“Say… where’s the Armorer?” Kohn asked.

Everyone looked around, but the ex-prince told them not to bother. “He’s an old acquaintance of the King. I never did hear the full story about how those two met, but apparently the King owes him a great debt.”

They all recalled their interactions with the man. Belittling them when he passed out weapons. Yelling at them when he took the weapons back. Frightening the women when they saw him in the morning. Dragging Kohn off. Recordings of him repeatedly slamming Kohn into the ground. And the tales Kohn would recount of his horrible training methods.

“No way he’s someone who knows royalty!” They spoke out together.

“Hmm? Why wouldn’t he be?”

A loud bang had everyone jumping in their seats. The doors were pushed open with such force that they were ripped off their hinges and dug into the walls at the same time. The Armorer, panicking and covered in sweat, stood there with his arms still outstretched.

“Prince! I need to take your Dark Vessel out into space for a small brief amount of time!” He rushed hastily, stuttering over his own tongue three times.

Kohn had never, ever, seen the Armorer like this. Most of the time it was excitement, anger and… no, that’s about it.

“What’s wrong Armorer?” Kohn called out to him.

“Nothing boy, go about your business.”

“Armorer,” the ex-prince chided him “I’m sure you know of my punishment. I may no longer be referred to by my previous title or name.”

“There’s nothing else to call you-doesn’t matter! I need the Vessel! HURRY!”

“But it is no longer mine. I lost possession of it when I was banished from the Kingdom. Calm down, you should know that.” When the Armorer showed no signs of even attempting to calm down the ex-prince decided to ask what the problem was. “Why do you need to use the Dark Vessel?”

“I need to get off world! Just for a little while.” He ran to the windows in the suit, eyeing the landing pads and the skies for any sign of another ship. “I need to leave soon before she gets here!”

“She?” The ex-prince queried. Noticing slight movement at the now permanently open doors, the color drained from his face. “SISTER BEYYELLE!” He gasped loudly.

“YES!” The Armorer agreed as his dire situation was finally understood by the ex-prince. “Your sister is arriving soon so I need to be off world as quickly as possible before-“

“Before what my husband?”

“Gak!” The words choked him as his head sunk a foot, already feeling the ire upon his back.

When the Prince had called out his sister, it wasn’t because he had understood the Armorer’s plight. His beautiful younger half-sister Beyyele had been standing in the doorway with a firm disapproving gaze for her older brother. She wore a lovely slip that showed a little less skin than her mother’s outfit, but unlike her mother the ex-prince knew his younger sister carried numerous weapons under her clothes. It always worried him that no matter how strong the wind was his sister’s clothing would never flutter despite its flimsy appearance.

Walking up behind the Armorer, she tapped his shoulder with her staff, guiding him so that he didn’t block her line of sight with her brother. “I’ll get to you in a minute my love!” She told him ever so sweetly, but it only made him cringe.

“Sister…” Kohn noticed the ex-prince had sweat on his brow as he tried to sweetly speak with her, but the young deer-woman was having none of that.

“Brother dearest of mine!” She spoke with as much anger as her father did. “You’ve gone and got yourself banished! Stripped out of the family registrar! And for what? For STEALING a World Heart from a planet of Hishjullers-“

Kohn muttered to himself “What’s a Hishjuller?” but that only drew her attention down to him.

“Silence you little Pip! I’m talking with my brother, and dear husband? Just where do you think you’re going?”

Before anyone had noticed it the Armorer had disappeared behind a wall panel, but Beyyele could somehow tell where he was. She thrust her staff into the wall three times before a subdued “nowhere” came out from inside the wall.

“If I have to go searching for you I’ll tie you up and we’ll be celebrating our marriage night within the hour!”

It was kind of funny to Kohn to see this deer-woman angrily stare and yell at a wall. If he didn’t hear the Armorer’s voice come out of said wall just a moment ago he would have thought her crazy. As if there hadn’t been a single interruption she continued her angry rant at the ex-prince. Meanwhile the Armorer quietly crept back into the room seemingly from a random spot in the ceiling.

“-and you didn’t even fight father about it! I could understand this sort of behavior from our siblings, but from you!? Why aren’t you saying anything?” By the time she was done her entire face was red and she was fuming.

The ex-prince was full on sweating now and sinking into his lush chair. He had no words and Kohn thought it was incredibly funny. This man had stood in front of the world leaders of Earth and declared that the planet was his. He didn’t even blink when guards pulled out their guns or his own advisors quickly slaughtered them. But now, this man couldn’t even gather the mental capacity to talk back to his sister.

“You, Pip!” The laughter died in his gut. “What’s so funny?”

“You are!” He said out loud before he could stop himself.

“Me and my big mouth.” He managed to think before a slim quarterstaff, heavily decorated with magic formations, filled his vision.