Letum continued to watch them, until one by one they plopped down unconscious.

With a satisfied smile, he stood up and was about to call for some servants to drag them away to the infirmary when he froze halfway.

Standing not too far is his older brother, who was staring at him in surprise.

Pasithea was also with him.

"How long have you been there?" Letum said, his neck and ears turning red in embarrassment.

"Long enough to hear you tell them that we have permission from the King, which we really don't have by the way." Somnus replied as he walked over, curiously peering down at the herons. "What did you do to them?"

"They're merely unconscious, not dead." Letum waved his brother's concern away. "They'll be up and about in a few hours."

Letum glanced over at Pasithea warily. "You…wouldn't tell on me, right?"

Pasithea blinked at him for a while before gracing him with a smile as Somnus crouched down to the nearest heron and poked them gently with a finger. "Don't worry, I won't. They did provoke you and you only responded in defense."

Letum bowed politely towards her before turning to his brother with a frown.

"Stop poking them."

"Am I not allowed to admire my brother's skills?" Somnus pouted. "Your manipulation skills are really something else. If this was me, I'd probably have caused a messy accident."

"That's because you didn't bother using your ether for anything else."

Somnus's pout became a grimace at that as he stood up. "It can't be helped if I was born lacking in that area."

"Huh?" Pasithea's confused voice drifted towards their ears and the twins looked over at her at the same time.

"Oh, right. I haven't told you that yet…" Somnus said sheepishly. "Don't worry, it wouldn't get in the way of me accomplishing your request."

Letum raised an eyebrow at them, while deep down he's satisfied with himself that his hunch was correct regarding those two.

Somnus looked down at the unconscious herons, placing his hands on his hip.

"Well, before anything else, we have to send these guys to the infirmary. We can't leave them out here like this."

Pasithea nodded as she turned around to get a handful of servants to help them.

Somnus immediately turned to his brother once Pasithea had disappeared, grabbing Letum's wrist and pulling him close.

"We are going to meet with the King tonight, to discuss our trip back to the Empire." Somnus muttered, his face turning serious. "I'd like you to behave yourself for a while longer and not cause any incidents like this anymore. You're lucky Pasithea agreed to cover for you, but if it was someone else who saw you…"

"I'll behave if you tell me what's going on with the two of you." Letum retorted, inwardly happy that he could use this incident to pry his brother open for once.

Somnus grumbled under his breath before squarely meeting Letum's eyes.

"I promised to help her get out of the position as the Hierophant successor."

Letum's eyes widened at that as Somnus let his wrist go, rubbing the back of his neck and looking towards where Pasithea had gone off.

"Help her get out—? Isn't the only way to do that is for her to renounce her faith as members of the Order aren't allowed to…?"

"Yet there have been a lot of rumors that Xanthus wanted to make her into his Queen, and let Nyna rise up to the position." Somnus shrugged. "I plan to talk this out with Xanthus later, so I hope you wouldn't bear any grudge against us if Nyna ascends as the Hierophant in the future."

Letum blinked at him, at a loss for words.

Would his brother even get anything out of that deal? It's so one sided!

Surely Somnus isn't head over heels for Pasithea for real to do that?

Also, why is Somnus also bringing up Nyna when he doesn't even have an iota of romantic feelings for her?

×××

"Preparations for your departure are now ongoing. Please be ready in three days' time." Xanthus told the two princes as a tall, handsome elf wearing the King's colors bustled about and served them tea before standing by the King's seat. "According to the message we received from the Emperor, he's sending people to pick you up by the border."

Somnus picked up his cup, staring into the red tea before looking up at the King carefully. Letum kept his head down, warming his hand with his own teacup.

"I'm guessing there's something else you wanted to talk about with us." Somnus said as he cocked his head slightly to one side. "You'd normally ask Peiren to deliver messages such as this…"

Xanthus chuckled as he raised a hand towards the elf, who then produced an envelope from his inner pocket and handed it over to the King.

"I received a letter of resignation from the person I least expected to do so." The King said with a benign smile. "I was wondering what prompted them…"

Letum glanced over at Somnus, who had returned the King's smile with his own.

"Ah, that's probably my fault." Somnus chuckled. "Even though I scoffed at your proposal before, I kept it in mind. I didn't honestly expect that someone from the royal family would catch my eye during our stay, but here we are…"

The smiles they were exchanging became cold, with Letum noticing the elf's eyes narrowed with disgust as he stared at Somnus's disrespectful gaze at Xanthus.

"I remember passing on the message that you don't have to—"

"You've given us a choice in doing so." Somnus shrugged. "I still have three years to go before I fully turn into an adult and fulfill my end of the proposal, so I hope to hear a favorable response from Your Majesty in three years' time."

Letum's expression turned stoic as he watched the once amicable atmosphere become taut with vexing tension.