Prince Torex’s expression sharpened. “I think what you’re upset about is that you think that I’m circumventingyou.”
“I beg your pardon?” Pel snapped.
“This is something that you do, and you don’t want anyone else doing it.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Pel protested feebly.
“It’s not a competition,” Prince Torex pursued.
Pel swallowed, throat thick. “Of course it’s a competition.”
A furrow marred Torex’s brow. “Why?”
Pel huffed a breath. “Because some of us need to do twice as much work for half the recognition. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
Prince Torex’s expression cleared. “Surely it doesn’t always work like that.”
Pel felt his jaw tighten. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”
Prince Torex still looked unruffled. “Fair enough. Just keep in mind that I would be happy to visit people at the same time as you, if you wanted.Idon’t consider it to be a competition. But if you prefer to consider that the entire world is against you all the time, then I’m not going to stop you.”
And with that, the man sauntered away.
Pel was left feeling dismissed, undervalued, and… a little bit chastised?
He pressed his lips together and told himself his eyes were definitely not stinging. Hadn’t he just been imagining that of course everyone would rather talk to Prince Torex than him and everything he’d labored for would be gone in an instant?
Only… it seemed that Prince Torex had been doing this for days, and it wasn’t as though Pel wasn’t still getting plenty of comments, complaints, and even occasional praise.
Could what they were doing really have equal value? Pel blew out a breath. But how could you not have more value if you were able to speak to the High King directly? On the other hand, how quickly could any of those changes be effected? Pel could, and often did, make small changes that his people assured him made a difference.
He couldn’t effect any sweeping changes because that would take the approval of his father, and the King seemed to be firmly of the opinion that what had worked for all these years would continue to work. Period.
Pel didn’t actually want his father to be overruled, precisely—that would only cause grief, he knew that—but if there were a few changes that could be mandated in such an overarching, realms-wide way that they didn’t seem to be targeting anyone…?
That was a possibility that had never occurred to Pel because they were inTond.
Only the High Prince of the United Realms was in Tond, too, and against all expectation, he seemed to be actually listening to the people.
If it was a ploy, Pel had to admit that it was an alluring one. Andcouldit be a ploy, if you were actually doing what you said? When Pel checked in with everyone, he found that there was no hint of impropriety—that had been his other worry, that the man was actually just out looking for conquests—and Torex had simply listened to their concerns, proposed solutions if he had any, and taken note of broader issues.
He was polite but honest if he thought the problem didn’t belong at the High Court, and he clearly laid out that issues would have to be dealt with systematically, and once the entirety of the United Realms was involved, things might not move quickly—or at all, in some cases.
“He said that the United Realms as a whole was quite complicated,” one of the village women confided to Pel. “I can’t imagine having to look after Tond, never mind all the realms! But it was nice to be able to talk about it just the same.”
That was exactly why Pel did what he did, checking in with everyone and trying to come up with solutions where he could. Sometimes, just the act of being heard helped.
With a little twinge of discomfort, he conceded that Prince Torex had been at least a little right when he’d claimed that Pel was upset about the overlap with his own role. Now that he knew they could both do it, he couldn’t decide if he was annoyed or not.
How could he rationally be upset that they weren’t in conflict? How could he want anything except what was best for his people? Even if Prince Torex never followed through, he’d warned them there might not be changes so they wouldn’t get their hopes up. He’d made them feel important and heard, not just here in Tond, but now in the United Realms more widely.
Just like how Pel tried to help and never imply that his father didn’t care about them.
It was rather disconcerting to find that he had something in common with the High Prince. He was used to thinking of them as complete opposites. It had been simpler when he could just hate him.
And he had a terrible feeling that he’d been blaming Torex for not noticing him at the same time that he tried to go unnoticed. Maybe he’d had a point at first, but Torex was actively trying to spend time with him now, and it was Pel who was refusing.
Did he really want to be that petty?
