Francis took the top of the stack of papers, perhaps five inches, and placed it on the floor next to his desk. He then took the next paper and placed it in front of him. All of this paperwork needed to be completed, but he figured mixing it up a little bit wouldn't change anything as long as he finished. He was just really sick of looking at finance reports. Apparently, everything on the top of the stack was finance reports. Everything he had done in the last hour was a finance report. He never wanted to look at anothter finance report again.
This new paper was from the Council. Apparently they wanted to grant the royal library money to increase their science section. He denied the request. It was a wonderful idea, but the treasury didn't have the funds to support whimsical things to benefit only the upper class.
Next, a plan for improving roads throughout the kingdom. It seemed like a good idea, but he could requests the province governments pay for it. Nah, the people hated the crown enough as it was. The Crown paying for the improvements would give a better impression, plus it might encourage trade within the kingdom and-
There was a puff of smoke and the Red Joker stood before Francis's desk. He looked furious.
"Hello Red," Francis said in surprise, "What can I do for you?"
"Absolutely nothing!" The Jokers snapped.
Francis frowned, "I'm sorry to hear that. Why are you here?"
The Red just glared at Francis for a moment, "I have no idea!"
With a puff, he was gone.
Francis stared at the place the Red had stood. That was weird. Francis hopped the Red had gotten the wine he had left. It was good stuff and the Joker struck Francis as the the sort to appreciate good alcohol. Hmm. Francis wanted to befriend the Joker. He still wasn't sure why, but it seemed like a good thing to do.
Francis's eyes moved from the Joker's previous location to the stack of paper on his desk, then to the stack on the floor, then to the stack on the chair acrossed the room that a servant had brought five minutes ago. His eyes moved back to where the Joker had stood, then to the door.
Francis tried to feel guilty about it as he stood and started toward the door. Nope. No guilt what so ever. He opened the door and nearly ran into the guard standing there.
"Pardon me!" Francis said quickly, "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were there."
The guard spun around and saluted, "Sorry sir! I was posted here to keep you from being disturbed."
"Thank you!" Francis said with a smile, "You've done your job well."
Francis smiled at the guard and the guard shifted uncomfortably, but didn't move from blocking the doorway.
"Well?" Francis said pleasantly, "You are dismissed."
The guard shifted and looked at the ground, "I'm sorry, sire. I am stationed here."
"Please report to the captain and tell him that you need a new station." Francis said easily and made a shooing motion, "Tell him I'm doing well."
"You see sire," The guard said nervously, "I was stationed here by Jack Vash."
Francis's face fell. "Vash?"
"Yes sire."
"You were stationed directly in front of the door?" Francis tried to put the honey back into his voice.
"Yes, your Majesty." the guard refused to look up.
"To keep me from being disturbed?" Francis managed to smile and his voice was like silk.
"Yes, my lord." The guard seemed to be shrinking back into himself.
"And to keep me from leaving?" Francis didn't think he had ever made his voice sound more diplomatic in his life.
The guard could only nod.
Francis sighed, but was careful to still sound pleasant, "Oh well. I guess the Joker can wait."
The guard grew stiff, but didn't move.
"You know, as King I rank higher than the Jack?" Francis smiled winningly at the guard even thought he still haven't looked up.
"He said you would say that." The guard sounded miserable, "And to tell you that your duties as King rank higher than your personal agenda."
Francis could almost see Vash standing in front of him looking disapproving. Francis sighed again and turned back into his office and closed the door behind him. Why did Vash have to make his life so difficult? There was a semi-demon-god-thing that needed him right now.
Francis walked behind his desk and opened on of the big windows that looked out into the garden. He clambered out of the window as gracefully as he could manage, then straightened his cloths and started back inside. He walked quickly and purposefully, pausing only to dart behind doors or into alcoves to avoid the occasional servant and guard. He reached the throne room without being discovered, but hesitated before entering. The Mirror Room was behind the thrones and to get there, he would first have to get through the emptiness of the throne room.
If he was very lucky, no one would be in the throne room. He put his ear to the door and listened. All sounded empty. Besides, he was King, he had every right to go to his throne room. Francis cracked open the door and peeked through. Seemed empty enough. He summoned his courage and threw the door open, sprinting acrossed the pretty, polished floor as fast as he could go. He threw open the door to the joker's room and darted inside, slamming the door behind him and quickly locking it.
Francis gave a sigh of relief then immediately felt ridiculous. He didn't just race through his own throne room and lock himself in here just to avoid Vash, right? Just the idea of racing through his own throne room, so as not to be seen, was insane.
Francis brushed himself off and surveyed the room. It looked about the same as how he had left it, minus the wine bottle, glass, and his note to the Joker. Francsis wouldn't help but smile. He felt like he was getting a grasp of who the Joker was. Though, the random appearance of the demon was unnerving.
Francis walked over to the mirror and peered at himself. He had always fancied that if he squinted he might be able to look through to the other side. He placed one hand on the glass and to his surprise it rippled like water. He jerked his hand away and watched as the ripples grew small and the mirror grew flat yet again. Francis steeled himself and stepped through the mirror.
Cold washed over him and an overwhelming serge of magic raced through his body. The room on the other side of the mirror was huge, empty, and dark. The strange mists that had appeared when he had first met the Joker crawled acrossed the floor and seemed to move toward Francis as he stepped away from the mirror. Ah, it wasn't totally empty. At the far end, Francis saw a raised dais with two thrones and a table set in front of them. Cards scattered the table and floor around the thrones. As Francis walked slowly closer to the thrones, the mists at his feet seemed to grow thicker. His foot steps where muffled and apart from the swirling of the mist, all was still.
"Red?" Francis said, "Red? Are you here?"
As Francis drew closer to the thrones, it became more and more apparent that he was alone.
The very air in Clubs Castle seemed heavy. Ever breath was cold and the silence was oppressive. Rodrich walked slowly through the empty rooms and looked over everything. The walls were stripped of decoration and the little frunicher was dusty. Most halls were unlit, the rooms empty and devoid of life, there was no movement.
Usually none of this bothered Rodrich, this was a low time for Clubs, but he had always believed things would get better. The latest letter from the Council had left him feeling as empty as the castle.
Snippets of words raced around in Rodrich's head. He didn't recall all of the letter, and didn't want to. However, those dark lines kept returning.
The Five and Seven are ill with the plague.
The Ten has resigned.
The last of the crops were destroyed by the early onset of winter.
The Three and Two have asked that the Council take control of the Kingdom.
The Nine is missing.
The troops at the border have started deserting in droves and going home.
The plague has reached the center of the Kingdom.
Rodrich barely had a Council. He had a small group of very scared people trying desperately to grasp on to some straw of reliability and sanity. His life had been anything but reliable and sane recently.
Then there was Ivan and Elizabeta.
Rodrich squashed those thoughts before they had time to form. There were somethings he wasn't ready to face and the problem of the King and Queen were one of them. Rodrich's steps slowed to a halt. He was in a side corridor that led to the servant chambers. He turned. He knew what to expect.
More empty rooms.
Most of the servants had been laid off to cut down on crown spreading, but now there were none. The royal guard consisted of ten members and the cook continued to work only because she was promised room and board for free as well as a stipend of fire wood.
Rodrich knew there were things he ought to be doing right now, but he also knew that there was nothing he could do. Requests from the merchants, pleas from his generals, the piles of financial reports, there was nothing he could think of to fix them. He was Jack and powerless. Clubs was bankrupt, it's population sick, and it's government barley limping along.
Ivan had been the one to suggest visiting the Joker and asking for a solution to at least one of those problems. To learn that the Joker was incapable was not heart breaking; it ripped Rodrich's heart out and burned up the last drop of hope he had contained.
Rodrich's feet brought him back to the throne room. He opened the door and walked the great hall without hesitation. There stood the two monarch's thrones. It had never bothered him that the Jack didn't get a throne. He was Jack, the magic behind the scenes that made everything work well. Except now.
He walked up the steps of the raised dais and sat down on the floor between the King and Queen's thrones. Here he was. The balance point between the two heads of state.
The Jack looked out over the empty hall. The kingdom was falling apart around him.
"Rodrich?"
The jack turned at the voice in surprise. Elizabeta looked down at him in concern and walked slowly beside him, "Are you okay?"
Rodrich looked away, "Everything is falling apart, your majesty."
"I asked if you were okay, I know everything else is terrible." She spoke mildly and sat down in her throne, looking out over the throne room.
Rodrich just shook his head, "I'm sorry you were given a broken throne and shattered country."
Elizabeta sat back, "The throne seems fine to me, it's just everything else."
Rodrich sighed, "It would be nice if 'everything else' would get it's act together and behave."
Elizabeta chuckled darkly, "Maybe if we asked nicely, Misfortune would go bother someone else for a while."
"And then everything can go back to normal." Rodrich wasn't sure he recalled what 'normal' was like, but he knew it would be significantly better than this. Anything would be significantly better than this.
Elizabeta smiled at him suddenly, "If this is rock bottom, then things can only get better from here, right?"
"This is not rock bottom." Rodrich said, his voice emotionless, "Clubs could go into a state of anarchy or just all die of starvation and the plague in the next few months. Things will be getting worse."
Elizabeta frowned, "No, I don't think so. Things will get better."
Rodrich hated how optimistic she was. Sometimes reality was harsh and all she was doing was lying to herself to keep from facing the truth. Why couldn't she see that? Clubs was going to fall, fail, and be gone. The next kingdom conference would be about how to evenly split up what used to be Clubs kingdom.
"I think we should worry about keeping the people as happy as possible." Elizabeta said, "Let the soldiers go home, it will keep them from deserting and their families from hating the crown."
"If we do that, they will bring the plague home with them." Rodrich let his head drop into his hand and stared at the floor.
"The plague has already gotten to the center of the Kingdom, they are currently deserting in desperation to get home." Elizabeta's voice had grow cold, "We have two options, we can let them go home, or we can explain the situation to them again and hope they don't desert. We need them home to help feed their families and we don't need their families feeling bitter about the crown."
"What about the plague?"
"It is out of our control at this point. We need to get medicine from one of the other Kingdoms, but we are beyond the point of controlling it's spread."
Rodrich could feel the Queen's eyes, but he shook his head and looked up to match her gaze, "So, you want to let all of the troops disband, go home, and try to get by while we try to get medicine and feed the population with the little reserve food we have?"
"Yes."
It was a better idea than anything he had come up with, but it was so simple. It seemed too easy. Too stupid. Too fragile to work. One hitch and they would be defenseless. If the mill workers went on strike, if the troops rebelled, if no other kingdom would trade-there was just too many 'ifs' that could tear the plan apart.
However, it was better than anything he had come up with.
Again, sorry about slow updates, but here we go! I feel like Rodrich's section is weaker than usual, oh well. Constructive Criticism is appreciated! Please Review!
