Chapter 24 Long Live the King
Braig smirks to himself as he walks down yet another deserted corridor. He had spent the day staking out the castle in Whin and his patience had paid off. He had timed his movements perfectly and entered the castle during the switching of the guards. He had snuck past them without a single glance in his direction and now he is inside the mostly deserted castle. Most of the servants had been sent home and the inhabitants had long since retired to their private quarters. It seems no one is awake in the castle to see Braig creeping about.
All his surveying during the day had given him a basic understanding of the setup of the castle. He is currently on the south side of the castle where the public rooms are located. At this time of night no one is in the throne room or offices located on this side of the castle. Across the large courtyard in the middle of the castle is the north side. That side is his destination. The north side is private rooms for the royal family and somewhere over there is Prince Keric.
The corridor Braig is following opens right up into the courtyard that separates the two sides. In the dark of the night, the colorful flowers and big oak trees do nothing to liven up the depressing castle. Instead, the shadows cast by the trees adds to the gloomy atmosphere and the flowers look wilted. Not wanting to cross out in the open, Braig stays close to the trees, hurrying from one trunk to the other. If someone was awake and staring out the windows overlooking the courtyard they would see nothing more than a fleeting shadow disappearing into the night.
And someone is awake.
Braig freezes as a small yellow light blinks into existence on the north side of the courtyard. It bobs up and down slightly as it makes its way in his direction. He presses himself closer to the back of the tree and holds his breath willing whoever it is to go back to bed. Braig watches apprehensively as the light of a lantern appears around the tree. Whoever it is had chosen this tree to stop in front and Braig tries futilely to push himself even farther into the shadows. Footsteps crunching on fallen leaves halt on the other side of the tree and there is a soft thump of something falling onto the grass.
"Damn it," a voice whispers. He sounds young, only a boy. Braig relaxes knowing he could easily take one boy down if it had to come to that. The light swings wildly and there is more crunching of leaves as the boy retrieves whatever he had dropped. Braig listens carefully as he hears the rustling of papers. A book! He must have dropped a book.
The light swings around and comes to rest on a patch of weeds to the left of the tree. The boy moves away from the tree and crouches next to the weeds. Careful not to make a sound, Braig turns to see him while staying in the shadows of the tree. The boy's back is turned, but Braig can see he is dressed in expensive clothes and his dirty blond hair has been recently cut in a short style. Could this really be him?
The boy holds the lantern high so he can read from the book he has balanced on his knee. For a moment he remains as still as a statue, then he places the lantern down and pulls a pair of gloves out of his back pocket. Pulling them on, he whispers to himself, "Those idiots think it's just wild carrots."
Braig frowns. Botany had never been a strong subject for him, but the white flower heads of the weed the boy is inspecting seem familiar. He thinks hard, but can't place it. The boy reads from his book once more before taking one of the stalks in his gloved hand and examining it closely. With a nod of satisfaction, he places the book down next to the lantern and stands. With a grunt of effort, he pulls on the stalk until he rips the plant out of the ground.
While the boy wrestles the tall plant into the burlap bag he had with him, Braig moves slightly away from the tree in order to to see what the boy had been reading. There is a large picture of a plant identical to the one the boy had just harvested, and next to the picture is a name. Poisonous Hemlock.
Braig moves slightly and freezes as a twig under his foot snaps. The boy tenses up. He grabs the lantern and turns holding it high to look for the source of the noise. Braig holds his breath on the opposite side of the tree. He can hear the boy get to his feet and walk slowly in his direction. Without a sound, Briag reaches into his waistband curling his fingers around the gun he kept there. The boy is right on the other side of the tree and Braig has his gun in his hand. He decides to count down from 3 and jump out to surprise the boy.
3
2
1
The shrill shrieking of a bird on the far side of the courtyard makes Braig jump and the boy swings around to peer in that direction instead. "Fucking birds," the boy swears as he moves back over to his plant. He quickly gathers his things and hurries back into the castle the way he had come out blowing out the lantern as he does so. He runs right past Braig without noticing him in the shadows.
Braig moves like a ghost, following him to the corridor he had run down. It leads off into the north side of the castle, the royal families private rooms. The hallways here are as empty as the other side of the castle. Only Braig and the boy are up and about at this hour. Stalking the boy, Braig traces his steps through the maze of corridors and up several staricases.
As he peers around the next corner, Braig pauses seeing the boy had come to a halt as well. He had stopped next to a woman Braig recognized instantly and Braig pulls his head back before she sees him. Meleka.
"Prince Keric, where have you been? What is that?" Meleka asks. Braig begins to smile. He had been right. This boy is Keric.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Keric snaps. "Now go inform the cook to make my parents and I a pot of tea. Bring it to my room. I will deliver it myself."
"Of course sir," Meleka says at once. She hurries off in the direction opposite the corner Braig is hiding behind. Braig leans against the wall thinking over what Keric had asked for. He is starting to get an idea of what Keric is planning, and if he is right Braig knows the boy would be a valuable accomplice to Xehanort's plan.
Footsteps tell Braig Keric is on the move again, and Braig begins to stealthily follow him once more. Keric enters another hallway and hurries to the end where two red double doors stand alone. He goes through in a hurry and in his haste he doesn't realize the doors don't close completely behind him. Braig walks over and peers through the thin crack.
The room must be Keric's suite obviously decorated by someone other than the boy. All the light colors and vases of flowers must have been designed to bring a happy air to the front room, but somehow the light of the room dims with Keric standing in the middle. He drops the bag with the plant in it on the ground and sets his book on the table. He spends a moment rifling through it to find the right page and then he hurries to a desk. Opening the top drawer, he pulls out a mortar and pestle. He places them on the table next to the book and puts his gloves back on. After consulting his book once more, Keric reaches into the bag at his feet, and pulls out a small piece of stem from the plant he had harvested outside.
Placing it in the mortar, Keric picks up the pestle and grinds the stem quickly. He reaches back into the bag and pulls out one of the flowers. Adding it to the mortar and grinding it as well, Keric stands with a smirk. After taking a moment to admire his handy work, Keric begins to clean up. He carefully returns the mortar and pestle with his ground up hemlock back in the desk drawer. He closes the book and tosses it on the couch. Picking up the bag with the rest of the plant in it, he opens a coat closet and tosses it in the back, tossing his gloves in as well.
He turns back to survey the room satisfied that no one would be able to tell what he had been doing. He then looks down at himself seeing that his clothes are a little dirty from harvesting the plant. Will a final glance at the desk and a smirk, Keric moves to one of the doors leading off the front room and Braig gets a split second view of a bed inside before Keric shuts the door.
The soft jingle of china cups clinking together makes Braig jump up from his position. The sound gets closer and knowing he only has seconds before he is caught, Braig does the only thing he can do. He opens the door and hurries into Keric's suite. Leaving the red doors slightly ajar as they had been, Braig silently moves across the room and hides in the coat closet. He leaves the door cracked open so he can see as Meleka enters the front room with a tray of tea cups.
"Prince Keric?" she calls setting the tray down.
"I'm changing," Keric calls back. "Just leave it."
Meleka obeys and exits his suite. Braig stays in his hiding place as Keric comes back out of his bedroom in fresh clothes. He goes quickly to the desk and pulls out the mortar. He walks over to the tray and sprinkles his powdered hemlock in two of the three cups of tea. He takes one of the stirrers and quickly stirs the two cups until the powder dissolves without a trace.
Keric straightens up and glances over at the closet, frowning. Braig pulls away from the crack putting his hand on his gun once more. The door suddenly slams completely shut and Braig can hear Keric's muffled voice through the wood. "I gotta dump the rest of it before someone finds it."
Pressing his ear against the closet door, Braig listens as Keric's footsteps move back across the room and the china tinkles once more. Another door opens and Keric calls out, "Mom? Dad?" A muffled response is too indistinct for Briag to hear, but he does hear a door slam. Braig remains in his hiding spot straining to hear anything else. As the silence stretches on, he slowly opens the door a crack and then lets it swing fully open as he sees no one is there to see him.
He makes his way across the front room to the one door he has yet to see behind. He can hear voices on the other side. One he recognizes as Keric's, but he doesn't recognize the others, a man's and a woman's.
"Shouldn't you be in bed Keric?" The woman says. "It's late."
"I haven't seen you since you returned from Ghotri," Keric replies and Braig can hear the china tinkling.
"You should come with us next time my boy," the man says in a booming voice. "The food there is simply amazing."
"Maybe next time," Keric replies.
Braig moves away from the door frowning in frustration. He needs to be somewhere where he can see what is happening and not just hear idle chatter. A window catches his eye and he looks out. He is overlooking the courtyard below, but that isn't what catches his eye. A balcony is just visible out the corner of the window and from it's position Braig is sure there is a way out onto it somewhere nearby.
It only takes him a moment to find the door out onto it in Keric's bedroom. Closing the glass door behind him, Braig moves to the edge of the balcony and looks in the direction Keric had gone to see another balcony. Unfortunately, there is a 40 foot gap in between.
Braig grabs the railing to look down at the dizzying drop and his hand closes around something leafy. Squinting in the dark, Braig sees thick vines curling up the wall of the castle. Without pausing to let himself think about what he is doing, Braig gets a strong hand hold and pulls himself up on the wall. Slowly, but surely he inches his way through the vines and across the large gap without incident. A minute later he drops lightly onto the far balcony.
With silent footsteps, he moves to the window and peers in at an angle to see Keric seated in a chair across from a man and woman on a couch. The man looks like a strong man gone slightly to seed with age. His black hair is streaked with grey and Braig can't help but admire that the grey streaked hair somehow made him seem more dangerous. Beside him is a petite woman, with a narrow face framed by straight dirty blond hair. The woman has a striking resemblance to Keric, and the man less so. Both are holding tea cups. The window to this sitting room is cracked open and Briag can here the parting words spoken between the three inside as Keric stands to return to his room.
"Thank you for the tea Keric. It was a pleasant surprise," the woman says.
"Whatever," Keric says moodily, but he lets her give him a loving hug.
"We'll talk about the situation in slums more tomorrow, but I like your idea of inciting a gang war," the man says to Keric. "It would be just the thing to get some of those criminals off the streets."
Keric nods and begins to walk back to his own set of rooms. "Goodnight mom, dad," Keric calls back over his shoulder. Braig shakes his head in respect to Keric. Poisoning your own parents is truly a sign of pure darkness.
"I'm feeling rather tired," Keric's mother says. "Are you going to join me Rolam?"
Keric's father, whose name must be Rolam, replies, "I will Delisa. It's been a long day."
The two move through another door, and Braig moves stealthily down the balcony to the next window. This one is also cracked open to let the breeze in. Braig watches from the balcony as the king and queen prepare for bed. He can already see their movements becoming clumsy and they fall asleep a little too quickly.
A few minutes later, the bedroom door opens silently and Keric enters standing silently in the corner watching his parents sleep. Braig watches him trying to read his expression in the dark, but his attention is drawn away from the boy by the sound of labored breathing. Keric's mother, Queen Delisa, gasps in her sleep trying to breath in but finding it impossible. Soon choking noises replace her distressed gasping and then there is silence.
Nothing moves for a moment, then King Rolam begins to shake in his sleep. He gasps much like his wife, but his eyes open, nearly bulging out of their sockets. His mad eyes search the room coming to rest of Keric. "You..." King Rolam is able to gasp out before he loses his voice.
Keric just stares evenly at him. "I did what had to be done," Keric replies moving closer to his father as the king tries to get out of bed. However, his limbs are paralyzed from the hemlock and he only manages to fall from the bed. Keric makes no move to help his father, instead he stands over him with a small smile of amusement. King Rolam's face turns blue as he gapes like a fish out of water. He makes one more futile attempt to reach up to Keric, but his eyes roll back in his head and his hand falls with a thud onto the ground.
Keric remains where he is, staring down at his father whom he had killed. The smile on his face grows larger and he lets out a bark of laughter. "I'm king now," he says with glee and, still laughing slightly to himself, Keric leaves the bedroom and his parents, presumably going back to his own room for a good night's sleep.
Braig remains on the balcony until the sun rises and the castle begins to bustle with activity. "King Rolam your presence is requested in the conference room." The pompous voice comes from the king and queen's sitting room. "King Rolam?" The voice asks and the bedroom door opens as a servant enters. He jumps in shock as he takes in the king sprawled on the floor and the queen lying in bed as white as a ghost. "King Rolam! Queen Delisa!" As the servant runs in screaming and then runs back out calling for help, Braig decides he has seen enough. Taking his leave, he summons a dark corridor as Xehanort had taught him and leaves Carinol far behind.
...
Xehanort turns around to face Braig as he steps through the dark corridor and into the small cave Xehanort was living in. "Well?" Xehanort asks.
"Oh I'm fine thanks. How are you?" Braig replies with a smirk. Xehanort just glares at him until Braig rolls his eyes. "Alright, here's what I got and mind you I risked my hide to get it."
Xehanort waves off his comment without acknowledgement, "Proceed."
"Right so long story short, there is this Prince Keric guy who used to beat on that Ven kid," Braig says. "They had some kind of abusive relationship. Anyways, Keric is lookin' for Ven, he wants him really bad if you know what I mean. Oh and Keric killed him parents off last night so he seems like a pretty dark little dude."
Xehanort mulls over this for a moment stroking his goatee. "So this now King Keric wants power at any cost. Interesting." He looks over at Braig. "That is all I require of you at the moment. Return to your homeworld until I call you."
"Oh goody, I can't wait," Braig says sarcastically as he disappears once more through a dark corridor.
Xehanort mutters to himself as he paces around his one room cave. "A malicious little boy who wants Ventus and power...this Keric and I have a lot in common. He will be just the pawn I need to take from Ventus what is mine."
SnowKawasagi: I haven't decided yet about Riku and Marlene. I might make them a couple but I might not. For now I'll just let the procrastinator in me push that decision off till later.
Mexi: A dark chapter as promised. Pooh Bear! I love him, but his world is so boring. That might be his only appearance in this story.
MLSoT: I like your idea, but I already have this whole big thing planned out for Keric and Ven. However, the scene you described is actually kinda similar to a scene I'm planning a long way off with Ven, Zack, and Vanitas. Sorry no fluff in this chapter :( Maybe some Terra and Aqua stuff next chapter, not really sure.
robyn little: Hmm...Maybe if it comes up and they're alone together, but I don't think so.
What do you think of Keric? Braig's opinion is that he is "a pretty dark little dude", but I want to hear your opinion of him. Things are going to take a turn for the worse for Ven, but not quite yet. Ven is still very much in the dark about Xehanort and his plans, but he's starting to realize ignorance isn't really bliss.
What happens when Ven confronts Master Eraqus about what Yen Sid said? Well you'll have to wait till next chapter to find out the answer.