Lineage of Zeal, Book One: Rosemary

Chapter Fourteen: Alphine

"Why must I play courier for you and that sandrat demon? Am I not Prince of this bountiful kingdom ruled by my father, and his father before him, and so forth into time immemorial? Is this not a duty for someone less noble, less beautiful than I? Why must I be tasked with ferrying your quips and your complaints to your newest favorite? Do not believe for a second I do not see the attentions with which you shower that sandrat demon!"

Rosemary stalked on ahead, ignoring the irked, jealous royalty as he blathered on about the injustices he was suffering. She could not care less about how Courtney and his newly upgraded slur felt about how he was being treated. Granted, the prince was taking the fact that Leviticus was of demonic and not of Nejd origin quite in stride compared to how she expected him to react, but Rosemary was growing tired of his incessant mouth; it was doing nothing to improve her already terrible mood. At that moment, and ever since Leviticus revealed how he knew the child-stealing snake woman, she could not so much as look the incubus in the eye, much less talk to him, without feeling that darkness well up within her, and that had her feeling less amicable than usual. She knew that this was a darkness she needed to face, as her deathly apparition had told her the previous night, but right now, getting to Warrenton without further incident was of greatest priority. Hence the princely courier.

"I don't care what you think you're suffering," growled Rosemary, not bothering to so much as glance at Courtney as she lengthened her stride. "Tell him what I said already. We're almost to town. I want this done with before we arrive."

Courtney sighed and came to a stop. Soon, Rosemary was well ahead of him, and Leviticus, Dota and Alphine were approaching from behind. As they met with him, Courtney matched stride with the incubus, but continued staring dead ahead, as though a mere glance at the demon walking beside him would cause his soul to rot right out of his chest.

"What is it this time?" asked Leviticus, scratching the back of his neck. "This is really childish, even for her. I mean, I know what I said must be really tough for her to swallow, but I haven't seen Kiyohime in decades. It's not like I had any idea what she was up to. But if she really has been going around stealing children, I'd be the last person she'd tell."

Courtney cleared his throat and, speaking in as official a tone as he could muster, said, "My Lady wishes to inform you that it is not you that is the problem, rather it is her."

"Right," said Leviticus, rolling his eyes.

"She went on to say that we will be approaching Warrenton soon, and that she wishes to keep her distance from you until that time. It is her desire that she overcome this obstacle prior to our arrival, and to do so, she feels it necessary to distance herself from you for the time being."

"Thanks, Prince Courier," said Leviticus, patting Courtney on the shoulder. "Is that all? I suppose you'll be expecting a tip before you go."

Courtney glared as best he could from the corner of his eye and gritted his teeth. "There is one more thing. She would like to know why we have these two sandrat tagalongs joining our party."

"Oh, would she?" mused Leviticus, dragging out the "oh" as he stretched his arms to the sky, interlaced his fingers, and clasped his hands behind his head. "You sure she's the one that wants to know? Because that sounds suspiciously like something you would say."

Soul rot be damned, Courtney fixed Leviticus with a stare so garish and forceful that it looked less like he was trying to melt the incubus with his mind, as was his intention, and more like he had skinned his knee and was about to cry but trying ever so unbeautifully not to. This was a case where the prince's excessive beauty was not working in his favor. "Whether or not it is I or my dear lady who wishes to know is not the issue! The mere presence of these two means that not only will we have to feed them, but that our pace will be slowed. What would you say to her were we to arrive late only to find that her son departed not a day before?"