Underground Princess

Palom’s eyes shut and he inhaled a slow breath through his nostrils. He could already feel a headache coming on. This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

"No, Luca, stop it. I’m not drinking lizard tail tea, and I’m not sick," he corrected. Perhaps this would hustle the princess out of his house (though knowing Luca she would ask to stay here while visiting the over world, as she had done several times before).

Palom’s mouth drew itself out into a long, thin line. He walked across the old wood floor until his footsteps turned into muffled poof on the rug on the living room. He stood before Luca with his arms crossed and his toe tapping.

Luca grimaced. Palom could be so damn pigheaded sometimes. He could be worn down when the situation was serious enough - experience had taught her that - but the process was arduous and exhausting. She wished that now and again, they could skip this dance in a battle of wills and skip right to the part where he acknowledged that she had a point and made some concessions.

"Regular tea, then." The first step of the dance was to continue as if nothing had happened, and he hadn't launched ridiculous protest. The second step was for her to make an example compromise. "Even if you want to be alone, you're clearly not in a state to take care of yourself. I won't talk or trouble you, I'll just make you the tea and keep an eye out to make sure you don't die."

That was something of a white lie. Luca was a fan of talking, and it was likely she would only last a few minutes before she filled the silence with words again.

That he was squarely and wholly unloveable. Useless even, in many ways.

Because if the woman he loved, adored, and tried every day to change himself for— to better himself for— could just walk out on him so easily, then truly she had not loved him. Truly she could not love him. That was what it was, plain and simple. She might have thought that she loved him, but it only took her one month to realize that she didn’t. One month of being together romantically. Being in a real relationship. One month and she left. It didn’t mean anything to her.

After all, he was weak, right? Weak and worthless to her.

It was the sudden resounding crack which knocked the elder out of his weary revery. Palom looked over his shoulder in confusion only to spin around fully in anger the next moment. He told her to go away and she was BREAKING IN.

"Get out of my house," he stated firmly. Firmly, but blankly. Devoid of any real feeling. His hands clenched into fists at his sides for a brief moment before then unfurled and laid limp again. The flurry of pink whom had just invaded his house was not welcome. He did not want her here. He did not want anyone here. He could only look at her with eyes glazed over in a grey sheild. Face drooped and gaunt from insomnia, from grieving that had been suppressed. It would be obvious on his person that something was wrong. But to him it was normalcy, for truly nothing had changed for him in the grand scheme of things. He was still alone, and he still meant nothing for it.

"If I didn't go away when there was a door keeping me out, what makes you think I'm going to go away now?" Already she was making her way to the fireplace, opening the grate and heaping on more wood from the pile near the hearth. It was chilly in here (to her, anyway), and if Palom was sick, he needed warmth.

Dusting off her gloved hands, she looked Palom over again and sighed. "I'm sorry about the door, I really am. You didn't leave me a whole lot of choice. I promise I'll fix it."

The house was empty. His sister was gone, no one came to visit. It was just him and the cat, laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. Whatever else did someone do when they were this numb? It was easy to act on emotions. To be happy, to be sad, to be angry, but this was different. This was nothing. That’s all he felt like, was nothing. All of Palom’s life he had been connected to the elements, drawn to them, interacting with them. At any given time he was usually able to feel and emote with one particular element as inspiration. Excitement— lightning. Anger— fire. Sorrow— ice. Lost in thought— air.

This was a void. This was so much of everything all at once that he had no choice but to suppress it Push it down. Smother it in his belly. It was either become numb, or feel everything crack and fall apart until he was nothing but dust and gravel underfoot.

At least this meant he was intact.

Sitting on top of his stomach, Hecate yawned. The grey cat was usually a loner, but in the rainy chill she’d decided to make Palom her pillow of warmth. He didn’t care enough to stop her. The cat gave a sleepy blink of green eyes his way. He looked back with a blank, dull expression.

The sudden pounding on the front door made Hecate startle, her claws sticking into the mage’s skin. Palom winced, but nothing else, just sat up stiffly and pushed the feline off of him.

That voice. It was Luca’s voice. The high pitched eagerness and soft edged concern. She had always been so bright and caring all at once, since they were kids. A stubborn kind of gentleness. Like being hit with a pillow.

Roughly, Palom stood and walked towards the door. He didn’t want to be bothered. He didn’t ant to talk. To anyone. Why bother? Talking didn’t change things. Talking didn’t fix things. Talking was how he had fucked up in the first place, and it was talking that had sent him spiraling downward.

Quickly, he grabbed a quill and paper and wrote in large letters:

"GO. AWAY."

"I'm not going away!" she shouted back, then squared her shoulders and started brainstorming. If she couldn't get the door off its hinges with some finagling, then she would have to do it by force. But this was Porom's house too, and she hated to do any damage to it....

The Ancestors and Porom would forgive her. Besides, she was a princess. Princesses could afford to replace doors.

Grabbing the handle, she planted her feet firmly and pulled back with her full strength. She was rewarded with a popping sound, and then a sharp crack - the wood around the handle had split, and the entire handle came away in her hands.

"Great question!" The princess gestured to the enormous ship behind her. "My Falcon and Master Cid's Enterprise both rely on crystal energy to turn these propellers and keep the ship in flight. The crystals are charged up by mages here in Baron, and we turn that potential energy into kinetic energy in the ship's engine room."

"There are other ways to make an airship fly, though. I have a friend whose airship runs on steam generated by burning coal, and I've heard of some ships that even run on Mist! The last one has always interested me because I know a summoner who can call Mist, so if I had her aboard a Mist ship, I could fly indefinitely."

"Awww!" Luca reached out to pet the tiny flame creature. She had never seen anything like it before, but that didn't make it any less darling. She did feel a bit toasty while touching it, but it was a benefit of being a dwarf to be so unaffected by heat. It made working in engine rooms considerably more comfortable.

"Good morning!"

What was it about his office that made people forget about knocking? No one knocked anymore. Was it because he and Porom were young Elders, that no one thought they’d mind?

He almost thought it was Porom waltzing it at first, given the initial flash of pink— rather it was Luca,a Dwarven Princess long gone since her last visit several months ago.

"Good morning," he grunted in greeting, making a final note to some of the blue prints for the new wing in the Hall of Prayers.

"As usual, I’m grumpy. But things could be worse," he shrugged. "I finally managed to get rid of a three day headache."

"The grumpiness doesn't surprise me." She leaned back in her chair. Even Palom's brusque greeting couldn't wipe the smile from her face. "You know me - I'll come up with any excuse to visit the surface! I would have been back sooner, but Father wanted me home for a bit."

She neglected to mention that one of King Giott's reasons for insisting on a protracted stay in the Underground was because he had several noble suitors that he wanted his daughter to spend time with. One of them, a heavily bearded man who pretentiously wanted to be referred to by his full title at every occasion (Count Something So-and-So, Son of So-and-So, Luca couldn't remember) had driven her so far up the wall that she had 'accidentally' set Calca and Brina on him. After they braided a few bows in his hair, he seemed altogether disenchanted with the princess.

Following that little incident, Luca judged it wise to drop in on Palom, and perhaps Master Cid, while she let her father cool off.