Orenda awoke to the sound of a scuffle and for a moment she was afraid she had fallen victim to another assasination attempt.

But she wasn’t on fire.

She was annoyed to see the light of day breaking through her window; she hadn’t meant to fall asleep at midday and have an unbroken slumber until the next morning- what sort of message would that send to the nobility? That she was lazy? That she was incapable?

What had awakened her?

The sound was coming from outdoors.

She stood and walked quickly to the window; the room she had found herself in the day before was on the ground floor of the castle and the single window looked out over the military school, the campus of which was located behind the castle proper, but still within the confines of its protective wall. These grounds held many buildings: a dining hall, barracks for the students, an archery range, equestrian tracks- but Orenda’s eye was drawn to a large, fenced fieldfenced in field, because a small crowd had formed around it. She saw a tiny, thin figure emerge above them, as if it had been thrown into the air, and recognized it instantly.

“Klin!” she cursed, turned, and wondered how quickly she could get herself presentable to appear before a crowd.

Orenda shoved her way into the crowd as the soldiers who had seen her ran behind her, trying to get in front of her, trying to clear a path for her- but she was a head taller than them, taller than most of the crowd, and they were unnecessary. Even if the gathered assembly of nobles, students, servants, and real military personnel hadn’t noticed her and moved out of her way, she could have pushed her way through with sheer girth.

Sonny threw a punch at Klin, moving as quickly as a jackrabbit, but somehow, Klin was faster. He managed to sidestep and avoid the blow, grab Sonny’s wrist, and, because he was so much smaller, bring up both legs as if he was repelling up a mountain, and somehow wound up in less time than it takes to tell it, standing on Sonny’s shoulders.

“Gyaddamn it,” Sonny cursed, “Like a gadfly!”

Klin laughed, braced one foot on Sonny’s head, and leaped backwards, twisting in the air to land on his feet.

“Bitch, did you do a backflip?” Sonny asked as he turned.

Klin giggled again, glanced behind him, jumped, tucked his body into the ball Orenda had, the previous day, remarked on the smallness of, and flipped himself backwards again before landing on his feet.

“I can do that too!” Sonny said, though apparently he could not, because unlike Klin he used his hands to push off the ground.

Klin used the time to take off at a sprint and close the distance between them. As Sonny landed, Klin was there to grab him by the shoulders and tug him forward, but it didn’t throw him off balance as much as Klin seemed to think it would. Instead of falling face first into him, Sonny only bent enough to be level with Klin, then reached under him, grabbed him by the shoulder and the thigh, and lifted him over his head.

“Oh un-uh,” Klin snarled, “you best not- do not throw me! You put me down or I swear to god-”

“Oh, hey Rendy,” Sonny said, apparently noticing her standing by the fence, “Catch!”

He threw Klin at her so hard Orenda was sure he was going to collide with her, their armors would spring up to protect them, and all her secrets would come crumbling down.

“Sonny, no!” she shouted, but the deed was done.

But the impact never came.

Instead, Klin hit the fence in front of her, feet first, oriented himself in less time than it took for Orenda to even register that he had moved, then pushed himself off forward like a cat pouncing on a mouse.

He hit Sonny square in the chest, wrapped both his arms and legs around him, and the force of the impact knocked him onto his back, where he went sliding across the grass.

“You can’t keep this little fuck down!” Sonny laughed as they began to roll back and forth, and Orenda did not know enough about grappling or combat holds to even know what they were attempting.

“Stop that!” She commanded, “What is it that you’re even trying to do!?”

She grabbed the uppermost rung of the wooden fence and carefully climbed over it, mindful of her expensive dress and boots.

“Both of you! Stop it! Are you out here… what are you doing? Are you playing? Like children? Are you laughing?”

“Yes, your majesty,” Klin said; he had somehow wound up on the bottom with both arms wrapped around Sonny’s neck, his head under him pressed into the grass, and his legs wrapped around his torso. He let go all at once, kicked Sonny off of him, stood, tried his best to dust himself off, and turned to her, still wearing his wide smile.

It looked strange on him.

She had never seen it before.

He had been having fun- real, genuine fun. Was this kind of violence the only thing he understood?

But then he looked around and seemed to see the crowd, as if he had not noticed it before, had not registered it before that very moment, and the fear that lived in his eyes returned all at once. He took a step back as panic covered his face and his already light flesh turned a ghostly white, devoid of blood. He fisted one hand over his heart and the other in the small of his back, bowed, and began to whisper.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “God, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“I got grass in my mouth,” Sonny said, made a humming sound, and added, “It ain’t half bad. Them sheep might be onto somethin.”

“Sonny, what the hell are you doing?” Orenda asked.

“Sparrin,” Sonny laughed as he hopped onto his feet, “I asked Klin if’in he’d help me work out. Daddy always said it was a lot harder to get back in shape than it was to never get outta shape.”

“Why now? Why Klin?” Orenda demanded.

“That little consort killed the Emerald Knight I wanna see it,” Sonny said, walked up to Klin and slapped him on the shoulder, “You a little bitty but you’re tough as nails and strong as an ox. You remind me a’ my daddy. People underestimate folk in your line a’ work. I don’t know why. The skills transfer.”

“Thanks,” Klin looked away and lowered his head so that his bangs fell over his eyes.

“So,” Sonny slapped Klin on the shoulder one last time, then walked towards Orenda, “what’s for breakfast?”

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She shrugged him off and stormed past him to take Klin by the wrist.

“Come on,” she demanded, “We have to get you cleaned up.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Klin said.

“Oh, come on, Rendy,” Sonny said as he followed them to the gate, “I wouldn’t gonna hurt him. He’s a fighter, deep down. We can bring that outta him. I know he snapped before, and believe me I can tell when somebody’s been through some shit, but you can’t keep protectin him every second of every day. You gotta let him work through that and come out the other side. That’s what daddy did an’ he was better off for it. You ain’t always gonna be there.”

“Yes,” Orenda said, “I am. I shall always be there. He shall never be alone again.”

“Super… super healthy…” Sonny said, “Hey! Don’t walk away from me!”

Orenda had picked up her pace, dragging Klin behind her though he seemed to have no trouble keeping up, and Sonny jogged after her as she entered the castle through the back servant’s entrance, receiving the Urillian salute from the guard there with a nod.

He grabbed Orenda by her free arm and she tried to jerk away, but he was stronger, so she was forced to stop and look at him.

“What?” she asked.

“Klin, buddy, go wash off and get all dolled up,” Sonny said, but Klin stared at Orenda, as if waiting for permission.

“Go on,” Sonny said, “Me and the queen need to talk.”

Orenda studied the sincerity in Sonny’s silver eyes and eventually released Klin.

“Yes,” she said, “go take a proper bath.”

“Wash your fuckin hair!” Sonny teased, but instantly regretted it as Klin physically pulled his bangs over his eyes and lowered his head. “Oh, goddamn, I didn’t mean-”

“Yeah,” Klin agreed quietly, “Yeah I… I will.”

Sonny watched him walking so softly down the hall his boots didn’t even make a sound on the stone floor before he turned back to Orenda.

“So you just done went and lost your whole damn mind, then?”

“Excuse me?” Orenda asked.

“Don’t act stupid, Rendy, everybody knows what this is.” Sonny said, “That poor little orphan, abandoned by everybody to basically be a pleasure slave- ain’t got no parents, ain’t got nobody to look after him, snapped and killed somebody even if it was a monster- only able to do it on account’a they underestimated him ‘cause he was little - you really think we’re all so stupid we can’t see it? You think it don’t remind us of somebody?”

“I have neither the time or inclination to put up with cryptic bullshit, Sonny; it’s six o’clock in the morning,” Orenda jerked her arm away and turned from him to walk in the direction of the dining hall.

“Hey!” Sonny called, “Quit it! Quit walkin away from me! We need to talk!”

“You can’t talk and walk at the same time?” Orenda asked, “What is the world coming to?”

“We need to talk, in private, about your boyfriend,” Sonny clarified and grabbed her again, “Quit it. Your eyes are red. You’re tryin to heat up. You know that don’t do shit to me.”

“What?” Orenda asked, “What do you want?”

“Look,” Sonny said, “You trust him, I trust him. But there was a bunch of them pretty little blond boys in that harem and he was the one what snapped. I get it. He’s the saddest one. He’s like a puppy, like the runt of a litter. But… he’s a person, Rendy. He’s grown. You can’t stay right on top of him like that. I know you think you’re helpin, but you ain’t. An’ you… ain’t gotta do that. You ain’t gotta… make somebody dependent on you. You want a youngun adopt a youngun but you… you ain’t gotta. Look at me. You’re our sister. We ain’t Big Gary. We ain’t gonna leave. An if we do leave, I swear on everythin I hold dear- you can trust us to come back. It’s… it’s different now. I promise. It’s ok now.”

You can trust us to come back.

You can trust us.

But she couldn’t, not really, not now. Perhaps, if she had started with the truth it could be trusted, but not now, not months later, not months after such a deep lie. Too much time had passed. She couldn’t possibly tell them that they had been sleeping under the same roof as the Emerald Knight; that the warmonger responsible for genocides was being kept under their noses.

She couldn’t tell them that she could not kill the Emerald Knight.

The best thing, for everyone, was for them to think the monster was dead. It needed to fade away, become a legend, become a boogieman that could no longer hurt anyone, that lived only in fairy tales.

The Brigaddons could not see his shimmering soul, and so far he had been able to keep it dulled, keep it more or less hidden. It was nearly impossible to see the dancing patterns of the Emerald’s Knight’s soul on the battlefield- it glowed like a star, too bright to look upon.

No one could know.

“It’s… a lot,” Sonny said, “I get that. It’s a lot. But you gotta get your shit together. You’re goin crazy out’chere.”

“Perhaps I am,” Orenda agreed, “madness runs in my family, Sonny, you know that.”

“I don’t know about all that,” Sonny said, “I don’t know if I’d call Big Gary crazy. He’s just seen some shit. That’s how folks what’s seen some shit act. Believe me, I seen some shit. Thanks for uh… the job, by the way. I got them scouts out all over the country tryin to find Lappy, tryin to find Sharon. But… look, don’t tell Mary Sue or… anybody, ok?”

“Tell them what?” Orenda asked.

“She’s dead,” Sonny said, “Sharon’s dead.”

“Did you find a body?” Orenda asked.

“Nah, I just… I can feel it.” Sonny said, “Ya know, Rendy she… she didn’t have to… treat me as good as she did, you know? She didn’t have to be my mommy. She chose to do that. I was already… lord knows, four or five, time I met her. She didn’t have to do that. She went outta her way an’ I know Lappy… he’s done to her what he done to daddy. That boy ain’t right- we all knew. We all knew he wouldn’t right. But when it’s your little brother you… you try an tell yourself it ain’t… it ain’t like that. Because it can’t be like that to your little brother, you know? I mean, he ran his mouth a lot, got in a lotta fights, but we all run our mouths, all fight. I had to drag Junior kickin and screamin to bed like a toddler. But Lappy he… he actually did it. He wouldn’t full ‘a shit. I mean… I thought… I wanna say we all thought… he was just full’a shit, you know? Like ever’ teenager in the world screams, ‘I hate you! I’ma kill you!” at their parents. But he’s done went and did it.”

“The scouts haven’t found anything?” Orenda asked.

“I don’t trust ‘em,” Sonny said, “I don’t trust any a’ these military fucks. We don’t know where their allegiance lies. I don’t know. I don’t know about all that. I wish we had enough Knights left to just fill up the ranks. But… none of ‘em seemed loyal to Xandra. Most of ‘em was kids. An’ now that the ranks are open to humans we got ourselves a big influx over at the military academy… I trust the humans more; is that-”

“So do I,” Orenda agreed, “I know that there are good earth elves but it’s difficult to… it isn’t even their fault, I think. Toli… as soon as he learned to see the world for how it really was, he changed. But he was complicit. He never had a reason to question his reality. They’re presented with falsehoods and they have no reason to disbelieve them.”

“They’re gettin reasons,” Sonny said, “Times they are a changin’. You oughta seen me at that press conference yesterday. Some of them folks sure did not care for me. You been readin the papers? They been… they can’t draw real good.”

“I saw that,” Orenda said, “I’ve seen the caricatures. You’re not a mindless ape.”

“I don’t reckon no apes are mindless,” Sonny said, “this is what they don’t get- it ain’t that we ain’t animals. We are. But so are they. They’re so steeped in their stupid religion because they wanna be special. ‘Oh we got long ears,’ yeah bitch, so do rabbits, you ain’t special. ‘Oh, we live for centuries,’ yeah, darlin so does a turtle or a dragon. It ain’t that I wanna be pulled up to their level and put up on some fake ass pedestal and get drunk on imaginary power it’s that I want ‘em to act like they got some sense. Look around and see the world for what it is. How do you let yourself get in that kind’a shape?”

“I don’t know,” Orenda said, “it never happened to me. I don’t understand it either.”

“It’s good though,” Sonny said, “we just… gotta keep on keepin on. They gotta learn eventually. Or they’ll die out. That’s how nature works, ya’ know. Only the critters that can keep up with change survive. The rest get left in the dust. Us humans? We can adapt to damn near anything. You’d be amazed what ya can get used to.”

“Perhaps it will all pass,” Orenda said, “I would love for it to… calm a little.”

“We just gotta get past the adjustment,” Sonny said, “I think it might be harder here. ‘Cause we’re in the thick of it, ya know. This is where she lived. This is where she ruled from. Even though we knocked it all down and started over… I feel like maybe the land remembers stuff. Like our land remembered how to grow sterilite.”

He reached into his bag, pulled out a round fruit the size of apple that shimmered silver like his eyes and hair and bit into it.

“I’m not a geologist in any real sense,” Orenda said, “I don’t know anything about that.”

“Rendy,” Mary Sue said as she came walking down the hall, “I been lookin for you.”