Day 69: Courtyard

[his_legacy]

Link was feeling overall good as he was escorted outside after breakfast. The food had been good, and the weather was nice. It wasn't so cold anymore, but still comfortable. He much preferred coming outside to being cooped up in that stuffy, dull building. The Hylian was trying to remain positive. They had the cure now, did they not? People were getting better.

The death toll was impossible to ignore, though.

He sighed, hands in his pockets as he shuffled through the grass and settled himself on the lawn. This was nice. At least, it was as nice as things could get around here. Link's mind drifted back home, back to Ordon and Hyrule and Midna and Zelda. Everything was okay there, now. And he couldn't even see it for himself.

[Free!]

Comments

[impudentsongbird]

"Politics does that," Gabe said a little dryly but understandingly. "You must be good at it, to be in it so young." He couldn't be any older than Gabriel himself looked, and Gabe looked in his early twenties at the most.

Then he laughed. "That's understandable; adventure isn't for everyone. Do you watch much theatre? It's a good alternative to reading, and somehow more personable to cinema. The story's just as living. Sometimes it's as if you're in the adventure yourself, without having to leave your seat."

[age_of_kings]

"Oh, ah, it's the family business." Of course his father had abolished the monarchy rather than see his 'weak' son on the throne, Tolten had won it back himself. But only because of his heritage. Uhrans were very particular about their kinds. Blood meant everything.

"I've had my share of it," he admitted. "Adventure, I mean. So at least I know what I'm missing. And I get to the opera sometimes, but I don't enjoy going out in public. I swear I'm not some mad recluse, I just...don't like crowds. Or being stared at."

Or escorted by dozens of people everywhere, and pushed towards every unwed noblewoman in the near vicinity.

[impudentsongbird]

Ah. Something more than just well-to-do then, apparently. Pursing his lips, Gabriel leaned back to look Tolten up and down, just a little theatrically. Then he shook his head, curls bouncing.

"Nope, can't see why." He grinned. "Unless you just happen to go to right parts of the city, because you are rather handsome, but I see no horns, claws or tails to make people stare in the least."

[age_of_kings]

"Yes, well, people stare anyway. You don't want an entire lesson on politics in my home, trust me." Even leaving out the fact that he was King, Uhran politics were a tangled mess on the best of days. He was doing his best to sort it all out, but change only came so quickly. And there were more pressing matters to attend to, such as the painfully high unemployment rate.

He cleared his throat, awkward at being referred to as 'handsome'. He had never been able to take compliments well, in any form.

[impudentsongbird]

Challenging politics, being in politics despite his youth, the inability to go anywhere without anyone staring ... really, there were only so many scenarios that held all those features. Gabriel took a stab at the most obvious, though he didn't think he was wrong. It was in the way Tolten sat and spoke and, well, moved.

There was just a certain air about the way born royalty sat, spoke and moved.

"Royal duties can do that," he agreed sympathetically, recalling King Josiah and the troubles he had had when ascending the throne at eight years old. Gabriel had been there and the boy had done wonderfully, but it had been far from easy. He grinned. "But now I'm curious. Go on, give me an example."

[age_of_kings]

Tolten sighed.

"Oh, I'm miserable at hiding it. I try. I don't like being thought of as...as a king. And I really don't want to talk about it, I...don't terribly enjoy it. I don't hate it..." He threw up his hands and cast an apologetic look to the other man. "The governing head of Uhra has changed four different times in the last two years, it's a very unpleasant political climate at the moment. And the world's economy is an absolute mess, thanks to two major countries being wiped out also in a span of two years."

Which was his fault, unfortunately. But they had both been accidents! Well, the second had been deliberate, but it was Tolten's mistake that put the vile man in a position to do so.

"Oh and of course there's the revolutionaries, the cultists and the horrific failed experiments wandering about the sewer that we're still attempting to deal with."

[impudentsongbird]

"It's the manner of being raised like that," Gabe said with an easy shrug. "It's possible to cover it, of course, but if you don't get much opportunity to get out and not be a king, it's hard to keep those little tells from being obvious."

He smiled comfortingly in response to the apologetic look. "It's difficult. Especially if you haven't really had people to guide you, and then you have a whole bunch of others with their own ideas as to how things should go. The real issue at stake for any leader is to know their own mind enough to be able to counter what anyone else says, but still be receptive to advice."

It sounded like the nation had been in a lot of turmoil lately, though. Tolten wasn't just a king, he was a king who'd been saddled with more of a mess than any one person should be expected to have to handle. Gabriel nodded quietly and thoughtfully.

"Just because you're a king," he said, "doesn't mean you have the whole world on your shoulders." He smiled again, tilting his head at Tolten consideringly. "Surround yourself with people whose company you enjoy, whose words you trust. Know when you can and can't handle things alone, and when to take off the crown to breathe. Feed your heart, revel in beauty, and that will hold off the darkness."