Eventually Isis pretended to calm down enough to be examined. They quickly cleaned her up and led her to the throne room. She had changed from her riding clothes into a slim gown. The servants, not knowing what else to do, placed the shell-shocked girl on the King's throne.
"Isis…Your Majesty…" Gunther, Luke's advisor, choked on his words, his eyes brimming with tears of loss. He had been like a second father to her for years, and Isis was sure that the deaths of her brother and father would have hurt him as much as they should have hurt her. "I don't know how to tell you this…but, the King…both of them, they are dead." Isis just stared at Gunther and didn't respond. "Isis?" He reached out hesitantly and grasped her hand as tears began to cascade down her face. She only stared and after a long moment, Gunther pulled her into a loving embrace when she began to sob. He gestured for the remaining servants to leave the room and only spoke when they were gone.
"I know Isis, it's hard, but we have to get through this. The Kingdom…there's no one to rule. You're going to have to take their place." Isis only sobbed harder as he held her at arm's length, his expression sad. "I'm sorry Isis, but you're our only hope. We need you." Gunther stroked her hair and consoled her for a long time as Isis cried until she ran out of tears. He wiped them away with a caring hand, his face somber. "Will you do it Isis? Will you rule the Ice Kingdom in your brother's stead?" Isis nodded remotely and Gunther seemed to relax as if she had lifted a great weight off his shoulders. In a way, she probably had, for she had made his job of finding another ruler incredibly easy. After more consoling comments, Gunther escorted her back to her room where Isis was finally left alone. She flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, a slow smile slowly spreading across her face.
She had done it!
In days time she was going to be the Queen of the Ice Kingdom! Her coronation was to take place in three days. Isis couldn't believe her luck! She thought she would have to plead her case to become the next ruler, but the Ice Kingdom was desperate enough to make her the next ruler, even if she was female. Isis had to keep herself from laughing. Things couldn't be more perfect! She gleefully hugged her pillow to her chest as she daydreamed about her coronation. It would be so different with her the one being crowned. All she could remember about Luke's coronation was the sadness she felt that it wasn't her being made Queen. Everything else had been a blur.
At the thought of Luke she sobered. She had to remember why she had done all this in the first place. She couldn't end up like her brother and run her home into the ground. No, she needed to save her Kingdom, not destroy it. Isis sat up in her bed and wandered over to her desk where a pen and paper waited. The rest of her day was spent thinking up plans to save her Kingdom from all the destruction her brother had caused.
Her coronation had been a wonderful event. It was a day that she would always remember and she finally had the Crown! The moment it was placed on her head she felt centuries of power flow through her veins. All her ancestors had been ordered to place their powers and knowledge into the Crown for future users. Without even picking up a spell book, Isis could recall spells that she had never even seen before by thinking of a problem she needed solved by magic. It was amazing! That day Pepper had traveled to the Kingdom again to receive her antidote. Isis gave her the antidote and sent Pepper on her way to tell Gumball that she was to stay in the Ice Kingdom because she had been asked to rule in her brother's stead due to his horrible reign. It wasn't entirely a lie. It was true, she just didn't mention that she had murdered her brother in order to ascend to the throne.
Isis ruled the kingdom for four years. In that short amount of time she had raised the Ice Kingdom to the height of prosperity. She had urged the Candy Kingdom, which she ruled as well, to send in more soldiers to battle off the Fire Kingdom and set limits to the trading rights that the Candy Kingdom was entitled to. With that, economy began to flow into the Kingdom and people were able to prosper again. Food was not a rarity anymore and people could hunt without fear of being molested by the Candy Kingdom soldiers. Her home was rich and abundant again and Isis was living the dream, but all dreams come to an end.
Gumball, a faithful husband and lover, waited patiently for Isis to return. He missed her dearly and was sad that she had to stay in the Ice Kingdom for so long, but he knew that it was necessary. He understood the situation and they communicated all the time due to Pepper's almost constant trips to the Ice Kingdom. He had always been curious as to why Pepper made so many trips, but no matter how many times he asked, Pepper would not divulge the information. One day, Pepper approached him though. She was sweaty and nervous and her eyes darted around the room constantly. Concerned, Gumball stood from his chair, his eyes worried. With Isis being gone, they had become friends, and she was a loyal subject, it was only natural for him to be concerned.
"Pepper, what's wrong?" He asked as he took her hand and guided her to a chair. Pepper sank gratefully into the plush cushions and leaned back against them, closing her eyes. "Pepper?" He prodded gently with his voice before disappearing into his bathroom to get a wet cloth. He returned and gently dabbed her forehead. Her hand suddenly shot out with the tenacity and speed of a snake's strike and latched onto his wrist. She opened her eyes and stared at him unseeingly. Her voice, usually chipper and carefree, was void of any emotion as she spoke to him.
"Gumball….J.R. was murdered…" Gumball frowned and continued to wipe her forehead with the rag. He was concerned. Pepper seemed to have forgotten that J.R. had been killed long ago, that they had all agreed to keep his death a secret to avoid the unrest of an entire kingdom.
"Yes, Pepper," he said softly, humoring her, but Pepper impatiently swatted his hand away. It was a pathetic attempt, but Gumball stopped like she wanted him to. "J.R. is dead. He's been dead for four years now." Pepper groaned and tried to speak again but it seemed like she couldn't speak for some reason. He peered closer at the old maid. It looked like it took her a lot of effort to tell him anything when she had been just fine a few minutes earlier. Gumball then remembered a similar situation when Pepper had forgotten to go to the Ice Kingdom. She had been sweaty and fatigued, but talking hadn't been a problem. What was going on?
"J.R. killed…by…Is…" Pepper started coughing violently, so hard that she coughed blood into her hand. Alarmed, Gumball stood up to find help but Pepper grasped his hand to stop him. "Is…Isis. She…did it." Pepper's arm dropped and she fainted, exhausted from some unknown exertion. Aside from her fitful breathing, the room was silent as Gumball stared at the maid. Isis? Isis had killed J.R.? Why? Gumball's face darkened as he remembered all the times she had come to him battered and bruised from J.R.'s recent tirade. Okay, it's not hard to think of a reason, he thought to himself, but that didn't justify that she had killed someone, and the Isis he had known would never had done that no matter what. The marriage had changed her, and even when they had been together Isis had been different. All her actions had been off, as if she had been going through the motions of being with him. Yes, they had been happy, the happiest they had been in their lives, but Isis's mind always seemed to be somewhere else. Or rather, in another Kingdom.
Gumball knew about Isis's ambitions. They had talked about ways for her to become Queen of the Ice Kingdom, though all of them had been outrageous and never taken seriously. It had gotten to the point where Gumball had thought Isis didn't really want to become Queen, that she had created a lie for them to start talking to each other. Despite the shocking news Pepper had just delivered, Gumball found himself smiling at the memory where Isis suddenly appeared in the stables announcing that she would be the next Queen and he would have to do her bidding. She had looked adorable and Gumball knew then that, even if she wasn't Queen someday, he would follow her to the ends of the earth. But now the memory was tainted, shadowed by Isis's very real ambition to do anything to become Queen. Had she really done it? Would he take the word of a maid over his one true love? Gumball gazed at Pepper who was finally stirring and he felt shame.
Pepper wasn't a maid. She was his friend, and it wasn't long ago that he had been a servant. He berated himself lightly. He still was! He just had the title of King, just like Isis wasn't really his wife. Pepper slowly woke to the concerned face of her friend and she smiled up at him. "Now…now you know." Gumball nodded and wiped her forehead again. Pepper didn't bat him away this time and he grasped her hand tightly. Could Pepper really be right? Had Isis killed J.R.? Was she really capable of such an act?
"Pepper? Why didn't you tell me this earlier? Like, four years ago earlier?"
"Isis…cast some sort of spell. I'm not even supposed to be able to talk about it." She paused. "I wonder why I can talk about it now?" As if one revelation gave her the courage to reveal it all, she told Gumball how Isis had poisoned her and how the new Ice Queen had orchestrated the whole thing. All Gumball could do was listen because he was afraid that if he did anything else it would make all that he was hearing real. He couldn't believe it. There was just no way.
Isis would never do such things.
