The Kingdom and Its Dark Mage

Kartiel blinked. "Rules of etiquette?" he repeated, staring blankly at Calufray as she stormed off and promptly returned to their small group. "I don't-I don't know what you're talking about."

Orpheus looked between the two, though Paq momentarily caught his gaze in the background as she mimicked Calufray's reactions. It took a moment for him to realize what the reason for the anger was. Though he didn't know what specific rule of etiquette that Kartiel had apparently broken, he did have his theory about Calufray being a princess.

"She's a princess," he said, leaning over and hissing into Kartiel's ear.

He immediately stiffened. "She's a what?"

"A princess."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner!?"

"She's not exactly letting people know that!" he replied. "The only reason I know is because she almost said she was one earlier, but then stopped herself before she could!"

Kartiel nervously glanced over at Calufray, and then back at Orpheus. "I haven't had a meeting with another member of royalty since I was Kartiel VII. I-I'm not sure if I remember what the etiquette is anymore."

He gave him a look.

"Kartiel, you are hundreds of years old," he slowly said. "You have multiple lifetimes of being a king under your belt. You must remember something."

"I don't remember anything that could have offended her!" Kartiel shot back, exasperated.

Kartiel then sighed, took a deep breath and rose to his feet so he could stand face-to-face with the princess - though he easily towered over her. "I apologize for my rudeness," he said, ducking his head down in apology. "It has been a very long time since another member of royalty visited my kingdom, and I must admit that I've forgotten some of the common rules of etiquette. What particular one did I fail to follow through with?"

Calfuray blinked up at Kartiel, the red in her blue face fading as she realized that he really had no idea what he had done. She dipped her head a little, partly out of embarrassment and partly in apology. Though she knew she would have to do some form of grovelling, a part of her still burned indignantly. Though, honestly, she was surprised that Kartiel was taking her outburst so well.

"As a female member of my court, I cannot speak without being initially spoken to or awknowledged. If you weren't aware of this, then it was I who have infringed upon you." She paused a few beats and pressed her lips together, finally raising her head. "Please except my sincere apology."

"That's a stupid rule," Kynan mumbled. He'd glanced up briefly to get a view of Orpheus's wings and was now transfixed. They were the thick and dark wings of a dragon, and their scales and shine were stunning. He couldn't look away.

Orpheus was inclined to agree with Kynan's muttered comment, and Kartiel apparently was as well from the look that briefly flickered across his face when he raised his head after Calufray explained why she had gotten so offended.

"It appears our courts have different rules of etiquette," Kartiel carefully said. "The female members of Telorum's royalty have always been allowed to speak their minds whenever they wish to, and, if I remember clearly, it was my mother who did the majority of the speaking at diplomatic functions."

He gave her a small smile. "If you wish to, I am perfectly fine with you following my kingdom's version of that rule of etiquette."

Spoiler

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Calfuray let out a deep sigh and gave another bow of her head. "I would most definitely appreciate that, thank you. My name is Princess Calfuray Azure of Norling. It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness, even if I have never heard of your kingdom."

With that out of the way, and cleared her throat and phrased a few questions toward Orpheus that had been building up. Or, rather, comments.

"If you would please, kind sir, explain to me why in the great blue world your gods could possibly consider a mere child a threat. Or find fault considerable to curse like this. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your physique may have its benifits, but dammit- what a life."

It was impossible to tell with the layer of scales covering his skin, but Orpheus turned bright red at the question. He ducked his head down in embarrassment. "I'm not a child," he corrected, clearly flustered by the comment. "I'm nineteen years old. Gods just can't die, so they take their time teaching the younger generations things like that."

Kartiel took a deep breath. "I'm also fairly sure that it's because the older gods are less likely to explore the human realm than the younger ones. They're more set into traditional ways, and tend to abhor change."

Orpheus raised his head. "I was forced out of Telorum for interacting with human too many times," he said. Just thinking about her made his heart feel like there was a bunch of butterflies trapped inside. "If I had done it disguised as a human, it wouldn't have been a problem. But I went there in my normal form."

"You're nineteen?" Kynan blurted out. He quickly silenced himself and placed his hands over his head. Of all the things to focus on - persecution for talking to humans, gods set in their ways, and being exiled for very weak reasons - he had to fixate on not being younger than the man he'd looked to in his brief time here as a guide and adviser. That killed the rest of his feeling of security.

"I'm nineteen," Orpheus confirmed with a nod.

Calfuray sighed and shook her head, not knowing exactly how to protest to this extremely unfair punishment.
"That's idiotic." She finally landed on saying.

"I'm nine years older than you," Kynan groaned. "I was kind of hoping I wouldn't be the oldest person here."

Kartiel and Orpheus exchanged another look. It was typically kept as a secret, but they had already admitted the truth about Orpheus. What harm was there in mentioning how old Kartiel really was?

"I'm actually the oldest one here," Kartiel said, looking over at Kynan with a small smile on his lips. "The fallen and the gods are immortal, and their descendants - whether full-blooded or not - are as well. My mother was one of the fallen. As of right now, I'm in my seven hundreds."

Kynan racked his brain in an attempt to remember what "immortal" meant. "So," he said, coming to a conclusion that somehow scared him more than Orpheus being a teenager, "you're never going to die? Or you're going to live for a very long time? You're not as old as a bunch of the dragons, but, uh, I'm guessing you're not a pushover."

Of course, you idiot, he thought, scooting away from Kartiel, he's a king. He needed to stop making a fool of himself, but it wasn't as though he had anywhere else to go. He was stuck irritating the king until the king presumably decided he'd had enough. Wonderful.

"I'm never going to die," Kartiel confirmed, fingering the golden locket that always hung above his chest. Orpheus never asked about, but he had noticed that he always seemed to fiddle with it especially more than usual when his immortality and age came into question. He looked back up at Kynan, a ghost of a smile dancing across his lips. "And, no, I'm not a pushover."

"Interesting." Calfuray tilted her head in curiosity. She had heard of immortal creatures, but had never had the change to meet one herself. "How long have you been ruling, then? And your father before you?"