The Sage's Reign

by Shakyra Dunn

  “Rem, wait.” She had half a mind to pry her hand away, but Rem’s grip was too tight. Even if she wanted to, the sudden bliss that he exuberated was becoming contagious. She couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. “Where are we going?”

  “The kitchen, of course! Solus loves food, and I know with two heads working together, we can come up with something that he’ll love!” She had to admit, it was a different outlook on curing Solus’s bad mood, but Rem knew him best. She desired more than anything to see his smile return, so going along with the prince’s antics was bound to be better than nothing at all.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Leilana mumbled.

  “Don’t worry, this is gonna be great!” Rem chimed, stirring together a mixture of boiled water, salt, flour and butter in a plastic bowl. “Cream puffs made from scratch taste amazing.”

  “I’ve never had a cream puff. Are they made of bread?”

  Rem playfully rolled his eyes. “Are they made of bread... of course they are, it’s a pastry.” Leilana’s eyes narrowed into a slanted glare. “There was a guy named Phiran that used to own a shop in Linmus called Kinstreak, and we were his best customers. His cream puffs were to die for. He taught us how to make them whenever we were stuck inside. It’s kind of a simple recipe. I’m great at cutting corners. Luckily the cooks here have the ingredients we needed.”

  “Just try not to make a mess while you’re cutting corners,” Leilana warned. “We were lucky that they let us hang back here.”

  “You always make a mess when you need to break some eggs. Can you do that, by the way? This is almost done whipping together, and I have to mix in the eggs before everything sticks.” Slick move, she thought. She scanned the fridge before discovering a half-full container of eggs. “Break about three, maybe four, then drop them in the bowl.”

  Leilana broke one of the eggs on the counter until a thin crack formed in the shell, pouring the yolk into the bowl once Rem set it down, repeating the process as Rem mixed together the rather pasty concoction. Somehow, cooking reminded her of Sien’s potion creating. Rem took notice that she was watching him intently, nearly dropping the bowl when the spoon ‘escaped’ his grasp. Leilana scrambled to grab one side of the bowl while he grabbed the other, some of the mixture splashing between them and landing on Rem’s shirt. He sighed, and Leilana laughed, proclaiming that he himself was becoming a cream puff. Rem was almost offended but smirked at her boldness.

  Soon, Leilana was kneeling in front of the steamy gas stove, watching the pieces of dough that Rem set on a tray inside rising. The dough was popping in increments, releasing a small puff of smoke before falling flat again. Rem told her that it was normal when something was baking, and in half an hour, they would be ready to serve. Fifteen minutes in, Rem was leaning against the counter, yawning.

  “You know, I didn’t think that you could cook,” Leilana began.

  “I was always kind of different, or so the servants at the castle said. My dad wasn’t a fan of cooking, but he would always help clean, even if he could only halfway accomplish it. And my mom, well… she couldn’t do much of either, but most of her duties were outside the walls.” He tucked his hand under his chin. “But I don’t think I would have started cooking or cleaning if I didn’t meet Solus. Everything that I learned, the two of us got to learn it together. We were always…” He sighed. “The two of us were inseparable. But things are so different now. We’ve got our own dreams to pursue, and one day, we’re gonna merge into separate paths.”

  “That’s not true. The two of you will never truly be apart. Best friends stick together, and even when they start living their own lives, they’ll never forget one another.” She rested her hands on his cheeks, causing him to glance up at her. She softly smiled at his curious expression. “The happy moments you shared while laughing, the times where you cried together, and even the fights… they’ll always remain. Don’t ever think that going your separate ways means ending your friendship.”

  Rem lifted his hands, his fingertips grazing her own. “Thank you, Leilana. I don’t know why I even thought like that. Solus and I will always be friends. We’ll always be friends too.”

  The path to understanding has been forged anew.

  The rapid beeping of the smoke detector dragged them from their shared moment. “Ah! The cream puffs!” Rem scrambled from his spot and turned off the stove, grabbing a pair of oven mitts from the sink and pulling the still-steaming tray out to set on the counter. The pastries were a golden brown, slightly charred on the bottom, but not enough to deem them unsuitable to eat.

  “I hope that’s okay,” Leilana voiced his thoughts. Rem tore off a piece of the bread, popping it into his mouth before shrugging. He tore off another piece of the same one, blew on it, and placed it in Leilana’s mouth. Leilana practically bounced in her spot. The bread was flaky and mouth-watering on her tongue, and Rem had to push her head back before handing her the remains of the piece that he’d broken off just to control her insatiable obsession with the grain.

  “Taste good?” he joked.

  “Tastes fantastic. Solus would be crazy not to like these! What next?”

  “We just have to fill them up with icing or some other filling.” Rem went through the pantry and fridge, scanning the contents. “We have vanilla cream, strawberries, chocolate cream, and some coconut filling. I don’t like coconuts, so that’s out. Any that you’d suggest?”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah!” Rem beamed. “This is a joint project. I baked, you fill. What’s your fancy?”

  Leilana shrugged her shoulders, grinning ear to ear. Events like this were rare, sharing a duty that didn’t involve battle. “We could try making a variety. I’m not sure to begin with tasting them, and we’ve got enough little bread pieces to make a lot.”

  “Not bad, not bad,” Rem agreed as he snagged the cream fillings from the fridge, laying them out on the table. “All right, and now we pump.”

  “Pump?” she repeated.

  He pat her shoulder once. “We pump our lovely fillings into our goods, my dear. And we fill them up until they are good and plump.”

  “Um, all right…” Leilana was hesitant as she grabbed the icing nozzle, poking a hole in the top of the first baked bread. “What now?” A wave of regret swarmed over her the moment that the two words escaped her lips. Rem kept his lips pursed, still turned up in the biggest smile she had ever seen.

  “Fill up the hole, obviously.” Leilana slowly gripped the icing-filled mechanism. “Go on, squeeze it all out.” Leilana couldn’t stop blushing as she followed his instructions, even shutting her eyes to try and keep from looking at his face. He was doing this on purpose, he had to be. “It’s spilling out on the sides, Leilana, you’re going to make it leak…”

  Not even Ennis spewed out these many innuendos.

  She opened one eye and found the cream puff was indeed overfilled with vanilla icing, the cream seeping from the tip of the bread. She covered her face with both hands to hide her burning cheeks, and Rem broke into a fit of laughter. He must have caught on to what he was saying, and now it was spilling out in full effect.

  “You are the worst!” she cried out. “I can’t believe you!”

  Rem was leaning on the counter, holding his chest. “Me?! You’re the one that took it that way! I was acting as your guide into the wonderful world of baking!”

  “It’s hard not to take it in that way when you keep imposing it!”

  “I wasn’t imposing anything!” he argued, holding up his hands in defense. “I know that we were supposed to be married once upon a time, but times have changed.”

  Leilana paused, straightening her back. As irritable as she was about the stream of sexual implications, she supposed that she couldn’t let it simmer for too long. He was right; they were going to meet, and they would have eventually united their two countries, but Minsura’s fall put all of that to a stop. Hinju put any potential relationship they could have had under siege. What wou
ld have happened if they met as children when the conflict was but a distant thought from their naïve minds?

  It was time to address the elephant in the room now that he knew the truth and was drawing conclusions about their prior engagement.

  “How did you find out about my lineage?”

  “Hinju told us,” Rem began. “He wanted to distract me. But, was he lying?”

  “No,” she responded. “I wasn’t the first heir, but when Ennis began showing signs of magical energy, he unwillingly relinquished his title. I’m no longer fit to act as Minsura’s princess due to my progression as an Arcana.”

  Rem had his arms folded, listening attentively. “So, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

  “I’ve wanted to visit Adrylis and meet you since I was a child. When I found out that you were the prince, I had to contain myself—my greatest wish was coming true, right in front of me.” Leilana sighed, trying to ease her tightening chest. “I couldn’t tell you, not when you were already dealing with so much. I never wanted our first meeting to turn out this way.”

  “Honestly, I’m surprised that we got to meet at all. I thought that you were dead all these years.” Rem glanced over at her. “I was a child when I met your brother. He mentioned that he wanted to come home to you after completing his pilgrimage. I never knew anything about either of you being from Minsura, so I couldn’t put the pieces together about your lineage, not until Solus saw your grimoire and realized that the scribing was an epitaph of a dead language.”

  “Ennis kept my identity a secret,” Leilana told him. “Hinju was the only other person to know, and nobody uttered a word so long as Ennis was there to prevent it. That kept up long after he passed away due to Hinju’s interference.” She rested her hands on the counter. “I trusted that man with my life, and all this time he’s been pulling the strings and tying them around my throat. He’s the reason why Minsura was destroyed, and why Ennis is dead. I can’t forgive that.”

  Rem laid a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about it anymore. We’ll stand up to him together. Scions of the royal families, rising as one to overcome our mutual foe.” Leilana reached up her hand to lay over his, forcing herself to smile.

  Unexpectedly, Rem pecked her lips, brief and passive. But by the time that either of them had processed it, they were both racked with confusion.

  “What was that for?” Leilana finally asked.

  “I was just curious to know how kissing you felt. You are my former fiancée, after all.”

  “Oh, I guess that makes sense. Anything?”

  “No spark, no nothing. How about you?”

  “Not a thing,” she responded. “Must be because our hearts belong to others.”

  Rem nervously ruffled his hair, grinning. “You may be right. We weren’t one another’s first, and even if by some stroke of luck that we did know each other beforehand, I don’t think anything would have changed. You gave your heart to Solus a long time ago, and I’d never want to go against his. He deserves to have someone that’s good for him.”

  “And to think, this all began with your distaste for me.”

  “I don’t come across princesses often, must have been fate for me to hate you at first.” He playfully punched her shoulder. “Let’s get back to our cooking lesson. We’ve gotta have this done before Solus finds out that we’re still awake.”

  At least something was solidified between them.

  Solus sat in his tiny cabin and listened to the ocean, his back against the metal-plated wall. The floor was strangely more comfortable than his ice-cold bed, blankets wrapped securely around his body. Every now and again, he would let the waves carry him away from reality, but it never seemed to last more than a few minutes at a time.

  “If it were up to you to save others, even if it meant that their bodies would no longer age, they were bound to you, and they would no longer be human… would you?”

  He was cursed, right from the start. Necromancy, the ability to control the dead, to strip them of what humanity remained in them, all to seize their minds. There was so much potential, one he wanted to see, but not from his own hands. What use would it be to him, to carry the dead into a dying world? What if those bodies belonged to his friends? He wanted to speak more with Kinaju, but now he was so far away from the coastline that it would be impossible to find him.

  A forceful knock caused him to jump, and he covered his mouth with both hands to keep from screaming, releasing some air out of his mouth when the sound quelled.

  “Sol? You up?” Solus sighed. Just Rem. Somehow, he knew that he wouldn’t be asleep. “I can hear you breathing! Come on, open the door!”

  “You’re being creepy,” Solus proclaimed, covering his ears to shut out the waves crashing against the boat. The wind was on the rise; it would be a rough patch to glide through. It took a minute of silence before Solus decided that Rem waited long enough and was met with the mouth-watering aroma of fresh-baked cream puffs. They were on a plate in Leilana’s hands, still steaming. “What’s all this?”

  “You’ve earned a reward for your hard work and dedication,” Leilana stated, holding up the plate. “Congratulations, Mr. Brenner, you’ve won handmade cream puffs, courtesy of your friends.”

  “You two made these?” Solus asked. “Rem, you haven’t cooked since before we left Linmus, how did you-?”

  “A little time and a lot of batter,” Rem replied, grinning. “Care to try one?” Solus didn’t get to answer before Rem popped one of the little delicacies into his mouth. Solus chewed it in suspicion before swallowing, licking the remaining crumbs and chocolate icing from his lips.

  “Mm,” he praised. “You’ve outdone yourself this time. The texture is almost flawless. A bit burnt around the edges, but still, very nice.”

  “Leilana did all of the creameries, and I prepped the bread.”

  “Well, what do you say you enjoy your work? I feel you’ve earned it.” Solus gestured towards the room with his thumb. Rem and Leilana glanced at one another before stepping into the cabin, Leilana sitting on the bed while Rem claimed a spot on the floor. Solus closed the door, leaning against the icy metal. “So, what really brought on the cream puff fiasco, hm?”

  “We were worried about you,” Leilana piped up. “You were acting strange today, and we wanted to make you feel better.”

  “So, I thought of making cream puffs,” Rem continued. “I thought it would help. Comfort food is always great when you’re feeling down, you know-” Solus shoved a cream puff into Rem’s mouth, and he slowly chewed on the pastry.

  “I appreciate the sentiment.” He handed a cream puff to Leilana, and she scrambled for it, turning her back as she nibbled on the snack. Solus playfully shook his head; the young woman he cherished, reduced to a field mouse at the sight of bread. “I’ve had a lot on my mind ever since Hinju made himself known to us. It’s taking me some time to process it all.”

  Well, his statement wasn’t entirely narrowed down.

  “Strange, I thought that Amiria and I would be the space cadets,” Leilana admitted. “We thought that we could trust Master Hinju, and all this time he was priming us for something more devious. At least, that’s what I felt after meeting with him. Sentora said he wanted me to translate my grimoire, but instead, he gave it back and then tried to kill me. Maybe I was never a target, and he just needed some sort of...” Her eyes widened. “What if I was a distraction?”

  “But for what?” Solus asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I don’t think I could begin to figure it out.”

  Rem held up another cream puff in her view, waving his hand up and down. “You might be thinking too hard.” She was following him like a hawk, her mouth salivating. Her hands were itching to snatch from him, but every time that she reached, he would pull back. When she stretched low, he raised his hand, and at one point she slid over him, resting her chin on his shoulder, her left arm slack over his free one. He decided to stop humoring himself and slipped it into her mou
th.

  The hall clock was chiming, signifying a new hour. By Solus’s calculations, it was midnight. The ship was going to dock in Kinsley just after eight. “All right, once you finish, off to bed with you both.”

  “Yes, father,” Rem mocked as he ate another cream puff.

  “I say these things for your own good, Remiel.”

  “I know you mean well.” They each took one more, cleaning off the plate. Leilana was staring longingly at the crumbs remaining on the tray while Solus took it away, unsettled by the lack of pastries. “Don’t worry, I can try and make more before we’re on the road. You can have as many as you’d like.”

  Leilana wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling into his shoulder. “You’re the best!” Rem chuckled in response, patting her hands. Solus’s smile dimmed.

  Somehow, it felt that days of respite would come to a crashing halt.

  The aroma of seawater continued to besiege Leilana’s senses long after they stepped off the boat and broke through the crowds, eager to venture through Kinsley’s vast streets. Right away, she noticed that the tiled roads differed from the usual dirt paths or concrete streets. It was a far cry from the land that she had come to know.

  “We’ve come a long way,” she said, mostly to herself, knowing that the remainder of her party was still fixated on keeping everything in order. She kept the Lasette close to her, fighting to urge to tear through the pages to see if there was any information on the city that she could uproot beforehand.

  “Man, I hate crowds,” Amiria mumbled, dusting off her dress.

  It took them a few minutes, but the five managed to isolate themselves from the people rushing into the city. The air was blended with the scent of booze and salt, a hint of fresh vegetables breaking through the briny blue. The sailors must not have wasted any time washing away what sins were cradled in their souls, for the alcohol bottles littering the ground told a familiar story.