Cora snorted and then seemed to freeze for a few seconds when she caught Levi bowing. The image just didn't compute. It wasn't until Fi took a step forward, face scrunched up in a worried frown, that she snapped out of it and gave him a reassuring smile. If she knew Leviticus, she'd smack him with the spoon, make fun of him for bowing to a simple cook. As it was she pushed out a laugh and waved Levi away. "You flatter me, prince. I'm sure there are better cooks all across the land, even if there aren't any in the palace."
“Maybe so,” Levi rose from his bow and raised his shoulders in a loose shrug, “But nothing has ever beat your home-cooked meals.” The dinners in Usige were fine, but during those days he missed the familiarity of Widonian meals at his family table. He looked forward to hosting those again, even if it was simple, for his limited group of close family and friends.
"That's because you Widonians have no tongue for good spices." She shook her head, settling back into the familiarity of playful bickering. She and Johan did this. Why couldn't she and Levi? "Everything's so underseasoned, I don't know how you stand eating it all the time."
Fi hummed softly in agreement, smiling over at Levi. "Your food does tend to be a bit more… bland than I am used to."
Levi blinked as he took a moment to think back to his favorite dishes, and then snickered along. Compared to the jarring amount of spices in Usigen food, his cuisine could be considered a bit bland. “It’s not like our land is the best climate for the heavy spices you’re used to, and they’re only a little hard to import when they come from the country we’re at war with.” He had very faint memories of foreign seasonings in his family meals when he was younger. He didn’t like them very much at the time—Johan loved them. He even complained when the imports stopped.
"You can't blame all of it on the climate and the war. You can grow perfectly serviceable peppers up here, but nobody wants to because you're all scared of a little heat." She shook her head. "It's ridiculous." It was actually fairly difficult to replicate Usigen food here. The climate was horrible for the spices and crops you needed to make a proper meal and even if you could find somewhere with weather mild enough, they were expensive. Most Widonians didn't bother, and with good reason. "You'd think the spice would warm you lot up but no."
Levi lightheartedly rolled his eyes. “I think the only Widonian in the entire territory that could stomach peppers is my brother.” Most of their diet was composed of meat and the vegetables that could tolerate the finicky climate during growing season. Collards, turnips, and select grains like rye and barley. The palace most likely could afford the more expensive Usigen-like seasonings in the places with a more milder climate, but he hadn’t considered requesting them until now.
Cora laughed. "You've got that right, prince. When he was younger he'd beg me to make him stuffed peppers." There was a fond smile on her lips. "Liked them almost as much as he liked sweets. But you're a different sort, aren't you?" She looked him up and down with an amused smile. "I get the feeling you weren't the biggest fan of Usigen food, were you?"
“Aw. Yeah, that sounds like him, or at least how he used to be.” Levi couldn’t help a laugh, layered with traces of nostalgia; he remembered his brother talking about stuffed peppers when they were in better terms. When the young Levi would grimace in disgust, Johan elbowed him until it inevitably turned into a very unevenly matched wrestling contest. Levi shook his head free of the memory. “No, I wasn’t. I had no taste for it at all until I was in Usige. Luckily the meals weren’t ever too spicy.” If Cora was the best cook in Widona, he’d place Cadmus as the best cook in Usige.
Fi laughed quietly, giving Levi a playful nudge. "Only because Cadmus is considerate." Was considerate. His smile died a little. He pushed on. "He… he was nice like that, made sure Leviticus did not hurt himself trying to eat dinner."
Cora snickered, reaching over to pat Fiori on the shoulder. Her hand lingered for a while, a comforting warmth. People here weren't tactile the way they were back home, not with the people they considered friends. He found himself missing the touch. "Yeah, sounds about right. When I first got here, I think I made your father cry because I overspiced his soup." She grinned over at Levi. "Kept adding to it 'til it tasted like home."
Levi smiled back to Fiori with some concern laced in his expression, wondering if it would be inappropriate of him to rest his hand in Fiori’s shoulder too. So he just lightly judged him back. “Hah, I appreciated that. It would have been a painful experience otherwise.”
At the mention of his father, Levi’s attention returned to Cora. “I don’t remember that very well.” He must have been too young to remember the days when Cora was new to the palace kitchen. “But knowing him he probably tried to grit his way through it for your sake.”
Fi gave him a wan smile in thanks. Cadmus had always been good at that sort of thing: making sure everyone was comfortable, keeping things warm and familiar. It would be so nice to have him here, chatting away with Cora, all bright eyes and clever fingers. A familiar hollowness filled the space behind Fiori's ribs, empty and aching.
Cora gave him one look and started running her hand down his back soothing. "Mm, your father was nice like that. Tried to choke it down, even said he liked it when he was done." She scoffed quietly, fond. "Man had a heart too big for his body, I'll tell you that. Always so kind to everyone he met."
Levi promptly agreed. “He was an equally great king as he was a father.” He glanced down and away, the shallow remainder of a smile on his lips. It was a marvel how Johan turned out the way he did with the two of them raised by the same loving father. Although he never saw Johan care to spend much time with him, and maybe that made all the difference. “I remember he used to say how much he saw himself in me.”
Cora nodded, smiling. "He'd talk about you sometimes, his favorite son." She'd always disapproved, personally. Johan had never been much like his brother, even when they were small, but that didn't mean he should get less attention or love. "Always so proud of how well you did with tutors, how quick you were to pick up skills. I think he liked talking with the servants because he knew they all loved you too. You were always the country's pride and joy."
Levi smiled back. “Favorite son?” He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment or so. Before Johan betrayed him, he hadn’t realized how much he meant to the country other than being their prince. It was nice hearing about how much his father praised him, but did he really have favorites among his children? If it was true, maybe Johan did have reason to be a little upset. It still didn’t give him the right to lash out like he had done, though. “He talked about all of us, didn’t he?”
(hey, real quick, what's the baby brother named?)
(Ooh I think I wrote it down somewhere, I’ll find it real quick)
(Nice!)
Cora hummed, thinking back. "Well I'm sure he did, a bit, but you were always front and center. His heir, his firstborn son, the light of his life, the key to everyone's future." She laughed quietly, glancing up at Levi with a sly sort of smile. "Don't tell me you never noticed, prince. You were always at the center of his attention. Johan and Mikhail… not so much. I mean… I don't think it got to them so much in the end. Mikhail had his mother, and then you. Johan had me." She shrugged. "Things worked out."
“Only things didn’t work out very well,” Levi looked down to his feet. “Johan tried to kill me.” Perhaps he had known about his father’s bias towards him, but he didn’t like it any more now than he did when his father was alive. Cora had a point, he was the first born and rightful heir. Anyone with those titles would have the benefits of the favorite child. The jealousy must have gotten to Johan, which wasn’t the most difficult thing in the world to believe.
Cora's lips pressed into a thin line. She still couldn't wrap her head around it, really. Couldn't imagine why her son would do such a thing. She'd tried so hard to raise him right, to teach him not just about being a good prince but about being a good person, and still he ended up in this mess. It hurt as bad as any betrayal, and seeing him now, brought so low by the brother he was supposed to love, only made things worse. "Maybe not, but… at least I know you were loved. All of you. Things could have been much worse."
Levi closed his eyes while he listened to Cora, his chin still turned towards the floor. Her words were true: they were all loved by somebody and things could have been much worse. He could have been destined to be one of Fiori’s uncle’s slaves, or claimed by one of the men that brought him to Usige on the carriage. They might not have escaped Usige at all. Johan might have been killed by the guards in the bathhouse. He opened up his eyes again and nodded, raising his gaze. “That is true. Perhaps this really is the best of all possible outcomes.” That was a hard concept to swallow when things could have been so much better too.
"Or perhaps it is a better outcome, prince. Destiny is no solid line, it's a branching thing." She splayed her fingers as she talked, illustrating. Despite having lived in Widonia since her youth, Cora still stayed true to Usigen beliefs. "There could have been better things than this, but I doubt they outnumber the bad. You're still alive, after all, and that's as great a blessing as any where the kingdom is concerned."
Levi’s gaze fell from her face to her fingers during the vague illustration. “I suppose it is,” he murmured, “I wouldn’t like to know what kind of branch of destiny Johan would have led the kingdom into.” Johan’s reign would have been perfectly acceptable if Levi had died of natural causes. Widonian royalty was a straight line, the one family chosen by Ialdir long ago, and continued through genetics for the best possible outcome of a noble leader. Even if the heir was born from a surrogate, at least one parent should have royal blood.
"I like to think that he would rule well and wisely, albeit differently from how you will." Johan would continue the war, of that she had no doubt, but he would also win. She'd lived on both sides, and though the Usigen military was mighty and well-maintained, they were complacent. If Widonia shaped its soldiers up fast enough, she didn't doubt that her country would crumble beneath its might. "Though I can't say I approve of his methods for getting the throne."
