Chapter 6 - Old Friend
A dusk, dimly lit rectangular throne room of cold stone stands with six flawless grey pillars at attention between the throne room's great mourning oak doors to the wooden throne, side-by-side in pairs of two. To the left and right of these stone guardians stood dusty tables and chairs, resembling an unorthodox hall that once held many feasts with bright braziers of light, hot food and drink for any who wished to join in fellowship with the king and his family. Now left to be nothing but buried in dust.
Adrian - King of Green Gold sat at one such table in his dimly lit, colorless throne room. He had washed his face of the tears that dried upon his cheeks, yet a darkened expression remained upon his face. Adrian had only the simplest of attire equipped - a white shirt, simple pants, belt, and a green, loose fitting jacket of cloth. If not for his crown, one could mistake King Adrian for a plainly-dressed landowner.
On a dusty chair, in the most plain of garments - Adrian sat at a dusty table with his golden crown in his hands...
In the shadow of the second pair of pillars, another figure leaned against the flawless grey stone. Concealed in the pillar's shadow, the figure spoke to the King.
"Long ago, two races ruled the earth: The Humans and the Monsters"
Adrian raised his head, recognizing the voice. He replied to it.
"One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. they sealed the monsters away with a magic spell."
Adrian stirred from his seat to face the figure who had ownership of the voice, continuing.
"It's good to hear from you, Lord Gael."
"... You've never believed those stories. Did you, my King?"
Adrian faced himself back to the table, returning his gaze deeply into the single sapphire jewel forged into his golden crown as he caressed it between his hands. He gave no reply to the voice. After his silence was heard, footsteps approached Adrian from the pillar.
"You never believed the other tales either then? The ones about how the land wasn't always this colorless landscape we've seen our whole lives? About the land having color?
"These myths, legends, and children's tales that were told to give us hope in such a bleak... future..."
Adrian had no answer. The figure known as Gael continued.
"Makes sense. The Empire burned a lot of the historical records and specifics regarding our new guests... However, our own castle library remained... mostly untouched by such an information purge..."
No response from the humbly clothed King.
"The Seven Great Sorcerers of the Gods would have had to create the seal in question that kept them underground... How does something like that just 'fall' one day?"
The king remained silent in his seat, fidgeting with his crown. The shadowed human shifted the subject.
"Legends built up around Mount Ebbot..."
Adrian took a deep breath, but spoke no words.
"Those who climb the mountain of Ebbot never return... Why do you think anybody would climb a mountain with such a reputation, my King?"
Adrian, after spending most of the conversation in silence, stood up from his seat - leaving his crown on the table. He turned to face Gael - still invisible from the shadows, save a glimmer of light that failed to illuminate anything beyond the outline, and Adrian replied to the shadow of the voice.
"Why would any sane, sentient anything want to live in this world, Gael? This land devoid of..."
The king stuttered, but quickly rephrased.
"A world where people have worried about where their next meal is going to be from, whether because of thieves or famine taking that from them?
"A world where cruelty begets cruelty simply because it can, and no one seems interested enough to notice until it's too late?
"A world where simple things- things like hope, compassion, virtue, love - these simple little things feel outright foreign...
"Answer me, Lord Captain Gael of the Green Gold Castle Guard... Why would any sentient living creature want to live here?"
Silence invaded the room... Then the shadow found his answer.
"Why did you, my king?"
Adrian took a moment to think. The humbly dressed king sat back down, returning to fidget with his golden crown with his gaze fixed on the single sapphire jewel forged into it. Memories trickled back into Adrian's thoughts. The shadow had asked the king a good question.
The shadow let his guard down - the voice softened, the tone readjusted - all as if to address a friend and not a king.
"Remember the first time we met, Addie? When we were young lads - Your father being angry about my village burning down. I had nowhere to go. Family gone. Had to be years before that Jyack kid was born..."
The human shadow moved forward toward Adrian. With not more than the sound of a chair's legs being dragged outward, Gael sat across from his King, a red cloak of velvet almost flowing from his concealed figure - giving away no detail, save that the figure belonged to a human. Gael continued.
"Your father took me in as a retainer, you took me in like an older brother..."
Adrian raised his head, replying to the figure in the red cloak.
"I remember those drills we did together... I remember running around the castle walls with you... Training with you..."
"Remember the time you nailed me on the forehead in sparring practice?"
Adrian let out a barely audible chuckle.
"I remember being worried when I did that."
"I remember it like yesterday. You going all I'm so sorry Gael! I didn't mean to hit that hard!"
Adrian gave another slight chuckle, then Gael followed-up.
"Thankfully it was just a bruise."
"You were bleeding all over the courtyard, Gael."
"Your father had a good doctor..."
Silence overtook the conversation again...
"Adrian... About the monsters..."
"They're not monsters, Gael."
"... Well... What are you going to do with them?"
Silence reminded the two that it was present in the room for another time, then Adrian replied.
"Nothing. I made a deal. We protect our people, they protect theirs. We don't touch them, and vice versa. Besides, We have more immediate matters... Gael... Did you find it yet?"
"... Addie..."
"... You didn't find him yet... Did you?"
"... Addie..."
"Two days, Gael... One to find hi-... his body. One to lay... Her... to rest."
The king got up from his seat - crown in hand. Adrian slowly paced towards his wooden throne - laying a hand on one of it's rests. Gael didn't want to speak, but he had to try.
"Adrian... He could still be-"
"He's gone, Gael..."
Adrian raised his voice, it reverberated throughout the room and it's stone. The cold, distant darkness that was all too familiar in Adrian's tone had found it's way back home, and Gael realized the mistake in his suggestion.
"In my heart... He's not coming back... In that single moment..."
Adrian turned to face Gael's figure within the red cloak. Despite his face being concealed under the red hood, Gael couldn't hide anything from his King.
"I want to believe he's somewhere out there, Gael... That... He's... Breathing... Waiting for us to come in and save the day... Alive..."
Adrian stepped forward, looking Gale in his barely visible, green-tinted eyes from across the room.
"When I rode toward that smouldering wreckage off the road... Saw my own wife... That smouldering wagon... Why would she have a sword in her hand... if it simply was bandits...
"I ran with her body in my hands, past the devastated escort guards... When I couldn't find him, my hopes raised... Somewhere around the corner, somewhere in hiding... I had hope... That I wouldn't find him, or maybe he'd find me..."
Adrian put a hand in his coat pocket, reaching for some small thing that wasn't visible, but it didn't mean it wasn't there.
"But the moment I saw..."
From the coat, Adrian pulled-out a white, wool pocket-rabbit. It had burn-markings in it's side and outer leg, and along the bunny's upper back and head was a purple-red stain. Adrian continued.
"One of the surviving guards of the caravan claimed... He saw my son... Heading towards Mount Ebbot with not one, not two, but THREE CROSSBOW BOLTS IN HIS BACK, Gael..."
Gael did not reply. He couldn't say anything... He could only listen as his king - a man he knew since childhood spoke in a manner cold, harsh, distant, and full of grief.
"I screamed for him, Gael. I called for my Jamie as our entire vanguard tore the woods apart looking for him. We went to Ebbot village- the closest source of refuge from the ambush site. He wasn't there!"
Silence triumphed in the room after Adrian's statement. The king lowered his head, a familiar clear liquid ran down from his eyes as his throat tightened. After a moment, Adrian straightened up and gave his friend one simple order.
"Two days have passed since then, Gael... I've already buried my wife...
"Bring my son home, Gael... Let us lay him... to rest... In our father's crypts... Please..."
Without a single word, Gael nodded - getting up from his seat. Without a second of hesitation, Gael - still concealed in his red cloak, left the room - the great oaken doors moaning once again as if in agony.
After a minute or two of standing in the cold throne room alone, Adrian dawned his cloak - fastening it around his body - same as before, save without his protective gear. Adrian felt somewhat lighter without his chain Hauberk and plate pauldrons, yet leagues less secure about his health.
I should at least wear my gambeson.
Adrian thought to himself as he went about fixing his cloak and coat's collar.
He took a moment to analyze himself in the mirror.
After thirty-two years of life... I feel like a husk of a person rather than myself... I could probably shave, maybe comb my hair, perhaps give the crown a day off... but I can't be bothered to care... I can't bring myself to do anything anymore...
A strange thought came to him as his mind strayed to the meeting between himself, Asgore, and Frisk.
That goat and I do look simila-... No. Perish the thought. He hasn't seen... He doesn't know that... Would his ambassador understand? Frisk may be a Child, but... That embrace from the meeting... The compassion... Virtue... The... emotion from that child's soul ...If only for a moment, I felt as if... No. Frisk is King Asgore's subject. She is the royal ambassador of King Asgore Dreemur of the monsters of Mount Ebbot.
That child is not my Jamie... And Jamie's not coming back... And neither is Lucy... Or my...
Adrian turned to his writer's desk with the giant dusty book on top of it - The Personal Chronicle of the King. He opened one of the desk's drawers - reaching in to pull out a heart shaped locket. Adrian opened the locket and read it's interior inscription.
Best Family Forever...
Many memories went through Adrian like a river current. He took the locket and wrapped it around his neck. Holding it's heart in one hand, Adrian grabbed a quarterstaff in the other - thinking to himself once again.
Jamie would've loved to have met you, Frisk... You don't know it yet, but your hearts are so much alike... I could feel it when you embraced me... His kindness, his compassion, his love for those around him... He'd probably ask you if there were any kid monsters to play ball wit-
A realization ambushed Adrian as if someone threw themselves out of a window.
Jamie was never told about the legends of MT Ebbot... He would have never known about the monsters... All he knew about Ebbot village was that it was on the other side of the mountain... Could it be possible that either Asgore or Frisk...
The epiphany did not let go.
The day of the Envoy's ambush was at dawn, day before yesterday. Spending that entire day looking for the prince, but never found him and spent all of yesterday burying the queen - my wife...
Frisk's interjection from the meeting earlier crashed through another hypothetical window in Adrian's brain.
Frisk: "We got out just yesterday."
They achieved their freedom the same day I was burying her... That leaves one day - an entire DAY for the... Monsters... to have possibly found Jamie's bod-... Maybe they could've even healed...
Out loud, in an otherwise quiet throne room, Adrian blurted out at almost the top of his lungs.
"I GOTTA TALK TO FRISK AND ASGORE AGAIN!"
In the drop of a hat, Adrian sprinted out of the throne room's doors - quarterstaff, cloak, crown and clothes. He bolted for the Castle's entrance.
A spark of something most fragile burning in his heart - Hope.
AUTHOR HERE.
So... Uh... I do have something going here, but I don't know which direction I want to go or what to expand upon.
I don't know what the audience wants to hear more about after this arc is over.
World building? Character development? UT Character's reactions to the surface, it's people, and the state of things?
I have only really scratched the surface of these things and haven't gotten any of these figured-out.
Also, I have not explained the New Guard's Oath and Asgore's New Royal Guard, so as a placeholder for plot convenience, the new guard is just there to escort their kind out of bad situations that might escalate between them and the Green Gold humans. Remember Toriel at the ruins when you encounter a froggit for the first time and she gives the froggit the glare? That's what the new guard does basically.
Next chapter's coming soon. I hope this one's scratched that itch until I can get the next one or two out.
Thank you for your patience.