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So, if Edarial wasn't sure that his wife hated him before, he's really, really sure of it now. It's pretty usual that if they're in the same room, he feels nothing but silent, seething hostility from her. Usually, his reaction to this is a poker face followed by running. He doesn't like having someone hostile just - there at the dinner table, glaring at him with her hissing familiar.
Zevros doesn't hate him, Edarial's certain of it, but he's not helping. He's literally never seen his twin this angry before. This is coming from someone who has seen his twin be angry loads of times. At meals, he just - sits there. Stabbing his food and glaring at Edarial while he does it. He gets why, he knows that Zevros is furious with him for the whole 'cold political marriage' thing. It still hurts, though, to have his immediate family just be so openly hostile.
He gets more withdrawn. Meals get delivered to his room rather than him eating with Iobel and Zevros right there, being near-openly hostile. He stops sparring with Zevros nearly entirely, spends an unhealthy amount of time in either his office or his room, and Berathyme spends all her time coiled around his shoulders, offering what little comfort she can.
She's pretty terrible at advice, but at least he has someone that doesn't actively hate him nearby.
He throws himself into being a king, gets lots of things done, and is generally considered by the public to be good at it. A good king. It's sort of tainted by bitterness, now. But the country does not fall apart, it does not break down into civil war - he handles it. The education system gets a shove in the right direction, the canals get cleaned up, various unemployed people get jobs. He wonders what on earth he's done wrong when he's doing good in the world, but he supposes it doesn't matter.
He knew what he was getting himself into, when he made this choice. He knew that Zevros would be upset with him. Maybe to the point where their camaraderie will just never recover. He doesn't know. From the beginning, he knew that he'd be shackled to someone he doesn't love. Edarial hadn't been expecting the random hatred from his new wife, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be happy.
Just, well. He wasn't expecting to be so miserable, either.
It shows, the misery. Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair. He loses some weight due to skipping meals just to avoid his close family. Or, other times, he just forgets, burying himself in work so he doesn't have to think 'What did I do?' over and over again.
But he's a good king. So that's something.
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royal_obligation
royal_pain
Zevros arrives a bit after them both, followed by seven people. "'Kay, we're overdoing it but you never know with spellbinders. Iobel, what can you do besides knocking people out?"
come_midnight
"Invisibility. I have decent healing but it's not perfect. I finished one to walk through walls a few weeks ago. I have a shielding hex on me but it won't hold up to a well-made offensive spell or prolonged physical battering. All my offensively purposeable spells besides the knockout take longer to charge, so while it might entertain Cricket if I came home with stories about boiling Nataliem's brain in its own juices or something, it's not tactically useful."
come_midnight
"I can stay wall-walkable for about twenty minutes. Or put it on someone else. It specifically excludes floors, so if he's not at ground level you still have to find stairs, you can't just haul yourself up through the ceiling."
come_midnight
"Yes. And it covers the eyeshine. I'd still zap anyone who touched me, though."
royal_pain
"Oh, I like you, you're useful. Okay, game plan - Iobel, invisibility to start out, then wall walking, sneak in while we are being large distraction. Charge up a knockout spell, hit Nataliem with it. If there's any problem at all, book it through the walls and yell. Edarial - protection duty. Iobel in particular, she's vulnerable, you got that invisible shield set up?"
royal_obligation
"Yes," says Edarial. "I'm not sure how it will interact with wall walking, though."
royal_pain
"Hmm. Okay, perception spell instead. On Iobel, and me. If it looks like she is having difficulties I will tell you to do stuff."
royal_pain
"Yeah. Perception spell, put it on your wife first, she needs some time to get used to it."
royal_obligation
"Okay," says Edarial, not sure how to feel about Iobel being referred to as his wife considering the circumstances of their marriage.
His eyes start glowing a light blue.
His eyes start glowing a light blue.
royal_pain
"Sees outlines of people through walls. Really freaky at first, but useful as all hell for this kind of thing."
royal_pain
"Let me know when you're about to do the spell, Ari. While it's charging we'll head there. Iobel, start charging on invisibility. Don't freak out and lose it when Edarial's spell goes, your vision will change, just try to adjust and get used to what size of people mean what distance."
royal_pain
"Right then! Let's move out. Lovely volunteers behind me, listen up - protect the squishy binders, but if Nataliem's charging a spell, don't hesitate to tackle him to the ground and hit him in the head until he stops.
"Ari! Lead the way, if you know where his house is."
"Ari! Lead the way, if you know where his house is."
come_midnight
Iobel follows in silence, eyes aglow, braced for the perception spell.
royal_obligation
It goes. The world seems to dim and the people around them turn to bright, translucent silhouettes. It's hard to identify who's who - their faces are now shrouded by varying shades of lighter colors. It will take a bit to figure out, but Edarial is a light blue, Zevros a pale green, and their various companions different colors between them. If Iobel inspects her own hand, she'll see it's a brilliant white, and possibly be able to figure out what the colors mean from hers and Edarial's.
come_midnight
She makes the inference.
Then: "Do you have someone available who knows the binder binding hex?"
Then: "Do you have someone available who knows the binder binding hex?"
royal_obligation
"One of the prison guards knows it," says Edarial. "But she's not about arresting people, just - keeping binders in a prison without them walking out through wall walking or something. So we'd have to bring him to her."
come_midnight
"The knockout will hold that long, I just wouldn't bet on it sticking till midnight."