The Butterfly Effect

She just stared out the window, watching the fields move past them. They’d be done this ride soon; already she was beginning to see the patches of ikretta, the telltale sign of the Lake drawing near. She’d never been here enough times to completely memorize the surroundings, but she did know the general indicators that their trip was at its end.

Whatever kind of thoughtfulness she could’ve had in the moment was interrupted before it even began. She barely tried being gentle in elbowing the toddler away from her.

“Mae, sweetie, stop bugging Samone.” Only at this point did Iris look up from her book. She quickly marked her place before setting it beside her, then reaching over to pick up her daughter. “She doesn’t want to be bothered right now.”

“I still can’t see why you had to bring her with you,” Samone grumbled. “All she’s going to do is cause trouble. You do understand that we’re going to be near water the entire time, right? What would happen if she wandered off..?”

“Samone.” Kesem only needed to say one word for them to all know what he meant. He was trying to tell her to stop being a pest; she was, after all, mostly saying it on account of her annoyance.

“I’m only being honest,” she pointed out impassively. “It’s not exactly a safe place for children.”

“Would you rather I leave you home, too, then?” he questioned coldly. “I see no reason why you should be given the option of going if she isn’t. You’re just as likely to wander off and get into trouble.”

“At least I have common sense,” she returned matter-of-factly. “I know not to run off alone in the middle of the night, for starters. Then if I do get lost, I at least know how to ask for directions. She can barely say ‘Mother’ right, let alone describe where she’d been before.”

“She’s not going to run off,” Iris decided after a moment. It was the same kind of confidence any mother would have in their child: the kind that made them believe that their kid couldn’t do wrong. She continued to lift Mae in the air to get a laugh out of her and added, “Isn’t that right, Mae?”

“Wight!” the two-year-old beamed. “Not unwess we pway hide and seek!”

Fulfilled, Iris then looked at Samone. “This’ll be the first time since you came back that all of you are together again, right? Do you think King Casper would talk to you about your next mission?”

Samone shrugged. “Who knows. No one can predict what that man is thinking.”

“I hope it’s not far from here, if he does send you off,” Kesem mumbled off-handedly. “Or at least that you’re back before the talks are over. There’s plenty of things in Levi Asari you could be helping with instead of putting yourself in danger.”

“Tyche can’t teach me Truth magic if I’m not there,” she sighed, the closest thing to agreement she’d give him. Were she not adopted into a noble family with obligations to the king, she undoubtedly would’ve been one of the Lysha. Her natural magical talent was too good to pass up otherwise. Being the Court Magister—and soon Head of Public Affairs—was more important than the lifestyle she would’ve almost preferred, though.

Their conversation died off at that point. They were close to their destination anyway; tents were beginning to pop up and she knew the small building on the border was nearby. The carriage stopped and they waited for the door to be opened. Kesem (assisted by Iris) came out first, then Samone, and Mae followed. Each was given a brief nod before the coachman climbed back to the driver’s seat and rode the carriage out of sight.

Quick to greet them was the king and queen, though their son was surprisingly not present.

“Bringing the whole family this time, eh, Kesem?” Casper said in an almost teasing matter. From the interaction alone, it would be impossible to tell he was actually the younger of the two by several years. “Except for the in-laws, I suppose! No Hadar?”

“He was busy with work,” Iris replied. Without even needing to look, she made sure she held Mae’s hand before she started to wander. “You know how it is. He’s in a whole different territory and had no excuse to come for this.”

Casper let out a hearty chuckle. “You should’ve told me! I could’ve gotten someone to tell him his assistance was needed right here. No one’s going to argue with my orders!”

“I don’t think that’s what you should be focusing on about your position…” Kesem remarked.

Minne—probably seeing as how her husband was entertaining the others—gave Samone her full attention. “Did you have a nice trip?”

“As nice as it can be,” Samone returned with a shrug. “Please tell me Imre’s actually here.”

As much as she considered Dimas (the only other one that would be guaranteed to show up even if Imre didn’t) a friend, she didn’t want to have to spend the entire time with just him. She honestly didn’t care too much for Lydia or Kiah either, both being their own version of annoying and intrusive. There was a reason she thought of Imre as a brother: aside from the fact they practically grew up together—nearly spending more time in Lelishara than Levi Asari—he also minded her personal space, and she respected his. While everyone else found it difficult to interact with him, she found him like any other just by using a balance of carefulness in her words and occasional tough love.

“He’s here. Somewhere…” Minne tried scanning the gathering, but wasn’t successful. “Try looking around a little. If he’s not closer to the water then he’s inside. You’ll probably notice Kiah before you see him anyway, so it might be better to look for her.” A short might-as-well-be-goblin stood out rather easily in the crowd of humans, after all.

“Thanks.” Samone gave her a quick hug before waving goodbye to the queen.

She spent a little bit of time just wandering. She made sure to check all of the less-frequented spots first, along with where most of the other nobles were, before going on to the places she was suggested to look. There was a considerably high chance that Imre would be in wherever was quietest or he blended in the most, even if it wasn’t where anyone would expect him.

After checking all of those places—and getting dragged into a couple of conversations along the way—she walked along the side of the river. That was where she heard the familiar voice she was looking for, albeit caught up in hushed flirting. She chose to pretend like she wasn’t hearing anything and took to walking up to Kiah instead.

She had just finished attaching a letter to one of the Seothian army’s hawks, from the looks of it. Before she let it go, she uttered the simple spell, “Proséxte tin entolí mou: metaférete éna mínyma sto Efse Endove, defterévon sto Zadeer Shashi kai Farrar Tanju.” She watched the bird fly off in Qizar’s direction.

“Was that your paycheck or a general hello?” Samone asked casually, as if it was really something that mattered. “Qizar has that whole ‘no one is left in poverty’ thing, don’t they? Doesn’t that mean they’re fine without it for at least a month?”

“It pays for the necessities,” was her cold answer, “nothing for an actually decent living.” She paused. “Plus, the more money they have the less I have to buy beer. I’d rather be sober and hate it than be too drunk to realize you’re all doing something stupid.”

“Or are we just that much more annoying when you’re hungover that it wasn’t worth the money?”

“I really wish Casper didn’t like you.”

Their “casual” conversation was cut short by an intruder. Well, not so much of an intruder as someone who failed to understand what “quiet” and “reading the room” meant: Lydia ran to them, shouting even before she was really close to them.

“Imre! Quit doing cute gay things!”

That scared the prince to a near hysterical level. He jumped to his feet and turned the brightest shade of red yet. “Enn,” was the only word he could muster, but his tone spoke a thousand more. Samone needed to muffle a snort at how ruffled he was.

Lydia didn’t hide it. “You look like I’m trying to kill you! Come on, lighten up a little!” She bounced right up in front of him. “I needed to get your attention somehow. Casper wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh…” Imre looked at each of them, probably being the first time he realized they were all there. “I’ll be back as soon as he’s done. It’s probably nothing important.” With that, he left.

“I hope it’s something fun,” Lydia thought aloud. “I’ve been bored out of my mind waiting for Witless to shut up. I want to hear more about those keys Casper mentioned.”

“I don’t,” Kiah retorted. “I want him to forget about it altogether. It’s a disaster just waiting to happen.”

Samone and Dimas both gave a mutter in agreement. Suffice to say no one had a particularly good feeling about what they’d talked about before. Only Lydia—growing up on these types of dangerous adventures—found something enjoyable out of it. She was the main reason they traveled anywhere at all, though there were things they couldn’t have learned without that experience.