Arthur's eyes took a second to adjust. Even the dim glow of the garden was too much for him. He was hardly paying attention to what the Jack was saying.
It was a bit creepy that he was being specifically searched for, but this wasn't the time to dwell on how weird it all was. His blindfold was off, and now he needed to plan his escape. There were surprises around every corner.
When his eyes finally grew used to seeing again, and he was able to keep them open for more than a few seconds without blinking rapidly, Arthur took in his surroundings. The area he was held in was spectacularly beautiful, to his amazement. Lightning bugs flew lazily from plant to plant and all around him. Huge ancient looking trees towered above him and seemed to reach into the sky, which really wasn't a sky, but a ceiling. It was a good enough look-a-like though, covered in millions of glow-worms. Some of different colors and sizes, and each almost exactly like the stars outside.
The bench he been laid on directly faced a river, though it was really just a channel when it came down to it. It was connected on both ends to two matter how hard Arthur tried, he couldn't tell which way the channel flowed.
On his left was the largest lake. It seemed to be even larger than the entirety of the meadow—a stark contrast to the one on his right, whom one could struggle to call a lake at all. It looked to be just a very deep pond.
Yao watched the young man as he gaped at the garden in awe. How strange. He had been told to expect yelling and screaming. Maybe even a curse or two.
He shrugged. Only a fool complained about a subject not being difficult. Yao picked up the goblet, holding a solution he had spent all of the previous night preparing. It had been hiding in the shadow beside the bench, but now that it was free it glowed a soft sapphire blue. The solution cast light on the beautifully carved goblet that, just as easily, could have been mistaken for some kind of crudely made cup carved by the most novice of cutlery makers. It was an ancient tome passed down for generations... and the only one strong enough to hold the drink. Whatever the reason, the goblet was probably the most important object to the Spades kingdom's continuing existence.
"Drink this," said Yao, holding the goblet out to Arthur.
Arthur barely spared it a glance before responding.
"No, thank you."
Yao was not in the mood to have his patience tested. He pushed it towards him again.
"Uwah! I said drink!"
"I said NO!"
For the last time, Arthur was many things, but a fool was not one of them. There could have been any matter of strange concoctions in that cup. He should know. He had brewed his fair share of them.
Yao was never quite in control of his temper, and this stubborn brat was in danger of making him lose it. It had been a while since anyone other than that stupid prince had dared to disobey him. Maybe the Queen just needed a reminder of the position he was in.
"I could have you killed in less than a second. Now DRINK!"
Arthur scoffed at the weak threat.
"I'd rather be dead than convulsing in a pile of worm vomit"
...
"Worm vomit?"
"Not particularly pleasant."
"Isn't that... dirt?"
"Exactly."
Arthur held Yao's gaze. He wasn't about to fall to the challenge. It was almost an insult to believe he could be so stupid as to drink strange mixtures brewed by his kidnappers.
Yao was shocked at the sheer attitude of this Queen. He had never had to deal with bullshit like this from the last one. She just listened and drank. Kids these days...
If it came down to it, Yao would just force the drink down his throat. That sounded so much easier. His hands were already tied too. It wouldn't take much more than—
"What the bloody hell are you planning? I'm not drinking that thing and that's final!"
Tell him it's Foxtail's drink~
Yao raised a brow
"Foxtail?"
"What about her?" asked Arthur.
Really, what could Foxtail have to do with any—oh!
...
Did the man honestly think that made it better?
What did these people eat?!
"You cannot seriously believe that makes it any more okay."
Arthur flushed in anger. He was very aware of his, still very restrained, hands.
Yao didn't know what to say. "Uh... yes?"
"Who the bloody fuck are you?"
How appalling! thought Yao. How could someone so vulgar be destined for Queendom?!
"Watch your tongue, aru!"
Arthur had had enough of this. He concentrated hard on the feeling of magick coursing through his veins and his eyes started to glow. They were dim at first but grew brighter and brighter. He could feel his body swell with new-found strength. He chuckled at the Jack's stupidity in taking off the blind fold.
Using his power, he made the ropes tying his wrists fall like dust to the ground.
"Nice to finally have these back," said Arthur, flexing his wrists. Other than a slight ache, they seemed to be in fine working order.
Arthur smirked at Yao, expecting to see a terrified reaction. What he got instead was... disappointing. The man looked more annoyed than awe-inspired.
If Arthur wasn't such a gentlemen he would have probably done some showing off, and done something to really amaze him.
Yao sighed in exasperation and reached out to grab Arthur. Before he could get a good grip on him, however, the boy shot up into the air.
Arthur wobbled a bit as he flew higher and higher. It had been a while since he had last flown, and his sore limbs and the general lack of his usual energy certainly didn't exactly help.
He looked around the garden for an exit or an escape of some sort, but found nothing. All around the garden just seemed to be an endless expanse of forest terrain. Wasn't this place supposed to be underground?
He tried to fly forward in one direction, but found that he quickly lost his balance and swung around violently before he managed to catch himself. For now, he figured it would be better to just float.
He glanced down at Yao below him. He looked like one of the figurines he would see in the window of the crafts store during some of his brief visits to the village. The thing that really caught his interest, was the image of the two lakes.
As he floated higher, his view of the lakes and the surrounding area grew larger. He swore there was something strange about how the trees grew around the bodies of water. Hell, the lakes themselves looked weird. They both were straight-edged at their ends and curved towards the middle into the channel. Almost as if they... no, it couldn't be. Yet, that was exactly what it was.
The entire area was a gigantic hourglass.
Arthur's shocking realization was slightly tempered by the other slight problem he had noticed. Where in the hell was the bloody ceiling?! He had been floating upwards for about three minutes, and yet he was still no closer to the ceiling than he had been while he was on the ground.
Yao was decidedly unimpressed with Arthur's attempted escape. He had expected something, but not this. Yao really didn't have the time. He decided to go with the more expedient option.
While Arthur was distracted and still in one place, he busied himself with finding his special whip that was hiding somewhere in one of the pockets of his sleeves.
Yao finally pulled it out and unfurled the long, braided, metal rope. It was divided into several links from largest to smallest, starting from the base of the whip to the end.
After a quick check to make sure all the links were in order, Yao struck his arm out at Arthur.
At first glance, Yao's whip would appear to be, at the most, two meters. But this whip was special; it was forged by an elf clan using the flames of a great blue serpent. An ancient beast, rightfully slain several hundred years ago by the first Jack. He took the whip from its lair and it has been passed down to the next successive Jack ever since. The magick it was made with, was the driving force behind its unexpected ability to extend beyond its reach.
It came as a nasty surprise to Arthur, whose right leg was snagged by the whip just as he thought he might have finally found his escape.
With a strength unrivalled by many, Yao heaved Arthur back down to ground level. Luckily, in Arthur's opinion, he was not heading for the ground but instead for the small lake.
Yao knew better, though. He had aimed just so Arthur would land in the water.
But not to save him.
Oh no.
Arthur had lost his chance at having this be a painless experience. He was going to have to take it the hard way.
Arthur had left his stomach back up in the air above him. He was taken off-guard and barely even noticed the velocity with which he was heading for the water, landing with a splash much sooner and much bigger than he expected. Of all the water crashes he'd had the pleasure of experiencing, this actually wasn't that bad. It was, in fact, a bit fun.
That is, until he was attacked with a shock of nearly unbearable pain.
Matthew wanted to assure Arthur that everything would be alright, but, in all honesty, he wasn't quite sure himself. As he walked out of the garden and up the stairs, he wondered what he was going to do.
He had abandoned all thought of telling lord Aleric what Arthur had told him. The knight would have field-day with this.
If anyone would know what to do, it would be Gilbert. Even if he acted like a self-absorbed, thirteen year old drunkard most of the time, the man had learned quite a few things in his day.
It had even ceased to surprise him when Gilbert would gaze at him with those ruby-red eyes of his, shift his snow-white hair out of his face, and say something amazingly thoughtful out of nowhere.
It was almost a sure thing that Gil would help him see the bright side of this debacle.
It really shouldn't have been a big deal in the first place. No one actually believed in faeries anymore. Accusations were rarely pursued, and there were usually more important matters to deal with.
The problem was when people confessed. Then they would have to be put on trial, no matter how little anybody cared.
People usually got off without execution, but once in a blue moon, enough evidence would be produced that no matter what anybody did, there was no saving them.
Four people had been executed since Matthew first learned these laws existed. Hopefully, Arthur would not be next.
It was hard enough watching a stranger die—the royal family had to be present at all executions, but they were all just faces to him. He felt as if Arthur could have been a good friend.
Maybe he could have shared some of his magick secrets.
Matthew paused at the strange thought. Why would he care as to what kind of information pertaining to magick Arthur might have? It was not as if he planned to ever practice the craft.
He sighed and continued on his way.
Kaoru was getting frustrated. At the pace things were moving along now, he would never finish. He watched as Matthew walked down the hallway and turned the corner. He had been following him for a while now, but there was no need to anymore. Arthur had made it here. That was all he had needed to do.
Now it was time to move onto the next part—except there were a few unexpected delays, mostly just some errant fae causing trouble. Rest assured, they were being dealt with.
While he waited, he figured planting some ideas in the prince's head would be worth a try. It would take a while for the thoughts to take root, but until things decided to start going at a faster pace, he had nothing but time.
If only he had something to alleviate his boredom, though.
Kaoru sighed, and changed himself into a cat. He lazily waltzed down the hallway, keeping an eye out for a nice place to catch a nap. He'd help Yao if it seemed the man really needed him.
Okay, so this came out a bit later than expected. I'm not going to make any excuses. The chapter isn't even that good. It would have been worse though, if SakuraMoriChan hadn't gotten to it before I managed to use words to torture you.
I'm not going to make any promises about updates, but please bare with me. I'll try to be regular.
Also, this story finally has a title! Yippee!
PLEASE review~ You don't understand how much that helps me. The more reviews there are, the more I'm compelled to write~