Seto and Yami looked at Honda.
"Why did you give Maura a whip?" Yami asked.
"I thought the girl might like it. We've all heard of the trouble recently. I thought she'd love it to protect herself."
"Yeah, it's great!" Maura said, then she turned and started to whip the air in front of her.
Mokuba whimpered, seeing the whip. He clung even tighter to Seto.
Maura heard Mokuba and said, "You want to try it, Mokuba?"
Then she whipped it right in front of Seto and Mokuba.
Mokuba then buried his head into Seto's side.
"Maura, don't do that!" Yami scolded.
"I didn't mean any harm. I made sure I wouldn't hit anyone."
"Still, you should be more careful. Here, let me have it."
"Why? I won't do it again, I promise!"
"You have to tell her. I don't like it, but it'll only upset Mokuba more if she keeps that whip. You can't expect her to just give it to you without an explanation. She'd be pestering you from now on till you explained." Seto said.
Yami sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Seto was right. Even if he just took it away, she would continue to bug him until he told her why she had to give it up. "Maura, you know how we've told you that Mokuba was abused in his old home."
"Yeah."
"Well, he was beaten with a whip."
"Oh." Maura said, sounding depressed. She proceeded to slash the whip once at Honda's leg before handing the whip to Yami.
"Ow! What did you do that for you little brat?" Honda asked, furious.
"Because I felt like it! You probably knew that it would upset Mokuba and that's why you gave it to me!" Maura yelled.
"I don't know what you mean. I simply thought that my and Duke's gifts would be perfect!"
"Well, you were wrong." Seto said.
"My king, mind if we take care of the problem?" Eagan asked.
"Be my guest." Seto said and shrugged. He didn't care. As long as the problem was dealt with.
Connor and Eagan dragged Honda away.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Before anyone could say anything, they heard trumpets.
"W-what's that?" Mokuba asked.
"It's to announce when someone of royalty is approaching." Maura explained.
"I've n-never heard them before." Mokuba said.
"The trumpeters don't always do it when they're supposed to." Yami said.
"They're a little on the lazy side." Seto added.
"They sometimes don't realize that royalty's arrived till it's too late." Yami said.
"Also, you can't always hear it in some parts of the castle." Seto finished.
They left to go out front to see who was being announced.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Jasmine and Diana also heard the trumpets.
"I bet it's Mahaado." Diana said and gathered up David. "We should be there to greet him."
"Are you sure? I mean, it has been snowing pretty hard." Jasmine said in a worried voice.
"I'm sure. I'm also sure the snow was the reason for the delay in his getting here. I have a feeling that sitting either in a carriage or hotel room or something for any length of time would have driven him mad! He doesn't like sitting in one place for very long, so he probably waited for the storm to let up, then used a little magic to move the carriage through the snow with ease."
"He'd really do that?"
"Sure. In the Star Kingdom you not only can use magic freely, but you're actually encouraged to use magic! Why can't Nitesh use magic?"
"I'm not sure. You're allowed to use magic in our kingdom, the Kingdom of Kamilah, but it's frowned upon if it's not an emergency. It's not forbidden, as far as I know. They just don't care for it."
"I see. I guess from what I've seen in this kingdom that they allow magic. I can't tell if it's actually encouraged or not."
"I didn't spend a lot of time in town, but I don't think it's encouraged or popular. Other than a few people in the castle, I haven't seen or heard of anyone using magic."
"Well, I guess they've just never learned where as in the Star kingdom it's taught to them from an early age. Well, we'd better get down there. If it is Mahaado, he'll be very cross if I'm not there to meet him."
Jasmine nodded and followed after instructing Asana and the others to tidy up the room on the off chance it was, indeed, Mahaado. And to watch the baby.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Meanwhile, Eagan and Connor slammed Honda into the wall.
"What's the big idea with the stupid suit of armor?" Eagan asked.
"Not to mention the whip! Are you just stupid or what?" Connor asked.
"He's right. You're suicidal. We all know Master Mokuba was beaten in his old home." Eagan said.
"Yeah, and rumor has it that most of them were caused by a whip! So what possessed you to get it!" Connor practically yelled.
At that, Honda just smiled.