Chapter Eight: Growing Pains

It was Estellise who took the lead barging into Cumore's office that evening. Flynn had to smile at her back; she'd come such a long way from the skittish child he'd first met years ago. He and Lieutenant Leblanc hung back and let her stomp into the room and point her finger at a startled Cumore.

"I want you out of my castle!"

Cumore looked up in surprise. "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?"

"I heard what you did to Yuri." Her accusative finger didn't waver. "I won't allow you to stay in the castle."

Cumore held out his hands. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I am required to be here for work."

"Not anymore." Flynn stepped forward so he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Estellise. "As of now you are on unpaid suspension pending discharge and arrest."

Cumore raised his eyebrows. "What charge could you possibly have against me?"

Estellise had finally lowered her finger and how she stuck her fists on her hips. "Attempted kidnapping."

"Are you referring to the incident with that Lowell boy?" Cumore rolled his eyes. "Mr. Herbert and I asked him to participate in an important research project. He apparently didn't understand so he threw a tantrum. You can hardly stake my career on the moodswings of an eight year old."

"He told you he didn't want to go with you," Flynn said, "so you forcibly grabbed him and attempted to carry him off. I'd say he was perfectly justified in freaking out."

Cumore snorted. "Is that what he told you?" He flipped his hand. "I must wonder where small children get such overactive imaginations."

Flynn glared silently at Cumore, hating the fact that he was right. He was the commandant and Estellise was the empress, but their power was not absolute and it would take irrefutable evidence to justify sacking such a longstanding captain of the Knights, especially with his friends on the Council.

"I trust Yuri more than I trust you," Estellise said.

"And isn't that reassuring from our empress."

"It doesn't matter," Flynn said. "Because I don't need overwhelming evidence to put you on suspension. There's an allegation against you, and until that is officially cleared, you're suspended from your duties and prohibited from entering the castle."

Cumore slapped the desk as he got to his feet. "You can't kick me out of here."

"I just did."

Cumore's nose wrinkled. "I've been working in this castle since you were nothing but a dirty street urchin, and now you think you have the right to-"

"He does," Estellise snapped. "Flynn is the commandant, and you have to respect that."

Cumore's venomous gaze flew to her. "I'll respect the commandant when the position is held by someone who didn't get it for sleeping with the empress."

"W-what?" Estellise's hands dropped and she shot a quick look to Flynn. "No, it wasn't like that at all!"

Flynn raised his voice. "That's enough, Cumore. Lieutenant Leblanc, please escort the captain out of the castle."

Looking entirely pleased with his assignment, Leblanc stepped forward to take Cumore's arm. After they left, Flynn and Estellise relaxed with smiles.

"Wow," Flynn said. "The whole castle already feels nicer without him here."

"I know what you mean. Now if only I could find an excuse to get Ragou off the Council.

"Ok. Next I need to send someone to inform Herbert that he is also banned from the castle." He rubbed his chin in thought. "Oh, and I also need to get all the paperwork cleared up for officially suspending Cumore, and then work out who will be taking over his duties while he's on probation…." He shoulders slumped as his arm dropped. "I think I'm going to be late for dinner tonight."

Estellise smiled and kissed his cheek. "That's ok. You go get your work done and I'll take care of Yuri tonight. I should go pick him up from Rita's lab before she strangles him."

"If you touch that, I will eviscerate you," Rita barked.

Yuri pulled his hand away from the bottle more from the tone of her voice than the words. He turned away from the shelf and asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means don't touch my crap!"

"No, what does 'effisterate' or whatever mean?" He'd been trapped in Rita's lab since Flynn finished his afternoon's work. He'd already spent a whole afternoon playing on the floor of Flynn's office when he'd rather be roaming the corridors or braving the heat to play outside, and now he was stuck being babysat by a tetchy mage who was trying to do science things while ignoring him. He wasn't even allowed to play with anything in her lab.

"It means I'll disembowel you."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "And what does that mean?"

Rita breathed sharply through her nose and finally sat up properly at her desk. "It means to cut someone open so all their guts spill out."

Yuri's eyes widened. "There's a word for that? How do you say it again? Eviderate?"

"E-vis-cer-ate."

"Whoa." Yuri made a mental note to add that word to his vocabulary. "Have you ever eviscerated anyone?"

"Me? I'm a mage. I don't touch bladed weapons."

"Oh, right. Has Flynn?"

Rita shrugged. "Probably. He's been in a lot of battles. When we were fighting at Zaude, we had to kill a lot of Alexei's men to get to him."

Yuri left the bookshelf so he could lean on Rita's metallic desk and stare at her in rapture. "So, was it dangerous?"

"Sure. We almost got killed loads of times, but Estellise can heal really well so we were fine."

"And Flynn kicked all their butts, right?"

Rita's expression soured. "It wasn't just Flynn. You should see the moves Judith has. You know she tied with him in a battle at the Coliseum?"

"She's a good fighter? Cool! What was the awesomest way she's killed someone?"

"Huh… I don't know about 'awesome'. Killing is killing, what's so cool about it? She jumps pretty high in the air, I guess."

"Does she spin around and stab people and yell 'ka-pow!'?"

"What? No. Don't be stupid. Why would she yell 'ka-pow'?"

"'Cause that would make it cool!"

"You have a weird definition of cool."

"Ok, but when you were fighting, who killed more people? Judith or Flynn?"

Rita crossed her arms. "What, you think it must be either of them?"

Yuri shrugged. "Who else was in your group?"

"Me! Well, and Karol. And Flynn's dog. Repede followed us around even when Flynn couldn't join us. He was worried about Estellise so he sent his guard dog after her. Oh, and there was this creepy old man." Rita wrinkled her nose at the thought of him. "That bastard betrayed us and tried to kill us. I mean, he came around and tried to help, but I don't want anything to do with him."

She was skipping the most important part. "And who killed the most people?"

"I don't know. It's not like I kept track. Why are you so hung up on this? It's not like any of us enjoy killing."

"Huh? Well… they're bad guys. It's ok to kill bad guys." Yuri thought about this and then added, "Um… isn't it?"

"Well… Rita shifted around in her chair and drummed her fingers. "I don't know… that's a really complicated question. They're people too, y'know." She took a breath and settled her voice. "Look, if someone is trying to kill you, then you have to kill them before they do. That's all there is to it. It isn't fun and it isn't a game."

Yuri thought about this. He rested his elbow on the table and cupped his chin and considered it for so long that Rita had started looking back at her work when he asked, "So… why do people kill people if those people aren't trying to kill them first?"

Rita scowled at her paper and took a breath before looking up. "Because they're bad people and we don't want to be like them."

"Are a lot of people bad people?" People like Cumore, maybe. Was he a bad guy? But he was a knight, and the Knights were the good guys. Didn't you have to be a good guy to be in the Knights? Cumore definitely scared him, though, and he was certain good guys weren't supposed to scare kids. So maybe there were different levels of bad guys, and some of those bad guys were just like ordinary people who could join good guy groups. That meant there could be bad guys hiding anywhere!

"I don't know."

"What if someone just jumps out and tries to stab me?"

"I really don't think that's going to happen."

"What if they try to kill Flynn? I mean, you guys killed Alexei, right, because he was a bad guy? So what if someone else gets confused and thinks Flynn is a bad guy because sometimes bad guys look like good guys so they think they should kill him, too."

"If that happened, Flynn would eviscerate them before they had the chance, ok? What are you asking me all this for?"

"'Cause you're here and I'm bored."

"I'm not your babysitter."

"Close enough," Yuri grumbled. Flynn called it 'protection'. And, ok, he was nervous about Cumore and Herbert too, but Flynn had gone to take care of that already, hadn't he? Yuri resented being treated like a little kid who couldn't be left alone for a minute. He could survive sitting in Flynn's office by himself for half an hour. "Ok, so if someone tries to kill Flynn, he'll effisterate them, and that means cut their guts out?"

"It's eviscerate. Listen properly! It means he'll kill them really violently."

"And make blood go everywhere?"

"Yes, blood will go everywhere."

It was at this moment that the door opened and Estellise entered. She looked between Yuri and Rita and then said, "What about blood going everywhere?"

Yuri whirled around with a grin. "Rita said that if anyone bad attacks Flynn, he'll evisterate them and blood will fly everywhere and all their guts will come out like blegh." He waved his hands near his stomach to mime the disemboweling.

Estellise stared at him for a second, and then turned her shocked expression on Rita. "What are you telling him?"

Rita jabbed her finger at Yuri. "He started it! I was just answering his questions!"

"Maybe don't answer all of them…. Yuri, Flynn is busy tonight, so why don't you come back with me and we can have supper?"

"Ok." Yuri followed Estellise to the door and paused to wave. "See you later, Rita!"

"Don't bother me in my lab again."

As they walked away, Yuri said, "Boy, she's friendly."

Estellise giggled. "Don't worry, I think she likes you."

"Really?"

"Did she try to set you on fire?"

"No."

"And she answered your questions instead of telling you to shut up. That's a good sign of friendship from Rita."

"You and Flynn sure have weird friends."

Back at her apartment, Estelle approached her kitchen. "So, are you hungry? I can cook for you, if you want. Um… I'm not a very good cook, but I can make vichyssoise! And some other things, too. Or I can have the kitchens send us a nice dinner."

"Can you make grilled cheese?"

She cocked her head. "Grilled cheese?"

"Yeah. You put butter on bread and then stick cheese in the middle and then grill it. It's really good!"

"I could do that. It's pretty simple, though. Don't you want something nicer? I can have the kitchen bring up some really nice sandwiches."

"I don't want a fancy sandwich. I just want grilled cheese."

"Um… ok. Sit down and I'll make it."

Yuri clambered onto the couch and then leaned over the back to watch.

By the time Flynn arrived, dinner was long over. Yuri sat on the couch with Estellise and a book. It was a simple story about a princess and a dragon that had colourful illustrations with every paragraph. Estellise had dug it out of her bedroom and wiped dust from its cover with fondness.

The going was slow. Yuri sounded each word out, slowly working his way through the sentences with help from Estellise. He was determined to get it, though. Back home - that is, in the proper time - he and Flynn had struggled together to get better at reading. Now, Flynn spent his whole day reading things with super long words and he didn't even have to move his lips! It felt like cheating, because he got a bonus thirteen years to practice and get better than Yuri.

"Good evening," Flynn said as he entered.

Yuri let the book fall to his knees. "Hi, Flynn! Did'ja get all your work done?"

"Enough for today." He slipped off his shoes and then collapsed on the couch on the other side of Yuri. "And how about you two? Did you have a nice night?"

"We did!" Estellise said with a smile.

"Estelle's helping me get better at reading!" Yuri opened the book and and flipped back a page. "See, I can read this no problem. It says, 'The dragon was easy to follow because he left a trail of burned forests and horse bones.'"

Flynn smiled and said, "Very good," while Estellise cocked her head and looked at him curiously.

"Estelle?"

Yuri glanced back at her. "Oh, yeah. Your name's pretty long, sorry."

"Estelle…. Estelle. I like it!"

"You better watch out, Flynn," Yuri said and closed the book again. "I'm gonna catch up and be an even better reader than you."

Flynn patted his knee. "I look forward to the challenge."

"I'll be happy to help!" Estellise got up and then asked, "Flynn, are you hungry? I can make you some dinner."

"Don't worry about me. I'll have the kitchen send something up."

"No no, I want to cook for you. It'll be fun!"

"If you insist. Surprise me."

Estellise scurried off to the kitchen to prepare something, and after a few minutes Flynn followed. Yuri watched them at first, but they weren't doing anything interesting but chatting about grown-up stuff. Yuri stretched out on the couch on his stomach and flipped back to the first page of the book. He'd get through the whole thing by himself this time.

Yuri was happily distracted until he heard Flynn say his name in a hushed voice.

"...Yuri for school. Where do nobles usually send children?"

"Private schools or tutors, mostly," Estellise replied in an equally low voice. It was hard to hear over the rush of boiling water as they prepared pasta, and Yuri didn't dare sit up properly to hear better. They were speaking low enough that it was obvious they thought he was safely distracted by the book.

"I'm sure he'd be happier in a normal public school, but that's not really an option. You're not talking about boarding schools, right?"

Yuri's heart skipped a beat. From the sound of Flynn's question, he specifically didn't want a boarding school, but the mere fact that it was an option worried Yuri. Was this how Flynn was going to get around promising to always be there for Yuri? Yes, he'd be Yuri's guardian, as long as he spent the majority of the year living at a school?

Estellise was saying, "That's a common choice, but there's a small day school in the royal quarter. Tuition is expensive, but a lot of local nobles send their children there. There only problem might be… well… he's quite behind."

Behind? What did that mean? It made it sound like he was stupid!

"I know. Education in the lower quarter is spotty. He's quite bright, but he never got the opportunity to learn properly. I know I had a lot of catching up to do academically when I entered Knight training."

"It's a shame. If he entered a class with other eight-year-olds, I don't think he could keep up. But I'm sure he wouldn't want to be put in a class with five and six year olds, even if that's where he could learn all the fundamentals."

Heck no! Yuri fought the urge to speak up, because if they knew he was paying attention they'd stop talking.

"You had a private tutor, didn't you?"

"That's right. Oh, Flynn, you need to stir the pasta or it will stick to the bottom."

"Ah, oops, thanks. I think the best course of action would be to get him a tutor for a few months to get him up to speed with the rest of his age group. Then he can join regular classes at the private school you mentioned."

At this, Yuri couldn't keep silent any longer. He popped over the back of the couch and blurted, "Why do I gotta go to a stupid private school?"

Flynn's head spun and Yuri caught a second of guilt before it settled into certainty. "Yuri - sorry. I didn't know you were listening. I'm sorry, but a private school is really the only option."

"You're just saying that 'cause you're rich now." Yuri stood on the couch and leaned his legs against the back with his arms crossed. "Just 'cause you're rich doesn't mean you have to do rich people things."

Flynn left the kitchen to approach Yuri. "It's not about flaunting wealth. Regular schools don't have the proper security."

"So?! What, d'ya think a bunch of ninjas are gonna burst into my class? I don't want to go to school with a bunch of spoiled rich brats. I won't have any friends there." He wasn't too keen on daily schooling in the first place, but if he had to go, he wanted to go somewhere that was more like home.

"Because, Yuri," Flynn stood in front of him now, "a school oriented for the wealthy children of nobles will have the security to protect those children from their parents' enemies."

"But you don't have enemies. Everybody likes you."

Flynn's lips twitched. "I wish. Trust me, Yuri, there are plenty of people out there who would rather I wasn't the commandant." He planted his hands on Yuri's shoulders and met his eyes. "And once it's common knowledge that I've adopted you, there are people out there who might think they can convince me or Estellise to do things by threatening you."

Yuri frowned at the intensity in Flynn's eyes. "I'm not afraid of being threatened."

"It's really me they'd be threatening. Bad people might try to kidnap you and promise to hurt you if I don't do what they say."

"Well…" Yuri looked away from Flynn's eyes. "I'm willing to risk it if it means going to a cooler school."

"I'm not." He squeezed Yuri's shoulders. "I thought I lost you thirteen years ago; I'm not going through that again."

Yuri knew that look. He was used to seeing it with softer eyes and a rounder face, but that was Flynn's, 'I'm absolutely getting my way this time, Yuri' look. He didn't break it out too often so when Flynn was that serious about something - like the time he insisted Yuri move in with him so he wouldn't have to sleep outside anymore - Yuri usually caved.

But that didn't mean he always liked it. "Fine." He scowled and pulled away from Flynn to slump onto the couch. "I'll go to your stupid rich brat school but I'm not going to like it."

"Um…" Estellise still stood by the stove and watched them while chewing her lip. "Maybe it will be better than you think?"

Yuri just sulked. Stupid Flynn bossing him around. Jerk. He thought he could tell Yuri what to do just 'cause he was older. They were supposed to be friends but now Flynn seemed more interested in controlling Yuri's life than being his best friend.

"That pasta is almost ready," Estellise said. "Um, Yuri, do you want some ice cream for dessert while Flynn eats dinner?"

Yuri wanted to keep being mad, but… ice cream. Besides, it wasn't Flynn offering it, was it? He could definitely remain angry at Flynn while taking ice cream from Estellise.

It was around nine when Flynn looked at the clock and said, "Oh, we need to get going. It's Yuri's bedtime."

Yuri looked up from the rug where he was reading. "No, it's not. I'm not tired."

Flynn rose from the couch. "Yes, it is." He leaned down to kiss Estellise's cheek. "Good night, my dear. Yuri, put your shoes on. We're heading back to my apartment."

"Nooow?" Yuri whined.

"Yes, now." Flynn paused while looking at him and then took a few steps forward and got down on one knee. "What's on your face?"

"Huh?" Yuri rubbed the back of his wrist over his mouth. "Nothing."

Flynn wiped his thumb across Yuri's nose. "How did you manage to get ice cream on your nose?"

Yuri shrugged and then vigorously scrubbed his nose when Flynn pulled away. "I dunno. Maybe it's an omen that I shouldn't be going to bed now."

"Nice try." Flynn stood again. "Put your shoes on."

Yuri wrinkled his now-clean nose at Flynn and then dragged his feet all the way to the door where he'd left his shoes. Stupid Flynn, thinking he got to decide when Yuri slept. He'd show him! When they got home, he'd lay awake in bed and not even try to sleep and there was nothing Flynn could do about it! Stupid jerk control freak.

"You can explore the castle on your own, today," Flynn said as Yuri sat at the table eating cereal. "Cumore and Mr. Herbert have been banned from entering and I trust my knights to keep them out. Just don't leave the castle grounds."

Yuri lowered his spoon. "Can I wander around the royal quarter at least?"

"No, stay within the castle."

Yuri rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "But I've been stuck in the castle for a week! I want to see more of the city. C'mon, you and me used to wander the streets all the time."

Flynn was at the door now, putting on his shoes. "Yes, and we used to be unknown kids roaming our local neighbourhood. Now you're a ward of the commandant and the empress and there are people out there who want to do you harm. Stay in here where it's safe and I promise I'll take you out into the city when I have time, ok?"

Yuri pouted. "Fine." Then he looked at his cereal and whispered, "Jerk."

"I heard that," Flynn said on his way out.

Yuri stuck his tongue out at the closing door and then finished his cereal. Once done, he went to his bedroom to get dressed. He still felt a little thrill every time he thought of it as his bedroom. Flynn had stocked his closet with a huge array of clothes, and he'd been thoughtful enough to get the simplest ones he could find. Or, he'd told a servant to, more likely. Maybe Flynn was going to force him to go to a pretentious private school like the other rich noble kids, but that didn't mean he had to dress like one.

Dressed and ready to go, Yuri set off into the castle. It didn't take long for him to get bored, though. In the week he'd been here, he'd thoroughly explored every inch he was allowed to enter and it was too hot to run around outside. There were no other kids in the castle, so he was stuck entertaining himself. After spending so many years with a constant companion in the form of Flynn, he was out of practice at playing by himself. He was even starting to think school might not be that bad if it meant having something to do and other kids to talk to.

He'd been roaming aimlessly for almost an hour when he decided he was too bored and needed to find someone to talk to. Estellise was busy ruling the Empire or whatever and Flynn would probably just get mad at him and start bossing him around again if he tried to play in his office, so he set off to find someone else.

Yuri didn't bother knocking before walking into Rita's lab. She jerked her head up and snapped, "Hey! Barging in on people's rude, you know!"

"Are you busy?"

Rita gestured at the glass tubes and shiny rocks on her desk. "What does it look like?"

"Flynn said I had to sit with you for a bit 'cause it's not safe to wander alone."

She rolled her eyes. "Again? I thought they took care of that last night! Ugh, fine, just don't touch anything."

Yuri smiled and hurried over to a stool near her desk. He crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward to examine the head-sized red stones she was working with. "So what're you doing?"

"I'm trying to re-make the system that got you here, if you must know." She narrowed her eyes at him, "So with any luck I can reverse it and get rid of you."

"Aw, you wouldn't want to get rid of me, would you?" He tilted his head and gave her puppy eyes Repede would be proud of.

Her expression didn't change. "In a heartbeat."

Yuri dropped the act. "Admit it - you'd miss me."

"Like a head wound."

Yuri's stool scraped the ground as he scooted forward. "So how does this work?" It all looked sort of familiar from the day he got sent here, but he'd spent his minutes in the mage's warehouse so panicked and scared that he never looked too closely at how everything worked.

"Well, the mages used tissue samples from a monster called an Outbreaker that lives in the Sands of Kogorh. Luckily, we met that thing last year and Judith picked up some pieces of it after we killed it. I remembered she had those, so I got them from her and was able to isolate the aer pattern in the blood that lets it shift time. Of course, we have to use much less powerful mana these days, but it's really just a matter of making the formula more powerful. These are converted blastia," she gestured at the stones, "they're nowhere near as powerful as the old ones, of course, but they can manipulate mana on a small scale. I think if I use an even more powerful version of this naturally-occurring formula, I could get the whole thing working again. Of course, I still have no idea how to regulate how far in the future it goes or how to make it go in reverse."

Yuri stared at her as she spoke, absorbing about ten percent of that. When she'd stopped talking long enough for him to realize she was done, he said, "So… you're using old monster blood and magic rocks to make a time machine?"

It clearly pained Rita to hear her genius work boiled down so simply, but she just sighed and said, "Yeah, basically. I'm trying to work out a relation between the formula and the exact number of hours between you disappearing in the past and arriving here. But, since we don't know exactly when you got here and I've just got Flynn's estimate of the last time he saw you, it's pretty blurry."

Yuri rested his chin in his hands. "Hmm…. maybe it's cause the days were so similar?"

Rita narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, like it was super hot when I left and it was super hot when I arrived."

Rita scoffed. "There are plenty of hot days in a Zaphias summer."

"Ok, but I might have shown up in the winter, right? But instead it was the same time of year. That might mean something."

Rita stared at him for a long moment, her irritated face slowly softening with excitement. "If the Outbreaker only flipped back and forth between day and night… that might mean its abilities were designed to snap to the same conditions to prevent overshoot. But the mages used way too much power so overshoot was inevitable, so maybe it still tried to snap to the 'right' conditions? It shot you forward over a dozen years, and then locked in on a day with the same conditions as the one you left - temperature, humidity, moon position, atmospheric pressure. That would make sense!"

"Would it? 'Cause your description makes none to me."

"You might have stumbled onto something. Not bad for a snot-nosed brat."

"Hey, yeah, I'm pretty smart, huh?"

Rita gave him a flat look. "Don't get overconfident." Her annoyance with him couldn't stifle her excitement, though. "I'm going to need to do more research to confirm the hypothesis, though. I need environmental data from the day you disappeared." She shot to her feet and started running for the door. Halfway there, she stopped and whirled around. "Argh, I'm supposed to babysit you, though. You'll have to come with me to the library."

"To research weather stuff from years ago?"

"Yeah."

Yuri wrinkled his nose. "Count me out. That sounds super boring."

Rita stomped over to him. "Well, you don't have a choice. If I'm forced to babysit you, you're coming where I need to go."

Yuri shrugged. "Actually, Flynn never said you had to. I just wanted to hang out with you, but if you're going to go study at a library, I'll entertain myself on my own."

The smack she delivered to the back of his head was strong enough to make him stumble forward. "You little brat! Fine, go be obnoxious somewhere else."

Rita stormed out, and then Yuri shrugged and followed a few seconds later. He had no interest in joining her at the library, so he wandered off to find something else to do.