Hector hated the kingdom of Corona, but he really did like being here. The kingdom was so bright that it gave him a headache. The people were annoyingly cheerful, and Hector didn't believe it for one second. Nobody was that happy all the time. If it was real happiness, he'd get over it. He would accept that it was just a difference in cultures and lifestyles. But he knew this wasn't real because the Coronans seemed so shocked and almost frightened when anybody showed any raw anger, or sadness.
Either there was a magical spell over the kingdom that made the citizens physically incapable of feeling negative emotions, or a big part of their culture was to mask and hide when they were feeling something anything less than pure joy. They hid how they really felt because it was seen as socially unacceptable, and they quietly judged people who didn't do the same.
The criminal system here was a joke. Hector was used to the Dark Kingdom's harsh methods. If somebody did somebody to threaten the moonstone, they were arrested, banished, or executed, depending on the severity of their crimes. It could be cruel at times, but if the moonstone fell into the wrong hands it threatened the safety of the entire world.
But they'd been a kingdom full of death. They lacked food, and had a surplus of orphans. Thievery was common. They didn't arrest common criminals who were just doing what was necessary to survive. If they did that, they would have run out of citizens long before Edmund sent them away. Instead the royal family found guardians and shelter for the young thieves in their kingdom, setting them on the right path and giving them a chance.
Corona wasn't like that. They were harsh on all criminals, not just the extremely dangerous ones. One of Hector's nephews had nearly been hanged because he'd stolen a useless crown, and his other nephew had been arrested because the king didn't know how to handle his problems like an adult.
But Hector still liked being here, because this was where his family was. There was Varian, who was as loyal as the best of the Brotherhood. And there was Eugene, who Hector could still remember holding in his arms when he was an infant. He didn't know Eugene as an individual, but twenty five years ago he had promised to protect him with his life, and those feelings had not gone away after all this time.
Quirin had changed a lot after all this time, but Hector was enjoying getting to know this new him. He was far more relaxed than he'd once been, but he was still Hector's brother. Quirin had offered to let Hector stay with him and Varian in Old Corona, and it was a tempting offer, but he wanted to be near Eugene. He wanted to actually get to know his nephew beyond just the vague memory he had in his mind.
It was clear that Eugene didn't really like him around, but Hector saw how tense and stressed he was all the time. Eugene was looking out for an entire kingdom, taking on the role of the captain of the guard and the prince consort. That was a lot of responsibility to throw on somebody who was in their mid-twenties and had been looking out only for themselves their whole life.
Eugene didn't understand how bad a position he had been put in. The princess was naive of his responsibilities. The king surely knew what he was doing to Eugene, and he simply didn't care. So it was Hector's job to get Eugene to loosen up and remember that he was allowed to have fun sometimes. As a knight who also put his duties above everything else, Hector understood just how draining it could be. Eugene was going to end up working himself to the ground, and be ashamed for not being able to do more.
Eugene would probably deny that he would end up like that. He would accuse Hector of projecting. And maybe he was, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from keeping his nephew from making the same mistakes he had.
Hector tried really hard to do what Eugene asked of him, partially because he wanted his nephew to like him, and partially because he was his prince, and Hector's only purpose in life right now was to serve the royal family of the Dark Kingdom. Because he was still making the same mistakes he'd been making for twenty five years. He didn't know what else to do with his life. It was too late for him.
Sometimes Hector felt like he was making progress with Eugene. He was able to convince him to patrol the forests in the middle of the night with him, to embrace the wild side that everybody in the Dark Kingdom had in them. He saw Eugene smiling genuinely more, and not just grinning or smirking in that Coronan way that was meant to mask how he was really feeling.
But with every two steps forward they took they seemed to take two steps back. Hector would do something oblivious to Coronan's laws or protocols, and Eugene would have more work on his plate because of it. Or Hector would have a run-in with the guards, and that would always ruin Eugene's day.
Hector really hated Corona's guards, and the feeling was mutual. He'd made a really bad first impression. Hector had heard about the guards before he properly met any of them, and Varian didn't have kind words to say.
Varian hadn't tried to turn him against the guards, Hector just knew by looking into his eyes that he'd gone through something horrible, and he didn't know how to deal with it. He knew that Varian felt guilty about everything he'd done, but guilt wasn't what he saw. He saw fear.
Varian had told all of them what he'd been through and what he'd done, but Hector pulled him aside to learn more. It took some convincing, but Varian eventually opened up to him about his experience specifically with the guards. Varian was starting to move on, but he was scared of Corona's guards, and he didn't know how to get past it.
They'd thrown Varian out into a blizzard. They'd terrorized him for weeks, isolating him from everybody else and trying to scare him into submission. And though Varian claimed they'd never hurt him in the dungeon, they threatened it and promised that the only thing holding them back was the fact that he was so young.
Varian hadn't have any hopes of getting out of the dungeon, and he'd had more than a few panic attacks at the thought of the impending torture that would fill his life in just a few short years.
People shouldn't be isolated or live in constant fear and hopelessness. It was enough to drive anybody insane, and Hector couldn't blame the kid for taking the out that was given to him. And he definitely couldn't blame the kid for being afraid of the guards. Especially since Varian didn't know which ones were just doing their jobs and which ones were sick sadists who used their positions of power to get away with hurting people.
Hector hadn't intended to antagonize the guards, because he knew that he wouldn't be the one to pay for it, Varian and Eugene would be. The guards would think that Varian had set him on them, and they would blame Eugene for not keeping him in line.
Hector's first interaction with the guards could have gone much better. He had been using their training grounds, because it had been empty at the time and he had thought that access was available to anybody, with priority given to the guard. If someone had asked nicely, or even passive aggressively, for him to leave, he would have.
Instead one of the guards had commented from the side that he couldn't believe the riff-raff that they let in the castle. Another guard had chuckled cruelly and said was it any surprise, considering the princess' lowlife boyfriend and the walking disaster that was the royal alchemist.
Nobody talked about his nephews like that. Hector swung his blade around and nicked the guy across the cheek, not doing any real damage, but sending a clear message.
"The only riff-raff I see are you show ponies masquerading as sorry excuses for guards." Hector had growled. That had put him on all of the guards' bad side. Those who witnessed it either agreed with what their companions had said, or they hadn't heard any of it and they just saw Hector lash out for no reason. The guards who hadn't been there just heard about it from the others, and of course Hector was portrayed as the crazy one.
The guards tried to put Hector in their place. It really didn't work, and that was infuriating to them. Hector could easily go toe-to-toe with them, but Eugene had specifically asked him to pull back. He didn't want to give his nephew any more reason to hate him, and as captain of the guard Eugene should know how they worked better than he did.
Hector tried hard to behave himself, and he thought that Eugene was slowly starting to warm up to him. They seemed to be having more good days than bad days, and maybe he'd said something to the guard, because Hector could count on one hand the number of incidents he'd had with them over the past few days. Everything was fine, but Hector always screwed things up eventually.
He didn't try to do anything wrong. He actually still thought that he was in the right. He'd just been walking in town when he saw a kid just a little younger than Varian running down the street, looking more desperate than any kid should. He held a coin purse in his hands, and there were no less than four guards chasing him. It didn't take a genius like Varian to figure out what had happened.
In one fluid movement Hector stepped in and grabbed the kid's arm, stopping him in his tracks and spinning him around so that Hector was between him and the guards. The kid shouldn't steal, and the coins should go back to the person he took them from, but he didn't want to just hand the kid over to the guards either. Hector would take him to Eugene himself if he had to.
One of the guards reached for the boy. Hector growled and brought out his blade.
"Lay one finger on the boy and you'll lose a hand." Hector said lowly. He recognized one of these guards as the one that this had all started with. With the way the guard was glaring at him, he hadn't forgotten the incident any more than Hector had.
"You're interfering in our work." The harsh guard said.
"Your job is to carry out justice." Hector said. "Unless you're more incompetent than I thought, you shouldn't need four full grown men to pursue a child. The fact that that's exactly what you did tells me you didn't have justice in mind, you had cruelty, and I know just what you guys do to misguided kids."
"Your troubled nephew doesn't have any idea what cruelty means." The guard hissed. "I would be more than happy to give you a demonstration."
"Your captain wouldn't allow it." Hector said. Eugene wouldn't tolerate cruelty towards anybody, even prisoners.
"My Captain is ignorant of the responsibilities that come with his position." The guard said. He clearly had no respect for Eugene. "We can let him know. I've been dying to show him." Hector had a bad feeling about this. He wanted to show this fool what would happen if he even tried, but Eugene's words about not resisting the guard came to his mind. Eugene said he would deal with them. He'd asked for Hector's trust, and he knew a thing or two about blind faith.
"Let this kid go." Hector said. He could feel the thief trembling in his grip. He'd probably more than learned his lesson. "Never let me hear another disrespectful word about either of my nephews come out of your mouth, and you can give me whatever demonstration you like."
Two of the other guards exchanged conflicted glances, but the jerk in front just smirked, his eyes glistening with a maliciousness and greed that Hector knew all too well.
"Very well." The guard said. He stepped forward, but the last of the guards grabbed his arm and stopped him before he could get to Hector.
"I don't agree with everything Captain Fitzherbert does either, but he's not going to let you get away with this." The other guard warned. He didn't really care what happened to Hector. He just didn't want his coworker to get in trouble.
"Getting away with something implies that I'm doing something wrong." The jerk looked Hector in the eyes. "I'm just sending a message to a problematic family. They all think they're above the law. They hold positions of power in our kingdom, even though they're foreign rats. Even after what happened to the brat they still didn't learn respect, so I guess we're going to have to make the message more clear."
"So, for the crime of aiding and abetting a criminal, and attempting to manipulate the monarchy, you're being brought in to learn a lesson about where your place is." The guard leaned closer and lowered his voice so only Hector would hear him. "And if you resist, me and some of my friends will pay a visit to Varian. Maybe he's a better learner than you are."
Hector growled, but didn't fight as he had handcuffs put around his wrists. He was pushed back towards the castle, and he went willingly. Eugene had told him not to fight the guards. There was no way that he knew what they were doing. But he would find out. If Hector was being officially arrested, and he was if this idiot was trying to pretend that he could get away with this, then Eugene would find out about it sooner than later. He'd get an official report. One that probably claimed that Hector deserved this and left the guards no choice, but a report nonetheless.
Hector was brought to the dungeons, and he couldn't help but remember when he'd tried to come down here before. He'd just wanted to see what conditions Varian had been exposed to. Now he was going to see it for himself.
Hector was dragged past the cells and brought into a large and damp room that was clearly meant for interrogation and torture. Varian said that he'd been brought in here once after he'd been especially unruly. They chained him in manacles that had him dangling in the air, unable to even reach the ground with his toes. He'd been left there all night as a warning as to what would happen should he upset the guards again.
Did Eugene even know that this room existed in the dungeons? As captain, he should. But why would he allow it? Why did it still look like this room was still in operation?
There were a number of manacles on the wall, all at different heights, and Hector had the feeling it wasn't to accommodate people of different sizes. He was proven right when he was pushed to his knees and the handcuffs were removed, only to be replaced with manacles. He was held to the wall in an awkward position, and it only got worse from there.
The guard went to another wall and grabbed an iron collar and some chains. He looked down at Hector with a sneer. "Sit up." Hector growled and glared at him. The guard's expression darkened. "Sit up now, or I'll reconsider keeping up my end of the deal." Hector breathed out slowly and adjusted his position so he was kneeling upright and his hands were about level with his head.
He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as the guard put the collar around his neck, pinching his skin when he latched it shut. The guard then took the chains and used them to connect the manacles to the collar. Hector knew that if he tried to move to a different position to give his legs a rest, the short chains would be pulled taut and it would put pressure on his neck. He didn't know if it would choke him or not. He didn't want to find out.
"You act real tough for a mongrel." The guard grabbed a whip off the wall. "Let's see how long that lasts."