Kit was the first to arrive. Based on what I had been told so far about him, I was surprised he arrived on time, let alone ahead of Julius. Dorian pointed out a group of three figures making their way towards the drawbridge.

“There he is. And he’s not alone. Grrreeeeeeat. Leave it to Kit to take this seriously.”

He was walking towards the castle drawbridge, accompanied by two attractive women. Despite the early hour, the ladies’ faces were flush, each holding a nearly empty wine bottle. Kit’s arms were wrapped around their waists, taking any opportunity to hold them close and subtly grope them. All three were drunkenly swaying back and forth, laughing to each other as they made their way towards us. Each time one of the ladies would nearly fall, Kit would offer a helping hand to prevent disaster, but would also reward himself with a generous handful of some of her curves. I was starting to understand Chad and Dorian’s warnings about him and was glad I was no longer blessed with the Goddess’ generous offerings.

Despite his behavior, Kit himself was not terrible to look at. He was about the same size as Dorian and Chad, with his shoulders spread a bit wider, but his skin was very tanned. He had light brown hair, worn long and shaggy around his head, covering his ears and almost touching his shoulders. He had bright red eyes, the shade I generally chose for applying intimidation factors in my games, and a scar across the bridge of his nose from some previous skirmish. He was shirtless, only sporting a sleeveless dark brown leather vest. The neck opening was lined with fur of a similar shade in color to his hair. He wore it open, bearing his extremely muscular arms and chest for all to see.

I gulped loudly.

And what muscles! Kit was ripped! I had already seen Chad and Dorian shirtless, but they weren’t even close to this guy! Only Duncan appeared to stand toe to toe with him. I didn’t know what rigorous training he put himself through to stay in shape, but he looked like he could wrestle a grizzly bear… and win. The only flaws in his physique were additional numerous scars on his arms and chest.

Maybe he did wrestle grizzly bears.

He wore gloved gauntlets on his wrists, with throwing knives stashed in them for easy access. He had tight fitting leather pants, equipped with dual daggers strapped to his thighs, and a belt with pouches lining it. Add in the knowledge that he was the heir to the kingdom’s military house, and I knew his look wasn’t just for show. He was probably as dangerous as Duncan when push came to shove.

Before making it to the drawbridge, he pouted and slowly disentangled his limbs from the women in his company and told them they had to part ways. They turned to leave, but not before Kit gave them hearty slaps on their bottoms. They playfully giggled at the swats, and he watched them weave away before turning back to face us at the castle gate.

And then walked towards us, in a straight line, with no stumbling or semblance of loss of coordination at all.

What a bastard! He was only acting drunk to take advantage of them!

I shook my head and was again grateful that I was plainer in appearance. It would be easier to blend in with the crowd. Of course, it would be easier to break a wandering hand too, had I still been Amelia…

It was like Ash had read my thoughts, as he stepped in front of me while Kit approached. Ash was taller than me now, which I hadn’t really noticed yesterday, and I was able to hide myself behind the gate’s frame and his robes while still getting a clear view of Kit.

“‘ello, my brothers!” He heartily greeted. “Ain’t it a fine and beautiful mornin’ to see you all here at Castle Snobbery! I didn’t expect such a greetin’ for my lil’ ol’ summons, otherwise I woulda brought more ladies!” Kit then immediately brushed the boys off to bow and took Ash’s hand. “Though with a face like this, I may not be missin’ my previous company long!” He winked as he looked Ash over.

Ash turned a shade of pink and Dorian, with a mischievous grin, decided to play along. “This is Ashley, a descendant of the Goddess.” Kit kissed Ash’s hand, “Good mornin’, milady. I hope it to be you I thank for my bumps or bruises in the coming days.”

Ash was blushing furiously as he struggled to pull free, but Kit held him fast. Dorian’s amusement was short lived as he rolled his eyes at Kit’s overblown greeting. Chad and Duncan remained expressionless.

“Just get inside, you idiot.” Dorian muttered. “Before you end up owing the wrong person money or pissing off the wrong girl’s daddy.”

Kit merely smiled and released Ash’s hand. “Isn’t the latter generally your problem?” He grinned, “Always a pleasure, Dorian.” He then looked to Chad, “Still have that wonderful stick up your royal ass, I see?”

Chad said nothing.

Kit nodded, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. Looking forward to the borin’ road trip ahead with you two bundles o’ fun at the helm.”

Duncan finally interjected, “I will also be accompanying all of you on this reconnaissance mission. And you will be on your best behavior, Kit.”

Kit gave a mocking salute, then exaggeratingly marched past us and into the courtyard beyond. The danger of his attention momentarily past, I finally exhaled. And Julius was supposed to be as bad as that?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As we waited for Julius, I went over what Dorian had told me about him earlier and felt I had a rough idea what to expect. Probably bookish. Not nearly as physically impressive as the other three sons. He was also supposed to be older. Hopefully, other than his arrogance, he would be boring. We already had plenty of character in our group for the journey ahead.

I was partially right.

Julius arrived on horseback not long after Kit had sauntered through. He had short, blue hair that was combed over in a professional style. I pushed away the nagging emotional tug which reminded me he wore his hair the same way Dad used to wear it. He had thin glasses perched on his sharp nose that called attention to his hard violet eyes. He was wearing some dark purple robes, a shade or so darker than my hair used to be. He also had a lavender cape draped over his shoulders that fell to the small of his back, held in place with a gold chain. He wore pristine white gloves on his hands that gripped the reins of his horse tightly. I could tell he was taller than the other boys, but I didn’t realize exactly how tall until he dismounted. He easily stood head and shoulders above them and made a show of looking down his nose as he addressed each of them.

“Prince Chadwick, Dorian. I didn’t realize you also were summoned for this task. It must be something serious if the three of us were called for this.” Then a light bulb clicked on, and from the disgusted look on his face, it shattered shortly after.

“Kit is here too… isn’t he?”

Despite Dorian’s annoyance that Kit was also here, he hid it well behind a broad grin. “You just missed him!” He thumbed over his shoulder, “He’s already inside. Why don’t the two of you catch up?”

As if on cue, Kit appeared from thin air and greeted Julius himself. He had obviously expected Julius to not be far behind and correctly assumed his presence would be an annoyance.

“Julius! If it isn’t the favorite of all my brothers? How goes? It’s been far too long since we were all together!”

Julius’ face twisted into a scowl that could have darkened the sun and looked past us to the castle beyond. “I was hoping to report back to Father that the importance of this mission was greatly exaggerated so that I may return to my lab and my studies. I assumed that a drunken monkey could accomplish what ever task was required.”

He then got a smug look on his face, “Of course with each of you on the roster, that projection isn’t far off from the truth. And with Kit in tow, we already have the drunken monkey.”

The grin plastered on Kit’s face just widened more at the attention.

“Julius, where are your manners? We’ve got ladies present!” He gestured to Ash and myself, but I was sure he was just treating me as if I were invisible.

At this prompting, Julius turned to Ash and went to repeat Kit’s earlier gesture of a kiss of the hand in greeting. “Of course. Where are my manners, indeed?”

Ash jerked his hand away in response. “Okay, okay, that’s not necessary!” He said, in as deep a voice as he could muster.

Julius looked at Ash in disbelief as Kit started howling to himself, grabbing his sides as he doubled over in laughter.

“Oh, oh that was beautiful! Are ya always gonna be such an easy mark, Magic Man?”

I was confused. Had Kit realized Ash was a male all along and just kept up appearances for the sake of a prank?

Julius made to cough into his hand and then pushed up his glasses, as if to imply he knew Ash’s true gender all along and was merely being polite.

“Yes, well, please forgive my presumptuousness,” he eyed Kit, who was now leaning against Duncan to keep from falling over, before continuing, “I had not expected to come across a male descendant of the Goddess in our company. Very curious.” He grabbed his chin in a thoughtful pose, “Very curious, indeed. Maybe this task won’t be the useless waste of time I initially thought.”

He then spun to me, his cape flapping behind him, “And who, or what, is this… dirty whimpering stray cowering amongst us?”

It was the first time either of them had acknowledged my presence and I was taken aback by the sudden attention. I scowled, but before I could answer, Chad spoke for the first time this morning.

“This is Amy, and she is my burden to bear on our upcoming mission. She adds nothing to our group, so I would request that you pay her no mind. In fact, pretend she doesn’t even exist!”

“Then why is she accompanying us at all?” Julius asked, bewildered.

At this, Chad got in the taller man’s face, which took a considerable effort on his part, and growled, “She is my burden. That is all you need know.”

Kit had finally composed himself enough that he could breathe again and leaned on Chad’s shoulder to shove his face in their conversation, “Julius, ain’tcha smart enough ta do simple math!” He tapped his forehead, and I could almost hear rusty gears screeching to life. “Prince-y here just needs an available source of company in the long nights ahead. I, for one, am impressed with his ingenuity!”

Kit turned to eye me, “Although I can’t say much for his choice of partners… so which is it, Chadwick? Does she scream just right, or have all the pretty ones finally turned you down?”

The question was barely past his lips when Duncan’s thick gloved fingers wrapped around his neck and twisted Kit to look him dead in the eyes.

“I believe that I ordered you to be on your best behavior. What self-respecting gentlemen asks a question like that of a lady?”

Chad didn’t acknowledge the new tension in the air. He merely glared at me in frustration, as if I was still the primary source of all his recent woes, and then stomped off. Duncan held Kit for a moment more, then released him with alarming calmness and followed Chad back towards the castle.

Kit rubbed at his neck but didn’t appear shaken by the larger man’s threat. “That response could be read either way.” The moment instantly forgotten, he rubbed his hands together excitedly, “I wonder if there’s enough time before we leave for me to bring a wench of my own!”

“I’m sure if you asked nicely, the prince might allow you to share.” Julius smirked.

“Maybe if you asked, Julius.” He closed his fiery eyes smugly and spread his fingers across his chest, “I have taste.” At that, he also decided it was time to move on from our conversation and followed Chad and Duncan toward the castle entrance.

Julius merely bowed his leave to Dorian, Ash, and myself, “Please excuse me, as I have other agendas to attend to.” He brushed past us before stopping and looking over his shoulder at me. “My sincerest apologies at your fate of being matched with Chadwick. I could think of no crueler outcome in life.” And with that, he, too, went the way of the boys and Duncan.

I gave an exasperated sigh and was looking forward to this trip even less.

Oh, this is going to be awful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julius and Kit were escorted immediately to the throne room by Duncan to get the specifics on our mission we had received the day before. Chad, again, disappeared into the depths of the castle, leaving Ash and me alone with Dorian. We loitered on the huge staircase in the entrance hall, and Ash and I attempted to wrap our heads around the two interesting new additions to our merry group.

“I just can’t believe it,” Ash said. “How are those two the promising prospects for anything, let alone running two of the major houses one day!?”

“Julius seems like a pain to deal with but carries himself like someone who at least knows what he’s doing,” I added. “I can see that panning out, but Kit? What’s his deal?”

Dorian was leaning back on the railing, elbows propped up on it, with his head lolling back on his shoulders as he mindlessly stared at the ceiling. He didn’t appear to be looking forward to our new company any more than we were.

“Kit has issues. Let’s just get that out there. Everything, and yet nothing about him can be taken at face value. He’s had a rough life and was fortunate enough to be granted a second chance but has decided to make poor decisions about how to move forward.”

I quirked my head at this and frowned. “How bad could his childhood have been as an heir to one of the Houses?”

At this, Dorian finally brought his head down and sighed, “You really want to hear this, don’t you?”

Ash and I both shook our heads vigorously.

Dorian motorboated his lips thoughtfully, debating going through with the explanation, before finally looking around and leaning in close. “Okay, fine. But you didn’t hear it from me, understand?”

Our excited nodding continued.

“So, the heavily floated rumors about Kit are that one of his uncles owed a lot of money to the wrong person. Guy couldn’t possibly pay off his debts and was in real deep with the wrong people. So, to get out clean, he straight up kidnapped his nephew, when he was just a small child, and sold him into slavery!”

Ash and I traded looks, eyes wide as dinner plates, before turning back to Dorian.

“Debtors couldn’t make much money off the small kid, and his entire house was looking for him, so they put him in the pits for underground, illegal fighting here in Torzoa. Figured they’d get something out of his hide before he bit the dust.” Dorian winked at us, “Only he didn’t. Kit survived. He adapted. It was years before his family finally found out where he had disappeared to and that he was still alive. His old man got him out, but not before Kit had been irrevocably changed forever. He’s only been free of the pits a few years.”

Dorian leaned back again, “And that’s the skinny. Kit’s a rogue, a cutthroat, and a scoundrel. He’s that way because it’s all he knows: survival. Lives like every day could be his last.” Dorian shrugged, “I want to hate him for it, but it’s kind of hard to, you know?”

“What about the way he is with women?” I asked.

“He lives in the moment. When he’s got coin, he can’t burn through it fast enough. He gambles. He spends it on food, drink, and women. And not always in that order.”

I felt sorry for the guy. Still didn’t trust him further than I could throw him, but what he had gone through would have broken anybody in that same situation as a small child.

But Ash was shaking his head in disbelief.

“Sorry Dorian, I just don’t believe any of that. You’re just stringing us along! Amelia’s too gullible too. Stop taking advantage of her like that!”

I gasped and slapped him playfully on the arm. “I am not! You take that back!”

Ash and Dorian laughed a bit, but Dorian had more to add.

“Promise, that’s the whole truth of the story as I know it. He’s barely still a Zannister at this point. He’s made no efforts to clean up his act. The family has practically disowned him. They’ve tried to get him help and set him back on the straight and narrow but,” at this, Dorian spun his finger at the side of his head, “he’s too far gone.”

He leaned back on the railing again, “Besides, I can’t feel that sorry for him when he stole my money pouch as he slid by me at the gate.”

I blinked hard and shook my head at this, making sure I had heard that right. “He did what? Do we need to help you get it back?”

“Nah,” Dorian shrugged.

Suddenly, there was loud crashing and stomping heard up the stairs. It sounded like an elephant was hurtling down the hallways, chasing someone at a full sprint. It wasn’t but a moment later that Kit jumped onto the opposite railing and started expertly sliding down it on his feet, a grin on his face the whole way. I could have sworn he even winked at us as he whizzed by.

“Stop! You witless, blasted cur!”

Duncan was close behind. He didn’t dare pretend to have the skill to ride the railing as Kit had but leapt down the stairs three at a time to catch up with the fleeing miscreant.

Dorian nodded at the passing “He stole Duncan’s too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duncan did eventually get both their money pouches back, but not before chasing Kit through half of the castle in the process. Once that was accomplished, Dorian was assigned the unenviable task of babysitting the devious rascal and making sure he didn’t dig up more distractions while final preparations were being made.

Before we were scheduled to leave, Duncan escorted me back to the training hall. He, again, insisted I should at least wear something more protective than “oversized blankets”, as he put it. He rationalized that, while my modern clothes may be something I was used to wearing, it offered no protection at all. He added that it was not form fitting either, which recalled terrifying flashbacks of the zombie grasping at my dress from my first day to the forefront of my mind.

In the end, I decided Duncan was probably right.

I shed the sweatpants and was provided some leathers that had belonged to Max from a couple of years ago. Since they were tailored for a prince, they were of amazing quality and fit very well. No longer possessing my voluptuous ass and hips, my newly returned boy like shape slid into his hand-me-downs with no issues.

The same was true for the rest of the outfit. Some quick wrap bindings to strap down what little chest I had, and his leather jerkin buckled snug into place over a loose-fitting shirt. The sleeves were a little long, but nothing I was sure Ash couldn’t adjust for me later, as he had his mother’s talents for sewing. I returned to my discarded clothes and slipped my hoodie back on over it all.

Duncan frowned, “Won’t you be hot in all that? Summer is around the corner. Besides, one of the goals of getting you something new to wear was to discard things that may hold you back.” He gently tapped my forehead with two large, meaty fingers, “That means up here too…”

I half smiled at him, ashamed of my own discomfort, “I know Duncan, but I’m just not ready yet. I wore this all the time back home, but not because I needed to be warm on the outside. It was more what it did for me emotionally.” I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly craving a consoling hug. “It made me feel warm and safe… on the inside.”

To my surprise, the giant of a man leaned down and enveloped me with his massive arms in a gentle embrace. Duncan was no fool. He didn’t know everything I was wrestling with, and I didn’t know if he had children of his own, but he knew what being a mentor required. And sometimes, it required compassion and a comforting hug at just the right time.

I blinked away more tears as we parted and then looked down at my awkward appearance, a touch of modern over the leathers poking out beneath, and I shook off the pull to feel sorry for myself. “Besides, I’ll barely notice the extra layer. I’ve worn it so long, I hardly even notice if I get hot in it anymore.”

Duncan sighed, but still gave me a warm smile, “As you say, lass. We will wait until you are ready. My only condition is that it comes off while we train, understood?”

It was not a request.

“Yes sir.”

“Good.”

He then pulled something out from behind his back. It was a beautiful dagger inside an expertly carved sheath. I took it, awestruck at its craftsmanship, and slowly unsheathed the blade. The thick, polished handle was carved from bone. It was very smooth and cool to the touch and felt right in my hand. It had a wrapping of a fine blue leather up closer to the hilt, which was of a simple design and crafted from silver. The hilt flared out gently to protect a user’s grip from being exposed to the blade.

The blade was wrapped in some ornate gold sheath filigree jutting up from the hilt, the decoration proceeded for about an inch before tapering off. The blade itself was no nonsense after that, about a foot long, curved, and so sharp it felt like it could cut the air itself. I gazed at the blade; my stare reflected back at me. I was lost in it. I don’t know how long I stared at the dagger, but Duncan did not interrupt, and waited for me to sheathe the dagger before addressing me again.

“It’s come to my attention that you like to name your weapons.” He nodded at the blade in my hands, “This was a dagger gifted to Maximillian from his mother, Queen Lilliana. He thankfully never had to use it in battle, but took great care of it and cherished it, nonetheless. It is called Lily.” He smiled before saying, “And now he wishes it to be yours.”

Just like the comb.

I thrust it back to him, “I can’t accept this! I’ve done nothing to earn such gifts from the Royal family!”

Duncan had a puzzled look on his face, “What kind of life have you led that you feel you need to earn gifts?”

I was flustered and struggled to find the words. “It’s not that— I just— Max and the queen have already shown me such kindness and have showered me with gifts since I got here! I’ve only known them a day, and I haven’t even met the queen!”

“Would you like to?” he asked, nonchalantly.

I looked at Duncan, eyes wide.

Just like that? He just makes the off handed suggestion and, BAM, audience with the queen?

I looked down at my feet and lightly kicked at the floor with my new boots. Also gifts from Max. “Maybe I would have before. But not like this.”

Duncan nodded. “I understand. What you are going through, not even my vast experience assists me in grasping the words to explain or understand.”

He instead put a hand on my back and gently started pushing me towards the door.

“Let’s go. The boys are waiting.”