Choosing Love

Chapter Five

Ben leaned back in his chair, staring at the pages in front of him in shock. This...this just couldn't be right.

It'd taken him three whole weeks but he had finally gotten through the records of the past twenty years. He hadn't wanted to take so long but between classes, homework, and meetings...well he did need to eat and sleep after all. There were only so many hours in the day.

He had even brought some of the records to bed with him, just to have a chance to make more progress on getting the records examined. Part of him was thankful at least that he was king...at least that way he wouldn't have to ask for permission to access the full manifests and shipping records. He could just access them, no questions asked.

Ben ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the last page in his hand. With the exception of the first six months of the Isle's creation, every month had seen a delay in the food they'd been sending to the Isle.

At first the delays had been small...almost imperceptible. They had been as small as a day or at most a week....and then four years into the Isle's creation, they seemed to pick up. The delays he meant, not the deliveries.

Gods how did Auradon not notice this? Ben thought. Dad...dad was king all that time! Did he honestly not know? But how could he not know? Wasn't he getting reports from the Isle? Weren't we sending people over there?

"Benji?"

Ben looked up to see Chip standing in the doorway of his office, holding what looked like two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

"What's that for?" Ben asked, clearing a spot on his desk for Chip to put the mugs down. "Not that I'm not appreciative for it Chip, but it's like sixty five degrees outside. Not exactly hot chocolate weather."

"Which is why it's cold chocolate," Chip chuckled, handing Ben his mug. "Just chocolate milk but with cinnamon and whipped cream. Your shadows called me, said that you were hibernating in your office again and they didn't know why. So I thought I'd stop by for a nice brotherly talk before they involved Mal."

Ben sighed and took a sip of his cold chocolate before he spoke again. Chip didn't need to know that Mal had already dragged him out of his office three times these past three weeks for lunch and dinner. "Chip, can...if I tell you something, brother to brother, do you promise not to freak out?"

"You know me Benji," Chip said. "I make no promises."

"Fair enough," Ben sighed again. "The day before Family Day...Mal took me to the Isle."

Chip paused. "I'm sorry, you must have started speaking German there for a second. I thought you just said that you'd gone to the Isle."

"I did."

"You? Son of Adam, the guy who created the Isle in the first place?"

"I believe we covered that with your first statement."

"And you didn't tell anyone?"

"I told—"

"Okay, let me rephrase. You didn't tell anyone who wasn't already going to the Isle with you?"

"...no?"

Chip sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ben, why would you do something like that?"

"Chip, the Isle's part of Auradon too," Ben said. "How can I be king and rule all the peoples if I don't even know how about half our population lives? I mean just look at the registry—the written one, not the digital. Gods, it's amazing how out of date that one is. I'm having Carlos and Doug update it."