[Trigger Warning: Bullying, Physical Abuse]

Xandrea barely felt any of the usual disgust at the gorging masses from her seat to the king’s left. King Rowan’s obnoxious cheering could not penetrate the anxious chatter sounding off from within her mind. As her husband continued speechmaking in the overcrowded great hall, all she heard was Cheddar’s voice.

“You have a ruler’s imagination.”

“Mother, tell the twins to stop stealing my grape pudding!” Ethan’s voice cut through.

“Ignore them!”

“You always say that!”

“Ethan, if you ignore your brothers for the next five minutes, I promise they will never be a bother to you again!”

Ethan felt a dollop of grape pudding slap his left cheek and drip down his chin.

“Here you are!” Colton flicked another glob of purple goop from his spoon to Ethan’s forehead.

“Just open your mouth!” Garrett chimed in as Colton loaded up another culinary assault. Ethan couldn’t wipe away the pudding fast enough before another load splattered against his face.

“Stop it!” Ethan begged. What stopped the repeated violaceous pelting, however, were two abrupt backhands from King Lancaster. “Leave your brother be! By the gods, you two will behave while I address my liege lords, or I won’t let either of you be king when I die!”

As King Rowan returned to his grandstanding, Colton and Garrett both leaned in toward Ethan just as he finished wiping a mixture of tears and grape pudding off his face.

“We saw you wearing mother’s jewelry!”

“We know you’d rather be a princess!’

“I’ll kill you!”

Ethan lunged and tackled Colton out of his chair, wrapping grape-stained hands around his brother’s windpipe. Cheers from the crowd greeted the ruckus as Garrett easily kicked Ethan away without leaving his seat. Before Ethan could recover, the familiar jolt of his father’s backhand made him see stars.

“Return to your seats, one and all! By the Gods, if only I’d just had one boy. Two too many and no princess-”

“They called me a-”

“Silence, Ethan!”

Xandrea held her tongue as she always had, as she would no longer after tonight.

Rowan pounded his flagon against the sturdy oak table. Gaveling the flagon sent frothy tendrils of mead into the air and quieted the great hall. Pounding his chest, King Rowan let out a hearty belch which reeked of garlic and mead, much to the dismay of Ethan and Queen Xandrea, but to the laughter and applause of the feasting.

King Rowan let the laughter die away once more to total silence, savoring the undivided attention of the most powerful men in Unitare. His eyes drifted toward Xandrea, then back out at the audience. “Tonight, we drink to those brave men who died fighting the Blackstar War. We fought every day for thirteen years, most of us away from our loved ones for that time. I know most of us missed the best years of our children’s lives too. That war cost everyone in this room something irreplaceable. Nights like these, together and at peace, this is what we fought for, this and for our yet unborn children. To them, and to our fallen brethren, we drink.”

“Here! Here!” The crowd chorused. Lord Palmer and Lord Radclyffe were quiet and visibly furious.

King Rowan hammered his flagon against the table until it splintered away in his grasp.

Before the rabble of the feasting could drown her out, the queen stood up from her seat just below the king.

“My husband’s victories leave me humbled.”

The lords of Monarch’s Hold talked amongst themselves as if Queen Xandrea had said nothing.

“Quiet, you animals! My lady wishes to speak of my triumphs!”

Queen Xandrea had a death-grip around the neck of the green-tinted bottle in her clutches. She spoke softly, sounding like a feathered creature. “This quality vintage was gifted to us by the honorable Lord Mortimer Greenway of High Hill. He sent it along with his best wishes.”

As a servant moved to replace King Rowan’s flagon, he shooed it away in favor of a goblet.

While her husband chortled, Xandrea poured out the vintage, dark enough to look black from a distance. “Shall the children drink of their father’s spoils?” Xandrea requested meekly.

“But of course!” The king replied after Xandrea was already pouring two full goblets for Colton and Garrett.

Ethan held out his goblet, excited to taste the exotic vintage.

“Not for you!”

“But why?!”

“When you are older…”

Ethan felt himself fade into the background, watching events unfold before him without the slightest reaction.

Xandrea turned back to King Rowan. “Best not to waste a single drop. Be sure to-”

“What was that, my lady?” King Rowan asked after downing the entire goblet, barely tasting its contents.

“Father, this tastes funny!” Colton spoke up, smacking his lips against the bitterness. Garrett nodded in agreement, his face soured.

“Enough sissy-speak! I expect such frailty from Ethan, but not my strapping first-born twins! Now drink your booze like men!”

“Yes, sir!” Garrett and Colton replied in unison, knocking their goblets together and downing the rest of the wine in three fell swigs.

Ethan thought he noticed a change in his mother. She floated back down into her chair, light as a feather. His eyes drifted away from her and up to the rafters. The vaulted supports crisscrossed with each other and-

There he was, waving at him from the rafter directly above the dais. Ethan knew it was Bradshaw outlined in the darkness above the candlelit feast.

“May I be excused?”

His mother did not respond, she did not even move. The table in front of him trembled.

King Rowan’s fingers were clasped white on the edge of the table as his entire body shook, and blood dripped from his nostrils. Ethan whipped his head around to see his brothers, but their seats were already empty. He could hear their clogged gasps, however, rattling up from beneath the table.

The blood seemed to have no end, even as it burst and sprayed across the dais, covering everyone. At some point, Ethan remembered searching for Bradshaw, as if he might be an anchor back to reality, out of this nightmare.

He scanned the supports again and saw nothing, then blood got in his eyes.