Aleksei dutifully followed the princess as she exited the castle’s main building. Aleksei was a bit curious about this unknown portion of the castle grounds, since he hadn’t gotten a chance to see it the day before during the short tour given by King Alf’s head advisor.
Aleksei had secretly been curious about where the Ástlander knights trained; Aelius had made no mention of it during the tour and Aleksei hadn’t seen any indication of training grounds being located in or around Álfheim Castle, yet His Royal Highness, the Prince of Ástland, had been going on and on about where and how he trained throughout the majority of the previous night’s banquet. Aleksei had tried to make a few internal notes the night before about what the other prince was saying, but had been a bit distracted by how silent his bride-to-be was, so Aleksei had been unable to retain much of the information that was being excitedly shared with himself and the other members of the envoy. There was also the factor of the Ástlander prince just spouting information verbally, so Aleksei didn’t have the visuals to picture the training methods and retain them.
Aleksei was keen to learn more about the kingdom his fiancée grew up in first hand. He had been spending the walk to the rumored training grounds, just casually looking around and trying to take in information where he could. Many of the different doors the small group passed were overly ornate, or showed hints at what could potentially lay behind them, so Aleksei was a tad bit shocked when his fiancée stopped in front of a set of small simple wooden doors. As soon as he stepped through the small wooden doors behind Íris and the princess, he was overwhelmed by the thunderous sounds of fighting. Aleksei had no clue why he couldn’t hear even a hint of such a cacophony, yet now it was so loud that he could barely think.
Aleksei squinted into the bright light the outside brought, in contrast with the moody hallways inside the castle walls. He wondered if he would be able to pinpoint the reason it was so much louder at the Ástlander training grounds than it was at the more familiar Taicirusian training grounds. Before Aleksei’s eyes could adjust to the sudden light, though, there was sudden silence again.
Once Aleksei’s eyes were fully adjusted, he saw a large line of burly men and a few women; all of them dressed in semi tattered clothing that was caked with varying amounts of dirt. The line of people were all technically standing at attention, but it felt more relaxed than what Aleksei was familiar with in Taicirus. Their attention seemed split between the princess that Aleksei had followed to get here, and two people who were faced towards the line of Ástlander warriors.
It took a moment for Aleksei to recognize one of the people the warriors were focused on was the male heir of the kingdom they currently were located in. The Ástlander prince’s choppy silver hair was sticking out every which way, and was dusted with so much dirt that it almost appeared to be a light brown at first glance. His sunburnt skin was also streaked with a mix of dirt, sweat, and other grime in general. The only reason Aleksei had been eventually able to place that this person was the same prince as the night before was because, when he turned around, their familiar dark blue eyes held the exact same confident, yet quiet, power that the prince had been exuding the night before.
Aleksei didn’t recognize the other person who stood beside the grungy prince, but it seemed all the warriors were showing the tall man a decent amount of respect; even though, to Aleksei, the impression he gave was that of a man who was more of the quiet and reserved type who didn’t actively search out such attention. The man had the characteristic purple hair that many of the Forest Clan of Witches possessed, so Aleksei wondered if the man had anything to do with Queen Ivithia and the Frothleikr twins’ maternal side of their family. The mysterious man had a darker shade of hair than the queen’s; more of a dark amethyst shade, while Queen Ivithia had more of a light iris shade of purple. His tall brawny build also appeared like it would dwarf the petite looking queen, so Aleksei was unsure how close exactly the man was related to the twins and their mother. Aleksei didn’t have to wait long to find out though.
“Do my eyes deceive me, or do I see both the Tvígandr Twins in one place?” Contrary to the man’s initial timid composure, the unknown man had a bit of an upbeat and humorous tone behind his words.
Aleksei thought he noticed his fiancée’s tense body posture relax as she responded to the mysterious man. “I am the one who is surprised, Uncle Røkia. When did you arrive? I had assumed, since we hadn’t heard from you, that you were going to be too busy traveling to stop by before I left.”
“Røkia” came over to the young woman and lightly ruffled her hair; seeming to do his best not to mess up her hairstyle, but failing slightly. “I did arrive later than I had wanted to last night, but my sister informed me that I, luckily, hadn’t missed your send off. I was worried I would have to chase after the envoy to say my goodbyes.” As the older man chuckled softly, Aleksei tried to picture what would have happened if such a large man came chasing after the envoy. Aleksei quietly agreed that it was lucky the man hadn’t missed his supposed niece’s send off.
The other half of the Frothleikr twins followed close behind his uncle and elbowed the taller man when he ruffled his sister’s hair. “You might have made it in time to see my twin off, but that doesn’t mean you can rub your dirty hand through Frey’s hair, Uncle Røkia. I mean look at my sister’s hair; it’s obvious some serious thought was put into it.” The way the prince glanced over at Íris and Aleksei while speaking to his uncle made Aleksei feel like the pointed look was supposed to be hiding a secret between the three royal Ástlanders.
Aleksei didn’t get a lot of time to pry into the different possibilities of things that could have been kept secret, or what exactly made him feel like there even was a secret to be had. Right as Aleksei was about to try to analyze the exact wording and phrasing the prince had used, his bride-to-be turned to him and suddenly called him over. “Sir Magni, it doesn’t appear that the head guard, Cyneweard, is here at the moment. I assume he is probably swapping out some of the training weapons in the training armory. Since my uncle is here, I will be more than safe if you have one of our trainees lead you to where you can find Cyneweard.”
The timing of the princess was definitely odd, but since Aleksei was supposed to be acting as one of her servants, he couldn’t speak back about the lightly veiled order. Aleksei bowed slightly towards the three Ástlander royals, tucking the mystery of the brief pointed look to the back of his mind for the moment. “If you believe that will be best, Your Royal Highness. I shall accept the guidance of one of the trainees so that I may meet with the head guard. I shall also do my best to learn from him the correct methods to guard you, while still making sure you are still comfortable with the arrangement during the coming month of travel.”
Aleksei straightened back up and waited as one of the Ástlander trainee soldiers was waved over to become his guide. Aleksei was feeling confident that Íris would be enough to stay behind and pick up on if there was anything strange going on underneath the surface. Íris was sometimes even more observant than Aleksei was, and considering Aleksei was not only the prince of the kingdom Íris grew up in, but also similar to a childhood friend as well, Aleksei figured if there was anything suspicious surrounding the person he was to marry, Íris would most likely report to him about her findings at some point.
Aleksei quickly regretted his decision to follow the suggestion to meet the head guard though; since, as he was following the trainee and leaving the direct training grounds, Aleksei overheard the princess temporarily dismissing Íris as well. “Íris, if you wouldn’t mind, would you please go grab a comb or hairbrush from my bed chambers so you can fix my hair that you worked so hard on? While you are at it, please also ask one of the maids to show you where to grab a clean cloth so I can wipe off some of the dirt that my uncle probably accidentally rubbed into my hair. I don’t trust any of the sweaty towels that the people training brought since the towels are probably just as dirty as their owners.”
There definitely seemed like there was something the princess wanted to discuss with her brother and uncle without the prying eyes or ears of the Taicirusian envoy. Unfortunately, now that both Aleksei and Íris had been sent away with semi-rational reasons, Aleksei would only be left wondering to himself what they could be discussing in private.
Whatever it was that the three Ástlanders were discussing, Aleksei hoped it wouldn’t end up being anything that could potentially threaten his kingdom without his knowledge.
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