Disdain

When we got back to the castle, two of the maid staff helped me inside, even though I could stand by myself. What surprised me the most is that Leena stayed with me until we got to the hallway that led to my quarters. She said nothing and made no attempt to help, but I could feel the tension in the hands of the servants who insisted on helping me. The way they carried me was as if they knew their lives depended on it, I couldn’t put it any other way.

When I got back to my quarters, they sat me on the couch and closed the door behind me.

A figure stood in the corner, browsing through the dusty bookshelves as if nothing was happening.
‘I heard what you did at the training grounds, my boy. Mighty brave of you, but also quite stupid. Usually, I don’t like to overstep my dear niece, but she made the wrong call here.’

‘Guess I’m not cut out for this stuff.’ I muttered. ‘Take this stupid thing out and send me home. Let someone else be your hero.’

Vralis turned around and looked at me with a mix of confusion, fear, and what looked like disgust. ‘I didn’t figure you for the suicidal type. You of all people should know the consequences of that.’

What he said rang true, but I didn’t really want to believe him. I looked at my hands, staring at the little alien nubs that now adorned my palms and fingertips. No two ways about it, this thing was hard-wired into my body, as part of me as the body parts each protrusion pushed through. ‘This thing is what’s keeping me alive, isn’t it? I didn’t survive what happened that night, but here I am as I always was. It’s enough to give a man an existential crisis.’

He quietly strode up to me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. ‘My boy, it’s not something you should worry about. Those that have come before you have had the same thoughts, and all come to the same conclusion. You’ve been given this second chance to be something more than you ever thought you could be. It’s a burden, but what you have in you is something many have died trying to get even a fraction of it’s potential. Don’t doubt what you’re capable of, but do not make the mistake of thinking the road will be easy.’ He lowered his hand, sitting down on the couch across from me.

‘I never expected this to be easy,’ I said with a sigh ‘I never expected to be here at all. This is an opportunity I should be grateful for, but here I am looking the gift horse in the mouth.’

The king sat solemnly, staring into his wine goblet. Without looking up, he pulled out a brown bottle with what looked like the image of a beehive on it, as well as a large tankard that looked quite different to the ones served at dinner. It was made of wood with steel joints, scratches visible over the rings that looped round it. Reminded me more of a miniature barrel with a handle than any device fit for a man to drink directly from. ‘Pour yourself a drink.’

I did as I was told and gave the results a sniff. It smelled of honey and forest berries, bit on the drier side but still a pretty good mead. ‘This stuff’s good.’

He didn’t respond. ‘You are not the only one with a legacy to live up to. The five largest houses have spent a thousand years shuffling the crown between themselves. I have tried to be a wise and just king, but not all who have come before me shared my views. My grandfather managed to win his bid for the crown just over a century ago in a bloody civil war.’

His tangent confused me, seemed almost irrelevant to what we were just talking about. ‘Bit off topic, but go on.’

‘Look around Arbiter.’ He gestured to the walls of the room around him. ‘Each big crack, each misaligned detail, each inconsistent patch; these are the scars of a thousand years of war and suffering in this kingdom. My grandfather spent seven months holed up in this very castle, fighting off a great horde that sought to mount his head on a pike. He fought off the army and put them down, having to gut an entire noble house to return but a sliver of stability to the kingdom. The reason there are only four houses represented here is because of that civil war.’

With a few big gulps of my drink, I sat the mug down and listened more intently. ‘So, he destroyed an entire noble house, killed everyone in it, subsumed it’s holdings and declared himself king?’

‘To oversimplify, yes. It was the old house of Daetris that did that, the last in a long line of schemes that have torn this land apart. The legacy of that accursed family is a legacy of deceit and blood, spilled lots of it to get to where they were. Every time the crown changed hands; they would do their damndest to claim it. They never joined a coalition, just raised an army, and marched, scheming in the shadows all the while to see if they could tip the balance in the favour. When my grandfather finally died, my father thought it best to simply get rid of them. He charged the head of the family with high treason, the jury found him guilty, and he was executed. Of course, it was merely a show trial, meant to scare the other houses into submission; Rigged jury, unsympathetic judge, harsh sentences. The Daetris fortune was seized by the royal army, their mansion razed to the ground, and their lands distributed to the people as a means of quelling dissent among remaining sympathizers that hid among common men. He saw to it they got jobs within the administration so they could have eyes kept on them, but one by one they began to disappear. One after the other, their corpses would be discovered by the city guard. Nobody knew what was going on, but it was clear that they were all assassinated. My father was a kind man, but he knew how to use brutality to his advantage.’

All I could do while listening to that was gulp, so I held my giant mug up to my face to hide it. He merely chuckled, either at my apparent drunkard's attitude or at the thin idiocy of my disguise. Lowering the mug, I attempted to change the subject in the most me way possible.

‘And now for something completely different. Why's the Princess hate me fuckin' guts?’

'Your bogan is hanging out' said the little voice in my head.

‘My boy, it's not that she hates you, believe me.’

‘I don't.’

‘Figures’ He chuckled in amusement. ‘She doesn't really hate you, it's merely disappointment. You see, she used to be obsessed with the heroes of old and the tales that they left behind. She studied obsessively from a young age. If she really hated you, she would have shot you by now.’

‘She did’.’

‘I meant in the face. She's not exactly one to maintain proper behaviour at all times. The fact she can do what she does is pretty impressive compared to what she used to be like. I love her like she was my own daughter, but she has too much of her mother in her.’

I chuckled slightly and had another swig of my drink. ‘Is her mother part shark, by any chance?’

He got a chuckle out of that line, putting his goblet on the table between us. ‘She’s a hard woman to argue with, almost impossible to get her to concede a point. But she usually has a point in with all the ranting. Leena got a lot of that too, so just try to at least hear her out, for both our sakes.’

Taking another large gulp, I could feel the alcohol starting to get to my head. The heat coming off my cheeks could be felt without even a touch. ‘I would not say a bad word about lady Amara, as I have not known her long enough to know of any that were true. But going off of what you have said and the experience I have of her daughter, I cannot fault your words.’

Hefting a weary sigh, the king downed the rest of his wine and topped himself off with the mead. ‘I know my sister better than anyone. Seeing what you have laid out before you, I’m grateful I never had to marry a woman like that myself.’

Though I tried to bite my tongue, I couldn’t help but ask. ‘So what kind of woman did you end up with?’

For a split second, I could have sworn he’d given me the stinkeye, before taking another drink and wiping his beard with his sleeve. ‘That’s a story for another time, my boy. Let’s just say for now that it didn’t get too far. I was a soldier prince back in my day. I’ve held onto power because those that seek to challenge us were crushed long ago. What happens next is up to you though, I cannot intervene.’ He downed the rest of his drink in a single go before placing the goblet down and standing up.
‘I’ll leave you to finish that by yourself. If you get hungry, there’s a rope on the wall connected to the servants area. Pull it and one of them will attend to you.’ He pointed to a small gap in the bookcases where a golden rope hung from the wall. ‘I have other matters to attend to as of now.’

He walked over to the main doors and placed his hand on one before stopping.
‘Do not disappoint me, A lot of things hinge on your success.’

And with that, he was gone. I topped off my drink and sat there processing my thoughts.