Dawning Skye

Tidas stared at his oldest brother with hard eyes, letting him know that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Marco sighed in understanding, then motioned for Tidas to follow him. As they went down the short hallway leading to his study, both men gritted their teeth in anticipation of their discussion..

Marco opened the door to his office, then nodded his head for Tidas to go in first. He hesitated for a moment, then strode inside like he had a purpose. Shaking his head slightly, Marco stepped inside, nodded to Sheri to stay out, then closed the door.

It hadn’t been long since Tidas was last in his brother’s office, and hardly anything had changed. The parts of the walls that were visible and the ceiling were a deep red color, and lined in bright gold trim. The floor was mostly pristine black marble, making Tidas wonder how the servants managed to keep it looking so nice.

The furniture was sparse, but comfortable. Marco’s desk sat in the middle of the room with three padded chairs in front of it. The desk, tables, and chairs were all black like the floor. As well as a large carpet under the desk and spare chairs. There were also two identical black couches with a long coffee table on one side of the room, and tall bookshelves on the other.

Massive covered windows lined the outer wall above the bookshelves, across from several portraits. Paintings of his children with straight faces were in the center of the wall, with equally-sized ones of their parents on either side. Tidas never understood why he had them done separately instead of having a family portrait done, but it wasn’t any of his business.

On the wall with the door, pictures of the rest of the family hung in no particular order. It was no surprise to see Magnus, Marie, himself, and Lawrence up there. But Tidas had instantly felt his blood start to boil when he saw a large portrait of Skye..

It was the same size as his family ones on the other wall, and it’s frame matched Marco’s. The painting itself wasn’t the same as the one Magnus had commissioned to add to the family records, which sent Tidas over the edge. As he turned towards his brother while pointing at it, he said; “What the fuck is this?!”

Marco looked at the painting, then at his youngest brother with a blank expression; “Umm.. It’s called a portrait.”

.....

Tidas narrowed his eyes; “Don’t play stupid with me, Marco. Why is Skye’s different?!”

“What about it? I didn’t like the one Father had commissioned, so I had my personal artist depict her properly,” he replied like his reasoning was logical.

“Why would you?! Why does it even matter to you?! She’s My Wife!” Tidas yelled with clear anger.

Marco sighed out of exasperation; “You really need to check that possessive streak of yours, little brother. I highly doubt that Skye will tolerate it. Besides: don’t you think that you’re overreacting? It’s just a painting..”

Tidas glared at his brother; “You really don’t see Anything wrong with this?! With the rumors and obvious bulshit floating around about you two: don’t you think this is like throwing gas onto a fire?!”

Marco shrugged; “How so? I have portraits of most of my family up. The only one missing is my Mother’s, but I gave that to my children.”

Tidas visibly softened a little, taken off guard by a seemingly sentimental statement; “How are they? Will they return to watch the Mage Trials?”

Marco scoffed, but kept his face placid as he replied; “No, they will remain in the countryside. Neither has any magic, so there’s no point.”

As an incredulous expression overtook Tidas features, he snapped; “How about to spend some time with your children?! You and Karena Barely ever see them! And it’s far past time that they become involved in the kingdom’s politics. Unless you plan to name another heir?”

Tidas was being sarcastic, and didn’t catch the smirk on his brother’s face as he sat down in a chair in front of his desk. He was trying his best to keep his anger in check, but Marco was already pushing him to his limits, and they had barely spoken.. ‘And it’s only going to get worse..’

As Marco went around to sit opposite his brother, Tidas asked; “Why don’t you correct the rumors about you and Skye when you hear them? Why do you let Your people discuss it right in front of you?!”

Marco leaned back in his chair; “Eavesdropping are we, little brother?”

“Cut the bulshit, Marco.. What is your interest in my wife?”

Shifting in his seat, he replied; “I don’t address such foolish rumors because they are, in fact: foolish. To comment on it at all only leads to more rumors, so why bother? I think not saying anything at all is helping to negate them by-”

Tidas leaned forward in his seat; “I know that you have some twisted fascination with my wife. You have ever since we were little. Did you think I didn’t notice you following us around all the time? Even after we asked you to join us, and you’d turn us down?”

Marco actually looked a touch nervous as Tidas continued; “I know about your fixation with redheads, too. Why do you think your victims are so few and far between unless you go Looking for one? I know what you are, brother.. And I’ll never let you have Skye for any reason.”

Marco had felt a wave of agitation wash over him as Tidas speculated. He wasn’t right, but he wasn’t wrong, either. On top of it all, he was annoyed that he hadn’t realized his little brother watching him so closely over the years.

Tidas had been wanting to snap at his brother about his actions ever since that day, but never did. He realized now that it was mostly Marco’s magic affecting his choice, but a tiny bit was because he was afraid of him.. As his voice grew louder, Tidas couldn’t remember why he had been scared of Marco in the first place..

“Do you remember the maid that used to play with Skye and I? The redheaded lass named Rachel?! I know what you did to her back then. I was too afraid to tell Father about how you beat her, but I haven’t looked away from your actions since. I’ll never let you hurt another like her again.”

Tidas stared at his brother with an almost triumphant expression, which made Marco want to laugh even more. As he let a demon’s smile slide, the future king said; “Well, you’ve done a piss-poor job at it, little brother..”

The shock that covered Tidas’ face was too good to Marco, and he burst out in laughter; shocking his brother even further. As his expression grew almost dire, Marco found himself in a loop. The outrage combined with his sad puppy face was too much, and it took several minutes before he could speak again..

“Don’t worry so much, brother. My tastes have changed over the years, and blood makes a mess. If you can get a woman moaning loud enough, it’s almost the same..”

The look that flashed through Marco’s eyes as he’d spoken made Tidas’ stomach drop. He was about to tear into him, but Marco continued; “As the future King, I can’t have women running around claiming that I abused them. Everything is consensual-”

“Is it?! With ALL the women that you’ve slept with?! Or did they just Think that it was consensual?” Tidas took in a deep breath before he added; “I know that your powers are back.”

In an instant: Marco lost all joviality, and locked eyes with Tidas. They stared at each other like they were in a silent war for a few minutes, then Marco broke the trance by saying; “Proof?”

“Doesn’t matter. I Know that you-”

“Oh, my simple, narrow-headed little brother,” Marco stood up as he spoke; “Knowing means nothing unless you can prove to Father that what you’re saying is true, and that will never happen.”

“How do you know that I don’t have any proof?” Tidas asked as he stood up as well.

Marco smirked; “Because if you did, you’d be holding a meeting with Father instead of me right now. And I know for a fact that the Only proof you could’ve gotten your hands on was returned to me by your lovely wife..”

Tidas could easily tell that Marco was irked. He barely ever showed emotion unless he was frazzled, so he had assumed that his brother was off kilter. It didn’t help any that Marco knew how to push his buttons, but Tidas had prepared for that..

Using a minuscule amount of his Shaman magic, he released a little serotonin. He would only be able to do it once or twice, just in case Marco could sense magic. But it should be enough to get out the few questions he had before he lost his temper.

Before he even felt the effects, Tidas replied; “MY wife is lovely, thank you.. How’s Karena doing, by the way? She must be worried about her brother. Weren’t You just in Meccano last summer?”

Marco went back to his usual poker face as he replied; “Last year, yes. We didn’t travel there this year since Karena was supposed to be helping with Lawrence’s wedding. Why do you ask?”

Tidas shrugged; “I just find the timing of everything to be a bit...suspicious. Did you notice anything that might’ve indicated that they were going to betray Alcon?”

“If I had, do you think that I would’ve kept it to myself?” Marco replied.

“I don’t know.. Depends on if you were the one to order Karena’s brother to make the pact or not..”

Marco grinned broadly at him; “You have a wild imagination, little brother.. And how was the homecoming for the Last Warrick? Epic, I suspect.”

Tidas gave himself another dose of serotonin as he replied; “Well, I’m sure that you already know. Skye and I didn’t kill your spies until after they had reported back to you, right?”

Marco’s grin stretched to creepy proportions; “Tidas.. I was getting reports your entire way back to Alcon. That’s what you were fishing for, correct? To see if I still had any spies left in your ranks? Oh, little brother.. I have eyes everywhere.”

“I figured as much, but I wanted to confirm. Thanks for that,” Tidas replied with a smile.

For the first time in a long time: Marco felt real anger. Enough to break his own rule about always keeping a level head. As he walked towards the portraits around the door, Marco smirked to himself..

“Not a problem.. By the way, what do you think of my painting? I had to describe her to him from memory, you know. So I wasn’t sure about all of her measurements. Just the ones that I’m familiar with..”

Tidas walked over to Marco with clenched fists as he practically barked; “The fuck do you mean by that?!”

Marco shrugged; “Well, I have carried her in my arms before. I’m sure Lawrence told you all about it. She was drunk, and I was..helping her to her quarters. Hard to forget caring someone as beautiful as her in your arms. She was as light as a leaf.. You two must have fun together.”

Seeing his brother’s fury peaking, Marco grinned mischievously as he pushed him a bit further; “You know: in the bedroom? I can only imagine it.. And I do often.”

As Tidas started to shake from his contained emotions, Marco’s grin turned demonic; “You knew why I pick redheads.. It’s so I can-”

Before he could say another disgusting word: Tidas punched Marco in his face...