Chapter 5: Letter To The King.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Letter To The King.

He had been rather popular with audiences today, in fact, popular enough that he had been visited by the heads of several noble families, all with very strong opinions on the matter...

"Vogrid, what was it that Lord Spidra was saying just then?" Gurdet mused while pouring over the wording of a letter he was required to send. "I’ve grown far too used to dismissing him that I can hardly start listening to him now." It had been rather rude of him to send the Briyagii soldiers off home without an accompanying letter, but Silas had seen fit to do much the same thing, not to mention, Gurdet had wanted those men gone from his land.

Nonetheless, courtesy dictated that he should probably at least send a message.

"... ’A most outrageous farce to have a noble prince marry a beastly beggar, and another man, at that’," vogrid quoted back at him dryly, coolly eyeing the back of the elegantly dressed nobleman who was making quite a show of storming out, "Among other things."

" –A beggar," Gurdet tutted, feigning incredulousness as he debated over whether it was too early to start ordering wine, "A prince is a prince whether he currently has a kingdom or not..." He scoffed in irritation; no doubt the noble Lord spidra would be back with reinforcements at some stage, and though it was amusing seeing all them all flustered and squawking about his nephews impending engagement, Lord Spidra had always been...persistent. "I don’t know what it is about that man that always leaves me with a headache."

"I know the feeling, your majesty." vogrid says, turning to beckon for a Servant.

He thought he heard a chuckle, and within moments, he quickly found out why.

" –How could you not tell me?"

"Good morning to you, my dear daughter," Gurdet greeted innocently, looking up across the royal dining room to see Xena standing there in a deep green gown, hands on hips and cheeks puffed out in the way she had when she was a child. "...You’re meant to give me warning about these things, vogrid ..." he added in a low mutter to his attendant.

"She’s rather swift when angry at you, your majesty."

"Indeed," Gurdet sighed in resignation, before letting his voice rise nonchalantly as his daughter glided across the room looking thoroughly displeased, "Come to join your father for lunch, have we?"

"Are the rumours true?" Xena demanded to know, drawing to a halt beside Gurdet’s chair and stubbornly remaining standing though the servants were kind enough to set a place for her.

"Xena can we not do this now?" he sighed, taking a sip of his wine, "I have just gotten rid of Lord Spidra, and you know what he’s like –"

"So it’s true then?" she huffed, "Prince Khobi is here for marriage? And I had to hear about it from Lady Judi? You know she’s been trying to make a fool of me ever since I rejected her offer to marry her son..."

"Well, maybe you should have married her son," Gurdet pointed out, "He’s handsome, at least."

"...Sometimes he throws things at servants," she sniffed, folding her arms.

"...Not just servants," vogrid muttered from behind the king’s chair.

"We all have our flaws," the king shrugged pointedly, "Sit down and let’s have a nice meal, shall we?" He gestured for his daughter to take a seat, and it was much to his relief that she deigned to do so, obviously as intrigued as she was annoyed that she’d had to suffer the indignity of finding out such significant news second-hand.

"So?" Xena inquired, her tone of forced politeness. "...Are you going to explain yourself?"

"...I thought we were going to have lunch."

" We are," she replied quickly, and with a far-too-kind smile for how cross she’d been only a moment ago, "And we’re going to have a civilised conversation about why you neglected to tell me my cousin is suddenly engaged."

"Oh, are we now?" Gurdet remarked with a light roll of his eyes, but she was using the kind of commanding, no-nonsense voice that always reminded him of her mother –one that even he had often struggled to argue against. She simply folded her hands in her lap and batted those bright green eyes at him expectantly. "Well, as I’m sure you’re well aware, you still don’t have a husband –"

"Father, like I’ve said –"

" –It just so happens," he continued, talking over her and holding up a finger to mute her retort before this spiralled in his least favourite kind of argument, "That a lot of eligible bachelors in a lot of powerful kingdoms are also well aware of this." She sighed in exasperation and he couldn’t help but let his lips curl up into a winning smirk, "...Including King Silas Luminous."

Oh, the look of outright astonishment on her face was priceless. Sometimes there really was no greater joy than shocking your children.

"You seem surprised that you’d catch his interest," Gurdet tittered, relishing his next mouthful of wine, "He’s still a man, after all, and one looking for a wife of equal birth to bear him an heir, not not to mention you’re the only princess in all the kingdoms that comes with a throne."

"How come I didn’t know about this?" she whispered, her eyes widening in something that seemed rather similar to mortification. "I-I thought you were desperate to marry me off..."

"Oh, let’s not pretend you were ever going to marry him," Gurdet scoffed, "If you wouldn’t marry a man for occasionally tormenting small animals, then I can’t imagine you marrying one who destroys kingdoms for pleasure." At least she had no argument against that. "And though he phrased it so nicely, using words like ’alliance’ and ’uniting our people’, I took the liberty of declining on your behalf." It was almost insulting that he felt like he’d never seen her look at him with such love. "Like I’d let my lovely daughter marry a spider like him." For a moment it was just about heart-warming, until Xena’s brow creased and her expression grew suspicious.

"...From what I hear...King Silas isn’t known to be a reasonable man," she murmured, "Would he have taken your refusal badly...?"

"Sweetheart, he’s a king," he reminded her condescendingly, "He’s used to getting what he wants, and what he wants is Crade. And if he doesn’t marry you, he doesn’t get it. Of course he took it badly. And that’s why we have Khobi." Oops, did he just laugh a little?

"So what, you offered him Loac instead?"

"You make it sound like I’m selling my own flesh and blood," he sniffed, feigning hurt by the accusatory tone of her voice, " It was a reasonable alternative, the marriage of my royal nephew to a suitable match of Silas’s choosing. I couldn’t well refuse such a generous offer of an alliance, could I? That would have been outright rude."

"So instead you were passively rude?" Xena groaned. Well, that was certainly one way of looking at it. Silas had played nice under the pretence of forming some peace agreement by the uniting of their kingdoms by marriage, but Gurdet was himself cunning enough to know what he was really after. And there was no way on earth that Gurdet was letting Silas have any sort of claim to the throne of Crade.

"I played along," Gurdet corrected, as the servants sidled up to begin loading the table with plates of food for lunch. He didn’t miss the way his daughter’s eyes softened sadly at the all-too familiar sight of the empty third place set across from her. "If it was really an alliance he was after, marriage to any of the royals should have been acceptable..." He shrugged while nibbling on a piece of bread. "And besides...I didn’t think he would make a move so...amusing..."

"Oh father, maybe you should have married him instead," Xena sniffed, and Gurdet ignored the snort of agreement from behind his chair.

"Come now," he chuckled, "You can’t say it’s not a little clever? I asked him to send me a match of suitable birth for my nephew. I made the mistake of not specifying a bride, and Silas exploited that. He sent me a prince, Xena, there really is no one more suited to marrying royalty than royalty..."

" –There’s no need to sound so impressed," she scoffed with a roll of her eyes, "But really, Prince Khobi has been in Briyagi since the fall of Scargga’s , most people would have forgotten he was ever a royal to begin with, why on earth would Silas give him up?"

"Your cousin has a reputation," Gurdet reminded her dryly, "...And Khobi is royal. As well as Khnoji only heir."

He watched his daughter for a moment. Of course she understood it as he did.

Silas Luminous could be a petty man, that was known through the kingdoms, and he took no offense lightly. He’d done as Gurdet had asked, played along, as Gurdet had played along with him. To marry a royal of Crade, one of the richest and most powerful of all the kingdoms, he’d sent a royal, in most cases a perfect match in terms of birth, but he’d sent a pauper prince, the only heir to a fugitive king, and an all but destroyed kingdom.

"...But if Prince Khobi marries Loac..." Xena murmured quietly, "He’ll never father legitimate children to inherit his throne..."

"And Scargga’s royal line ends with him, unless Khnoji and his royal wife conceive," Gurdet finished, smiling almost fondly, like a man most impressed by his opponent’s latest move at chess, "Which should prove very difficult when Silas’s making sure to keep them separated...and god knows the Honourable King Khnoji would never remarry if there was even the chance his beloved wife still lived..." He trailed off, shaking his head pityingly. "Silas really does take pains to ensure Khnoji’s torment, doesn’t he? His commitment is somewhat admirable..."

"You’re going to call it off, aren’t you? Send him home?" she suddenly queried firmly, and Gurdet actually choked on his wine a little at the absurdity of the suggestion. Xena glared at him. "So what? You’re making an enemy of Scargga ? Arranging a marriage that the entire castle feels is a joke?"

An enemy of Scargga ? Gurdet couldn’t help but roll his eyes. It had been what, over ten years since they’d raised an army, over ten years since they could even be called a kingdom, with their ruler on the run and their people scattered, Silas had done his work well.

"He’s of royal blood, which is more than the nobles can claim," he sniffed, "I can’t well send him home, he doesn’t have one; and everyone knows that even here is preferable to Briyagi." That certainly made his daughter fall into a sombre silence. He sighed contentedly, smiling at her reassuringly, "Look at it this way; the more nobles bitching about this engagement, the fewer there will be bitching about the lack of yours, another of which, I might add, you have just escaped thanks to me."

"Don’t pretend that any of this was for me," she huffed crossly, her eyes narrowing in a way that Gurdet felt could sometimes see through him. It was a look she’d inherited from him, regrettably. "You just don’t want to lose your crown or have to admit that he came up with a cleverer insult than you did."

Well, he couldn’t argue with her there. No king, no, no man, enjoyes losing, and he couldn’t help but feel that if he sent Khobi packing back to Briyagi (though a blatant insult), it would be like losing. Though offending Silas like that was a most appealing concept, that man had tried to throw him. Repeating his rejection would be like being forced to backtrack, when what Gurdet wanted to prove was that there was nothing, no situation too clever for him to overcome.

"You’re unbelievable," Xena says, after a rather tense moment of silence had passed, during which Gurdet could hear servants rustling behind his chair in conversation with Midorima. What were they whispering about now? "Did you at least consult Loac?"

"Why would I do that?" Gurdet scoffed condescendingly, "Things have gone rather poorly in the past."

"They haven’t been that bad," she countered with a soft roll of her eyes.

"Xena, despite several engagements, he’s never been married," he deadpanned, "Generally, that’s the sign of things going badly."

"Well maybe if you didn’t try marrying him to everyone who came offering," she sniffed, and Gurdet couldn’t help but wave over for more wine, he had the feeling he knew where this was headed now.

"I don’t," he insisted, "I’ve been consistently deterring some of the nobles for years, they keep coming back though, and I can’t figure out why. Loac’s never really seemed like the marrying type..."

"So you’re making him get married."

Gurdet enjoyed the fact that even after all this time, he still managed to bewilder his daughter.

"Xena, your cousin sees marriage differently from you," he sighed, but decided against elaborating just how he privately thought his nephew saw the concept of being married.

"I can’t believe that," she insisted stubbornly, "Not with everything I’ve heard about his mother –" Gurdet was just about to cut her off and remind her that Loac was not his mother, but it seemed that something she’d spotted across the dining hall had done the job for him. He glanced up from his meal and couldn’t supress the audible sigh that escaped his lips. Why couldn’t Vogrid do his job and give him a little warning about unexpected turns of events?.