13. wake up in bed with your muse

Aless blinked, then blinked again. What the hell was Delmud doing in his bed?

That was when he stopped and looked around, realizing this was not in fact the room he’d been assigned to in the castle the army was temporarily residing in. So… was this Delmud’s room? Then what the hell was he doing in Delmud’s room?

Trying to recall any reason, he realized most of last night was a blur. After having heard something from a mercenary group about the infamous mercenaries under Jabarro’s command, hearing his own name come up in the conversation, he had proceeded to drink most of the night away along with the memories. Apparently that led him here, to this situation, and his cousin was sleeping ever so peacefully beside him.

Well, at least one of them looked peaceful. The elder Nodion’s head was a little more than hurting. Had he really drank so much? It had been every bit his intention to get drunk, but perhaps he had gone beyond his limit before he even realized it. He grimaced as he wondered if he should go back to sleep for a while. No sword swinging for training would be done today, and lance training even less so.

Though he had been quiet attempting to move himself out of the bed, the boy beside him still stirred, his eyes opening and locating the older male wordlessly. Aless looked back at him with a slight apologetic look, wondering if perhaps Delmud was too light a sleeper to not notice. After a moment Delmud had rolled more fully onto his side to fully acknowledge Aless.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”Though it was just the two of them, Aless had found it better to keep his voice low for a person who had only just woken.

“It’s fine; I can go right back to sleep. What about you though? You were so out of it last night you came to my room and fell asleep before I even got back in. I tried to get you up to tell you, but you were totally out. I had to move you a little to make room for myself, but I managed to fit us both, so it was no problem.”

No problem, but what if he’d gone into anyone else’s room? He’d be all too lucky it had only been Delmud’s room he’d visited in his drunken state. “Damn... Out that bad, huh... Glad I ended up here instead of one the girls’ rooms.”

“Haha. Aless, you might never have woken back up if you did that.”

Indeed, this could have been far more awkward, even if it was with one of the other guys. He couldn’t even imagine how strange it would be to wake up in Johalva’s room, whether he’d been woken by the Dozel or woke up in the morning in much the same manner as he had this morning. Aless was rather grateful it had been his own cousin. “I guess I’ll have to count this as a favor. Thanks.”

“No worries. I’ll just have to watch out for you next time I know you’re drinking~.”

“...Let that one slip, didn’t I?”

11. trip your muse

An exhausting war meeting was exactly that - an exhausting war meeting. Levin had found it best that he avoided this kind of discussion for a while, and he took the time to rest his mind without need of complicated conversation. After a short time, he settled on training himself further in staves, as all things considered, the battles really were becoming more fierce these days. They needed all the healers they could get, and Levin had opted out of staff training for a while. Having run off from Silesia, he hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to learn the basic things one in the Silesian army would have learned. He was a Silesian though, the crown prince no less, and it wasn’t as though he hated his home. As a Silesian capable of battle, he needed to learn staves properly.

That in mind, he made it a point to borrow Aideen’s Warp Staff. His familiarity with staves was mostly as far as healing wounds, and that just wouldn’t do. Not just because he was Silesian, but as long as the battles got worse and worse out there, the fact was he did have friends here now. Good people like this would be a shame to lose, and surely the use of the Warp Staff could easily save someone’s life at some point.

After getting the hang of transferring objects, he decided he needed to move on to people. All he needed to do was get the basics of this staff down to start with, but that alone was no good if that was all he could do and a battle required his help when Aideen wasn’t available for the usage of what was technically her staff. A bit of looking around and he was able to locate Sigurd, deciding someone closer to him was a better idea than suddenly asking someone who hardly spoke to him.

With a few words, they moved upon agreement to what Levin had at least believed to be a safe place to train using a staff like this on a person. There were a few successful attempts, though Levin had stuck to warping Sigurd in nearby areas for now. There would be a time when he had to warp people to different castles entirely, but if he couldn’t manage that yet, he didn’t want something to mess up and put his friend in danger.

He didn’t want something to mess up… but his thoughts were betrayed as Sigurd found himself just above a staircase, courtesy of Levin’s warping. The Silesian prince stared as Sigurd turned the wrong way and attempted to move forward too quickly to realize where he was standing, eyes wide as the taller male stumbled down what was thankfully a relatively short staircase. There was a thud as he reached the bottom, a loud groan following it before Levin slowly edged his way over and poked his head over to see the result. As much as that was entirely an accident, proving he still had work to do in this field, the sight wasn’t met with silence.

“Okay, I swear that was an accident, but I didn’t think you could make my day so easily!” For being a royal, he certainly looked like a disaster at the bottom of the stairs. Nothing befitting royalty at all, but every bit befitting of Sigurd. His laughter only increased as Sigurd attempted to pull himself up, head banging against the wall as he had not yet realized how close to the wall he had fallen and returning to his knee with his head in one hand. “If anyone else saw the way you stumbled just now though… Man, you look so heroic on the battlefield, but you ain’t got much to say for yourself outside of it!”

A string of mutters unheard clearly to Levin through his laughing was Sigurd’s response. “Damn, you make it a good thing I learned staves. Someone’s gonna need patching up in a minute.” Hopping down the stairs, he held out a hand to the Chalphy, Sigurd haphazardly attempting to grab on to it without falling back from his lack of balance. “Okay, but man, that was totally both our faults. You gotta look where you’re goin’.”

“Gah. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you with something like this! I’m putting my life at risk in your hands!” Sigurd protested, slowly getting himself back onto his feet properly.

“Well, I’m sure you won’t die. As in, I’m sure I won’t accidentally warp you directly onto a sharp object that will impale you. Hopefully.”

“I’m inclined to feel more afraid of you than my own enemies!”

“You’re on the right track, my friend!”

“Altenna, that’s… far too gaudy.”

A pout and the new Queen of Manster returned the dress to its place as Arion wondered briefly how on earth that could ever be considered a wedding dress. The place they had gone to was expensive without a doubt, but something like that looked far too out of place. Not only that… but he would be far too embarrassed to be seen with Altenna wearing something like that. Pray tell, that… was not… her fashion sense, was it?

Watching her shift through dresses, it was a little odd. He had known this girl for most of his life and most of hers, and if they hadn’t been raised as siblings, they would have been nothing different from childhood friends. That may have been impossible though if his father had not killed her parents, and if that had not happened, they may have hated each other. Perhaps it would have been possible… but it surely would have been difficult.

Not that he condoned that decision, and it was still hard watching Altenna struggle knowing about all of this now. She would go on pretending she was fine as always, but he knew she thought about that fact many times. How would things have turned out in any other circumstance? They were King and Queen of two different nations that they were trying to have become one, and they were here in search of a wedding dress for Altenna. They were getting married… and he definitely felt differently seeing her now. It wasn’t the same as how he felt when he made himself look at her as a sibling.

Right now, he was here with a woman grown; not a little sister. No… She had never been his little sister, and that had been many years worth of lies. So was that a good thing then? They had finally broken free of that situation, and both of them had embraced feelings that did not amount to that. She was equal to him, and her thoughts and ideas were a part of his. They were in fact partners now, and Arion had no difficulty accepting that. Only… how things ended up this way, with the loss of the true life she should have known. The life that may have never allowed them to be together this way.

Moving to the section of dresses with her, he flipped through the sizes she had been looking at, deciding that must have been the size that fit her best. Despite having lived with her all those years, he had found it best to simply never ask or look into those details. She was a woman, after all, and that was surely a violation of privacy.

“Some of these are nice, but they’re really not… me. Is there anything over on that side that looks good?”

Pulling out a few as he searched as suggestions, he also kept an eye out for anything he felt would suit her. “There are these few that you would be interested in… We shouldn’t get anything too Thracian themed or Manster themed though. That almost defeats the purpose of what we’re trying to do.”

As he watched her nod and continue looking through the clothing, moving over to his side and checking the dresses available, it was only now that Arion realized how interested she seemed. She did seem to have a particularly girly side to her while here that he had never had the chance to notice before now… She really was different than she had been all those years. Her time in that army… must have really helped her grow and learn more about herself. She had been able to extend her vision beyond the lands of Thracia, and that surely had nothing but good for her.

After another few long minutes of searching, Altenna finally pulled something out that she seemed particularly fond of. The two agreed to have her change into it in one of the back changing rooms to confirm her choice, and she eventually poked back out in it. Any previous thoughts Arion could have had of this girl being his little sister that needed protecting were gone; almost like she was a new person entirely. What he saw of her now was simply a soon to be bride, and his no less. She had long grown out of any childish behavior or views, and unfortunately it had taken them becoming enemies for him to truly understand this. He had learned to stop pampering the girl and realized she could indeed stand on her own feet. She was not a little girl anymore, and time has passed before he had even realized it. They could start everything anew now…

“It definitely passes for not being too much of either side. Rather… it looks to be a portion of both, as if it was made for the unification… You should wear it.”

Having succeeded in their war against Thracia, many in the army had wondered if things could get any worse in terms of the warring on the battlefield. It had been chaotic facing so many flying opponents, and though Aless had kept his guard up as they arrived in Miletos, there had been more dark mages than expected at the battle for Peruluke. That meant… there would only be more the deeper they went into Miletos.

As much as Aless had come to know about this group from seeing Bramsel’s crew, the ones on this end must have been more refined in their magic skills. That made sense… They were closing in on Grandbell, and these ones surely had a sensible battle arrangement. Yied had merely been full of dark mages going off on their own, and they weren’t exactly organized; simply dangerous. This was dangerous, and Aless couldn’t have counted the number he had come across and slaughtered. They had this many men in their ranks…?

For a while, even Aless couldn’t be sure he would get out of this even remotely safely. The thought of dying here seemed like nothing but a pity after everything he’d been through, but he knew it was entirely possible. That was why he had planned to go down fighting if it came to that, and take out as many dark mages from the Sect as he was able. His focus was starting to wane though as he faced the last of the group that was stationed here, and the attack to his back was one he had not seen coming as he defeated the man in front of him.

It was a quick shout from the side of him that had allowed him to get his horse out of the way just barely, the ends of the magic still scrapping by his arm. The feeling was more than a pinch, and he was sure if that had hit him, he would have been too close to death to be saved before a healer could reach him. Turning the horse around as he immediately after heard the grunting of his attacking, his eyes met with the man’s body on the ground as Altenna repositioned Gae Bolg.

“You’re not badly hurt… I made it in time.” The sound of relief in her voice confused him ever so slightly, not expecting such a tone from someone he had only met recently. She turned her mount in his direction as she flew over, taking note of the slight injury on his arm. “We should get back to the others. Delmud had noticed you had gone missing and figured you were still out here, so I was asked to search for you. My brother can close that wound, so we’ll head back right away.”

“Ah, right. You’re Leaf’s sister… Yeah. Let’s head back. I’m sure the rest of the army is finishing up too. The battle for Peruluke should be won about now.” She nodded, the two of them pulling on their mounts to continue on their way. It had only taken moments for Aless to realize she had not moved upward into the sky and that she was moving at pace with his own mount. “…You’re not heading back before me?”

With a few blinks and a slight delay of reply, Aless also felt mildly confused before her response. “There’s no need for me to rush ahead. If there were more enemies hiding nearby, you might need help. Besides, I have no reason to leave an ally behind. Unless you don’t want me around...”

The way her tone dropped also made the knight feel bad for the question, even if what she may have thought was not his intention. “Not at all. Having allies that stick around like this is just a bit different than what I’m used to. I may have been in this army for a while now, but it’s nothing in comparison to the years I spent in a mercenary group, where you wouldn’t exactly call us friends. Habit, I guess.”

The answer was relieving to hear to the princess though. She had become so used to being put down in terms of her military related actions that she was entirely thankful her considerations were put first in this army. The way Coruta had spoke to her that day still had yet to leave her mind, but the people here were the mirror opposite of Thracia’s military. It wasn’t only Aless who had familiarity with situations that were foreign to this army.

Now that they thought about it, still side by side, both of them had defected into this army, hadn’t they? They had abandoned the ones who raised them to fight for something else, and it had involved the death of said parental figure. It was odd seeing someone Aless felt he could finally relate to, and she was just around his age, if not his age. He would have to ask her about that later... He’d become used to the ages of the people he knew, but it was a nice feeling to know he could relate to someone his own age and talk on level with that person.

“Hey, when we get back... if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear what finalized your decision to be here. I heard it was Leaf, your family, that persuaded you... and it was my family that persuaded me to stay here. Turns out those two are actually adoptive siblings no less. I first saw you in this army thinking we would have nothing in common, thinking I had lived so differently than everyone here, but seeing you now makes me a bit relieved I’m not the only one. I guess you could say I’m glad to have you around more than not wanting you around.”

It took a moment for her to reply, the words settling in carefully before she smiled lightly. Being wanted both for her military beliefs and strength, as well as her personality and history? That may have even been a first... “I’ll be sure tell you what I can once we’re settled back in over at the castle. That is, as long as I get to hear your stories in return.”