The Trickster's Test {Prinxiety}

Chapter 10

Third Person

Fancy dinners had been considered unfit for children since the dawn of time, which Alexia had been made quite aware of time and time again. After sitting through too many of the stuffy events, where she had nothing to do besides eating and attempting to understand why the adults felt the need to point out that all Keljians eat sloppily, and how all Geminians got drunk at night, she was bored with the meetings. Most of the time now, they would avoid bringing her or send her off to go play with the aristocrats' children, if they had any. This happened to be the case when the Crawford's were invited to dinner with King Edrick and Queen Ophelia.

"Alexia, sweetheart, why don't you go play with Prince Virgil?" Alexia's mother, Reya, suggested, "David here can show you the way to his room."

The child complied quickly, knowing that any protest would only end in her absolute boredom. She followed the plainly dressed man down the extra fancy halls she suspected were cleaned every time someone spotted a single speck of dirt on the carpet. David knocked on the door first, a quiet 'come in' following from inside soon after. He stepped out of the way, and Alexia figured that this was as far as he was going with her.

Alexia stuck her head into the room, "Hello?" She spots the young prince sitting on top of his dresser, a book in hand, "Hi, I'm Alexia. My parents are busy talking to yours so they sent me here."

"I'm Virgil," He responds awkwardly.

"I know. What are you reading?" She asks, inviting herself in. She attempted to sit on top of the dresser with him but gave up when she couldn't get a good foothold. Instead, she rested her head on her arms and stared up at him curiously.

"Some sort of history book my teacher wants me to read," He told her, "It's about a bunch of different magic users from hundreds of years ago."

"Do you think our parents want us to get married like them?" Alexia didn't want to assume the worst of them, but her parents had the tendency to introduce her to other kids only to coo at how well they were getting along, or how cute they looked together.

"I hope not," The young prince's face warmed, "Not because of you, but I really don't want to think about that kind of stuff yet, or have them choose who I rule with in general. Does that make sense?" He worries she may take offense to his statement.

"Yeah, I get that," She agreed wistfully, "Is it true that you're not allowed to eat fish in Keljiarc because they think of rivers as sacred?"

"Well, we can't eat fish there because they have this story about a hunter that was cursed by a fish," Virgil explains, "Most of them believe that taking a fish away from the rivers will cause something horrible to happen, so killing one just to eat it is also not allowed."

"Okay, but there's no way they all follow that," She decides, "Fish taste too good and that story's probably too old."

"I'm sure plenty don't. It's not a rule or anything, but I know the royal family has to, and so do their guests," He told her honestly, not forgetting the abrupt way Prince Owen had made him aware of that. They didn't even have fish in the castle, so he didn't particularly understand why he had felt the need to make that clear. No matter the reason, his snide attitude was largely what Virgil believed got them off on the wrong foot, because every interaction between them that followed had at least some hostility on Owen's part.

"Then I guess we should enjoy this meal just in case we suddenly take a trip to Keljiarc," She suggests, having found the plates left outside Virgil's door. She slides one over to him, apparently not minding the irony that came with the meal being primarily composed of salmon.

"Yeah, just in case."

- - -

Much to the amusement of their parents, Alexia and Virgil never left his room for dinner, having become fast friends. At one point, Queen Ophelia sent a servant to check on them, bringing smiles to all of their faces when he reported that they had created a fort and had begun using a candle to make shadow animals.

It was especially satisfying for the servant, who had gotten the pleasure of hearing the young prince laugh and chatter excitedly in a way he never did around people. He was always a little worried that no one would be able to bring him out of his shell, given how rarely his attempts had even minor results. Yes, Patton had certainly grown a soft spot for the boy, despite being only a teenager himself. In the end the adults decided to send Patton back to Virgil's room with some food for them, should they realize how long it's been since they last ate.

"And I, the Shadow Demon, will never accept defeat!" Alexia declared, putting her hands together to make a larger shadow that didn't really resemble anything.

"Then you leave me no choice but to do this!" He tossed a pillow her way, both of them too distracted with their laughter to care that they failed to properly end their narrative.

"What happened to your trusty steed?" She asked between giggles. A pillow didn't really make for a good stand in of anything that one would have expected to appear in their made up, shadow-powered world.

"We can just say that was my trusty steed," Virgil suggested, "Horses are way bigger than us in real life, so why not in the game too?"

It was rare for Virgil to open up in such a way as he did with Alexia, so their parents made sure the two could remain friends if they chose. They would usually get to visit the other, but more often than not it was Alexia going to Virgil's home and not the other way around. The castle staff would smile fondly whenever the two barreled past, wondering silently what sort of 'adventure' they had decided to embark on that day. You could even call them inseparable, one of their parents commonly having to track the pair down to take whichever one home.

A famous Raythen philosopher once wrote that all good things must come to an end. Coincidentally enough, exactly a month later storms battered the kingdom and ruined nearly eighty percent of their crops for the year, forcing the golden age they had been going through to end as the nation scrambled to make it through the year without plunging into debt. While many accused him of looking into the future, an idea which most mages dismissed immediately because it was impossible to do such a thing, no one could deny the truth of his words.

Yet another point in the philosopher's favor came with the end of Virgil and Alexia's friendship. For a while, he wasn't even sure it had ended, but the more days passed without her coming by, he couldn't deny the truth forever. The death of Queen Ophelia in particular brought an end to his hopes of her returning for a visit. She didn't even show up to the funeral. He honestly didn't think he'd ever see her again, knowing that if she didn't want to be seen by him, she wouldn't.

There was clearly a reason that he had never been accused of seeing the future.

A/N: For reference, in the present day Patton is about 29, and Virgil is 19. Roman and Logan are around the ages of their respective lovers (it doesn't matter too much). In the flashback, Virgil is 8 and Alexia is 9 at the beginning. Also, I may, or may not have, forgotten to upload this yesterday. Possibly. In my defense, I wasn't home to upload it until like 9 PM anyway