The three groups met up some time before the start of the play. The Avallachs and the royals were quite surprised when Prince Edric’s and Lady Mafalda’s group returned bigger than they had set out.

The first to ask about the second prince’s new companions was Wynkin who could often be seen conversing with his preferred brother. Princess Myrtis slightly shrunk back when such a brawny giant suddenly approached the man beside her. As if to answer her mistress’s fright, Atrostre stood there sturdily, her hands stemmed to her sides.

“Elder brother, who are those strangers in your company?” Wynkin inquired.

“A good question.” Edric admitted “This girl next to me is Princess Myrtis Porphyrina, niece of the emperor and apparently my prospective future fiancée, accompanied by her wet nurse. Imagine my surprise after I found out about the planned engagement after meeting her perchance just now. Lady Myrtis, no need to be afraid. This is my youngest brother Wynkin, a very sensible boy. Admittedly, he looks nothing like the fourteen years old boy he is but the reason for that is that he is afflicted with berserk syndrome. He currently gets successfully treated, so there is no danger at all. The others who you have yet to meet are my three years younger brother Gervase – the other blond guy over there – the children of the local feudal lord, Mortimer and Violant of Avallach – they are the red-haired boy and girl respectively – and Lord Mortimer’s fiancée Sybil from the ducal house of Sulia.”

Right in the middle of his talk, Prince Edric switched to the language of the empire to introduce the others to his fiancée. The imperial princess responded amiably and greeted her fiancé’s companions, interpreted by the scholarly prince himself.

“That is all well and good, but were did esteemed brother’s fiancé suddenly appear from?” Prince Gervase asked warily. Didn’t a marriage with an imperial princess massively increase Edric’s chances of succeeding the throne? As such, it had to be a thorn in the side of Gervase, as he was openly vying for kingship after all.

“Well, that is quite an interesting story.” Edric replied and continued to explain that the engagement between him and Princess Myrtis was on one hand already envisioned by King Baldwin and Emperor Gennadios. – Which royal family on the continent didn’t wish for the monarch of the mighty empire as an in-law after all? – On the other hand it was still far from being official since the imperial Princess somehow managed to convince her uncle to allow her to find out about her prospective future husband before the agreement was to be finalized.

Seeing how Gervase was about to jump at his chance of doing something that surely would go against Violant’s wishes, the red-haired girl rapidly spoke out.

“Congratulations, Your Royal Highness!” she said “How wonderful for fate to allow such a chance meeting. Bunt begging your pardon, Your Highness, I believe it to be the perfect chance for you to use this festival for you to further deepen your bonds with the foreign princess, particularly so as you appear to be able to speak her mother tongue fluently. It will be an honor for the house of Avallach to provide you for this occasion with the best atmosphere possible and what could be more romantic than watching an interesting play together? That was your idea behind inviting your fiancée to Avallach, was it not, dearest brother?”

“Yes, indeed.” Mortimer confirmed. He didn’t quite know what kind of plan his sister had hatched in her mind, but seeing as it was for the sake of their illustrious guests, it was all fine.

“What a splendid idea, Lady Violant!” Prince Wynkin immediately agreed with vigor “Seeing as we already have planned to watch the play together, it will be no problem having Princess Myrtis and her entourage accompanying us as well. Although I cannot quite imagine how a play about slaying a cockatrice can be even remotely romantic.”

“I can assure you that it will be sufficiently romantic, Your Highness.” Augustine the librarian chimed in “I do not want to reveal too much but the folksy rendering of the cockatrial includes a romantic episode not known in the historical documents but who am I to rule out that the legends preserved in folk tradition aren’t also a part of the historical truth?”

The more Prince Gervase felt overlooked without any chance of joining the conversation, the uglier his facial expression became. Everything was that woman’s fault! Violant of Avallach had humiliated him yet again. Since the sound of a bell suddenly signaled that the audience could now proceed to their seats, he was denied even the last chance to pass a comment about that matter. His resentment for Violant increased yet again but he didn’t even dream of the possibility of being resented even more by her. After all, she thwarted his plans whenever they met, starting with their first real encounter at the debut ball of October last year, all without him knowing the reason behind it.

The story depicted in the play was definitely rendered in a popular fashion. The hero Æscwine was impersonated by a dashing red-haired man who was a soldier from the garrison. The cockatrice slayer had to show flashy moves with the sword even if the beast he would put on trial was as fake as it could get. Red hair was another prerequisite since he embodied the first Avallach and all Avallachs had fire-red hair as was commonly known.

The story depicted Æscwine arriving at a tiny village where humans and denizens of the other march lived together in harmony. Correspondingly the actors on stage were as diverse as it could get. Hanarr, the dwarven smith, had an appearance as, well, a dwarf in a smithy. Eibhlin, Violant’s elven magic tutor, embodied an elf in the village but was also responsible for all kinds of magic special effects. The garrison knight commander Sir Thopas impersonated the village head. His daughter Cecily was seen in the role of the village head’s daughter, obviously.

Æscwine found the villagers to be in distress because a cockatrice was terrorizing the area, killing all those it encountered with its lethal gaze. In an especially cruel moment it even abducted the village head’s daughter. The hero felt his heart melt in the face of so much sorrow. Courageous as he was, he decided to take on the beast, even if only for the fair maiden’s sake, and went to see the dwarven village smith.

The grumpy smith – just too naturally portrayed by Hanarr – crafted a longsword for the hero as well as an armor and shield completely covered with mirror-like reflective surfaces. The equipment originated from Hanarr’s real smithy of course.

Now steeled, Æscwine unhesitantly set out for the cockatrice’s lair. He found it in a cave in the woods, a place smelling like death for it was littered with the corpses of countless forest animals – or so the actor described the scenery at least.

And now the cockatrice entered. It was a kind of magical puppet of course, moved with magic rather than threads. It really looked like a cockatrice par excellence with its feathered cock-like head and torso, its scaly dragon-like legs and tail as well as its leathery bat-like wings. The gemstones or glass pearls taking the place of its eyes seemed to downright gleam viciously. Not few kids in the audience began to cry from fear after laying eyes on the monster – most likely their fear was boosted by parents hushing their children warning them “Be quiet or the cockatrice will come and get you!”

Æscwine closed in at the monster without looking in the direction its sounds came from. As soon as he was close enough, he plunged forward while utterly fearless and exchanged blows with the cockatrice, impaling it on his sword when it was shocked into paralysis from its own reflection on the hero’s shield.

Then he went on to look for the missing girl, ultimately finding her deep at the back of the cockatrice’s lair, unharmed but in a deathlike sleep. Waking her with the power of a kiss, Æscwine escorted her out of the cave and back to the village where he was triumphantly received by the villagers, with the village head leading the way.

The village head sincerely thanked Æscwine for saving his daughter and willingly accepted him as his son-in-law after the maiden expressed her desire to marry her savior. Æscwine who also had fallen in love with the girl he saved thus stayed in the village that should later become Avallach. The play ended with the arrival of a herald, bringing with him a royal edict to confer Æscwine the noble title of margrave, the first of its kind, in recognition of his heroic deeds.

Following the play, Princess Myrtis and her entourage that consisted of more people than just her nurse Artastroe were also offered accommodation in Avallach Castle. It wasn’t proper to leave the lodging of foreign royalty to an ordinary inn if there were alternatives after all, let alone the fact that Princess Myrtis depended on only one interpreter from whom she had been separated in the crowd once before.

The remaining two days of the Cockatrial festival were far less surprising. The prospective fiancés Edric and Myrtis learned to know more about each other more during the three days of the festival and although it was still a stretch to say that they were in love with each other – although Myrtis showed clear signs of a beginning crush, firmly convinced that she had met her soulmate – they didn’t feel reluctant about tying the knot. Rather, the other was the most ideal partner they could wish for in a political marriage. Thus it was decided that the imperial visitors should accompany the princes on their voyage back to the capital, or Edric and Gervase at least, for Wynkin returned to Ealdon instead.

When the day of departure came about, Mortimer and Sybil were terribly reluctant to part with each other but Margrave Orderic, who had returned late the last evening, managed to convince them that their wedding ceremony planned for early October would surely come sooner than they thought and after that they still had the rest of their lives to spend time with each other.

Prince Gervase returned to Kingsborough with a sour mood. Whatever plans he had thought up to breed discord between Edric and Wynkin (both of whom he considered his most dangerous rivals in contending for the throne), he always was thwarted by Violant, and even if he inquired about matters of the other march which interested him very much because ruling the other march meant ruling over magic itself, he often was hindered at getting satisfying answers. Once, he had even asked his red-haired adversary directly about otherworldly matters, and although her answer couldn’t be said to be too short, whatever she told him was so commonplace or meaningless that it was as if he hadn’t asked at all.

Both Wynkin and Violant were satisfied though. The youngest prince was happy that his elder brother finally had found a bride – that was the most difficult point on the agenda for making Edric the next king and it was solved surprisingly easy after all.

Violant was content with how she had made Gervase miserable without ever lacking the respect he deserved – at least on the surface. Nonetheless she hoped that her next encounter with the treacherous husband of her previous lifetime wouldn’t be too soon.