As soon as the door slams shut behind us, he practically pounces on me with a torrent of snide comments.

“Oh, no need to be silent on my account.” My father mocks in an icy voice that could freeze most of the kingdom along with all the people inside it. “Oh wait, it's not up to you is it?” He continues to jab and I almost want to scream at him. I would scream at him, if I could talk.

“It surprises me, you know.” My father continues his jeering. “I would have expected you to have broken the little spell I put on you years ago, your mother would have been able to do it no problem. I guess you really are incompetent.” He laughs as he says this, before continuing in a darker tone. “You know, you may have been close with her, but you have gained none of her traits.”

Oh boohoo, I haven't gained any of yours either, you ass. I try to communicate with my eyes and though I say nothing the message seems to be received, if his red face is any indication.

“Insolence!” He shrieks at me and the lamp beside my bed goes flying across the room before I even have time to blink. Thankfully he has a terrible aim and it misses me by a mile.

“All my other children are great successes, even the twins, who may I remind you are my youngest. Not one of them has done anything wrong in their lives, not a single foot out of line. Not one of them has gotten in trouble, or broken a law, or, for instance, gone out of their way to push the crown prince off a balcony.” He says while waving his hands around like a lunatic and glaring at me in a pointed manner. 

That wasn’t my fault. I try to tell him with my eyes, but he pushes on without so much as stopping for breath.

“I don’t care if it was an accident, nor do I believe for one moment that it was.” He growls and I roll my eyes and make to interrupt him with a rude gesture, but he once again pushes on without my input. “Do not dare argue. This isn’t the first time you have done something to hurt the crown.” He shouts at me and I can feel his anger bubbling over with every new word that he speaks.

“Why must you continuously disgrace this family?” He asks angrily. “And after all the chances I gave you? Everything we did for you? Why are you still such an insolent child?” He continues to berate me with questions and I, rightly noticing that this is going to take a while, move to sit on the bed.

“I have given you chance after chance after chance to turn things around and yet you have done nothing but bring disgrace to this family. Gods you’d think after getting your own mother killed you would have at least changed a little, but you are just as disrespectful as ever.” He continues to scream at me wildly and I let out a little yawn.

And you'd think after all this time you’d come up with better things to yell at me about and quite bringing up the same things over and over again. I try to tell him. It isn’t my fault she died.

I am not sure how much of it he understands, but he seems to get the gist of it. Or at least I think he does.

“I wish there was a way to take away your expressions and not just your voice.” He comments after my look and I have to scoff at him. “This was supposed to be a test, you know. You were supposed to learn how to manage that attitude of yours, but if anything the silence has made it worse.” He says in dismay and I am about to interrupt when he starts up again. “No, I will not lift the spell. If I never hear you speak again it will be too soon.” He says quickly before letting out a sigh that has me rolling my eyes once again. He’s always so dramatic.

“I don’t know what to do with you anymore. You are mouthy, you have no magic ability despite the fact that both that women and I were strong casters, and you do nothing but cause problems for the family. You are a disgrace of a child.” He says in a softer voice than he had been using before.

What do you want me to do about it? I think as I look him square in the face. What am I supposed to do?

“You were supposed to take her place. She was my wife, she loved you unconditionally despite everything and you got her killed.” He answers almost immediately, like he already knew it would come to this. “If I had known things would become like this I would have demanded the king take you instead.”

The monarchy doesn’t kill children, it's against the law, even for them. I argue silently in a tired manner, already mentally exhausted with him.

“Children become adults and adults are able to accept the death penalty. I would have had them lock you away until you became one.” He says and I roll my eyes. I am very near my limit of how much of his shit I can take in one day. The conversation is wearing on me.

It is the same one we have been having for years and one we will probably be having for many more to come. It always ends the same too. He blames me for what happened, I blame the king. He thinks I’m useless, I disagree. I think he’s a giant dill-hole and I’m sure he probably has some sort of opposing opinion on that.

So we are at an unfortunate impasse and because of it I have to deal with this whole ‘you should have been the one to die’ thing on a constant basis. He’s not the only one who lectures me over it either. I mean when you have as many siblings as I do it’s inevitable that a few of them are going to join forces with your dirt-bag of a dad and conspire against you.

In fact their constant jeering is the major reason I took the prince’s deal. Well that and the fact that, despite my boasting, I do in fact care if I die and would very much like to remain living if at all possible. Dying right now is a bit inconvenient for me and inconvenient things are terrible.

Speaking of which, this conversation is truly terrible and I have better things to do with my life. So with slow deliberate motions I rise to my feet and begin gathering my things. It’s quick work seeing as I don’t really own much and before long I am heading for the door.

“Just where do you think you're going?” My father calls out to me as I reach for the handle.

Away. I tell him with an incredulous look which does nothing to sooth his steadily growing temper. Well great, he’s mad again.

“We are not done here.” He says and I turn back towards him.

Yes. Yes we are. I tell him with my eyes before exiting the room, hopefully forever.