Pesky Princes

Urgently, Prince Tallus goes to look for Haalfrin. He knows he has to get to him and convince the man to keep quiet about his war crime before anyone can get a confession out of him!

However, to Tallus's horror, he learns quickly that Haalfrin had already been awake for well over a week; it's just that Kanus had been waiting until his physical therapy is done before taking him across the country to the capital, where the royal court is held.

Here, Haalfrin can testify of Prince Tallus's serious war crime.

And so, Tallus waits anxiously outside Haalfrin's tent. Surprising no one, the guards outside the tent are his brother's men, and they have orders to not let Tallus through.

Too stubborn to leave, and knowing the guards won't physically hurt him so long as he doesn't try to shove past them, the unloved and unwelcome prince can only wait uselessly by the door.

After a few hours, the "man" in question wakes up; Tallus can tell because he hears stirring noises from inside. The guards hear this too, and one of them pulls out a bell and calls for one of the nurses to come from the tent next door.

In the guard's brief moment of distraction, Tallus reaches out and parts the tent flap. He tries to step through, but he's grabbed by the scruff of the neck and thrown out violently. He hits the ground painfully, though he's otherwise unhurt.

Even if he has no real power, Tallus is still a prince, so the guards didn't dare hurt the man too badly.

Well, at least Tallus got a good look at the patient before he was walked off by the angry guards.

From what Tallus saw of the patient, he can't recognize the intimidating mage from before. Haalfrin had shrunk down to a pre-puberty boy with his advancement in magic, after all.

Despite that, Haalfrin still has the same dead look in his eyes and terrifying FEELING about him. Seeing the glum boy, Tallus thinks, 'This has to be him!'

However, thinking of the absentminded, apathetic look on the "boy's" face, Tallus can't help but grow worried. 'That man looks like he'll rat me out… and why wouldn't he? Kanus won't let me get close and convince him, and he can treat the mage far better than I can.'

'Yeah. I'm dead.'

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Following the incident with Tallus rudely barging into places he's not supposed to be in, Kanus tightens the security around Haalfrin, and the resting mage is now completely pest free (except for the pest called "Kanus", if you ask Haalfrin).

The day after Haalfrin is able to walk again, he receives an unexpected visit from a young-looking gentleman with dark blonde hair and a leanly muscled body. The man tips his hat but doesn't bow; bowing to those of lesser status is against etiquette, but tipping the hat is a suitable sign of respect.

The blonde man steps forward and introduces himself, "Hello! I already know you're the mage Haalfrin. My name is Prince Kanus."

Haalfrin looks over at Kanus and bows his head. "Good to meet you… Your doctors have been treating me pretty well."

Kanus gives a candid smile, "I would hope so. I pay them well enough to warrant some love and care for their job."

The prince tips his hat again. "Though, regarding how you were treated at your camp... I'm sorry that your soldiers were underfed and put on the front lines."

Haalfrin sits there, surprised Kanus would actually dare admit to that in front of a man he's trying to win over… 'At least,' Haalfrin thinks, 'he's not trying to insult me by trying to hide something so obvious.'

So, Haalfrin bows his head again. "Well, SOMEONE has to be on the front lines."

The prince smiles and pulls up a chair backward and sits down in it casually. "I like you. You're quite straightforward. Much better than all these nobles I have to deal with, who always dance around the subject without getting to the point."

The prince then pulls out a bag with complex enchantments Haalfrin had never seen before.

Seeing Haalfrin's inquisitive gaze, Kanus holds up the bag so that Haalfrin can see as he pulls out a board far too large for the tiny bag. "Oh, this?" Kanus says, "This is a space bag. The mages in the Brancotte empire are quite adept in spatial magic. Since I'm royalty of an influential kingdom, I naturally have my sources."

Seeing the space bag, Haalfrin becomes interested in Brancotte for the first time, but he doesn't ask Kanus about it. Instead, he watches as the crown prince unfolds the board, then pulls out playing pieces to a board game

"My tutor," Kanus says as he sets up the pieces of the board, "always said that one can tell a lot about a man's personality by playing a game with him."

Honestly, whatever the prince's tutor said sounds pretty stupid to Haalfrin. What does playing games have to do with getting to know people? Wouldn't a good, heart-to-heart conversation work better?

Not knowing what else to say, Haalfrin just scratches his head dumbly and says, "How do you play?"

"Well, the goal of the game is to take the opponent's castle," Kanus explains, "All the playing pieces are your soldiers. How strong each piece depends on the formation you put your pieces in and how many pieces are adjacent to them. We each take a turn moving 4 pieces at a time, and at the end of each turn, we look for all the soldier pieces that are touching an enemy's piece. Whichever piece is weaker gets removed from the game."

"…What?"

Kanus smiles and explains it all again in greater detail while showing him…

After Haalfrin comes to understand the rules, he and Kanus play a few games. Haalfrin supposes Kanus was going easy on him, since Haalfrin won more than half the games, despite Haalfrin knowing that he made many mistakes during their several games.

Unexpectedly, Kanus doesn't bring up anything more important once they grow bored of playing. Instead, he politely bids farewell, packs up the board game, then leaves with a smile on his face.

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Once Kanus leaves, Haalfrin leans his head back and thinks to himself, 'That man certainly has his motives for paying attention to me… Maybe it's because of my accomplishments in battle, and that I'm a 2nd gate mage.'

Haalfrin sighs, 'Well, even though I can't trust him, at least he's a lot smarter about kissing up to his men than Tallus.'

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During the rest of Haalfrin's recovery, Haalfrin learns that the army has already moved out a long time ago… but he was still kept on the battlefield, as Prince Kanus had deemed it too dangerous to move him while he was in such critical condition.

Only after Haalfrin recovers sufficiently does the crown prince order Haalfrin to finally be moved to the capital. There, he can be a witness at Tallus' trial.

Of course, Haalfrin doesn't really think any more about this; he has other things to worry about.

First off, does he really want to work under Crown Prince Kanus? Kanus seems like a powerful and capable leader, if not a bit ruthless. "Still," Haalfrin thinks, "Being a bit ruthless is normal for a king. All this already makes Kanus a far better prince than Tallus."

(After all, in Haalfrin's mind, being effective is more important than being righteous.)

'On the other hand,' Haalfrin wonders as he lies in bed, 'if I continue serving Tallus instead, Kanus will feel offended and want to kill me. I was wanting to die anyway, not serve as some prince's lackey in a comfortable position. In this situation, Kanus would be a far better option to have as an enemy than an incompetent oaf like Tallus.'

Thinking of Tallus, Haalfrin rolls his eyes. 'If Tallus was my enemy… Yeah, he'd never kill me; I mean, he couldn't even if he wanted to.'

Haalfrin then rolls over in his sleep,'"But,' he thinks, 'Kanus IS the one who healed my arms. I'd feel kind of bad turning myself back over to Tallus, or even saying no to both of them. I'd hate not having a chance to repay my debt…'

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The morning after Haalfrin finally comes to a decision about Kanus, he asks one of the nurses to find a way to let Kanus know that he wants to speak to him at some point.

It does take a few days, as Kanus is a busy man… but eventually, the Prince shows up. "What do you need?" Kanus asks upon dipping his head through the tent flap.

Haalfrin bows his head and he says right off the bat, "I know you're trying to get me to work for you… but there's a condition."

Kanus smiles when he hears this, "I'm all ears."

Haalfrin takes a deep breath and asks, "First off, why're you so interested in me?"

"Oh, that?" Kanus replies as he steps forward a little and talks a little softer, "I have a lot of sources… and it turns out the archmage is looking for you pretty bad right now. He had a vision in the gods' temple the other day… and from what I've learned, the vision had something to do with you."

Haalfrin leans back and rolls his eyes, "Yes. Was it a vision from Das?"

Kanus hears Haalfrin, and he has this face where he's not sure if he's supposed to be confused or not. Then, he tips his hat and says, "Well… What business do you have with a god?"

"That's exactly it," Haalfrin replies, "My business with Das has to do with my condition..."

Haalfrin chokes on his words for a moment, then thinks, 'Wait… My business with the gods is pretty important, right? Is it really all right to just tell people? Well… There's no point in NOT doing it; I have no stakes left in this world, so there's no point in being secretive…'

"You see," Haalfrin resumes talking, "Das and I have a bit of a disagreement. Das wants me to die of old age because he wants my soul for whatever reason, but I don't want that. He probably wants the archmage to find me so that I can be put in some small-time, safe job where I won't be at risk of dying any other way but old age."

There's a long pause from both of them, but Kanus breaks the silence. "So," he says, "You want to die… some other way?"

Haalfrin nods, "Yeah. If I'm going to work for you, I just want to be guaranteed dangerous jobs."

Kanus leans back again with an agitated look on his face as he says, "But… What's the point of having a subordinate who's trying to get himself killed?"

Haalfrin shrugs, "Well, I was trying to get killed when I fought Kaalhyme, but I won anyway. I'm sure you'd find some use for me."

"I'll consider this offer," the prince says as he dips his head and leaves the tent.