“You could do that now, as you did with the fisherman. I saw you have that skill.”
Wilhelm’s eyes rolled back into his head and his eyelids fluttered briefly before he gave Markus a hard look. “Really, Markus?” Wilhelm hissed. Markus blinked. “Good God. It’s like talking to a child. What are the pair of covenants our clans share?”
Markus frowned. “The first is...Glamour.” In which they could change their appearance.
“And the second?” Wilhelm pressed.
“Persuasion,” Markus said slowly.
“Or Suggestion - whatever. What does it mean?”
“It means you can make people do what you want. Like with the fisherman.”
“But?” Wilhelm asked, rolling his wrist at Markus, who simply blinked at him in response. Wilhelm scowled. “But not on each other, you twat. We can see through each other’s glamours and are not affected by each other’s suggestive powers. It only works on others outside of our Covenant. I can’t make you or anyone in your family do anything you don’t want to do...but, if we form a covenant between us, you will desperately want to do what I tell you to. If you don’t do it, it would make you physically ill with yourself, genuinely upset.”
“But it would go both ways.” Markus pointed out.
“Yes, but I have very strong self-control.” Wilhelm said firmly.
“And I’m very stubborn,” Markus stated easily.
“Yes, but you see,” Wilhelm snapped, “I won’t care. I don’t feel bad about things. I don’t feel anything. You, on the other hand, are constantly in emotional turmoil, worse than a woman.” Markus turned his head from his slightly, confused. “Just because you’ve numbed yourself to your feelings doesn’t mean it isn’t there under the skin, simmering and influencing your decisions, no matter how insignificant those decisions might seem. You're a mass of anxiety all the bloody time. I can practically smell it from here.”
Markus remembered in that moment that Penemue men were empaths and knew what others' emotions were. The women, however, few there ever were in the clan Penemue, were empathetic manipulators and could change the emotion of others.
“So if this covenant is made, it wouldn’t be such a sweet deal for you.” Wilhelm eyed him then. “Do you want my influence over you for the rest of eternity? Bound by my sins, whatever they maybe? Be forced to be damned along with me for something out of your control?”
Markus’ frown deepened. “It that’s what must be done.”
Anger flashed across Wilhelm’s face before it was quickly hidden. “Well, I guess we know where you stand on the matter.”
Markus nodded in agreement. “That is where I stand.”
“That’s what I just said!” Wilhelm snapped loudly, yanking his coat tighter around himself before he pounded on the wall behind him with his elbow. “WHEN THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE GETTING THERE?!”
“We’ll be coming up on the town soon, sir.” The driver’s muffled voice could be heard saying.
“We damn well better be!”Wilhelm shouted back before he reached into the wooden box next to him. He dug around in it for a minute to withdraw a metal box to set in his lap. Taking off the lid, he revealed three rows of brightly colored items, slightly rounded. He withdrew one and Markus saw it was a round sort of dessert. Wilhelm popped it into his mouth to chew on it with a peeved expression, quick to shove another into his mouth after that to chew on it.
Markus reached forward for one, curious, but had his hand slapped away.
“Treats are for those who get results. None for you until we are sure we are or aren’t going to war.” Wilhelm said once he swallowed, popping another one onto his mouth.
Markus stared at him with a blank look before he sat back to watch as the other prince silently ate through the entire container, then dropping it back into the box with a sated expression.
“What were those?” Markus asked when things had quieted down and Wilhelm didn’t look like he wanted to bite off his head.
“They were macaroons,” Wilhelm said carelessly.
Markus chewed on his tongue for a beat as his stomach growled. “I remember now that you had been eating those the last time we met as boys.” He didn’t share then either.
Wilhelm sighed. “That was before Grandfather locked me away. I had to stop when I was there and was put on very strict diet.” Wilhelm said with some bitterness. “I used to eat a lot of them when I was a boy - they were my favorite thing of all. Helped me get through some difficult moments...I would eat them with every meal before the tower…snacked on them throughout the day and never get tired of their taste.” He said with a mournful look at the empty box. “Not a terribly healthy habit, but alas.” He shrugged a shoulder and sighed pitifully.
Markus nodded. “Is that why you were so fat as a child?” He asked with honest curiosity.
Wilhelm’s eyes flashed with white hot fury and Markus managed a little, poliet smile before the other waved a hand and Markus was thrown through the hard roof of the carriage to land heavily in the welcoming arms of the trees on the side of the road. He laid there in silence, tangled in the tree limbs as he listened to Wilhelm’s furious shouting. When he heard the carriage stop, he lifted his head to see Wilhelm get out.
Wilhelm furiously screamed to the driver that he would be walking the rest of the way and to go find someone to repair his carriage.
Markus dropped out of the tree then and quickly matched Wilhelm’s stomped paces. “Walking will be good for you. It will work off-”
“I swear to God, Markus. If you say what I bloody well think you’re about to say, I’ll throw you so far up into the sky you hit the sun!”
Markus continued. “I was going to say your frustration. Exercise is good when you are frustrated.” At least, that was true for Markus. Whenever he was feeling down or upset about something, he’d run it off until he was exhausted, and then he’d feel much better. Light headed, but better.
Wilhelm replied with a growl before he tried to walk faster than Markus, but found that was futile as the other easily matched his pace. He eventually settled for barking at Markus to stay on the other side of the road.
By the time they reached the next town, Wilhelm seemed more annoyed than ever.
By the time they determined it was more mermaids, though they choose to keep their distance, the other prince was still snarling.
It wasn’t until after Wilhem bought himself bread and ate it all- still not sharing - that he calmed down enough to tell Markus that they would need a horse.
“If we are to see the obelisks, I’m not walking all the way to the sea, thank you very much.” Wilhelm said with a raised nose. “ Are both the ones in the mountain identical?”
Markus nodded.
“Than we shall start with the one in the Lackland mountain. That is much closer.”
Markus stiffened but nodded.
“Good,” Wilhelm said then. “Now make yourself useful and fetch me a horse. My feet hurt.”
Markus stared at Wilhelm’s feet with a confused look. “But we’ve only been walking for nine hours….how could they possibly hurt?” The look Wilhelm gave him could have melted the flesh off a weaker man’s face, but it was still nothing compared to the look Julius always wore. He frowned at it and turned to find a horse for the other, wondering if the reason his feet didn’t hurt was due to his invulnerability. Or, perhaps, maybe the other really was fragile.
“AND DON’T COME BACK WITHOUT A PROPER SADDLE, EITHER!” Wilhelm screamed after him.
Markus decided the other was, indeed, fragile.
Perhaps being bound to him for all of eternity would be more trying than he was prepared for, but he had no choice. Markus had to further the Covenant, or else this Kingdom would have wasted another generation, keeping regeneration out of their family once again, and he wouldn’t allow himself to be known for that.
“WHY ARE YOU WALKING SO SLOWLY?! HURRY UP!”
Markus looked over his shoulder at where Wilhelm was glaring at him before he turned back around to face forward, frowning deeply as he contemplated an eternity of hearing that awful screeching.
At Wilhelm shouting for him to hurry along, Markus shuddered hard enough that it made his stomach twist.
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