The Prince and the Thief

I was sulking. My mother knew it, Tristian knew it, my brothers knew it. I didn’t care. When this whole thing started, I was skeptic. But when my mother said I had to do it, I didn’t argue. She was in charge now that dad was dead. She said she wasn’t getting any younger, and I needed to find a wife before she retired. My younger brothers were all for it until they realized that it wasn’t going to be for them too. Being 15 and 16 they weren’t old enough to get married for at least another two years. I had avoided being married until the age of 20, but my mother was determined to fix that before I turned 21. It was the second week of this bridal search when she let it drop that by law, since she was still alive, she got to pick my wife. Not me. Since then I hadn’t felt the need to attend the lunch socials she set up and I didn’t think about who I would have picked. She wouldn’t go with who I picked anyway. But I swear, if she picks the brat I ran into the first day everyone was here…

“Sitting up there isn’t going to change anything.” Tristian calls from underneath me. I’m sitting in a tree that he and I had climbed as children. If he was sent at noon, when my mother was announcing her decision, then he had spent two hours wandering these woods when he knew exactly where I would be. Good man.

“She made her decision.” I say as he begins swinging himself up into the tree. It wasn’t a question, but he answered it anyway.

“Yeah. She- ow!” he came down hard on the branch below me and began sliding off. I leaned over to watch the show as he catches himself just inches above the ground and lets himself gently down. There’s about thirty families in our region alone that has the linage of magic. Meaning they all came from a very powerful man’s family. Tristian, my best friend and captain of the guard, came from one of the ones in my uncle's region of power. Tristan came to me when I was 4 and he was 6 because another line of magic, called seeing, was used by a man in my region and saw him with me in my rise to power.

“She what?” I called down to him, grinning. He scowled at me as he started climbing again. He didn’t speak this time until he was sitting in a branch almost equal to mine.

“She sent me because she knew you wouldn’t like her choice at first.” He says. I shake my head.
A long time ago, girls would get all dressed up and fancy. They would wear these things called dresses and skirts, all open underneath instead of pants that wrap around their legs. And they wouldn’t wear sleeves, they enjoyed showing skin. But now, they are much more practical. Only women from a magic linage can even think about dressing up, and it's because they are useless. They are small, so they can’t work, and they don’t have magic, they can just pass it on to any males they may have later on. So they are dolled up and put on display until they find a man.
So my mother has to choose based on other things. Loyalty, how well they work, how nice they are, how much they give instead of take. Looks and etiquette didn’t have much on my mother.

“it’s the brat isn’t it. The one that practically ran me over the first day and instead of apologizing, she just rolled her eyes at me and continued on her way.” I ask. He had been standing there, but it ticked me off so much I ranted about it. Several times now.

“Yeah. She said cool off about it and then you can join the two of them and I for supper. Just us four.” He says. I shake my head at that, but I know not to argue.

“when?” I ask instead. He settles into the branch instead of twisting to look at me as he had been. He looks out at the valley I had been admiring. The rulers of a region has a show house, a big huge open room with a few side bedrooms to entertain guests and twice a year host a regional party. Then we build a family house once we are married. Among other things this month, mother has made me begin planning that house. She doesn’t realize that I’ve been planning that since I was 10. I loved the thought that this house will be made entirely how I like it. It can have as many or as little rooms as I want, they can be big or small or oddly shaped. That was always something I found exciting. This valley that we were looking at was where I had planned on building it since I was 12.

“It’s right after dark.”

“So I can still get to the workshop.” I say. I need to get up, but I don’t want to. I’ve settled in and don’t want to move.

“Yeah. Al said if you make it in and show him your plans today, he can start clearing the area and building as early as tomorrow, as late as two days from now. “ Tristian says. He begins climbing down, prompting me to groan and slowly follow him down. I drop to the ground and stretch hugely.

“And maybe we can get you some practice with the bow in between.” He says as he begins leading me down the none existent trail we had made long ago.

“Yeah well. Maybe not.” I say, avoiding his eyes. He laughs at me. We both know that if he gives me a knife, a sword, or anything blunt I can swing at someone, I'm great. I love doing it. Shooting a bow is not my forte and I hate practicing with it. Which is why he makes me practice it a lot.

“Nah I figured I’d give you time to run to the market. It’s crop day.” He says nonchalantly. I brighten at this. Crop day meant that fruits and vegetables are on sale, and that means I can get potatoes. And that means that I can go to Tristians, and his mom will fry them for us. Those were my favorite days.

“Sounds good. I will meet you at the workshop within the hour, first I need to go talk to my brothers.” I say. He nods, and branches off in another direction to head to his own little home. He has no wife or family, but he enjoys having his own place to stay. And, it’s close to his mother's house and his grandfather, who shows him how to use his magic. He explained it once to me by saying it was a balloon. The pressure of the magic builds up over time, and if you don’t use it, in situations where you're stressed or angry or upset, it comes bursting out of you. It may hurt you, it may break things, but it will never hurt another human unless you ask it to. If you do that it becomes corrupt and it will never be used for doing good things again, only hurting people. But, if you let it out a little at a time- to clean things, fix things, help someone out- then you can let it leak, like you're deflating the balloon. He likes to explain these things to me. He finds it odd that someone of non magic linage has any interest in it, but I found it mesmerizing.
“Johnny!” I bark the 16 year old's name as I enter the gate surrounding the show house. He cringes, backpedaling from his sprint for the corner of the house. He had wanted to disappear.

“where’s your brother?” I ask. He doesn’t make eye contact and kicks at the dirt path he was standing on.

“I’m not my brothers keeper.” He finally mutters. I shake my head and throw my arm around his shoulders, and begin steering us to the house.

“ I need to speak with you. I want to make you an offer.” I say. Her perks up when he realizes that he isn’t in trouble, as is usual with him and his brother.

“ I think mother has him in the study room for the day. He hasn’t been to class in awhile.” He says, and bounces into the big open room of the show house. There was two staircases on either side of the showroom, and at the top was landings. It wrapped from one side to the other. The left side had three rooms, mine, my brothers, and my mothers. On the back wall was the living area and the kitchen and the boys study room where they went to school. Being my mothers sons, they couldn’t go to traditional school, just like me. Unlike me, they didn’t have to deal with training and extra classes, though they could take them if they wanted to. Johnny liked training, but Grant loved reading. Loved it. Always had his nose in a book. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t do work outside, he loved building things.

The last three rooms where guest rooms. For now, the brat my mother picked for me would stay in one of those rooms.

“Gale is in here!” my brother calls, since he got to the room first. I want to avoid my mother, but since he’s screaming at me at this point she opens her door just as I am about to pass by.

“There you are. Done pouting yet, Toben Kane?” she asks. I almost flinch every time she uses my first and second name.

“I wasn’t pouting.” I defend myself, even though we all know better. She smiles at me and steps out into the hallway so she can walk with me. She’s in fitted clothes, just like a royal should be. she’s got gems in her hair, the only thing of real value she ever wears. today's was green, the same color of her shirt and pants.

“Your beautiful girl is in town right now, you know.” she says after a few seconds of silence. She was barefoot, so my boots were the only thing making any noise.

“No, I didn’t.” I mutter. Why would she say ‘beautiful girl’? why not her name?

What was her name?

Ah, that’s her game. she knows I hadn’t paid attention. She knows I don’t know her name, just her face. She’s going to make me ask the girl, making a fool out of myself. She may never ground me anymore, but my mother does have ways of punishing me.

“She’s giving out the leftovers from our farewell dinner last night.” She says brightly as we stop outside the study room. I turn to face her, slightly surprised.

“She’s doing what?” I ask. My mother grins. She’s gotten me to ask a question about the brat. but why on earth would she be giving out our leftovers, stuff we usually throw out or give to the animals? Where would she even go to give it out?

“I’ve told you, the part of town you go to and the part of town that needs your attention is two very opposite ends. there are poor people in this country, Toben. They need help. So she took the leftovers and went to the Abandoned Children’s home. The meals they serve are ...less than nutriousus. They can’t afford good cooks, and the laws say that unless the elite 8 vote it in, we can’t change the budget.” My mother says. I’m stumped at this. The elite 8 where the supervising mages of all 8 major countries. ours is the only one so far that has remained under one ruler, the rest has been divided in half, sometimes even three or four times. Why wouldn’t they give money to the homes? If children needed it, why not give it to them? When I voice this question my mother looks away from me.

“Tell me, Toben. As an elite, if you had the chance to feed a child that would benefit the community, that would be loved for and cared for, and could be sorted as a worker, miner, or mage and actually do the job, or to feed a child that, with no family, won’t go to school, or become part of any community, or be able to do a job. they will live and die in the Abandoned Children home, The House of the Useless, and the Final Home. Knowing that your choice will affect every country you see for.” She looks at me at the end of her spew and I shift, uncomfortable. I didn’t want a political lesson.

“It would depend on the circumstances.” I finally say. she shakes her head.

‘No. You get to say you will feed the one child, or the other. you don’t have time to sort through each child to see whether any worth is found in them. Once a child is put in a Abandoned Children home, they don’t get out. Even if a parent want’s them again.” My mother corrects me. I roll my eyes at her, but inside I was getting extremely uncomfortable. I’m saved from answering as the front door flies open, at first I thought it was from a person before I realized the wind was kicking up. The person who had opened it walks in, with a sack over their back though it’s empty. they walk with a purpose to the kitchen, where they shake hands with the staff waiting. a black hood is pulled down over their face, but I can guess who it is. after a moment she leaves the sack with them and turns to go up the set of stairs to the guest bedrooms. She must spot us, though I can’t tell with the hood on, because she turns as is custom in the house of a region ruler, and Bows lowly at us. so low that I can tell she’s doing it mockingly. She heads up the flight of stairs and shuts her door behind her. I turn to my mother.

“Out of all the people that was flooded in here and in town, you chose her.” I say flatly. She smiles at me, but doesn’t answer as she turns away. I watch her leave me until I’ve seen her go into her room, and then I push the study room open to find my two brothers wrestling.

“Hey!”