Chapter 61: Shocking Announcement.

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Shocking Announcement.

"You weren’t kidding," Khobi mutters under his breath, peering out from behind the pillar they’re partly concealed behind to get a better view of the hall. It’s certainly magnificent, and the few times Khobi’s set foot in here it’s always made him feel infinitely small. It’s also not a place he has fond memories of.

"Me, kid?" Binny snickers softly, scanning the room with him and drinking in the sheer enormity of the crowd with considerably less trepidation. "Never."

Khobi’s skin is crawling. The galleries above them are packed fit to bursting with nobility dressed in their best and finest, so many that the very walls seem to have eyes.

But for once, the eyes aren’t on him. They’re fixed firmly on the dais at the head of the room, waiting with fervent fascination, staring intently at the three thrones seated there, the three figures occupying them, and the timid man quivering before them.

"What are they all here for?" Khobi asks quietly, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Those ones," Binny points discreetly into the crowd, "Have come from all over the kingdom to seek an audience with His Majesty." Most of them look like commoners, and they look exhausted, and very, very nervous. "And the ones up there..." he inclines a finger upwards towards the balconies above them. "...Just want to watch."

"Why?"

It’s a stupid question. It’s a well known fact that nobles love looking down on the commonfolk. Judging their clothes, their occupation, the way they spoke, and lamenting how simply dreadful it must be to have to live like that.

Binny just smiles at him, that sad, quiet one that Khobi doesn’t quite understand, and it strikes him that the servants must hear a lot of things they wish they hadn’t.

"Bored, maybe?" he answers, just a beat too late, but as always, he’s quick to recover. "And one day, Her Highness is actually going to agree to marry someone, and none of them want to be the last to know."

Khobi sneaks another glance out from behind their pillar,this time focusing on the dais that seems to be holding everyone’s attention. The king holds the centre throne, with his daughter on his left,he all in black, and her in a soft sky blue. They’re both listening intently to the twitchy man as he wrings his hat in his hands before them, and the hall listens along with them as the princess answers him,gentle and warm, and with a smile that makes the entire throne room sigh.

The only one who’s not enthralled by the proceedings is the man sitting to the right of the king.

Loac, to put it simply, looks bored.

And, much to the obvious ire of his uncle, and discomfort of his cousin, is making no attempt to hide it. There’s a gold circlet atop his head but he looks decidedly unroyal and out of place upon the dais, lounging with one leg hooked over the arm of his throne as he surveys the crowd with lazy, jaded eyes, head in hand.

And then to add insult, he yawns .

It echoes, and the princess does an admirable job of pretending she’s not heard.

But she has, and Gurdet knows it.

To be perfectly honest, he’s surprised Loac even made an appearance today, and privately wishes that he hadn’t. It’s bad enough that he reflects poorly on their family within the walls of the castle,he doesn’t need to fuel the whispers among the commonfolk as well. Because they’re certainly whispering. Probably nothing good, of course, but at least his being here keeps the masses entertained. If nothing else, it’s certainly distracting them from the fact that in terms of pure drama value, today has been surprisingly lacking.

Sure, Xena’s turned her nose up at two noblemens’ sons, but it’s hardly their first attempt to win her hand, and it’s starting to get a little old, and frankly, a little embarrassing.

Which is amusing, and all, but it just doesn’t have the same sort of entertainment value it used to.

And Gurdet is a man who rather dislikes being bored.

His wife, bless her soul, always used to say it was a troublesome quality in a king, and she was probably right.

He sighs, soft enough to go unnoticed by the crowd, but just loud enough that his daughter can hear. She’ll be cross at him later, but that’s just a father’s burden to bear. Next to him, his nephew isn’t even pretending to listen. Gurdet wouldn’t be surprised if he’d fallen asleep.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

However, out of the corner of his eye, he notices that that isn’t at all the case. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Something’s caught his eye.

Some one , rather, Gurdet realises with mild interest, tracking Loac’s gaze and finding that it leads him directly to a rather poorly concealed Khobi Frost, who, credit to him, had somehow managed to sneak into the proceedings without drawing attention to himself.

Well, for the most part.

There was apparently one person in the room who’d noticed, and Gurdet’s both annoyed, and intrigued, that it wasn’t himself. Mostly intrigued, actually --not by the fact that Loac had spotted him, because his nephew’s eyes had been wandering even more than his own --but because his gaze is lingering a lot longer than strictly necessary. And if the way Khobi’s glaring back is any indication, it’s been like that a whole lot longer than he would’ve liked.

Gurdet wonders if he’s gotten worse at reading his nephew over the years, because for once, he can’t quite decipher his expression.

How curious.

"Loac," he says quietly, just to test if his nephew is listening.

He’s not.

Interesting.

"...Is there a problem, father?" Xena whispers to him, apparently having noticed that his lack of attention.

"Not at all," he assures her, and smiles, just to make her uneasy. "In fact, quite the opposite. I actually have an announcement to make."

Gods he does love it when he catches her off guard like this. That little glimmer of panic in her eyes was something a father just lived for.

" Ladies and gentlemen ," he says, projecting his voice out over the crowd before she gets the chance to ask what on earth he means by that. It’s a shame that she’s going to be too furious with him for keeping this from her to acknowledge the effort he’d gone to to keep it that way.

Daughters could be so critical at times.

"It may have come to your attention," he begins, and tries to smother a smile when Xena shrinks back into her seat,curious and deathly annoyed about it, "...That we have a guest in our castle."

"His name is Khobi Frost, and he has come to us from Briyagi."

Loac’s listening now.

Everyone is listening now.

"And today, I am delighted to officially , announce his engagement to my beloved nephew --" The sweeping hand gesture is probably a little too much, but he can’t deny he has a flair for the dramatic. " -- Loac Trent . His Majesty, Luminus Silas, was... kind enough, to arrange their match, and it is my hope --" Xena rolls her eyes. " --That their union will ensure ongoing peace between our kingdoms."

There’s no applause.

It’s simply delightful, the sound of a room struck dumb. Any mention of Luminus Silas tends to have that sort of effect on people.

But that’s not the news. That’s not what he’s going to get in trouble with his daughter for.