Brother Emery?

Lucius and Miu look at each other in disbelief as Nizar drops to his knees, grasps Miu’s slack hand, and begins speaking so quickly and fiercely in Maukhetrean that Lucius can’t even begin to attempt to translate.

With her golden eyes wide in confusion, Miu quickly catches on, realizing that the wizard and this man must share a foreign language. Recalling the slivers of the wizard’s life story he shared earlier in the day, she tries to piece a plausible reply together.

Sooner than she would have liked, his head raises from where it is bowed, and he looks to her earnestly, with tears welling up in his eyes.

After a short beat of silence, Miu starts, “My apologies, Brother,” she pauses to wet her dry lips and gauge the man’s response. His eyebrows are knit in confusion as he didn’t expect to hear The Emery speaking Everdane. “It has been so long since I’ve spoken in our native tongue, and I’m so drained from my travels that I wasn’t quite able to follow along.”

And.

Lucius is… impressed.

Her cadence and word choice were still a bit too stuffy to be that of a believable Maukhetrean, especially Emerickus—or, Lucius corrects himself, Emery. But. It works for now.

With a quiet, understanding, “Ah”, Nizar picks himself up from the ground, wiping his eyes. He smears his tears on his pant leg, then clasps Miu’s hand between both of his.

“Well, basically, I said that my name is Nizar,” he says in Everdane this time, “And that it’s probably been some time since you’ve heard it, but we appreciate you. All of us left behind who aren’t brave enough to do what you do for Maukhetreans.” His eyes twinkle earnestly in the moonlight as he continues.

For as long as he knew Nizar, he hadn’t once mentioned anything of the sort. Lucius wouldn’t have known the boy was Maukhetrean if the evidence wasn’t scrawled all over his face. And brave enough?

The idea gave him pause. An unsettling, disconcerting pause that he didn’t know how to process. He was always under the impression that Nizar was laid back, unconcerned with the politics of the kingdom. Since when had Nizar wanted to be a rebel?

“And I was disgusted to hear about what King Matthias did to you.”

Lucius quirks his head to the side, perking his ears to listen closely now.

He hops off of the stack of logs, getting close enough to carefully watch Nizar’s hardened face as he speaks. “I didn’t believe for a hair of a second that you would ever do something like that, even to a cretin like him. To tell you the truth, I have reason to suspect it was—” Panicking, afraid of what Nizar might let on, Lucius reaches out, claws drawn, and swipes harshly at his exposed ankle.

Nizar drops to cradle his ankle and admonish the cat. “Bad cat!” He menacingly wags his finger in Lucius’ face as he holds his hand in the light coming from the window, trying to check for blood.

Little did he know, Lucius’ distraction only served to oil the gears grinding in Miu’s brain.

Scorned friend knows a bit too much for comfort, huh?

Quirking up an eyebrow, Miu clears her throat as if warning the boy. “Careful,” she says, aiming the word directly at Lucius. She stuck her hand out for Nizar, helping him up. “It could be feral; it may carry disease. Why don’t we get inside and clean you up?”

Nizar waves her off, still wincing. “No way, this cat’s too well-groomed to be feral. She’s pretty mean, but not diseased or anything.”

He looks off into the hills, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “Besides, I don’t have too much of a house these days anyway.”

As if he could hear the silent question Miu is asking, Nizar juts his thumb at the shack behind him, eyes still lost along the horizon. “And this place is just an old treehouse, no plumbing, no locks.”

He unloads a deep sigh and turns back to look deeply into Miu’s eyes. “But I do know somewhere that we’ll be safe for the night. You can spare me the details, but I assume you weren’t exactly released on good behavior.”

The two of them share a chuckle at that. “Safe assumption,” Miu jokes.

Lucius watches, heart heavy with suspicion, as Nizar makes his way into the treehouse. From his vantage point, he watches the top of Nizar’s head bob around as he gathers his belongings.

Taking advantage of the moment, Miu quickly drops down to Lucius’ height, eyes narrowed dangerously as she hisses. “You ungrateful little—“

“Um,” the moment is over much faster than Miu could have anticipated. Nizar’s head is sticking out of the window as Miu is seething in Lucius’ face. “I appreciate the reinforcement, Brother, but I think the cat’s learned her lesson.”

Laughing it off, Miu quickly stands up and moves around to the front door, hand outstretched. “Shall we go?”

…

Lucius didn’t think he had any more room in his heart for hatred for this cat, but she’s making a way out of no way.

Leading Nizar ahead of him with an unnaturally fast pace, and speaking to him in such hushed tones that Lucius can barely hear them despite his heightened senses, Miu clearly has an agenda that does not involve Lucius. But too bad for her, as overweight and out-of-shape as he is, Lucius is determined to keep up.

Furiously trotting behind the two, he’s able to hear the man utter ‘Prince Lucius’ and ‘spell’ in the same sentence. Lucius’ heart starts beating out of his chest. He sprints forward, directly in between Nizar’s legs.

Lucius makes a clean sweep, knocking Nizar on his back and taking Miu, who was still clinging to his hand, down with him. He quickly spins back around, cutely crawling on Nizar’s chest, and settling into a turkey pose. A deep chuckle rumbles from beneath Lucius and a soft hand reaches up to scratch his head.

“Brother, I think we’ve made a new friend.”

Miu scoffs, sitting up. She glares at Lucius where he is perched innocently, eyes closed and purring. “Seems more like an enemy to me.”

Every time she inches closer to hearing what the man knows about King Matthias’ death, Lucius coincidentally interrupts. Whether it’s his incessant yowling or stooping so low as to trip them, the boy is intent on doing whatever is necessary to keep Nizar quiet.

And that just won’t do.

“Here, kitty,” Miu coos, snatching Lucius from Nizar’s chest. Before he can muster a meow of protest, he is tucked squarely in her armpit, free to wriggle and claw fruitlessly where he dangles in the air. “That should do the trick.”

Nizar rolls up to sit, wiggling his fingers under Lucius' hissing mouth. “No, Brother, she’s miserable,” he drawls. “Let’s let her walk, what’s the worst that she can do?”

Miu holds firm, deadpanning, “The worst that she can do is slow our pace while the Everdane army is on our heels." The tension rests thickly in the air. They all notice the moon's position in the sky, wondering how much time has passed, and how much time they have before the Army arrives. "We must make haste, Brother.”