Announcement

[royal_obligation]

Edarial makes a list of necessities for a wife. He has Zevros check it over, who promptly rips it up and throws it at him. He is of the opinion that if Edarial doesn't actually want to marry a specific person, he shouldn't, and Zevros will have nothing to do with any of it. Edarial sighs, rewrites it, and keeps it and a copy of it away from his twin in the future.

He makes the announcement to various interested people that he will be looking for a bride. Just saying it makes him feel sick. Edarial manages to keep it together long enough to give a list of the qualities he's looking for before he flees. He says he's busy, no one will look twice at him being curt and disappearing to get work done. So no one comes after him when he hides in his room and locks the door.

Face buried in his pillow, he realizes that there's no way he can be personable to his - whatever they are. Potential brides, suitors - whatever, he doesn't care. He'll hire someone to vet them, so he doesn't have to torture himself dealing with women trying to persuade him to marry them.

Comments

[aestrix]

He is not a spellbinder, so he doesn't know that. He shakes her, a little. "Oi! Answer the question!"

[come_midnight]

Her head clonks on the floor again. "Augh!"

[alicornucopia]

Cricket is beyond Marlese at this point. "[I will bite your throat out I will strew your intestines around the whole city you let my Iobel up you let me out you do it right now and maybe she'll heal you after I've had at you fucking poisoner kidnapper bastards!]"

[aestrix]

"I asked you a -" begins the guard again, but he's interrupted.

"Nonlethal," growls the female guard.

"She ain't dead!"

"Stop it, all the same."

He sighs, then stops shaking Iobel, releasing her hair.

[come_midnight]

Iobel's head gradually stops spinning -

There is a man on top of her and Cricket's shouting -

She starts charging again.

[aestrix]

"Son of a-" growls the man. He shakes Iobel again. "Stop that, we fucking won!"

[come_midnight]

She loses the charge. "Nnnng -"

[alicornucopia]

"[THE CANALS WILL RUN RED WITH YOUR BLOOD BEFORE I'M DONE WITH YOU,]" roars Cricket.

[aestrix]

The guard stops shaking her. "None of that, got it?"

[come_midnight]

"I - I -"

[alicornucopia]

"[DEATH WILL BE A MERCY TO ANYONE WHO LAID A HAND ON MY BINDER!]" caterwauls Cricket. "[HER PERSON IS SACROSANCT! YOU ARE ALL DEAD ASSHOLES WALKING!]"

[aestrix]

The female guard says in a soothing voice to Iobel, ignoring the cat, "It's all right. Everything will be fine, okay? We would just like you to stop hurting people."

[come_midnight]

"wan' my cat," Iobel whimpers.

[aestrix]

"You'll get him back, he's hurt us more than we've hurt him. He's fine," soothes the woman. "He will continue to be fine, we're not monsters."

[come_midnight]

"wan' my cat," insists Iobel.

[alicornucopia]

"I will out!" howls Cricket in ungrammatical Marlese.

[aestrix]

"Fucking demon spawn is a fucking menace to the world..." mutters the male guard. His companion shushes him.

"You will get both. If you cooperated this would be easier, but you haven't, so it isn't," says the woman.

There's the sound of footsteps, down the hallway. Their companions are coming.

[come_midnight]

Iobel hisses and starts charging again.

[aestrix]

Slam. Head, floor, you have got to stop meeting like this.

[come_midnight]

"nnnnnmmmf"

[alicornucopia]

"I KILL YOUUUUU," snarls Cricket.

[aestrix]

"... Apparently we're not needed?" asks an unfamiliar voice.

"Apparently not," says the alpha-bitch guardswoman. "Look, Iobel - stop charging, we're not going to hurt you, it'll be okay."

[come_midnight]

"heal," she whimpers, "head."

She has long abandoned hope of getting anywhere with retrieving Cricket on this night.

[aestrix]

"... Fine," says the woman. "Go ahead. Orman, let her. But if you do something offensive, there will be a problem."

The man currently holding the main threat of 'head, meet ground' growls a little, but nods.

[come_midnight]

The charge for the healing spell takes a while. Her breath is coming in short awkward pants, but she manages to hold onto it until its release point at four minutes, three seconds.

Her head clears.

She scrunches her eyes shut and emits a whimper that is purely about misery and not pain.