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9.

Hear About The Changing World

After jerking awake because of his slightly disturbing nightmare, King Severus tried to fall asleep again, but after about an hour, he gave up on trying it.

Feeling grumpy and less rested than before falling asleep for the second time on this morning, he screamed for a servant to prepare a bath for him.

Impatiently, he paced the room while a few servants carried in buckets full of warm water and a tray with a variety of differently smelling soaps. As soon as they had filled his bathing tub, he ordered them to leave him alone.

Undressing hastily, he picked a soap with honey and milk from the tray and placed it on the small wooden table standing next to the big tub. He released a relieved sigh as he climbed into the warm water and layed down, feeling how his muscles relaxed and the layer of sweat that had covered his skin was slowly fading.

It took a few minutes until the alcohol induced fog in his mind cleared away, but as it did, he at least felt better physically. His thoughts were still in an uproar, even though he was already trying hard to calm himself down. Deeply inhaling the scent of the soap he used to rinse his skin, he tried to shove the images of his dream away, but still an uncomfortable feeling stayed behind, lingering in the back of his mind.

The water had cooled down a lot when he finally climbed out of the bathing tub and dried himself up with a wool towel before he dressed himself.

In the throne hall, another mahagony table had been placed, so the king could have all his maps closest to the symbol of his power, the throne of Ulidia.

Unfortunately for him, the bath had backfired a bit – the moment he had been able to relax, the memories of the last night had come back again, and with it all the disappointment about himself. How could he, who normally had a splendid control over his mind, allow a woman, who he had barely seen for a few seconds in his entire life, to invade and influence his thoughts? She was throwing him into a different kind of chaos, one of which he was not the master. While he should concentrate his mind on his plans for the kingdom, he could only think of her and mull about what he had imagined to feel about her.

He was extremely frustrated by now, and due to this his mood and behaviour towards everyone around had worsened even more. Letting out his frustration on the servants as they served him his breakfast, he screamed at them for being too slow, for not showing enough devotion towards him upon entering the throne hall, for not having strawberries on the plate of fruits, even though he knew fully well that strawberry season was over by now.

But well, being the king gave one the benefit of being allowed to scream at people randomly, he thought sarcastically as he took a sip of his tea. Also, he could not deny that he kind of enjoyed to see their scared faces when he threw a tantrum along with a goblet full of milk that was not hot enough and did not have enough sweetness due to too little honey.

Until noon, he haltingly worked on a possible attack scenario on the neighbouring kingdom Airgialla, having to stop from time to time because his mind kept wandering away, as if his whole spirit was searching for these golden eyes and the hint of magic they had left behind.

Surely his servants must have wondered why their king was staring at his map, only to slam a palm down on the tabletop a few seconds later, cursing loudly while starting to pace in front of the table, glaring into the room.

Before the servants were ready to dish the lunch, Ronan entered the throne hall. Obviously he had already heard about the moods of their master, because when he approached the king, he made sure that he bowed as deeply as possible, watching every single one of his steps carefully.

Severus was just pacing yet again as he saw Ronan approaching him, trying to ban these wicked, enchating eyes from his thoughts, but for a short second he seriously thought about sending Ronan through he whole castle to search for the woman with the golden eyes. All he wanted was for her to stop distracting him from the really important things in his life...

But immediately, he wiped this idea away – chances were that he would be able to forget her if he never got to see her again, but if he had Ronan find her to have her brought to him – there surely only were a few worse faults he could make. The woman already was enough of a distraction and he did not wanted to imagine what would happen if he had her close to him.

"Ronan. What brings you here?" He asked and ran one hand through his black hair, realising that he had obviously forgotten to place his crown on his head.

Though he was already enjoying all the power he had, he still had to get used to really making a symbol of this power out of him. A king had to be representive, but he, he had been standing in the back rows for all his life. It had always been clear that he would never have any important position in the monarchy, while Quinn had been prepared for the throne since his birth.

Severus hurried to fetch his crown from the crimson velvet pillow it was placed on, right beside the throne, and placed it on his head.

Ronan had waited respectfully until his king was prepared properly before he explained:"I thought you might like to hear about the new tidings the messengers brought. Just... just so you are up to date..."

"Yes, speak," Severus demanded, nodding at Ronan while saving his precious maps and blueprints from the plates the servants were carrying in, obeying to the order he had given them earlier, to have everything, from meals to meetings, take place in his throne hall.

"Speak, Ronan, tell me which ones of my enemies will never cross my plans again and how far our troops have come."

"My king, our men have reached the coastal towns nearest to the valley by now, and have searched them. The treasures they found are being brought back, and the merchant ships are secured, nobody will be able to leave the port without our permission. Unfortunately, it could be possible that some of the men searched for as traitors were able to escape via ship before the troops reached the towns. But still, we were able to capture some of your enemies, my king, and they were executed on the spot. Meanwhile, the men you selected took over the political control over the towns and ports and are executing your orders. They are giving their very best, though they had to cast down some minor uproars."

He looked extremely cautios, as if he expected the king to get aggressive again upon hearing that it was very likely that some of his enemies had escaped and that his control over some parts of the kingdom was not as steady as he wished. News or suspicions could travel fast sometimes, and the smoke from the villages in the valley had surely been an indication that something was wrong.

Informants had also told them that Severus' strongest opponents had heard rumours about his plans to attack Blackdown Stronghold and King Quinn, and from that day on, they certainly had started to prepare for a scenario like this. A few lookouts and some fast riding messengers really could have been enough for them to be alerted and make an escape.

To his surprise, though, Severus only nodded calmly, expressing that he had understood before he seemed to sink into his thoughts for a moment. He could not bother about the people that had escaped, or better, he could not bother about the most of them, as at least the half of them surely only were small fishes in the pond. What he did bother about though were the big ones in the pond, those who were really important to him.

Those who had the powers he had tried to possess... and had denied to teach him. He had been able to learn them anyway, but the path he had been forced to go down for it had been a lot longer and a lot more difficult. It had taken him several years more to reach the point of skill and knowledge he was at now. Years that had been taken from his great plans, he had been forced to modify all his ideas as the tides in neighbouring kingdoms changed, his perfect occasion for taking over the reign ruined.

Also, these men were strong, charismatic leaders, just as his brother Quinn, and some of them even had known connections to Niall, Lorcan and Fianna. Niall was out of the way, of course, but he knew that this was not enough.

They still were able to form a strong opposition, and their alliance would surely have no problems to gather followers, unless he was able to kill off enough of the strongest ones, so that the whole organisation would be weakened. Fear and a sharp sword were supposed to be his strongest weapons in his fight against these threats. As soon as the normal folk would see that even the most hopeful figures of a rebellion were not able to escape his grasp, they would think twice about openly opposing against him. They would have no choice but to follow him if they wanted to live and protect their families.

And Lorcan and Fianna and their most loyal followers, they would stand alone, stripped off the support they needed to fight against him. There would be no secret weapons, they would have no hope left, and all they would be able to do was flee from Ulidia or surrender to him, hoping that he would show mercy and would kill them immediately, in the courtyard of the castle without many witnesses. But well, maybe he would decide for something else, a way that would give him way more satisfaction and also repayment for the years he had been forced to live in a poor, inhuman exile.

Yes, maybe there would be a big execution with hundreds of spectators to watch how his siblings and their people were humiliated before the executioner would bring an end to their lives.

However he had also thought about the possibility to make them his slaves. Their tongues cut out, they would be robbed off the power of the word, and after some conditioning, they would never be a harm to him and his plans again...

But first, there were other things to take care of. Before the executions, he had to have the traitors in the custody of his men, and by now, he did not have any of those men who were important.

"What about Hooch?" the king asked, hoping to finally hear some good news about this man, but the shocked expression on Ronan's face and the way he hesitated and did bite his lip told him that he would be disappointed yet again.

"He... he has not been found yet, my king...," Ronan admitted, his eyes fixed on the stone floor, his muscles tense in nervousness. "It... it could be that... maybe... well, maybe he sailed away on a ship and..."

And he really did not have to wait long for the explosion. A cry of fury escaped the king's lips and he wiped the maps off the tabletop in anger.

"What kind of dumbheads did I hire, Ronan?! It can not be that difficult to find this man and bring him here! There as to be some kind of a damned trace!" Severus screamed, and Ronan stepped backwards. "I want him here, as fast as possible, and I want to kill him myself!"

"But, your highness, remember, we still have his daughters in our custody..."

"And?! Did you get anything from them?!" Severus snapped, making one of the servants, who carried in his lunch, jump in shock.

"I... I ordered to have her questioned in this moment, but they were not able to get any informations out of her yet," Ronan answered, gulping hard.

"Then make her sing!" the king demanded loudly, grabbing a plate of fruits from the hands of a servant that just walked by and threw it against the wall that was closest to him.

Ronan stared at him with wide eyes before hurrying to leave his king alone, fearing any punishments.

Severus turned around, letting his gaze wander over the plates and bowls with food, trying to calm himself down. Sometimes he felt like he was surrounded only by incapable and incompetent idiots who were not able to follow even the most simpliest instructions.

It seemed to start with his breakfast, continued with the horribly smelling wheat mash spiced with rosemary he detested but still the cook continued to prepare it, and ended with the soldiers who were unable to find Hooch. Well, and also with the men in the castle who were not able to properly question a girl to get any informations about someone they were desperately searching for.

Delegating tasks was obviously not as good as he had always thought and he felt burdened by having to wait until others were successful.

He just hoped that his men would finally be able to get some results, or he, the king, would be forced to take matters into his own hands.