“Good morning,” Molun said cheerfully.
“Apparently,” Perian said with a laugh.
Molun leaned down and kissed Perian’s cheek.
“You’re not the only one who can make people recover extra fast,” Molun said gleefully. “Just saying.”
“Please stop saying,” Cormal said with a groan.
Molun just winked at him.
He sat down, more fluidly than Cormal was used to seeing, but he spotted the faint discomfort that chased across his face. Trill reached out and twined their fingers together.
“I’m fine,” Molun assured him.
“I have energy to spare,” Trill said simply.
Molun relaxed a little more.
“How did everyone sleep?” Brannal asked. “Dare I ask?”
There were a lot of smirks that went around the table.
“Very well, thank you,” Kinan said, though he looked embarrassed.
Brannal still looked a little amused as he asked, “Did everyone at least sleep atsomepoint so that we can have a productive conversation today?”
They all nodded and went to work on their breakfast, keeping the flow of conversation inconsequential. Once everyone had eaten their fill, they moved back into the sitting room.
“All right,” Brannal said. He looked a little bit tense, and Cormal understood why when he continued to speak. “To try to understand what happened to the Prince, I think we have to start seven years ago, when the castle was attacked by wraiths.” He made eye contact with Kinan, Cormal, and Molun, his own eyes dark and sad. “I apologize for any bad memories this stirs up.”
Cormal interrupted. This was absolutely his burden, and there was no way he was making Brannal take it on. “The important thing is helping Kinan.” The others nodded. Of course, that didn’t mean this still wasn’t going to be an awful conversation. And it started with him. “I, uh, have been keepingthis a secret until yesterday, but I think for the sake of our joint understanding, you should know as well.” He looked at Molun and Arvus, drew a breath, and let it out slowly. Then he made himself say, “My father was the one who let the wraiths in the castle.”
Molun goggled at him. “Yourfather?Summus?”
Cormal nodded, trying not to look as stiff as he felt, explaining what he’d told Brannal and Perian yesterday, how he’d caught a glimpse of them but had obeyed his father’s instructions not to say anything.
Molun looked stunned.
Brannal picked up the narrative, voice carefully clipped as he described the attack at Kinan’s birthday celebration.
“The wraiths were everywhere and had already killed multiple people by the time Molun and I arrived.”
Cormal could still hear the screaming if he closed his eyes. Could still see where his father had fallen to the floor, dead, when his shield buckled under too many wraiths.
Brannal’s jaw could have been carved from granite as he continued. “Several wraiths went after the Princess, and the Prince dove in front of her while I threw up a shield to protect them. Molun and I used air to push everyone else into the corner with Cormal. Cormal put up a shield, I shielded the other entrances, and then Molun and I flooded the room until the wraiths were dead.”
By the end of this recitation, Trill and Arvus were holding onto Molun, Perian had actually crawled into Brannal’s lap, and the Prince was trying as hard as he could to touch Cormal, his hands hovered over Cormal’s thighs.
Trill cleared his throat. His eyes were huge. “Uh, what’s a shield? You clearly don’t mean a physical one.”
Each of the Mage Warriors demonstrated the shield they could produce: Arvus, then Cormal, then Molun, and finallyBrannal. It was evident immediately how much more powerful Brannal was than the rest of them.
To Trill, Perian said, “He can control all of the elements.” He winked. “It’s super hot.”
The tension in the room lightened for a moment, though it didn’t last for long, as Brannal went on, his expression bleak.
“The Prince was dead, or so we thought, his body behind my shield with his sister. The Princess was unconscious. Summus and Secundus were dead, along with multiple other people.”
