Divided by Rae Brooks

house could genuinely get along.  “I’ll consider it,” Tareth answered
playfully.
    He wouldn’t, though, and Calis knew that as well as Cladia
and Tareth did.  Calis didn’t bother speaking with his brother, as Tareth would
surely take it as Calis trying to interfere in the one relationship Tareth had
that was better than Calis’s.  “Lady Avyon was looking for you, brother,”
Tareth surprised Calis by speaking to him, though.
    Calis blinked and then nodded his head.  “Yes, I saw her. 
I’m supposed to dance with her.”
    “Gossip says that she believes you intend to choose her as
your wife.  Any truth to that rumor, brother?” Tareth asked.  Sometimes, he was
the worst gossip of all.  Calis wasn’t surprised that his picking up that
vigilante’s name was part of the reason the Phantom Blade was known so widely
as such. 
    Though, the topic of conversation was certainly not as
interesting as that vigilante.  In fact, Calis didn’t like it at all.  Surely
his parents would expect him to say yes, and if he said yes, then he would set
off a chain of events that would send him barreling towards a marriage to Lady
Avyon.  Instead, he decided to handle things a little differently.  He offered
a playful smirk as he regarded his brother, who may or may not have intended to
put him on the spot like this.  “Where in the world did you hear that rumor,
Little Brother?” he asked.
    This seemed to amuse their mother, as she clasped her hands
together and let out a light laugh.  “Tareth finds gossip in the oddest of
places!” she answered for him.
    Tareth nodded his head, as if this were true.  He let the
issue drop easily enough, which meant to Calis that Tareth had no ill intent in
his mention of Lady Avyon.  Tareth most likely thought that Calis wanted to
marry the lady.  He had let his own thoughts on her attractiveness known to
Calis on multiple occasions.  Even in the few letters the boys had exchanged
back and forth in Calis’s time in Dokak, Tareth had often joked about stealing
her from him.
    Honestly, Calis wished he had done just that.  That would
have made his life a lot easier, since none of the other women seemed bold
enough to fling themselves at Calis so thoroughly.  “Well, don’t trust every
source you hear,” Calis teased after a moment. 
    “Tareth, perhaps if you didn’t spend so much time gossiping
and spent more time doing things that you ought to be doing—there would be no
need to pester your brother with your impudent questions.”  Lavus’s
intervention in the conversation brought the entire thing to an entirely new
low, and the abruptness of it even made Calis flinch.
    Surely Tareth would think that he had done that on purpose. 
Just when the two of them seemed to be rekindling some sort of relationship,
Lavus had to ruin it.  It felt as though the man was intentionally keeping the
boys at odds.  He probably was, knowing Lavus.  Wouldn’t want two brothers
conspiring against him, now would he?  Calis decided to try and salvage what he
could.  “Ah, Father, even you have information sources.  Tareth just likes
knowing what is going on.”
    The words sounded lame, but Tareth seemed a little shocked
that his older brother had interceded on his behalf.  Lavus wasn’t impressed. 
“My sources are carefully picked by myself and their information is filtered
for years before I consider them reliable.  I would never think to ask about a
piece of information that I was not entirely sure of.  Tareth surely uses
peasants within Dark District he frequents.  People who wouldn’t know true
information if it slapped them in the face.  To embarrass himself by asking a
question about it is simply insulting to our family name!”  Lavus bellowed the
words, and a few of the nobles looked over.
    Calis flushed, as everyone seemed to realize that he was the
subject of his father’s wrath.  Well, at least it wasn’t Tareth—or well, maybe
it was.  “Yes,