-Sky's POV-
By the next morning, I knew the dickheads in the castle were probably white out. I was correct, seeing as they were passed out on the ground. I found no pleasure in going back, but they were so dead from alcohol that I kicked a guy in the head and he didn't even stir. So I picked them up one by one and literally tossed them out the gates. Not a single one of them woke up.
I reactivated the teleport pad after making sure they hadn't disturbed the command code. Rob was led in last by Preston. Rob still hadn't spoken, and his shoulders seemed to sag. I pulled him aside and Preston followed. "Rob," I asked quietly, "are you alright?"
He looked me in the eye, and I saw the deep emotional pain. He shook his head, tears welled up and began to fall. "Do you wanna go talk to Preston? He can help." Rob nodded slowly. Then he did something that caught me off guard. He tugged his crown off, knelt, and set it at my feet. He then followed Preston upstairs.
I stared at the crown at my feet. I picked it up and carried it into the hall with me. Seto glanced at me funny when he noticed the crown. He looked a question at me, and I shrugged. I had no idea why he left it with me. He hadn't said a word.
Not necessarily wanting to carry it and hold it, I folded it into my storage. The day continued, semi-normal.

-Preston's POV-
"Hey. You okay?" He shrugged. "Rob," I said quietly, "I can't help if you don't talk to me, Love. And I enjoy hearing your voice. Now, are you okay?" "I don't know..." He whispered. "Is something bothering you?"
"Yeah." "And what's that?" "My position in this castle. My being King." "What about it is bothering you?" "I don't want it. I never did." "Is that why you gave Sky your crown?" He nodded.
"So you want Sky to lead?" He nodded again. "I can tell him your intentions, but I don't know how he'll react. He may very well want to be left out of the royal loop. Especially with his father. But I'll at least tell him." "Okay."
I headed down the staircase and found Sky sitting against the side of the stairs. He glanced up at me. "Hi. How's he doing?" "He's almost speaking, more like whispering. Do you have the crown?" "Yeah. Why'd he give it to me?" "He never wanted it. He gave it to you because he wants you to lead."
"What?" "You don't have to," I rushed. He cut me off. "If it makes Rob happy to stay out of the loop, I'll take it. As long as he's not stressed out. I know what to do." He disappeared, then reappeared seconds later holding a staff. It was beautiful.
It was pure gold, with a silver orb hovering in the top. "Technically, this is my dad's, but fuck my dad. It responds to me anyway. And it actually responds better to me." "Cool. Why do all royals and such have staffs anyway? What's the deal?" "It gives a weapon, as well as if you twist an ankle and no one knows, you can still walk. It's also fun to have. But mine is different to Rob's."
"How?" "First off, his is wood, mine is metal. Second off, mine is built with a full master sorcerer's power, while Rob's is just a staff." "Oh. Cool." "Mine is also enchanted to adjust to my height. It distributes its own weight equally throughout." "I'm jealous now. I want one."
"You probably do, but you can't work with a sorcery staff. It will negatively affect you. I know people who tried to work with one- a beginner's staff- mind you, and went blind, died, were smitten, burned to its touch, cut, et cetera. Staffs are nasty." "But how does it know? It's a stick." "Staffs are built with orbs such as this one," he pointed to the silver one on his own, "and that orb serves as a functioning mind, a brain if you will." "But still. How does it know what's sorcerer or human or fantasy?" "Preston, the orb will recognize magic. If there is none, so be it. If there is too little, so be it. If there is enough, perfect. If there is too much- such as me- the more, the better."
"When you said response, what'd you mean?" "Response with an orb is how the orb communicates its ability to the user. Pain and said negative effects are saying, 'You need to back off', perfect amounts of magic are like, 'I will follow your lead', and too much like myself, 'What would you like? I can do anything'." "That's awesome. Will the response change depending on who holds it?" "If someone other than the staff's user is to touch it, say Seto or Brice take this staff from me without permission, it would give a negative effect until they let go." "What if you take their staffs?"
"The staff would adjust to me." "But no effects? Why?" "Because I generate more magic energy than Seto and Brice combined. With less than half my power dedicated to each, I could hold all three- Brice's, Seto's, and mine- with no problem. Because they all adjust to the higher power." "Oh neat." "Yeah but it still isn't recommended. Both staffs would take me as half an enemy." "Half?" "My magic is half light, half dark. Seto's is pure dark, Brice's is pure light. I sit inbetween the two."
"Oh." "I guess I have paperwork and such now?" He sighed when I nodded. "Just show me the pile." I led him to Rob's desk, and surprisingly, the pile was quite short.

(Dude I can barely type because my left hand is totally numb, and I can't feel any of my fingers. I smacked my hand and felt nothing, but said ow anyway because it's involuntary. I could probably break my finger and not feel it. it's that numb. I do this every time I write b/c it show I lay)

I took the papers out of the room and into my own room. I set them down and dropped into bed. The staff rolled gently to the floor without a sound. I had no intentions of getting up early to do anything. So I rolled out of bed around noon to at least get air and see the boys.
Preston noticed me first. "Hi, Sky." "Good morning. Why are you up so early?" (Keep in mind it's 12:30pm and Preston is a serious early bird) "Early? This is late. I've been up for hours." "What? Why?" "I like getting up with the sun. Sunrises are rarely seen because of night owls like yourself."
I looked at the table to see Rob nodding off, a blanket around his shoulders and a glass of ginger ale in front of him. There were dark bags under his eyes and he looked really pale. "Hey, you okay?" Preston piped up from the kitchen. "He woke up with a fever... He was up most of the night in the bathroom."
Rob burrowed deeper into his blanket. "Rob, you need to eat or drink something. You can't starve or dehydrate yourself. I know you're tired, but you need something in your system." "I don't want it," he grumbled, "my stomach hurts." "I understand that, but it will help. At least drink the ginger ale."
He gave in and took the glass into his shaky fingers. He took a sip and burrowed in his blanket, leaving one hand exposed- around the glass. Preston came back in from the kitchen with a bowl of strawberries, which he promptly handed to me. I stared- stupidly- at the strawberry bowl in my hands. "Well? Want some or not?"
I blinked. "Yeah, sure. I just didn't understand. Still have a sleeping brain." "That's fine." He laughed. Rob continued to sip the ginger ale, which made both me and Preston happy, and when he finished, Preston whisked the glass away. "Where are you getting this energy from? It's too early for that."
"Again, it's not early. I've been up since- I don't know- 5 am? And my energy comes from coffee and my daily run. I do that, ya know. Jerome and Mitch come with me." "Looking at you guys now, it's hard to think that I met you because you shot me." He looked down shyly. "I'm still sorry for that." "It's alright."
"Sky, how did you meet Ty?" "Are you seriously asking me that?" "Yeah. Do you not want to?" "No, I'll tell you, but I was just surprised you wanted to know. It's a really short story actually." "Okay."
"Well, I was bored on my birthday as usual, so I left the house and saw a figure stumbling through the poppies." "Ty." "Yeah, so, I noticed three black somethings hanging off his frame, and it sparked the interest like, 'what is that', so I teleported around and when he stopped under a tree, I realized they were wings and a tail I had seen." "Was he okay?" "He had a cut down his face from the dragon which was bleeding, and he was very disoriented from the light of the sun."
"Why?" "Because the End is a very dark and gloomy place. No sun or bright colors." "Sounds boring." "I know right? So anyway, I helped him. Got the cut cleaned and bandaged, and I gave him a place to rest- my room. He slept for a few hours when the damn maid- excuse my French- unlocked my room and find Ty."
"Then what?" "I got Ty thrown in a cell because the maid had the key to my room. It wasn't on purpose. I locked my door for a reason, and she's just an airhead in the first place. That's really it. That's initially how I met Ty." "You got him locked up?" "Pretty much."
"Wow. Some meeting it must've been." "He's still not completely over it. Still a bit sore."
"I can tell why. Jeez." "Well, how'd you meet Rob?" "I was an orphan at that point already, and I'd been wandering the city limits when he passed in the carriage thing, and had them stop so he could come over to me. He was so kind to me, and he even let me go with him when the driver insisted he leave." "How'd the King and Queen respond?" "The King wasn't too happy... tried to kill me." "What?!" "Yeah." "What'd he do?" Preston's told and pulled his shirt up to reveal a long scar across his ribcage. "Oh my-"
"Yeah I know. Hurt like crap." "And the Queen?" "Didn't care. She was too busy yelling at people to notice me, or care." "The staff?" "They liked having me around to lift their spirits twice as much as when they only had Rob. I kept cracking new jokes and in exchange the head server helped Rob adapt my speech to the one I use today." "You spoke differently?" "Yeah. Rob called it 1500s formal." "Nice.
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-A/N-
Bear with me guys. I'm losing motivation and ideas. If you have an idea, DM me, and I'll see what I can do. Sorry updates are slow. These chapters are kinda long.

Until the next!

Love you guys!
                           ~Percabeth1Jackson