Tea With Mother

Life, Failure / Mishap

Evelyn starts to get wind of the power lust her family has and Nikolai almost kills Dmitri.

Evelyn opened her eyes and smiled as she stretched out her limbs in her giant bed, thinking about her wonderful night of love-making. She found herself unable to think about anything else as thoughts of Fenneck consumed her mind. He was so wonderful and perfect. She heard a knock at her door and she sighed in annoyance before climbing out of her bed and throwing a robe on. She saw a posse of chambermaids there to help her dress for the day. "Your highness," Inga greeted her. "Her grace requests your presence for tea this morning." Evelyn nodded. "Of course, m'lady," she said, letting them into her room. She got dressed and made her way down to the parlor. She entered and saw her mother alone at the small table. "Your grace," Evelyn said as she bowed to her mother. "Darling," Milena said, gesturing for her to take a seat. "Please join me," she told her. Evelyn sat down and took a bite of one of the hor d'oeuvres. Evelyn saw the guards step out as they closed the room and she wondered if she was in trouble. Did her mother know about Fenneck? "So..." Milena said. "I wanted to ask for your opinions on the state of your... betrothal situation, or lack thereof, if you will," she said as she sipped her tea. "I personally do not find your uncle's proposition to marry you off to army generals to be a reasonable option. He wants to strip you of any power you might have to beef up the power of his pathetic army he likes to hide behind," she said in annoyance. "I tried to talk to your sister but I swear nothing gets through to her. All she cares about is making music and has essentially agreed to whatever I find best. She agrees with me about the idea of marrying army generals being absurd. Besides, you were not raised to be a wife. You were rasied to be a princess. To have duties and traditions to uphold and to bear children for our family line." Evelyn remained quiet and nodded politely as her mother continued. "I just want to hear your thoughts on the subject," she said. "To be frank with you, marrying your father was not a... romantic choice. I married him for his position in life and I'm very willing to admit that. As such, I don't think we should settle for anything less than a prince for you and your sister. Unfortunately, there are no great eligible matches here in Lenisily at this point in time. I think we should hold off on such a decision until... things are different." "Really?" Evelyn asked in surprise. Milena shrugged. "Unless you want to marry General Antov, I don't see the point of a rushed, pathetic marriage." "Okay," Evelyn agreed with relief. "I want to focus on my studies at the moment anyway," she told her mother. Milena nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "I wondered how your magic lessons with Bainor have been going," she asked Evelyn. "They've been quite good, actually," Evelyn told her. "I've been focusing on teleportation lately," she told her mother. Milena nodded and smiled proudly. "He says you have a knack for magic of all kinds," she said thoughtfully. She took a few sips from her tea as Evelyn snacked on the tea cakes. "Can I ask you how you feel about his imperial majesty?" Milena asked her bluntly. "And you can be honest with me, dear. I am your mother, after all." Evelyn remembered her conversation in the hall with Ivan and wondered what was actually going on here. "Um," she hesitated, unsure of how to answer such a bold question. "He's... cold," she decided in an effort to avoid the politics of it. "But I understand that he's a busy man with little time for family relations," she added. Milena nodded thoughtfully at this. "Indeed," she mused.   Suddenly there was an urgent knock on the door. Milena sighed in annoyance. "Come in!" she called out. Dmitri walked in, accompanied by a few guards. "Your grace. Your highness," he greeted them with a quick, urgent bow. "Your grace, the guards report a very unfortunate finding this morning," he told her. "Lieutenant Vladimir Balthoron, the head of the guard of the southern Vallee region has been reportedly missing since late last night. We would like to launch an investigation." Milena squinted at him. "And this was worth interrupting my breakfast?" she asked Dmitri in annoyance. Dmitri stuttered. "The um... t-the guards under his jursidiction need leadership and are worried about what may have happened to him-" "Who's second in command?" she asked the guards, cutting Dmitri off. One of them stepped forward. "I am, your grace," he said with a bow. "Good," Milena said shortly. "So that's settled," she told Dmitri pointedly. "Do whatever you want, why the hell should I care? Next time, bother my pathetic husband with this bullshit," she told them. "If you find any suspects go ahead and kill them on sight. Again, I truly don't care," she said, waving them out. "Very well, your grace," Dmitri said, bowing out of the room. The doors closed behind them and Milena threw her hands up in exasperation. "Gods, these damn soldiers think they run the place," she said almost under her breath before turning back to Evelyn. "What was I saying? Oh yes, your uncle," she said as she remembered. "Look, I just want you to know that I care about you and your future and I will do everything in my power to make sure you and your sister have successful marriages," she assured Evelyn. "I also... have heard some rumors," she said, her tone growing a bit serious. "It seems you have a habit of hanging out with your brother and those two baffoons who are stationed here at the moment. If you get wind of anything... suspicious amongst your brother and that Marshal Pufuktin, you'll let me know, won't you?" she asked Evelyn pointedly. "Not Dmitri?" Evelyn asked her, wondering if he was innocent in all this. Milena shrugged. "If you think he might be up to something," Milena said. "I just have a bad feeling about that Pufuktin character," she said, pursing her lips. "He's so... disgusting, with his ungodly beard," she said with disapproval. "I just think he's hiding something, that's all." Evelyn nodded nervously. "It would be like Nikolai to plan a coup," she mused, trying to judge her mother's reaction. Milena nodded thoughtfully. "Indeed. He's been more reclusive lately," she commented almost to herself. "I think Anessen's decision to make him the Marquee has gone to his head," she said, disapproval evident in her tone. "Indeed," Evelyn agreed. Milena looked her over thoughtfully and Evelyn tried to keep her composure, suddenly worried about the amount of secrets she was keeping. "You are loyal to me and your father, aren't you?" Milena asked her point blank. Evelyn looked into her mother's cold silver eyes and nodded. "Of course," she told her. "I'll let you know if I find anything out," she told her evenly. Milena nodded. "Good, and as far as this business with your uncle, leave that to me," she assured Evelyn who nodded. Milena stood and Evelyn followed suit. "I need to go make sure your father signs the documents I left for him. If you'll excuse me," she said as she swept out of the room.   Evelyn stole a few more bites before heading back down the hall. She went back to her room and studied her spellbooks before evening rolled around and she walked to the dining hall. The only ones at the table were Dmitri, Ivan and Nikolai and Evelyn wondered if she should take her food to her room before she got roped deeper into their supposed conspiracy. "Hey," Nikolai said to her as she came in. "I want to talk to you." She sighed in defeat and sat down across from him, next to Dmitri who was across from Ivan. "About what?" she asked as a servant went to fetch food for her. "I heard mother was interrogating you earlier," he said, fishing for gossip. She shrugged. "Yeah, it was about marriage stuff," she said, only half-lying as she gratefully took the plate of food from the servant. She watched Nikolai and Ivan share a look before Nikolai leaned back down to her. "Is that all she asked about?" he asked her, giving her a stern look. She shrugged. "Yeah, she said she doesn't want Jasna and I to marry soldiers because we're meant to be princesses, not wives," she told him before turning to Dmitri to change the subject. "Did you ever find out what happened to that guard?" she asked him. He shook his head. "No," he told her. "We're still looking into it. He probably wandered too close to the mountains or something," he said, shrugging it off. "My bets are that a frost giant got him." Ivan pursed his lips in disagreement. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said. "Some of the farmers were acting suspicious. I think they took the law into their own hands." "And were able to fight an armed guard?" Dmitri asked him doubtfully. "Even if they joined together, those farmers are too weak and skinny to wield a pitchfork against a soldier." Ivan shrugged. "Maybe they used magic," he suggested. "After all, we never found his body," he pointed out. "Couldn't you use some kind of location spell?" Evelyn suggested. "Theoretically," Dmitri said. "The KAV doesn't allow magic, though. Only the royal family can use it," he told her. She shrugged. "So let me perform the spell for you, then we could find the body and figure out what happened. I know a spell we could use from my spell books-" "It's just some random guard," Nikolai cut her off. "No one cares that he's dead. Even if we found the body we wouldn't know who did it. Besides, you're not supposed to get involved in such affairs," he told her condescendingly. "If someone offed him he probably did something to deserve it. Case closed." She looked around at them in bewilderment. "Is this normally how you handle things?" she asked in confusion. "Gods, you read too many books," Nikolai scolded her. "Mother should find you a husband fast to keep you occupied with more important tasks." "Like what?" she argued. "Loveless intercourse?!" she exclaimed in annoyance, getting a small accidental snicker from Dmitri who was doing everything in his power not to encourage her. Ivan also had a smile creeping onto his face, albeit much less hidden. Nikolai rolled his eyes in disapproval. "Like you would know anything about sex," he told her. She raised her brow challengingly. "So what if I do?" she asked him. "Like you said, I've read lots of books," she pointed out. He squinted at her, trying to see if she was bullshitting him. Ivan cleared his throat. "Personally," he said. "I think she has a point," he agreed with her. "She's too smart to just be some prick's sex toy." "Her job," Nikolai argued, "-would be to have children." Dmitri shrugged. "She's way too young for that. Elves can't get pregnant until they're like, a hundred at least," he countered, prompting Nikolai to give him a dirty look. "I don't like how much you seem to jump to her defense," he told Dmitri. "You do know better than to fuck around with a princess, don't you? She's not some whore you can shag behind the stables," he said, quickly turning to Evelyn, "-which you sneak off to all the time!" he said accusingly. Dmitri smiled and shook his head at Nikolai. "Is that really what you think is going on?" he asked Nikolai challengingly. Nikolai shrugged and glared at him. "You touch my sister and I'll actually kill you," he told Dmitri threateningly. Dmitri raised his brow in bewilderment. "We aren't sleeping together!" Evelyn said defensively. "Gods, can you really not fathom the idea that two individuals can be nice to each other without needing to bone?!" she asked him in annoyance. Nikolai continued to glare at Dmitri as he leaned back in his chair, totally unintimidated. "Kinda," he said snarkily. "Come on Dmitri, I know what you do at night. I'm sure Amalya will love finding out you're having an affair with a princess of all people." Dmitri shook his head. "I've never once touched your sister inappropriately," he promised Nikolai. "No?" Nikolai asked challengingly. "You just cuddle with her and teach her how to smoke and have an attitude. I guess the sex must be pretty bad if she's always this cranky and needs a smoke afterwards." Evelyn could see Dmitri turning red with anger. Ivan seemed relatively calm as he watched the two argue and Nikolai looked smug. "What?" he taunted Dmitri. "I dare you to hit me." His silver eyes were glowing deviously and Evelyn glared at them. "Come on, Niko, please stop this. Nothing is happening between Dmitri and I," she assured him. "Not yet," Nikolai taunted him. "You can tell he wants it, though. I bet he thinks about you when he's pounding into his poor wife back home, angry that he'll always be a pathetic little soldier. 'Oh Amalya! Oh Almalya! OH EVELYN!'" Nikolai pretended to orgasm as he mocked Dmitri who lurched across the table at Nikolai, spilling food and wine all over the place and all over Evelyn who jumped back in fear. Dmitri was suddenly shot back across the room and slammed into the wall behind them with a blast of purple magic and collapsed to the ground. Evelyn ran to him as she saw blood start to pool around his head. "What did you do?!" she yelled at her brother as she lifted Dmitri's unconscious face up and saw a huge gash on his head from being slammed into the stones. She quickly grabbed a napkin and pressed it to his wound as guards rushed toward her. "He needs help!" she told them. "Get Bainor!" she yelled as she cradled Dmitri's head in her lap, trying not to get nauseous from the blood that was pouring out around her and covering her arms and lap. Nikolai was standing in the far corner glaring menacingly at her and Ivan was a few feet away from him, looking conflicted about the events that had transpired. Finally Bainor ran in and leaned down next to Evelyn and performed a healing spell over Dmitri, closing the wound. "Are you okay?" Bainor asked Evelyn in concern. She nodded and glared at Nikolai. "I'm fine," she assured him. Her mother ran in at this moment and gasped at the sight of Evelyn and Dmitri covered in blood. "What the hell is going on?!" she asked in horror. "Nikolai was harrassing Dmitri and shot magic at him," Evelyn told her, casting a dirty look at her brother. Nikolai shook his head in disapproval at Evelyn. "Evelyn and Dmitri were flirting and then he attacked me when I called him out for it, your grace," he told his mother. Milena looked at them both in annoyance before turning to Ivan. "What happened, marshal?" she asked him. Ivan chose his words carefully. "I think it was a misunderstanding," he told her. "Nikolai was accusing Evelyn of having sex with Dmitri, which she denied many times and he continued to mock them and Dmitri jumped up to defend her and Nikolai shot him back in fear," he explained. "Really, I don't think any action is necessary," he told her. "Clearly Dmitri has learned his lesson," he said as he gestured to Dmitri who was starting to groan awake in Evelyn's arms. Milena turned to Evelyn and eyed her down suspiciously. "Go clean yourself up. We'll deal with marshal Novikoff," she told her. "Someone go draw Princess Evelyn a bath!" she ordered to the group of servants that had congregated at the scene. Evelyn looked down to see Dmitri looking weakly up at her and she gently laid his head down onto the stone floor. Evelyn stood and kept her head down as she walked to her room. She took a bath and found herself stressing about everything that had just transpired as she washed Dmitri's blood off of her body.   She finally got cleaned and put on a shift and a robe when she heard a knock at her door. "Come in!" she called out as she brushed her hair, sitting at her vanity. Milena entered and walked in and walked up behind her. "Are you okay?" Milena asked her flatly. Evelyn nodded. Milena pursed her lips. "Are you having an affair with marshal Novikoff?" she asked her daughter bluntly. "No," Evelyn assured her. "Nikolai was just being mean like he always is," she explained. "He was making a joke about Dmitri... calling his wife my name in bed and Dmitri got angry with him." Milena nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "Nikolai has causing all sorts of problems lately," she said in frustration. "I'm very sorry you had to witness such a scene. Marshal Novikoff is fine and Nikolai has been lectured about his use of magic in particular circumstances. He could have easily killed Novikoff with a spell like that. It's reckless," she said disapprovingly. "Well I'm glad marshal Novikoff is okay," Evelyn told her. "Luckily Bainor was there." Milena nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "I'll let you get some rest," she decided. "Tomorrow make sure Nikolai apologizes to you," she told her before leaving her room and closing the door behind her. Evelyn took a deep breath and sighed with relief knowing Dmitri was okay. She suddenly remembered Fenneck and realized she'd told him she would see him that night. "Shit!" she exclaimed as she realized how late it was. She quickly threw a simple gown over her shift and locked her door tight before turning herself invisible and teleporting to Fenneck's room.