Seated in a chair in the comfort of his dimly lit bedroom, Zephèl was lost in a sea of thoughts. He had put off any official work for the day and had confined himself to his room where he had demanded he be left alone. His long hair fell over his face and shoulders and remained unkempt after a night of tortuous sleep. Dealing with the prince of Aeastalths and losing his temper with the boy had dampened his mood and the knowledge of a possible war between their two countries haunted him. Hatred of magical races ran deep in in Balthae’s history, and sharing a boarder with such a prominent empire that fed off such power was already enough to deal with. Hearing first hand of the possibility of a new war troubled him. No one had taught him how to fend off a magical army before and in his current position, he was completely unprepared to lead his people in his father’s stead. He could continue to turn to Geredyn for guidance until his father recovered but after witnessing his lack of understanding of the Aeastalth’s magic first hand, Zephèl was having doubts. He could always go consult his father, but he already knew his father’s answer,

“Go consult Geredyn…” Zephèl mumbled to himself under his breath.

The stress of the situation was affecting him greatly as a persistent migraine slowly creeped up on him. It felt as thought something was trying to dig its way through through the back of his eyes and out his skull. He refused all food, drink, and company. He even found himself nearly throwing a book at Allia earlier. Something had possessed him to have Geredyn show their worthless prisoner around the city. Maybe he felt sorry for the boy? The first sighting of the intense magics had happened around six days ago and the boy had been in their possession for three of them. The fact that empire hadn’t shown any signs of aggression since then was troubling enough. Did the boy lie about who he was or why he was there? Judging by the state they found him in, he didn’t seem to be lying. But knowing the Empire it could be just a trap to lure them into battle. But which part of it was the trap?

Zephèl’s mind would not shut off. All of these worrying thoughts swarmed him like gnats; the more he tried to push them away the more they would attack him. Just when he could not take it anymore, he screamed his frustrations to sky, pulling at his hair, and knocking over his work table in the process. He knew he was acting disgraceful but what was he to do? He continued on his rampage, venting senseless words into the empty space, proceeding to dismantle his room in the process. It wasn’t until half is living space was essentially razed when he caught himself in his fit of anger. Silently and wearily he slung himself back in his seat. He frantically pulled at his own hair, digging his dulled fingernails into his own scalp.

He was about to start the process again when the door to his room was suddenly opened from the outside and Mathias rushed into the room completely unannounced. Zephèl angrily turned his gaze on him, bolting out of his chair with his fist ready.

“Who told you you were allowed in here, Mathias?” He shouted, gritting his teeth and swinging his fist at full strength.

Stepping aside just in time, Zephèl propelled himself forward with the force of his blow. Catching him by the collar, Mathias flung the prince back and forcefully sat him back into the chair he had initially sprung from.

“Zephèl!” Mathias shouted at his friend who was clearly lost in his own madness. Taking a deep breath and praying for forgiveness the larger man slapped his hand across the prince’s face. Aside from the loud crack of the painful blow, all went silent.

Mathias waited as his friend’s shallow breaths slowly calmed down. He watched as the prince’s eyes slowly closed away from his insanity and once he was sure that the fit had passed he went to go grab two chairs that had been knocked over in the tirade.

“I lost control again,” Zephèl started, his voice had a bitter edge to it but he was much more in control than he was before. Mathias knew better than to respond, and simply placed the two chairs in front of Zephèl. “You are back already? Where is the Aeastalth Prince?”

His friend glanced at the door which had partially closed from the force of being slammed open and hitting the wall.

“If he did not take this opportunity to run away, he should be standing behind the door.”

At that, the door immediately slammed open as the young, foreign prince furiously made his way into the room. Pulling nervously at his long hair, the boy glared at the two men.

“As you said, Your Highness, I would be a fool if I tried to run away from here on my own,” he spat, clearly still upset about the night before.

Zephèl gave Mathias a confused look as the man sat down next to him,

“You told him I said that?”

“He was throwing a tantrum in the middle of the city. I had to tell him something to shut him up.” Mathias sighed deeply. He was clearly unprepared for the boy to actually relay his grievances to the Prince directly.

Taking a deep breath, Zephèl gestured for Yu to sit as well and the boy hesitantly complied. Both men knew that the sudden obedience was simply out of fear from being physically injured again which prompted Zephèl to face the boy head-on.

“I know after last night’s-“ he paused to find a gentler word but almost immediately gave up, “interrogation, you are probably uneasy about talking to me. But after a day of trying to solve this on my own I cannot figure out how to go about approaching your Empire on this matter. I’m afraid we know much less about the Stone Empire than we thought we did.” Zephèl was surprisingly honest.

Yu was clearly fighting back his own temper as he moved to respond to his captor.

“Since you both know that I have no experience as a diplomatic, why ask me for help? Besides, shouldn’t you deal with the problems within your own castle before you deal with foreign affairs?” Yu’s response was stupidly blunt as he gestured to the mess Zephèl had made.

Mathias quickly made a threatening advance on the boy but Zephèl immediately stopped him,

“Leave it, Mathias.” Zephèl ordered.

“But Zephèl…“

“That is enough!” Zephèl took another deep breath before continuing, “I am aware I have problems of my own that I need to take care of. But after much consideration, if I take what you have said to be true, then our goals are generally the same. You said that this plan is your brother’s, correct? Is the Emperor involved in anyway?”

He did not hesitate to get straight to business on this matter, however Yu did not react so readily. The boy looked between the two men, clearly troubled by the situation.

“Wouldn’t it be more appropriate if I addressed your king directly?”

Mathias winced slightly at how direct the boy was being, pointing out one flaw in this exchange after another. He clenched his fist, holding back the urge to hit the enemy prince in the head for his impudence.

“As I said last night, my father is ill at the moment. I am letting Geredyn, the Regent King, handle other business after his failure to fully prepare us for your magic. So it looks like I am the only one left,” Zephèl shrugged nonchalantly as Mathias suppressed a dark look with a cough into his. Yu’d unpleased expression did not change, “If it makes you feel any better I promise right after we are done I will personally go relay everything we talk about here to my father.”

Zephèl waited a moment, hoping this added information would change the boy’s mind. After a few tense moments of silence the boy finally conceded,

“Alright.”

“Good,” he quickly replied, giving Yu an approving nod, “Then please proceed.”

The young prince closed his eyes for a moment. Zephèl could only assume he was refocusing their means of communication or trying to gather his thoughts. After opening his eyes again, the boy set a heavy sapphire gaze on the two Baltheans,

“To be completely honest, I am not one hundred percent sure who exactly is involved,” He paused to steal a glance at Zephèl, wanting to make sure this wouldn’t set the Crown Prince into a frenzy again. When he noted it was safe to continue, Yu waved his hand.

Zephèl and Mathias nearly fell out of their chairs at the sudden shock. Moving images and the sounds of foreign voices erupted in their minds. Yu focused as best he could to transfer his memories to them while translating the speech all while keeping hold on his ability to communicate with them, “I have realized that after coming here, my magic has weakened. I can only assume that this is because I am separated from my homeland. Either way, I will try my best to show you exactly what I know about my brother’s plot.”

The images were as clear as if they were his own experiences. From the beginning of the Star Lighting Festival, Zephèl watched the world through Yu’s eyes. He could not feel the physical pain that Yu had felt through out the entire experience, but he started to get lost in the emotional side. Both men felt their hearts sink as they watched Yu’s father cast him aside. They felt sick when the strange young man had put his hands on young Prince. Zephèl was surprised by how strikingly similar he looked to the boy’s brother. Although it was just an illusion, and they did have their subtle differences, it almost as if he was looking in a mirror. That realization also sickened him as he felt like he was watching himself try to murder the boy. Yu cut the illusion off after he fell out the window and soon all three of them were sitting in silence.

Taking a deep, shaky breath in, Zephèl rested his head in his hands as he begun to think about what he just witnessed. Everything the boy had told him the night before appeared to be the truth.

“Well,” Zephèl started, splitting a quick look between the two seated in front of him, “From what we’ve been shown, we can only assume that this Angiel person is not working alongside the Emperor. Though the Emperor doesn’t look all too friendly either. No offense.”

“He is only my father in name,” Yu’s response was quick. It was sad to see a child hate his father so.

Mathias cleared his throat before Yu could add anything. He looked the boy in the eyes, narrowing his gaze with stern look,

“How do you propose we go about handling this then?”

Another long silence was shared amongst the three when Zephèl suddenly bolted from his chair with an enlightened look on his face.

“That woman in the visions. She is your mother right?” Yu nodded silently in surprise and embarrassment as realized he accidentally shared that private moment between them, “Would you say she is trustworthy?” He continued, grasping onto the Prince’s shoulders, his stone-like gaze beaming with excitement. Caught in the Crown Prince’s pace, Yu quickly nodded his head in response, “That’s perfect then!” Zephèl exclaimed, spinning around and clapping his hands a few times.

“You want to drag my mother into this?” Yu asked with a worried look in his eyes.

“Not exactly,” Zephèl said as he started to rummage through his torn up room until he produced some paper and ink. He went over to his desk to clear off the space and laid the utensils down in front of him, “I want you to write her a letter. Can you transport it to her with your magic?”

Yu stood up and joined Zephèl at the table.

“Probably, but it would have to be a pretty informal letter. Anything bigger than one page probably wouldn’t make it.” Taking the pen from Zephèl, he stood at the desk and stared at the page, “What would you like me to write?”

“Tell her that after you were attacked by an unknown force in your own empire, you accidentally ended up in my care. Be as vague as possible.” Yu quickly started to write out the letter in his fluid handwriting. He penned down nearly word-for-word what Zephèl requested of him in his country’s own script and quickly explained to her the limitations of the letter, “Would it make sense to add that you were injured from the teleportation and you plan to stay here until you recover? If not just tell her you will keep in touch and ask her not to tell anyone of your whereabouts but keep you updated if something starts to change within your Empire.” Yu tried his best to fit everything onto the page, even finding himself squeezing notes into the margins and on the back.

The second he put the pen down, Zephèl snatched the paper from the boy’s hands and immediately inspected it. He squinted at the alien lettering. It looked one, fluid, incomprehensible squiggle. Yu stared at him as Zephèl brought the paper closer to eyes, as if that would make him understand it better.

“I promise I only said what you told me to say. I have no reason to lie.” Yu’s voice was flat but tinged with slight annoyance. He had been trustworthy thus far, he had no reason to suddenly change his ways.

“Alright,” Zephèl sighed, throwing the paper back to the boy, “Go send this off and then quickly rest up because you have a busy day tomorrow.”

Yu looked to Mathias to clarify,

“Tomorrow is the Festival of the Two Heroes, and after you made such a scene in the middle of the city it is only appropriate to invite you as a proper guest of honor.”

Zephèl nodded in agreement,

“Exactly.”

“I see,” Yu’s voice was thoughtful for a moment as he returned his attention back to the piece of paper. The two Baltheans watched in wonder as the sheet simply vanished into thin air. Yu’s pinched the bridge of his nose, “Magic takes a lot of energy, more so when I am this far away from the Empire. I need to rest.”

“Go get some rest,” Zephèl added, nodding his head.

The company exchanged final looks between each other before Mathias started to lead Yu out of his room. Once the two were gone, Zephèl slumped back into his chair and cradled his head between his hands. His long hair fell in front him, masking the pained look in his eyes as his headache started to slowly creep up on him again. Silently getting to his feet, he slowly and mechanically made his way to the door. His stone-gaze had lost its light as he trekked down the hallway in the direction of the forbidden staircase.