War Has Come While Night Hath Fallen Over our Faire Kingdom -

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Chapter 15: Corruption at its Roots – Seeds of Dissonance

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A heart felt chirping bird greeted the sweet prince as he rolled to one side. The aching bulge was still not entirely ripe as with a groan, the sun continued to shine while he lay sweltering in his…husband's bed.

The bird flitted by the window cill. It's colors were to a northern bird from the forests there. A Robin, he'd read from one of Timothy's many books in the castle's library. The teenager in his wanted to rest and drown out the sounds. The days forth warning had turned to lesser than a week. His back ached a bit more each time he slept with the king there to infect his dreams and daydreams. No word of the court's having at home in any way had been spoken since the date the king had come clean. That Richard would be sent with the tyrant to live in the mountain palace of the barbarian lord. As his queen, his bride.

Shivering under the dozen sheets that encased his bloated stomach, the man in his was not well rested. Seeing closer upon opening his lids – that the king was already roaming the halls, the boy had to wonder if he'd been in trouble before ever rising. He panicked; the Robin scooting off and into the air as it took on its journey back to its lover's nest.

Wide awake, the boy scampered to seek out the door, to see if he had locked it tightly. If the king was punishing the boy for being lazy, maybe. Or just cruel…why alone?

The teenager shoved at the doorway, only to find it….

Unhinged.

Almost, broken. The dust motes that floated by the stained glass across the halls was a delirium, to one living in total blankness of mind and spirit. He wandered with the fear and curiosity of a child, scouting for spooks and fae in the twilight hour. Yet the halls were silent, aside from footsteps the boy made in his bare slippers. He walked, caution aching to touch and pull him into the early shadows of midday. How long? How long??

He ran now, something harming him most of all.

"No….no, it is too soon. .. sire!!" He cried as the feeling of loneliness dug its talons into his flesh. The throne room just ahead, he pushed at the doorway, watching it sway to be greeted by disaster so early on…

Richard gasped, his eyes betraying what was.

A pair of jesters hung on to the side. Bright red blades in their hands. A massacre of guards, orderliness and…courtesan of the current king.

All lying dead upon his rise.

Stone cold, while upon the king's seat sat none other than Grandl. Beside him, the witch Selene.

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"PRINCE." The boy gasped again, the deaths by the tens and more. "What have you done??"

"I've taken what was rightfully never his to begin with. Or, should he have brought you along…" The cruel blonde son looked tiredly over to the cowering, angry son of Wayne's lineage. "You….you are despicable for this. ..this onslaught-

"And here I thought you would be happy for us. The kingdom may indeed belong to I, yet you are with child." Smirked the boy with all of the answers still unspoken.

"Selene tells me the baby's time is still far from its course. What if I were to propose that you stay, as my loyal concubine. The child wouldn't care who's blood it shares anyway. Father's is rich with the god of Defencia's gift. We know it your Romani – ya heritage as well. A unique specimen …If you decide to stay and reject father forever, now that he hath been imprisoned by my troops, ye shall have even a side at my court. As the delegate for the country of the Great Bat. Gurten – Stahl." (Gotham City.)

The great bat. There was no such –

Richard thought about the aggressive ways the Wirlon family had done to blind him from his real role. As the son and prince to the throne of the Great capital he'd come to care for. "As yours, in your bed." Richard hissed through fixed teeth at the blonde "You'd be no better than your father. What if my king comes to claim me?" The boy's eyes became all encompassing as Grandl looked away awkwardly. "Then, he shall be given trial. Sent away as you once wanted him too. All I want is to know how you would in fact govern in your father's place."

"The king is not dead…" Richard left his hands to his sides slowly. It was too late to lie about it. They already had word possibly through a network.

"He lives, you say?"

Grandl though, was the first to hear the news. The two, Jaime and Harlin both looked at one another and shrugged. This was supposed to be their takeover as well. Was Richard going to be able to stall in time for the king to rise again and reclaim his capital?

"Ye needn't fret over a lowly thing as that, my dear mother to be." Snickered the new ruler. "Have a look. That way yonder. There was a war and it was won by your people. The very dregs of this social order your FATHER cast to the s8lums and the sewage pits they call home. Your sister wished to revel in a rebellion, well?" The son did not stop. Richard's eyes bled more worry for them than the absent kings.

"My siblings…there is no way you could hath discovered –

"That you were the one to seduce poor Wallace to let Timothy go free?"

Richard fell back and his heart was doused in oil. Laden with its thick flavor. So bitter and souring whilst the king cooked up his welcome into the court of Grandl.

"Selene sees everything, for she is a part of an olden society centuries old within these very walls. We know it, boy…we KNOW that your were never loyal to your king. Just, a lazy, little whore with no name to it. But I shall claim them. For Selene deems all kings worthy within her eyes alone. Your father, was not. My own, lost his touch. You ruined them both, Romani – ya… slut ." Grandl sneered at the teenager. "Now, come to me and prove your new loyalty. Swear fealty to my new rule and I shall forgive your transgressions…most of them anyhow. You'll be best on a set of chains like my dogs are, before long. Most dogs never sleep at my feet as I tell them…yet, this shall be much different a communion between us ."

Cold blood seeped to his skull. Richard recalled being assaulted by this child close to almost a year ago. Months had passed, and he would let none treat him again as a toy. He was a prince, babe to his breast or nay.

"Where is King Slade-

"Father is bound to abide!" Grandl snapped fresh as crocodile from the rivers of a hotter place. "HE knows the rules of our gods. OUR Defencia. He lied to us, to secure you. That is unforgivable. So, I shall be aware that you are unwell. Dora? NORA?" With a snap of his fingers, the harpies came close to ensnare their ….

Richard cried out as the two were shifted to something far worse. "Owls??"

Grandl gripped his blade, but Selene morphed into a cat. Not just any, but a woman with a cat's face and head. An Anthromorphic being, Richard gasped as the talons only tore at his clothes. "What is the meaning of this??" Grandl growled at the witch as she smiled and let her own hand wander off. From beyond the walls, to the secret passage attached to the rooms below it, was a man clad in a cowl and a crown akin to a dark lord. The Great Bat…

"I never said you could be this king of any child. You brought this onto yourself. What trickery could we have to a fellow daemon of our clan? The winged things you see will tell you…" Selene purred as the Great Bat was not alone. Behind him, was Prince Duke, Barbenthal miraculously alive – Alf and the one thing it could never be.

KING SLADE . Leading them out of the dark, together.

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