Chapter Text
The physician looked nervously at the pair of advisors who were decidedly not looking at anything, least of all the prince and his cousin standing across from them in the cramped room.
"When will they recover?" The prince asked.
The physician's head jerked back to the prince then down and to the side to avoid eye contact. "Full recovery could take weeks, highness, I--"
"When will they be well enough to fight?"
"Fight? They fey girl, maybe soon as her injuries were less severe, but I'm not as familiar with her… anatomy." She glanced at the seer who simply smiled. "But Sir Vantas did substantial damage to himself after he was hit in the spine, pushed past limits he shouldn't have, I have no--"
"When?"
The amount the physician was sweating would put Lord Equius to shame. "If possible not until his full recovery, I--"
"Weeks. Weeks…" The prince was now muttering to himself, frowning deeply. "Is he awake? Can he stand?"
"I wouldn't advise--"
"Can he stand?"
"Cousin…" the seer placed a hand on his arm but he shrugged it off and stared at the physician.
She looked between the seer and prince, uncertain of her best move. "Yes, but--"
"Good. Good." Prince Diederik turned his attention to his advisors. "The combat semifinals will be pushed to tomorrow and the finals will be pushed to the day after. This will leave only one day for the celebration, but we'll make it work. Make the announcement."
"Your highness, surely it would be better to--" one of the advisors began.
The prince simply stared at him and he shut his mouth with a clack.
"Yes, sire," the other said.
The pair bowed and let themselves out.
"Tend to your patients and tell them of the change," the prince said, turning back to the physician.
"I will… let them know the option is… available. But," she paused and dabbed her face and attempted to look resolute, "I will advise them against participating tomorrow, especially for the knight. This is… this is just a tournament, highness."
Prince Diederik nodded. "Do as you must."
He then nodded to the seer and the pair left the small office.
The archery semifinals were already being set up, so the prince started to head there, but his cousin grabbed his wrist and tugged him to the far side of the grandstand that was facing away from the festivities.
"Dirk, what are you doing ?" she asked, exasperated.
"I'm making sure the tournament can--"
"You know that's not what this is about. Or are you really risking one of your most talented knights on a vanity contest?"
Dirk was silent for a moment.
"I need him, Rose. It has to be him."
" Why ?"
Dirk didn't answer.
Rose rubbed her temples. "You're an idiot," she said. Then she sighed. "Look, I don't know if this will work, I'm barely sure it will work for Jade, but at least she's connected to the forest, but if you're going to insist on going this route… I think Feferi can help."
Dave had been staring Karkat down since shortly after he woke up. In the first few seconds, he had a look of immense relief, but now it was frozen into a poker face, removed of emotion, though Karkat could feel the waves of disappointment rolling off of him.
"What the fuck was I supposed to do, Dave?" he asked for the dozenth time. "I guess I could have just thrown in the towel and fucking lost like I had planned," he grumbled.
Dave let out a hum of approval.
"Oh, fuck off! You're the one who told me not to!"
"I said you wouldn't," Dave countered, the first words he had spoken in half an hour, "and apparently I was right, even at the risk of--" he gestured to one of the physician's assistants who was tending to Harley.
"Permanent paralysis and brain damage, at worst," she filled in.
Dave looked at Karkat pointedly.
Karkat huffed. "I'm fine, though! That's what counts."
Harley snorted and Karkat shot a glare in her direction.
Dave frowned and didn't say anything.
Karkat was about to start up the argument again, because at least then Dave would fucking talk to him, but he was preemptively interrupted by the physician coming into the room, forehead damp with sweat and quickly straightening out a nervous look from her face.
"Ahem," she began, as if the whole of the room wasn't already looking at her. "There is something his majesty has instructed me to inform you of, but first there is something you, Sir Vantas and you, L--er-- Harley must keep in mind. This tournament has no stakes beyond a bit of gold and an ego boost. Sir Vantas, you will still be a knight of high respect once this is all done. I'm sure it will be mostly forgotten about in but a few months. The injuries you both have sustained are significant, though admittedly Harley's to a lesser degree. Please keep all this in mind for what I must tell you next." She paused and looked between her patients as though trying to force the message into their skulls with her eyes.
"Please get on with it," Karkat groaned, hoping his spike of anxiety wasn't apparent in his voice.
The physician looked at him evenly. "I have been told to inform you both, and I suppose you as well, Sir Strider, as this does affect you, that the semi finals have been moved to tomorrow and the finals the day after in order to give Sir Vantas and Harley extra time to recover if they still wished, against my recommendation , to participate in the tournament."
Harley let out a bark of a laugh. "Like that was even a question! I've fought after worse than this plenty of times!"
The assistant attending Harley pressed down slightly on the shoulder she was bandaging and the fey yelped, then looked very sheepish, her wolf ears tilting down and back. "Maybe a night's rest wouldn't hurt," she admitted
"Well there's no way Karkat's going to I mean--" Dave began, then he looked to his friend who was chewing his lip thoughtfully. " Karkat what the fuck !"
"I'm just thinking about it! I mean, you're the one who said I should try to win this thing!"
"I cannot stress enough that again I did not say that but if I did that was barring you almost giving yourself a brain injury you dense piece of shit!"
Karkat is not sure he had ever heard Dave yell. It wasn't the unrestrained volume of his own yell, but it was loud and it was intense and it hit his lungs more than his ears and he didn't particularly want to have that directed at him again.
But that didn't stop him from growling back. "I can fucking take care of myself, Dave!"
The physician sighed loudly. "Please," she said very tiredly, "please just wait and decide tomorrow. Sometimes it can take time to see the full extent of your injuries."
“Okie dokie!” Harley said.
“Fine,” Karkat grumbled, not looking at Dave.
They could wait to argue more about this in the morning.
Dirk didn't see Strider in the crowd, but he supposed that was to be expected. He saw Rose sitting with Feferi, both looking a mix of worried and agitated. Rose muttered something to the water fey and she shot a dirty look at him.
Nothing new.
Lord Egbert and Sir Nitram were up first, Egbert trying to keep conversation with the knight while also scanning the crowd. He apparently couldn't find who he was looking for, because he soon engaged fully, then jumped a bit and laughed as the first trumpet sounded.
The two readied themselves, then their arrows flew as soon as they heard the second blast.
Egbert's hit the very edge of the bullseye while Nitram's was a bit farther into the first ring.
The noble's second hit right next to his first.
Nitram's came seconds after, hitting into the side of Egbert's second arrow. Egbert's tilted away from the impact, but held in place.
The knight slouched a bit in his chair for just a second, then loosed his last arrow and Egbert did the same.
Both flirted in the edges of the bullseye, but with Nitram's farther out first shot, Egbert was the winner.
He looked through the crowd again, this time only for a few seconds, before he headed off and away from the event.
Nitram rolled up to Jake, who clapped him on the shoulder and walked off with him toward the line of food booths.
Dirk ignored his suddenly grumbling belly. There was a second match to watch.
Kanaya and Roxy were next. Roxy chatted up the winged fey, but Kanaya didn't seem to be quite as engaged in conversation, instead counting her arrows and looking perturbed.
The first horn sounded and she shook her head and readied herself as did Roxy.
Then the second blast came and they both still stood there, Kanaya's hand hovering at her quiver and Roxy's on her bow, not yet stretched taut.
Another few breaths and Kanaya grabbed an arrow and shot, Roxy right after.
They both hit within the bullseye.
Another breath and Kanaya let her next two shots fly, one on each side of Roxy's first.
Roxy stared at the target for a few moments, then breathed in and the second arrow hit the edge of the cluster, a little farther out of the middle of the bullseye.
Another pause then she aimed and fired and hit dead center.
An attendant went up to measure the shots and add up the points, then turned and raised his left arm, signaling Roxy had won.
The masked woman sighed heavily and bent forward, as though the tension has been keeping her standing up.
She straightened and held out her hand to Kanaya, who grabbed it and held it firmly.
Roxy laughed and tugged her forward into a hug, careful around her wings.
Kanaya patted her on the back then gestured over to where Rose and Feferi were sitting when Roxy released her, but Roxy shook her head and walked off to where the masked man, Invocador, was sitting waiting for her.
And that was it.
The day was cut short, though the merchants would keep their stands open as planned.
Dirk just had to hope that whatever it was Feferi was going to do would be enough or else the past several months were for nothing.
But there was nothing he could do about it now.
The stakes were much lower, but he was almost just as restless as he was all those years ago in Derse.
He almost regretted burning the bridge of his old stress relief.
He shook his head.
No, this was for the best. He wasn't 20 anymore but he knew how easily he'd fall back into old habits.
Instead he would focus his energy on a back up plan.
There had to be another way, right?
Dirk ignored his gnawing stomach and headed back to the castle.