Cause for Deception

With the Basilisk King healed, Nythana took her wand from Rayhona and moved on to the wounded soldiers until she had removed the curses and healed all the ones that were still alive. Unfortunately, there were three guards that had been killed immediately by the assault and one that had passed while she dealt with the king’s wounds.

“Just so you know,” Mycelium said after she finished healing the last soldier. “We can’t fix the Basilisk King’s eyes, even if we wanted to.”

“Why’s that?” she thought.

“This so-called curse is more likely a physical magic construct embedded deep within the king’s eyes themselves. It’s not some curse that we can siphon from his body. We can only absorb the dark magic that it creates using his life energy.”

A construct… she thought. Does that mean he’s like me?

The Basilisk King had been brought a new veil to cover his face, and he was already up and moving despite the severity of the wounds he’d received. His constitution was impressive, to say the least. He’d lost a staggering amount of blood but was walking it off like it was nothing.

The Basilisk King called the room to order.

“This has been an eventful day,” he told everyone. “We will put our normal proceedings on hold for the moment. For now, Mallie, Fresca, and Limmie will guide their ladies back to their guestrooms. Captain, have ten of your men escort our attempted assassin to the dungeon under lock and key. And Rayhona, please take your lady to conference room three.”

The guides of the other three tributes nodded as their names were spoken, and Rayhona bowed slightly when the king spoke her name.

“Everything that happened here today is to be kept secret,” the Basilisk King said. “I will not tolerate information leaks about throne-room matters. Go.”

The guards and escorts all saluted the king, and the crowd dispersed, with each person going about their assigned duty.

“Lady Nythana,” Rayhona said. “Please follow me.”

“As soon as they escort that thing out of the king’s presence,” Nythana responded, glaring at the withered dark mage as she was dragged from the throne room.

Once she was gone, Nythana followed Rayhona into a room with sofas on either side of a long table. Within minutes of her sitting down, the king and his prime minister arrived, followed immediately by servants bringing in carts of tea and snacks.

“Pardon the wait,” the Basilisk King said as he sat down across from Nythana.

“Wasn’t much of a wait at all,” Nythana said, accepting tea from one of the servants. She took a sip and let out a satisfied sigh. “Mmm, it’s nice to have tea that hasn’t been laced by poison.”

The Basilisk King and his prime minister glanced at each other nervously.

“There you go saying unnecessary things again,” Mycelium said.

“Lady of the Northern Wastes,” the king said, facing her directly.

“Call me Nythana,” she said.

“As you wish. This is Daromir, and you may call me Basil.”

“Your Majesty!” his prime minister objected.

“You still have much to learn if you’re under the impression that I am the highest power in this room, Daromir.”

“The Basilisk King has good instincts,” Mycelium commented.

“Nythana, may I ask your purpose of coming to our kingdom?” King Basil said.

“Oh, did you not hear me earlier?” she asked.

“If anyone ever had an excuse for not listening, it was him with his life-threatening injuries,” Mycelium commented.

“I suppose you had a good reason to not listen,” Nythana said. “I’m here to look into the eyes of the Basilisk King.”

“Yes, well, you’ve done that,” Daromir said briskly. “When do you plan on leaving?”

“Not for a very long time,” Nythana said, smiling in response to his prickly reply.

Daromir pursed his lips.

Sorry, Mister Minister, but you’re still several decades too young to be playing these games with me.

“Why did you want to look me in the eyes?” King Basil asked.

Nythana wondered how much information she should be giving them, but after the display earlier, she figured there wasn’t much of a point in keeping her secrets. Probably better to be honest.

“Because your eyes give off dark magic energy,” she said. “And my body converts that energy into life energy to sustain me.”

King Basil nodded. His reaction was far tamer than she’d expected. Of course, given his thousands of years’ worth of life energy, hearing that there was a way to transfer life energy likely didn’t come as a shock. His eyes probably transferred life energy the same way that her body did.

“Wait,” Daromir said with eyes filled with intensity. “If you can absorb dark magic and remove curses, can you fix His Majesty’s—”

Nythana was already shaking her head before the question was completed.

“From what I can tell, His Majesty’s fatal gaze is due to a construct within his eyes. In other words, it’s his constitution, just like my constitution is to absorb magic energy. It isn’t something that can be undone.”

“I see,” Daromir said. The disappointment on his normally stern face was almost as comical as it was heartbreaking.

It seems that King Basil’s people love him dearly, Nythana thought. Though I don’t understand how when so many of them have been torn from their families as tribute. Perhaps I should pry a little into that.

“I gave you information, so it’s your turn,” she said. “What exactly is the purpose of the tributary system?”

King Basil drew a deep breath and let it out in a huff.

“In the war sixty-six years ago, one of the enemy armies snuck around our forces and laid waste to the towns and cities in our kingdom, including the capital,” he said. “Basileus’ women and children were massacred to the point that we barely had any left in our entire country.”

Nythana’s gut twisted.

“By the goddess,” she thought. “That’s as bad as what I’ve seen dark mages do. And an entire army participated in this disgrace?”

“The adventurers at the tavern left that detail out of their story, didn’t they?” Mycelium asked. “Had they told us that part, this whole incident wouldn’t have come as a surprise.”

Basil kept talking.

“We destroyed that kingdom’s military in retribution and planned on using that kingdom’s widows and daughters to fill the gap left in our populace. But before we could start relocating them to our lands, someone spread false rumors that we would violate the women and their children that we took. Many of them chose to die with their family rather than be taken alive to our Kingdom.”

Sickening, Nythana thought. Absolutely disgusting.

“How abhorrent,” Mycelium said.

“Who would do something like that?” Nythana asked.

“Evidence pointed to one of the other five kingdoms being behind the rumor that drove so many to take their own lives,” Basil said. so I took a different approach and demanded each of the kingdoms send one of their noblewomen every year to rebuild our numbers. That’s how the tributes began.”

“So, you used the women that were sent to you as your soldiers’ replacement wives to repopulate your people?” she asked.

He nodded.

“How could this process have resulted in anything less than a societal collapse?” Mycelium asked.

“I’m wondering the same thing,” Nythana agreed.

“And they haven’t ever rebelled?” she asked aloud.

“They were sent to die and were instead given the opportunity to select a husband from a group of bachelors that would worship them as princesses.”

“They get to choose a husband?” Nythana asked.

Is it like some sick sort of slave sale? Is that how they treat their people?

“Were you not listening to my speech?” Daromir asked.

“Not after you started talking about bachelors,” Nythana smiled without a trace of remorse in her voice. “I was too busy trying to figure out how I was going to get to look into the Basilisk King’s eyes.”

Daromir heaved an annoyed sigh.

“Well, listen this time, alright?” he said. “Every time new tributes arrive, all the men that are interested in one or more of them will prepare to showcase their talents, skills, and personalities. Then, the lady can narrow the list down and court the remaining candidates to check for compatibility and establish emotional trust. Once she makes her decision, the bachelors that weren’t chosen will go back to their training or seek a wife among our people.”

“…So, the tributes are betrayed and abandoned by their friends, family, and country and think they’re going to die, then you spare them and let them pick a husband from a catalogue and they spend their days fiercely loyal to you?”

“For the most part,” Daromir said. “As you saw, sometimes things happen. Usually not to this scale, though.”

“The bachelor competition has actually become something of an annual festival,” King Basil said.

“Ah… Did I just ruin the festivities?” I hope this doesn’t destroy the delicate balance the nation was surviving on.

“No. We have new festivities to celebrate,” Basil said. “We now have a Queen Consort.”

Daromir scowled. Nythana didn’t blame him. Making a woman that knew nothing about the traditions of the people their queen was a disaster waiting to happen.

“…You’re actually making me Queen Consort?” she asked.

“I must protest,” Daromir said. “She’s a dark mage. We can’t have a dark mage as a queen. It would turn the world against us. And that’s not to mention the aspect of heirs.”

Heirs… Nythana thought. I can’t bear children.

She gnawed her lower lip in thought.

“I think I need to tell them,” she said. “Before this goes any further.”

“I’d normally advise against it, but considering how deep into this mess you’ve already put us, I’m not sure it makes a difference anymore.”

Nythana nodded.

“Sirs,” she said as she stood. “I’m going to get this out of the way right now so it doesn’t become a problem later. I can’t bear children.”