[IC] A Star-Called Match

[SporkoBug]

Nestled in a large enchanted forest, stood the large Fae City of Ali'theer; One of the most prosperous kingdoms of the land. This city was full of Scientists and Alchemists, Philosophers and Merchants, Warriors and Mages; Trade was Wealth, the city was well fortified to ensure they were safe, no matter what.

Ali'theer housed a large, lavish castle; standing on a gorgeous swade of land, a luscious garden surrounding every inch of the castle. The Royal Gardens housing many creatures that left much to the imagination; it was even said that A Pegasus and a Dragon lived within the grounds.
This Castle was known as Castle T'or; as it housed the Royal Family of Fae that controlled Ali'theer.

King Argrean was both feared and loved by his people; his claim to royalty a mystery to most of the citizens of his land. He ruled carefully and for the most part, fairly. He only asked for one thing; Complete and Total obedience. He garnered respect out of fear, and had his ways to twist other kingdoms around them into working for him rather than with him.
Queen Emmerdale was the opposite of her Husband; She was loved and adored by her people. She was known as the 'Queen of the Hunt', ruling over the hunters and gatherers of the city with a soft gaze. She kept the forest that the Kingdom stood in flourishing; but these days she is often stuck inside the castle, as Argrean doesn't want to allow her too much freedom.
Princess Vianna no longer lived within the castle, the oldest child of the two Royals. She was married off to another Royal Kingdom of Fae, and had a good handful of children.

The final person within the castle is Prince Fenn.
The only son of Argrean and Emmerdale, the 'heir' to the castle itself once his pass away within the next thousand or so years. Not that Fenn really cared too much about that anyway.
Fenn didn't see himself as a 'Prince'; he took the role under his mother of undertaking the Mantle of ruling the 'Wild', as well as sneaking out under his father gaze to go off to find and dismantle poacher groups and traps.

Fenn was said to be something completely special; so said the Fates- Very Old, Powerful Fae who could see into the future and got visions of things that were going to happen. The Fates said that Fenn was going to do something amazing for the lands, not just the Kingdom itself; but as they Fates are, they were cryptic and vague, which caused Fenn to roll his eyes and not take the vision too seriously.

But there was something boiling on the horizon, a nearby human Kingdom was encroaching on their forest; starting to make paths into the woods itself, which caused scuffles between protectors of the edge and the Kingdom knights who joined the builders.
Tensions were rising now, and a war seemed to brim aggressively from either side. Argrean awaited the chance to demolish the humans with his army of strong Fae, but was surprised when he was send a letter from the Human Kingdom; proposing Peace and... A Merger.

---

King Argrean sat in his carriage as it headed to the meeting point of both sides, he kept his eyes away from his son Fenn; he was already angry at him not dressing the way he instructed him to.
A small Fae Advisor sat on the other side of the Carriage, as they were mainly there to keep note of everything and make sure that Fenn behaved himself.

Queen Emmerdale would join later, but Argrean had told her to not join them as the peace treaty was a Mans job, and she was to come in when they needed the two Queens to plan out the wedding. Argrean didn't want her butting in at all when it came to negotiations; knowing she would show favour to the humans rather than the Fae, as she was known to be too 'soft' to those Argrean saw as enemies.

Fenn toyed with his gloves as the carriage moved along, flexing his fingers in them before his sharp claw-like nails easily tore straight through the leather. "Oop." Fenn said softly before he pulled his gloves off with a sigh, "Mamma's not going to like that."
"No." Argrean rumbled angrily, "Your mother will be disappointed you broke the gloves she made for you." He said as he looked out side the carriage.

[lotusthevoid]

The Kingdom of Eachoudia, inhabited by humans and ruled over by the Prendale family, sat on the edge of a great forest, one that for centuries they hadn’t dared explore too deeply, although they of course knew of the Fae Kingdom that lay within. Eachoudia was mainly an agricultural kingdom, trading in crops and livestock, as well as various crafts like pottery and jewellery, and until very recently, they had mostly kept to themselves.

Until King Richard took the throne, anyway. He was… a good king, some may say - he kept his people alive, mostly listened to their requests and allowed them to live as they like, but it was his relations with other kingdoms that many disagreed with. He was hungry for power, he wanted everything for himself. It was mostly his wife that prevented him from doing anything too bad, Queen Annabella far keener to keep the peace, though there was only so much she could do to stop him entirely.

He started to expand, grow his kingdom more and more, at first out into unclaimed land but there was only so much unclaimed land to go around, and once he’d ran out? Well, there was only one thing to do - take land from elsewhere. Attempting to take it from the Faes was perhaps not a great decision, however, and it was clear that a war was brewing.

At this point, Queen Annabella once again attempting to step in, and managed to convince her husband to go about it a different route, attempt to negotiate with the Fae Kingdom and come to some sort of agreement. And at first, the King hated this idea, though soon devised a plan to combine the two kingdoms together - a marriage of convenience, to unite them. His two daughters, the twin Princesses Alicia and Eloise, would of course be too young, but he’d also been attempting to set up his son, Prince Anthony, with a spouse, now that he was of age.

Prince Anthony was… less keen of this idea, marriage being something he’d never really thought about, or wanted for himself. He had other things to be focusing on, being a budding historian and, of course, preparing to take over the kingdom himself once his father passed, and even that wasn’t something he particularly wanted. But it wasn’t as if there was much he could do about it, his father had never been one he could argue with. And since the letter had been sent off before he’d even been told, it was far too late anyway.

Now, he sat in the library at in the palace, in his favourite seat by the stained glass window, hunched over a book he’d read a few times before, but always seemed to pick up something new on each reread, scribbling his notes in the margins. It was quiet, peaceful, and honestly Anthony could have spent the rest of his life there, in that moment, never bothered by the world again.

But of course, his mother soon came through the door to disturb the peace. “Anthony, your father is waiting-“

Anthony frowned. “Waiting for what?”

“For-“ His mother sighed. “Gods, you aren’t even dressed properly. Come one-“

And as he was dragged out of the library and up to his room to change into fancier clothes, even fancier than the usual fancy clothes he was forced into, he remembered that today was the day he was supposed to meet his future husband, the Fae Prince. Ah.

Again, not much he could do about it. He just had to go along with it for now, maybe they’d find that his Fae Prince wasn’t a good fit for him and they could leave the entire thing behind them. Hopefully. Still, he accompanied his father in the carriage, sitting in silence as they rode to the meeting point, trying not to look too upset about the entire thing.

[SporkoBug]

Fenn's ears flattened slightly at his fathers words, before he looked toward the Advisor, who flashed him a small smile.
"You're doing great." The Advisor said softly, speaking their native language. They ignored Argreans' glare as they kept watch of Fenn.
Fenn didn't want to be here; he didn't want to be in this carriage, with his father, going to meet the human royalty. He wished he was travelling with his mother, at least she was less likely to cuss him out if he broke anything.

The Carriage came to a halt, Fenn tensed up as his father started to move. King Argrean slowly slipped out of the carriage, his feet landing on the soft grass below him.
"Come." Argrean rumbled to both the Advisor and Fenn, as he walked towards the stone table that stood between the two kingdoms.
The Stone Table had stood through countless wars, trifles, peace treaties and the likes. The ground was a mix of ruined brick and overgrown grass; this stone table used to sit within a large castle; long before either Kingdom dared to stand.
Argrean knew the history, as did Fenn, but unlike his Heir, Argrean didn't care for the history of this place. He stridden slowly over to the Stone table and looked over the wonky stone table.

Fenn and the Advisor followed after their King slowly, The Advisor keeping up with the larger fae as much as they could; while Fenn stayed a bit behind.
"Oh." Fenn said as he saw a couple of crumbled pillars and the vague outlines of broken rooms that once stood tall and proud, but now held only the agony of how they fell. "I bet you have a vast history." He whispered to the ruins before he straightened up as Argrean gave a growl towards his son.

Fenn darted over to his side and straightened up, looking to his father for a moment before looking down again. He shook his head slightly before he looked towards where he expected the Human Royalty to come through. His feathered ears pricked up, trying to keep listening to whatever sound was around them.

He didn't want to do this, and his mother knew this too. But his father was very adamant on 1) getting him out of the castle, and 2) sparking this 'peace treaty' to gain more 'allies' for whenever he started a war over someone else. Fenn had more important stuff to worry about, black market trading was spreading almost like wildfire through his Kingdom, with ties and links to the Human Kingdom as well; plus the poachers that had started to trap and take a few of the 'less important'(In his fathers eyes) animals within the gardens.

[lotusthevoid]

“I swear if you make a fool of yourself-“

Anthony sighed heavily. “Yes, father, I get it. I’ll be on my best behaviour, whatever you want.” Over the years, he’d found it was easier to just go along with his father’s wishes, no matter how much he personally disagreed with them. And it wasn’t often that he agreed with his father. “We’ve had this conversation a million times, I know what I’m doing.” It wasn’t a surprise that his father would have little faith in him, as Anthony had been clear that he wasn’t happy with this arrangement, and… well, he’d never been brilliant around people in the first place, although it wasn’t as if the same couldn’t be said about his father, albeit for different reasons.

But thankfully, that did shut King Richard up, and their journey returned to relative peace, moving through the vast fields of their kingdom, up towards the neutral meeting point. Once they arrived, Anthony still stayed in the carriage for a few moments longer, sort of wanting to delay this as long as possible, though soon enough Richard was moaning at him to get out, and he supposed there was no delaying the inevitable. He got out, though still stayed a good few paces behind as the king moved over to the centre table, ready to start the negotiations.

He, of course, wouldn’t be involved too much in the actual negotiations himself - even if he wanted to be, he doubted that he’d get single word in with his father around. So instead, he stayed back, standing with his arms folded over his chest and trying to not stare too hard at the Fae Prince, though it wasn’t as though he could help it, really not interested at all in whatever politics were going on and at least wanted to get a feel for the person he’d likely be spending a significant amount of time around in the future.

The prince… didn’t look too bad, Anthony thought. And by the looks of it, he seemed just as unhappy to be there as Anthony was, which was probably a good sign. If he was lucky, they could just get this over with and then agree that it was all just for business and move on. Anthony could focus on his studies, the Fae Prince could… do whatever Fae prince’s do, there would be no war in either of their kingdoms and everything could be right back to normal.

He shifted on the spot slightly, gaze falling down to the floor as he realised that he wasn’t doing as well in the no staring department as he had thought. His father’s voice faded into background noise as discussions began, Anthony instead trying to think about anything else other than the situation at hand. Still, he found himself glancing up at the Fae Prince every ten seconds or so, as much as he tried not to.

[SporkoBug]

As soon as the Human Royalty arrived, Argrean seemed to suddenly change his entire personality.
Instead of his stern and angry look, he was much happier; a soft smile on his face and his eyes hid the malice hidden in his eyes. He easily towered over any and all humans around him; something that Argrean reveled in, he enjoyed being the much larger creature. It instilled fear in most others around him, and that's all that mattered to him.

If his Prey was afraid, they were more than happy to give up things if it means for them to get safe. Which he was knowledgeable on twisting things his way, of course it was always for him and never for his family.
"Good afternoon." Argrean started as he saw the Human King approach, not even caring to attempt to perceive the Human Prince. His voice was booming, and seemed to shake the ground as he spoke so loudly, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Fenn, on the other hand, had walked off from his father, looking at more of the ruins before he flinched at his fathers voice. He headed back over to Argreans side as the Human King and Prince appeared. Fenns' eyes focused in on the Prince as he tilted his head slightly, one of his feather ears flattening downwards and the other prickling up, almost like a confused puppy.
When his eyes caught the Human Princes, he looked away quickly and tried to make it look like he hadn't been looking at him.

[lotusthevoid]

King Richard himself showed little fear as he approached the Fae King, though he still felt the power the he exerted, especially as Argrean spoke, and he got the idea that this was perhaps not the right person to make an enemy of. Which, in fairness, was the whole point of this meeting. He straightened out his back, standing as tall as he could - although in comparison to Argrean, that of course wasn't very tall at all.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," the Human King replied, bowing his head, although that was really all the pleasantries Richard was willing to give. Unlike the Fae King, he didn't change much of his demeanour, keeping a neutral expression. He was here strictly for business, not to make friends, and in Richard's mind, at least, showing such friendly emotions only showed weakness. "I presume you've read and understand the terms of our agreement?"

Off to the side, Anthony seemed quite a bit more fazed by Argrean, trying his best not to look at him. He didn't know a whole lot about the Fae king, though he also wasn't getting the best of feelings from his presence. He instead decided to continue focusing on the Fae Princem really not doing a brilliant job at not staring, especially as when they caught eyes and the prince looked away, Anthony didn't.

[SporkoBug]

Argrean could sense the small amount of fear that the King gave off before he simply smiled and gave a nod.
"I did." He said calmly, almost unsettlingly, "And I assume you've read them as well?" The Fae King tilted his head slightly, "I agree with the terms you have laid out, and I hope you understand and agree the terms I have laid out." Argrean having a glance towards Fenn for a moment, "Especially the part of having the Fae Prince in your kingdom?"

Fenn froze at that point, his ears pricking up before drooping them backwards as he glared towards his father.
"You're pushing me onto them?!" He suddenly spoke up, causing his father to flinch before turning to face his son.
"Hush!" Argrean hissed in their language, "Do not fuck this up. This is for the both of us!"
Fenns' feathers prickled angrily, his tail flaring out at the tip before he shook himself before crossing his arms.

The Fae Prince completely forgot about Anthony for a moment, the anger for his fathers words before he shook himself and relaxed his arms. He glanced towards the Human Prince again and gave a weak smile.

[lotusthevoid]

Richard looked over at the Fae Prince for the first time due to his little... outburst, dropping his neutral expression for a split second as a frown formed on his face. He certainly wouldn't let his own son speak to him like that, though it did seem like the Fae King had it mostly under control, as after a brief word the Fae Prince did settle down. He turned back to Argrean, holding back a sigh.

"Of course," he replied. "Likewise, I agree to everything. Arrangements have already been made to allow for the Fae Prince's stay in my kingdom." He looked back at the Prince again, for just a moment. "May have to teach him some proper manners, but no worries, we'll get him in shape in no time."

Anthony, on the other hand, seemed... a little more concerned, regarding the Fae Prince's outburst, compared to his father's clear annoyance at least. Of course, Anthony had known that the plan was for the Fae Prince to join them, staying in their kingdom, and he assumed that the Fae Prince knew as well - how curious, that he seemingly didn't. Still, when the Prince gave him a small smile, Anthony found himself returning it, almost trying to silently communicate that he was sorry about this whole situation, as it was becoming clearer and clearer that he was not happy with this arrangement, much like Anthony himself.

[SporkoBug]

Argrean turned back to the Human King and gave a soft smile before holding back the urge to laugh at the idea of teaching Fenn manners. Oh how he wanted to tell the Human King 'Good Luck' on even trying to 'fix' his son.
"I'm glad we've come to an agreement." He said with a small nod, ignoring his son once again for the time being. "Of course I will hold up my end of the deal as well with allowing your kind into our forests to hunt and build."
"Although they will have to be careful with all the wild magic." Fenn interrupted again, this time in a softer, less angry tone. "I'm sure you've noticed the workers who have gone into the forest before have come back either sick or... different." Fenn ignored the glare his father was giving him.

"Thank you for that, my son." Argrean spoke with gritted teeth. Fenn glanced to his father with a small shrug.
"You seemed like you weren't going to mention it." Fenn added, almost giving a cheeky smile before he turned back to the Human King slowly. "Apologies for speaking out of line, but as the Prince of the Wild; and since my mother is not able to join us just yet," He could feel Argreans' glare on him, a shame that the man had no powers otherwise Fenn would be in danger. "But there are wild beasts within our forest that are prohibited to harm or hunt. Once we are back at your castle, I will be happy to show you which ones to leave alone."

Fenn glanced back to Anthony as he smiled to him, Fenns' ears flattened slightly before giving a smile back. He had a feeling his father wasn't going to say much on anything that could harm the humans from the opposite kingdom, but Fenn was going to make sure the Humans would know about what to look out for.

[lotusthevoid]

Richard turned back to Argrean, nodding as well and about to reply, though he paused as Fenn spoke again, and didn't do too well to hide his annoyance. Yeah, definitely would have to teach him some manners, and also at some point he'd have to make it clear that he cared little for those sorts of affairs, especially as a deal had already been struck. But right now, he just wanted to get negotiations over with, and if that meant humouring the Fae Prince for now, as to avoid yet another outburst, then so be it.

"Of course, I'll- keep that in mind," he said. "Perhaps we can discuss that further at a later date, although I do believe right now there are more important things to be focusing on. Just... remind me of that later." He sighed, turning back to the Fae King again. "I believe we're done with everything here, then?"

Anthony was finding it increasingly harder not to butt into the conversation, sensing that his father really wasn't listening to what the Prince had to say, and understanding himself that it was actually rather important, but again, he wasn't really one for these sorts of things. He made a mental note to talk to the Prince himself about it later, and maybe he could try to mention something to his mother, who was more likely to actually try to do something. At the very least, he wanted the Prince to know that he at least cared for what he had to say, and he tried to show that by sending him a sympathetic look, as though to apologise on behalf of his father.

[SporkoBug]

Fenn gave a short nod at King Richards response to him, although he knew that the King didn't really care. None of the other royals that have have council with the Fae of his Kingdom, never really cared.
Fenn looked away from the Kings before he glanced back to Anthony and noticed his sympathetic look. He gave a weak smile to the other prince as he listened to the Kings again.

Argrean turned back to Richard as he settled his anger towards his son, He feigned a smile as the Human King spoke.
"Yes, I do believe we are done with everything here, so to speak." Argrean said with a cross of his arms. "Unless you were wanting the women to meet here instead of at your castle? I would like to see where you rule from, but I don't want to push myself in anywhere."
That was a lie. Argrean wanted to know every single secret of the Human Kingdom, in order to topple it in case they ended up against him.

Fenn glanced to his father as he mentioned the Queens simply as 'women', he felt a bubble of anger crackle through his feathers as he wanted to stand up for his mother, biting his tongue because he knew that Argrean would slam into him if he dared interrupt once more.

[lotusthevoid]

"Oh, no, no, of course you and your wife are welcome in our Kingdom at any time," Richard replied, trying to sound at least somewhat welcoming. "Come along to the castle whenever, I'm sure we have plenty of room for you as well, if you wish to stay at all." Of course, if Argrean was to come to the castle, Richard would have to keep... close eyes on him, just in case he ended up wandering off somewhere he shouldn't be, but he couldn't see any harm in allowing the Fae into his Kingdom. That was the whole point of this, afterall - peace between the two Kingdoms, as much as Richard was... rather hesitant to fully believe in that. Or even particularly want it.

Anthony glanced at his father, frowning slightly as that... didn't really seem like him at all, Anthony knew that Richard wasn't one for letting just anyone in the castle, and, in all honesty, Anthony wasn't sure if he wanted the Fae King to be wandering around his home. But it wasn't really his place to argue, was it?

[SporkoBug]

Argrean was almost pleasantly surprised that Richard said he could visit any time, he knew Emmerdale would be more than happy to meet with the humans on any whim that she could think of, or simply even just going to dote on Fenn whenever she wanted to.
"Well if you wouldn't mind," Argrean spoke, choosing his words carefully. "If you wish to take Fenn back with you now, Emmerdale and I would love to have dinner at yours?" He offered with a soft smile, well, a soft smile for him at least.

Fenn listened to his father, and at the mention of him going back with Richard his ears drooped backwards, but he glanced to his dad at the mention of his mother coming. He hoped having his mother there would allow a more... calming atmosphere, as she was someone who could command a softer air around her.

"And of course," Argrean started again, catching Fenn off guard, "The Queens can talk over the preparations for the wedding, which I believe you said you were happy to have in your gardens?" He tilted his head slightly, "Of course the wedding won't take long to plan and could possibly be ready within... a week?"