35. Taldesa
Taldesa
Being frozen sucked ass.
Tala’s training—if Kerith was to be believed—was about poison, not arcane bullshit. Still, she took some pride in being able to shake off Casimine’s spell before the others did using the same techniques that she used to think were also bullshit.
“You fucker,” Tala swore when she came to.
She pulled her punch when her fist connected with Casimine’s arm, but it was enough to make the bard wince.
He rubbed the spot and Tala threw her arms around him and held him close.
In traditional Tala fashion, she proceeded to call him the most heinous things she could think of as she fought back angry tears.
“I’m okay. We’re okay, no need for tears, my love,” Casimine murmured against her ear. “We have other problems we need to fix first.”
He was right, of course. Even with the room frozen in space, the arcane gateway was still open and only the gods knew where it lead to or when more warriors would come through.
The last thing they needed was for another fight to break out or for anyone to wrongly accuse them of allowing an enemy through.
“It was the ring—or, at least I’m pretty sure it was the ring,” Tala said, eyes searching for the Princess Osonia.
“The ring? Wha—”
“I’ll explain later, just help me find her and convince her dad not to lock us in jail, okay? You’re better at the talking thing than I am—”
“Sir Justyan!”
Well, there’s a damn miracle, Tala thought.
The princess in question had once again evaded her lady-in-waiting and all of her father’s guards as she rushed the stage.
Tala couldn’t be sure exactly how she had broken through Casimine’s spell, but there she was, stuttering to a standstill in front of a man in red.
She looked like she was on the verge of tears and the last thing the evening needed was an inconsolable royal.
“Princess Osonia!” Tala grabbed Casimine’s wrist and yanked him along.
“Help him!” the princess cried. “Whatever has happened here, please help—”
“Please don’t worry Princess Osonia. He is momentarily stunned and will be back to normal shortly,” Casimine explained. “I promise he’s—”
Tala wasn’t patient enough.
“Give me your hand.”
Before the princess could protest, Tala was already taking her hand. Her skin was soft the way a princess’s hand was expected to be, but Tala’s attention was quickly drawn to the familiar silver she had grown way to accustomed to.
“I—Oh, I didn’t mean to take it without permission or anything!” Princess Osonia fussed. “I saw it on the ground after you left and this dress doesn’t have pockets so I—”
Without fuss, Tala pulled the ring free from her finger and the arcane gate quickly collapsed into space, vanishing entirely. A relieved sigh was shared between Tala and Casimine, but the princess kept rambling nervously.
“Princess Osonia, I am so sorry,” Tala bowed. “You were never meant to have this ring and that’s my fault. Because I was careless this…incursion was allowed to happen.”
It was better to get it all out now than to avoid it. Even if it hadn’t been her intention or not, it was still Tala’s fault for being so gods damn careless with the ring.
“Tala, there’s no way you could have known what was going to happen,” Casimine tried to soothe, placing his hand along the small of her back.
“I’m still responsible for this mess, regardless,” Tala replied.
She appreciated his support, but the writing was on the wall in the worst way.
And no amount of bardic influence is gonna help me out with this mess, Tala thought.
In the aftermath of Casimine pulling out the angry mom move and magically commanding the entire gala to stop moving, the reality of what had just occurred was starting to set in.
“I—” Princess Osonia shook her head. “I don’t care about whose responsible for all this, I just want to know that Sir Justyan is going to be okay!”
Even in her bowed position, Tala couldn’t control her eyebrow from raising at the princess’ tone.
While a single meeting in the veranda was not enough to build knowledge of her personality, there was something in the way Princess Osonia spoke that implied—well, it implied that she cared quite a bit about Sir Justyan.
How much, Tala couldn’t say, but she did find it suspect.
Apparently, Casimine saw the same thing as her, because he quickly snapped his finger in Sir Justyan’s direction and he suddenly stumbled forward into Princess Osonia’s arms.
Sir Justyan reared back, nearly flinging the dagger away from him as his body came close to the princess. He was panting, his breath brushing the hair from Princess Osonia’s cheeks and when he spoke her name in shock, the princess looked like she was on the verge of collapsing with relief.
“Are you okay?” Princess Osonia asked, clutching the material of Sir Justyan’s tunic.
The man didn’t respond, turning a violent shade of red as he stared at Princess Osonia’s face.
Oh…
Tala and Casimine exchanged a look. A moment later, Casimine was leading Tala away from whatever sweet words were being exchanged between the princess and her sir knight.
Tala questioned having to repeat the whole ordeal as the king came back from whatever chamber his men had stuffed him into, when she noticed Kerith.
He was kneeling next to one of the unknown, fallen warriors, examining their armory.
When he had managed to break off Casimine’s spell, Tala couldn’t say, but she recognized that he was already at work.
“Who are these guys?” Tala asked as she approached him.
“I believe these are warriors from the Pernimas Dynasty. See? The blue hue to their armor and the filigree depicting the purple moon here,” Kerith pointed to the intricate design on an unconscious warrior.
Tala knew shit all about the Pernimas Dynasty, other than they heavily worshiped the Moon Maiden and they reigned over all water helfen and their water planes.
Which meant they technically ruled over Casimine and Ameriden—whatever that meant.
Not many empires as large as the water helfens were still standing after hundreds years of war and continuous births of new ages.
Helfens were unique in that matter, as they’re kingdoms outlasted even the most devastating of wars and calamity.
“I could have told you that,” Casimine hummed.
Tala rolled her eyes. “Yeah? Can you also tell why the fuck these guys invaded using a ring as an arcane gateway?”
Kerith frowned, but managed to catch the ring when Tala tossed it his way.
“Oh, I can’t,” Casimine said with a slight bite to his words. His eyes narrowed as he practically stomped over to Ameriden’s frozen body. “But this bastard might.”
A snap of his fingers and Ameriden was free.
He nearly tripped over a fallen Pernimas solider, before catching himself awkwardly.
He glanced around, most likely searching for the guy he was about to knock out when he caught Casimine’s stern gaze.
Tala hadn’t ever really seen Ameriden sheepish before so it was rather surprising to see him wilt under Casimine’s gaze.
“What?” Ameriden asked.
“Really?” Casimine huffed. “You’re going to act innocent after all of this, Amer?”
“Casi—”
“Oh, excuse me, I’m sorry, Prince Navin of the Pernimas Dynasty!”
Tala’s jaw dropped. When she collected her jaw and looked to Kerith, he was at least in a more concealed version of surprise than her.
At least the Valiant Circle spies didn’t know about that one, she thought. I’d fucking kill Cercel for not telling me that the mission was this fucking important… ah, fuck, I fucked a prince!
“Was this the thing you were trying to tell me?” Casimine asked. How he was able to convey disappointment in a way that cut through the bone still escaped Tala. “You know, before you choked like a first year bard auditioning for the production of a Wintersona Ballad?”
“I didn’t choke,” Ameriden denied.
Casimine crossed his arms.
Fuck, he’s good.
“I just…it never felt like a good time,” Ameriden admitted.
Tala could get on board with that. There was some sense of solidarity in knowing that Tala wasn’t the only one in their three-way relationship who sucked at communicating.
Granted, she was far worse than Ameriden was, considering she was willing to shut the door behind her once the mission was over.
“We’ve been together for years, Ameriden. I’ve trusted you with so much of me, what was different about this?” Casimine asked. “Did you think I wouldn’t understand?”
“No!” Ameriden tripped over his words for a moment. “I—I trust you, Casi, you know I do! I just…I just didn’t want to have to explain where I came from and I didn’t want that to change your mind.”
“Change my mind?”
“Casi, when we met, you told me you wanted to be a bard more than anything. It was your dream to honor your family. And you were kind enough to include me in that dream and I followed you. I would follow you to the middle of the Ordia and back if you asked me to… but I knew if I told you who I really was and why I had left home, you would change your mind. Not about me, but about your dream. If you knew there was an army of water hanfen waiting for me to reach a point of fame so they could find me again, I knew you would stop,” Ameriden sighed, stepping forward and taking Casimine’s hands into his own.
“I knew you’d give up your dream and I didn’t want that for you or me. ”
Tala only had so much information to work with, but with what limited pieces she had, the story was starting to take shape.
She didn’t know why Prince Navin had run away, only that Ameriden wanted to stay with Casimine, even if that meant that his empire would discover him and come running.
She could only assume that somewhere along the way, the Pernimas Dynasty had discovered Ameriden’s true identity and had sent the ring—the one that had opened an arcane gate after Ameriden had touched it.
That didn’t explain how they managed to find him though, considering they had arrived early.
It also didn’t explain why his family hadn’t employed a diviner of some kind to find Ameriden unless—
“I would have preferred you told me so we could avoid going to prison for reckless endangerment of the monarchy. Or, you know, starting a potential war.” Casimine sniped.
“The Pernimas Dynasty is massive, Ameriden, and this continent is in its infancy, you know what happened when we went to war with the earth hanfen five centuries ago.”
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry!” Ameriden exclaimed. “I didn’t think they would follow me here—we didn’t even announce we were coming here, so I thought I was safe.”
“Why did you run away?” Tala asked, breaking their intense conversation with genuine curiosity.
“I…” Ameriden swallowed. “I was in line for the Consort Trials.”
Casimine gasped, but Tala had no idea what that was. When she glanced to Kerith—the spy monk had started blending into the crowd of attendees who were slowing starting to shake off Casimine’s spell.
“The Consort Trials is an ancient custom. Each of the four elemental hanfen are required to send their best men or women to an island in the middle of the ocean. Once there, each chosen hanfen is set to perform a series of tasks in the hopes of being chosen by the reigning ruler of a dynasty.” Casimine explained.
“Chosen for what?” Tala asked.
“Chosen to join the royal harem with the goal of producing a child. Once that child reaches their fourth birthday, they will be tested in the hopes that it is the reincarnated goddess of one of our four creators. If it is confirmed, the one who helped create that child will marry the ruler of the dynasty and become their empress or emperor.” Ameriden finished.
A beat went by.
“What the fuck?”