The Butterfly Effect

Their only common quality was their attachment to Imre. Dimas was, obviously, in a loving relationship with the other prince; Samone thought of him as a brother, closer to him than any of her “real” family; Lydia was rather close to him as simply friends, a bit like more distanced family; Kiah only cared about any of them because she was getting paid to guard him. Anything else that bound them together was because of him, and likely never would’ve happened were he not a part of it. The differences between them only got more obvious the longer he was gone.

None of them spoke. Samone played with an illusionary rose, trying to create something so real to the original it would be impossible to tell the difference. Kiah and Dimas were involved in some quiet conversation, though it seemed to be a bit more of an argument. Lydia was attempting to skip stones, continuing to try again and again with not even the slightest improvement. It felt like the couple of moments took forever.

Imre came back with a more distraught expression than when he left. This immediately got all of their attention, and his subsequent lie didn’t help any. “It wasn’t anything important.”

“He kinda made it sound like it was,” Lydia pointed out casually.

“Your face says otherwise,” Dimas added.

“We see right through you, Nokae,” Samone remarked. “You’re not a very good liar.”

“If none of us know what it is then we can’t do it,” he then tried. “If we don’t do it, no one has to risk getting hurt…”

“You say that like Lydia doesn’t almost get us killed once a month,” Kiah said dryly.

There was no getting out of that. Imre sighed. “It was about what we did earlier. The thing we were the keys to. He wants us to go to a nearby entrance of the Anysia Caverns—“

“That doesn’t sound too bad! It’s just a cave system that spans half the continent. What else could be in here besides honest adventure?”

“—and brave the Minotaur,” Imre finished when Lydia stopped interrupting. “Maybe listen to all of it before you start agreeing to the plan.”

“The Minotaur?” Dimas seemed to know exactly when his Qizarn heritage was important. Samone never cared for their legends and she knew Lydia only showed slight interest because of adventure; neither of them ever took the time to memorize the names and faces involved. “The cursed twin who got turned into a half-man-half-bull thing? His spirit may or may not have been the ‘secret weapon’ of Fleyw Bresh in Seothia before the time of Saint-King Lucas and Holy Queen Norah? That Minotaur?”

“You tell me what other bull creatures exist,” was Imre’s simple answer.

It wasn’t that hard to believe that the Minotaur—whatever legend it was—existed. They had, after all, already decided on the existence of a god. At least, both Dimas and Kiah said as much; Samone was a bit hesitant about the idea herself, though she knew better than to question it. While Seothian children are memorizing tales of heroics and spirits, the children of Qizar were memorizing and taking to heart every piece of scripture they could get their hands on.

The only one that looked even slightly interested in the idea was Lydia. This was something they each gave her a glare for, even if she didn’t seem to notice at all.

They each wanted a way to opt out. They probably wouldn’t be given the option of just not going if they didn’t want to. Casper hardly let anyone get out of stuff by doing that.

At that point—in the desperate moment before they’d be forced to accept it—Kiah came up with something. “The Minotaur has a pretty decent chance of killing us. Zofie would not like it if Dimas died. So, we have to make sure it’s all right with her first.”

Despite half of them knowing next to nothing about the young queen, they all knew what her reaction to that would be. If she knew all the risks, then she wouldn’t let him go. And not only was she a ruling power—thus someone they should probably obey the orders of—she was also a sister, which seemed to be so much worse.

“Samone and I can talk to her!” Lydia likely didn’t even realize what that excuse was meant to do. She grabbed Samone’s arm and immediately started towards the Qizarn officials.

“Don’t I get a say in this?”

“Nope!”

The urge to shock Lydia with magic was overwhelming, but she just sighed and followed the older’s lead. There was nothing she could do at this point to get herself out of it. Their one hope was that Zofie would say no.

Lydia, clearly, had no idea where she was going; she’d never needed to, being here more because her father was friends with the king and everyone else was here. Samone, not wanting this to last any longer than it needed to, then took the lead. She gave her proper respects to the nobles as she passed them until she finally reached the queen, her guard, and her advisor.

Kesem once told her that magic users could sense the magic of others. It was how he realized she had such strong natural magic, unlike most born in Seothia. She wondered what creature she reminded him of, if it felt anything like Zofie at all.

Zofie was almost like what Samone imagined a fairy feeling like; a powerful yet unstable magic, ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice. Except, this was one that was more likely to be released unconsciously. Her presence seemed to give off the kind of crackling of lightning; something that might strike at any moment, and there was no guarantee on whether or not it would hit something. It was a feeling that would set anyone on edge, to say the least.

Her perceived level of magic didn’t quite match her. As anyone could guess, she bore a striking semblance to Dimas: they had the same ash-blonde hair (though hers was up in a long braid), like most twins would. Her dress was colors close to magenta, never exactly red or pink. The small crown she wore indicated her status just as much as the palanquin she sat in did.

“When are we starting?” she sighed, giving her advisor a sideways glance. She didn’t realize Samone and Lydia were there at all. “They’re all here, aren’t they? Can’t we just start so we can all go home?”

“It’s been a long time since a few of them have seen each other, Your Majesty,” her advisor offered calmly. There was something incredibly unsettling about him, more than just his black hair and dark purple outfit. “I’m sure they’re hoping to catch up and have no intention of delaying the talks.”

She glanced to the other side of her. “Nokae, can you get me some water?”

“As you wish, my queen.” The guard bowed and walked off.

Lydia was done waiting after that point. “Hey Zofie!” Of course, she treated the Qizarn queen like she treated everyone else she knew. Being the second oldest, one would think she actually knew how to act around people of noble status. However, since she was completely raised around them and considered many of them her close friends, she chose that formalities were not important.

Zofie looked around before her eyes settled on the two of them, her nose subsequently scrunching up in both puzzlement and slight disgust. “You’re not one of ours.”

“I’m Lydia.” She pointed to herself, then her companion as she added, “That’s Samone. Remember us? You met us a couple months after Dimas did. You and Samone worked together to throw magic darts at me. You kinda got along with my sister, Ellie? Almost killed Witless for being in your face?”

The child of Fleyw Bresh blinked.

“We’re Dimas’s friends,” Samone tried.

That seemed to do it. “Oh, the Red Rose and the Obnoxious One. I thought I recognized you.” Still, she made no show of treating them with any more familiarity. “What do you want?”

“There’s this awesome adventure thing that I really wanna go on but no one else does so we need you to agree with me,” Lydia began, speaking so quickly with excitement that her words blurred together. Though maybe that was for the best. “See, Casper wants us to go to the Anysia Caverns. He also wants us to fight a Minotaur while we’re there, which I think is super awesome and cool. I mean, who wouldn’t want to fight a giant man-bull-thing? Well, I guess everyone else, since we’re having this conversation. Anyway, it’s going to be amazing and a shame if we don’t get to go. There’s apparently a chance Dimas can die or something, so your opinion kinda really matters. I guess we all need to be there to beat up a Minotaur? So, basically, we need to steal your brother for a week or so. And if he dies, we’d probably all be dead so no one’ll be there to face your wrath.”

“For the love of the gods, was that even modern language?” Zofie, thankfully, understood none of it.

Samone was trying to force back her reaction to Lydia before she gave away a part of it. In a clear, slow voice, she outlined the important aspects, “King Casper is planning on sending us on a mission. It’s going to be dangerous, though, so we thought it best to get your consent. It does put your brother at risk, after all.”

Zofie took a dark kind of amusement—yet hurt all the same—when she heard it. “So for once he cares? When was this concern any other time I wanted to know he was well? He writes his letters like he’s in the castle, safe, then mentions one misfortune or another. Why do I have a hard time believing this is really just for my own benefit?”

Samone bit back everything she wanted to say.

“Is it a yes or a no?” she instead prompted without any kind of emotion.

“Go ahead on your little adventure.” Zofie waved her hand around. “It’s not like I could stop you anyway.”

There was no turning back now. They truly were going to fight a Minotaur.