Chapter 219

219 Rumors And Opinions

Tidas was sitting in his office at the RMC Headquarters when Yakub came in. He didn’t even knock, which was normal for him, but it still annoyed Tidas to no end. It had been nearly a month and a half since Skye had started working with Jakub in the R&D Department three times a week.

The prince hated it. He saw his wife even less now, due to her extra workload. And today of all days, Jakub had to barge into his office.. Tidas was particularly irritated with him at that moment..

Just over two weeks ago; it was the first time in nearly a month that Tidas and Skye had finally gotten to sleep next to each other. It was such a rare event now that he had even told Peggy not to disturb them. He wasn’t sure how, but Jakub had convinced his guards to let him in their room anyway.

He burst in through the door like a hurricane, not caring that Skye and Tidas were naked. He ranted to them about some breakthrough he’d had back at the lab. Utterly involved in his story, Yakub nearly sat down on their bed while he talked. Coming within inches of his absorbed, but naked wife; the prince had snapped at him.

Tidas yelled at his friend about his lack of respect and decorum, which got him nothing but sarcastic retorts. Losing his temper, Tidas had chased him out of their room. Just in time for Karena and her little pack of rabid dogs to see him in all his natural glory. Most squealed their disapproval, but a few boldly eyed his naked body. They’d only caught a glimpse, but it was enough to fuel the gossip fire for the following weeks.

The outlandish stories varied from Tidas catching his wife with another man, to him ‘sharing’ Skye with another. The story varied person to person. Jakub and Marco seemed to be switched off as the other man, but oddly enough, the majority of the stories involved Marco. Which had infuriated Tidas the first time he’d heard of his brother’s involvement in the overly-embellished stories. He could only imagine how Karena would take the news...

It was going to take weeks for the rumors to stop...Or so she’d hoped...

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Skye could barely walk about the palace without hearing outrageous lies. It had gotten so bad that Magnus, with Marco at his side, had to make an official announcement about it. Most of the commoners never believed it to begin with, but it made shutting up the few naysayers easier.

Tidas has barely seen his wife, and now the idiot responsible for his lost time was in his some-what secluded office. It took every bit of self-restraint he had not to chuck him out the window.

.....

As Jakub sat down in the chair across from Tidas, the ominous chill in the room had finally hit him full force when he had actually looked as the prince’s expression.

Tidas narrowed his eyes at his supposed friend as he spoke; “Do you have any idea of the hassle Skye and I have had to deal with because of you?!”

Yakub slumped in his chair; “Oh, trust me.. your wife has been Torturing me ever since then. Do you know how unpleasant it is to get doused with ice water when it’s cold outside?! I had to go back to the barracks and get clothes; I nearly froze my ass off! I had to DEFROST my clothes before I could take them off!”

Tidas suppressed a chuckle; “Did she? What else has she been doing?”

This time Jakub glared; “She’s the Devil! She switched out the metal screws on my chair, and replaced them with worn-down wooden ones. I was sitting on it for all of five seconds before I fell flat on my backside! Oh! She also swapped out my chemicals so that when I mixed them yesterday, a quarter of my lab filled up with foam! It took me HOURS to clean it all up!”

Tidas had lost his cool at ‘backside’. Holding his stomach, he leaned back in his chair as his laughter echoed within his office. He was well aware of how masterful Skye could be at practical jokes; he’d taught her well.

When they were children, she’d helped him pull off a couple pranks before they’d gotten caught. Magnus had threatened to keep them apart until their wedding day, so Tidas hadn’t pulled a prank since. At least not any extravagant ones that would actually get him into trouble.

“And then she made a pitfall trap INSIDE My Lab! She’s lucky we’re in the basement!”

Jakub waved his arms with animated motions as he told his stories. His voice was indignant, but he had a half smile on his face the entire time he talked. While he may not have liked the actual experiences, they gave him great stories to tell.

Skye was could be incredibly imaginative when she wanted to be..

They talked on and off for a while before Jakub felt Tidas was in a good enough mood to broach the subject he needed to with him. Skye was doing an amazing job helping him in his lab. He was currently two months ahead in his enriching rototiller project, and she had helped him modify a handful of his other projects as well. She’d even drawn up schematics for her snow packer machine she’d thought up last winter.. But none of this really had to do with that.

Skye had been slightly depressed lately. She’d been spending the other four days with Zazzy, who was now about the size of a large pony. She couldn’t follow Peggy throughout the castle anymore as she handled her daily chores.

Zazzy had knocked into too many things and people, forcing Magnus to restrict the poor wee dragon’s comings and goings. She mainly stayed in the courtyard of Skye and Tidas’ quarters. It wasn’t small, but it didn’t give her much room to run around in, now that she’d gotten so big.

Skye didn’t know what to do. Her wings had detached from her sides, and the journals said that she was ready to start to learn how to fly. Problem was that dragons normally needed a running start when they were first learning. The muscles in their wings weren’t strong enough for a vertical takeoff until they were at least two years old. Or so the journals had informed her.

As Jakub explained Skye’s issues to Tidas, a sneaky smirk stretched across his face. Well aware of his wife’s plight, Tidas had been planning a special surprise for her. Missing each other so much, they had agreed to do a date night once a week. Skye wanted to designate a day of rest anyway, so it was all working out perfectly for him.

Monday through Saturday, Skye would do her Shaman rounds in the mornings, eat at Alfred’s, then meet up with Shasta for training. They would stop right before dinner, eat, then Skye would either head off to spend time with Zazzy, or work with Jakub. Around eleven to midnight she would come home to shower and study until about three or so; depending on how involved she’d gotten in her studies.

Peggy didn’t like that her bairn was only averaging around three to five hours of sleep a night, but at least she wasn’t as bad as Tidas. He normally only got two to three hours of sleep, and he didn’t have Skye’s nifty ability to heal her own fatigue. Tidas literally lived off of tea and food. His Tank trait kept him vigilant, but his mind wasn’t as sharp as it once was. Lack of sleep gave him an odd, clouded feeling whenever he tried to focus on something.

Skye gave him a once-over every time she saw her husband. She understood that there wasn’t much either of them could do about their hectic schedules right now. He was a prince and the Commander of the RMC; he had things that specifically Needed to be done by him.

Skye was in the middle of preparing for the Mage Trials, so she couldn’t spare time either. She wished that she could see her husband everyday so that she could heal his fatigue, but their schedules never matched up. He was stuck with his usual methods.

As Jakub finished with his rants, he went into details about how worried Skye was about both him, and Zazzy. She wanted to help them both, and had been struggling for a week now to come up with a solution for them. Tidas grinned as Jakub talked about his wife’s concern for her family. He imagined that she’d be a great mother whenever they were ready for children.

“What’s got you all smiley? I was literally just telling you about how stressed out your wife’s been,” Jakub commented as he stretched in his chair.

Tidas grinned broadly; “That’s because I already have a plan to fix her problems. Well, the ones pertaining to Zazzy, anyway. There’s not much else I can do about my schedule until Ralph reports back. He should be back any day now; the north has had summertime weather for a couple weeks now.”

Jakub looked at his friend with a quirked eyebrow; “Ohhhh? Whatcha gonna do for her?”

Tidas’ grin grew; “That’s for her to find out, not you.. Is this the only reason you’re here? If so, you can go now.”

Jakub’s face showed mocked insult; “Fine! I see how it is.. By the way, when are you surprising her?”

Tidas huffed; “Why do you want to know?”

“Just wanted to know how much longer I have to deal with ‘Brutal Blondie’, that’s all. Really, she should’ve been born a redhead. It’d match her attitude better..”

Tidas lost it. He had to pull his chair back to properly grip his side, he was laughing so hard. He often forgot that he’d never described Skye’s physical appearance to Jakub before. The only people he’d done that with were his soldiers. It was the only reason Alfred knew that she used to be a redhead.

Jakub had never been on an actual battlefield before, and never wanted to be. He much preferred to work behind the scenes than be out on stage. Positions like that were meant for people like Skye and Tidas. As he watched the prince wipe an eye as he continued to laugh, Jakub wondered what he could possibly surprise his wife with that would solve her dragon problems..

************

Somewhere near the palace, down a dark and secluded alleyway; a woman and a man stood talking away from any prying eyes. The mysterious man slipped the woman a sheathed dagger carefully before speaking..

“This has been dipped in the fastest acting poison known to exist. Within seven seconds, the victim’s heart will stop.. All it takes is a tiny cut.. Her magic won’t be able to activate fast enough to save herself. Do. Not. Fail. If you do, not only will you lose him forever, but you will most certainly be put to death this time. The prince will insist upon it.”

As the woman took the dagger, she tilted her head up to look at the cloaked man; “Oh, I won’t miss.. I’ll kill the bitch for trying to take MY man from me... Tidas is Mine.”