Messenger

Chapter 25

 "I'm very sorry about all of this. Believe me when I say that we'll deal with this situation accordingly." The young adviser said, bowing deeply. If the flushed color of his face was any indication, he had to be more than a little embarrassed at the whole deal and Piko couldn't blame him in the slightest; it's not every day that you have to carry home your king after his adventures in treason. That kingdom wasted no time trying to clean up the following damage, sending diplomats, soldiers, and a decent amount of apologies to explain what happened.

Piko and Flower were just happy to have something get done. "That sounds great. I'm sorry that it took us this long to figure out that something wasn't right." Flower commented with an edgy of sarcasm.

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's not really your job to."

"It's not like it matters that much now. We understand that all of this wasn't your fault and we'll act accordingly as well." That seemed to calm some of his nerves. This guy couldn't have been much older than Piko and yet he was the one sent in to wrap up this mess. At the very least, it'd be wrapped up and over with.

"Thank you. Oh, I'm also supposed to give you this." He pulled on a small, tan envelope with a red seal closing it, imprinted with the symbol of a horse bucking upward and a few smaller drawings surrounding it, too small to be detailed. "Umm... have a nice day." With one last hasty bow, the adviser rejoined his crowd packing up and getting ready to leave.

The two stood there watching the other group ride out for a few minutes, not ready to go inside or have Flower explain what the mysterious letter was which Piko was generally fine with. Despite his near chronic ability to be cold anywhere, it was a nice day; early in summer when vegetation was in full bloom and puffy clouds hung overhead without a big threat of rain while protecting Piko from sunburn. That didn't change the fact that Flower would need to explain what was going on based on the death grip she had around the edge of the paper and the way her stare was locked onto it like glancing away for too long would cause the letter to spontaneously disappear.

"Are you okay?" Piko asked, causing Flower to snap out of whatever train of thought she was on.

Still, her eyes stayed glued on the seal. "Yeah, just... wasn't expecting mail."

"And that isn't the full story."

"Nothing gets past you, detective." Flower quipped. "It's a letter from my parents. They've never sent something straight to me. I guess that's because they couldn't, but still. Their updates went through my good pal, the Chancellor or Maika and Yohio."

Now Piko was curious and hopeful for all good things. "Are you going to open it?"

"Probably should." She cracked the wax before she could start overthinking. It's not like Flower didn't want to hear from her family, but it's always a gamble whether they're talking to her as parents or the dang King and Queen with power over a sizable population and she wasn't quite ready to jump into that. "Who knows what they've heard about things over here."

"It'll be good to find out."Piko agreed, swinging his arms behind him and crossing them.

There was one thing Flower wanted to get over with before moving on and if she didn't bring it up now, it wouldn't stop mentally nagging her. Closure's annoying like that. "Whatever it is, you'll be far out of harm's way. I can guarantee that they're much better at leaving innocent towns out of messes than I am."

"At this point, I got myself here by my free will. I'll say this as many times as needed, you didn't drag me anywhere."

That's not really what I'm trying to get at here. "It's just when it comes down to it, you have a life that I'm not exactly a part of and you need to get back to that soon." She tried to not sound too disappointed. It's a fact that this whole job screwed with Piko's life and the least Flower could do was make it clear that he didn't need to stick around. He has responsibilities and Flower did too, no beating around the bush.