Butterfly Reign

5. It's Crazy What We've Been Through, But Now You're Solo

After the night of his and Tubbo’s argument, sleep doesn’t come to Tommy easily. He wakes up as exhausted as he was the day prior, and not his best friend’s cheerful greeting but to one of his attendants eerily knocking on the door. Upon his irritated ‘ come in ,’ the crown-prince gets informed that Tubbo has left to give Ranboo a full tour around the Imperial palace.

That’s when Tommy starts to second-guess yesterday's decision. He remembers how Tubbo whirled around and scuttled out of his chambers, that terrible hurt look on his face. Tommy feels like the words he said then have returned back into his mouth and rotted on his tongue.

Maybe there was a different way to go about this, not requiring him to be as firm, maybe he should’ve been more considerate of Tubbo’s feelings, maybe he really needs to leave Ranboo alone and ignore his existence altogether – it’s an endless sequence of ‘maybe’s and ‘perhaps’’ that’s not going to change anything, so Tommy swallows down the bitter taste of regret and goes on with his day.

Troubling thoughts don't truly leave Tommy's mind until later that day, when a secretary comes to his chambers with a pile of papers.

“His Majesty has put you in charge of the trading discussions between the Antarctic empire and Badlands,” she says, “You’ll need to look over these documents immediately, and I’ll also have someone deliver account books and reports for the past few years.”

By the time the secretary finishes speaking, Tommy's heart hammers against his chest, his fingers curling and uncurling around the fabric of his shirt. Only when he dismisses her, and the door clicks shut, does he allow his excitement to show.

Badlands adjoins the Antarctic empire’s southern borders, stretching for over two thousand miles. For the longest time, it used to be considered a backward country, up until the last century, when vast deposits of gold were discovered under deserted hills. Badlands has been blooming since then. It may not possess the same level of threat over the Empire as the kingdom of Esempi does, but it makes for a valuable trading partner.

Ever since Grand Duke Samuel came to ruling and took it as his goal to expand cities in Badlands, the demand for stone, wood and other building materials had been growing particularly rapidly. The topic of increasing exports is one of many that are planned to be discussed with the Grand Duke after he visits the Empire’s Solstice celebrations – to say that these trading discussions are important would be a catastrophic understatement.

Never has Tommy been tasked with something as important before. He hasn’t expected this trust on the Emperor’s behalf, especially with how tense their relationship has been as of lately.

“Perhaps it’s Father’s way to apologize for being too harsh with me,” Tommy mumbles. Calling the Emperor ‘Father’, like Wilbur does, feels wrong – he’d clasp a hand over his own mouth, but the secretary was long gone by now and there was nobody to call him out on his slip.

***

That evening, from a mirror standing on the opposite wall, Tommy gets a quick look at himself. Bags under his eyes are almost unnoticeable from the glint of determination in them. With how fast he jumps up to grab one paper or another, his sleeves splattered with ink, it might seem like he had gone crazy.

Well, only to a person who has never seen someone truly engulfed by what they are good at, who never has heard the soft thrums of Wilbur’s guitar, or never quivered watching a lightning-fast swipe of Techno’s sword. An instrument is an extension of a musician, a weapon – of a warrior. A ruler rarely gets separated with a quill, and not with a scepter as one may think, and Tommy speaks of that from experience. With one sign on a piece of paper, wars can be started, an heir of the throne might be chosen, or a noble might be executed for treason.