Chapter 117

117 The Crown Prince

Skye stretched lazily in the middle of her enormous bed. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. The last thing she remembered caused a giant smile to spread across her face. Images flashed through her mind, forcing her to take a large breath. As she exhaled; Peggy bustled into the room.

Realizing the princess was naked, the old woman scoffed before saying; “I hope it’s worth catching yer death over.”

Not missing a beat; Skye replied while still beaming, “It was..”

“Oh for the love of the gods,” Peggy exclaimed as she picked up Skye’s tattered dress.

The old servant turned and locked hard eyes with the princess. She couldn’t believe that Tidas had destroyed such a gorgeous, and expensive dress. They could’ve fed half the cotters at Moonstone Castle for a year with the money from it. The fabric was still beautiful, and Peggy wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

“Since ye two obviously don’t care what happens to it, Ima taking it. I can make ribbons for the wee lassies back home, for when we visit during Yuletide in a few weeks.”

As Skye got out of bed, she replied; “This is our home Peg. At least for now.”

Stopping her tidying to square her shoulders, the old servant rebutted; “Moonstone Castle will always be our home, so long as it stands. A person can have more than one home, me bairn.”

Skye nodded her agreement, then began her morning routine. It was the day of the Mage Trials, and they’d be leaving as soon as they broke their fast. The prince was gone already when she’d awoken, and so was his armor. Skye figured he must have gotten up earlier to prepare for the demonstration, as well as their departure.

.....

After a quick shower, Skye looked about the room as she dressed; “Where is Zazzy? I didn’t see her in the room last night.”

Peggy pulled the strings on her back and replied; “I kept the wee critter with me last night. Didn’t think she deserved to be traumatized..”

Skye chortled loudly; “I suppose ye have a point. I just need to feed her before we leave to eat.”

The two completed their task, then Peggy went and grabbed the dragon egg. Skye cooed and baby talked to it while she allowed her magic to flow into the egg. She was sitting at her vanity as she’d fed Zazzy, so Peggy started in on her hair. She was in the middle of it when Tidas came into the room.

Skye flashed a loving smile at him, then returned to her task. The prince stood, watching his wife a few moments with a grin. She was wearing a light blue dress with golden trim that matched her hair. The smile she had on her face as she looked at the egg made the prince think she’d make a loving mother some day.

They’d discussed children beforehand, and had decided to wait until they were stable in their new home. Before actually attempting to have children. It would still be a while before they could settle in their final home; Tidas’ castle. It was the summertime palace that Lawrence had spent most of his childhood in. It held many fond memories for the prince, and he looked forward to making many more with his wife and children someday.

Tidas switched from a grin to a smirk as he approached Skye; “You look quite fetching today, wife. Did you sleep well?”

Looking at her husband in the mirror, she returned his smirk; “Aye.. Once I fell asleep, I did. And you?”

Leaning down near his wife’s face, Tidas replied; “Same. Although, you may have been correct, in needing to dress before bed.. I could barely resist this morning..”

Skye’s cheeks flushed prettily as Peggy made a gagging noise; “Keep it in yer pants, lad. There’s too much to be done today!”

She didn’t particularly want to hear the prince’s sweet talk, but smiled inwardly at his gestures. Her bairn was obviously happy, and that was thanks to Tidas. She reined in her sarcastic comments quite often, but couldn’t help it on occasion. Especially when it was innuendo.

After a bit of banter; the two women finished their tasks, and the three left their room. Skye and Tidas had their arms linked with Peggy following behind with Zazzy. As they turned into the main hallway, the two nearly ran into some other people in their haste.

The princess felt her husband tense up first. As she lifted her head up; the first thing Skye saw was a pair of vermilion colored eyes, staring back at her. He looked like Tidas, but with sterner, sharper features. He wasn’t as built as his youngest brother either, but was still fairly muscular, and about the same height.

Marco MacArthur lingered on Skye a moment, then turned to his brother and said; “Good to see you, Tidas. I hope you’re ready for today.”

Tidas flashed a courteous grin; “Good to see you, too, Marco. Aye, I’m ready.. Of course, you remember Skye?”

Marco looked back to Skye with the same emotionless expression he always had; “I thought your hair was red?”

Skye huffed out of instinct at him and replied; “Good morning, Prince Marco. Aye, I did have red hair, but a mishap at a hot spring has left it this color..”

As Skye lifted a curl, a woman poked her head out from around the Crown Prince; “I think it looks gorgeous on you!”

Skye smiled; “Karena! It’s so nice to see you!”

The two women broke off from the princes to talk a moment. Karena Garcia was the princess of the Meccano Kingdom. Her older brother was the king, but only by eight minutes. They were fraternal twins, and her brother was a good friend of Marco’s. The marriage was arranged against Karena’s wishes at first, but she seemed happy with her circumstances now.

Marco had two daughters with her so far, and there was a rumor going around that she was with child again. Skye inquired; initially overhearing about it at the banquet, the night before. She sighed sadly and explained that she had told a friend before she left that it was a possibility, but it’d turned out to be a false hope.

Karena wasn’t a bad person, just stuck up; like the royal she was raised to be. She and Skye had not gotten along, initially. She was too spoiled and judgmental for her liking, but the daughter of Lucas Moonstone was no fool, either. Even at a young age, she understood the basic rules of society.

Skye had no wish to make the future Queen her enemy, in any way. She knew she’d have to find some common ground between them. After a little research; Karena and Skye had bonded over music and singing. The plan had worked well; so long as Skye played down her talents. She was a much better violinist than Karena was a singer. It was common sense not to steal the spotlight from her, and she didn’t want to risk the narcissist’s ire.

As the two women spoke about their visit to her homeland, The two princes discussed the Mage Trials. The amount of recruits taking the exam this year were higher than any other year before. Marco had expected it, based upon the indoctrination numbers. But it was becoming hard to keep the trials difficult. The sizes of the competitor groups were lager every year, making the trials easier to get through.

In most kingdoms; if you were born with magic, you were indoctrinated into the military. Training began as soon as possible, and the trials were liken to a final exam. Passing or failing determined whether one stayed in the basic military, or was promoted to the RMC. Technically, all mages were under the control of the RMC. But until they passed the trials they were ranked with the regular military.

Some preferred it to the Royal Mages Corp; regardless of their abilities. The RMC were the first ones on the front lines: every time. They engaged the other mages from other kingdoms. The only time the regular military saw action was during full-scale war. Which hasn’t happened since Alcon suppressed the Sync kingdom, right after the attempted regicide.

There has been much speculation around the prospect of going to war with the Highlanders. Marco’s nobles in particular were pushing for it. They wanted the land along the boarder for themselves, and only saw the Nomadic Tribes as a hindrance. It was the only area in the far north that was good for farming.

Over the years, Lucas had talked many times with Murdoc on behalf of Magnus, but never seemed to get anything from it; except stumbling down drunk. He didn’t trust the southern king, and had told Skye’s father that he rather enjoyed the scuffles with the hero prince. But his main concern was for his people.

The leader of the Nomads had said; ‘I don’t want me people to have to be slaves, just to farm their own lands.’

Lucas understood what he’d meant by it. The benefits of ‘making Alcon whole’, wouldn’t have shifted evenly to the Nomadic Tribes. They would’ve been stripped of their lands, and many of the freedoms they enjoyed now, would be stripped. Not to mention that Magnus also demanded some of his raiders be handed over for punishment. Which was the political way of saying executed.

Lucas knew Murdoc would never agree, but his attempts at diplomacy kept his king off of his back, and the Nomadic leader his friend. Which kept the majority of his raiding parties off of his land. Lord Moonstone also occasionally traded with the nomads, but kept that bit to himself. Magnus would see it as betrayal, but Lucas saw it as fostering good will. He decided that if he couldn’t directly convince their leader, maybe he could get the people on his side..

The conversations lasted about eight minutes or so, before Peggy reminded them of the time. It was getting close to their departure time, and Tidas needed to eat as much as he could before the demonstration. He was to fight Zas, then Shasta, before the actual trials got underway. Skye was nervous, but more excited than anything else. She’d never seen the prince fight before, and was very much looking forward to seeing what her hero husband was capable of...