A Dragon's Treasure

Chapter 23 - The Scientist

Erni walked towards the room they had been asked to go to, not happy that their morning routine had been interrupted. It had been awhile since they had been asked to verify if someone was under the influence of any magic. The idea of a magical scare faded fairly quickly after the death of the dragons, but the recent removal of the country curse had brought up more questions about magic. Most of the thoughts were quelled with the propaganda that science was what had broken the curse, a potion made by only the strongest scientists. Erni had to roll their eyes at that. Nothing that scientists could make could even touch the power of a dragon, especially not the dragon spirit of vengeance that had to have cast the curse across their country. Erni with people would understand that. They also wished that people would understand that there was room for both. Magic could coexist simultaneously, they were two sides of the same coin, but no one wanted to discuss that. Erni fought for change where they could, but when you worked as the queen's royal scientist, it was hard. Not to mention that protecting their own skin was also very important to them.

The queen was getting harder and harder to handle as her paranoia grew. There had been a few more magical investigations in the past few weeks. The queen would request a scientist to discover if a person had been affected by magic, hoping to catch someone that was out to get her. Erni had made themself indispensable with how quickly they could get the work done. For most scientists it was a subject of trial and error, figuring out what would work and what wouldn't, but Erni worked smarter not harder. Sliding their glasses on their face, they walked into the room and almost immediately paused. Their glasses, an old relic they had found in their days on the street, allowed them to see through any illusion or mental curse magic. Yes, the glasses themselves were magic, but no one had to know, especially not when it gave Erni a leg up on things. Rather than spending hours on a discovery, the could take a single look at a person and see if any magic had a hold of them.

It was a lovely tool they were thankful to have.

However, as they looked around the room, they immediately wished they could have remained oblivious. Prince Roman was standing in the room with Logan the royal advisor, and most problematically, a man who looked the same age as Prince Roman, looked the same as Prince Roman, this was a twin, and that was a huge problem.

"Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention Jerrick, I will take care of things from here." As Erni attempted to figure out what the fuck was going on, they pretended to set up their supplies.

The guard nodded, turning leaving, and closing the door.

"This process only needs to be completed on the advisor right?" Roman asked, trying to act strong, but Erni rolled their eyes. "I know how long this process takes."

"Don't try to act strong, this might be insubordination but I am far too frightened to care. Explain."

All three men looked at each other confused and Erni started to pace a little bit. "Prince Roman, Twin of Prince Roman, and the advisor, all three of which have a branding mark on your wrist, what in the hell is going on? Did you join a cult?" They asked, looking at Roman, "Did they clone you? Because we in the castle aren't dumb, we know that the current "Prince Roman" is just a commoner puppet that your mother has installed to save face for the fact that you disappeared. I don't think you are a clone though, otherwise it would be a different color. This looks far too powerful for a normal mage to have cast it, which meant you got into something powerful. So I repeat, Explain."

They watched as Prince Roman straightened up, and Erni was pretty sure they were about to be yelled at. They watched as Prince Roman took in a deep breath, pushing his hands down towards the earth a little bit. They watches as Prince Roman opened his eyes and looked at them the way a king should.

"It is a very long story," Roman started, "But this is my twin, Remus, and he has been nothing but a blessing in my life since I found him. I feel that is the most information I can give you in this strange situation."

Alright, so that was new, and that was breaking a lot of different cultural rules and regulations. Twins were dangerous, everyone knew that, but here the Prince was saying that he was happy to have his twin by his side, but even more importantly the fact that the queen had given birth to twins and hid it. They began to pace back and forth, rubbing the back of their neck. Technically, the birth of twins had brought misfortune on the country, or at least it would be easy to spin it that way. The curse hadn't started getting bad until the Prince turned 12, which was a completely arbitrary number but people would say that it meant something specific. It couldn't possibly be that something that powerful had delayed magic? However, it could also be a blessing to the country if they became aware of what actually broke the curse (or they lied and said it was magic even if it wasn't.

The prince had returned, that was a really good thing because he had shown the capacity to be a good leader, but the prince had returned with a twin and completely covered in a powerful magic.

Roman seemed to be taken aback by their observations. "How could you tell with just one look?"

Lying to the prince was a stupid idea, but they weren't going to put themself in more danger than necessary. "You aren't the only one with secrets my prince, and my secrets keep me employed."

He paused, thinking about their words and it was only after he whispered, "Fair enough," that they relaxed and noticed the slight smirk in the prince's lips. It was weirdly flattering to have caught the Prince's attention.

"Alright, how are we going to handle this?" They asked, "Because your mom is probably looking for a reason to kick all of you out, so if I say you are fine, then she is going to have me hung for treason after getting another scientist to lie."

Logan cleared his throat. "Maybe I can help with that. Tell her that you think something is wrong, but you aren't sure what and you would like a second opinion. I can push for the fact that I am being treated unfairly and ask for a scientist I have worked with before. You and I have worked closely together before but I have also made sure to keep my options open."

Okay, they were liking this so far, this could work.

"Then, when that person has come in, we can attempt to explain the situation to them. We will make a story up regarding the binding marks, which I will fully explain to you and only you. Then, once we have gotten the other scientist on our side, we will bring the evidence to the queen. We are working on a time limit but I think we should have plenty of time to work through this."

Erni nodded. "Okay, that sounds like a decent enough plan, but I need to know about those binding marks before I jump fully on board."

"And why is that?" Roman cut in, eyes skeptical and guarded. That was good, skeptical was a wonderful place to be."

"Because, there's a lot that can come with those marks, different protections and spells, there are even some that could make you think you are okay when you aren't." They gave their full attention to Roman, "And it is my job to help protect this kingdom in whatever way I can, even if it is small."

Roman looked surprised, but wasn't that normal, the strong desire to protect and serve the people that you cared about. Sure there were assholes in this country, there were in any country, but protecting people's basic rights, including the right not to be hunted by a crazed queen, was the bare minimum they could do.

"I'll tell the story," Roman said with a nod, but the twin put a hand on him and pushed him back.

"Let me do it! It's been so long since I've gotten to talk to other humans. This will be good practice."

Prince Roman snorted like something about that sentence was funny. Erni didn't get it, but sat down and listened anyway. It was fascinating being able to listen to a twin who had actually grown up and gotten the chance to live their life.