"I TOLD YOU!!..."

"But papa! I can't..."

"...YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN REGIS CITY! NOT HERE! HOW DID YOU GET HERE!?"

"Draxon sent me!"

"OH HE DID!? WELL! HE CAN SEND YOU RIGHT BACK!"

"But..."

"NOW!"

"Woah! Hey!"

"SHUT UP VULCAN!"

"I...right!"

"PACK YOUR SHIT RIGHT NOW AND GO HOME!"

"No!"

"WHAT!?"

"NO!"

"YOU LITTLE..."

"Hey now just cool it!" said Vulcan, "Uncle Maxy stop shouting! They can hear you in Lucia! Listen! Javelin has as much right to come to the funeral as anyone else!"

"THIS IS NOT ABOUT RIGHTS THIS IS ABOUT DUTIES!"

"UNCLE MAX WILL YOU SHUT UP!"

"VULCAN!" Lachlan bellowed, "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO YOUR UNCLE LIKE THAT!"

"But Javelin only wants to come to the funeral! It's ONE DAY! And he's never gonna see grandpa again! It's important to him! He...He wants...closets!"

"You mean 'closure', darling", said Princess Lucinda.

"Oh...yeah...Thanks momma", said Vulcan. "Yeah! Come on, Uncle Max! Don't be so angry with him!"

Max let out a slow sigh.

"Oh very well!" he grunted. "BUT TWENTY FOUR HOURS ONLY! You will stay for dinner, the funeral tomorrow, the wake, and then you will go STRAIGHT BACK HOME! I DON'T CARE HOW! IF I HAVE TO THROW YOU FROM HERE TO REGIS CITY MYSELF! I'LL DO IT!"

Javelin nodded so fast he felt his head would snap off his shoulders!

"There there..." said Melisende, hugging her stepson.
"I...I just felt so helpless when grandpa died, is all..." Javelin whimpered.
"Hey, I felt Helpless once, but then she woke up..."

"VULCAN!" everyone shouted.

"Oh come on, it was a joke...Her name was actually Malinda..."

Vulcan laughed when he saw the looks of pure shock on everyone's faces.

"Relax! You know I wouldn't do nothin' that would destroy a maid's honour! Or mine!"

"I'm not sure that you have any honour left to destroy..." Lachlan grumbled. "If your mother and I believed half of your stories, we'd come to understand that no less than three quarters of the servant-girls within the palace have been...courted...by you".

"Oh come on! You guys are more gullible than that time I told Darius that you could grow a spaghetti tree if you planted a meatball in a pot full of tomato sauce!"

"I don't remember that!" said Titan.

"He was only three at the time".

"Oh..."