Chapter Text
Prince Soren of Daein stood in front of his mirror with a brush in one hand. He worked it through his long black hair, pulling out any tangles effortlessly. Once he had finished his work, Soren reached for a trio of hair ties before moving to pull his hair out of his face. Soren locked eyes with his reflection for a long moment before letting out a thin sigh.
A knock came at the door before Soren had the chance to think through everything he needed to do that day. He looked away from the mirror and over to the door, already knowing who would be waiting for him on the other side. “Enter.”
Ike walked inside as he adjusted the way his cape sat on his shoulders. Most people would have been tense and anxious at the idea of entering the room of a prince, but Ike didn’t mind it at all. “Good morning, Soren,” Ike greeted. As per usual, he didn’t bother with titles when he was around Soren. Very few would ever dream of dropping formality around such the prince of a nation, but Ike was not like most others, and Soren made sure to remind him of it often.
“Morning to you too,” Soren returned. He reached out one hand and adjusted Ike’s cape, finally ensuring it sat evenly across his shoulders. Ike cast him a ghost of a smile of gratitude, the gesture small but still heartwarming to Soren regardless of circumstance. “You’re here early.”
“Father wanted me to come here and see you as soon as I finished with my training exercises for the day,” Ike explained. “What do you have to do today?”
“Not much,” Soren answered. “I finished my lessons for the week, and I doubt my tutors will have much of a reason to give me new work until tomorrow. The day is ours.”
Ike’s smile grew wider. “What do you want to do then?”
“Right now, eat,” Soren replied. He breezed toward the door, and Ike trailed after him by a few steps. “Do you know why your father wanted you to come and see me as soon as you finished your morning drills?”
“No,” Ike said with a shake of his head, and the headband tied through his blue hair ruffled from the motion. “He’s been busy much of the day. I think he has been in meetings with your mother.”
“I see,” Soren hummed. That gave them something to do for the day: speak with his mother about what was going on. “We’ll have to see if they can make time for us then. For now, let’s go. Mist will start to worry if we take too long to get to breakfast.”
Ike laughed his agreement as he fell into pace alongside Soren, and the two began to trace the familiar route leading to the dining hall of the villa. The two had lived there for their entire lives, and they could navigate it with their eyes closed. Even so, they always kept their eyes open just in case they were able to catch another glimpse of each other on the way to their destination. They were never bold enough to call it what it was, at least not verbally, but they didn’t need to. Some things simply went beyond the need for words, and they were hardly going to squander the silence in the name of something unnecessary.
The royal villa was tucked away in a snowy corner of the kingdom of Daein, and it had been Soren’s home for as long as he could remember. He may have been a prince, but the rest of the world did not know that. In fact, most of the land of Tellius had no idea the king had an heir at all. As far as Soren was concerned, that was the best way for him to live. He hardly had a desire to leave and make a life elsewhere. The villa was familiar, comforting, and safe.
More importantly, the villa was where Soren could find all of the people he cared about. His mother, Almedha, was the head of the household, and the two lived there far from the expectations and eyes of the rest of the world. Ike’s father, Gawain, was the head of the guard at the villa, and he had been tasked with protecting the queen and prince back when Soren was just a child. Ike had been training to take over the work as Soren’s personal guard one day, and his father prepared him for the work each day. There were few others their age in the villa, so Ike and Soren had quickly taken to one another and had been best friends for years. As far as children were concerned, it had always only been Soren, Ike, and Mist, Ike’s younger sister. Mist was not the fighter her father and brother were, instead learning healing magic from a few of the priests at the villa. Because of her focus on healing, Mist knew what it took to keep people healthy, and she always got on Ike and Soren when they were late to a meal. Soren was the culprit far more often, but both of them were happy to go to the dining hall as soon as possible to evade her wrath.
None of the three had ever left the villa, and as far as Soren was concerned, that was just the way he wanted life to be. What reason did he have to leave the villa when he was happy there? There was a world beyond the limits of the villa, but the world was cynical and dangerous. Soren was best off remaining exactly where he was, and he took solace in the routine that came with each day following the previous in a cyclical, predictable fashion. Soren wouldn’t have traded his life at the villa for anything, and he considered each day he was able to wake up to the people he loved most a good one.
Mist was already waiting for Soren and Ike in the dining hall. Discontent was written on her face, and Soren could tell she was debating finding and dragging Soren and Ike there for their meal. All of that unease vanished the instant she noticed her brother and friend. “There you are,” Mist chastised. “I was getting worried you were going to be too late to eat breakfast.”
“Soren slept a bit later than usual,” Ike remarked, nudging at Soren with his elbow. “I thought he would have come here already since my training drills ran long this morning. We started later than usual.”
“I was up late reading last night,” Soren explained, though he knew he may as well have not bothered. The excuse was the same one it always was. If Soren was awake late into the night, it was always because he had found a new book to read. He always lost track of time when he began to study magical theory. Every once in a while, Ike found Soren before he could fall asleep at all, and he had to stay with the prince to make sure he finally got some rest. Soren felt he slept best when he knew Ike was there with him, but he couldn’t put a finger on why.
“Of course you were,” Mist sighed with a shake of her head. She nudged Soren’s plate closer to him as he sat down. Ike dug into his own meal while Soren sifted carefully through the fruit with his fork. Mist watched the pair for a long moment before she leaned over the table conspiratorially. “Have either one of you seen Father or Lady Almedha today? I saw them talking earlier, and it seemed like whatever they were discussing was really serious.”
“I saw Father during my drills this morning,” Ike answered. “But they started later than usual. He said he was busy doing something else beforehand, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was. He seemed distracted all throughout training too. I could tell there was something else on his mind, but he wouldn’t talk about it.”
Mist’s eyes widened. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Father being late to your training… I wonder if it has something to do with what he was talking to Lady Almedha about. I saw them a while ago, but when I got close, they stopped talking. It was really strange.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Soren said as he delivered another bite of food into his mouth. “If we want the truth, then we have to go to them ourselves and see if they’ll tell us. Surely we can get my mother to talk to us if all three of us try to press her.”
“It sounds like a plan,” Mist agreed. When Soren pushed himself to his feet like he was going to do it now, she reached across the table to grab his wrist and pull him back down into his seat. “After you finish your food.”
Soren sighed and shook his head. “Whatever you say.”
~~~~~
On most days, it was very easy to find Queen Almedha of Daein.
Almedha was hardly a fan of routine, but there were a few places she tended to frequent, and Soren had learned how to check those spots for her whenever he needed to speak with her about something. Today was no exception. He started by going to the villa’s library, expecting to find her reading a book, but no one there had seen her all day. After that, he explored the grounds, but once again, he came up short. Apparently, it was easy to find Almedah on all days except today, the time when Soren was hoping to find her most of all.
After a normal lap through the villa bore no results, Ike, Soren, and Mist decided to try and find Gawain instead. As the captain of the villa’s guard, he was a bit harder to track down, but they knew of a handful of spots where he couldn’t be thanks to their search for Almedha. Gawain had to be around there somewhere, and regardless of if they found him or Almedha first, they would be able to get the answers they sought.
Deep down, Ike was hoping they would find Almedha first. Both Almedha and Gawain were known for their stubbornness, but Gawain was even more so than Almedha. There were a few things Gawain refused to discuss, and when he drew a line in the sand, everyone knew better than to try and push him into talking about it. If Gawain and Almedha had refused to speak of whatever was bothering them when Mist drew near, then it must have been serious.
Though Soren didn’t know where to start when it came to guessing what it could have all been about. Life in the villa was generally predictable. Soren had never suffered from an assassination attempt since the people of Daein–and Tellius as a whole–knew nothing of his existence. The few thieves that tried to stray into the villa to steal from the royal family were always caught in record time. The peace in the villa was complete and had been that way for many years. Soren saw no reason to believe it was going to shatter now, though he supposed he wouldn’t know for sure until he was able to speak with Gawain or Almedha.
In the end, the reason he couldn’t find either one of them alone was because they were together. The villa hardly had a use for it, but it still had a war room in case there was a need to plan for an attack. Almedha and Gawain were inside, both looking down at a map of Tellius with something dark in their eyes. They had seemingly expected to be listened to, and they were talking as quietly as they could without running the risk of the other not hearing them. Soren could see their lips moving from the doorway of the room, but he couldn’t quite pick out what they were trying to say.
“Father?” Ike asked, and the conversation went silent. Gawain and Almedha both looked up at the trio of teens waiting in the doorway of the room, and something like relief and fear washed through their gazes. Almedha pressed her lips together sternly, and Gawain let out a slow, unreadable breath. “Is something the matter?”
“Ike,” Gawain greeted, though his tone was hardly as welcoming as it normally was. On most days, Gawain wore a smile that betrayed a gentleness no one expected from a man of his stature. Gawain was intimidating to all those who did not know him, practically made of muscle and built to fight with a sword and well at that. Still, as long as the bulk of his work was peaceful, Gawain had no issues with letting his guard down as much as he could… But today, he was stiff in a way Soren could not quite put a finger on. All he knew was that he didn’t like it. “What do you need? Did something happen?”
“Nothing happened,” Ike answered, and tension visibly evaporated from Gawain’s shoulders. “We were just wondering if something was wrong. It’s not like you and Lady Almedha to come in here.”
Gawain and Almedha exchanged a single glance that spoke far more than any words could ever hope to. Soren felt his blood run cold, and he watched the queen and her guard silently debate over which of them should be tasked with the difficult duty of explaining what they had been trying so hard to ignore all day. In the end, Almedha was the first one to surrender, and she let out a heavy sigh. “We have heard rumors from Nevassa,” Almedha began. “We have reason to believe the king is planning something.”
The king. Almedha had never called her husband what he was, and she didn’t use his name either. ‘The king’ felt like the best way she could refer to him without having to cross a line into an intimacy she did not believe in and had not for years. ‘The king’ put as much distance between them as possible, and that was all she had ever wanted for reasons she had never fully defined to her son or anyone else. Almedha was not a hateful woman, and yet, she hated King Ashnard of Daein deeply.
Soren knew little of his father. He knew who he was, but that was about all he could say on the matter. Soren and Ashnard had not seen one another in years. Ashnard spent his days in the castle, and on rare occasions where he visited the villa, Almedha did all she could to ensure his time there was brief. Ashnard was a wild man with a cruel smile, and something about him had always sat uncomfortably in Soren’s chest. In fact, on most days, he was content to forget he father at all and focused instead on the parent who made an effort to be a part of his life. If Almedha was mentioning Ashnard, especially to Soren, then it must have been the mark of something serious and dangerous.
“Planning something?” Mist echoed, stepping into the room and pulling the door shut behind her. “But what could he be doing?”
“From the sounds of it, starting a war,” Gawain replied grimly, and all of the air in Soren’s lungs was sucked out in an instant. Ashnard was planning to start a war? Surely even a monster like him knew there were some lines not meant to be crossed. Surely even the Mad King of Daein had enough sense to not do the unthinkable to his people and neighbors… Then again, if he had sense Almedha likely wouldn’t have left him behind to begin with.
Silence fell heavy and thick between them all for a long moment. “Why in the world would he do that?” Ike asked when he finally felt confident enough to break through the quiet. “Why would he want to start a war? Just for the hell of it?”
“Ashnard is just…” Gawain seemed like he wanted to explain it, or at least try to guess as to why Ashnard was planning this, but he stopped when he realized there was nothing that would truly make this easy to stomach. He sighed and shook his head. “We’re just going to have to be careful going forward. All of this could just be a rumor, and we could be worrying ourselves for nothing. It’d be best to be safe rather than sorry.”
“Keep looking after Soren, will you, Ike?” Almedha asked, her tone fighting to imply a smile even though she couldn’t quite muster it visually. “If something happens, I want you to be there to keep him safe.”
“Nothing will happen,” Soren cut in, fighting to persuade himself far more than anyone else in the conversation. “It’s all going to be fine.”
“But just in case, I’ll be there,” Ike assured Almedha, and the queen finally smiled at him even though it came off as strained and blatantly forged. “I hope this all means nothing, but just in case it does lead to something… I’ll be ready.”
“We’re doing what we can to tighten security here just in case the king tries anything,” Gawain went on. “We’ll do everything in our power to keep this from being a problem, but…”
“We’ll be careful,” Mist promised, though Ike could see the shakiness behind her smile. “We’ll make sure everything is fine. I promise.”
“Good,” Gawain nodded. “We need to finish looking over security plans for the next few days. Go out and have some fun. There’s no point in being cooped up feeling paranoid when we don’t know if this is going to actually happen or not. Go.” He waved a dismissive hand at the three teens, and they all nodded before retreating from the war room.
Soren’s fingers lingered on the doorknob even after he pulled the door shut, and he let out a heavy sigh that made his entire body shake. Even though Gawain and Almedha were trying to assure him everything was going to be fine, he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. His father was planning on waging a war. The rumors wouldn’t have spread this far if there wasn’t some nugget of truth in them… But why would he do something like that? Why would Ashnard put everyone and everything on the line in the name of bloodshed?
“Let’s go back to your room,” Ike suggested, and Soren finally remembered to look up at him. “You look like you need to sit down, and I don’t want to make you walk away when you look so nauseous.”
Soren nodded, only barely registering that he was still a resident of his body. He followed Ike through the familiar path that would take him back to his room, clenching and releasing his fingers from fists the whole way there. Surely all of this was wrong somehow. Surely the rumors were false and Ashnard was up to something else. Soren didn’t know what else would have sparked rumors like this, but he didn’t want to think about it either. He wanted all of this to be a lie, and he wanted it desperately.
Soren practically collapsed onto his bed when he arrived back in his room, and Mist and Ike sat down on either side of him. Ike took Soren’s hand in his own and squeezed it gently before saying, “I’m sorry to ask this, but… What is your father like, Soren?” Ike asked. “You never really talk about him.”
“Because there’s nothing good to say,” Soren answered seamlessly. “He’s power-crazed and focuses too much on his ambition. He’s charismatic and knows how to get people to follow him… But you can never trust him with anything. If you give him even a step of ground, then he’ll take all you have, and he’ll laugh as he does it.”
“He can’t really mean to wage a war though, right?” Mist questioned desperately. “I mean, that’s really bad. I don’t know who he would want to attack, but a war like that… It would destabilize everything across Tellius, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” Soren confessed. “He’s certainly driven enough to want to try it even if it’s going to end poorly. It seems like nothing can really stop him when he puts his mind to something, and… I really hope all of this is wrong. I don’t know how a rumor like that would spread if it was false, but I don’t want it to be true.”
“We’ll handle it no matter what,” Ike assured him. “Right now, we should try to take things one step at a time. There’s no point in getting overwhelmed when we know there’s so much we can’t do yet. Father and Lady Almedha said they would handle this the best they could, and we need to trust them.”
“You’re right,” Soren said, hoping that by saying it out loud, he would be able to make himself believe it. He ultimately came up short in establishing his faith though, and he shook his head. “The rumors must be exaggerated. My father wouldn’t really try to wage war against another nation.” Except he definitely would. Soren was hardly close with Ashnard, but he knew about him from their limited contact to know exactly what he was like and what he would try to do. If Ashnard thought there was some benefit to be found in invading another country, then he would do it. Nothing could stop Ashnard once he truly decided he was going to do something, and Soren hated it more than anything else.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Mist agreed. “We should do our best to enjoy the rest of the day. If we got worked up over every little rumor that made its way into the villa, then we’d never be able to truly enjoy ourselves. How about we go to the library and read for a while? Maybe you two could train and spar together.”
Soren found himself nodding despite the dread in his chest, and he pushed himself to his feet. “You’re right,” he murmured. He just needed a distraction, and this would be the perfect time for him to find it. “There’s no war right now, so we shouldn’t expect it and be afraid of it just yet. Let’s go to the library. We can talk about this more later.”
Ike squeezed Soren’s hand a little bit tighter. “That’s the spirit.”
If only Soren could actually believe the words he was speaking. If only his spirit was built of something honest instead of a foundation of fear and falsehoods.
~~~~~
Throughout the rest of the day, Ike did his best to distract himself, Soren, and Mist from the horrible news Gawain and Almedha had given them. He and Soren did training exercises for as long as they could stand it, and Ike finished off their session by saying that he felt notably stronger than he had before. Soren hadn’t seemed to agree though, and the prince hummed under his breath as he packed up his tomes and prepared to return to the dining hall for dinner.
The meal passed largely uneventfully, though Ike could hear a few whispers throughout dinner of servants and guards wondering if the rumors about Ashnard waging war were true. Ike had been hoping that eating would serve as a fine distraction to keep him and Soren from thinking about everything they were worried about, but he realized quickly just how wrong he had been. It was impossible to avoid everything Ashnard was planning. The truth haunted every corner of the villa, and no one would know true peace until the rumors were proven either true or undeniably false.
Ike followed Soren to his room after dinner ended. He didn’t need to ask when Soren needed support; over their years together, Ike had come to just know when Soren needed him. Their bond went far beyond simply a prince and his bodyguard. Ike and Soren cared for each other in a way that could not be described in words, and so, they never bothered to try. As long as they knew what their relationship meant to them, nothing else mattered. They may as well have been the only people in the world when they sat together and laced their fingers beneath tables. No one else could understand, and they weren’t going to try and persuade them either.
Soren continued to pace the perimeter of the room even after Ike settled down on the prince’s bed. Ike sighed, already knowing what the answer to his question would be before he could ask it but unable to think of any other way to start the conversation. “Are you worried about what your mother told us today?” Ike asked.
“Of course I am,” Soren replied, his voice stiff but not angry. “My father would start a war if he was given a reason… But I can’t figure out what the reason could be for the life of me. He wouldn’t do something rash like this without a motive, but…”
“He’s a dangerous man,” Ike finished for him, and Soren nodded as he finally sat down on the bed beside Ike. “I’ll do everything I can to protect you, Soren. I know that may not count for much against him, but…”
“I appreciate it,” Soren assured him with a shake of his head. He reached out and took Ike’s hand in his own, and Ike squeezed at Soren’s fingers with a smile. A few years ago, Soren had told Ike that he was glad he was unknown to the world at large. If he had been raised in the public eye, then he never would have been able to have a relationship like this. He never would have been given the chance to bond so deeply with someone who wasn’t a royal or a noble. As far as Soren was concerned, being raised away from his father and away from his birthright was worth it if it gave him the chance to know Ike. At the time, Ike hadn’t known how to respond to that, and he still didn’t entirely know, but he understood what Soren meant deep in his chest. Once again, it went beyond the need for words, and Ike couldn’t have defined it even if he wanted to.
Soren shook his head after the silence stretched on for a bit too long for him to be comfortable with. “I’m sure all of the rumors are exaggerated,” he murmured. “If my father is going to start a war, then he would have a reason for it, and we haven’t heard of any motive he could have yet. Surely everything we’ve heard is exaggerated and wrong. My father is a calculated man, and he wouldn’t do something like this out of the blue.”
“I hope you’re right,” Ike murmured. He squeezed at Soren’s hand when the mage deflated ever so slightly. “You know him better than most other people. He’s your father. If you say that he wouldn’t do something like this without a reason, then I trust you. You’re right when you say all wars have reasons behind them, and not even the Mad King would start a war without having a basis for it first.”
Soren nodded dully, clearly biting back a comment about how he didn’t know his father as well as Ike made it sound. In fact, Soren barely remembered his father at all, and the few and far between visits they had were cordial and nothing else. Soren only knew about Ashnard through what Almedha was willing to tell him, and nothing she said painted a pretty picture. There would have to be a reason for Ashnard to start a war, and there had been a reason for Almedha taking Soren away from the castle too. Soren didn’t know what it was, but he trusted his mother’s judgement, and he wasn’t about to start questioning it now.
Ike studied Soren’s face for a long moment before his expression softened. “If you want me to stay with you tonight, then I can,” he offered. Neither one of them would ever dare to speak of it to others, but they both knew they slept better when they were in the same room. Something about Soren always soothed Ike’s nerves, and the reverse was true as well. It was another piece of their relationship that would never be allowed if Soren had been raised as the heir to a country rather than a forgotten prince in a faraway villa, making it another reason Ike was grateful for their circumstances being what they were. He didn’t think anything could have torn Soren away from him now that they had come to know each other this well.
Soren nodded eagerly as he laid back onto the bed. “I’d like that. Thank you, Ike.” Ike followed his lead in laying down, and Soren rolled onto his side so he could look into his bodyguard’s eyes. “Everything is going to be fine,” Soren whispered. “As long as we’re here together, we’re going to be fine.”
Ike felt a smile spread across his lips even as he recognized just how treacherous such a thing could be. “You’re right,” he agreed. “I’ll be here to look after you no matter what happens, Soren. You don’t need to worry about your father or any wars he might start. I’ll make sure everything is alright.”
Soren allowed himself one last smile before his eyes slid shut. “Thank you, Ike,” Soren murmured. “What would I ever do without you?”
Ike smiled at Soren in return before closing his eyes too. He didn’t know what Soren would have done without him, but he didn’t want to know. What point was there as long as they were together? Nothing was going to change that.
Nothing.