NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: True Name
Ritt stopped nodding and blinked, unsure of what he’d just heard.
“He uses your… true name?”
Sien also looked back at him confused for a second, but then he winced and immediately looked conflicted instead. He didn’t really like talking about true names, just as he was sure no Fae did. After all, who in the world would like to bring up their own weaknesses so easily? But Ritt, for longer than anyone Sien had ever known, had been completely honest with him. Sien felt that it would be wrong for him not to continue to be honest to him right back.
He quickly turned around and sat on his knees, leaning towards Ritt and putting his hands on his shoulders as if he was desperate to get something across to Ritt without Ritt freaking out.
“Hey, so… You might not know this, Ritt, but I’m actually really strong!”
Ritt easily nodded along, having seen first-hand just how overwhelmingly strong Sien truly was. Sien stared into Ritt’s nonchalant agreeance with a little bit of worry, not sure that Ritt truly understood, but soon he gave up and decided to keep talking.
“Okay… Well, having something as strong as me around can be intimidating. Not to mention I also have royal blood in me, so it makes sense that the Emperor wouldn’t wanna keep around someone who could easily overpower and usurp him like I could. So my mom, trying to keep me safe, gave my true name to him in exchange for him promising not to hurt me.”
Ritt nodded once again, doing his best to follow along with what Sien was saying, but when Sien stopped and gave him a look that seemed to ask if he really, truly understood, Ritt politely raised his hand and asked the question he’d been wanting to know.
“Mmm, but what exactly is a true name? Isn’t your name Sien? Sien, uhmmmm… Oh, Sien Tavril?”
Sien let out a small snort of exasperation when he saw that Ritt had to seriously think to recall his last name. The servants called him by it almost every day, and yet Ritt still only ever thought of him as ‘Sien’ it seemed. Somehow, he found that very endearing, while also being a bit concerning.
The fact that Ritt, who barely knew anything about the Fae, wouldn’t have known what a ‘true name’ was had completely slipped Sien’s mind. At first, he’d been worried that maybe Ritt, who professed to like him, might have been upset that the Emperor knew what his true name was and he didn’t. It was a big weight off of his shoulders to realize that he actually hadn’t made Ritt upset in the first place, and had simply confused him instead.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like; It’s my real name. Everyone calls me Sien, and even my mom did. But I have a longer, more proper name that’s my actual one. Couldn’t tell you why, but knowing a Fae’s real name is basically like a free pass to control them. They have to do what you say. It’s why they’ll never give you their real names unless they absolutely have to.”
“Oh… Is that the case?”
Ritt lightly tilted his head, thinking the new information over. He was, of course, surprised to learn that Sien had yet another name that he’d never heard of before, but knowing its effect, he could completely understand why it was kept secret. But unlike what Sien thought, Ritt actually was
a bit upset by this information, although for a completely different reason than had been presumed. More accurately put, he was very worried.
“...But isn’t it bad that the Emperor knows? What if he abuses his power over you? What if he orders you to hurt or kill yourself, or kill people that you know don’t deserve it?”
It was already bad enough to have someone in a superior position tell you to do something, but what if you literally had no option but to do it, no matter what they said? Ritt had already been exposed to how heinous and unreasonable an order from royalty could be; The idea of his one and only friend being forced to comply with such a thing was gravely awful to him.
Sien, however, didn’t look worried at all, and just slumped against Ritt again, resting his head on Ritt’s shoulder.
“Hmm? Nah, he wouldn’t do that to me. Both of my uncles actually really loved my mom, so they wouldn't do anything that they knew would make her sad. Besides, she was the eldest, and if she hadn’t given up her right to the throne to have me, she would have been the Emperor or Empress or whatever, and the current Emperor would have still been just a Duke, so I guess he thinks he owes the both of us for that.”
Ritt’s eyebrows came together, his worries sadly unabated by Sien’s words. He would love to believe that things were that simple, but having never felt such a thing as familial bonds or love, he simply couldn’t put his full faith into it.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Otherwise, he would have totally done it by now. I mean the man’s been Emperor for a little under fifty years. He’s had plenty of opportunities. And even if that suddenly stopped being true, uncle wouldn’t let the Emperor do anything that would harm me anyways; Maybe he hates what I am, but he hates abuses of power and family openly turning on each other the most. He’s especially uptight and preachy about it, actually.”
“Hmmm… If that’s true, then alright.”
Ritt’s mind still wasn’t totally at ease, somehow. He couldn’t help but wonder if the Duke would actually be strong enough to stop anything if the Emperor decided to use Sien to his fullest. Knowing the absolute unbeatable power of Sien, he wasn’t sure that anything would be able to stand against the Emperor if he ordered Sien to do something. Besides, if the Emperor was as old as Sien was saying, then what would happen when the Prince, who Sien had been constantly squabbling with, became Emperor? Wouldn’t Sien have to pledge his name to him, too? Then what would happen if the Prince had some very different ideas of how to utilize Sien, who he wasn’t truly close to and owed nothing towards?
Seeing how worried Ritt still looked, Sien reached out, poking Ritt on one of his tensed cheeks.
“Hey, you don’t have to act like it’s the worst thing ever. Sure, I have to do what the Emperor tells me to, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the free will left to tamper with it a little bit. There’s loopholes in everything, Ritt. If I get creative enough, I can find a way to disobey anything.”
Ritt let a small smile cross his gloomy face. Sien was right. Of anyone that Ritt had met in his life, Sien was definitely the one most likely to find a way to disobey something. Really, it suited him to a T.
Happy that he’d managed to lift Ritt’s worriedness from him, Sien also smiled and slightly nuzzled closer to Ritt. While stealing a bunch of little pleased glances towards him, Sien thought to himself that perhaps it wouldn't be too bad let Ritt know his true name one day, too, if he was going to worry about him so much. And now that he thought of it, hadn’t he heard that it was a custom to share true names when Fae got married? Perhaps he was wrong, but he liked the idea. It was also pleasing to think that Ritt would have to tell him his full name then, too.
But most of all he just liked the idea of the kind, caring Ritt, who liked him enough to get worried for him, becoming completely and truly his.
~~~
The very next day, everyone was set to depart. The Duke and the Prince had readied their carriages for the journey, and had already loaded them with their luggage and choice of servants. And Ritt and Sien-
Ritt and Sien were just standing there, holding their meager cases of luggage in their hands.
The Duke looked visibly displeased by the development, but it was the Prince who inevitably spoke up about it.
“Oh please don’t tell me that’s all you’re bringing. Are you not even going to take along a single servant? What, is your pet going to be the one serving you?”
The Prince’s leer implied a kind of double entendre that Sien couldn’t possibly not catch. He did his best to not outwardly react to it, treating the Prince like the idiot he was, but he couldn’t help but glance over at Ritt to try and see if he was upset by it at all. Ritt, however, knew nothing of entendres, and simply blinked as he looked curiously at Sien, thinking that the Prince might be right.
“Are you sure you don’t want to bring any servants with you, Sien?”
“Mmm-yeah. They’d just slow us down anyways.”
Sien turned to look at the path through the woods that they’d be taking. The capital wasn’t actually all that far away by carriage, but it would still take the two of them a good portion of the day to reach there, even by going through his enchanted forest. Like all magic, there were certain rules at play in it. One of the most important rules of traversing through his forest was that the intended exit had to also be connected to a forest. And considering that the nearest forest to the Emperor’s palace was at least two and a half hours away by walking, it was going to be quite a trip.
Add on top of that, the fact that the forest’s traversal time increased with the more people he brought along meant there was really just no way that the servants could come with them.
“Besides… Human’s can’t usually go through it multiple times.”
“Hmmm?”
Ritt, having just barely heard Sien’s mutter, tilted his head and questioned about it. Sien, however, just shook his head, and began to lead Ritt towards the treeline.
“...I was wondering what you were planning with such a lack of supplies... Don’t tell me you’re using that dreaded Fae magic of yours again!”
The Duke’s sudden shouting made Ritt flinch a bit, but Sien just continued forward, giving his uncle a small, dismissive wave as he made his way into the forest. Ritt hesitated for a moment, but then bowed at the Duke and Prince, quickly running along to catch up with Sien. And then the two disappeared amongst the trees, beginning their slow journey to the capital.