Darien paced around his room, still furious from the events at the wedding. King Aedan's obvious influence over Elena sickened him to no end. That bastard should not be on the throne, he should be in a wooden box. Darien had to stop and breath at this last thought. For even thinking that could wind him up on the gallows.

Thankfully, his mother had spent a majority of her time speaking to Elena asking her if she had had any inquiries about marriage with her. Elena tried to play coy, but Darien paid little attention to the conversation. Even Albert had noticed the tension and had commented on it during the long journey back to Lawley Fief.

"My lord, are you sure you don't want to eat something?" Albert had implored to his master, but Darien simply waved him away from him.

"This is why love is such audacity. One moment it has a man floating on the highest star the next plummeting to the bottom of the deepest ocean. You can't allow yourself to be in such despair, my lord," Albert said as he began to put the little food that he had brought out for Darien back in a pack. Elena and her mother were still speaking about Elena's first time at court as a woman back at the carriage. Darien had wandered off a short distance away, waiting for the probability that he would have to be questioned by his mother.

Albert, at one point, had gone over to Elena and her mother in an effort to give Elena a chance to get away from the troublesome discussions that her mother was undoubtedly putting her through.

OOC: If you want to add on to the little flashback, by all means.

Darien poured a glass of his father's brandy and downed it in one gulp. When he heard the door open, he suspected it was his mother coming to finally question his behavior after the wedding. With that thought, he poured another glass of brandy and downed it.

It wasn't Katherine after all, but rather little Elena. She stood stock-still in the doorway for a moment, and then rushed forward without a word and took her brother in her arms. Lady Lawley didn't have the faintest hope that her embrace would help soften him towards her, but she did feel genuine pity for him. The girl gave him a childish kiss on the cheek, and then remembered herself and stepped back to stare at her toes. Perhaps if she had been ten years older she would have been bitter and jaded enough to ignore his plight, or to worry more about her own fate with her brother so upset...but Elena was only a very young fifteen, and she couldn't help worrying about her wayward Darien. She dipped him a brief curtsy, then took another step back. "...Forgive me, my lord."

It seemed ridiculous to be asking his forgiveness when he himself had lifted her in his arms and whirled her like a child, but on the other hand the change of mood in him was so alarming she felt that she ought to beg his forgiveness for even existing. He would not take kindly to her now. Still, it was worth a try...if only for the sake of giving Lawley a steady ruler. He certainly hadn't chosen one with brains enough to save it completely.

Elena set her jaw, and then lifted her chin to look him in the eyes. Her voice was soft. "...She is very beautiful, Lady Elayne. But I'm afraid she is also blind." And stupid, and romantic, and utterly hopeless... she added to herself. But it wouldn't do to say all that to Darien.

The girl steeled herself and moved forward again, gently prying the glass out of Darien's hand and instead taking it in her own as she looked into his face. "You know, they say these days that blindness can be cured-especially when there is no foundation for it. If my lord wishes I will assist him in any way I can."

Darien was relieved to see that it was not his mother. However, he was not sure if it was a blessing see his sister. When she ran into his arms and embraced him he was somewhat shocked. For one, she covered the distance quite quickly, and second, he could count on one hand how many times that they had embraced in such a way.

When Elena let go of the embrace, Darien looked into her eyes and fought the tears that seemed to be coming at a such a fierce speed he knew that a few drops made it down his cheeks. Darien turned away quickly when Elena began to speak of Elayne. The rage that seemed to boil up inside of him seemed almost more than he could bear. When his sister took the glass from him Darien grabbed the bottle of his father's brandy and threw it against the door to the study.

"Your assistance, sister. My baby sister wishes to help big brother with the problems that he has in his life? How am I to woo a woman who is so obviously smitten with the king? A man ordained by GOD who is completely and utterly beyond my reach, that is the man who woos the woman that I am in love with. HOW THE HELL AM I TO DEAL WITH THAT? AND HOW THE HELL ARE YOU TO ASSIST ME?" Darien screamed at his sister as he continued to find objects to throw around. Darien finally ran out of things to throw off the desk and his ambitions led him to throwing the whole bloody thing. Unfortunately, his ambition was cut short by his injury to his ribs and he collapsed in pain into the large chair behind the desk.

"I can not even feel rage because of what he has done to me!" Darien yelled further. His ribs burned with the injury and he was certain that he re-broke at least one of the ribs.

Elena jumped when Darien turned and hurled the bottle of liquor against the study door, flinching to hear it crash. But he didn't stop there, and as the attack grew more violent she trembled and clenched her fists at her side, willing herself to keep her emotions invisible to him. She wouldn't let him see how he had frightened her; she wouldn't let him know....but against her own will she was trembling, and the tears were sliding down her cheeks. Elena wished that her father was there, to hold and comfort and control his son, and to keep her safe from him. She hadn't missed him so badly in months, and the ache was threatening to devour her ability to stand.

I will not faint.

The mental order was stern, and she did not faint-but as Darien sank into a chair she could only stare at him, horror and disgust mixing in her eyes. Unknown to her a shard of glass had grazed her cheek and she was bleeding, but she did not even feel it through the intensity of her fright. He could have killed her.

Elena pulled herself together and looked at her brother as sternly as she could manage, her voice cold. "Very well. You refuse my help, and I am glad of it. A peasant woman would not deserve to be bound to your rages and cruelties, let alone a lady as high as Elayne. You choose your own misery, brother, and I wash my hands of you."

Darien looked at the stern frame of his sister. He suddenly realized something that Albert had been telling him for months now. She was a woman.

Darien eased himself slowly out of the chair and walked toward his sister. He did so slowly for two reasons. Primarily not to frighten her, but also because to move quickly would not do well for him right now. Darien looked at the small trail of blood on her cheek and took out a handkerchief to wipe it away from her face.

"I'm sorry..." Darien said it in almost a whisper. He looked around his father's study and shook his head. What had this woman done to him? What had he done to himself? Perhaps his father was right, maybe his sister would have made a better ruler than he ever could be. But that was not how fate planned it. That burden lie on his shoulders.

Darien looked into his sister's eyes and gazed into them for a moment. It was truly a wonder that after what those eyes had seen they could still appear to be innocent and full of wonderful curiosity.

"I should not have acted that way, especially to you. You are wanting to help me. Truth be told, you could do well without me, a lot better than I could do without you," Darien turned from his sister and faced the window. The very window that faced in the direction of Thiasa Keep. "I pray someday for a time when we can trust eachother again. Like how I could trust you when you were a small child to not say anything to father about my gambling," Darien's mind suddenly hit an epiphany. The idea was horrendous, it was treason at the very least. Granted, there was never good blood between the King and himself, but to a logical mind a woman seemed hardly a reason to do it. To Darien, it used to be that a woman was just a woman. But Elayne was different, Elayne was...his woman.

"What do you think of His Majesty's bride. Granted, she is as young as you are, but what do you know about her? Is she happy with the match made for her? Does she love him?" Darien's sinister nature began to spark again. The same devil that had taken the virtues of several noble women rose from his chest yet again. The devil that he had swore to keep at bay for the sake of Elayne, now reared its ugly head for the purpose of having her.

"Can she be swayed?" Darien's sinister grin came across his face as he looked back at his sister. Noting the expression returned to him by his sister, he softened it and came closer to her. "I need you. I need your help, El. You told me that you would help me. I know that I do not deserve it, but what if there was something that I could do for you? Something that might give you that very thing you have craved since our father died."

Darien came behind his sister and brought his lips close to her ears as he whispered, "Not just your freedom, but power to go with it. Imagine, the power to rule in your own right. All I need, is for you to become friends with Her Majesty, and lead her to me."

Elena trembled. It wasn't entirely fear this time, but disbelief mingled with desire...and a certain, numbing horror. She couldn't be hearing this correctly.

It was a moment or two before she was able to speak, and she had to wet her lips before any sound at all would form. The girl whispered back to her brother, her mind traveling back to the pitiful sight of the newlywed, bewildered Queen. "....My brother, what you propose is treason. It would be your neck and mine and who knows but Her Majesty's as well." Thinking about Hanna was making her angry. "I will tell you what I know about Her Majesty. She is younger than me, and frightened, and esteemed as nothing because she is neither beautiful nor clever. Of course she is not in love with him. What cause has she to love him? She is being married for her father's armies and the possibility that a child will have a child."

The more she thought about it, the more disgusted she became. Even Elena hadn't thought that her brother would be capable of such a scheme. The Lady whirled around and looked Darien in the eyes, calm and cool as a Queen herself. "Darien, I would love to trust you-but how can I when you come up with horrors like this and try to bribe me? What in that is trustworthy? I think that even if I fulfilled what you wish of me, you would ignore your promises and marry me off to the first man who comes along to simply be rid of me. Facing facts I see that I lost the love of my family when Father died."

It was a shame. But she brought herself to glare at him, holding herself ramrod-straight. "Listen. I shall become friends with the Queen-not for your sake but because it is something I was planning anyway. But you will stay away from her, and you will work on wooing your lady the way that works. Gently. Lovingly. Tenderly. Contrary to the songs, there is no woman alive who wants to be won by force or deceit. You have much the King does not. Learn what that is, and then use it. Enough of this nonsense."

Darien was disappointed, though not entirely surprised. His sister always did have a bit of a morality complex. Darien returned her glare with a simple grin.

"My sister, I am wounded deeply by your thoughts that I would not keep my word. On the contrary, whether it succeeded or not you would have those things. You said it yourself, it might cost me my neck. That would leave you as the sole heir of Lawley Fief.

"But you're right, it was sheer lunacy. Forgive me, sister. I have had a trying few days. Let us talk about something else. Something that will bring delight rather than disgust," Darien said as he headed toward a small sitting area that had not been touched by his thrashings. Servants had already begun to file in to clean up the lord's tyrade.

Darien took a seat in one of the grand chairs that his father kept in his study, and he gestured for his sister to take the other one.

"Since we are on the subject of men to marry you, have you had any intriguing offers? Or shall we simply discuss ideas that I have for you?" Darien asked with a playful grin.

Darien was intrigued by his sister's attitude. The woman had become a force to be reckoned with, though to Darien's dismay, her desires were not as vindictive as Darien's. She might pose a threat, sooner or later.

Elena hid a grimace, not seeing how the matter of her marriage was any more delightful than the matter of Darien's unrequited love. But he was the lord of the castle now, and she supposed it would be better to speak with him than to Katherine, and she also supposed that there was nothing else for her to do but get married at some point...so she sat in the proffered chair and folded her hands in her lap. "My lord, I have already stated that I do not wish to marry."

Still, she might was well go over what possibilities she had seen with him. Once again, better him than her mother. Truth be told she was also curious about what ideas he might have for her future. She hadn't suspected that he would be thinking about it much. "And I'm afraid I must report that, as of yet, I have recieved no offers. Mother might know something I don't but I doubt it." Aelf was too good a bodyguard for that. "I will say, dear brother, that I attracted quite a few stares and had the peculiar sensation of being stripped naked everywhere I went. There is an interest."

Probably it was more for the money she might have in her coffers, but there was no harm in being attractive either. Elena smoothed her skirt out over her knees, and chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Unfortunately no one caught my eye. Except." She hesitated. "General West, at the wedding." Darien would surely think it unusual, for a young girl to look at someone twice her age and be interested. "I would like my husband to be that intent. That...focused. I would like him to have presence...." She didn't add that it would be very nice if he would be able to remember his own wedding with that same misty look in his eyes. It wasn't likely to happen.

Darien chuckled when his sister mentioned her mild interest in General West. The fact was, Darien was not surprised at all. General West reminded him a lot of their father. Both hard-bitten military men, both very mature men, hell, one of the main differences was that General West was alive. Otherwise, they were pretty much the same.

"Well, that would certainly make father proud. As I recall, he greatly admired General West. He would be pleased if his daughter found a husband in him. Though, I wonder how your spirit would be to such a man," said Darien as he took a sip from the Brandy that Albert had brought to him after the other servants had finished cleaning the mess. He could also not Albert's look of anger as he looked at Elena's cut on her face. Darien wondered if Aelf or Albert would try to kill him in his sleep tonight. Darien would make certain that his chambers were locked for awhile at any case.