The ex-prince, who also had his name taken away, was not allowed to leave his room. Of course, you couldn’t tell that he was being held prisoner by all of the amenities that were given to him. Piles of food didn’t decorate the large, intricately designed rectangular table… they littered it. His bath was the size of a pool and the towels were so thick that your hand could sink a foot into them before you touched the other side.

“I would have thought being banished would have gotten you a worse treatment.” Kohn was worried when the prince received punishment, but this room was just confusing. “It’s better decorated than an expensive hotel on Earth. There’s even gold in the walls!”

“I’ve been banished, but in a few days I’ll be made a Lord so they don’t want to mistreat me.” He opened a door before instantly closing it. “These quarters have my mother’s hand all over it.

Kohn wasn’t one-hundred percent positive about what the ex-prince had seen through those doors, but judging by the giggling feminine laughter it wouldn’t be much of a guess. The beet-red face of the ex-prince also went a long way towards confirming what everyone was thinking. Kohn thought he heard at least half-a-dozen distinct giggles.

“So… what now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re banished, but being treated like a king. If the guards weren’t a clue, all the food, beautiful room, massive bath and the women are meant to entice you to stay put.” Kohn gazed into a goblet briefly but he was more interested in the figures along its sides. “Should we break out of here?”

“What?! NO!”

“Sneak out?”

“Do nothing of the sort!” The ex-prince was alarmed by what Kohn was saying out loud. “And keep your voice down! If the guards outside suspect you have going against the legitimate orders of the King you’ll be lucky if they just arrest you.”

“Then you want to stay put?”

“Of course! The punishment isn’t the best under the circumstances, but at least I wasn’t killed or imprisoned for the rest of my life. Didn’t you hear what the King said? ‘…given my first orders…’ as in, I’ll be allowed to continue to fight the Jzanna and protect the Kingdom!”

Kohn wasn’t entirely sold on his circumstances, or allowing the ex-prince to fight considering what more he just found out about the World Heart but for now he just held his tongue. Sasha on the other hand had sat down at the table and started digging into a mountain of fruit.

She paused stuffing her mouth when she saw everyone staring at her. “What? I was too nervous to eat before.”

Kohn’s stomach grumbled at the reminder. Everyone just nodded their heads at each other, wordlessly agreeing with her. Everyone there reached for the food.

“Say…” Swallowing something that resembled bread baked with cheese, Kohn noticed something. “Where’s the Armorer?”

***

A man known as the Prince’s flag ship Armorer walked into the great hall through a side passage shortly after his King declared banishment a fitting punishment for his own son.

“You always were overly dramatic,” he gave a deep bow to the throne “my king.”

“Who is that short, little, old man I see before me?” King StoneTooth jested back at him. “Must be a hermit that went insane deep in the mountains. Who else, but a crazy old fool would dare mock someone that could crush his skull with but a thought?”

“Aye, I have gone crazy, but it hasn’t been too long since I last whipped you into a shape that could do that.”

King StoneTooth grumbled at the reminder. “It’s been over two-hundred years old man!”

“Has it?” The Armorer wracked his brains trying to think. “I suppose it has. My mind must be starting to go.”

“Why it hasn’t left you before now I’ll never know. After all this time that I’ve known you, I still cannot tell if you are getting any older.” King StoneTooth’s face showed interest instead of his constant anger. “Won’t you finally tell me this time I ask, just where did you come from?”

Whereas the King has come from the lands beneath his floating city, the Armorer had come from off-world due to a summoning spell.

The heavily muscular man shook his head at the King’s repeated question. “You always ask and I always give the same answer. A place, much worse than here.”

“It was a mistake to summon you. I can’t ever apologize enough.”

“It’s not your fault-“

“It is!” He denied the shorter man’s claims vehemently. “When things were at their darkest during the Great War, I used the World Heart to connect with another and summoned you!”

He shook with his own ignorance and stupidity. “I’ll never forget how you looked when you first arrived. Covered in blood, exhausted, wounded. Yet you gave me a beating like I never had before and you yelled at me in your language.” A tear escaped as he recounted long ago events. “I didn’t know what you were trying to say, but I could see that look on your face. The same one that I had when I watched my wife and child turn to stone before my own eyes. Horror and shock. The kind you get when you failed to protect what really mattered to you.”

“Boy, stop.” Even the Armorer was shedding tears now. Their talk was reminding him of that day. “I didn’t!” He stuttered at first, but wiped the tears and snot off his face before trying again. “I didn’t come here for that.”

“No.” The King coughed and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands. When his hands rested on the throne again, all traces of tears and emotion were gone. “You came because of my son.” It wasn’t a question. He knew the old man would follow his son on his expedition and he had to have known that he would be punished because of the World Heart incident.

“I am glad about what you did for him.”

“Banishment?”

“You know you haven’t really banished him, little one.” He scoffed at the tall king.

“You haven’t called me little one in years.”

“No matter how tall you make yourself, you’ll always be the same little pipsqueak to me.” This was starting to get a little too heartwarming for these men. They both coughed to cover up their blushing faces. “You cast him out of your house. Took away his name. Stripped him of his title as Prince. You allowed him to escape this place. Just like your other children.”

King StoneTooth couldn’t disagree with the old man’s words. “It’s cruel to lock them away in a fortress for their entire lives. Besides, should one of the other lords dare to challenge me, they would only be killed along with me. Best if they live their lives how they want to.”

“Am I intruding dear?” Evemlaine came back into the great hall during a period of awkward silence. Her delicate hooves made quiet clacking noises that echoed off the columns.

“Not at all Evemlaine. We were just discussing the children.”

“Oh, how nice.” She walked up to the Armorer, tightly grasping his right arm with both of hers. Nestling it between her bosoms. “You know, Beyyele has been asking about you?”

“H-has she now?”

Beyyele was Evemlaine and the King’s daughter. One year when she was young she had declared to him that she would be his wife when she grew up. Ever since he’s desperately avoided her to the best of his abilities, but she always seemed to find him.

“She would have already been in the Order of Whispers by now if she would just stop talking so much.”

“The Order of Whispers is interested in her?”

“They are. Beyyele has exceptional stealth capabilities ever since she was young. When I asked her why she was so good she’d always say, ‘it’s a game I play with my future husband.’” Evemlaine smiled proudly as she remembered her daughter, but to the old Armorer he only saw the dark shadows around her eyes.

“Yes! Well-” He started to explain that he’d never touch her daughter, but Evemlaine interrupted his thoughts with a terrible idea.

“OOH! I know! Why don’t you join Beyyele and us for dinner tonight?”

The tough Armorer gasped before breaking out into a sweat. “Beyyele’s, here?”

“Well not right now,” Evemlaine corrected herself “but she was supposed to be back yesterday so we’ve been expecting her any time now.”

“Is that so? Well then. I-umm, had-ah, better go and umm, get something prepared, for-uh, her.” Evemlaine had started a fierce battle with him as he tried to disengage his arm from between her tight grip. She tried so hard to prevent him from escaping, and even held him in an embarrassing embrace while her husband watched with amusement, but he eventually got loose.

Evemlaine tried to grab hold of him again, but succeeded in only tripping herself and falling to the ground in an undignified manner. She threw the hair out of her eye to see her daughter’s infatuation fleeing out the great hall’s double doors.

“NO! Come back.” She cried at him. When she noticed her husband laughing at her she burst his happy little bubble. “What do you think Beyyele will do to you when I tell our daughter that her daddy let her ‘one true love’ escape?”

“Ha, ha-gak!” King StoneTooth choked on his laughter. He ordered the servants to look for the Armorer, but other than Evemlaine’s daughter, no one could find that man if he didn’t want to be found.

***

Meanwhile, in the Deep Dark, a Kingdom’s Dark Vessel was approaching the capital. A young woman with four legs had just received a message. “Ooh! A Message from Mommy!”