Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to their rightful owners.
Warning: The following chapter contains: coarse language, mature humour, and suggestive adult themes, YOU have been WARNED.
Chapter 2: The King's Decision
The large stone doors were slowly prided open. Four guards pushed them open with their shoulders. The hinges groaned like a guttering grinding mill stone. It took a minute for the doors to be ajar enough for a person to walk in. Courtney stepped through the doorway and into the room. Once she was on the other side, the equally gruelling task of closing the doors began behind her. The room was known as the royal hall; it served as the conference room in the castle. Every important meeting between the king and the lords took place in the hall. Courtney had only stepped foot in it a couple of times. The ceilings were high, over two stories at the apex. The floor was a polished marble. A large stone fireplace filled the right wall. Bookshelves lined the left. On the far wall, an engrossing window showed the entire capital. In the middle of the room was a large table. There were three chairs on either side and one at the head. The top of the table was clear except for glasses of water in front of each seat. When Courtney was done examining her surroundings something became clear, she was the only one in there. "I'm the first one, figures." The doors finally close behind her with a thump. She was shaken by the noise. Then, a pervasive silence filled the room. She walked over to the window. Her shoes tapped lightly on the floor with each step. The view was breathtaking. It reached far into the distance, like watching the reaches of the king's power.
The two large doors were forced open once more. Courtney looked back and saw the guards pushing the doors were already exhausted from the work. Their breaths were heavy. Once there was a large enough crack, Duncan slid his way into the room and the doors were forced closed behind him. Duncan took a second to look over the room before his eyes focused in on Courtney. "Hey Princess."
"How many times to do I have to tell you never to call me that?" Courtney scoffed at him.
Duncan just smiled as he sat down at the first chair in front of him on the right and kicked his feet up onto the table. "Way more than the one time you did tell me to call you that."
"That was eight years ago! I was 9!" Courtney defended herself. "And don't sit there!"
Duncan gave off a look of confusion. "Why not? These are the only chairs."
Moving away from the window Courtney walked right up to the table. "Each House has a specific chair."
"How do you know that?"
"How do you not?" She shouted in annoyance. She then began naming the houses and pointing at the appropriate chair. "Lothan, Grampian, Fife, Strathclyde, Tayside, and Galloway." For Galloway she pointed at the middle chair on the left. Duncan rolled his eyes before standing on his chair. He took a large step, and walked over top of the table. On the other side, he dropped down into the Galloway seat. Courtney sat down in her seat, and folded her arms over her chest. "Real mature," she said, "what if the King walked in?"
"Please, I could run three laps around this table before they could even get that door an inch open." Duncan kicked his feet onto the table. At that moment the doors began to again, and Duncan quickly receded his feet.
This time Heather came walking in. She looked over her two companions. "Don't speak to me." She then walked over and sat down in the Strathclyde chair next to Duncan towards the window.
"Wasn't planning on it." Duncan said under his breath as she strode past him.
The doors did not start to close initially until Alejandro came walking in. He walked right to his seat across from Heather and sat down. "You know I was walking right behind you for the last five minutes right?" He ran his fingers through his hair. In response she grabbed the glass of water in front of her and splashed it onto him. He just whipped the water off his face, "and a hello to you too."
When the doors were finally shut Duncan was quick to put his feet back up onto the table. Courtney shook her head at Heather, "Well you clearly haven't matured over the past year."
"What part of don't speak to me didn't you understand? Or is your head so far up your ass now that it's started to impair your hearing princess?" Heather countered.
Courtney stood up from her seat, "If one more person calls me princess I swear to God!"
"What are you going to do?" Alejandro asked, "Throw your paperwork at us?"
"I'm sure that'd be more than enough to bring you down Alejandro." Duncan said.
"That mohawk looks good on you Duncan. I'm sure all those fighters that are paid to not fight back can at least now take solace that the boy they're allowing to wildly flail weak little jabs at them doesn't look like a total pussy anymore." Alejandro mocked.
Duncan gave his shoulder a quick stretch, "Why don't you come over here and I can show you just how weak those little jabs are."
At that moment the doors began to open again. Duncan quickly took his feet off the table and Courtney, who realized she was still standing, sat down. Out from the opening came Noah. "Oh hey, don't let me being here stop all your fun." Noah insisted. He paused in the doorway. "You're all looking good. Let me guess," He saw the wetness on Alejandro's shirt. "Well Alejandro and Heather have greeted each other. I bet Courtney's been called Princess at least two times." Noah then walked right over and sat down in the Fife's chair, next to Courtney.
Duncan just then noticed that everyone else sat down in their appropriate seat immediately. He turned back to examine his chair to see if there was an indication or anything that he didn't see. But there was nothing and he turned back, "Did I miss a memo or something?" He said softly, mostly to himself.
"You're as observant as ever Noah. Now if only you could do something as good that's actually productive or helpful in anyway." Alejandro pointed out.
"Where's the fun in that? Plus, you're one to talk. It's not like you've ever done anything worth a damn in your entire life Alejandro. At least I've read a book and had an abstract thought before. I wouldn't worry about it though; having thoughts does not prevent you from being a miserable human being. Take Heather for example." To which Heather reached over and grabbed the water in front of Duncan and tossed it at Noah. Much of the water splashed off of Noah onto Courtney.
"My point exactly."
Courtney stood up from her seat to examine what had been spilt on her. "God damn it Heather! You must be the biggest failure of a person ever. Can you do anything right?"
"Oh please, like I care about any kind of feedback from someone who's been living a fantasy their entire fucking life. Guess what? You're never going to become Queen. Stop acting like it! We're sick of it." Heather barked at her.
"I think I'm sensing some hostility in this room." Noah pointed out.
"Don't you fucking start Noah!" Duncan was quick to say. "Otherwise I'm going knock your teeth in for good."
"Whoops!" Noah called out tossing his arms in the air. "You have me real scared. That may have worked five years ago when I gave a shit about your pathetic threats, but, really? It's just sad now. To give Alejandro some credit, when he threatens to fuck your servant girl, you know he's going to follow through on it.
Heather immediately stood up from her seat. "If anyone! And I mean anyone brings that up again I will personally castrate them!" She screamed staring directly at Alejandro.
Alejandro stood up as well. "Hey! I didn't bring it up! It's old news anyway. I got much bigger fishes to fry and bitches to bang." Heather took a swipe at Alejandro from across the table. He leaned back, and easily dodged the blow. "Aw, you're so cute when you go into feline mode."
Heather paused for a second and was still. She covered her face with her hand. "When you just called me cute, a little vomit came up and into my mouth."
"Will you two stop it!" Courtney called out.
"Yes please. Save us Courtney." Duncan tapped his foot in annoyance on top of the table. "How about you also give us a speech about how we're all worthless other than you. That'll make things so much better."
"At what point do I come in with my patronizing?" Noah asked raising his hand.
"That's it!" Duncan yelled getting up from his seat. Just then the doors began to open and everyone rushed to sit back into their seats.
Standing in the doorway, the king Chris stood with a smile on his face. Chris was a man in his early forties. He wore a long blue coat that dragged on the floor behind him. In his right hand, he held a cane, and he tapped it on the ground as he walked. Slowly, he made his way towards the table. The five of them sat still in their seats as he approached. He took the seat at the end of the table, and tapped his cane twice on the floor.
"Hey kids. How's it going? Y'all doing well?" He spoke casually.
"Everything has been outstanding your excellence," Courtney spoke, bowing her head.
"Right, right, of course it is princess." He laughed loudly, as if he had told a great joke. Noah chuckled to himself over it. The rest of them were silent. Courtney did not move; she was frozen like a statue.
"What about you Duncan? I like the new hair cut. Real badass," Chris said casually.
Duncan put his hand to his head, as if self-conscious of his look. "Thank you, your highness."
"I hope you had a good trip here Heather." Chris wondered.
"It went okay you highness. Although you should have seen what they pass off as a rare steak when travelling, it was awful." Heather replied sounding much more confident than the other two.
"Well, I'm sure you dealt with it in a calm, cool, collected manner." Chris said with a chuckle. He then turned to Alejandro as if to ask him something but stopped himself. "Noah, what you been reading man?"
"A book of elves and dwarfs your highness. It's not very good, not my kind of fantasy." Noah spoke.
"Right," Chris clapped his hands. "Enough formalities. Lets get down to business."
Everyone around the table held their breath. A pervasive silence filled the room. They all stared towards the ground, too afraid to look in each others' eyes. Alejandro's shoulders twitched. Heather held her hands tightly together. Duncan rubbed his legs harshly. Courtney continued to sit perfectly still. Her head still bowed.
The silence was broken by Noah. He raised his arm into the air.
"Yes, shrimp." Chris acknowledged him.
"One of us is missing," Noah mentioned. He pointed to the empty chair next to Duncan. Everyone looked up. No one else seemed to have noticed. "Where's Izzy?"
"Good. Question. Noah!" Chris exclaimed. He slowly got up from his chair and walked to the window with his back facing the teens. "The six of you have had the easiest, safest and nicest lives out of anyone in the entire nation over the past 17 years. The amount of protection, wealth, leisure, and power you wield, have given you lives that I could have only dreamed that someone could live under my rule. And you six have no one but yourselves to thank for all that you have. No one but yourselves. Because you are the pillars of peace that this nation has rested atop the past 17 years. If even but one of those pillars were to have not existed, than the entire nation would have collapsed."
Chris turned back and faced them. "But with any support system, there is bound to be decay. After the past 17 years that decay has been happening and it is time to reinforce those pillars. That reinforcement comes in the shape of marriage. Your marriages will guarantee that this nation will stand tall long for years to come!" Chris walked up to the table and slammed his fist down. "That is why you are here today! That is what we are here to do! You are the pillars, I am the engineer to oversee the reinforcement to make sure it is a strong as can be. You've waited 17 long years, your parents have waited, your domains have waited, the whole nation has waited, but they wait no longer, the time is now!"
All five teens were completely speechless, deer in the headlights, balls of anxiety. Chris sat back down onto his chair and stretched out before sinking in it. "That's the speech I would have given but there's been a change of plans."
"What?" Courtney blurted out.
"You know what whole thing I went on about with the pillars and how if it wasn't six than it wouldn't have worked? As Noah has pointed out, there is only five you here."
"What's happened?" Alejandro also could not help blurt out.
"Izzy's run away." Chris press his fingers against his forehead. "In fact she ran away several months ago." Everyone was in complete shock. "We've kept it very secret, only a small few know. We've sent our best personnel after her but so far they haven't found her. You all know just how important you are and thus gravity of the situation. We're changing our plans accordingly."
"In what way?" Duncan asked with genuine curiosity.
"Well, all the festivities involving you kids are right out the window. In fact we're taking you out of the capital all together first thing tomorrow morning. The story will go that you six, now having been paired decided to show your dedication to God first, to thank him for your miracle birth. You will be going on a month long pilgrimage out in buttfuck nowhere, where no one can come into any contact with you whatsoever. That will hopefully give us long time to track down our current leads and hopefully find Izzy before you get back."
"What about the engagements? Aren't you going to tell us who you've chosen?" Heather needed to know.
Chris grabbed his cup and took a sip of water. "Yeah, no. The decree specifically states that all six of you must be present. It's pretty pointless anyway, like I said you're going to be off in the wilderness for the next month so no point trying to keep up any appearances. You will only have one companion each, whoever it is is your discretion. You all can wait another month right?" The teens were silent but Noah nodded his head slightly. "Good. Now for tonight you will be lockdown. You are not allowed to leave the private noble quarters wing of the castle. Don't even think try to escape to the festivities down in the city, that wing will be very heavily guarded."
He stood up in his seat. "Right. That's everything. You'll leave at sunrise. I will not see you off. Have a nice evening." With that, he grabbed his cane, and began to move towards the doors. Slowly the stone doors were pried open as he approached. Once he reached he doorway, he turned around, faced the teens, and flashed them a smile. The doors closed behind him.
The five teens sat quietly. Their bickering silenced.
Afterword:
Not much to say about this chapter really, except in the story description where it says they despise each other, they really do. Thank you everyone who have left a reply, follow or favourite. We love to hear what you think so make sure to leave a review.