FMH: Everything ~ Twelve

“Your majesty, with all due respect,” Andre began speaking slowly and carefully with a clenched jaw, not sure how he should be handling this topic, “As I understand, it is my right to-”

“I'm going to stop you right there, Archdruid.” Vir firmly stated, holding up one of his hands and motioning to someone else in the room. “The law has changed. We are at war, and the limp-wristed grip my father had on the population died with him. You will hand over those artifacts.”

The Sigil on Andres forehead shone brightly, but the Druid himself set his jaw firmly and crossed his arms. “I refuse.”

Against their expectations, that put a smirk on the king's face. “I expected that you would act childishly, thus I have already sent for an enchanter to fix the Sigils upon your foreheads. These updates include the changes to our law and society that you'll be following.”

Luke stepped forward, and Taylor cursed softly under her breath. She knew that their situation was going to start devolving, but she had not expected it to be moving at this sort of breakneck speed. Her mind whirled in agitation as she attempted to put together a satisfactory legal argument against what the King was saying, but she continuously drew a blank.

Frankly, the King could do whatever he wanted to do if he was willing to step on the necks of the people under him. It bothered her immensely that the situation that had created the Scarrocco Desert in the first place was happening directly in front of her.

“It seems history repeats itself. I sure hope you’re ready to have every person in this room lose their life today.” Luke pulled Cookie up onto one shoulder, his armor flaring to life under the point the weapon rested so that it wouldn’t deal damage by the sheer weight pressing down on him. “If you bring an enchanter within ten feet of me, trying to make me get stuck with a bunch of rules that I didn't agree to, I'm gonna start swinging. This close to the royal armory? I'm pretty sure I can bring the whole castle down around our ears.”

“Your threats are meaningless.” King Vir’s eyes flicked to the side, where Archmage Don was standing, just to make sure that the threats were meaningless. The elderly wizard gave a slight nod, and Vir’s confidence was restored. A corpulent man wearing brightly enchanted clothes stepped into the room, his face haughty and smug. Luke made a sudden jerking motion at him, and the man tried to leap backwards in fear, tripping on his flowing robes and falling to the ground.

“That’s ten feet. Great. Let's find out.” Luke slapped his other hand onto Cookie's handle, bringing her up above his head and dropping the weapon at full speed, directly toward the ground. A barrier sprang into existence with a lazy wave of Master Don’s hand, only for the Archmage to hiss in pain as the barrier shattered after a bare moment, only reducing the momentum of the weapon by a little over ninety percent.

Stone and tile shrapnel went flying in every direction, injuring several and causing a mass panic immediately. Many people screamed, dozens shouted, knights and Ascenders tried to swarm into the room to protect the king.

“Shockwave-” Ignoring it all, Luke swung his weapon upward one more time bringing it down… pausing halfway as a new voice cut through the hubbub.

“Luke!”

For a long moment, the Murderhobo held his position, debating between continuing with his attack, and looking toward the source of the exclamation. His curiosity flared, and his eyes snapped over to see his sister standing framed in the doorway, a tiara on her head and a perfectly fitted gown accentuating her figure. “Cindy. You got older.”

“That will happen when you vanish for five years.” His younger sister griped at him, slowly picking her way through the mess of the room toward her older brother. “We've been looking for you for years. You just… vanished. Again.”

“Got exiled, can't really blame me for that.” Luke slowly let his weapon slide to the ground, though he remained poised for a quick strike as soon as the situation showed even a hint of beginning to devolve once more. “Why are you here? If you were not present, I could kill all of these people. Now I have a conundrum.”

“I would really rather you didn't kill all of these people, especially… my husband-to-be.” Cindy half-turned, letting her right hand drift upward as she gestured at the King.

“Ugh. Really? Him?” Luke spat to the side, the spittle lost among the debris that he had generated over the last few moments. “He seems like someone who’s gonna be deposed in a few years. I'd rather you didn't get caught up in that.”

“He speaks words of treason!” A nearby nobleman called out at Luke, even as he was wiping dust off his face with a light-orange lace handkerchief.

Luke held up a hand, showing one finger to his sister to indicate that he would like a private moment. Then he walked over and gently slapped the nobleman across the face, sending him tumbling across the room, only to impact the wall before sliding down, completely unconscious. “Oh good, I outranked him.”

“Smart thinking!” Zed interjected, tapping at his own forehead. “Otherwise you would be burning from the inside out right now until you got a Royal Pardon. He insulted your honor, allowing you to instantly retaliate to defend your good name!”

“You think I have a good name? Thanks. I think most people like it, I'm generally called ‘Luke’.” The Murderhobo turned back to his sister, leaving Zed shaking his head in amusement. “Why are you marrying him? You had a good life.”

“A good life is only the start. Imagine what I can do for our people as the Queen.” Cindy spoke quietly, but with great passion. Taking a deep breath, she turned and fell into a deep curtsy before the throne. “Your majesty, please pardon the manners of my brother and his traveling companions. Clearly they have been lost in the wilderness long enough that it has addled their sense of propriety. Perhaps you would be so gracious as to allow them a night of respite so that they can collect themselves, and think over your wisdom-filled words?”

King Vir was shaking his head, clearly caught between fury, annoyance, and great mirth. “The Abyssal Murderhobo is your brother. Why did I fail to remember that? After all-”

Zed coughed quietly, looking at the ceiling with great interest.

“-I’ve met your father, and have seen his noble title. Who else among my Ascenders could my information network not manage to track down over these years? Yes… I suppose a small adjustment to our plans is necessary at this point. But before we allow these… guests… to go to their cells—that is, guest suites—allow me to inform them of what is waiting for them over the next few days, and years.”

The young, brash King pointed rudely at Andre. “Druid, none of this will be a surprise to you, but your task will be to travel the kingdom, preparing our land to repel the invaders. When that task is complete, you'll be reporting to the command of the Eastern front, and will assist in border security. Taylor, Archmage Don has specifically requested you come in for retraining. He will be directly overseeing your progress for the next few years, in preparation for his Ascension and your promotion. I look forward to working with you.”

At the end of that proclamation, his eyes flipped over to Zed dismissively. “I suppose I could use a court jester, to amuse myself and my new bride. As for you… you absolute wall of a man, who else could I trust more than my bride's brother to be her personal guard? As soon as I have received the artifacts that Andre will be handing over, you'll be assigned as Cindy's personal guard on a permanent basis.”

“You… want me here. In the city. With all these fragile people crawling around everywhere.” Luke paused for a moment. “Wait. How will I be gaining Potentia?”

“Just as every other Royal Guard does.” Vir dismissively stated. “You will be given a weekly allotment.”

“Pass. That junk is for people that can’t get their own.”

“I refuse your refusal.” Seeing Luke so obviously bothered by that decision brought a smile back to the king's face. “Now go, get a good night's rest, and prepare yourself. Tomorrow you'll subject yourself to the new laws of the kingdom, or be taken down as traitors to the crown. The choice is yours, and I hope you choose… the correct choice.”

His eyes had flipped over to his eventual bride just before he finished his statement, and it was clear that he had amended his words mid-sentence. The Four were shuffled out of the room, and Taylor let out a long groan.

“I think the only possible way that could have gone worse is if you actually had managed to bring the castle down on top of us, Luke.” She grumped at him, knowing that the situation wasn’t his fault, that he was a victim of circumstance as well.

Luke was silent, a not uncommon occurrence, but there was something more bothering him than what the surface level of the situation would suggest. He opened his mouth twice, closing it before saying anything else. Taylor decided that she would press the issue, because if it was important enough that he felt he should say something, most likely he was correct. “Luke? What's going on?”

“Yeah, I think I might have accidentally made my sister into the queen.”

Taylor squinted at him, trying to suss out his meaning. “Luke, you don't have that kind of power. Your rank is nowhere near that high, and you obviously didn't purchase this arranged marriage. How could you possibly have made your sister the queen? Only the king has the capability to make that decision.”

“Yeah. About that. Before we went to the desert, I gave Cindy a necklace I had been working on for about twenty years.”

“In Murder World?” Taylor prodded as he fell silent, getting a nod to show that she had guessed correctly.

“To finish it off, I put a Skill Pearl as the pendant. You remember that?” Now it was Taylor's turn to gently nod at Luke's words. “That was a pretty powerful one. If I would have absorbed it myself, I likely would have gotten a Tier six Skill out of it. With her wearing it, I think that she has become nearly irresistible to anyone in a position of power.”

All Taylor could do at that moment was stare at her companion in absolute shock, her mind blank and unable to process the information. The king always had anti-illusion enchantments on his person, as well as powerful protections against anything that could affect his mind, or entice him into doing anything he didn't want to do. Yet… those only worked against structured magic. In other words, only something that was created with the intent to impact other people's minds would be blocked.

A natural treasure, like the Skill Pearl that Luke had described, could very well be directly affecting the mind of the most powerful political figure in their kingdom. If the king found out about it…

Not only would the pearl be confiscated, but Cindy would be at risk of being accused of treason.