War Has Come While Night Hath Fallen over our Faire Kingdom
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Chapter 11: Difficulties with Kindly Strangers
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The hunger came instantly, only days after Richard's outbursts. His stomach growled at every "thing" given and at every given thing, he vomited up the very thing that was supposed to satisfy him. For once, the witches were of a nurturing brood. They giggled but did not pry at the crying mother's behavior. Nor did they allow the king to play with their plump new toy as she watched the women morph into versions of the motherhood that lay before this "princess" to be ready for anything.
The clinging was very unkind, and Richard's psyche already had shattered upon that day the man had shamed his pretty little concubine. The pink nubs of his chest had hardened and reddened up too fast. The pregnancy he would be having was by magic, thus the life cycle was a bit more advanced than that of a traditional human birth timeline. Richard rocked himself at night and even dreamed about the sweets he could not partake in having. He'd wake up sobbing as the king could not rest at all a wink. The man sent him only then to the boy's own rooms to sulk and cry himself back to bed.
Lady Paam must have overheard the rumors and doors one morning swung back. The winding tendrils of ivy posing a great threat as the guardsmen to the king held up their spears.
"YOU. HAVE THE NERVE!" She slammed her hands to the table spread, eyes on the prince too soon. "There is no compassion and that will ruin this experiment. The boy's child shall wither, my king. Is that how ye wish it to happen? A husk at your feet, your deathly cold… heir??"
Richard's brow began to sweat as the staff ran to gather a pail or something to contain his next up chuck.
"LOOK!" She kept on pointing out the king's errors. "Your bride is in distress; this is why you must-
"It will not last."
The king did not look ruffled, yet Paam had no pity for the man who had chosen her to birth a legend of legends from a…. sad little prince.
"You are to change. I give the boy one month and if you cannot follow through on the plan to carry this future truce, you will have no true alchemists as great as we of the Thornwood coven to finish your fine work."
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Paam slammed the doors as her assistant Harle was coyly watching on beside a stoic looking statue of a knight clad in silver. "How was his majesty?"
"Ask nothing, we leave together with my work… if ever that male has a head on his shoulders to defy the great ones. Life bringing, that they may take."
Scratching her head, Harle knew only of a story of mysterious gargoyles, yet not of the other tale of anything so…grand.
"They watch all of it and send their own shadows to read the whereabouts of traitors to their causes."
"Your story in itself is truly an interest to these wetted ears…. I wonder if the new king knows?"
"He cannot be far in knowing." Paam sighed and raised her palm. "However, I believe it right to contact a voice amidst the castle gossip."
/
Jason tried his hardest to not wish to ask the kind rebels just what he wished to; that he needed answers on the missing king and also, the people's new lord to this land; a man with a black iron mask covering his beady red eyes and…and one other.
"That man could be a pirate or a criminal in exile." Arte explained to her family as Jason took to the same conversation in earnest. "My family too was taken advantage; yet Wirlion as it is called, the king of Defencia –
"The land of the barbarians??" The red headed girl threw down her ale and was not to miss a word. "I met someone before I came to these walls. She was a princess. I was able to escape the kingdom of the night, yet for any what reason…she told me that she had a sibling who was a part of the new treaty. That she should be stopped before a great war could start. Or something of the nature.":
"Did this woman…" The eldest at the table, the grandfather character that had gathered Jason, asked of her. What she appeared to be to the boy. '
"A wild stallion, a tamer of sky beasts and her fire. She had the power to call upon the energies of her goddess "Xa – al." (X'al or typo there purposefully.)
"A Tammeret!" The man clasped his hands together. "Tamers of dragons and seers of fire and love and light! Then the one intervening, is truly against the girl's people?"
"Kor 'anna." Jason smiled. "Her sister, and yet she was never to rule."
/
Stefania on the home front noticed how Cassandra tended to look on from the sidelines. Her sister was a feral thing with whom the father was. He was supposedly a mercenary and dark knight to Ra's, her mother being just as well from the eastern lands. She had ended up on a slave ship as cargo when the king had saved her life. Stefania was a street urchin as the kitchen maids once called her. She had proven her wit in the court and was very outspoken so to find a suitor…the pickings were either that or to be at her own leisure for reasons only the king might allow. She was young, yet a tad spoiled. Smart, still she saw more than most gave her good credit. Oliver was rather rugged, and she dared to have a flirtatious moment, without knowing it. Cassandra, however, did not have the full trust in anyone here. Even with the days they had stayed planning and sharing information as to where the old king had been taken.
"Most likely, he is holed up with an ally to his causes in the east." Roy looked to his mentor as Oliver checked the map in their hideaway within the rowdy back room of the old knight's tavern. "Your sister is fortunate. If either of you had come to any harm, we would not have been able to plan as we are today. The king will be found. I've sent my friends by the waters of Troia; Arthi and Diane."
"The land ruled by a witch?"
"Nay, a warrior goddess, and not just one. The whole island is a sanctuary, for Diane is from such a fantastical land."
"Sounds too much of a fantasy, Ollie." Roy leaned into his hands and grinned. "Where are the male warriors?"
"They are scarce, young squire." Smirked the wily blonde. "The place there is a temple only for the warriors of the goddess Artemismai."
"Such customs seem, scandalous." Stef fanned herself as the joke seemed a bit too steamy. "I beg pardon, princess." The man apologized. "Maybe you are too faint of heart to hear the gory details."
"Gore?"
Cassandra's ears longed to keep listening. "What , gore?"
/
Richard stayed on his side of the mattress in his dwelling until, the door creaked back. The boy's fated king came, his hands holding something that made the boy feel dizzy.
"This sickness you are feeling is temporary, and…. if there is anything you require –
"My stomach, it feels too full…it also…" The boy swallowed and tried to exhale. Sharply in puffs, his aching stomach allowed for no fresh air to fill him up only to tear at his insides slowly and painful as a mother's burden. Slade knew this, forehead had sired. Wayne had not been there for the birth of any of these children. Yet now, one was with child themselves.
"Might you…. would you stay and help me lay back a bit? As long as there is no…one else, no…"
"No activities." The man said, the boy's face growing back to itself, despite the pallor of another vomiting spell. "How…. many days more, sire?"
"A week, was what Lady Paam explained while you were resting." The man tucked in the boy as if he were still not of traditional age to consummate with a ruler. Anby, for Barbenthal was now no such option. She could not even ride a stallion, let alone protect a child now that her spine was torn apart by a single blade. "This too cannot last; my role is to see to this new kingdom. To weigh the lives of the guilty in my hands, while my bride…" He touched the teenager's cheek as Richard flinched.
"You now won't have me, yet your mother's body is only now leaving this portion of the spell behind it. Soon, it shall level. That mound will soften long enough for your king to comfort you."
"Please, leave –
The man gripped the boy's face and came before it. Breath, hot. His mouth threatening to undo their gentle pacing. "You do not decide this fate, pet." He smiled and left the prince only after the boy was back in tears.
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Bruce's son. A boy no older than a babe. The faces of strangers gave no comfort as Lady Thompson ( Thompkins) was most kind once she was relieved of her duties as the head doctor within the castle of Wayne's birth rite. The elder that stood beside her was called Alfred Pennywurt. The man was aged long enough, yet he was strong of mind and spirit. He had practically raised the Wayne's into what they were today, including all of King Wayne the third's children. Girl and boy, they respected the elderly saint. He was, family as well. And with this….
He had but one child left, plus one more to protect.
Duke Thomas. The adopted son of Wayne as well into his later years was watching the cradle of a sleeping youth. Damian, he was called. Right now, the boy was in grave peril should the guards think to look to the mountains so soon. The good news would turn soured in their mouths should the real king discover his own eldest was….
Well.
Bred. As it were. By a marauder, for peace.
"Lord Pennywurt." Duke looked to the elder as the youngest Wayne had begun to stir from his nap. "What happens next; should the people fight and rise up…or…or is the new ruler going to take the country by storm?"
"He hasn't the stomach for those sorts of dribble." Alfred titter the elder boy, no more than fifteen at a time in years as he took to swaddling the young Damian up in his arms. Just as a mother would, or a father.
"She will not come for him, do you think..."
"This time may feel all but hopeless, Duke, yet chin up, lad." Smiled the kindly elder as Damian babbled away happily in his warm hold "King Wayne shall recover from his injuries, and when he does, the house of Wayne shall then be reborn from the ashes. Just as the Great Bayt protects us all. For this cavern is its guarding home."
"We are here to see to Damian. Yet what if he never shows in time to fight…should the new king decide to carve into the rocks of our lineage? This mountain is sacred, Alfred!" Protested the boy. "Selene has now betrayed the king's faith and toys with the new lord to see that he shall fail as well. If the Fowl rise to swarm –
"The horned creatures of the night are no match for the stealer of all life through the taking of that realm. Blood, not in bone. Remember, Thomas." Bouncing Damian up as the child cooed for a while, Alfred persisted in lightening their spirits. "Blood is thickest where life is found in its passion to thrive. The bones of a living creature can withstand nothing if life is without it to ground that figure to the land of the living. All that remains, is a husk of what once was. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Duke nodded and he stood too to seek out the young prince in their caregivers arms. "I believe I must put my utmost faith in what the fates have to offer."
/
Richard tossed and turned. In his dreams, he saw birds flying all around a child. That child was precious, small and very familiar. He reached a hand to grip the fingers of the babe in his own, yet the boy grew up. Older. Until at the age of adulthood, it looked upon his with a blank stare, before something. A blade then from nowhere, beheaded the future king of that land. It was a child with white hair. A son, red glowing eyes and an evil grin.
~ Did I do well for him, mother? Did I salvage out legacy? ~
Mother….the word brought Richard back from the abyss to find a woman. She had her forehead to his own, her white painted face and blonde, henna dyed locks had Richard gasping like a fish in a drained pond.
"YOU remember. "
Her grin grew wide. "You know who the boy to be king is. Don't worry, prince – ling." She put a finger to her lips and kept on the crazed smile. " I won't tell a soul our secret…. let them figure it out. Right, then?"
He couldn't nod as she patted his skull and swept off for the exit in a soundless cartwheel. He truly was going mad, the boy curled up once again. And for a moment no sooner, needed to feel…. safe.
/
This will be a bit nutty later. And Harle can literally read your subconscious.She was a therapist before Arkham after all...also! that will be mentioned in here too. I mean that. Very much. Find out!