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He wrote his father’s persistence off as genuinely wanting to spend time with him before they left, but Skye had told Tidas that she’d felt Marco’s magic at first. The traces had faded before she could expell them herself, but the effects remained; as far as she could tell. Magnus’ intensity and relentless pressure to have them attend dinners didn’t fade, forcing them to deal with the nobles’ ridicule.

They had to literally beg to get a solid weekend out at Zazzy’s Place, which everyone found peculiar. Usually when it came to Skye’s dragon, the King was generous with allowing them time to see her. Many argued that it was due to King Lawrence’s wedding, but others whispered about alternative reasons that the king wanted them to stay within his sights..

Marco’s lackeys had done exactly what he had instructed them to do. Rumors of the two princes fighting spread across the kingdom like wildfire, and they varied depending on who one talked to. Those that supported Skye and Tidas were flat-out about how ridiculous all the rumors were.

The majority of the RMC, those that Skye and Tidas had saved, and anyone that knew them defended their relationship. It wasn’t easy with the sheer amount of gossip going around, but they did their best. Alfred and Renee used the flow of customers from the Cat’s Paw as a means to spread the truth, but not everyone was willing to believe them.

The nobles that sided with Marco spread word of everything from the two brothers having an honorable fight over Skye, to Tidas trying to kill Marco because he and Skye wanted to be together. Those weren’t out of the realm of regular rumors, but the new one about Tidas wanting to be king was sparking heated arguments.

Alfred, Renee, and all of Tidas and Skye’s Allie’s were primarily focused on getting rid of the new rumor since it could cause the most damage. They pointed out the absurdity of it all, but all of the stories had two things in common that kept driving the public to continue to circulate and speculate on them..

The first commonality was that Marco and Tidas fought, and the second was that Tidas was never punished for striking the Future King first. He offered himself to his father, but insisted on waiting until Marco returned to clear his name. It was strange to both Alfred and Tidas when they had discussed it after running into each other in the palace kitchens.

Tidas was grabbing a late lunch, and Alfred was helping prepare dinner for the palace. Ever since Magnus had tried his cooking, he had been paying Alfred to come and ‘help out’ the palace kitchens whenever he had the time. Even though he didn’t really have the time to spare, Alfred still came so he could keep an eye on the state of things in the palace as he ‘helped’.

.....

He and Tidas discussed the various rumors, and tried to figure out how they had started in the first place. Tidas told him about the gossipy guards that had seen a part of what had happened, but Alfred knew that they were only part of the problem. It had only taken a few days of cross-listening to the stories from the palace, and the ones he had heard in his tavern to figure out that Marco’s supporters were the main ones keeping the rumors going.

Alfred used to be in the RMC, and was known for his tracking abilities. After years of service and an injury, he had been released, but was still subject to being recalled; like all retired RMC soldiers. Although, because of his cooking; Tidas thought that his father might reconsider it if the other kingdoms went to war.

During the first six days since Marco had left, and Tidas was using his freedom to make a few of his own maneuvers against his brother. He had Maevis and Nicolas checking into the other kingdoms, the majority of the RMC and a few of his buddies from the regular army were looking into Marco’s associates. And now: they had Marie looking into Marco’s personal history..

She was in a unique position to get Magnus to confirm certain correlations in their time frame. He’d hoped that his aunt might even learn something new, if she asked the right questions. Whenever she mentioned certain things like Richard or the Spear, he switched subjects, but only if they were direct questions.

They knew that Marco had done something to Magnus that made him instantly change topics when certain subjects came up. But for some reason, Magnus didn’t change the conversation if he was led to bring up the trigger subjects himself. He spoke more freely with Marie than anyone else, but only when they were alone could she get him to speak frankly with her like usual.

Skye postulated that Marco knew that his father was comfortable talking with Marie, and that many would find it odd if he’d suddenly stopped. She also thought that it was another method for Marco to gather information, if Magnus truly did tell him everything. Marie didn’t realize and felt terrible about it, but neither Tidas nor Skye blamed her for anything.

Marie had lamented for a few moments before she’d perked up, and told them that she would also be willing to feed Magnus harmless misinformation, if they needed it. Skye and Tidas had thanked her, then gone about their daily lives until Tidas had heard back from a few of his sources.

Not only was the Sync Kingdom arming themselves, but Ital and Meccano were as well. The Highlanders were the only ones not getting ready to go to war with Alcon; aside from Sai. Right as Tidas sighed in relief over the two, Genie came into his office unannounced.

He was shutting the door when Tidas noticed him, and yelled; “Don’t you knock?! Why didn’t the guard announce you?”

Genie smirked; “One has to see me to announce me. Are you busy at the moment? I wish to discuss something with you. I need your opinion.”

“Why don’t you ask Skye? Or is she still with Shasta?”

“Does that response mean that you’re busy?” Genie inquired with a beggar’s face.

Tidas sighed in exasperation; “I have a few minutes before I have to go meet the generals for what I call ‘pecking order training’, so I won’t complain if I’m needed for a ’emergency diplomatic consultation’.”

“Is that what this is?”

Tidas smirked; “That is Exactly what this is, so what do you need? If it’s a wedding gift for Shasta and Lawrence: just buy the biggest jug of milk that you can find, and they’ll be happy.. Well, Shasta will be happy, anyways.”

Genie laughed hard before replying; “That’s true. I’ve never met a Fae like her before. She’s quite entertaining after a few drinks. She has interesting stories..”

Tidas groaned; “What one did she tell you?”

“...Best to ask which one Didn’t she tell-the whole tavern. Shasta has a very strong...stage presence when she’s had a few.”

Tidas dragged his hands down his face with annoyance left in their wake as he said; “That damn fluff-ball! What the hell-did she say anything about a town called Riverbrook?!”

Genie’s face was starting to hurt, he was grinning so hard as he replied; “Don’t worry: I’m sure that Skye would find it sweet that you-”

“Do Not speak of that! Ever! Understand Genie? Never..”

“Why? I think women find that kind of thing attractive,” Genie commented as he sat down in one of the chairs across from Tidas’ desk.

Tidas leaned forward with a serious expression; “Skye would love it...as she laughed at me. You know she’s not a flashy kind of person.”

“True, but what woman wouldn’t want to hear about her partner declaring his love for her to an entire town?”

“I was Very drunk, and it was like the third time I had ever drank! I was young! ...I got tired of being hit on by the same three women all night, so I told them I was spoken for,” Tidas half-muttered as he folded his arms over his chest.

Genie laughed; “And the rest of the town.. She said that you had climbed on top of the church in the middle of the town, and screamed about marrying the love of your life until Ralph had dragged you down.”

“....Why are you here, Genie? I know it’s not just to confirm Shasta’s stories,” Tidas replied with an unamused tone.

“So it was true? Good to know-”

“Genie-”

“I know, I know.. I actually wanted to ask if you had heard any rumors pertaining to Sai lately. I heard something in the banquet room last night, and I’m hoping that it really is just a rumor.”

Tidas quirked an eyebrow; “None, why? What did you hear?”

Genie leaned towards the desk with a serious expression; “That someone in Sai is buying up a lot of weapons from outside of the kingdom..”

“Why would it matter?” Tidas as as he straightened up in his chair.

Genie took a deep breath before explaining; “Weapons bought within Sai are meticulously logged and verified, especially guns. All blacksmith shops are required to submit paperwork weekly to the capital for filing and confirmation. But imports are different..”

“If a merchant marks, let’s say a crate of guns as a crate of metal pots, then the crate isn’t scanned, but physically searched. It’s quite easy to pay off an inspector since they don’t make much more than the dock workers themselves, and they can always claim to have been threatened into not checking a shipment.”

Tidas rubbed at his chin; “So you’re worried that a bunch of guns are making their way into Sai?”

Genie nodded; “I think so, but it’s probably not just guns. Swords are far less expensive, so I’m assuming that that’s the bulk of the weapons being bought. But it’s the ‘why’ that’s bothering me..”

Seeing the confusion on Tidas’ face, Genie elaborated; “If weapons are being sent to Sai, then that means that the Tokuga descendants are getting ready to attempt a coup d’état. And my brother is the strongest voice of opposition for them. If they kill him, or take Mei hostage: Sai will revert to an empire again. And the people will become nothing more than slaves to the royal family.”

“I don’t understand, what do you want me to do about it?” Tidas asked.

Genie inhaled deeply, then replied; “Help me learn who’s bringing in the weapons, and stop it before we have to leave for Sai. And you Cannot tell Skye. She’ll fly off the handle if she think’s Mei is in danger.”

Tidas sighed; “You’re right about that, but where do we start? Do you have a name at least?”

Genie nodded; “Yes. I followed the man that spoke about it for a little while, and heard someone introduce him as Richard Yaris...”