Fin stared around him, his hands on his hips, and his lips pursed in a thin line. His aides stood behind him, glancing at each other and mouthing messages as they waited for his reaction.

He had walked through the kitchen the night the Queen had gone into labor… However, he hadn’t really taken the time to really see what had been done in his absence.

With his abilities able to sense what had been moved, what had been added, and what had… disappeared. Shifting his feet slightly against the stone, he winced as he heard the soles of his boots stick to its stained surface.

Turning around slowly, his aides jumped and immediately straightened under his stricken stare.

“Why is there an entire cauldron of gravy?” he asked, his voice faint.

“Well you see… we kept trying to thicken it, and then it would be too thick so we’d add water and-”

Fin held up his hand and stopped Peter’s explanation while rubbing his mouth as though to stop himself from shouting. Sir Harris was the first one to try and speak again.

“Are you angry?”

Fin shook his head slowly.

“Is it because we’ve chipped just about every piece of plateware?” Hannah asked uncharacteristically timidly.

“No.”

“Is it because the ale is gone?” Sir Harris asked hesitantly.

“THE ALE IS GONE?!” the redhead exploded.

All the aides except for the future Duke leapt back.

“No, but don’t you feel better knowing that we haven’t!”

“I want you… to run laps around the castle.” Fin’s voice came out mildly strangled as he stared dementedly down at the auburn haired Knight.

“It’s quite hot out again today and-”

“NOW!”

Sir Harris sprung into action immediately and darted out of the kitchen, leaving Fin to face the rest of his aides while gesturing towards the overabundance of pies filling every shelf and ledge available in the kitchen, then to a large wooden barrel that was filled with old loaves of bread.

“How did… all of this happen?”

“Well… we made a dozen loaves of bread not realizing that you needed salt…” Sir Lewis began hesitantly.

“Then we made about ten rhubarb pies but… err… we didn’t know the leafy bits were poisonous until Ruby pointed that out,” Sir Andrews continued.

“The window got broken when I tried to toss Sir Taylor a pot…” Hannah admitted while fidgeting.

“But we did finish all the meals! They weren’t… all terrible. Everyone was fed three times a day thanks to a couple other maids coming to help,” Heather, who was visibly sweating, exclaimed desperately.

Fin slowly turned around, and walked to the chairs by his cooking table. He then half collapsed into one, and gripped his head while leaning his elbows on the table.

“You served… brussel sprouts and salted meat… for every meal… except breakfast?”

“Right! We served fruit and eggs and that seemed to go over quite well,” Sir Taylor affirmed while nodding to the other aides.

Fin didn’t say anything for a good long while, ignoring the uncomfortable silence that was building.

“Are you sure you’re not angry?” Hannah asked while fidgeting even more.

“No. I’m not angry. It wasn’t any of your faults that you didn’t know what you were doing. I was unaware that you all knew so little, and so the blame is placed squarely with me.”

The aides all visibly let out a sigh of relief, until Fin lifted his face once again and stared at them all with a half crazed glint in his eye.

“I think I need to start teaching you all how to cook. From now on, you are all to be my students, and I will have you know… you have had it easy until now, but that is done.” He rose, the manic energy around him making both Sirs Andrews and Lewis grip onto Sir Taylor fearfully.

“W-Why does it feel like we are being punished?” Heather asked as she glued herself to Peter’s side.

“This isn’t a punishment, this is the chance to improve your skills in the kitchen.” His voice was light and casual, but his eyes were wide and unblinking.

Hannah let out a small squeak and took a hasty step back as Fin once again stepped closer to them.

“Do you know what we are going to learn first?” he asked, his eyes frighteningly wide.

“W-What?” Peter stammered while reaching out and clasping Hannah’s shoulder.

“How to scrub every inch of your kitchen.”

“Wouldn’t it be faster with your magic?” Sir Taylor risked while arching a bushy black eyebrow.

Of everyone present, the large burly Knight seemed the least disturbed by Fin’s reaction, earning him a long suffering appraisal from the man.

“It would be. However, in instances when I am… absent, you will need to be able to do everything required without it.”

Sir Taylor shrugged.

“Alright lads, to the buckets. Cook, where are the brushes? We couldn’t find those.”

Fin blinked as everyone but Sir Taylor moved into action.

“Have you been drinking?” the redhead asked uncertainly.

“Nay, Cook.”

“Your… disposition is strange today.”

“How is the Queen?” Sir Taylor’s eyes had a sudden deep knowingness to them that unnerved Fin greatly.

“Tough to say. The Princess seemed fine,” the redhead answered, doing his best to keep his tone even.

Nodding and sharing a look of complete understanding, Sir Taylor clapped Fin on the shoulder before joining the other aides in their duties. Before the cook had a moment to ponder the Knight’s strange behavior further however, Ruby entered the room. The woman’s face was pale, and it was obvious in her posture that something was wrong, making Fin immediately ready himself for the worst possible news.

“Mr. Ashowan, his majesty has summoned you.”

The silence in the kitchen was deafening.

“Everyone, by the time I get back I want you all to have finished scrubbing this entire place. I should be back in time to prepare dinner. Lunch should be a simple soup and bread.”

The aides all nodded solemnly before the redhead turned and walked out of the kitchen at Ruby’s side.

As the pair moved through the corridors together, Fin began to notice that he was getting an increasing number of stares and whispers. Wearily he figured that word of his being a witch had probably already torn through the castle like wildfire, and so he did his best to avoid looking at anyone directly.

“Silly gossip mongers.” Ruby sighed with a shake of her head. Her usually rounded cheeks seemed a little thinner somehow. Perhaps the stress of recent weeks had taken too great a toll on the woman.

“About the Queen?” Fin asked, feigning ignorance to figure out where the woman stood.

“No… I think they should be talking about that to be perfectly honest. But instead all they want to talk about is how apparently most of the nobles believe you to be a witch.”

Fin kept his expression controlled, but decided it was time to just live with the truth of it. So far things hadn’t been going terribly...

“I am a witch, Ruby. Why do you think I never needed more aides? For an entire castle, you think I’d only ask for four people? That’s ridiculous.” He couldn’t help but tease her a little.

Ruby didn’t respond, instead she froze in her tracks and gaped up at him. Unable to continue walking with him.

Fin decided not to respond to her shock, instead choosing to let the news sink in a little more naturally.

The poor woman must’ve been incredibly startled however, because she didn’t even bother to catch up to Fin as he continued on his way to the King’s chamber.

Instead the redhead climbed to the second floor, and tried to fight off his growing wariness of what the royal needed.

The guards nodded knowingly to Fin, even giving him a bit of a smile before he entered the room, where the musk of unwashed sweaty bodies and the lingering metallic note of blood overwhelmed his senses.

The scene was more or less exactly as he had last seen it. The King sitting at the Queen’s bedside holding her hand, while his mother knelt with her hands hovering over the monarch.

Bowing quickly, Fin announced his arrival.

“You called for me your highness?”

“Yes. Eric is inconsolable right now, and you are the only person I can think of that can both contain him and try to keep him calm.”

Fin straightened in abundant surprise.

“Your majesty are you asking me to take care of the Prince?”

“Yes. I can’t have him shrieking up and down this hallway just now. I’ll talk to him this evening if… if Ainsley hasn’t woken up,” he explained, his hold on the Queen’s hand tightening.

“I understand your highness.” Even though Fin didn’t understand at all. The King needed to see to his son and daughter…

Even if just for an hour.

It wasn’t his business though.

Fin turned and reached out to take the handle of the door to make his exit, when he suddenly stopped and turned around.

“Your majesty, what… what is the Princess to be called?”

Norman raised his face, his cheeks sunken in and his eyes dark.

“What do you mean?”

“Her name. Eric wanted to know.” Fin felt a cold sweat trickle down his back.

“Call her whatever you want. We can change it later if Ainsley wakes up.”

Fin was about to reply, and not in a calm rational manner when his mother cast him a warning glance over her shoulder that had him clamping his mouth shut.

So without a third look back, he left the chamber, even though he had more than a few words he wanted to share with the King regarding his attitude towards his daughter.

*

When Fin first entered Eric’s chamber he found the boy’s governess cowering behind a chair while the lad threw any item he could at the doorway where Fin stood.

Quickly catching the book that had been launched with impressive force, the Prince stopped when he saw the redhead who glanced over to the governess whom he deeply wanted to question regarding her previous experience with children.

“Eric, what are you doing?” Fin stepped into the room, and closed the door behind him with a frown. His disapproval all too clear.

“No one is telling me anything!” the child shouted, his face red and tear stained.

“So you terrify your poor governess and destroy your room? Is this how a young man should behave?” His hands were on his hips while Eric’s were curled into fists.

“What else can I do! I want to see my sister! And my mom! Where’s dad?!” Fresh tears were flooding down his face.

“If you see your sister right now after you have just destroyed your room, she will be very scared. Is that what you want to do?”

Eric looked ready to shout some more, but under Fin’s direct stare the fight suddenly went out of him.

“No… No, I don’t.”

“Good. Now I want you to apologize to your governess this instant, and together we are going to clean this mess.”

The woman stood gratefully from her hidden location, her conservative black dress looked terribly warm for the summer, and wholly impractical for chasing around an energetic eight year old boy.

Setting the room back to rights and calming the Prince down took far longer than Fin had anticipated, and so he sent a message down to his aides that he would be down later than he had hoped to begin the supper.

Fin proceeded to ask Eric to read to him from one of the texts he was supposed to be studying for that week, and once the lad seemed more like himself, the redhead decided a visit to the newborn Princess wasn’t a bad idea. The Governess, who Fin learned was called Farrah, he sent to rest for the afternoon after she had been informed of the King’s orders pertaining to the Prince. The woman’s relief was thinly veiled.

When the duo entered the Princess’ nursery, Eric could barely contain his eagerness as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet trying to see in the cradle as Physician Durand continued performing another examination.

“Ah, good day your highness, and- oh Mr. Ashowan! Pleasure to see you again.”

Fin managed a smile at the man as they shook hands.

“How does the Princess fair?” he asked as Eric peered down at his sister’s small sleeping face.

“Remarkably well. She seems determined to grow up in as little time as possible.”

Eric smiled excitedly. “Good! I want to show her how to ride a horse, and the best hiding places. Well... not all of them. I need some if we ever play together.”

The men smiled fondly at the boy’s eagerness.

“I spoke with the King regarding the Princess’ name,” Fin started, his smile dimming slightly. “He told me to name her myself. Says that he will change the name if her majesty-” He stopped suddenly and glanced down at Eric who was fortunately too distracted with his sister to notice.

“That is a rather large responsibility. Perhaps leave the matter?” the Physician suggested, though it was clear he didn’t like that the child was being overlooked either.

“I have a better idea. Eric?”

The boy looked up at him still grinning ear to ear.

“What should we name your sister? Your father says he isn’t sure yet, so do you mind telling us what to call her until he knows?”

The Prince’s eyes grew as round as saucers.

“Really?! I can name her?!”

“Until your father thinks of a different name. Then again, maybe he will like what you think of.” Physician Durand’s eyes twinkled.

Eric stared at his sister now, frowning. The boy was quiet for a long moment before he suddenly broke out into a triumphant grin.

“I know! I’ll name her after mom’s mom! Mom always said she liked Grandma’s name!”

The Physician and cook shared looks of surprise. It was a surprisingly mature notion for an eight year old.

“Grandma’s name was Alina! Papa will like it because it has an ‘A’ just like mom’s name!”

Fin tousled the Prince’s golden locks before looking down at the baby girl.

“You know what Eric? I think that’s the perfect name for her. Alina it is.”

Physician Durand bowed his head reverently to the Princess.

“Very well, Princess Alina Reyes, daughter of our beloved King and Queen Norman and Ainsley Reyes, sister of Prince Eric Reyes, it is our pleasure to meet you.”

Fin bowed to the cradle, and Eric puffed his chest out in pride, he knew he had picked the perfect name. His father would surely think the exact same way, he just knew it.