Death was coming for Duxton. He didn’t particularly grasp onto why Veximarl was in Fogbloom, all he knew was that it could only mean that his death date had been drastically moved up. Since it was apparently inevitable, he should at least attempt to get his affairs in order. Was there even a point in writing a will though? He didn’t exactly have anything in the way of riches or possessions.

Duxton stretched himself out on the couch and dramatically tossed his arm over the armrest. “Tell me, Udell, what is the point of it all?”

Udell was sitting in a chair across from him. Odd was standing near the door. They were idling in the prince’s room at the Arbutus fort. Simply waiting around for the end of it all.

“You have the favor of the military,” replied Udell.

Duxton covered his eyes with the crook of his other arm. “A lot of good that will do me.”

“They would do well to serve you during a coup, my lord,” replied Udell as he leaned forward in his chair.

“That would be lovely if not for the fact that the army’s strongest soldiers had been trained in Grand Temple. Their true loyalties only lie with whomever the church favors.” Duxton gritted his teeth. “I cannot afford to battle both the crown and the church.”

“Whoever holds information holds power, sir. We can use it to divide the church. Combined with the favor of the military and the dukes, you, Duxton, are the one with the advantage. They declared war against you, but it will not be an easy fight.”

Duxton sat up and stared at Udell. “May I remind you that our dear Vex does not appreciate me? He is that precious neutral party that they desperately needed to gather. The Clay Region supports their necromancers and Duke Flint may choose to side with him as well.”

“That is due to a lack of foresight on your part, sir,” replied Udell in his usual monotone manner. He should have treated Veximarl better than he did.

Duxton winced. “I do not wish to get into a physical altercation with him. There is quite the real threat of him serving as their assassin.” His eyes darted to the door as Zaniyah entered with the enthusiasm of a charging bull. “Get out.”

“It’s me!” Zaniyah tossed her arms in the air. “I can walk again!” She then proceeded to do a little jig to prove her point.

“I don’t care. Get out.” Duxton glared at Odd, who had done nothing to stop her from dancing about like a fool.

Zaniyah dramatically pointed at Udell. “I challenge you to a duel!”

Duxton spat at her before Udell could respond. “Challenge your brother!”

“Look, I did, alright?” She waved her hands about as she spoke, doing chops in the air to simulate axe attacks. “I challenged a bunch of people, and what happened was… Well, okay, it’s not important?” She hung her head off to the side. “I-I just really need a win here, so can I, like, borrow Udell for five minutes?”

“No.” Duxton scowled at her.

“Blue,” replied Udell. Zaniyah immediately perked up. “After I’m done with my conversation with our lord.”

“Okay, cool.” Zaniyah walked over and sat in a chair next to Udell. “I’ll wait here.”

Duxton scowled at her a little longer.

“Yeah, yeah. The coup, I get it.” Zaniyah pointed to her ear. “I got sharp hearing. I’m not gonna tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s not really a proper coup if everyone knows about it, right?”

Duxton flopped back onto the couch. “I’ll let you idle here if you can properly define the word ‘coup’ for me.”

“That’s like…” The gears in Zaniyah’s head came to a grinding halt. “A surprise party for bossy types? Very important bossy types?”

“Get out,” spat back Duxton.

“She’s not entirely wrong,” called out Odd from his spot.

Duxton scoffed. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.” He pointed at the door. “Nor do I need this girl to interrupt my conversation with her insistent idiocies. Wait outside. Please.”

Zaniyah stood up and stuck out her tongue. “Only ‘cause you said please.” She stood up and went to the door.”

Udell waited for her to leave before he continued. “We must make our move before they have the opportunity to bring up the idea of disowning you to the court.”

“I agree. We- Zaniyah!” Duxton snarled her name as she jumped back into the room. “Are you absolutely incapable of holding still for a few simple minutes?!”

Yes, but that wasn’t the point. “Just gonna…” Zaniyah darted to Duxton’s side and hid behind his couch. “Just gonna wait here. Don’t mind me.”

It didn’t really matter, since she was going to eavesdrop either way. “We’ll focus on unifying the generals and stress that they will lose influence in the King’s Court if they allow for-” Alton burst into the room. “... I may as well kill myself at this point.”

“Zan!” Alton looked about. “Zaniyah! I saw you run into here!” His eyes locked onto Duxton. He aggressively pointed at the prince. “What did you do with the sword?!”

“I don’t use a sword,” replied Duxton in the most passive-aggressive voice he could muster.

Alton pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know, I just… Nevermind. Zan! If you’re not going to talk to me about Vincent, can you at least get me in contact with Sybil? Vincent’s bracer needs emergency maintenance.”

Zaniyah’s head popped up from behind the couch. “How am I supposed to get in contact with Sybil?”

Target located. Alton dashed behind the couch and snatched Zaniyah’s wrist. “You’re going to be a damn adult and deal with your problems properly!”

“Can we just not do that? For a little bit? Like, let me mentally prepare first or something?” Zaniyah began to whine as Alton began to tug on her arm. She easily out-strengthened him, so she wasn’t exactly moving anywhere, but she wasn’t really resisting. “Why would you even bring him here in the first place, huh? I thought this was supposed to be my ‘deal with my family’ trip, not my ‘reconcile with the ex-boyfriend’ adventure.”

“Alton?!” The name wasn’t shouted, but exclaimed in a loud roar that shook the foundations of the fort.

Alton immediately let go of Zaniyah’s wrist and hid behind the couch with her. He clutched onto his chest as his life flashed before his eyes. That lion was the paladin of this fort. Paladin Nicolas Arbutus hadn’t asked much of him, only that he never ever step foot in the capital again, and Alton had broken that rule.

Nicolas opened the door to the room and glared at Duxton. He stared at the prince with silent contemplation. “... Nah. Not here,” he muttered as he closed the door.

“... I guess I live here now,” whispered Alton.

“You certainly do not,” growled Duxton underneath his breath. He then let out a sigh. Best not to let the idiots intervene in his work. “Ignore them. Where were we?”

Zaniyah spoke up. “You were gonna have a party for Viokern?”

Alton’s nose crinkled. “Is he celebrating something?”

“I guess? He’s planning to murder Duxton and make himself king,” replied Zaniyah in a non-chalant manner.

A slow nod of the head was to be had. Alton was getting it now. “You mean Duxton’s gonna throw a coup in order to save his own skin?” Zaniyah bobbled her head. “Ah, right.” Alton snickered. “I hope he doesn’t expect me to sing at his funeral.”

Zaniyah gave a confused tilt of her head. “Why would you even go to his funeral?”

“To laugh at him,” replied Alton in a half-serious tone.

Ignoring the fools was now proving to be difficult. “No one appreciates me,” grumbled Duxton as he curled up on his side. His finger traced slow circles on the edge of the cushion.

Udell leaned forward in his chair and lowered his voice. “This is an opportunity.”

“I’m far to buried in my apathy to murder them for their insolence,” whispered Duxton. He did a small wave of his hand at Udell. “You handle it.”

Bothersome. Dealing with Zaniyah was always tiring. Udell cleared his voice. “Northern forces successfully retrieved two hundred and thirty-seven arrows of true faith after the Southern War ended. Two hundred of those arrowheads were melted down to create four swords for the remaining dukes of Lustro.”

Alton stood up and leaned on the back of the couch. “What does a history lesson have to do with Duxton dying?”

“Professor Rosethorn currently has the Crimson Region’s sword within his possession,” replied Udell.

Duxton continued to lie there as he muttered quietly. “He created a unit that would use the sword to kill a would-be. They only managed to injure it before it escaped.”

“Then…” Alton furrowed his brow. He felt a headache coming along. “Why are we still at war?” There had to be at least four skilled swordsmen who could’ve gotten the job done. Just give either Dalkirk and Stonetoe a sword and they would’ve finished this already.

“That is the focus for Prince Duxton’s and my investigation,” continued Udell. “We are looking for whatever reason the Order of Alcea has for prolonging the war.”

Swords weren’t the only item that could be used to fight them. “What about the thirty-seven other arrows? Were they used to attack Sybil last summer?” Asked Alton.

“Twenty-six are locked up in the royal armory,” replied Udell. “We are assuming that the missing arrows have been used for assassinations. The arrows used in the operation to kidnap Sybil were provided by Henrietta Pennyrile, who sourced them through the black market.”

Henrietta Pennyrile? Alton vaguely remembered seeing the name before… That’s right, it was the name that Tish had used as one of her references on her application. He had looked it over shortly after she had been expelled.

Duxton stared up at Alton. He had that dumb look on his face. The same one he had whenever he was thinking about information he didn’t want to share. “I need you to convince Aunt El to hand over her sword.”

“Ask her for it yourself,” grumbled Alton.

Duxton grinned. “I was planning on it, though I would rather stick around and see how Paladin Arbutus will react once he realizes that you risked life and limb just to get his daughter to play nice with an ex-lover. Or would you rather claim that you came all this way for that sword?”

So he was sliding work onto Alton’s back while making it look like he was doing him a favor. Alton glared at him. “I have other reasons for being here.”

“If you’re attempting to make it look like you have some sort of juicy tidbit that I’m desperate to get my hands on, you’d be wrong.” Duxton’s grin grew more confident as he shrugged. “I already know that Veximarl is at the palace.”

“He’s there to negotiate Eatha’s release,” added Alton with a smirk.

The smile immediately vanished from Duxton’s face. “The Order has Eatha?”

Alton smiled all the wider as he spoke in a smug tone. “And I’d be willing to help you out if you weren’t so eager to treat me like a pawn. Is my help even needed? I really do think you doing a fantastic job handling it all yourself.” He nudged Zaniyah with his boot. “Zan, I’ll keep Vincent away from you until you’re ready, but I really need to talk to you about Iath business. Can you come with?”

She pouted at him before perking up. “I’ve got a question!”

A long, drawn-out sigh left Alton’s lips. “... Go ahead.”

Zaniyah popped up like a gopher. “So…” She tilted her head to the side as the gears continued to twist about in her head. “If Duxton gets the sword that Duke-lady El has, then that’s a coup, right? He gets to end the war and be a big hero and everyone is gonna be, like, ‘Oh! That Duxton guy is gonna be a perfect king!’ And then he won’t have to do anything naughty for that to happen?”

“That’s the plan,” replied Duxton.

“Okay, I understand that.” Zaniyah bobbled her head. “But the real bad guys, these Order guys, they’re trying to keep the war going? Because if they aren’t supplying weapons that can kill a monster, that means they want to keep it alive, right?” She began to move her hands about, gesturing to invisible places as she spoke. “And would-bes, they need to eat a new god to become a new god.”

Alton nodded. “They have Eatha. They’re probably prolonging the war long enough for them to capture one of the would-bes so they could create a new god.”

“And I get that, see?” Zaniyah pointed at him. “Having a super-powerful god on their side would probably bad for Duxton, so we can’t allow that to happen. Not because I’m on Duxton’s side or anything, but because I’m definitely not on the Order’s side either.”

“Right,” replied Alton. “But Vex won’t let them do that to Eatha.”

“They won’t be able to do that with Eatha,” said Zaniyah with a shake of her head. “She’s in a little body, right? Like Tyrtain? Whatever they have is just a, uhm, it’s a golem, okay? She’s probably got a massive rock of blood iron stashed up in Lyrhea or something, like how Tyrtain’s blood is buried in the ground. Stuffing her in a would-be mouth won’t do anything.”

Duxton could only partially understand her logic. Part of this was completely new to him. Rather than say anything, he followed along with whatever Alton’s facial expression was, if only to see if he understood whatever insanities Zaniyah was spitting out.

“Okay,” said Alton. He never found it hard to understand Zaniyah, and he trusted her observations. They were more often right than wrong. “Then it’s better to leave Eatha with them. Let them falsely believe they have the upper hand.”

“But they do,” replied Zaniyah.

“Okay, but they don’t,” said Alton. “I thought we were agreeing on this?”

“Yeah, but,” said Zaniyah as she pointed down at the ground, “they’ve already have a solid god trapped in their basement.”

Alton suddenly felt sick to his stomach. “... Bellia.” The sword his mother had risked everything for. Veximarl would defend Eatha, but he would be unaware of any ill plans involving Bellia. “We need to steal that sword.”

This was certainly a surprise. Duxton might as well play it to his advantage. “If only you had someone willing to help you with that endeavor.” He put a hand to his chest as he gasped with surprise. “Well, if you insist, Alton, it would be my pleasure to help you out, but-”

“Get the sword from Aunt El yourself,” spat back Alton.

Duxton shrugged. “Would it interest you to find out that she was the one who ordered both you and Sybil to be kidnapped?” Watching Alton tense up again was leaving him feeling refreshed. “Madam Pennyrile ordered the majority of the operation, and Paladin Buttonweed may have taken matters into his own hands, but Duchess Elbellziara pushed that ball into motion.” He placed his hand against his chest again. “Wouldn’t you wish to find out why?”

He was trying to dig under Alton’s skin… And it was working. “Let’s go, Zan.”

Zaniyah watched Alton head to the door. “So, uhm.” She did a little bow. “Good luck with your death and stuff,” she muttered. “Hey, Alton! Wait for me!”

Alton walked past the door and waited for her to catch up. He brushed his hand through his hair. “Vincent became Iath’s vessel so you could walk again. Something about trying to split his magic between you two. You’d get the strength while Vincent would deal with the possession, but he ended up doing a piss poor job and now both of you start having problems if you drift too far apart from each other.”

“Whaaaaat?” Zaniyah trotted behind Alton as he started to walk towards the fort’s courtyard. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s an idiot? Both of them are massive idiots?” Obviously. Alton shrugged. “We brought Vincent here because we were worried you were getting sick. We’re going to see if it’s safe enough for us to contact Sybil to help Chi fix his bracer. Duxton is supposed to be our point of contact but I think Gwyn might know something. You know how to reach her?”

“Nah, she dumped Shaw the moment she got here.” Zaniyah had an epiphany. She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it when she heard her father shouting Alton’s name again. “... We should go into hiding.”

Where would Nicolas not think to look for Alton? “Let’s go back to the wagon,” he suggested.

“We have a wagon?”

Zaniyah followed Alton as he stealthed his way to the courtyard. He spotted Vincent and Chickadee waiting outside. Vincent was unhitching Flower and Bibi from the wagon while Chickadee was vacantly staring off into space. This fort was large. Impressively large for a single family to own. Why did they need a fort to be this spacious? How could Zaniyah own a place this big?

“Get in,” loudly whispered Alton as he quietly opened the wagon door.

Chickadee and Vincent followed the pair into the wagon and Alton informed them about what they had talked about with Duxton. Zaniyah sat as far away from Vincent as possible. She was absolutely livid that Vincent would do this without notifying her at all. Iath shouldn’t dare claim that this whole distance thing was an accident. Her legs were being held hostage!

“Sybil is probably in the Golem Research Club or whatever Patterfall calls it,” muttered Zaniyah. “Gwyn dumped my brother and she’s supposedly Patterfall’s date to this big party at the palace. Shaw is pretty bummed about it and doesn’t want to go now.”

Chickadee blinked a few times. “Party? Palace?”

“Shaw said that it’s like a big dinner theater? Whatever that means?” Zaniyah shrugged. “Dad wants to take mom there and he’s making Shaw and me go so it doesn’t seem like it’s a date, but it’s totally him taking mom out on a date.”

“When?” Chickadee tilted his head.

“Like, three days from now?” Zaniyah also tilted her head.

Chickadee pointed at Alton. “Take Alton. Steal sword.”

Ha, ha... Alton snickered to himself. Who needs stupid Duxton now? Zaniyah was the only point of contact he needed. “I can get the sword out of the core, but how do we get it out of the palace?”

The four froze up as three slow knocks echoed from the wagon door. “... Alton.” Nicolas’ voice was a low and deathly baritone. “Come out here and face me properly.”

Zaniyah’s eyes flicked from the door to Alton. “Let me handle sneaking it out. I’ll get it to the props for the theater and pick it up later, okay?” She gave him a thumbs up.

“Sounds like a plan.” Alton then flashed Chickadee a pleading look. He didn’t want to die alone.

Chickadee stood up. “Okay.” Though it was less to help out Alton and more because he didn’t want to be trapped in a wagon with both Vincent and Zaniyah. The heavy weight of awkwardness in the air was already threatening to choke him.

Good, good. That might make this easier. Alton stood up and opened the door. “Oh, Paladin Arbutus? A pleasure to see you, have- Ah! ARG! Ow!” A quick yank to Alton’s ear had him vanishing from sight of the others.

All Chickadee could do was sigh. “Good luck,” he said as he saluted Zaniyah.

Luck wasn’t something Zaniyah wanted. Time magic. That’s what she truly needed. Getting hit in the back with that arrow was an honest mistake, alright? She could’ve handled it if the others had just let it ruin her life, but Vincent didn’t have to get dragged into this.

Vincent kept his gaze averted. He had yet to look at Zaniyah since he arrived in Fogbloom. “Sybil appears for the time behind. It’s best that we focus on thievary rather than expose her location.”

“... Right.” Zaniyah stood up and moved towards the door. “Look, uhm…” She shook her head. “There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to ‘us,’ but… I’m not willing to fix anything if Iath is going to be involved.”

“It isn’t-” Vincent abruptly stood up and nearly fell over. He put a hand to his head as a wave of dizziness nearly overwhelmed him.

“I don’t know what he promised you, but it was clearly a lie,” replied Zaniyah. “I don’t care if he did it on purpose or not. Iath has nothing to do with us, and he’s gotta be gone before I can even begin to think about whatever,” she gestured between herself and Vincent, “this is. I’m also gonna need, like, so much time to think about how I should feel about this, so I’m just gonna go.”

She left the wagon and saw that her father and Alton were arguing on the other side of the courtyard. Shaw had been standing next to the wagon, waiting for her to come out. He had been eavesdropping the entire time. Zaniyah gave him a nod and turned away, but he placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You were in the room with the prince,” he said.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t anything but the usual boring stuff.” Zaniyah shrugged. “Him being overdramatic, like he always is.”

Shaw studied her face. He didn’t know all of the business that Duxton had been up to as of late, but he knew when Duxton was scheming, and he especially knew when information was being withheld from him. Usually, that was fine. Duxton was allowed to have his secrets, but he wasn’t allowed to drag another one of his sisters into them. Never again.

“Tell me about it,” he said softly. “I’d like to hear everything.”