The Trickster's Test {Prinxiety}

Chapter 14

Third Person

"No matter how careful I am, this is going to hurt," Virgil warned, unraveling the scarf in its entirety. What would normally serve as a poor defense against the cold would have to be the closest thing Roman would get to genuine medical help.

"Not that I doubt your methods doc, but could you roll up my sleeve first?" Roman requested earnestly, not looking too excited at the prospect of so much as lifting his right arm.

"You realize that would include more contact, more pain, and more damage to your arm, right?" He nodded, "You realize those are all bad things, right?"

"Calm down, Worry William, and trust that I at least think some things through, including this," He assures him. Virgil rolled his eyes at Roman's carelessness, only partially glad that the pain hadn't affected him too harshly. He started rolling up the other's sleeve as gently as he could manage, keeping his eyes down to avoid seeing Roman wince. He soon stopped though, when a small dagger dropped to the ground, "Tada."

"When did that get there and who gave you the idea?" Not to say that he wasn't a perfectly competent person, but Virgil sincerely doubted that Roman had the forethought to have a weapon hidden on him before going to rescue him.

"'Wow Roman, this could help us out so much. Good thinking!'" He verbally patted himself on the back, with what the prince guessed was his best Virgil impression, "Why thank you, Virgil, but it is my responsibility to be prepared for all situations, so there's no need to thank me."

Without warning, Virgil began wrapping Roman's arm with the scarf, prompting the taller to stifle a yelp by biting down on his scabbard. He did feel a little bad, but it was going to hurt no matter what he did and Roman at least kind of deserved it at the moment. He worked quickly, noting that if he got the chance he'd have to rewrap it with some sort of support on either side of Roman's arm to help it heal right. They didn't have anything around to make a working splint though, so he would have to hope that this would be enough. Roman didn't strike him as the type that would be willing to have their arm rebroken by a healer, at least not without plenty of bribes and reminders that he couldn't properly use that hand unless he did so.

"So, what's your plan to get us out of here?" Roman asked as soon as he was able to see without black dots obscuring his vision.

"My plan?" Virgil didn't remember being chosen to come up with one, but with how little help he'd get from Roman aside from a positive attitude, he probably should have seen it coming.

"Yeah," He carefully rested his arm on his stomach, "You already managed to escape captivity in a manor, surely you have a back-up plan or ten that could be repurposed to our current situation."

Loud rattling accompanied barked orders, which Virgil could only assume they were raising the anchor. That's not good. Even if they managed to escape the boat, it wouldn't matter much if they didn't have anywhere to escape to, "I only escaped because Alexia pointed out an unguarded exit to me. And, unless you're a really strong swimmer, there's not much we can do to get away unless we leave now."

"Then let's leave now," Roman suggested optimistically, as if it were actually that simple. Well, to him it might be.

"How do you plan on doing that exactly? Chances are, most of them are still on the deck, adjusting sails and raising the walkway. No offense, but I don't think we could exactly fight our way through them even if you had two working arms," He had basically given up hope on escaping, knowing they realistically couldn't make much progress tonight. Or any other night, but he'd keep that thought to himself.

Roman frowned, already suspecting he'd be the one contributing more ideas, "What if we took control of the boat then?"

"No," Virgil didn't hesitate to shoot the idea down.

"You didn't even consider it!" Roman argued, and correct or not, he didn't care, "Think, pirates are either total traitors or bonded by blood. If you know which it is in this case, we could use that to take control of the entire ship, by staging a mutiny or challenging Clemons for his title."

"Pirates don't accept new leaders easily, and if Clemons's crew wanted to get rid of him, they would have done so already. So, while this may come as a surprise to you, that idea is total crap. Now, we're both tired and being sleep deprived isn't going to help. You can come up with more ideas in the morning, so go to sleep, it'll help you heal or some other explanation to get you to listen," Virgil reasons.

"And what's your brilliant plan to get some decent rest? I can't imagine that even your standards are low enough to find the wooden floor comfortable."

"I can manage, meanwhile you look ready to pass out even without my suggestion," It wouldn't be the first time he'd slept on hardwood, having used the cold surface of his own floor to ground himself several times, so he should be relatively used to it by now, "And don't bother fighting me on this, I can always knock you out forcefully," In truth, he mostly just didn't want Roman to be awake when he begun his own plan. He probably wouldn't approve of it, and Virgil could understand why.

Requesting an audience with a pirate captain wouldn't often be called a good idea, especially when you have no bargaining chip to coax such an audience into existence. Plenty of things could go wrong and he'd actually be left with no plan. They could deny his request, wake up Roman which would most certainly result in the guard getting himself hurt worse, or

Clemons could decide that it wasn't worth waiting however long to kill him.

It would be an even worse idea to go into such a conversation without so much as an idea as to how he could get his plan to work. He already had his goal in mind, but figuring out how to achieve it was where he struggled.

There wasn't much he could use to bribe Captain Clemons with, seeing as the man was already more than capable of taking anything he wanted from Virgil, so that limited his options greatly. He didn't think it was worth giving up family secrets and the safety of Ouranious just to save Roman and possibly himself. Pirates don't typically like to stay on land, so they wouldn't be interested in ruling, or being given a plot of land to make an independent town of their own.

Honestly, it might just be better to skip negotiations altogether and simply hope Roman went along with the plan when the time comes. He'd still have to rely on a few key factors, being able to leave their makeshift cell while alive as the main one, Roman's swimming ability another, but it was a fairly reliable back-up if Clemons didn't agree to his proposition.

Escape can wait a few hours, Virgil reasoned, suspecting that Captain Clemons would be more likely to agree after some rest anyway.

In truth, he was exhausted after the past couple days, and couldn't imagine that passing the Trickster's Test and being respected by other royals would be much harder than this. Of course, he wouldn't be able to find out unless he managed to make it back to dry land without having any of his vital organs damaged.

Don't screw this up, don't screw this up, don't screw this up.

A/N: When the tides of my motivational sea are low, and I have absolutely no time to work on this book, I can always count on my mind to give me a completely new book idea to further p!ss me off