Mark of the Fool
Chapter 567: A Decision a Long Time Coming

“Under no circumstances would I make that choice,” Khalik declared. “I would forsake my position first.”

Silence hung over the table.

“But…what if they do not give you a choice?” Isolde asked. “We both know what it means from birth to have more duties than choice.”

“There is always a choice,” Khalik said firmly. “It is true that kings and queens have great burdens placed on them by birthright, but they also have choices. A monarch might choose not to be ruler, if that is truly not what he or she wants.”

“But what of the responsibilities and turmoil?” Isolde asked, looking mortified. “There are consequences when monarchs leave the throne.”

“Not in all cases, and keep in mind that I am the second born in my family. Leaving my duties would not cause a great burden in the court, while I myself would gain much personally. It is a trade I would happily make.”

“That is…very sweet.” Isolde blushed. “Sinope is lucky.”

“It is not so sweet. I am a wizard and will be a graduate of Generasi. Even under my own power, I would need to utterly change my life path to ever be without resources. Under my own power, I would always attain wealth. Besides, Alex would offer me a job, would you not?” He smiled.

“Yeah,” Alex laughed a little distractedly. “In a heartbeat…”

The young man felt a little odd listening to his close friend’s thoughts. Without any hesitation and with utter ease, the prince had declared he would leave his revered background and wealth behind to walk the path he wanted. Alex didn’t detect the slightest doubt in his body language or voice: if Khalik had doubts at one time, he’d obviously worked them out and Alex could applaud his will…but he also felt a pang of guilt. This was the first time he’d realised just how much in love his friend was with Sinope. Looking back, the way Khalik had been feeling about her was more and more apparent from the way he would look at her, and how he was with her, but Alex hadn’t really been paying enough attention to recognise just how serious they’d grown.

‘Some friend, I am,’ he thought, shaking his head as Thundar clapped Khalik’s shoulder.

“Tell you what,” the minotaur grinned, draining his third drink. “What you just said is one of the manliest things I’ve ever heard, but if you decide to give up all your wealth and power and all that good shit, just pass it on to me! I promise I’ll take good care of it!”

Khalik smiled, clapping Thundar on the shoulder in turn. “My friend, just for you?” He leaned in close. “I will make sure to acquire as many debts as I can. I will take loans from the worst scum, become an utter degenerate and make terrible investments. And then I will pass every last one of those debts on to you.”

Thundar cursed him loudly, pouring another drinkand downing it. “You’re a bastard.”

“As are you,” Khalik chuckled.

“Erm…excuse me, I have a question for you and Isolde,” Claygon said.

He’d been so silent that some members of the cabal had actually forgotten he was there: both Isolde and Thundar startled when he spoke.

“According to what I have heard…and read…the average age of marriage or at least engagement for nobility, aristocracy, and royals…is roughly 16.2 years, depending on region and gender.” He looked at Isolde and Khalik. “Should you two not have already been engaged…before coming to Generasi?”

“Claygon, what the hell kinda books have you been reading?” Alex asked, surprised.

“Informative ones…father,” his golem said with enthusiasm.

“I…yeah, okay fair enough.” Alex shrugged, taking a long sip of his drink.

“It is actually a fine question.” Isolde took a longer sip of hers, as though steeling herself. “Many of my friends back home are currently engaged. One is married and bore her first daughter last summer. However, those who go away to seek higher education at one of the world’s wizarding universities are given more freedom to decide when they marry. Sometimes even to whom they marry.”

She refilled her glass. “In the end, a political alliance by way of marriage is of high importance for any bloodline, but the value of ensuring that a wizard is fully educated, outweighs that for all, save the most empty-headed of noble families. Actually.” She smiled, and laughter danced in her blue eyes. “My grandfather hoped that I would meet a wizard of power and influence during my studies. He considered such a candidate far more suitable for my marriage than…”

Isolde suddenly broke into giggles, her face reddening. “...and I quote him: ‘the quasi-inbred country nobles your mother is considering setting you up with’.

Alex spat out his drink, coughing until he recovered his voice. “No, he didn’t actually say that, did he?”

“He did!” she insisted, her giggles becoming full peals of laughter. “The argument between him and my mother lasted at least three weeks. By the elements, you would have thought a winter war had been declared in our household. The ‘temperatures’ as it were, could have frozen the sun, while the arguments were hot enough to melt stone! But, when all was done, grandfather and I got our way. I am happy and relieved that he trusts my judgement as much as he does.”

“And to think,” Thundar snickered. “You almost rewarded his trust by bringing home Derek!”

Now it was Khalik’s turn to choke on his drink.

Alex’s drink sprayed through his nose.

But Isolde’s face was stone. She glared at Thundar with eyes that were pools of undisguised malice, murder, and the hatred of a horde of demons. Her hand slowly reached for the stiletto dagger at her waist. Then paused. “Nevermind. Your death is not worth my expulsion.”

“Oh, of course. Of course!” Thundar snorted. “Of course you would focus on expulsion more than going to jail for murder, or being executed for murder, or—y’know—commiting murder.”

“You are rapidly coming closer to making it worth all of those things, Son of Gulbiff.”

Khalik was now laughing so hard, tears were dripping off the greenery woven into his beard.

“Alright, Isolde, enough making fun of you...for now,” The minotaur raised his hands in surrender. “Let’s make fun of you instead!”

“What’d I do?” Alex demanded, his friend’s eyes boring into him.

“It’s what you didn’t do.” Thundar smirked. “Look, here. Listen, listen, listen. Listen to your ol’ pal Thundar.”

“I already don’t want to listen to my ‘ol’ pal Thundar’. Who’re you again?”

Thundar put an arm around the Thameish wizard’s broad shoulders. “Don’t act like that man, I’m trying to help you. Look at this guy.” He nodded to Khalik. “Been with the girl he loves for a year and now he’s asked her to marry him. And you’ve been with Theresa for how long? Our princely friend’s gonna make you look real bad.”

“Oh dear,” Isolde said, covering her mouth with her hand.

Alex turned a shade of red so bright, that he was sure most tomatoes would have paled in comparison.

“Ooooh deeear,” Khalik echoed.

“Look, look!” Alex said quickly. “We’ve only been together like two years—”

“I have been with Sinope for one,” Khalik pointed out.

“The marriage records for non aristocrats…across the world are…less reliable…and less readily available…but most indicate an average age of 18.6 years, depending on region and gender,” Claygon reported, his voice that of a helpful senior librarian. A helpful senior librarian that Alex wanted to strangle. “Father…I have to tell you…your current age is three months from twenty years old—”

“Basically a fossil,” Thundar said helpfully.

“—and so you would be of…more than the average marriageable age.”

“I got it, Claygon, I got it, you traitor!” Alex groaned. “Whatever books you’ve been reading, stop it! Look, one step at a time, okay? We’ve been going down to the hells and I’ve been starting businesses! One step at a time!”

“Claygon, Isolde, Thundar.” Khalik held up his hands. “Leave him alone. Think of it this way: he knew Theresa for eighteen years and it took them that long to get together in the first place. Therefore, it will take until he is thirty six for him to propose, unless Theresa takes matters into her own hands.”

Khalik was laughing even harder now, but an odd look crossed Isolde’s face.

Thundar looked at her, ready to say something wicked, but paused, then returned to his drink.

But, the now very merry Khalik mistook the minotaur’s expression for something else and leaned forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What about you, Thundar? You make fun of Alex alongside me, but what of you?”

Thundar snorted. “Kinda need a girlfriend for that sorta thing, right?”

“You know what? I do believe you are right! But luckily, you seem to be on the right path.”

“Ugh, the last girl I had a crush on well, we all know how that ended. ‘Right path’, my hoof.”

“I do not speak of her, my friend,” Khalik’s grin grew broad. “I speak of Drestra, of course.”

Silence fell over the table as all eyes cut to the minotaur.

He looked completely baffled. “What about Drestra?” he asked. “Her training’s going fine.”

Isolde’s expression grew more incredulous by the heartbeat. “Are you serious? Tell me you are not serious!”

Thundar looked more confused, his eyes darting between his fellow cabal mates and Claygon. “I don’t know…what you’re talking about?”

Isolde, Khalik and Alex looked at each other.

“Thundar, you are entirely hopeless.” The young noblewoman shook her head, raising an eyebrow and taking a verylong sip of mead. “Entirely hopeless.”

“How am I hopeless?” he demanded, growing more animated. In some ways, he even looked panicked. “No, seriously, what are you talking about? You gotta level with me here, did someone tell you something? Was it Cedric? Hart? What’s going on?”

Khalik waved a hand while shaking his head, “Just drink, my friend.”

“Look, I—” the minotaur started, then abruptly stopped and returned to his keg.

As Isolde asked Khalik for more details of his and Sinope’s engagement ceremony, Alex’s mind drifted away from the Brass Grapes…and to other matters.

His thoughts turned to their earlier conversation about him proposing to Theresa. And he explored the thought deeply…and hard.

Two things were true: he and Theresa were together, and he wanted it to stay that way for the rest of their—hopefully very long—lives, if she wanted the same. But he hadn’t even proposed to her, and thinking about it, he felt a little guilty now.

He had promised Mr. Lu that his attentions were real, and he hadn’t lied about that, but he also hadn’t really given much thought to making things formal, to planning their future together like he should have.

But why not, why hadn’t he?

‘Been focused on the end of Thameland, the treachery of my god, the resurrection of Hannah, the wrath of the hells, a secretive church, building an empire and everything else. That’s…yeah, that’s a lot, it’s been a lot,’ he thought, taking a long swig of mead. ‘But Khalik’s right: with all the dangerous shit going on around us, our lives could end as suddenly as mum’s and dad’s did. I want to be beside Theresa for however long we live, whether that’s minutes or years. I sure don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I love her and she loves me.

Suddenly Alex snickered with a hint of bitterness in his laugh. ‘Besides, I don’t want to be like those guys in the stories. The ones that say We’ll do so and so right after this battle, then immediately get smashed to paste. I should do it before I never get the chance to. Yeah…yeah I’ll do it. I have a good financial future. We’re comfortable here in Generasi. There’s danger in our lives, but it brings us closer and even makes us stronger. I think I make her happy, she sure as all hells makes me happy. Selina and Claygon love her... Yeah, it’s about time.’

And so he made his decision right there and then.

He would ask Theresa Lu to marry him during the Games of Roal.

What better time than after an epic triumph across battlefields? They’d gotten together during a deadly battle, and so it felt fitting to ask her to marry him after a non deadly one.

The ‘non deadly’ part was real important.

She was a warrior. He could imagine her loving the situation, and there were few people in the world who knew her as well as he did.

‘This means I’ve got to step up the pace of that present I’m making for her.’ He chugged his drink. ‘After all, I have the perfect occasion to give it to her now. And…speaking of presents.’

He nodded, all smiles, coming to another decision.

‘Selina’s birthday’s coming up. This year, I’m gonna give her something she’ll never expect.’

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