Kindle didn’t blink at Julian’s questions; he didn’t bother to bat a single eyelash.
“Why now.” He repeated the question back to Julian in a flat tone as if to expect the mage to understand the stupidity of his question based on that alone. Of course he wouldn’t, Kindle was well aware. Questions, even stupid ones, were part of nature for the lesser beings that walked the earth, the prince only found himself asking them as a means to appear somewhat natural among them.
But the idea that Magnolia being queen wouldn’t bother him had faltered suddenly. It hadn’t been that Kindle minded Magnolia’s reign, nothing about it had been exactly horrible at least in terms of his conditions. But then he had to go and find himself unimaginably entertained and captive in the small hands of a young human royal, one who…
He didn’t bother explaining this to Julian, it should have been easy enough to piece together. Kindle had by no means made this part of his game hard. He had decided that despite his natural mystery and enigmatic speech, it would be too tiring for the moment. But only for the moment.
“Why ask you.” He repeated another one of Julian’s silly little questions and shook his head softly. “Are you so dim witted that you couldn’t at least come up with one reason enough for any of your tedious questions.”
“Don’t bother looking at the wall.” Kindle finally snapped, tired of Julian’s ignorance. “There is no one watching us, that I can assure you.” The dark haired man’s normal air of seduction and charm had wavered; he was left with strong irritation that would only result in cold speech towards the other man—something that he rarely allowed so open. He hoped in this small act of honesty that Julian would pull himself together, if he decided not to Kindle wouldn’t feel even the smallest obligation to keep him alive.
After a moment, his anger dispersed and he sat down in one of the several chairs lounging about in the room. “You ask me why now, and I’ll tell you it has nothing to do with time, not really.” His voice was cool, but not as filled with ice as moments before. “It isn’t much about wanting the crown either.”
Kindle’s eyes flickered towards his hands and the side of his lips quirked suddenly. He pushed himself from the chair and gave a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Did you know that the prince of Ilentalien offered Rivverton the young not yet crowned princess in order to keep her from the throne?” Kindle was well aware that Julian wouldn’t have heard such a thing, it had been hushed and murdered with the King himself.
“You see, this is important Julian, because in Ilentalien they do not pick the first born male to be king, or female to be queen. No, instead, they have the first born male and the first born female go through a series of trials after the youngest of the two turns twenty. Of course, this changes if the country is in dire need, but it wasn’t at the time. However, this could also be avoided if one of the two eldest is married off before the time comes.”
“Prince Hamish thought that if he gave his younger sister to River, he could be King of Ilentalien and in alliance with our great nation. Rivverton had planned to accept, shamming Magnolia in front of the court.” He continued, “Obviously our Queen was not happy about this in the slightest when she found out, and well…You know the rest.”
Kindle was smiling now, broad and impolite without a hint of remorse. “And then she had me lead troops to slaughter the two children of the royal family, and I did, but not after Hamish had already seen to the death of his own father—his mother the Queen, well, she is off in one of their palaces somewhere.”
“When we went to meet Hamish, falsely introducing ourselves as friends, he told me of his sister and her childhood game of playing a lady knight.” The prince looked pointedly at the mage, “And in his kindness, I killed him and his collection of guards, found his sister alone with another knight practicing some sword form or another, and as far as the Queen knows, the royal lineage of the Day family is at ruin for the Queen herself has grown very ill.”
“Do you understand now what I am saying, my lord?”
