Alexius: Drumroll Please
Whatever dream he had been pulled from, the reality he was shoved into was an unwelcome jump indeed. He remembered some of the dream's elements... warmth, beauty, something magical... and it was all crumpled by his father's drums filling the Royal cooridor with more noise than the worst of their thunderstorms. It was going to be a bad day at court. It was always bad when father felt the need to wake up the castle before seven with some solo he had picked up in shadow.
His eyes blinked open and his head pounded. Not from wine, although Alexian wished it was that--that didn't last forever.
Father's drumming, however, could last incessantly.
Alexius rolled out of bed and went to make his morning ablutions. And besides, the sound of the shower might drown out Father's drumming for a little while.
The water did mute it slightly, but he knew he was in trouble when Random switched from harmless trickster drumming to heavy metal. In fact, as he dried himself off, he figured the whole court was in trouble.
Alexius winced as he recognized the drum solo. Alexius briefly wondered if there was a spell to temporarily reduce one's hearing. Father was going to tear off the heads of everyone at Court. Ducking out of it would only enrage him further, Alexius decided, as he dressed and looked at himself in the mirror.
White shirt, dark pants, the latter with accents of dark purple. His silver chain, as always, around his neck. Soft boots, in dark purple as well.
The next step was breakfast. Hopefully there would be coffee...he was going to need it to steel himself for Court.
The breakfast nook his family often took up in the early hours of the day was filled with more than coffee. There was a plate of ham along side a helping of cheeses, and a bowl of potatoes steaming next to that. There were bagels, cut and toasted, butter in a tub along with cream cheese and jam. In other words, a feast meant to feed two Amberite males.
Vialle was already present, her breakfast markedly different than her son and husband's heavy fare. She snacked upon a plate of fruit, tea cooling at her left. When Alexius came into the room her head lifted and smile appeared. "Alexius... I see your father woke you early as well."
A young Amberite male had a high caloric intake, and Alexius was no exception. Unless he was totally sedentary, he thought, he'd still eat like a horse. So his plate soon sported a half bagel with cream cheese, a serving of ham topped by some of the sharp cheddar, and a cup of coffee.
Alexius kissed Vialle on the cheek. He was always surprised that people were astonished how easily his mother could recognize him. Living with a blind parent, especially one such as Vialle, was an interesting experience.
"He did, Mother." Alexius said, trying to hide his annoyance of the fact. "I suppose." a sigh crept in his voice. "That I needed to be up for Court anyway."
She patted his hand, her soft smile at the very least understanding. "You may get out of that duty today, Alexius. I do believe Flora will be taking up most of his time today."
Alexius tried to contain his enthusiasm. It wouldn't do to show too much eagerness at the thought of getting away from a moody father today, and away from the sometimes dry nature of Court.
"Is that why he is drumming, Mother? Is he cross with Aunt Flora?"
"Cross?" Vialle and Alexis look up as they both realize the drumming has stopped, and Random now stands in the doorway. He hadn't bothered with court clothes yet, being more comfortable in his lounging clothes and a loose belted robe. His hair was sticking at enough angles to imply he hadn't bothered with a shower yet, either. He crossed to the breakfast table, gave Vialle a peck on the cheek, then sat himself down.
"Cross... I get cross when I find out the dealer's stacking the deck at Reno. I woke up to six petitions from either my fair sister or people rallying against her, all of which are thick enough to start a fire with. I'm livid with my sister."
Alexius bit his tongue for a moment and let his father get some things on the plate before replying. He didn't want his own head bitten off, or a real row between them.
"I don't understand, Father." Alexius said. "Why are there so many petitions for and against Aunt Flora? What is she doing?"
Sometimes it WAS better to know why Father was angry. It was good practice, anyway, and showed at least a smidgen of interest in Court duties.
"She's making my life complicated, that's what she's doing." Random watched with a sour expression as he drowned his ham in syrup and butter.
Vialle sighed, taking up her tea again. "She's only trying to protect her girls, Random."
"I'm sorry, Father." Alexius said, taking a bite of the ham. Father clearly wasn't going to explain the entire thing at one gulp, he was going to have to thread this out of him if he wanted an explanation.
"Protect her girls, mother?" Alexius asked, turning to look at his mother.
"The divorce proceedings," Vialle said quietly. "Between Flora and Duke Richard Telleworth. When there are children involved, these things always become complicated."
"Serves her right," Random grumbled over his sopping ham slices. "I told her she wasn't the marrying type."
Alexius bit his bottom lip for a moment. It was advantageous, though, that he had read a lot of the family histories.
"Perhaps." Andrei ventured. "She was hoping to replicate you and Mother's success and happiness together."
"Any road...I am sorry, father."
"So is anyone that has to sit court with her," he grumbled in return, and Vialle shook her head. She touched her son's hand, giving him a hint of a smile.
"There were those that said the same of your father. It might behoove him to remember that, now and then. What are your plans for today? Will you sit in on the proceedings?"
Alexius didn't quite gulp. He would rather have a root canal than deal with this...but on the other hand, Kingship and duty were not all about trips to Maeonis, hosting celebrations and such. There was a fair amount of scut work involved.
How DAD wound up as King, then, was still a mystery.
"If it would help, father." Alexius said carefully. "I'd not shirk my duties overmuch for the sake of escaping such things. And I must need at least practice my spellcraft today anyway. Master Lorius would castigate me with his tongue if I don't."
"And Flora may speak more freely with an audience of only the two of us," pointed out Vialle.
Random grumbled. "Flora not speaking freely may be a good thing. But alright. Today, you can skip the trumpets and petitions. But I'll have Bill seperate some of the petitions for you to look over tonight."
Vialle frowned, but instead of protesting simply slipped a sliver of pineapple into her mouth.
"Yes, father." Alexius replied. "Thank you, Father." he added, making a mental calculation. At the fourth hour after noon, work on spell craft, eat dinner, and then, like it or not, work on the petitions. It beat spending the entire day in Court. He'd take it.
Breakfast continued on for several silent, chewing filled minutes as Alexius and Random demolished their plates. Finally, Random looked sated (and a slight bit cheerier). He sat back, taking the last of his coffee. "So, what are your plans, otherwise? I know you're just not going to sit up in a tower and throw around words and cantrips."
"No, father. I certainly don't intend that." Alexius replies after a moment. "Truthfully, I had not made any plans." The word and its connotations would not be lost on Random. And besides, his current love interest, the niece of the Rebman charge d'affaires wasn't even in Amber at the moment, she was with her Aunt off on a diplomatic mission in the Golden Circle somewheres.
The apple did not fall far from the tree as far as Alexius and his father's tastes in the opposite sex were concerned.
"I had thought I would be in Court with you, Father, so I did not make any alternative plans in advance." Alexius looked thoughtful now given a small window of freedom. "Some exercise is certainly in order. Perhaps a bit of a climb up Kolvir, and then wend my way down to the city. See what turns up." He smiles.
His father returned his smile, but there was something of the Random of lore there, something Alexius had learned not to trust.
"Well, since you're going to have all this free time, why not go to the court that will be open today. Our sister realm, Rebma. Llew would just love to see you."
Random was a follower of the credo: Misery Loves Company.
Vialle shook her head, setting down her tea with a sharp 'tink'. "Random, he needs time to be a boy."
"And he can do what I did... Grow up and be a boy then. It's a whole hell of a lot better to be a wild hair when you're tearing up shadow, not the castle."
Alexius blinked his eyes. It was the look he gave when, for example, Uncle Julian checkmated him in a chess game. Outmaneuvered and outplayed by the master, his father.
Well, Alexius thought, best to make as well out of this as he could. And the matriarchy of Rebma meant that there were usually more young ladies around that Court to look it through the tedium of Court.
No, he didn't mind the idea that much.
"All right, father." Alexius says. He then turns to his Mother and smiles. "It has been a while since I've seen Aunt Llewella, and Queen Moire TOO. And you've always wanted me to have ties to Rebma." Alexius pointed out, thinking again of the ambassador's daughter. Not that they had an exclusive relationship. Rebmans seemed to be of two minds about such things. Open and gregarious in their affilations with the opposite (or same) sex, but once they exchanged vows, intensely monogamous.
"I will go to Rebma, today, after breakfast." He said, finishing up his plate. "Is there any documents or papers that I should bring with me to Court?" he asked.
"Oh, I can dig up a few things to give you pretense. But..." Random looked around the table at the soft leather boots Alexius had donned. "I would change out of those, if you don't want 'em clogged with salt water. No need to make our clothier cry more than he already is."
The realm of Rebma, even on the coldest of Amber morns was gently warm, a side effect (or effect) of the spell laced about it. Its denizens took full advantage of this, their trappings reduced to little more than waves of fashionably iridescent silk and the odd cusp of metal. Alexius, in his Amber trappings, looked akin to a polar bear trudging along a nudist beach.
The castle was an approximation of Castle Amber, but its reversal wasn't the only difference. Its edges were rounded, smoothed out to a fine sheen, as though the water had taken its time building the structure to something it found desirable. The currents carried him through the front gate, then to the wide, open area that was the court of Rebma.
The Queen, ruling alone, sat above all others, hair drifting about her in an intricate dance. Her smallest movements were punctuated by it, blooming and shrinking with her nods and frowns. Steps below, speaking with a fine fingered native with skin the color of ripe olives, was Llewella. Her robes were the latest (or soon to be latest) fashion in the courts, consisting of thousands of tiny, perfect shells treaded onto nearly invisible wires of silver. All heads turned as Alexius, with his bulky clothes, entered.
(dang, lost my first post somehow)
Alexius was nervous as he entered the throne room. In a sense, this was his first presentation to the Rebman Court, since it was the first time he was meeting the Queen unescorted. Moire could be like the sea. Displeased, and this could be a very unpleasant visit. Humor her...and well Alexius hoped that her humor might not turn too creative.
He walked slowly and carefully to a spot a measured six paces from the dais. He had decided, before entering, that he would perform the Ray, and so bowed at the waist, spreading out his hands, palm up and fingers extended. When Alexius returned to a standing position, he spoke.
"Hail, Queen Moire, Lady of the Coral Throne, Mistress of the Deeps, Queen of Rebma. I bring you tidings from your sister Princess Llewella's youngest sibling, King Random of Amber. It has been far too long since an emissary of the Court of Amber has had the fortune to come to the Court of our sister Realm."
He gives a bow of his head and awaits the Queen's humour and response.
"Do you find our sister realm rather cold, your Highness?" Moire's amused question gave rise to an echoing titter of laughter about the court. Llewella looked up from her conversation with her Rebman and frowned.
"It would have been a pity, had he decided to visit his rooms before bidding us welcome. Do you not agree, sister?"
Moire only shrugged, emerald tresses flitting about her shoulders and nearly bare brests. Her eyes narrowed suddenly on something just beyond Alexius in the direction he had come in. "Well... sons of Random come two by two? I didn't think any of his blood would be able to coordinate so well..."
A laugh comes from behind Alexius, warm and familiar, deepened by the warm water around them. "Hey, if we had been coordinated, we would have at least come in at the same time, right?" Alexius felt a strong hand clasp his shoulder, and he turned to see the slightly shorter, much older man that was his brother, Martin.
Martin wasn't even remotely turned out for court, in a road worn duster and faded jeans. His hair, cropped shorter than usual, bristled up in a blond halo about his head. There were strange markings over his left cheek, lines of black interspersed with dots of red. They crinkled as he smiled. "Thought you'd be doing play by play for dad."
A tattoo? Alexius wondered as he looked at the markings on Martin. Or something odder. He knew that Llewella sometimes favored such adornments on those she favored (even if she hadn't given him one yet--he'd expect Dad would freak), but he didn't think that they were that close.
"I am here on his behalf." Alexius nodded, trying to remain dignified. One of the two of them had to remain in character. "It is good to see you, Martin." he said, putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling warmly, and then turning to face Moire and LLewella? again.
"I would have been remiss your majesty, had I changed into formal Rebman wear before bringing my felicitations to your Court. I would never engage in such rudeness." he gives a smile to LLewella? for supporting him on that point. He gives a bow of the head again to the Queen.
"And you now have my leave to change into something less encumbering." Moire frowned as Alexius turned to comply, but Martin began to wander off, hailing some noble familiar to him. "Both of you."
Martin gave her a lazy smile, turning on his heel and ammending his path to merge with Alexius's. Alexius caught sight of Llewella's frown, and a mouthed 'Behave!' directed at Martin.
"Come on," said Martin, clapping his half-brother's shoulder again. "And you can tell me everything you've been getting into."
"Yes your majesty." Alexius bows, gives a smile to his Aunt, and then turns back to Martin.
He follows Martin out of the throne room and into the halls of Rebma, still preferring to remain on the ground until he changes into something more appropriate.
"Trouble. ME?" Alexius laughs. "At least I am not as bad as Benedict's hellion." Alexius points out. "Dad has been trying to keep me on a shorter leash, I think, than he had with Grandfather Oberon." Alexius' quarters in Rebma were reasonably close to Martin's, and in turn not too far away from LLewella?'s. Or as close as to the Royal wing of the Palace as you could get, anyway.
"Still doing the sorcery thing. Master Lorius is a cranky old bird, but he does know from his magic. I suppose that learning it the right way from the ground up is the right thing to do, as deadly dull as it is."
"Dull? Magic? Pfft. You just don't have the right teacher. What you need is something besides some cranky old guy going on about pronunciation." Martin ducked into his room, but didn't shut the door, continuing as he disrobed just out of site. "Get some sweet little thing. She may know less, but you learn a hell of a lot faster."
Alexius changes as Martin speaks in turn, shedding the bulky clothes of the dryland above for a more Rebman affair. Relatively diaphanous and light, it covered him around his loins and somewhat down his thighs, with a harness as adornment on his chest.
"Well, there aren't many sweet little things in Amber that would qualify to be my tutor." Alexius said as he smiled. "None that Dad would have as my tutor anyway. Rebma, on the other hand, has a phethora of sorceresses. Good ones, too."
"You wouldn't happy to know any, Martin?" Alexius says.
"Oh, a couple... I'm sure they'd love to have you on their resumes..." Martin strolled in, not bothering with a knock. He was clad in more metals and scales than scarves, but Alexius barely saw that as he realized the tattoo on his face was hardly his latest addition.
Snaking over his upper body, lines of black swirled and made war with dots of red and orange. They trailed from his left wrist to his shoulder, then across his back and around his chest, ending a his left side. He was more muscular now, too, though still on the wiry side of Random's genetics. Martin frowned at his reflection in an air pocket mirror, and tried to get his halo of hair to lay down.
"Damn currents."
Alexius nodded at Martin's mention that he did know a couple. He'd clear them with LLewella?, just to make sure Martin was on the up and up. It wouldn't surprise him to foster someone pretty and not very skilled. Although the Illuminata here was a pretty serious guild of mages.
"What have you done this time?" Alexius asked Martin as he looked at the lines and dots. "I've not see that before, either."
"It's special." He ran a hand over the markings, fingers and eyes trailing over them like remembering something pleasant, some time ago. "You don't like them? Got them out in shadow." He turn to fully regard Alexius's now unencumbered form. "Looks like Auntie Llew hasn't gotten a hold of you yet."
katie wrote: "It's special." He ran a hand over the markings, fingers and eyes trailing over them like remembering something pleasant, some time ago. "You don't like them? Got them out in shadow." He turn to fully regard Alexius's now unencumbered form. "Looks like Auntie Llew hasn't gotten a hold of you yet."
"Just not used to them, that's all." Alexius says mildly, smiling. "You've never marched to the beat of anyone else's drummer, brother."
"As far as Aunt Llewella, no, she hasn't gotten a hold of me yet. Although with me down here visiting...any number of things might happen. I'm surprised I've been allowed this much reprieve."
"Not that I have any doubts LLewella? has had thoughts along those lines. I've been lucky so far, but I am getting to be that age where LLewella? might feel ready to grab hold of me. Today might be the day."
"We'll see what happens when she summons me to see her today. Maybe she does have an adornment in mind." Alexius says. "Until then, though, any bright ideas?"
"I was thinking a score card on your shoulder," came a lilting and slightly accented voice from behind them. "To keep track of your ladies from the realms." They both turned, and there was Llewella, shells shimmering about her form on their wires. She gave a sweet smile to Alexius, allowing him to kiss her cheek. The look she gave Martin was deadly, though, sending him a step back.
"Drummer or no, you could take a lesson from your half-brother on the behavior of heirs to the throne."
"Aunt Llewella" Alexius kisses her cheek and moves back, waiting for her to unleash her gaze on Martin.
"I truly meant no offense." Alexius tries to keep it light. "I just know your tastes, is all, in adornment." And Alexius blushes on how appropriate a scord card might be. "You look lovely today, as you always do."
Someone had to keep up appearances for Random's sons.
He'll let Martin defend himself, though. Elder brother and all that.
Martin recovered quickly, clasping Alexius on the shoulder. "How old are you again? Sixteen? Seventeen?" He looked at Llewella, a thin smile on his face. "Give him time and a taste of Pattern. He won't be so model child any more. Hell, I may lend a hand corrupting him."
"Someone wants his rooms moved to the less pleasing views of Amber and Rebma, doesn't he?" Llewella stepped forward, running a pale blue nail over his tattoed arm. "And what is this? Not as elegant as I like..."
"Seventeen, brother." Alexius says brightly and then nods. "I think Dad would disown me if I snuck onto the Pattern anyhow. All in good time, all in good time."
He then turns to his Aunt.
"He was explaining that he got them in shadow, Aunt LLewella?." Alexius fills in helpfully as he watches the byplay between his brother and his Aunt.
"And I suppose that they suit him rather well in their exoticness and strangeness." he adds and then smiles. "Although, I do think that your elegant style is much more appealing for myself." He smiles. "Especially with a...virgin canvas."
Alexius begins thinking to himself. Would father really freak if he came back adorned? And well, Dad HAD sent him here.
And he just then watches the byplay between Llewella and his brother, having cast out his gambit to his aunt.
Martin stepped back again, seeming to defer to Alexius. "See? Why bother with little old me, when you have a virgin on your hands. Why, by the time that I've healed all these away, you'll just be finished covering him up."
Llewella does seem to consider the possibility, tapping her upper lip with an extended finger.
"Well, perhaps good brother, not to cover me up completely so quickly." Alexius says with a smile, clasping him on the shoulder before turning back to his Aunt. "But one, to mark me."
"But, Aunt LLewella?" he decided to employ all of the skills Dad ingrained into him to be a courtier. "I do know that you adorn your favorites, and I would like to think that I am so well regarded by you." he smiles. "And I admit that it is not everyday that you are confronted with such an opportunity. And if anyone could convince Father that it would be a good thing, it would be you." he rolls his shoulders and smiles.
"And if I presented presented him with a charming enough illustration, I think I would sway him." She pressed a nail into his flesh, just enough to pinch, and she watched his reaction.
Alexius bites his lip a bit, it doesn't really hurt that much, but she clearly wants a reaction and he gives one with his eyes, smiling and nodding even through the mild discomfort.
"Aye, Aunt LLewella?, that is true." he said smiling.
She clucked her tongue at his reaction. "Still rather sensitive? Ah, well... We'll start with a small one. Turn."
Alexius blushed a bit. He wasn't used to this sort of thing. A thought of Tamara's nails and how they had scored him when they had made out came to mind. His skin WAS sensitive. Maybe it was because it was the odd shade of blue.
"Yes, Aunt LLewella?." Alexius pivots on his right heel, turning 180 degrees at her request. The look he gives Martin is "Well, I've asked for it, and now I am going to get it."
But he is smiling.
Martin returned the look with a smirk and a bounce on his heels, looking a little too pleased with himself. Behind Alexius, Llewella hums.
"Yes..." She traced her nails over his back, just over his spine. "I know what I'll do. Come." She turned, heading out of his room and down to her own suites.
Alexius gives Martin a look, wondering if he is going to be following them. Or, has Llewella cast him completely off the line, so to speak, and now he is in her tender clutches alone?
Quietly, Alexius trails behind his Aunt, not regretful, but considered and pensive about what he has gotten himself into. He walks with his hands behind his back, holding his left wrist with his right hand.
His eyes cast about as they enter her suite. He's not been here often, or, he thinks dryly, he might have a better idea what to expect.
Her rooms weren't what Alexius might call sparse, though they did lack in things like nick-knacks and personal adornments. The focus was almost completely on the smooth and swirling architecture and opalescent glow to the walls and fixtures.
Martin was following, and made himself a seat on Llewella's oval shaped bed. She gave him a look, and he remembered to toss off his shoes.
Llewella tapped a tortoise shell stool. "Sit." She drifted to a cabinet and pulled out an onyx box, roughly the size of a cigar box.
Alexius felt a sigh of relief that he had removed his shoes upon entering her rooms, after the look LLewella? gave his brother. His eyes scan around, looking at the relatively austere personal items. But the architecture and lighting are exotic, beautiful.
As LLewella? goes to the cabinet, Alexius perches himself on the indicated seat. His eyes serenely watch as she retrieves the box.
She did not open it in his sight, instead taking a small end table and pulling it to a place behind him. He heard her set the box down, then open it. A moment passed, and he felt something touching his skin, soft and cooling, numbing his flesh.
Anaesthetic. Alexius fumbled to remember the word as he felt the cool thing touching him, it was a strange sensation, or a lack of sensation.
A secret then, or a surprise. Alexius knew better than to ask what she was going to adorn him with, and remaining perfectly still so she could do her work was paramount. So his eyes focused on the range of vision that he could see, looking at the architecture, the lighting, the ambience of the room.
The cool lifted, and for all it numbed, Alexius soon found out that wasn't quite enough.
He almost jerked when the needle met his skin, several inches below his collar-line, directly on his spin. Llewella's hand landed on his shoulder, and she murmured for him to be still. "We wouldn't want it crooked."
"Yes Milady Aunt LLewella?." Alexius bit his lip. He didn't want it ruined. It would take a while to fade and disappear, and probably, as far as he understood from Dad and Martin, it wouldn't until he walked the Pattern.
The Pattern. He hadn't walked it yet.
He dared not ask it but the thought hit him in the brain. If she adorned, marked, decorated him before he did--did that mean it was truly permanent, and would never fade, since it was on him before he walked it?
And what did that mean? Surely LLewella? was aware of his status.
Still, thinking all of this allowed him to remain still, in his thoughts. He could only wait and see.
The pain began to fade as she continued to work, though he suspected this was more thanks to his body's reaction than anything from her little black box. She lisped a song in her Rebman dialect as she went along, ignoring Martin when he rose to check on her progress.
Time became a theoretical concept as Alexius drifted, and when Llewella backed away with a satisfied 'hm,' he had no idea how much time had passed.
"Nice," commented Martin.
"Is it done?" Alexius said, still not quite moving yet. These things were sensitive,and doubtless Alexius would not be sleeping on his back for quite a while,until it was fully healed.
"What did you favor me with, Aunt LLewella??" he then asked, smiling at his choice of words.
"Something to give homage to both your realms..." She pulled him up, then to a quicksilver mirror set into the wall. She faced his back to it, then handed him a hand mirror of her own.
Holding the smaller mirror aloft, he could see the design painted onto his back. It wasn't large, not like Martin's, but it was still too large to hope that Random might miss it the next time they took a trip to the beach. It was the size of a small woman's hand, right over his spine, done in a delicate green and bolder blue. A mountain, star atop it, shining with a half dozen rays of green. Below that, the image appeared again, inverted and wavering.
Alexius was stunned, his reflected face in turn visible through the mirrors back to Llewella and Martin, as well as around the hand mirror. But it was in a good way, as if he were stunned upon seeing a pretty Rebman, or some such.
"My lady Aunt." Alexius said softly. "I am stunned and awed by your choice, and your rendition." It wasn't quite the same as a seal that father had carved for him few years ago, substiuting a unicorn for the mountain. And the rays. And the reflection.
It was perfect.
"I am speechless, save to proffer my thanks." Alexius finally said.
Llewella gave Martin a look as she pushed a strand of hair out of Alexius's face, as if to say See? That's how it's done... "It suits you... Let us hope your father is as pleased." She reached out to Martin's arm, touching a place where the lines were crooked like flames. "Now, your turn. I think I can salvage--"
Martin's hand came up, clasping Llewella's wrist and lifting it off of the markings. "No," he said with a tight smile. "I like them as they are."
Alexius continues to admire his tattoo for a few moments, and then grins at Martin when he tries to stop LLewella? from her work.
"I suppose to each their own, Aunt Llewella." Alexius says amicably. "Though Martin's outre tattoos are each to their own part, the sight of them, admittedly, gave me pause to wonder if you might adorn me with your own art."
"And so as catalyst in your painting of my now once-marked canvas." Alexius says. "Martin should keep his as they are, in recognition of what they engendered."
"Such the politician!" Llewella shook off Martin's grasp with a little growl, then smiled at Alexius. "You're making it tempting for me to propose a coup concerning your father... I saw you with scrolls when you came in. How is he going to annoy my sister today?"
Alexius decided to switch from politics to honesty. Aunt LLewella? was kidding about the coup attempt, anyway, he thought as he smiled. No, she would get him married first to a Rebman, or betrothed. Among the myriad of dry histories that he had been forced to read, he had come across the annals of a shadow which had a rather complicated series of successions that way. It almost seemed to be an artform among that strange Empire, wings of the Royal Family using marriage as a weapon to maneuver those who would succeed the Emperor.
"Actually, I think its pretty basic stuff, and just an excuse to send me here." Alexius said. "He wanted me out of his hair today, but didn't think to leave me completely at loose ends, so he decided to send me here to visit Queen Moire. And especially you, Aunt LLewella?. I doubt there is anything in the scrolls to roil the placidity of her Majesty."
"Just like Random," sighed Llewella. "Force everyone to suffer court while it's dull, then kick all the gentry out just as it gets interesting..."
That evening, Martin and Alexius made the long way up to the castle once again, having been called for dinner as soon as Random found out his other son was in town.
Alexius had thought that a tattoo would hurt, perhaps even ache for a week or so. What he wasn't prepared for was the unbearable itching that would follow.
Alexius squirmed almost everywhere, as if he had eaten too much sugar. Sitting in chairs, laying face down on the bed, the tattoo almost seemed alive to him, as if it was trying to move across his back.
Or, worse, had a mind of its own and was trying to reveal itself to his father. He wasn't sure where that thought came from, though. When he dressed in drylander clothes, he tried to keep the shirt as loose as possible, so that it wouldn't touch the sensitive skin.
Martin seemed endlessly amused by Alexius's trails. "Boy, Llew sure had you pinned when she said you were sensitive." He pulled something off of his hip, then tossed it to Alexius. A silver flask, an etching not unlike the lines over his upper body scored into its sides. "Here, take a pull of that before you see dad. It'll make it a bit easier on you. I emptied six or seven of those the night I got this." He motioned about his chest and face.
Alexius nodded, just taking a small sip of the stuff. Unicorn knew where in shadow Martin had gotten the drink, and there was no telling quite *what* it really was.
"So you got yourself drunk after getting yourself adorned, huh?" Alexius said. "I'm guessing there is a woman somewhere in this story. And Aunt Llewella wanted to tattoo a scorecard on ME." he grinned.
Alexius rolls his shoulders again. "Pagh. It doesn't hurt so much as annoy. It's worth it though." He smiled to Martin. "A minor rebellion, and getting firmly into LLewella?'s circle and good graces is a good thing. Cross-realm relations and all that." He laughs. "There I go with the politics again."
"So tell me how and where you got yours." Alexius repeats. "It'll take my mind off seeing Dad as much as the drink." he says, handing the flask back.
The drink was sweet on his tongue, tasting more of berries than of anything alcoholic. He felt the itching begin to grow distant.
"When? About three months back. How... Well, that's sort of a funny story. I kind of woke up with it. Do you know what peyote is?"
Alexius nodded. "You forget our Father has always been experimental, and equally you forget that he tries to keep me as clean as possible for one of his sons. He'd make a enunch of me, too, if he could." Alexius grinned.
"It makes you hallucinate, doesn't it?" Alexius said. "Peyote that is, not the tattoo."
"Hallucinate? That's a mild way of putting it... And not completely accurate." Martin stretched as they entered the castle, pulling his arms back over his head. "It's more like a different vision... a sight you never knew you could have. You can see roads you never saw before, and take them, if that makes any sense.
"And dad's experimental, but I can't see him as the type to go on a vision quest. He'd do it just for the lay at the end."
"A different sight." Alexius considers this. "It almost sounds like something that would be even more dangerous if you've taken the Pattern, than if you haven't." he says thoughtfully.
"So what did this tableau show you?" Alexius asks, curious. "What roads did you see and what did you take to wind up so visibly marked?"
"It's hard to describe." Martin rubbed the back of his neck as they made their way to the royal suite. "I'd have to show you where it took me... Once I was done, the markings made sense.
"Oh, and do me a favor, will you? I don't think dad needs to know about this. It's dangerous, and while he's all for a little wild hairing, he wouldn't jive with this."
"What should I tell him if he asks me seperately, then?" Alexius asks as the doors to Dad's suite grow nearer. "If he thinks you are being dishonest, he might guess that you've spilled the truth to me."
"If I am going to lie, it should be a prepared one, or at least a plausible one. I don't think he'll buy "I don't know" " Alexius points out and then lowers his voice as the guards start to come within auditory range.
"Uh... Let's see. I know. Tell him I spent a season somewhere where your virility was measured by how many lines you could stand to get inked on you. He won't want any more details than that." Martin frowned. "I think."
There wasn't time to respond as Martin opened the door to the royal suite, and they entered the sitting room of Alexius's parents. Wine had already been poured, a pale pink from Rebma, and a tray of sweets was out. Random started to say something, but stopped dead as he caught sight of Martin's new adornment.
"Well... that's new..." Alexius almost cringed. It was the same tone Random used when Alexius showed up to dinner with Bella of House Kern on his arm, a somewhat loudmouthed and pushy noble that Random had little love for.
Alexius bit his tongue. If he was going to have that reaction to Martin's...he would not likely be happy with his, either, or with Aunt Llewella for booning him with it. Although it occurred to him that she might tell him about it anyway, having called him before they arrived.
"Hello Father" Alexius said evenly. At least, he thought, tattoos generally did not have feelings. Bella had been rather distraught after that dinner.
Consoling her, however, had been...pleasant.
"Hello, Alexius." Vialle smiled as well, taking her son's hand and guiding him to a seat next to her.
"The two of you found Rebman court entertaining?"
Alexius smiled and kissed his mother's cheek when they had sat down.
"Yes, mother. I also spent a fair amount of time with Aunt LLewella?, as well as Martin" he volunteered. There was no way Vialle wasn't going to know that, anyway.
"I think Aunt Llewella and I have gotten to know each other a lot better today." he added, a statement that was completely and utterly true.
"Should I be scared?" Random gave his older son a look. Martin only smiled.
"Only a little bit. I was thinking of seeing if Alexius wanted to see a bit more of shadow with me. I know he's had little vacations with you guys, but I imagine it's been rather... oh... family type stuff."
Alexius smiled. His brother was good at this, deflecting matters and changing the subject. Gone was the question of LLewella?'s "bonding" with him.
"Might I, father?" Alexius chimes in. "It wouldn't have to be a long trip, but something other than state visits might be fun for a change." A trip to New Avalon was about the only such one he could remember that was fun. Except for the one to the shadow of Maeonis, when he had spent most of the time with a Grand Duke's rather comely daughter.
Random didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked to be in a lively state of alarm. "Like where?"
"No where you wouldn't go, father."
"And that's exactly what I'm worried about!"
The warmth that had spread over Alexius's back since the drink from Martin began to fade, and to his dismay, the tattoo began to itch once more, returning with a vengence.
Greffet* Alexius thinks, as the itch returns, seemingly worse than it was beforehand. He shrugs and moves his shoulders as little as he can, trying not to draw attention to the fact that he is in discomfort.
He tried to ignore the itching by speaking.
"Father, I think you've" roll of his shoulders. "instilled in me enough discretion not to get into any serious trouble. Besides, you've said its years before I'll walk the Pattern, so shouldn't I see what shadow is like" another shoulder roll "before I can get into trouble on my own, alone?"
"I think your sparring's hitting you," said Martin quickly, reaching for Alexius's glass. As he handed it over, Alexius caught the flash of silver in his sleeve, and the way his glass seemed filled with wine just a shade lighter than anyone else's. "Have some wine."
Random mulled over his own drink as the door to the suite opened again, and a trolly-bearing servant entered and began to fill a sideboard. He grumbled something under his breath, and Vialle sighed.
"We've spoken on this before, Random. Alexius needs time to be a boy..." She turned to her son, abviously ready to pitch for his side. "Alex, where would you go, if you went out to shadow?"
Alexius actually takes the glass but does not drink from it. Being too dependent on Martin's strong stuff, he decides, might be the worst of two evils. But he holds the glass, considering it along with his mother's question.
"To see natural wonders outside of Amber." he begins. He rolls his shoulders again with that itch, and reconsiders taking a sip of the drink, but decides to forge ahead. "Beautiful waterfalls, picturesque peaks, places of wonder, and local importance. Monuments to historical legends and tales. Beautiful cities, perhaps even those with high technology, if Martin can convince me. Or places to play with my sorcery."
"I wouldn't be looking for my own 'Texorami'." he smiles to his father. "That would wait until I do walk the Pattern one day."
"Besides," added Martin, "He can find his own beauties of a less geographical nature right here in Amber."
"So could you," replied Random over the lip of his wine. Martin gives him a tight grin.
"And who says I haven't in the past. Oh! Indian!" He rose from his seat, moving over to the buffet and lifting some of the silver lids. "I love Tandori chicken. Vialle, what can I get you?"
Alexius puts a hand over his face in mock indignation. "You wound me brother, to the quick. You'd think people carried around score cards, or something."
"Mom usually likes stuff on top of Dosas, although I am not overly found of them myself." Alexius offers, smiling to his mother.
She touched his hand with a small 'thanks' as Martin filled up her plate and brought it to her. Random got up to get his own plate, but Alexius heard him pause as he caught sight of Alexius's back.
"How hard was that sparring?"
"I'm more sensitive than I thought, father." Alexius says honestly, although not quite answering his question. "I wonder if its because of my mixed heritage and all, just like the fact that my skin color is much lighter than Mom's, or Martin's, but yet is not pink like everyone else's here." he said.
Greffet, he thought, his back was twitching again.
"What the hell were you sparring with? Cat-o-nine-tails?" Random reached out to tug at Alexius's collar, but Martin intervened, pushing Alexius to get out the chair.
"Oh, I tripped him and he went falling into a batch of fresh coral. Hey, food's getting cold, bro. Help yourself. I fetched your mom a plate, not you."
"Unfairly, too." Alexius chimes in, rising and heading toward the buffet. "Don't worry, father, Aunt Llewella looked at my back afterward." Alexius takes a plate and starts helping himself to some of the Tandoori chicken, a nice curry, and some vegetables before returning to sit.
Random watched him as he sat an ate, and chewed on the inside of his lip.
"So... you're just going to let your back bleed through dinner?"
Vialle looked up from her dates, then moved to put her plate down. "Perhaps I should look at it, Alexius..."
Alexius choked back a bit of chicken at his father's words. Alexius then regards his mother. Mom could be discreet, and would certainly understand, being a Rebman. Although, doubtless, later, would be talked about just what the significance of what he had done meant.
The fact that Mom couldn't tell doesn't really enter into Alexius' mind. Mother might be blind, but she is not Blind.
"All right, Mother." Alexius says. He turns so that he is facing his father, and so that only Martin and his mother have any view of his back. He then slowly and carefully lifts his shirt.
His mother's hands traced up to the wounds, peeling back the thin strip of gauze Martin had taped over the tattoo. "Martin, there's gauze in the bath--" Her words cut short as her fingers traced over the design.
"What is it?" Random frowned, beginning to rise.
"Nothing." Vialle quickly accepted a square of gauze from Martin and taped it in place. "It was just deeper than I had thought."
"Thank, you Mother." Alexius tries not to wince but his discomfort is clear. "Just a little more sensitive to it than I thought."
"It's your Rebman side... I'll assume it's Random's blood that convinced you to spar next to coral." She brought her hand down, supposedly to firm up the tape, but instead ended giving Alexius's tattoo a tiny, sharp, earth-shattering slap. He managed to keep his composure, at least...
And Martin managed not to snicker.
The dinner continued, and Vialle seemed quite engaged with speaking to her husband rather than either of the young men at the table. After a hour, and several courses, a page rushed in to claim the king, leaving Alexius alone with his brother and mother.
"I suppose you know the truth already, Mother." Alexius said, pausing to allow his father enough time to be well out of earshot. "I went to Rebma as Father commanded, and made my obesiences to the Rebman Court, and Queen Moire, as well as Aunt LLewella?." Alexius explained. "Martin was there, and Moire commanded that we dress for the occassion, and so we retired to our rooms to change into a more Rebman attire."
"Aunt LLewella? came by as we were discussing Martin's own tattoo, and..." Alexius gulps. "I didn't discourage her when talk came to her own proclivities." He knew that his mother knew those ver well. "And thus, I wound up in her quarters, and she decorated me. Marked me."
"It really is beautiful, but Dad would scream at his sister. And then me." Alexius adds unhappily. "I should have said no, knowing LLewella? has a taste for this sort of thing, but I couldn't resist."
Vialle sighed, giving her head a little shake. "I know... I know... I was not jesting when I said that was your father's blood speaking.
"Llewella's taunting him, marking you as her own. This will cause another row..."
Martin pushes the leftovers of his rice pilaf on his plate. "Vi, I'm sorry. I--"
"No, Martin... don't be sorry. Yet." Vialle tapped her fingers on her lips. "You... are going to take Alexius on your shadow trip. After that, we will allow Random to discover the tattoo and draw his own conclusions."
"Hey! Why do I have to talk the fall?" Martin straightens in his seat.
"Because dear brother." Alexis clapped Martin on the shoulder. "I think you were the deciding factor in letting her do it to me. That sort of tattoo you got on your face was almost a challenge to Aunt LLewella? to do better. After all, she wanted to 'fix' yours, remember? And with a fresh canvas and probably itching to do it...we both gave Llewella the opening."
"Those who think her as just sad and moist are foolish." Alexius declares.
"I'm glad you learned that lesson now." Vialle rose, moving around the table to stand next to her son. She laid a hand on his brow and kissed his forehead. "You leave tomorrow... And please... only surprises for your father."
"Yes, Mother." Alexius sighs. "I think I've had my fill of surprises for either of you for quite a while. This durned thing will take a while to heal anyway, it should keep me out of trouble."
And then he looks thoughtful.
"Still, even with LLewella? playing games with Dad, and the pain. It's worth it. I think some of my cousins might think me *too* straightlaced. A small rebellion to avoid a bigger one, years down the line."
He then looks at Martin. "Looks like I better go pack."
His eyes blinked open and his head pounded. Not from wine, although Alexian wished it was that--that didn't last forever.
Father's drumming, however, could last incessantly.
Alexius rolled out of bed and went to make his morning ablutions. And besides, the sound of the shower might drown out Father's drumming for a little while.
The water did mute it slightly, but he knew he was in trouble when Random switched from harmless trickster drumming to heavy metal. In fact, as he dried himself off, he figured the whole court was in trouble.
Alexius winced as he recognized the drum solo. Alexius briefly wondered if there was a spell to temporarily reduce one's hearing. Father was going to tear off the heads of everyone at Court. Ducking out of it would only enrage him further, Alexius decided, as he dressed and looked at himself in the mirror.
White shirt, dark pants, the latter with accents of dark purple. His silver chain, as always, around his neck. Soft boots, in dark purple as well.
The next step was breakfast. Hopefully there would be coffee...he was going to need it to steel himself for Court.
The breakfast nook his family often took up in the early hours of the day was filled with more than coffee. There was a plate of ham along side a helping of cheeses, and a bowl of potatoes steaming next to that. There were bagels, cut and toasted, butter in a tub along with cream cheese and jam. In other words, a feast meant to feed two Amberite males.
Vialle was already present, her breakfast markedly different than her son and husband's heavy fare. She snacked upon a plate of fruit, tea cooling at her left. When Alexius came into the room her head lifted and smile appeared. "Alexius... I see your father woke you early as well."
A young Amberite male had a high caloric intake, and Alexius was no exception. Unless he was totally sedentary, he thought, he'd still eat like a horse. So his plate soon sported a half bagel with cream cheese, a serving of ham topped by some of the sharp cheddar, and a cup of coffee.
Alexius kissed Vialle on the cheek. He was always surprised that people were astonished how easily his mother could recognize him. Living with a blind parent, especially one such as Vialle, was an interesting experience.
"He did, Mother." Alexius said, trying to hide his annoyance of the fact. "I suppose." a sigh crept in his voice. "That I needed to be up for Court anyway."
She patted his hand, her soft smile at the very least understanding. "You may get out of that duty today, Alexius. I do believe Flora will be taking up most of his time today."
Alexius tried to contain his enthusiasm. It wouldn't do to show too much eagerness at the thought of getting away from a moody father today, and away from the sometimes dry nature of Court.
"Is that why he is drumming, Mother? Is he cross with Aunt Flora?"
"Cross?" Vialle and Alexis look up as they both realize the drumming has stopped, and Random now stands in the doorway. He hadn't bothered with court clothes yet, being more comfortable in his lounging clothes and a loose belted robe. His hair was sticking at enough angles to imply he hadn't bothered with a shower yet, either. He crossed to the breakfast table, gave Vialle a peck on the cheek, then sat himself down.
"Cross... I get cross when I find out the dealer's stacking the deck at Reno. I woke up to six petitions from either my fair sister or people rallying against her, all of which are thick enough to start a fire with. I'm livid with my sister."
Alexius bit his tongue for a moment and let his father get some things on the plate before replying. He didn't want his own head bitten off, or a real row between them.
"I don't understand, Father." Alexius said. "Why are there so many petitions for and against Aunt Flora? What is she doing?"
Sometimes it WAS better to know why Father was angry. It was good practice, anyway, and showed at least a smidgen of interest in Court duties.
"She's making my life complicated, that's what she's doing." Random watched with a sour expression as he drowned his ham in syrup and butter.
Vialle sighed, taking up her tea again. "She's only trying to protect her girls, Random."
"I'm sorry, Father." Alexius said, taking a bite of the ham. Father clearly wasn't going to explain the entire thing at one gulp, he was going to have to thread this out of him if he wanted an explanation.
"Protect her girls, mother?" Alexius asked, turning to look at his mother.
"The divorce proceedings," Vialle said quietly. "Between Flora and Duke Richard Telleworth. When there are children involved, these things always become complicated."
"Serves her right," Random grumbled over his sopping ham slices. "I told her she wasn't the marrying type."
Alexius bit his bottom lip for a moment. It was advantageous, though, that he had read a lot of the family histories.
"Perhaps." Andrei ventured. "She was hoping to replicate you and Mother's success and happiness together."
"Any road...I am sorry, father."
"So is anyone that has to sit court with her," he grumbled in return, and Vialle shook her head. She touched her son's hand, giving him a hint of a smile.
"There were those that said the same of your father. It might behoove him to remember that, now and then. What are your plans for today? Will you sit in on the proceedings?"
Alexius didn't quite gulp. He would rather have a root canal than deal with this...but on the other hand, Kingship and duty were not all about trips to Maeonis, hosting celebrations and such. There was a fair amount of scut work involved.
How DAD wound up as King, then, was still a mystery.
"If it would help, father." Alexius said carefully. "I'd not shirk my duties overmuch for the sake of escaping such things. And I must need at least practice my spellcraft today anyway. Master Lorius would castigate me with his tongue if I don't."
"And Flora may speak more freely with an audience of only the two of us," pointed out Vialle.
Random grumbled. "Flora not speaking freely may be a good thing. But alright. Today, you can skip the trumpets and petitions. But I'll have Bill seperate some of the petitions for you to look over tonight."
Vialle frowned, but instead of protesting simply slipped a sliver of pineapple into her mouth.
"Yes, father." Alexius replied. "Thank you, Father." he added, making a mental calculation. At the fourth hour after noon, work on spell craft, eat dinner, and then, like it or not, work on the petitions. It beat spending the entire day in Court. He'd take it.
Breakfast continued on for several silent, chewing filled minutes as Alexius and Random demolished their plates. Finally, Random looked sated (and a slight bit cheerier). He sat back, taking the last of his coffee. "So, what are your plans, otherwise? I know you're just not going to sit up in a tower and throw around words and cantrips."
"No, father. I certainly don't intend that." Alexius replies after a moment. "Truthfully, I had not made any plans." The word and its connotations would not be lost on Random. And besides, his current love interest, the niece of the Rebman charge d'affaires wasn't even in Amber at the moment, she was with her Aunt off on a diplomatic mission in the Golden Circle somewheres.
The apple did not fall far from the tree as far as Alexius and his father's tastes in the opposite sex were concerned.
"I had thought I would be in Court with you, Father, so I did not make any alternative plans in advance." Alexius looked thoughtful now given a small window of freedom. "Some exercise is certainly in order. Perhaps a bit of a climb up Kolvir, and then wend my way down to the city. See what turns up." He smiles.
His father returned his smile, but there was something of the Random of lore there, something Alexius had learned not to trust.
"Well, since you're going to have all this free time, why not go to the court that will be open today. Our sister realm, Rebma. Llew would just love to see you."
Random was a follower of the credo: Misery Loves Company.
Vialle shook her head, setting down her tea with a sharp 'tink'. "Random, he needs time to be a boy."
"And he can do what I did... Grow up and be a boy then. It's a whole hell of a lot better to be a wild hair when you're tearing up shadow, not the castle."
Alexius blinked his eyes. It was the look he gave when, for example, Uncle Julian checkmated him in a chess game. Outmaneuvered and outplayed by the master, his father.
Well, Alexius thought, best to make as well out of this as he could. And the matriarchy of Rebma meant that there were usually more young ladies around that Court to look it through the tedium of Court.
No, he didn't mind the idea that much.
"All right, father." Alexius says. He then turns to his Mother and smiles. "It has been a while since I've seen Aunt Llewella, and Queen Moire TOO. And you've always wanted me to have ties to Rebma." Alexius pointed out, thinking again of the ambassador's daughter. Not that they had an exclusive relationship. Rebmans seemed to be of two minds about such things. Open and gregarious in their affilations with the opposite (or same) sex, but once they exchanged vows, intensely monogamous.
"I will go to Rebma, today, after breakfast." He said, finishing up his plate. "Is there any documents or papers that I should bring with me to Court?" he asked.
"Oh, I can dig up a few things to give you pretense. But..." Random looked around the table at the soft leather boots Alexius had donned. "I would change out of those, if you don't want 'em clogged with salt water. No need to make our clothier cry more than he already is."
The realm of Rebma, even on the coldest of Amber morns was gently warm, a side effect (or effect) of the spell laced about it. Its denizens took full advantage of this, their trappings reduced to little more than waves of fashionably iridescent silk and the odd cusp of metal. Alexius, in his Amber trappings, looked akin to a polar bear trudging along a nudist beach.
The castle was an approximation of Castle Amber, but its reversal wasn't the only difference. Its edges were rounded, smoothed out to a fine sheen, as though the water had taken its time building the structure to something it found desirable. The currents carried him through the front gate, then to the wide, open area that was the court of Rebma.
The Queen, ruling alone, sat above all others, hair drifting about her in an intricate dance. Her smallest movements were punctuated by it, blooming and shrinking with her nods and frowns. Steps below, speaking with a fine fingered native with skin the color of ripe olives, was Llewella. Her robes were the latest (or soon to be latest) fashion in the courts, consisting of thousands of tiny, perfect shells treaded onto nearly invisible wires of silver. All heads turned as Alexius, with his bulky clothes, entered.
(dang, lost my first post somehow)
Alexius was nervous as he entered the throne room. In a sense, this was his first presentation to the Rebman Court, since it was the first time he was meeting the Queen unescorted. Moire could be like the sea. Displeased, and this could be a very unpleasant visit. Humor her...and well Alexius hoped that her humor might not turn too creative.
He walked slowly and carefully to a spot a measured six paces from the dais. He had decided, before entering, that he would perform the Ray, and so bowed at the waist, spreading out his hands, palm up and fingers extended. When Alexius returned to a standing position, he spoke.
"Hail, Queen Moire, Lady of the Coral Throne, Mistress of the Deeps, Queen of Rebma. I bring you tidings from your sister Princess Llewella's youngest sibling, King Random of Amber. It has been far too long since an emissary of the Court of Amber has had the fortune to come to the Court of our sister Realm."
He gives a bow of his head and awaits the Queen's humour and response.
"Do you find our sister realm rather cold, your Highness?" Moire's amused question gave rise to an echoing titter of laughter about the court. Llewella looked up from her conversation with her Rebman and frowned.
"It would have been a pity, had he decided to visit his rooms before bidding us welcome. Do you not agree, sister?"
Moire only shrugged, emerald tresses flitting about her shoulders and nearly bare brests. Her eyes narrowed suddenly on something just beyond Alexius in the direction he had come in. "Well... sons of Random come two by two? I didn't think any of his blood would be able to coordinate so well..."
A laugh comes from behind Alexius, warm and familiar, deepened by the warm water around them. "Hey, if we had been coordinated, we would have at least come in at the same time, right?" Alexius felt a strong hand clasp his shoulder, and he turned to see the slightly shorter, much older man that was his brother, Martin.
Martin wasn't even remotely turned out for court, in a road worn duster and faded jeans. His hair, cropped shorter than usual, bristled up in a blond halo about his head. There were strange markings over his left cheek, lines of black interspersed with dots of red. They crinkled as he smiled. "Thought you'd be doing play by play for dad."
A tattoo? Alexius wondered as he looked at the markings on Martin. Or something odder. He knew that Llewella sometimes favored such adornments on those she favored (even if she hadn't given him one yet--he'd expect Dad would freak), but he didn't think that they were that close.
"I am here on his behalf." Alexius nodded, trying to remain dignified. One of the two of them had to remain in character. "It is good to see you, Martin." he said, putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling warmly, and then turning to face Moire and LLewella? again.
"I would have been remiss your majesty, had I changed into formal Rebman wear before bringing my felicitations to your Court. I would never engage in such rudeness." he gives a smile to LLewella? for supporting him on that point. He gives a bow of the head again to the Queen.
"And you now have my leave to change into something less encumbering." Moire frowned as Alexius turned to comply, but Martin began to wander off, hailing some noble familiar to him. "Both of you."
Martin gave her a lazy smile, turning on his heel and ammending his path to merge with Alexius's. Alexius caught sight of Llewella's frown, and a mouthed 'Behave!' directed at Martin.
"Come on," said Martin, clapping his half-brother's shoulder again. "And you can tell me everything you've been getting into."
"Yes your majesty." Alexius bows, gives a smile to his Aunt, and then turns back to Martin.
He follows Martin out of the throne room and into the halls of Rebma, still preferring to remain on the ground until he changes into something more appropriate.
"Trouble. ME?" Alexius laughs. "At least I am not as bad as Benedict's hellion." Alexius points out. "Dad has been trying to keep me on a shorter leash, I think, than he had with Grandfather Oberon." Alexius' quarters in Rebma were reasonably close to Martin's, and in turn not too far away from LLewella?'s. Or as close as to the Royal wing of the Palace as you could get, anyway.
"Still doing the sorcery thing. Master Lorius is a cranky old bird, but he does know from his magic. I suppose that learning it the right way from the ground up is the right thing to do, as deadly dull as it is."
"Dull? Magic? Pfft. You just don't have the right teacher. What you need is something besides some cranky old guy going on about pronunciation." Martin ducked into his room, but didn't shut the door, continuing as he disrobed just out of site. "Get some sweet little thing. She may know less, but you learn a hell of a lot faster."
Alexius changes as Martin speaks in turn, shedding the bulky clothes of the dryland above for a more Rebman affair. Relatively diaphanous and light, it covered him around his loins and somewhat down his thighs, with a harness as adornment on his chest.
"Well, there aren't many sweet little things in Amber that would qualify to be my tutor." Alexius said as he smiled. "None that Dad would have as my tutor anyway. Rebma, on the other hand, has a phethora of sorceresses. Good ones, too."
"You wouldn't happy to know any, Martin?" Alexius says.
"Oh, a couple... I'm sure they'd love to have you on their resumes..." Martin strolled in, not bothering with a knock. He was clad in more metals and scales than scarves, but Alexius barely saw that as he realized the tattoo on his face was hardly his latest addition.
Snaking over his upper body, lines of black swirled and made war with dots of red and orange. They trailed from his left wrist to his shoulder, then across his back and around his chest, ending a his left side. He was more muscular now, too, though still on the wiry side of Random's genetics. Martin frowned at his reflection in an air pocket mirror, and tried to get his halo of hair to lay down.
"Damn currents."
Alexius nodded at Martin's mention that he did know a couple. He'd clear them with LLewella?, just to make sure Martin was on the up and up. It wouldn't surprise him to foster someone pretty and not very skilled. Although the Illuminata here was a pretty serious guild of mages.
"What have you done this time?" Alexius asked Martin as he looked at the lines and dots. "I've not see that before, either."
"It's special." He ran a hand over the markings, fingers and eyes trailing over them like remembering something pleasant, some time ago. "You don't like them? Got them out in shadow." He turn to fully regard Alexius's now unencumbered form. "Looks like Auntie Llew hasn't gotten a hold of you yet."
katie wrote: "It's special." He ran a hand over the markings, fingers and eyes trailing over them like remembering something pleasant, some time ago. "You don't like them? Got them out in shadow." He turn to fully regard Alexius's now unencumbered form. "Looks like Auntie Llew hasn't gotten a hold of you yet."
"Just not used to them, that's all." Alexius says mildly, smiling. "You've never marched to the beat of anyone else's drummer, brother."
"As far as Aunt Llewella, no, she hasn't gotten a hold of me yet. Although with me down here visiting...any number of things might happen. I'm surprised I've been allowed this much reprieve."
"Not that I have any doubts LLewella? has had thoughts along those lines. I've been lucky so far, but I am getting to be that age where LLewella? might feel ready to grab hold of me. Today might be the day."
"We'll see what happens when she summons me to see her today. Maybe she does have an adornment in mind." Alexius says. "Until then, though, any bright ideas?"
"I was thinking a score card on your shoulder," came a lilting and slightly accented voice from behind them. "To keep track of your ladies from the realms." They both turned, and there was Llewella, shells shimmering about her form on their wires. She gave a sweet smile to Alexius, allowing him to kiss her cheek. The look she gave Martin was deadly, though, sending him a step back.
"Drummer or no, you could take a lesson from your half-brother on the behavior of heirs to the throne."
"Aunt Llewella" Alexius kisses her cheek and moves back, waiting for her to unleash her gaze on Martin.
"I truly meant no offense." Alexius tries to keep it light. "I just know your tastes, is all, in adornment." And Alexius blushes on how appropriate a scord card might be. "You look lovely today, as you always do."
Someone had to keep up appearances for Random's sons.
He'll let Martin defend himself, though. Elder brother and all that.
Martin recovered quickly, clasping Alexius on the shoulder. "How old are you again? Sixteen? Seventeen?" He looked at Llewella, a thin smile on his face. "Give him time and a taste of Pattern. He won't be so model child any more. Hell, I may lend a hand corrupting him."
"Someone wants his rooms moved to the less pleasing views of Amber and Rebma, doesn't he?" Llewella stepped forward, running a pale blue nail over his tattoed arm. "And what is this? Not as elegant as I like..."
"Seventeen, brother." Alexius says brightly and then nods. "I think Dad would disown me if I snuck onto the Pattern anyhow. All in good time, all in good time."
He then turns to his Aunt.
"He was explaining that he got them in shadow, Aunt LLewella?." Alexius fills in helpfully as he watches the byplay between his brother and his Aunt.
"And I suppose that they suit him rather well in their exoticness and strangeness." he adds and then smiles. "Although, I do think that your elegant style is much more appealing for myself." He smiles. "Especially with a...virgin canvas."
Alexius begins thinking to himself. Would father really freak if he came back adorned? And well, Dad HAD sent him here.
And he just then watches the byplay between Llewella and his brother, having cast out his gambit to his aunt.
Martin stepped back again, seeming to defer to Alexius. "See? Why bother with little old me, when you have a virgin on your hands. Why, by the time that I've healed all these away, you'll just be finished covering him up."
Llewella does seem to consider the possibility, tapping her upper lip with an extended finger.
"Well, perhaps good brother, not to cover me up completely so quickly." Alexius says with a smile, clasping him on the shoulder before turning back to his Aunt. "But one, to mark me."
"But, Aunt LLewella?" he decided to employ all of the skills Dad ingrained into him to be a courtier. "I do know that you adorn your favorites, and I would like to think that I am so well regarded by you." he smiles. "And I admit that it is not everyday that you are confronted with such an opportunity. And if anyone could convince Father that it would be a good thing, it would be you." he rolls his shoulders and smiles.
"And if I presented presented him with a charming enough illustration, I think I would sway him." She pressed a nail into his flesh, just enough to pinch, and she watched his reaction.
Alexius bites his lip a bit, it doesn't really hurt that much, but she clearly wants a reaction and he gives one with his eyes, smiling and nodding even through the mild discomfort.
"Aye, Aunt LLewella?, that is true." he said smiling.
She clucked her tongue at his reaction. "Still rather sensitive? Ah, well... We'll start with a small one. Turn."
Alexius blushed a bit. He wasn't used to this sort of thing. A thought of Tamara's nails and how they had scored him when they had made out came to mind. His skin WAS sensitive. Maybe it was because it was the odd shade of blue.
"Yes, Aunt LLewella?." Alexius pivots on his right heel, turning 180 degrees at her request. The look he gives Martin is "Well, I've asked for it, and now I am going to get it."
But he is smiling.
Martin returned the look with a smirk and a bounce on his heels, looking a little too pleased with himself. Behind Alexius, Llewella hums.
"Yes..." She traced her nails over his back, just over his spine. "I know what I'll do. Come." She turned, heading out of his room and down to her own suites.
Alexius gives Martin a look, wondering if he is going to be following them. Or, has Llewella cast him completely off the line, so to speak, and now he is in her tender clutches alone?
Quietly, Alexius trails behind his Aunt, not regretful, but considered and pensive about what he has gotten himself into. He walks with his hands behind his back, holding his left wrist with his right hand.
His eyes cast about as they enter her suite. He's not been here often, or, he thinks dryly, he might have a better idea what to expect.
Her rooms weren't what Alexius might call sparse, though they did lack in things like nick-knacks and personal adornments. The focus was almost completely on the smooth and swirling architecture and opalescent glow to the walls and fixtures.
Martin was following, and made himself a seat on Llewella's oval shaped bed. She gave him a look, and he remembered to toss off his shoes.
Llewella tapped a tortoise shell stool. "Sit." She drifted to a cabinet and pulled out an onyx box, roughly the size of a cigar box.
Alexius felt a sigh of relief that he had removed his shoes upon entering her rooms, after the look LLewella? gave his brother. His eyes scan around, looking at the relatively austere personal items. But the architecture and lighting are exotic, beautiful.
As LLewella? goes to the cabinet, Alexius perches himself on the indicated seat. His eyes serenely watch as she retrieves the box.
She did not open it in his sight, instead taking a small end table and pulling it to a place behind him. He heard her set the box down, then open it. A moment passed, and he felt something touching his skin, soft and cooling, numbing his flesh.
Anaesthetic. Alexius fumbled to remember the word as he felt the cool thing touching him, it was a strange sensation, or a lack of sensation.
A secret then, or a surprise. Alexius knew better than to ask what she was going to adorn him with, and remaining perfectly still so she could do her work was paramount. So his eyes focused on the range of vision that he could see, looking at the architecture, the lighting, the ambience of the room.
The cool lifted, and for all it numbed, Alexius soon found out that wasn't quite enough.
He almost jerked when the needle met his skin, several inches below his collar-line, directly on his spin. Llewella's hand landed on his shoulder, and she murmured for him to be still. "We wouldn't want it crooked."
"Yes Milady Aunt LLewella?." Alexius bit his lip. He didn't want it ruined. It would take a while to fade and disappear, and probably, as far as he understood from Dad and Martin, it wouldn't until he walked the Pattern.
The Pattern. He hadn't walked it yet.
He dared not ask it but the thought hit him in the brain. If she adorned, marked, decorated him before he did--did that mean it was truly permanent, and would never fade, since it was on him before he walked it?
And what did that mean? Surely LLewella? was aware of his status.
Still, thinking all of this allowed him to remain still, in his thoughts. He could only wait and see.
The pain began to fade as she continued to work, though he suspected this was more thanks to his body's reaction than anything from her little black box. She lisped a song in her Rebman dialect as she went along, ignoring Martin when he rose to check on her progress.
Time became a theoretical concept as Alexius drifted, and when Llewella backed away with a satisfied 'hm,' he had no idea how much time had passed.
"Nice," commented Martin.
"Is it done?" Alexius said, still not quite moving yet. These things were sensitive,and doubtless Alexius would not be sleeping on his back for quite a while,until it was fully healed.
"What did you favor me with, Aunt LLewella??" he then asked, smiling at his choice of words.
"Something to give homage to both your realms..." She pulled him up, then to a quicksilver mirror set into the wall. She faced his back to it, then handed him a hand mirror of her own.
Holding the smaller mirror aloft, he could see the design painted onto his back. It wasn't large, not like Martin's, but it was still too large to hope that Random might miss it the next time they took a trip to the beach. It was the size of a small woman's hand, right over his spine, done in a delicate green and bolder blue. A mountain, star atop it, shining with a half dozen rays of green. Below that, the image appeared again, inverted and wavering.
Alexius was stunned, his reflected face in turn visible through the mirrors back to Llewella and Martin, as well as around the hand mirror. But it was in a good way, as if he were stunned upon seeing a pretty Rebman, or some such.
"My lady Aunt." Alexius said softly. "I am stunned and awed by your choice, and your rendition." It wasn't quite the same as a seal that father had carved for him few years ago, substiuting a unicorn for the mountain. And the rays. And the reflection.
It was perfect.
"I am speechless, save to proffer my thanks." Alexius finally said.
Llewella gave Martin a look as she pushed a strand of hair out of Alexius's face, as if to say See? That's how it's done... "It suits you... Let us hope your father is as pleased." She reached out to Martin's arm, touching a place where the lines were crooked like flames. "Now, your turn. I think I can salvage--"
Martin's hand came up, clasping Llewella's wrist and lifting it off of the markings. "No," he said with a tight smile. "I like them as they are."
Alexius continues to admire his tattoo for a few moments, and then grins at Martin when he tries to stop LLewella? from her work.
"I suppose to each their own, Aunt Llewella." Alexius says amicably. "Though Martin's outre tattoos are each to their own part, the sight of them, admittedly, gave me pause to wonder if you might adorn me with your own art."
"And so as catalyst in your painting of my now once-marked canvas." Alexius says. "Martin should keep his as they are, in recognition of what they engendered."
"Such the politician!" Llewella shook off Martin's grasp with a little growl, then smiled at Alexius. "You're making it tempting for me to propose a coup concerning your father... I saw you with scrolls when you came in. How is he going to annoy my sister today?"
Alexius decided to switch from politics to honesty. Aunt LLewella? was kidding about the coup attempt, anyway, he thought as he smiled. No, she would get him married first to a Rebman, or betrothed. Among the myriad of dry histories that he had been forced to read, he had come across the annals of a shadow which had a rather complicated series of successions that way. It almost seemed to be an artform among that strange Empire, wings of the Royal Family using marriage as a weapon to maneuver those who would succeed the Emperor.
"Actually, I think its pretty basic stuff, and just an excuse to send me here." Alexius said. "He wanted me out of his hair today, but didn't think to leave me completely at loose ends, so he decided to send me here to visit Queen Moire. And especially you, Aunt LLewella?. I doubt there is anything in the scrolls to roil the placidity of her Majesty."
"Just like Random," sighed Llewella. "Force everyone to suffer court while it's dull, then kick all the gentry out just as it gets interesting..."
That evening, Martin and Alexius made the long way up to the castle once again, having been called for dinner as soon as Random found out his other son was in town.
Alexius had thought that a tattoo would hurt, perhaps even ache for a week or so. What he wasn't prepared for was the unbearable itching that would follow.
Alexius squirmed almost everywhere, as if he had eaten too much sugar. Sitting in chairs, laying face down on the bed, the tattoo almost seemed alive to him, as if it was trying to move across his back.
Or, worse, had a mind of its own and was trying to reveal itself to his father. He wasn't sure where that thought came from, though. When he dressed in drylander clothes, he tried to keep the shirt as loose as possible, so that it wouldn't touch the sensitive skin.
Martin seemed endlessly amused by Alexius's trails. "Boy, Llew sure had you pinned when she said you were sensitive." He pulled something off of his hip, then tossed it to Alexius. A silver flask, an etching not unlike the lines over his upper body scored into its sides. "Here, take a pull of that before you see dad. It'll make it a bit easier on you. I emptied six or seven of those the night I got this." He motioned about his chest and face.
Alexius nodded, just taking a small sip of the stuff. Unicorn knew where in shadow Martin had gotten the drink, and there was no telling quite *what* it really was.
"So you got yourself drunk after getting yourself adorned, huh?" Alexius said. "I'm guessing there is a woman somewhere in this story. And Aunt Llewella wanted to tattoo a scorecard on ME." he grinned.
Alexius rolls his shoulders again. "Pagh. It doesn't hurt so much as annoy. It's worth it though." He smiled to Martin. "A minor rebellion, and getting firmly into LLewella?'s circle and good graces is a good thing. Cross-realm relations and all that." He laughs. "There I go with the politics again."
"So tell me how and where you got yours." Alexius repeats. "It'll take my mind off seeing Dad as much as the drink." he says, handing the flask back.
The drink was sweet on his tongue, tasting more of berries than of anything alcoholic. He felt the itching begin to grow distant.
"When? About three months back. How... Well, that's sort of a funny story. I kind of woke up with it. Do you know what peyote is?"
Alexius nodded. "You forget our Father has always been experimental, and equally you forget that he tries to keep me as clean as possible for one of his sons. He'd make a enunch of me, too, if he could." Alexius grinned.
"It makes you hallucinate, doesn't it?" Alexius said. "Peyote that is, not the tattoo."
"Hallucinate? That's a mild way of putting it... And not completely accurate." Martin stretched as they entered the castle, pulling his arms back over his head. "It's more like a different vision... a sight you never knew you could have. You can see roads you never saw before, and take them, if that makes any sense.
"And dad's experimental, but I can't see him as the type to go on a vision quest. He'd do it just for the lay at the end."
"A different sight." Alexius considers this. "It almost sounds like something that would be even more dangerous if you've taken the Pattern, than if you haven't." he says thoughtfully.
"So what did this tableau show you?" Alexius asks, curious. "What roads did you see and what did you take to wind up so visibly marked?"
"It's hard to describe." Martin rubbed the back of his neck as they made their way to the royal suite. "I'd have to show you where it took me... Once I was done, the markings made sense.
"Oh, and do me a favor, will you? I don't think dad needs to know about this. It's dangerous, and while he's all for a little wild hairing, he wouldn't jive with this."
"What should I tell him if he asks me seperately, then?" Alexius asks as the doors to Dad's suite grow nearer. "If he thinks you are being dishonest, he might guess that you've spilled the truth to me."
"If I am going to lie, it should be a prepared one, or at least a plausible one. I don't think he'll buy "I don't know" " Alexius points out and then lowers his voice as the guards start to come within auditory range.
"Uh... Let's see. I know. Tell him I spent a season somewhere where your virility was measured by how many lines you could stand to get inked on you. He won't want any more details than that." Martin frowned. "I think."
There wasn't time to respond as Martin opened the door to the royal suite, and they entered the sitting room of Alexius's parents. Wine had already been poured, a pale pink from Rebma, and a tray of sweets was out. Random started to say something, but stopped dead as he caught sight of Martin's new adornment.
"Well... that's new..." Alexius almost cringed. It was the same tone Random used when Alexius showed up to dinner with Bella of House Kern on his arm, a somewhat loudmouthed and pushy noble that Random had little love for.
Alexius bit his tongue. If he was going to have that reaction to Martin's...he would not likely be happy with his, either, or with Aunt Llewella for booning him with it. Although it occurred to him that she might tell him about it anyway, having called him before they arrived.
"Hello Father" Alexius said evenly. At least, he thought, tattoos generally did not have feelings. Bella had been rather distraught after that dinner.
Consoling her, however, had been...pleasant.
"Hello, Alexius." Vialle smiled as well, taking her son's hand and guiding him to a seat next to her.
"The two of you found Rebman court entertaining?"
Alexius smiled and kissed his mother's cheek when they had sat down.
"Yes, mother. I also spent a fair amount of time with Aunt LLewella?, as well as Martin" he volunteered. There was no way Vialle wasn't going to know that, anyway.
"I think Aunt Llewella and I have gotten to know each other a lot better today." he added, a statement that was completely and utterly true.
"Should I be scared?" Random gave his older son a look. Martin only smiled.
"Only a little bit. I was thinking of seeing if Alexius wanted to see a bit more of shadow with me. I know he's had little vacations with you guys, but I imagine it's been rather... oh... family type stuff."
Alexius smiled. His brother was good at this, deflecting matters and changing the subject. Gone was the question of LLewella?'s "bonding" with him.
"Might I, father?" Alexius chimes in. "It wouldn't have to be a long trip, but something other than state visits might be fun for a change." A trip to New Avalon was about the only such one he could remember that was fun. Except for the one to the shadow of Maeonis, when he had spent most of the time with a Grand Duke's rather comely daughter.
Random didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked to be in a lively state of alarm. "Like where?"
"No where you wouldn't go, father."
"And that's exactly what I'm worried about!"
The warmth that had spread over Alexius's back since the drink from Martin began to fade, and to his dismay, the tattoo began to itch once more, returning with a vengence.
Greffet* Alexius thinks, as the itch returns, seemingly worse than it was beforehand. He shrugs and moves his shoulders as little as he can, trying not to draw attention to the fact that he is in discomfort.
He tried to ignore the itching by speaking.
"Father, I think you've" roll of his shoulders. "instilled in me enough discretion not to get into any serious trouble. Besides, you've said its years before I'll walk the Pattern, so shouldn't I see what shadow is like" another shoulder roll "before I can get into trouble on my own, alone?"
"I think your sparring's hitting you," said Martin quickly, reaching for Alexius's glass. As he handed it over, Alexius caught the flash of silver in his sleeve, and the way his glass seemed filled with wine just a shade lighter than anyone else's. "Have some wine."
Random mulled over his own drink as the door to the suite opened again, and a trolly-bearing servant entered and began to fill a sideboard. He grumbled something under his breath, and Vialle sighed.
"We've spoken on this before, Random. Alexius needs time to be a boy..." She turned to her son, abviously ready to pitch for his side. "Alex, where would you go, if you went out to shadow?"
Alexius actually takes the glass but does not drink from it. Being too dependent on Martin's strong stuff, he decides, might be the worst of two evils. But he holds the glass, considering it along with his mother's question.
"To see natural wonders outside of Amber." he begins. He rolls his shoulders again with that itch, and reconsiders taking a sip of the drink, but decides to forge ahead. "Beautiful waterfalls, picturesque peaks, places of wonder, and local importance. Monuments to historical legends and tales. Beautiful cities, perhaps even those with high technology, if Martin can convince me. Or places to play with my sorcery."
"I wouldn't be looking for my own 'Texorami'." he smiles to his father. "That would wait until I do walk the Pattern one day."
"Besides," added Martin, "He can find his own beauties of a less geographical nature right here in Amber."
"So could you," replied Random over the lip of his wine. Martin gives him a tight grin.
"And who says I haven't in the past. Oh! Indian!" He rose from his seat, moving over to the buffet and lifting some of the silver lids. "I love Tandori chicken. Vialle, what can I get you?"
Alexius puts a hand over his face in mock indignation. "You wound me brother, to the quick. You'd think people carried around score cards, or something."
"Mom usually likes stuff on top of Dosas, although I am not overly found of them myself." Alexius offers, smiling to his mother.
She touched his hand with a small 'thanks' as Martin filled up her plate and brought it to her. Random got up to get his own plate, but Alexius heard him pause as he caught sight of Alexius's back.
"How hard was that sparring?"
"I'm more sensitive than I thought, father." Alexius says honestly, although not quite answering his question. "I wonder if its because of my mixed heritage and all, just like the fact that my skin color is much lighter than Mom's, or Martin's, but yet is not pink like everyone else's here." he said.
Greffet, he thought, his back was twitching again.
"What the hell were you sparring with? Cat-o-nine-tails?" Random reached out to tug at Alexius's collar, but Martin intervened, pushing Alexius to get out the chair.
"Oh, I tripped him and he went falling into a batch of fresh coral. Hey, food's getting cold, bro. Help yourself. I fetched your mom a plate, not you."
"Unfairly, too." Alexius chimes in, rising and heading toward the buffet. "Don't worry, father, Aunt Llewella looked at my back afterward." Alexius takes a plate and starts helping himself to some of the Tandoori chicken, a nice curry, and some vegetables before returning to sit.
Random watched him as he sat an ate, and chewed on the inside of his lip.
"So... you're just going to let your back bleed through dinner?"
Vialle looked up from her dates, then moved to put her plate down. "Perhaps I should look at it, Alexius..."
Alexius choked back a bit of chicken at his father's words. Alexius then regards his mother. Mom could be discreet, and would certainly understand, being a Rebman. Although, doubtless, later, would be talked about just what the significance of what he had done meant.
The fact that Mom couldn't tell doesn't really enter into Alexius' mind. Mother might be blind, but she is not Blind.
"All right, Mother." Alexius says. He turns so that he is facing his father, and so that only Martin and his mother have any view of his back. He then slowly and carefully lifts his shirt.
His mother's hands traced up to the wounds, peeling back the thin strip of gauze Martin had taped over the tattoo. "Martin, there's gauze in the bath--" Her words cut short as her fingers traced over the design.
"What is it?" Random frowned, beginning to rise.
"Nothing." Vialle quickly accepted a square of gauze from Martin and taped it in place. "It was just deeper than I had thought."
"Thank, you Mother." Alexius tries not to wince but his discomfort is clear. "Just a little more sensitive to it than I thought."
"It's your Rebman side... I'll assume it's Random's blood that convinced you to spar next to coral." She brought her hand down, supposedly to firm up the tape, but instead ended giving Alexius's tattoo a tiny, sharp, earth-shattering slap. He managed to keep his composure, at least...
And Martin managed not to snicker.
The dinner continued, and Vialle seemed quite engaged with speaking to her husband rather than either of the young men at the table. After a hour, and several courses, a page rushed in to claim the king, leaving Alexius alone with his brother and mother.
"I suppose you know the truth already, Mother." Alexius said, pausing to allow his father enough time to be well out of earshot. "I went to Rebma as Father commanded, and made my obesiences to the Rebman Court, and Queen Moire, as well as Aunt LLewella?." Alexius explained. "Martin was there, and Moire commanded that we dress for the occassion, and so we retired to our rooms to change into a more Rebman attire."
"Aunt LLewella? came by as we were discussing Martin's own tattoo, and..." Alexius gulps. "I didn't discourage her when talk came to her own proclivities." He knew that his mother knew those ver well. "And thus, I wound up in her quarters, and she decorated me. Marked me."
"It really is beautiful, but Dad would scream at his sister. And then me." Alexius adds unhappily. "I should have said no, knowing LLewella? has a taste for this sort of thing, but I couldn't resist."
Vialle sighed, giving her head a little shake. "I know... I know... I was not jesting when I said that was your father's blood speaking.
"Llewella's taunting him, marking you as her own. This will cause another row..."
Martin pushes the leftovers of his rice pilaf on his plate. "Vi, I'm sorry. I--"
"No, Martin... don't be sorry. Yet." Vialle tapped her fingers on her lips. "You... are going to take Alexius on your shadow trip. After that, we will allow Random to discover the tattoo and draw his own conclusions."
"Hey! Why do I have to talk the fall?" Martin straightens in his seat.
"Because dear brother." Alexis clapped Martin on the shoulder. "I think you were the deciding factor in letting her do it to me. That sort of tattoo you got on your face was almost a challenge to Aunt LLewella? to do better. After all, she wanted to 'fix' yours, remember? And with a fresh canvas and probably itching to do it...we both gave Llewella the opening."
"Those who think her as just sad and moist are foolish." Alexius declares.
"I'm glad you learned that lesson now." Vialle rose, moving around the table to stand next to her son. She laid a hand on his brow and kissed his forehead. "You leave tomorrow... And please... only surprises for your father."
"Yes, Mother." Alexius sighs. "I think I've had my fill of surprises for either of you for quite a while. This durned thing will take a while to heal anyway, it should keep me out of trouble."
And then he looks thoughtful.
"Still, even with LLewella? playing games with Dad, and the pain. It's worth it. I think some of my cousins might think me *too* straightlaced. A small rebellion to avoid a bigger one, years down the line."
He then looks at Martin. "Looks like I better go pack."
posted by Timmy @ 9:46 PM
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