Chapter Text
This isn't normally a scenario that would cause a silence, yet there were no small whispers among the crowd. No quiet teasing between groups of siblings and friends alike. There were barely any sounds of movement, save for the occasional shifting of wings coming from various places in the crowd, and mumbling amongst the princes who were sitting in the front. Somehow, the three princes both managed to look the exact opposite of one another and seem like they clearly work together.
The End prince sat on the far left; his hair pulled back into a basic braid. There were small strands of hair that had fallen out of it, yet there were other sections that the prince had pulled out to cover his right eye. His crown was resting in his hands, rather than his head. He was looking down at the crown, far more content to see the one purple aura than the thousands of various ones in the room. In his crown’s place was a flower crown made from dried roses that practically got lost in his long black hair. He had his star cape draped over his wings and a black suit with purple accents on, a teal earring in one ear and a red one in the other.
The Nether prince -who visually looked the youngest- was sitting beside the End prince, dressed in the most casual attire out of all of them. They had a basic gray button-up dress shirt on that reached their knees, red socks pulled up to his knees, and a corset that they put on simply because they saw it lying unused in his cousin’s closet. They also had multiple golden chains around their neck that had belonged to his parents, a red and gold crown resting crookedly on their pink-dyed hair and an earring with a 4-pointed star dangling from their left ear.
The final prince- The prince of the Overworld- was sitting with their hand covering the left side of their face, their set of yellow and purple eyes scanning the crowd. Their hair was combed back to be out of their face, though it was slightly out of place after they took their goggles off. They’re dressed in a black dress shirt and split-dyed vest, the right side being purple and the left side being yellow.
“I’m scared,” Athena whispered to his cousins.
“You don’t have to be here,” Sherbert assured them. “If you wish to leave, that’s perfectly fine.”
“No, I don’t want to leave... it’s just a lot of people.”
“I know but we’re right here. Right Rae?” He was startled out of his thoughts, looking up and getting slightly overwhelmed by the flash of auras.
“Y-Yeah, we’re here, Athena,” he confirmed. Even though it felt as if they all had been sitting here for hours, the doors had been shut barely three minutes ago.
“Let’s get this going then, shall we?” Sherbert pushed. Rae nodded before looking over at the crowd.
His vision took a moment to calm down from the blur of green and purple and blue and red auras. His ears were buzzing with panic from the auras themselves, but other than that the room was silent.
“It’ll be okay, auras,” Rae whispered. They quieted down but didn’t silence. They never did. He let out a breath and looked at his two cousins, who nodded, and cleared his throat.Thousands of heads turned to look at the End prince, stern looks of confusion from the people who were clueless, firm looks of anger from those who knew what was going on. “People of the Realms,” Rae announced, sitting on the edge of his chair. “I can see that many of you do not know the reason for being called here, and I can see the confusion you have due to not seeing your normal court rulers sitting here in front of you.” Whispers spread through the crowd from that. The whispers grew louder and louder. “But-” The prince tried to add but got drowned out from the talking of the crowd.
“I recommend you listen to what he has to say,” Athena spoke loudly yet firmly to the crowd. There was a distant sound of glass shattering. “This affects you all, so pay attention.” The people quieted down, their glances shifting between prince Rae and prince Athena. The Nether prince nodded in the direction of the End prince, and all eyes settled on Rae.
“Thank you,” Rae added. “Now, I do not have my mother’s silver tongue, but many of you have already seen the effects of...” His voice trailed off, looking at his cousins for reassurance.
“Our parents have gotten into conflict with each other as of recently,” Sherbert spoke up bluntly. “They’ve been able to keep it amongst themselves so far, but they have been on-edge and continue to get more and more beings involved. We have been given the responsibility of overseeing the realms as they are too caught up to do so.”
“The Nether is under watch by me,” Athena added, trying to ignore the conversations that broke out in the crowd. “The End is under watch by prince Rae, and the Overworld is under the watch of prince Sherbert. These positions have been assigned by King Fable, Netherum, and Enderian. Their decisions are final, so treat us as you’d treat them.”
“Where’s Alerion?” Someone in the crowd called.
“Alerion is still in charge of the Aether, and it is expected that he will stay there,” Rae answered.
“Their children will tear apart these realms.”
“They will be no different than their parents.”
“They expect us to hold them at the same rank as their parents? That just shows how childish they still are.”
The conversations went on, and the princes heard every word.
“That is enough,” Athena partially yelled. “You call us childish and then react like this. That’s childish.” The kingdom hadn’t gotten used to the Nether prince raising his voice, and their cousins barely had seen it happen.
The Temple had been drained of people, leaving only the princes and a few guards inside.
“It could have gone worse,” Sherbert spoke up, cleaning the blood from their eye from their hand.
“If our parents keep arguing at the same rate they are now, it will be worse,” Rae commented.
“It won’t go that far, Rae,” Sherbert tried to assure him.
“It could. We only know things that we’ve been able to overhear. Who knows what they are keeping more secretive.”
“What makes you think it can get worse?”
“When's the last time you heard from your father, Sherb?” They fell silent.
“T-That- no that has nothing to do with what’s going on. Fable is fine, I know it.” Sherbert stood up from their throne, pulling the circlet off their head and replacing it with their goggles. “It will be fine, I’m sure of it,” they mumbled, though they were unsure if they believed it. Sherbert turned and quickly walked off, heading back in the direction of their father’s castle.
Rae let out a quiet sigh before turning to Athena.
“Go check on them, please,” he mumbled.
“I will. Don’t be out for too long, okay?” Rae nodded and Athena ran after their other cousin.
He wasn’t sure if he’d actually hold up to that.