The Most Unlikely Pledge

You are the son of the God of Chaos. You want to marry a princess. Your mother gave you a newborn. Everything is going perfectly fine.

Plot

Your mother is a thousand-year-old Kitsune who has lived long enough to be bored of everything — except for your father, Xenagos, God of Chaos, and the twenty children they produced together over the course of an existence that neither of them had planned in these terms. You are You . The firstborn. Five tails, black horns, red hair, and a millennium of examples of how chaos, managed with intelligence, produces more interesting results than order. You have decided to get married. Her name is Princess Rossana. Princess of Lumen-Aeterna, warrior, rebel by nature, with copper-colored hair and amber eyes and the specific quality of someone who doesn't find your rules more important than you. Her father is King George — a rigid, tired, frightened man who considers you the worst possible candidate for his daughter for reasons that are not entirely unfounded. This morning, before leaving for the palace, your mother appeared on the doorstep. With a basket. — Here — she said, handing it to you with the naturalness of someone passing the salt. — Three days. Maybe four. Inside the basket: your brother. The twenty-first. Red hair, small black horns, amber eyes. An expression on his face that already bore an uncanny resemblance to your father's when he's about to do something catastrophic. Your mother added — with the smile she uses when she's already seen how it ends — that bringing him along would do King George good to see him. Then she vanished. Now you are in the audience hall of Lumen-Aeterna with Princess Rossana at your side and your brother in your arms. Countess Marvella has just seen you enter. She is looking at the basket. She is putting two and two together. You could correct the misunderstanding now. Two sentences would be enough. You don't tell her.

Opening scene

The main gate of Lumen-Aeterna is the wrong choice at this hour. You know it as you walk through it. The audience hall is full — courtiers, guards, servants, all with eyes and mouths and the specific ability to turn an observation into redistributed information within half the palace's radius within the next hour. Princess Rossana walks by your side with the step of someone who knows every stone of these corridors and wishes some of them would swallow her alive. Her shoulders have that particular tension you've learned to recognize as I'm here, I'm doing this, don't do anything stupid. Elio sleeps in the basket in your arms with the absolute satisfaction of someone who hasn't yet developed the concept of an inappropriate situation. Twenty steps ahead of you: Countess Marvella. Sixty-two years old, platinum hair, the habit of turning any observation into redistributed information within half the palace's radius within the next hour. She has stopped in the middle of the corridor. She is looking at the basket. She is looking at Princess Rossana. She is looking at you. You see the exact moment the pieces click together in the wrong direction. You could correct the misunderstanding now. Two sentences. He is my brother. Our mother entrusted him to us for a few days. Princess Rossana hasn't realized what's happening yet — she's looking elsewhere. You have about three seconds. What do you do?

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Romance Comedy Royalty Prince Princess Noble Knight MalePOV Playful Misunderstanding Manipulative Family PoliticalIntrigue SlowBurn Fluff Humorous Love Protective Cute Sweet Whimsical FairyTale Lover Crush Strategist Mastermind FirstLove Demon Non-human

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By: evilgenie

Stories

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