No one especially wanted to be awake - sleeping was a great way to avoid feelings - but, equally, no one wanted to miss anything, and they were all on edge, so it wasn't difficult for Danny to wake them up.
The remaining Royal Family of Avlynys, descendants of Queen Gwensyvyr the Great, scions of the House of Dyrys, members of one of the oldest noble lines in the so-called global west, gathered around the dining room table in their pajamas or rumpled travel clothes. Iris and George - who were twins, like Prince Theodore and Princess Isabella had been twins - were wearing matching monogrammed bathrobes. Irene, their mother, Matthew's wife, had only a short nightgown on, and kept her arms crossed firmly over her chest as she moved. Eugene's eyeliner had smeared over half of his face, and a packet of airline peanuts was sticking out his front pocket. Leo didn't have a shirt, but was making up for that by dragging his comforter downstairs. Jazz was wearing a full set of button down pajamas - and Danny was glad he hadn't had a chance to change, because his set was the same, and that would just be embarrassing. Jack hadn't changed out of his jumpsuit. The circles under Maddie's eyes made her look like she'd just gotten out of a fight.
Very regal of them. Really.
They shuffled into place around the table, as if every motion pained them. The ghosts flowed around them, making room, filling in gaps. The ghost with braids stayed by Danny, standing to the side of his chair. Vivian went to stand near her brothers.
"So, what did you need to tell us, Matthew?" asked Maddie.
Next to Danny, Jazz visibly winced. Maddie and Matthew hadn't always gotten along, but they'd hoped that, given the circumstances, things wouldn't immediately dissolve.
Matthew sighed. "The Assembly has been debating our next steps. Considering what's happened…"
"What has happened?" asked Eugene. His eyes flicked around the table. "We didn't get a good explanation at any point. Have any of you?"
There was a murmur of negation.
"There–" started Matthew. He looked down at his hands and closed his eyes. "At the planning session for the Moon Masque, Grandfather - King Alfred - started to…" He trailed off. "Sorry," he said. "I don't think I can be detached about this. We thought he was having a heart attack. Then Grandma fell over and… We called 112, and while they were trying to do CPR, Mom started to- started to- it was like an allergic reaction, she just–"
"Matthew," said Joanna, "don't. You don't have to- to describe it."
Matthew nodded. "At that point, we thought it might be poison or- or some fast-acting disease, so we were all taken to the medical wing - haven't actually brushed my teeth since they gave me that charcoal drink… And about a dozen shots…"
No one said anything, but they leaned forward to listen as Matthew's voice grew quieter and quieter.
"They said Mom and Uncle Theo just… swelled up and stopped breathing. Like it was anaphylaxis. But it wasn't as if we were around anything we weren't around every day. And Grandma is completely unrelated to Grandpa, so." He stopped, biting his lip. "They sent us to the hospital once they ran out of things they could do. They gave William so much epinephrine…Or maybe that was the normal amount, I don't know." He scrubbed his face.
"What about Vivian?" asked Lewis. "Have you found her, yet?"
"No," said Matthew. "The call that the Home Guard couldn't find her came in about the same time… It was about the same time William- that your father was… His heart just gave out. Then Martin, he held on the longest, but…" Matthew shook his head.
Vivian was crying again. Heck, everyone was crying again, including Danny.
"Then it was just me, Dad, and the in-laws. And Dad started to… He's still at the hospital, for his heart. And…" Matthew blinked, as if only now remembering something. "And where's Sophia?"
"Mom's upstairs," said Lewis. "She didn't want to come down. Vivian wasn't at the planning meeting?"
"No," said Matthew.
"She said she was going to go," said Lewis.
"You need to tell the Home Guard that. Do you have the non-emergency number?"
Lewis pulled out his phone in response and started typing on it in lieu of an answer.
"The doctors are running tests for everything, but they haven't found anything, yet. They still might. It hasn't been long. But, for now, that's it. That's all I know."
That wasn't a lot to go on. Danny looked up at the ghosts. They hadn't seemed particularly excited at any part of the story, which would seem to imply that it was accurate enough and didn't contain any new information for them.
"After I was released, I went back to Kyr Argyn - that whole wing is blocked off, by the way - and I've been with the Assembly since then. Trying to figure out… trying to figure out where to go from here."
"And what did they decide?" asked Maddie, significantly more softly that the first question she'd asked Matthew.
Matthew flexed his hands before laying them flat on the table. "They declared a state of emergency."
"Of course," said Maddie.
"And… They want me to take the throne immediately, so we have a full government. To… deal with whatever this is."
The ghosts exploded. Figuratively. Not literally. They stayed human in shape. But the news agitated them, and they gestured wildly to one another.
Meanwhile, Joanna was the first of the living to respond to the news. "But you can't! The trials–!"
"Couldn't be held until the next full moon, regardless. We don't have time. And I don't see you volunteering for the job, Joanna."
"Honey," said Lady Irene. "Are you sure?"
Matthew nodded. "Someone needs to do it."
"But the spirits," tried Joanna, "they won't–"
"I don't think the spirits are watching, Jo, and even if they are, they don't care." He pulled the cracked green eye pin from his lapel and tossed it on the table. "It might as well be an omen."
"If you're finally moving past the superstitions, we could all just… not," said Maddie. "Avlynys doesn't need a monarchy."
"But they've made it quite clear that they want one. The Assembly isn't chosen by lot, Maddie. They're the voice of the people."
"Did you even bring up the option?"
"Of course I did. Believe it or not, I am also a human being living in the modern world. They want our family to maintain its traditional role. And they want me to be crowned tomorrow. Are you all prepared to be witnesses?"
.
"Vivian's dead," said Danny to Jazz the moment he got her alone.
"What?" said Jazz. "But- You- She's just missing."
"Her ghost is here," said Danny. "I guess- I guess most of the ghosts here are too weak to manifest fully, but… She's here."
"She's… here," repeated Jazz. She sat down on her borrowed bed. "She's dead?"
Danny nodded. Jazz closed her eyes for a long moment, then seemed to pull herself back together with an expenditure of will.
"Does she know where she was? Where her body is? Even if she doesn't know where, exactly, maybe she could describe it?"
Danny looked at Vivian. She opened her mouth, closed it, and gave Danny an apologetic and miserable look.
"Maybe," said Danny.
"Maybe?"
"They can't talk. None of the ghosts here can."
"There's more ghosts here than Vivian?" asked Jazz. "William? Isabella? Grandma and Grandpa?"
"Not that I've seen," said Danny. "There's just… There's a lot of them."
Jazz rubbed her eyes. "Maybe you ought to start from the beginning."
.
They didn't enter through the front doors. Even before cars, Kyr Argyn had an area to discreetly offload nobles from carriages, and the whole area had been secured, so it wasn't as if anyone was there to see them 'sneak in through the back.'
They weren't the only ones coming through this way. The Assembly, formally the Assembly of One Hundred, was in full attendance. The Assembly was, as far as Danny knew, unique in how its members were chosen.
Every citizen of Avlynys had a sponsorship. They could give their sponsorship to any other citizen of Avlynys, or keep it for themselves. Four times a year, sponsorships were tallied, and the one hundred citizens with the most sponsorships became the Assembly, and the number of sponsorships they had at the last tally was their voting power. Geography wasn't taken into account.
The government of Avlynys maintained a website that kept active track of sponsorships, and a citizen could change who they were sponsoring at any time. Danny understood that it made for some interesting politics. He also understood that, previously, in an effort to have as many people as possible represented, the requirement had instead been a certain threshold of sponsorships, but that had somehow managed to be even more chaotic.
In any case, Kyr Argyn was busy, even outside of the more public hallways, and the family was most definitely not traveling down the more public hallways.
This part of the palace was sort of a museum that wrapped around the doorless back of the Assembly Hall and radiated outwards into the rooms that sprang from it. There were Avlynyse artworks here that dated back to Roman rule. It was open to public viewing, on sparse but regular occasions, but the rest of the time the hall and its artifacts were the domain of those who worked in Kyr Argyn and the odd archaeologist.
Today, they were just using the museum as a way to cut past the crowds.
"I hate this place," whispered one of the security personnel escorting them. "It always feels haunted."
The ghost woman rolled her eyes. Danny was highly tempted to do the same. This place? Haunted? Sure. Was that significant in comparison with everywhere else Danny had been in Avlynys since landing? No.
"Focus," snapped Mr. Kynbaz. He'd been on edge all day. Probably because he was currently in charge of the safety of the entire remaining royal family.
"Remember," said Maddie, leaning down to her children and whispering. "We're only witnessing. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to answer any questions."
Danny nodded… and was immediately distracted by the ghost woman stopping in front of a door. When he looked over his shoulder to try and see why she had stopped, other ghosts started to join her. She looked at Danny, pointed at the door, and stepped through.
Danny looked up at Vivian, hoping to get a better explanation, but she was too focused on staying near her mother who, to be fair, looked like she was suffering from a major depressive episode… which she probably was.
Mr. Kynbaz would probably kill him for this himself, if Danny got caught, but… When no one was watching, he let himself fade to invisibility and backtracked to the door the ghost woman had gone through. He phased inside, and let go of his invisibility. He must have tripped a motion detector, because the lights in the room came on.
The ghost was standing in front of a large, Roman-style floor to ceiling fresco, next to a placard on a small pole. The fresco depicted a woman in ancient armor holding a spear and scroll. The fresco was an unmistakable likeness of the ghost woman, right down to the braids.
The placard in front of the fresco read 'Gwensyvyr Dyrys Avlynyse I, also known as Gwensyvyr the Great, Gwensyvyr the Enchantress, and Gwensyvyr the Phantom, First Queen and Monarch of Avlynys.'
Gwensyvyr waved at Danny.
