Pinpricks swept all around his skull at the clanking footsteps of his 'escort', with Gilded Knight Joyen taking his all-important, pompous place at the front of the pack. Gray clouds cast a shadow over the capital of Tervale, with people tucked into winter bonnets with their work slops hiked out of the cold mush. I wonder if they worry about avalanches. He stopped the train of thought with a scowl. I bet that'll definitely not come up if that ever does happen and I happen to be in the vicinity. He unfurled his fingers, but the piece of charcoal dissipated underneath his skin, and he sighed before tucking it back into his traveling robes. Windows curved downwards on the highest level of the palace, revealing the expansion of the city of many points. Magick hummed through his ears, and he stiffened his shoulders at the door locked up tighter than a magick vault — scratch that, it might as well have been.

"I thought the Emperor mentioned his son couldn't use magick," he observed at the various layers of wards. Each weave tangled into the next, and it'd take several days to crack it. "Why have you locked up like you're trying to hold a chimera? Or a conjured tornado?" He raised an eyebrow when Gilded Knight Joyen untangled a ridiculous bundle of keys from his belt, but Reyes left the entourage to examine the inflated doorway. Underneath it all, a field of lightning, and it laid the foundation for the rest of the wards. Suns, if anyone touches this their skin would get burned. In an inane action, he leaned back when Joyen took one key, slipping it into the center anchor of the ward.

It cracked — but the key went along with it.

"Now isn't that a waste of metal," Reyes mumbled.

"We reforge it, Mage," one of the knights behind him bit. "These keys are attuned to the locks so no one can think to release the prince when he is unwell—"

"Ignore him," Gilded Knight Joyen ordered.

Impatience almost drove him to break the wards in half. Amusement prevented him from doing so as he leaned onto one of the pillars. Far be it from me to stop non-mages from unlocking metaphysical locks with... physical keys. He rested his temple on his knuckles and counted the drawn out seconds of their haphazard wastefulness of the innocent metal picks. Each one clinked against the ground. He had known more obnoxious things in life. A squeaky step. Complaints from Abraxa's Magus Council. His tea brewed for the wrong amount of time with spotty dregs from the leaves. He chewed on his jaw at the next clink, a shiver of annoyance rushing through his spine; and it stopped being so amusing when it drove icepicks into his head at the damnable sounds.

He threw all his magick into the center at the jangled fumble from the keys, though without his stave it proved harder to both aim and focus at the same time and the ripple of energy running through his blood bit at his veins. Tangles from the woven wards shattered into glimmered dissipation, with the lightning ward last to go, skittering like worms out of sight with the smallest crack. One of the knights tore a sword out of their scabbard to point at him, but he waved it out of his personal space. "I doubt Emperor Hovolo wants to waste time just opening the wards," he said. "I'd like to get this done and be on my way as soon as possible." He hung back when Joyen sent a distasteful scowl his way, but opened the door nonetheless.

Thick sheets of fabric stuck themselves in the window panes, with the minuscule beams from the sun struggling to pierce through the shield against much needed light. Dust bunnies escaped underneath the bed with frayed quilts and tucked themselves on the rough stone walls. Reyes entered, noticing a distinct lack of an addled prince. He stood beside the bed, and traced the nicked spots along the posts, a countdown — or keeping time of the days which passed. Enough for a couple winter's, with barely any room left on the etched posts. On the desk, a music box with a raven blooming out of it, wings outstretched with pale gemstones for its eyes. It pinged off the small keys, a deep, forlorn lullaby. "So," Reyes mumbled, turning to the knights, who appeared to have also noticed the problem. "Is your prince a ghost?"

"If he got out, His Majesty will have our heads, Ser," one of the young knights hissed to Joyen.

"How would he get out?" Reyes set his arm around the post. "You put... what? Ten wards on his door unless I miscounted? Used an intense lightning weave for the added kick? Thought he'd scratch his way through?" He huffed and shook his head. "Your prince's hands would be red, swollen, pus-filled blisters by the time he got through the first tangle if what your emperor says is true and he no longer has magick." He examined the rest of the room's dark corners as Joyen came closer to him, hand on the hilt of his dagger. Off the post, he imagined the playful flames on the tips of his fingers, but it sizzled out long before he dreamed of them. Run through with uselessness, he wondered about the strength of a sharp blade in the stomach. Would it be the faster killer? Hm, actually, maybe not.

Reyes stopped at a whisper of shadow.

"I did entertain the thought," a soft voice purred on the top of the bed's canopy. "But where would the fun in that be?"

The music box went quiet with the raven's sharp-eyed, intelligent stare over the edge. With acrobatic grace, the shadow flipped over. His feet slammed into the pauldrons, with Joyen gasping in surprise. Amusement blasted into his throat when the Gilded Knight trampled backwards to the entourage. On the fast wings of bird's, the shape ran forward with a hasty binding of rope when they wrapped it around the youngest, inexperienced one, kicking their feet out from underneath them with a soft, focused breath. Out of the way when another knight went to grab him, he bounced off their chest and went for a direct attack at Joyen's now exposed throat.

Chains locked around his arms, he sent the air forward into the shape's space. Magick coiled around it, but his focus waned the longer he held the incomplete petrification. Pale gray eyes whipped in his direction, the glint of a knife tucked between their fingers when his shoulders tensed. Reyes took his chance to examine his apparent patient. Dark circles wrapped around his eyes, features ashen from a lack of sunlight.

"Prince Senko," Joyen rasped with Senko's frozen foot on his stomach. "It's us."

"Oh, well, why didn't you just say so?" Prince Senko smiled in his direction, and Reyes scowled in return. "You can let go of me, Mage. I was only having a little bit of fun. I never get visitors — at least, none that I never not recognize."

Nettles swept through his elbow, and he released the incomplete petrification spell off his fingertips. Arm cradled with the other, he leaned back when Senko hopped off of Joyen and waddled over to him. "Now, Joyen, who is this?" He pinched his chin with his gloved hands.

"This is Reyes Drazir, the Mage Emperor Hovolo brought to assist your... condition."

Prince Senko's expression flattened when he came closer, almost nose to nose to him. "Brought, you say?" Examiner turned into the examined, Reyes tucked himself into his cloak with the Tervalen prince sizing him up like a piece of meat. "Or should we just cut to the chase and say captured? I know how my lovely father operates, Joyen. No need to hide the obvious. Well, Mage Reyes." Prince Senko swung on his heel and stood in front of him with a quick smile. "If you are here to assist me, then I suppose I should give a proper introduction. Crown Prince Senko..." He bowed with one hand over his heart, a full, obnoxious swoop, his hair falling in black, wavy curls. "Though, I'm more commonly known as the 'Addled Prince'. People sure do enjoy giving others monikers."

Addled is not how I would describe you at first glance. Reyes toyed with the idea of fire, but released it all the same for the prince's icy demeanor. "Reyes Drazir."

"Reyes Drazir..." Prince Senko's lips pursed in curiosity. "Quite the powerful name."

The Desert Dragon. The Fallen Star. Reyes bounced the story spoken in his memory, in her voice. "Yes."

Prince Senko smiled tighter, but unlike the previous, it touched his eyes. "I like you," he stated with a deft bluntness that left his words long gone to the wind outside. "These ones are boring. But there's something about you, Mage Reyes, that's on the tip of my tongue but I can't place it."

"Exhaustion?" Reyes mused, then nodded at the ruined posts. "How long were you in here?"

"Oh, you noticed." Prince Senko's shoulders trembled, but his smile remained resolute and unbroken. "I had to keep track somehow, counting every day that my brother has gone missing." Reyes caught a glimpse of the veil of grief when Prince Senko tucked his hands closer together, a reflection of his own long ruined heart. "Counting every day that I've been in here due to my lovely father's dedication to our image."

Out of the burning cages, are we ever truly free? "I am just here to see what I can do for you."

"Yes." Prince Senko turned to the knights. "I shall be fine."

"Prince Senko—" Knight Joyen glared at him, then shooed the entourage out of the room. Out of sight, Prince Senko returned his attention to him.

"So, am I correct in my assessment? My father is nothing but predictable. If he sees something. He's going to get it by any means necessary." He sat on his bed, and tucked his gloved hands close to his chest.

"Yes." Reyes found himself frozen in place. Black splinters fell at the edge of his failures. "So, let's make this tolerable for both of us. I'm here because your father thinks that you're too addled to form a coherent thought, but now I see that was an exaggeration, but I don't know what I expected." Reyes tore his heel off the ground. "By the way, you look like trampled shit."

Prince Senko smiled. "I suppose that comes with the addled territory."

Reyes flicked his gaze downwards at his attempt to hide the obvious. "Show me your hands."

In the end, his scorched heart broke for the harmed and the vulnerable. Students who came to him, begging for a reprieve from their ceaseless, strict studies. Children who snuck between the alleys of Abraxa's smothered, dirty truth underneath their clean-cut white streets and azure towers, and he sat with them and shared the stories of his homeland for their fading dreams. He frowned when Senko tucked them closer to his chest without breaking eye-contact.

"I am not under the urge to report everything unless I am asked to do so," Reyes said. "Whatever my reasons for being here — forced or not..." Against my better judgment, for that matter... His thought drew out a long sigh on his lips, he continued, "I will help. Show me your hands."

"I have yet to meet a healer with such a cold demeanor," Prince Senko threw out his own assessment of the 'mad' prince. "Though, I suppose the forced part would dim any bedside manner of yours."

"I'm just like this naturally. It's part of my charm," Reyes said through his teeth. "You are deflecting."

"Oh, a clever, sharp Mage," Prince Senko said with an eerie twist to his lips, then unfolded his hands, tearing off his gloves.

More like stupid mage who can't seem to keep his nose where it belongs.

Red blisters swelled across Prince Senko's palms. Lightning left marked forks across his fingers. "Surely you knew how that would end, touching a lightning ward of that caliber?" Reyes mumbled and cupped his hands in his own. "I've heard you lost your magick, you wouldn't have that added buffer of protection." He let go of his burnt hands and shook his head. "I can do something for it, if I had supplies - which I don't because the knights took them." He rubbed his brow from his temples.

"I'm sure our Court Physician will have supplies you need." Prince Senko hooked his arm around the post and stood up. "I shall take you down there."

"Would he mind if I restocked my supplies?"

"It'd be pretty hard to ask his permission. He's dead."

Reyes tipped his head.

"Hope you don't mind rumours of his ghost, though he wasn't intimidating in life. Unless you know some spirit magick to shoo him off the premises."

"What happened to him?" Reyes followed Prince Senko with cautioned distance out of the room, where the knights fell in line.

"Hm, there were some rumors he was a practicing necromancer. Experiment might've gone wrong and possibly blew up in his face..." Prince Senko bounced his head along. "Or blew him up... or ate him depending how far he got with it. We just know he died."

Gallows sense of humour, that's one. Reyes brushed his hand down his face as Prince Senko pressed himself against the windows as if it had been the first time he had viewed the outside of his own kingdom. Oh, Reyes, what have you gotten yourself into? This isn't playing with fire. This is playing with an entire blaze.