"Tobias, you shouldn’t continue to poke at him. You’re already on thin ice," Rafael warned Tobias.
"Why?" Tobias asked, puzzled. "I haven’t troubled him."
"You haven’t stopped talking since we came here," Rafael repeated what Edgar said. "Your mouth is like a river. How do you not get tired?" Rafael wondered.
"I’m the king. My position entails that I must speak a lot-"
"You have been talkative since we were children," Edgar interjected.
Edgar sat up and faced Tobias. "I am certain that you cannot sit still and not speak for an hour. Do you want to test it?"
"No, because I have plenty to say," Tobias replied.
"Of course you do," Edgar muttered.
Edgar made himself comfortable again and closed his eyes as he waited for time to pass.
"You’re all a bore," Tobias said, disappointed with the men in the room. "You’ve got families, and now, when they aren’t around, you sleep or you don’t know what to do with yourselves. Are we old now?"
"A little bit more and I will dangle him out of the window. Rafael, if you don’t want to see your king fall out the window, then I suggest you do something about him. Now," Edgar urged Rafael.
Tobias sat down. "You’re the most boring person here, Edgar. It used to be exciting to bother you."
Rafael smiled, amused. "Are you finally giving up on teasing him?"
"No," Tobias replied, shaking his head. "Edgar doesn’t like to admit it, but I know he enjoys it when I tease him."
Edgar opened his eyes once more and turned his head slightly to look at Tobias. "I do, so why don’t you come over here so I can give you a hug?"
"I like to tease you, but I am not a fool. Your hug would be you trying to squeeze the life out of me or dangle me out the window. I’ve already been pushed from a high place by you, I don’t want it to happen again," said Tobais.
Tobias gave up wanting to have fun. Perhaps it was good that Hazel was the only one having fun, given her stress about Teo’s preparations to be king and Tabitha’s troubles with Penelope.
"I have some unfortunate news to share. My mother isn’t going out of town without a fight. She is not making this easy for me," Tobias said, his mood dampening.
"She’s an old woman. Send a few guards to lift her out of town. I don’t want it to come to me going after your mother, but if she troubles Penelope or speaks of Alessandra, I will visit her. If you cannot get her out of Lockwood, I will do it," said Edgar.
Edgar didn’t care how Tabitha would feel about him sending her out of Lockwood.
"No, I have to do it. She’s putting me in an awful position, and if she keeps this up, Hazel might be the one to try to kill her. After what she did with Hazel, I was hoping she would change for the better," Tobias said.
"Nothing is going to change your mother. Not when she has been for so many years. If you don’t want to see her die, then use force to get her out of town. If you don’t deal with her, someone else will. You won’t like it if it’s me," Edgar warned Tobias.
Edgar didn’t have time to waste on Tabitha, so rather than take the sweet, gentle approach Tobias was doing, he would use force to get her out of the way.
Edgar understood the struggles Tobias faced. Their family dynamics were different, with Tobias once being close to his parents, so it was harder for Tobias to cut off his mother, unlike Edgar, who was raised differently.
While Edgar felt sorry for Tobias, he couldn’t allow Tabitha to poke at his family. Anyone could vanish from this town or die when it came to his family.
"I need a drink," Tobias said, wanting to pass out so he wouldn’t have to think of his troubles.
Meanwhile, in the palace, Mark entered the court to check records.
It had been a hard task to find out about the man Tyrion spoke about, and Mark found this to be puzzling.
There should be a record of everyone residing in Lockwood. The court should have been active in doing an inspection of who was present in town now. It was a lengthy task which involved the help of the town guards, but it was worth it.
Now that someone was going around the town killing random people, the court should be able to tell which home belonged to whom and who resided there.
"These records are a mess," said Declan, a man who worked for Mark. "They’ve put records from different years together. It will be hard to find what you are searching for."
"I am starting to get the feeling that we won’t find anything about Cassius or his brother. Check the records for the dead if you can find them," said Mark.
Mark looked around the large room filled with papers.
Many of the papers were old, so it was hard to tell what was written on them as the ink faded or the papers were spoiled and smelled old. No one had rewritten what was on old records before they spoiled. It was going to take weeks to get this room back in good order.
Zachary, another man who worked for Mark, said, "We shouldn’t have left the court. I don’t like what became of it."
The other men were too busy worrying about what the king would do to them, so they weren’t keeping up with their work. Now it was up to Mark, Declan, and Zachery to put the court back in good order.
"You will be paid handsomely for all the work you are doing now, and then I will convince the king to let you have a break so you can be with your families," Mark promised.
Zachary looked at Mark and asked, "What families? We’re all married to this work. You don’t have time for family when you work in the court. I’m starting to regret it since this work isn’t pretty. Is it too late for me to get married?"
"It is only late if you wouldn’t be unable to please a woman. There are a few women your age who are widows. Go search for love," Mark encouraged Zachary.
Zachary didn’t like the offer. "I’ll stick to being alone. I fear my wife would hate the time I must be in court."
"Look at you," Solomon said as he entered the room. "Speaking so happily amongst yourselves as the court falls. You should be ashamed of yourselves."