SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer, (Saturday Morning, Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

After the debacle of Agio (and the even more debacle-y aftermath), Karla had promised to keep Saetan, Lucivar, and Morton apprised of major events at Fandom. She might often interpret that promise as conveniently as possible, but there was no way that even she could spin the end of all creation as something other that a 'major event.' Which was why two months after reality had been repaired, she was standing in Saetan's office, telling them what had happened in stark and painful detail. Of course, since what had happened had affected all of Kaeleer, even if they didn't know it, Karla was not delivering her report to Saetan alone, or even Saetan and Lucivar. No, Jaenelle and several members of the coven and the boyos had all crowded in, too, and were listening to her clustered in the chairs at the back of his office.

It could have been worse. There might not have been a Kaeleer to return back to. Or the split between her and Warren could have been permanent, leaving her to stand in front of the High Lord's great blackwood desk alone while spilling out the story. It was comforting, having him beside her, so she could reach out and hold his hand for comfort at a few parts.

Karla had done all of the speaking up until this point, laying out all of what had happened in sparse detail. They had heard the entirety of the account, all the way up to remembering the universe back into existence without interrupting, but she didn't think that silence was going to last for very long, not as her story wound down to an end. From the shifting behind her and the faces that Saetan and Lucivar had made at various points in her tale, once she stopped talking, she was going to face a torrent of words.

Most of them probably invectives. At least from Lucivar.

Warren	Karla had warned Warren well before they ever came here that the coven were not going to take so well to hearing about what he had done during the last moments before all portal access from the island had been cut off. He had that warning still in his mind when he walked into the room, after all. Which was why, for the time being, at least, he was thankful that Karla was leaving out some of the more sticky points. He was also not holding his breath for that to last much longer. For the time being, he'd brace himself for whatever was about to come out of Lucivar's mouth. And, far more so, from Saetan's. While Lucivar tended to just bluster until you gave up or broke down, Saetan could tear you to shreds with a word.
Saetan	And since it was Saetan's office, everyone deferred to him. He took a long, slow sip of yarbarah and then sat back, looking at the two of them. He opened his mouth, then shook his head at Karla and turned to Warren. "Lord Worthington, please explain your actions," he said. Mildly.
Lucivar	"Explain?!" Lucivar blustered. "He did what he--" Saetan raised a hand, cutting Lucivar off and the loud murmurings coming from the boyos and coven behind them.
Warren	Warren took a deep breath. Squared his jaw, because for the life of him even if the entire population of the room could see flat-out how terrified he was, he wasn't going to back down from this one. He just... wasn't. "She left a note. Just a note, saying that she was coming back here, to be with her people before the end," he said, and needed a moment to kind of swallow and breathe before continuing. "But, while I understand her need to be with her people... I couldn't let her. Not knowing that it was a suicide move. Not when there was still some bit of hope that maybe we could stop what was happening, so long as there were people still alive to do so. It seemed like... like a waste, to me. In so many ways. At the time, I thought there was no way she'd be able to look at me again, after what I did, and I know that taking away her right to choose was..." He balked a little. For only a moment, as the eyes of the coven threatened to bore holes straight through him. But another deep breath and a small ruffle of feathers, and he soldiered on. "... was unfair to Karla, to say the least. But there wasn't any time to come up with a better option, not with the way she slipped out at the last possible second, and it seemed to me that a lifetime of Karla hating me for what I did was better than there being no Karla in the universe at all." And then, once he had finished speaking, he dropped his gaze to the floor. Not a moment sooner, but god, he could only hold his head up under scrutiny like that for so long.
The Boyos	"A letter?!" Khary sounded appalled. "Shut up, Khary," Gabrielle snapped. "She knew he would protest. And look!" "Maybe if she'd bothered to say goodbye, he wouldn't have had to do that," Chaosti muttered.
The Coven	Gabrielle elbowed Chaosti and Morghann was glaring at Khary. "Right," she snorted, shoving a shock of flaming red hair out of her eyes. "Because a proper goodbye would have stopped any one of you." She transferred her glare over to Warren. "She had a duty to her people, you know," she informed him frostily.
Lucivar	"Enough from the peanut gallery," Lucivar barked. "Or the High Lord will toss you all out and let you fight amongst yourselves up in the rumpus room." That silenced them again, though Chaosti and Gabrielle were exchanging heated glances that had Sabrina stepping out of the way between them.
Saetan	"Thank you, Prince," Saetan said formally, his golden eyes fixed on Warren. "And now, Lord Worthington? Now that you have had time to think over your actions, would you change what you did?"
Kalush	"We don’t have a rumpus room," Kalush protested in an undertone, arms folded across her chest.
Jaenelle	"You wouldn't say that if you’d ever been in the room under it when we were all doing...whatever we were doing the day I was there," Jaenelle murmured back, her sapphire blue eyes trained on Warren. "Now hush. I want to hear what our Brother has to say for himself.
	Warren bit his lip for a moment, trying desperately to ignore the exchange between the females and males in their little audience. And then he shook his head, just slightly. "I might have changed how I did it," he said, softly. "With a lie and then by force, while she struggled to get free. But I would have still stopped her. I had to. For all that she had a duty to her people here, the only way she could have really saved anyone was by staying behind. And she did." There was another pause. And then he added, "She came back to me. I didn't think she would. I'm still surprised she did. But me maintaining my answer has nothing to do with me... somehow thinking I could... could get away with it, or anything." He said that with a sideways glance at Karla, half expecting her own ire to be rising along with that of the coven.
Karla	Karla was looking more relieved than anything else. She had made her peace with Warren and what he'd done--and what she had done, too. But knowing that she'd been right, that the coven was staunchly on her side...that eased her mind. She'd been doing what any good Queen would have done in her situation. Enough people had protested and convinced her that it might not have been the best idea, but at least she wasn't alone in thinking of it.
Saetan	"You do realize, Lord Worthington, that we males swear obedience when we agree to serve?" Saetan asked, still very grave.
Lucivar	"Unfair!" Chaosti burst out. "Obedience is the--" An Ebon-gray aural shield cut off the rest of what he was saying. Lucivar lounged against the wall, looking calm, almost bored. He knew where this was going.
Warren	Warren glanced up at Saetan's words, and at the short-lived outburst from across the room. And then he shrugged his shoulders a little. "I am aware, yes. But with all due respect, sir, I can't serve somebody who doesn't exist, either."
Karla	"Obedience is the third law," Karla said quietly, finishing up what Chaosti had begun to say. "The first law is to honor, cherish, and protect. The second law is to serve. Only then comes obedience." She reached for Warren's hand again, just a simple brush of her knuckles against his. "I didn't like what he did. I didn't like how he did it. But in so doing, he held up the first two of our laws; he served and protected." "And that," she said, turning towards him, "that was why I forgave you. Because at the heart of it all, you did as any one of the boyos would do. I followed what my heart said was best--and I can't fault you for doing the same."

[Preplayed with the wonderful not_a_parakeet. TBC in comments. Apologies, was supposed to be up yesterday (and completed), but I sort of failed at availability this week.]

Comments

[wwiii]

Really, at just that moment, Warren kind of wanted to just find a bed to crawl under so that he could wait to die or something. But that apparently wasn't in the cards, was it?

He cast a kind of dazed look at the boyos, and then he looked down the hall in the direction that Jaenelle had come from. And then he looked back at the boyos again.

"Kay."

See, this was why he usually tried to make a beeline for his ever-growing stack of paperwork every time he found himself in Kaeleer.

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the world of serving in a Court, Warren.

The four of them exchanged a long glance.

"Technically, she didn't say we had to go up," Chaosti pointed out.

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but if we don't then they'll be even crankier tomorrow," Aaron said, sounding tired.

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Let's make Warren decide," Khary said. Because he was like that. "Let the expert make the call."

He'd liked this shirt, dammit.

[wwiii]

Khary was lucky that Warren had let go, because that would have probably earned him a bit of a prickly-fingered squeeze around the bicep, right there.

"... They're probably worried," Warren noted, sounding a bit resigned, himself. Suddenly, he kind of wanted to go back into the study to shake Saetan for putting him in the spotlight on that particular topic in the first place. But, after what had gone on in there? That was absolutely not an option.

He sighed.

"I'll go in first. To kind of... draw the fire, I guess."

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely not," Aaron said, swinging a companionable arm around Warren's shoulders. "You're a Brother of the First Circle. That means we're not going to make you beard that den alone."

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Not unless you really deserve it," Khary added. "And we might let you be the last to leave if they're really cranky."

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Or if they break out the cradle board," Chaosti said softly, his own smile just a hint on his lips. For him, that was damn near effusive. "But then, it's every male for himself and rightly so."

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

"Right, so other than all those times," Aaron said, "we're brothers, all right? And that means we'll face them all together."

In an undertone he added, "Gives them a larger target to scatter against, too. We're tactical that way."

[wwiii]

"See, clearly that's my problem," Warren decided, managing a little bit of a smile of his own. "I need to work on my tactical skills. But I'm sure your good influences will rub off on me in no time."

And if they didn't, that was what big windows were for.

"I guess... let's go?"

He didn't really bother to wait before starting down the hall. Because he'd totally wimp out otherwise.

[theboyos.livejournal.com]

The other three caught up with him before he'd gone more than a few steps and provided a united front the the door opened to the coven's frosty eyes.

Did it get them out of trouble that afternoon? Not hardly. But at least they all suffered together.