#[edward; verse eight] ʟᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀɴᴅ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴀ ᴡᴀʟᴛᴢ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍɪsᴄʜɪᴇғ [royalty au]

[strtravels]

The crisp air of an afternoon in autumn filled his lungs and – he had to admit, he enjoyed this more than he would have admitted at first. Just a short trip. Just Howie and him, as well as the horses. They had left this morning to attend some business at the outskirts of the dukedom and now were returning to his residence; taking the direct route through the small forest, that soon would open up to wide land overlooking the sea. Perhaps he missed this sometimes – the simplicity of travelling by horseback, and how much it reminded him of the days when he had been young and carried less weight on his shoulders. Oh, he was thinking about the old days so much lately, wasn’t he?

“ – It shouldn’t be long now.” He turned his attention to his nephew, with a hint of a smile on his lips. As he had never been blessed with children of his own, he quite enjoyed having his family over. His nieces and nephews. Howie, in contrast to the others, had taken up somewhat permanent residence now, too. He couldn’t complain. It was nice to have more life willing the stone walls – And there really wasn’t a boring day with Howie, was there?

“ – perhaps then you can tell me about your newest idea over some dinner.” | @earthdcfended

[strtravels]

As long as he could remember, he always had a light sleep – the issues with finding sleep had come later, but were now a familiar part of his night, too. He was awake, while darkness reigned outside the window, with only a few stars breaking through the clouds sporadically. A light was burning in his room; the candleholder – elegant, expensive, suitable for the Queen’s castle – taken from the bedside table, as he decided it was a good idea to just move a little. Walking surely would make him find some sleep eventually, and just pacing up and down in his room made him always feel like a madman locked away.

Now he was thankful for having grabbed the heavy candlestick. While the silence in the castle was nearly eerie, it was worse to hear steps coming from the throne room, he had passed on his mindless wanders. Heard someone muttering, too. Guards? The bandits that were terrorising the kingdoms and one reason why he found himself here in the first place? There were always rumours that they were planning something bigger than the usual highway robbery, he had once been part of, too.

Opening the heavy door further (they were already slightly ajar), just enough to slip into the room, he had let his curiosity win. Foolish. Idiotic. – At least it would have been if he had actually found bandits in the room, and not the Queen herself; pacing up and down as if something was on her mind. He knew the look on her face from so many years ago.

The grip on the candlestick loosened again, and he gently cleared his throat to attract her attention, without startling her too much. Still lowering his gaze, he couldn’t completely hide the smile on his lips. Wasn’t it strange how much she still resembled the girl he used to know?

“ – I didn’t want to disturb you. I just heard something…” | @unitlead

[strtravels]

The sun had set, and the moon was shining onto the lands – he could see it from his seat through the window; white and full. Perhaps that was a reason he didn’t feel particularly tired and found himself struggling to just lay his head on the pillow to rest as well as sleep. His feet had carried him to the library, that was so familiar that it could have been his own. So many hours spent here, giving advice to the current queen’s late father – and now to her, even if those hours weren’t nearly as often spent in the library as they had been years ago. There was still comfort amongst the leather-bound sources of knowledge – and distraction, as he had picked one from a shelf and sat down in the comfortable armchair, he was still sitting in, even if he had given up reading some time ago; the book resting next to the lit candelabra, which, beside the moon, was the only light source in the room.

Until there was a shadow thrown onto the wall; another set of flickering candles carried into the room. He knew the soft footsteps accompanying the light – and turned on his seat to find her. Had always thought she was also a source of light, when she entered the room. Had done so, years and years ago, when she came running into the library, wanting to show her father, and him, something new she had found or learned.

He smiled at her. “ – shouldn’t you be asleep? If I remember correctly, you’ve been invited to a ball tomorrow.” | @chloevlinder

[strtravels]

“I knew you would come.” Coins were clinking as he raised the small velvet pouch and threw it at the hooded figure. A small price paid, knowing the sum would be used for good. There were certain things one would assume about a mysterious figure in the forest, but he had found the – at least for him still nameless – figure, to be anything but a greedy thief. In contrast! She had fought against the bandits more than once – more than a dozen time if you believed the people in the village close to here. And she had helped Howie before. His gratitude couldn’t be paid in golden coins, but it had felt right to bring them as a thank you for this meeting he had arranged.

“ – There’s something I need your help with.” A reason he had come alone; his horse tied to a nearby tree, he was aware that he was risking his own safety. But with the sun still up (even if the light was struggling to fall through the dense canopy of leaves), he hoped there wouldn’t be any UNWANTED GUESTS listening. | @ventureheart

[strtravels]

He wasn’t sure if he had really understood what had just been revealed to him; the words were there, but they felt strange, like they had been uttered in a tongue he didn’t understand, and only slowly he could pry their meaning from them, while his mind was racing. Moira’s words had brought back two memories. One was a night years and years ago, that he had tried to forget and yet hadn’t been able to. The other was a night not too long ago, when he had been laying in bed with the fever shaking him, which had been caused by him being left to die in a rainy night, laying in the mud of the road, after having been robbed of anything of value – he remembered Katherine and Moira fighting; hearing their voices when he woke up from yet another nightmare.

“ – I had no idea…” The words were quiet, because he still couldn’t believe it. HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, and she should have told him, because surely Katherine had known. She had kept the secret from him for all those years, too, until Moira was old enough to put the pieces together herself. She was his daughter. His child. Something he had once dreamt of, all those years ago. A family. With Katherine.

Still waiting to wake up, he felt like his head had been stuffed with wool and the anger in Gordon’s voice was only processed slowly, until he raised his eyes to meet the other’s. Or rather, he tried to.

“I’m sorry Gordon, I had… I had no idea.”

@strtravels gets this!! -

"I have been lied to my entire life!" Is Gordon angry because his own father had been an absent shit, even when he'd been alive? Or is it really the publicly believed lie that his sister is his full-blooded sister instead of his half-sister? That she stands to inherit not one, but two kingdoms? That Edward, their mother's friend, a duke from a neighbouring kingdom, someone Gordon had liked and trusted since his younger years... is Moira's father.

The inheriting part is not the issue at hand, but rather the not knowing, the lying... the knowledge that he alone is his father's son, and the wondering how that makes him look in his mother's eyes. His mother knew too. That was a kick in the teeth, a proper betrayal.

How is he supposed to look any of them in the eye again?

[strtravels]

“ – of course the stables at my own residence aren’t even half of this size, but they’ve always offered enough room for our horses as well as to hide on the hayloft, if one wasn’t quite feeling being tutored that day.” A soft chuckle followed his words; the look of fond memories passing through his mind. He remembered hiding there with Kat one day, too. The smell of fresh hay tickling their noses, but they had needed some time to talk and catch up on all the months they hadn’t seen each other – and that without the stiff atmosphere that had always reigned, when her father had visited his own.

His eyes wandered back to Gordon; seeing a resemblance to his mother in his features. He wasn’t much like his father either, was he? All he had heard of him… It was better not to think about it, or his thoughts would continue to wander into the past. They already did this too much, while he was staying at the castle. But it seemed impossible not to think of the past.

Turned his gaze back to the horses now; his own standing close to him. He had come to visit, just to find the young prince here, having just returned from a small ride himself. “ – I remember you seemed quite scared of the horses when you were younger. Much younger.” | @leschanceux [GORDY].

[strtravels]

RAISED BROWS AT HER WORDS – sounding familiar to him, and he knew he had heard them before. Hadn’t they had this whole conversation at some point already? Only that then she had sent him alone to the neighbouring kingdom. Now he wasn’t alone; standing next to her, while her luggage was packed onto the carriage, so that their journey could begin. It wouldn’t take too long, but – perhaps that was also what made him feel so nervous, when everything else he simply couldn’t admit. Not just that it wasn’t proper, appropriate or – true even!

He sighed and shook his head softly, while his brows were lowered again. He was aware that he would lose this argument, just as he had done last time. No point in fighting. However, that didn’t mean he could leave this without a comment made. “ – you’ve always been stubborn, though I remember at least one of your tutors preferring the term STRONG-WILLED…” | @chloevlinder

[strtravels]

“I have to keep telling everyone I’m FINE…” Stubborn, he had always been, and while he had mastered the art of worrying about everyone and everything, he had never been one to accept someone worrying about him. The look on Kat’s face was still burned into his memory – and it hadn’t left her features, even when the words had come over his lips, again and again, that he had just uttered towards the court’s physician. He felt fine! But they knew too well, that it hadn’t been this way a few weeks ago, did they not? Robbed. Left in the cold, rainy night, until royal guards had found him and brought him to the castle.

He had returned to Chloe’s castle now – invited to stay for a few nights, so that her court physician (and a friend of Edward’s, if he was allowed to call them this) could keep an eye on him. Soothing Chloe’s worries, as well as Queen Katherine’s.

A SIGH and he took the offered bottle in his hand. “ – at least your remedies taste better than your colleagues.” | @strgazers [XANDRA].

[strtravels]

“ – I tell you, Kat, it’s still a long time until the sun sets!” A smile on his lips, head thrown back as he tried to relax again, after Katherine’s words had required his full attention. Had sounded worried about time flying away. – And he had to admit, he hated how fast time seemed to pass, whenever they were together. Couldn’t it last an eternity, just as it seemed to take until she would return for the next summer at the king’s, her father’s, castle, bordering his father’s own lands? The months seemed to stretch longer and longer, until he would see the smile on her lips again and hear her wonderful laugh echoing.

“And if you are so worried we will return late – I will race you to the castle right now, just to show you it takes no time at all by horse!” Overconfident smile on the young face; sitting back up after having lied back on his arms in the warm sand at the beach, they had found themselves at today. The summer months turned even the usually rough seaside into what could have been paradise. Or was it her company? He blushed even at the thought and turned his gaze away to the horses, tied to a pole, grazing lazily. | @unitlead

[strtravels]

“– you know I understand very little of the work you do.” He had never had an issue with admitting such things – his education had had a different focus, because his own path had been definite from the moment he had been born. The eldest son. The heir to his father’s title. He had learned manners, politics, history – anything that would be important to follow footsteps, he still, sometimes, felt like he couldn’t fill. But – the work his nephew had chosen, too – the craft and talent behind it, had never been of much interest in his education or life, until his nephew had stepped into his life and taken permanent residence.

He was also the reason Edward found himself here; standing next to Howie’s tutor (if this was the right term) in a workshop, he would rather call a laboratory as his gaze fell on many strange things, he didn’t even have words for. “ – but I cannot hide my curiosity about how my nephew is doing. Especially not after his invention saved us and our possessions from highwaymen.” | @mattellaneous [OSGOOD].

[strtravels]

A hint of amusement on his features as he stepped into the great hall and spotted their involuntary visitor. This wasn’t the castle he had wanted to visit, Edward assumed, and yet his guide had led him here. A stranger of the lands – offering perhaps a little too much gold to be taken to the queen’s castle, to find a trustworthy guide? At least he hadn’t found himself robbed of more than the gold coins he surely had offered to some soul, asking for direction. And he was safe from the night here; involuntary, perhaps, but not unwelcome.

“ – I remember you from the ball.” His words warm; the amusement still glittering in his eyes as he stepped closer to the young prince and bowed his head a little. “Of course I’m honoured to offer you shelter for the night, your highness. I’ve had some chambers prepared for you. You can spend the night and I can take you to the queen’s castle myself in the morning. I’ve got some business to attend there as well.” | @mattellaneous [JOSH].

[strtravels]

A gentle hand to his horse’s neck; a calming gesture as he tries to hold the trusty companion steady, while Howie was tying the insulated saddlebag to it. Last thing they needed was Barnaby running off too, or getting into contact with the glove, because, as far as Edward understood and had seen, that would just lead to the end of their only mode of transportation. On foot, the way to the castle would take too long, and they would reach it long after the sun had set. IF they reached it this way. Of course, he was sure at some point his guards would be looking for them, but… He didn’t like the direction his thoughts were wandering into, so he shook them off and turned to Howie instead.

“I’m sure Penelope could find her own way to the stables, once she has calmed down, but I will send some men to look out for her and tell the local farmers. Surely someone will take her in.” Either because they recognised the horse, its branding, or simply recognised an opportunity to make some extra money. Knowing a lot of people living in his lands, he assumed it wouldn’t be the latter. Most people living this close to the castle were honest men and women.

Putting one foot into the stirrup, he pulled himself up onto the horse, that had now calmed down enough. It had taken only taken one foolish accident in his youth, for him to learn more about horses in general. With a broken arm, there had been plenty of time to read and listen, after all. – Somewhat of a grim expression flashed over his features, before he focussed back on the present and held out a hand for Howie to take, after he had moved a bit forward - leaving more space for his ward on the back of the saddle.

“ – there is also still a chance we might find her on the way. She ran in the right direction, so perhaps she’s just grassing by the side of the road now.” He gave Howie a small smile again. They deserved to have some luck now, didn’t they? “ – We can always look for her tomorrow, too.”

That acrid stench hanging in the air is enough to make Howie's stomach churn. To think that he caused such damage with his invention... He tries not to look at the bodies - tries not to confirm just how intense the power of the glove had been - but it's impossible to look away for too long. Not only did the storm decimate the bodies of their attackers, but it has also charred any and all plant life in its arc of destruction.

He stops trying to tame his hair - that's just not going to happen any time soon - and instead tries to steady himself. It's an equally Herculean task with the evidence of the storm laid out very clearly in front of them. He's going to have to refine the glove and rework the release with Osgood. Make it more controlled. Maybe they could make some adjustments to the insulation chamber? All of these ideas are swimming round his head, fighting the abject horror and the realisation that he just killed two men. Their bodies are still smoking. Deep breaths. Deep... breaths...

Brought out of his racing thoughts by Ed's suggestion of returning to the castle, Howie quickly grabs the glove, making sure to take it by the leather strap rather than anything metal just in case any residual storm lay within the palm. "Yes-- Yes, we should-- Yes." Securing the glove - now back inside its insulated saddlebag - to Barnaby proves a fiddly task, one that his still shaky hands have trouble with the buckle, but if he is going to improve on this previously untested prototype, leaving it behind isn't the way to go. "We should send someone to find Penelope, too. Even if she's lost anything valuable, we can't just leave her to wander the woods."

[strtravels]

How much time had passed since he had last heard her laugh, and yet it still carried the same magic with it, that it had always done, warming his heart with a love for her, he had never been able to put in words. Her laugh was music to his ears, even if she had been told so many times, that it was too loud, to unmelodic and whatnot by her mother. It was the music of the past, bringing waves of nostalgia with it. HER REAL LAUGH and he had always enjoyed making her laugh like this, when they were out in the world, living through just another one of their adventures.

Just as it had done years ago, it brought a smile to his lips, that shone in his blue eyes, too. Amusement, but also adoration, as he looked at her and still wondered why she had to hide it and how long she had done so now. Could her children, at least, make her laugh like this? He wished and hoped it was the case. She deserved this – the spark in her eyes returning, as if the ember had finally been fed air again.

“I apologise, Kat…” The nickname fell from his lips unnoticed. “But there’s no other description more suitable for what he looked like.” It didn’t need a real explanation, but at least the worries seemed forgotten for a moment. He was fine and so was his ward, after the initial shock had been patched up like a wound – except that it was not tinctures but food, a bath and a good night’s sleep that had been used to aid. It had helped him, too, and the memories the dead bodies had conjured up again. Not his first. He always hoped, perhaps even the one occasion where he could still find himself praying, that it would be his last.

But his mind wasn’t occupying itself with dark thoughts now; instead, he was just thinking of HER. So close still. The soft touch of his name from her lips and the words she said, too. He would be careful as she had asked him to and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, but… He never had to ask to come to her?

Once he had thought she wanted the distance between them as he had found no other explanation for the dozens of unanswered letters, he had written, but now he found himself so close to her and the smile on her lips only vanished from his sight, as he put his own lips on hers. A kiss born from the nostalgia her laugh had brought with it, but also from his heart’s desire and longing to be closer to her again.

The longer they remained seated, the firelight casting aspersions on the illusion of mere friendship, the more her resolve began to weaken.....and then, just like that, it broke all together. Not in a wave. No. It was never anything that dramatic. It was soft and sweet. Like surrendering to the lull of the ocean. She'd be content to float along the ebb and flow of that tide forever .

It began with a laugh. Her real laugh. Brought forth by the image he had conjured, of his young ward. The thought of young Howard, his hair decidedly unkempt, blinking in confusion at his own confusion while his dear uncle watched on, proved much too amusing. Laughed until her voice could wake the dead, one hand clapped against her mouth to stifle the sound, the other reaching out gently to settle on one of his. Dark eyes sparkled with mirth, a sense of amusement she hadn't felt in so long.

Oh, how she had forgotten that sensation. How to laugh with unbridled passion, without care or cause.The echoes of the young girl she had once been. No matter how much misery the years brought her, he always managed to find that lost creature in her. Her eyes widened somewhat as she glanced back to him, and slowly, she pulled her hand away from her mouth.

❝ Edward. ❞ The name left her tongue softly. Too softly. It was funny, in a bitter sort of way. Her mother had never approved of him. She had insisted he had designs on the throne, ambition above his station. But the truth couldn't have been further from the truth. Edward would have lived on love alone if she'd have asked him to.... it would haunt her for the rest of her life that she had never had the courage to ask. ❝ You never have to ask. ❞ She chided him quietly, lips curved upwards.

❝ Though perhaps you should put it off until we have solved the issue....I-i meant what I said before, be careful. You are far too trusting of people. ❞ As admirable as his unfailing kindness was, she worried for him. People too often exploited goodness whenever they came across it in the world.

[strtravels]

He tried not to think too often about that day – the attack on the palace and the horrors that had followed. He had tried to keep Chloe safe from it all. Acted as though they were just playing their usual game where she hid in one of the secret passages, and he was lost trying to find her. Except that he hadn’t been looking for her. He had known her hidden and had done his best to keep anyone from finding her. He had done his duty, but sometimes he still wondered if – couldn’t he have saved just someone from her family, too? While he had done his best trying to raise her, he knew he couldn’t replace what she had lost.

For a moment, he wondered if different chambers would have been better to suggest, but he still smiled at her words, as if he wasn’t still stuck in the past with his thoughts. “ – Is that what you wish to have for dinner? I am sure I can have the cooks prepare them. Perhaps it’s just both. The cook’s special preparation and the fact that they are as fresh as they can be. It doesn’t take too long to bring them from the sea to the kitchen.” The smile grew slightly. He had always loved his lands, even when they hadn’t belonged to him yet. The sea right at the doorstep. An endless view from his old chambers’ windows. It could be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether the weather was kind to them or turning against them.

“I should have some flowers picked, too...”

SHE REMEMBERED. Nights wracked with nightmares when she was just a little girl, soothed by warm drinks and a friendly arm around her and tales that calmed her. They would eventually soothe her back to sleep, and she would find herself in the morning tucked up amidst the fine bedclothes of her chamber. Her family had been ripped from her at such a young age, yet Ed had always been there. She always loved it while she now knew him to be a bad liar and that he must have been under immense pressure at the time, he hadn't shown a trace of it then. He was there for her, all the time. When she needed and wanted it. Nowadays she felt some sense of regret about it, even if she appreciated it still. He had put his entire life on hold for her...

"Precisely. An amicable solution." She chuckled softly, though there was a tinge of sadness to her brown eyes at the memories. There would always be some grief there, whether for her family, for the girl she was before becoming Queen, or for what could have become of him. "My old chambers will do perfectly fine, thank you. Maybe if we are lucky they may have those mussels. I still think of them now and then. I was NEVER able to tell if it was the way the cook prepared it or if it was just special to your lands."

[strtravels]

Disbelief was still so clearly painted on his features as he stared at his nephew – no other word would have been correct, and the matter of all politeness had been forgotten the moment the storm had stared roaring. What in the heavens had this been? How…? Too many questions, and he didn’t even know where he should start with them. Was this what his nephew, and the one he was working with, were working on? A storm in the palm of your hand. A weapon very effective against bandits. But was it meant as a weapon? He never had known his ward to be the sort to even like to carry a sword or dagger on his person, let alone – whatever this had been.

He still stared, even when Howie withdraw; but stopped in his own motion to reach out to the other, to put a comforting, reassuring hand on his shoulder, as he always seemed to do. HE SHOOK HIS HEAD GENTLY. “ – I’m unharmed. They didn’t want to injure me as long as I was still useful, and then…” Then Howie had been faster and had done something, nobody could have been able to foretell. Even now, looking at the past and the glove fallen to the ground, Edward struggled to even tell what exactly had happened.

Another breath, and he turned to reach for his horse’s reins. Spooked, the trusty companion needed more than a moment to calm down, but they couldn’t risk losing Barneby, too, after Penelope had already run off. There was still the way back to the castle ahead of them, and the night came closer and closer, as just one look to the sky showed him. A sky still clear and perfect. No sign of a storm in sight.

“I think we should leave now – you can explain to me on the way, what just has happened, but I would rather NOT spend any more time here.” The bandits might change their mind and return, or another group was waiting out there, who hadn’t witnessed what had just happened. – His eyes fell on the two dead bodies; his heart still sinking, even if his words sounded bitter and pressed through gritted teeth, when he continued. “I will send someone for them, once we have reached the castle.”

The smell hits him first. The smell of charred flesh, half-melted leather and the sharp, pungent scent of ozone that can only come after a lightning strike. It's the smell he remembers from the day he and Osgood bottled the storm in the first place.

No. Nobody can withstand what he just unleashed, and it shows, because with little more than a threat of vengeance, the survivors of this attempted highway robbery are gone, leaving uncle and nephew behind with one very spooked horse and two corpses. Howie reaches for the hose, but the moment he sees the glove, still sparking on his hand, he withdraws. Withdraws from the horse, withdraws from the corpses and withdraws from his uncle, who is reaching out to him.

With shaky hands, he unbuckles the strap securing the glove and lets it clatter to the forest floor. "I am... I am unharmed, yes. That was... not my preferred outcome." A hand to his head, trying to flatten the hair that has taken a life of its own and stands to attention in a frizzy mess. "Are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

[strtravels]

It felt like he had stepped into a dream – or rather a nightmare. A storm from the palm of his nephew’s hand, with lightning crashing through the air, as if they were caught in the heaven themselves. Frozen to his spot, his mind was running. Remembering the warnings he had received as a child of thunderstorms and what dangers they could hold. Bizarre how he remembered his mother’s unusually stern voice now, as she warned him about the destructive force of lightning and thunder.

And then he saw it with his own eyes. His muscles unresponsive still, he was just staring at Howie, until it was the SMELL that brought him back to the here and now. Burned flesh. A smell he was sure humans had never been meant to smell. Sickening, even when he tried to breathe through his mouth rather than his nose. Long, deep breaths meant to keep him calm, too. He couldn’t forget there were still bandits left, and so the grip around his sword had to remain tight. Just in case, the remaining bandits would recover quickly.

– They did not. ANOTHER LOUD SCREAM and the one closest to him ran off; his own sword still held tight, but forgotten as he was faced with his potential end. Even the leader of them seemed scared. The look Edward caught in the other’s eyes spoke of the horrors he had just witnessed. HE DIDN’T NEED ANY WORDS TO TELL HIS PEOPLE TO FLEE. And he did the same, finding his courage again, just before he reached the shadows they had come from and that were slowly growing with the setting sun.

“You will regret this!” A warning uttered, and then the figure had vanished.

Edward’s eyes wandered back to Howie, even before he had managed to take another breath, as the weight and tension fell off his shoulders. “ – are you unharmed?!” He finally managed to address his ward, stepping closer and yet – keeping his distance from the metal glove around the other’s hand.

Back when he and Osgood built the prototype, there were questions of how they would control the output. It was all well and good capturing the lightning from a storm inside the compartment in the palm, but they were trying to harness a force of nature, here. Back then, they determined that Howie would have to be sure there was no other option when he released it, because once it started, it wouldn't stop until there was no storm left.

The scream itself doesn't register for Howie. He has become the eye of the storm, and there is very little he can do other than force himself to face away from Edward and direct the storm at his assailants. In this moment, he is Odysseus opening the Wind Bag because there was no other option. For Howie, the storm lasts an age. But in reality, it is over in less than two minutes, and as the electrical inferno subsides, the two bandits who came for him lie there. Charred. Smoking. Dead.

He looks back to his uncle, shoulders heaving from the effort of wielding the lightning storm from a point as concentrated as a glove. The remaining bandits are gobsmacked. Frozen. There's only one thing Howie can thing to say in that moment.

"Do you think... you could withstand that, too?"