Iah and Rasui

Crown prince of Vodawai, Iah is proud of his post. Vain and spoiled, wanting for nothing, he can be a little difficult to handle, but he has proven many times, if not his head, his heart is always in the right place. However luxurious his life, though, Iah finds himself slipping into boredom more and more. Being prince means he has all he needs, but anyone he gets close to could be trying to use him for their own purpose. With that always in mind, he finds himself longing for a true friend, one who can engage and entertain him without expecting anything but the same in return.

Rasui, put simply, is a beggar. His family of six is dirt poor, struggling to make ends meet with his meager income. His ailing father speaks of better times, of when his family used to be a well respected, high ranking mage family, but has little magic of his own to back his claims up. Rasui, however, curious about the claims, discovered his own latent magical abilities and began to teach himself how to use them in secret. While he is a beggar, he is no ordinary beggar, using his magic to beguile and bemuse crowd upon crowd of locals and tourists alike as a mysterious hooded individual known only as Gwain to avoid being found out. Four times a week, the Kelph dons his disguise and puts on a show, a show that is beginning to garner the interest of the royal palace.

An abrupt and permanent order given by Prince Iah for Rasui, the effects of Iah’s decision were world-shattering for his new palace mate. Rasui was immediately moved from his family’s hovel into the palace, effectively flipping everything the kelph had ever known upside down. In the span of a day, Rasui was moved from his hovel into a spacious room, minus any comforts from home. For fear of escape, Iah attempted to forbid Rasui from collecting his meager possessions himself. Rasui had none of it and easily evaded the palace guards to return to his home. His plan had been to sneak in during the night and surprise his siblings, as the kelph would much rather continue to live with his family and report to the palace to perform. But something stopped Rasui and, instead, he stole back out into the night to return to his room at the palace. The only tell tale signs the kelph had been there at all was that his cot, barren as it was, now lay empty by the door. Iah wouldn’t find out about this midnight escapade until long after the event when Rasui repeats his escape.

For the first two and a half months of Rasui’s new station and not counting his midnight escapades, he was kept mostly in his quarters, only venturing out when Iah sent for him or when Iah allowed the kelph to visit his family. He was treated more like a prisoner than a guest of the prince, but most every want or need Rasui expressed was met as quickly as possible, even the care of his family. At first, the king, not Iah, had denied Rasui’s request of non-perishable rations for his family, attempting to site that the family had sustained themselves for this long and could continue to do so without the palace’s assistance. Rasui persisted, so Iah persisted, and when the king did not relent, Iah turned to his mother. The trio eventually wore the king down, even allowing Rasui, himself, to oversee the deliveries.

Latin term meaning “in the manner of a pauper.”