slip in formal situations."

She swallowed a bite of sandwich before responding. "If you insist."

Yuri stretched his legs out, letting his bare feet rest in the sand and leaning back on one arm. "What were you looking at over there, Estelle?"

"It's a cave of some sort. I think it's a sea cave. I've read about them - they're carved over thousands and thousands of years of waves hitting a cliff. I wonder how deep it is?"

Flynn eyed the opening, where frothy water swirled around kelp-covered boulders. "I don't think we'd want to check it out tonight. Not unless you remembered to pack my rubber boots."

"We'll check it out tomorrow," Yuri said. "I wouldn't want to go in there without a lantern, anyway."

"I didn't know there was a cave to explore," Estelle said, idly watching the waves crash in and out of it. "Mr. Yates didn't mention it in the advertisement. How exciting."

"Yeah, it looks pretty cool." Yuri turned his head to Flynn. "So, have you forgiven us for dragging you along yet?"

Flynn smiled. "Yes, I forgive you. It's been a long time since I took a proper vacation, and now that my mind is starting to relax, I'm realizing how stressed I've been."

"That's what I thought!" Estelle beamed at knowing he didn't hold it against them. "A change of scenery and some quiet time away from the castle will be perfect."

"And after all, we couldn't let your birthday go uncelebrated," Yuri said. "This is a big one. You're a whole quarter of a century old now. It might be time for Raven to pass the title of Old Man on to you!"

"Not for another day. And besides, you'll be twenty-five in a few months, too."

"You're both ancient to me!" Estelle finished her sandwich and reached for a strawberry.

"Yeah, that's right." Yuri sat upright so he could sling his arm around Estelle's shoulders. "Baby Estelle, a sprightly three whole years younger than us old fogeys." He raised his thermos in a toast. "But here's to Flynn, the oldest and fogiest of us all, who's managed to reach the age of twenty-five without dying of shock at the sight of my bedroom."

Estelle tapped her thermos to Yuri's. "Here here!"

Flynn just smirked and said, "One more day, so don't let your room here go into a mess in that time or I might not make it," and then completed the toast.

They spent the rest of the evening lying on the beach. When their food was nearly gone, Yuri started throwing grapes at Flynn. This quickly turned into a targeting game of seeing who could land the most grapes in another person's mouth, and Estelle was quite satisfied to have taken the crown in that one. They watched a crab scuttle toward the water and then began construction on a sand castle. At first, Flynn and Estelle discussed the noble king who lived in their beautiful kingdom of mounds and trenches, but then Yuri came by with a handful off oozing muck scooped from the tidal zone and drizzled it in towers, declaring the kingdom conquered by the shadow empire. In the end, the entire kingdom was washed away when the tide caught up to them, and they were forced to move their blanket further back.

By the time the sun went down, the three of them lay on their backs and watched the stars come out. Estelle lay between them, hands folded on her stomach. All she could hear was the rushing of the waves and the whisper of wind, and it almost felt like they were alone in the world. In a way, that's what they were for the duration of the vacation. There was no one else out here to bother them with government minutiae or spring guild missions on them at the last minute, and for the first time in months, Flynn didn't have any work to worry about completing the next day. It was such a simple thing, to lie on the beach and watch the stars, but with two of her favourite people on either side, Estelle thought this was enough to keep her perfectly happy for a long time.

Her eyes had grown heavy by the time Flynn said, "We should probably head back up."

Yuri almost sounded asleep himself. "Yeah."

They lay still for another minute before Flynn finally sat up. "Come on, then. We have nice soft beds awaiting us inside."

He held out his hand to help Estelle up, and then they packed up their picnic and trooped back up the stairs. They entered the house through the back door, accessed off a porch nearly identical to the one at the front. This one was a bit larger and had a swing bench hanging from a pair of chains. They left the basket on the counter to deal with tomorrow, and then headed up to the bedrooms.

"Goodnight," Estelle said on the landing. "Sleep well, see you in the morning, and thank you for a lovely evening." She gave them both a quick hug and then turned to her room. At the open door, she paused.

"Is something wrong?" Flynn asked.

She considered this, but then shook her head. "No, everything is fine."

"Alright then. Goodnight."

Estelle closed her door behind her and then sat on the bed. Everything was fine. The room was small but cozy, with a double bed covered in a quilt, a writing desk across from it tucked between the closet and the wall, and a pair of windows on the side wall that gave her a lovely view of the grassy cliffside, as well as the ocean if she looked to her left. She closed the white curtains and changed into a nightgown, and then curled up under the quilt. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep to the sound of the waves and the steady creaking of the bench swaying in the breeze.

The room was perfectly fine, it was just… well, she could have sworn she had closed the door behind her when they left this evening.