Chapter 8
The Cult
Alfred woke up confused and covered in sweat, looking around until he realized where he was. He breathed out and closed his eyes, trying to remember the weird dream he just had. Red eyes were following him around and chased him through dark rooms with no escape, and a horrifying grin appeared out of nowhere wanting to swallow him. It was mad and for some reason the Jack had been there too and told him to beat the eyes with his straight back.
He understood why Yao was there with his constant lectures but the eyes were something new and terrifying. They were holes piercing into him with the want to catch him, always hovering above him large and dangerous. Alfred stood up and shook his head wanting to forget this dream and concentrate on the new day instead. After all, it was his first day to go to town.
Toris came to take him to the town center and find some courting gifts for the Prince before their special date.
Once again, Alfred watched the town fly by mesmerized. The buildings were tall and massive, most of them made out of bronze and only the smaller houses on the outer part of the town made out of bricks. Dirigibles would fly over their heads low enough to be able to touch them while they transported people from one end of the town to the other, sometimes they'd even fly below the bridge. They drove through a golden skyscraper in the form of an egg with hundreds of car lanes inside to cross over and under. It was mad how they knew where to drive, it made Alfred's head dizzy. Alfred realized this building was purely for cars to go either on the higher bridges or down and in any direction.
It was an hour ride to their destination and the driver parked them outside a market while Toris and one more bodyguard stepped out of the car with him.
"What kind of gift do you have in mind?" Toris asked as they walked into the open market.
The street was wide and plastered in white stones. People walked by and would occasionally turn to another white street with other stands. It was quite a large market with a few shops in the buildings.
"I'm actually not sure. What do you recommend?" Alfred looked over the stands and watched people sell clothes and little trinkets.
"An appropriate gift would be books, sweets and flowers. We can buy them here and send them to the Prince's room later."
Alfred nodded to that idea, Arthur had to remember Alfred existed when they didn't see each other for a few days except at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
They walked by a stand with flowers and Alfred looked over them curiously. All of them were in different shapes and every color looked beautiful which made Alfred's decision even harder.
"What's the occasion," the seller asked. "A celebration? A funeral? A mate?"
"I need a courting gift," Alfred explained.
The seller clapped her hands and smiled. "Ah, how wonderful. How long do you know each other? Is there any love blooming?"
Alfred chuckled and waved his hand. "I only started to court him."
"Any love?" She grinned.
"Uh," Alfred muttered and grinned, rubbing at his neck.
"I understand." She picked out a bouquet of purple gloxinia and bound it in a dark purple with a violet ribbon. "This will be perfect for you, sir."
"Thank you." Alfred took the flower and Toris gave her the money. Toris volunteered to spend money for Alfred's gifts, telling him he'll receive the money back once Alfred earned some of his own.
Next they went to buy some chocolate and Alfred beamed seeing all the different kinds and wanted to try them all. He tasted a smooth and soft one from the kingdom of Hearts with a fruity liquid inside and a mystery chocolate from Clubs with a crunchy texture. He loved both of them and bought them for Arthur and some for himself.
When the seller packed it and Toris paid for it, Alfred's attention shifted to the other side of the road to a shop with chocolates formed like mountains. It intrigued him and he went inside. A man behind the counter explained Alfred these were made after the biggest mountain in Spades. Everything was formed like the mountain and available in different sorts but nothing catched his eye and he went out only to have lost Toris and the bodyguard.
He asked the alpha who sold him the Hearts and Clubs chocolate where his friend went but he didn't know. Alfred walked around the market looking for Toris and sometimes asking bypassers or going into shops but he was nowhere to be seen. He decided to go back to the car and wait there but he had no idea where the driver had parked, and so, he went out of the market but ended up at another exit.
Wandering around the market became painfully irritating and Alfred walked off in a direction where he thought the palace might be. He walked for at least an hour through the town and some parks and other more busy shopping districts until he crossed a bridge and recognized the egg-shaped building in the distance, sighing with relief to be in the right direction.
Going towards the building got more difficult when the path led him downwards on to the street where he couldn't see the egg anymore. He walked through the streets and looked around only to realize that he was lost. The golden egg-shaped building was gone and the palace was nowhere in sight as well. Looking around he only noticed 20 story high accommodations on both of his sides, no shopping district, no market, or any sight of any skyscraper from the ground.
"Psst. Alan Taylor."
Alfred turned around and saw a man lurking behind a corner. Carefully he came closer when the man looked behind himself and then went up to Alfred.
"I've been looking for you and tried to contact you since you got here." He shook his hand and Alfred sighed relieved that he was finally found.
"Thank you. I've been so lost. I had no idea where to go." Alfred chuckled.
"Yeah, it's not easy to find us. Follow me."
Alfred followed the man through the streets and wished he had something to eat. It baffled Alfred how quick his body changed, that just a month ago he was able to go days without eating and now he needed three meals a day like a noble.
The thoughts about food went away when the man went into narrow alleyways and one level down by stairs which was strange to Alfred but he guessed it was just the way out of this part of the town.
They stopped by a ten story building connected by a bridge above them with another ten story house. The man opened a broken wooden door and told Alfred to go in, watch his step and duck. Alfred hesitated but thought it might be a shorter path and stepped in, and almost fell down. There was a large step going down and a pipe hanging above. His hand grabbed the pipe, which nearly collided with his head, in order to hold his balance and jumped down.
The man closed the door behind them and dim lights on the wall lit up in the long and eerie corridor. There were no doors, no windows, just the long, dim and cold corridor. Alfred followed him to the only door in the back and heard him whisper something to the person behind it before the door opened and let them in.
Alfred was more than just confused when he stepped in. He awaited a car to be picked up or some kind of transportation to the palace but he stood in a simple room. It was a red room with curtains hanging from the ceiling making the room seem round. It looked well kept and smelled like herbs which stenched in Alfred's nose.
A woman with big bouncy hair and in a red robe came up to him. "Alan Taylor, we have anticipated your visit since you came to town. It's an honor to meet you in person and not only through letters." She took his hand and shook it. "We're glad you found us and that you're interested in joining us."
"Of course." Alfred nodded and smiled having no idea what's going on.
"You have written in your letters to have knowledge about our untold past."
"I definitely do." He didn't dare to say they might have mistaken him for someone else, they knew his fake name.
"That's perfect! But I reckon your belief varies from ours just a little."
"I don't see a problem, we can always teach each other something new." He grinned.
She patted his arm. "I'm glad you think that way. Let me show you around."
He followed her to the left, through the thick curtain, curious what's going to happen, and she showed him a room with two shelves. Both half empty with books and two tables against another with papers and a lamp on it. The dust tickled in Alfred's nose and he tried to withstand the urge to sneeze.
"This is our library filled with diaries who saw and witnessed the unthinkable," she presented proudly while Alfred rubbed his nose. She led him to the main room again, telling him quickly about their sessions before taking him to the last room, again behind two thick curtains. "And this is our most sacred place, the shrine of the Joker."
The room was small, just as big as the inside of a car and it had a stand filled with candles and drawings. On the bottom were various plushies, flowers, and twisted wood. But Alfred stared at the drawing hanging on the wall. The creature painted on the old and yellow paper had the form of a lion and a goat with black skin. And the most realistic blood red eyes that Alfred ever saw. What made the situation more eerie was that he'd seen them in his dream tonight. They had followed him and they're following him again while the creature grinned, ready to swallow him.
This couldn't be a coincidence and Alfred tensed at the sight of it, remembering the fear and jumped when the woman put her hand on him.
"You seem fascinated by our Joker." She grinned.
"Huh? Yeah yeah, sure." Alfred wondered if he had one of his visions in his dream last night and dreamed of seeing this picture in some sort.
He stepped out of the room and sighed, feeling sweat under his armpits.
"Are you interested in joining us?"
"Huh?"
"Our cult."
Alfred needed a moment before he realized what she meant. They have awaited him, Alan Taylor who was a part of a cult just like Alexander told him and it seemed that Alan wanted to join another one.
"That creature, what was it again?"
"The Joker," she explained. "We believe the Joker is the source of all magic and our erased past. Our mission is to revive the Joker from their sleep and bring back magic."
She said this in such a serious tone that Alfred snorted lightly at the delusion. There's no way she really believed in that.
"If you join us, you promise to help us in their revival and you can learn all the things you want about magic and teach us everything you know."
Alfred would've liked to decline but it was not a coincidence he dreamed about the Joker's eyes, and this was his first real clue about magic and a step closer to finding the item. They might know something and that could be helpful for his mission.
"It sounds... perfect. I'd like to join you."
"Very well but first, if you want to join us you have to bring something magical," she said.
His thoughts crossed over to the book and its fairytales but he'd unlikely give that book away. "What did you have in mind?"
"Just a strain of Prince Arthur's hair."
-
Alfred walked on the street close to the highway in the dark night and thought about the cult. She told him that Royals are supposed to be magical and with little crumbs of magic they can bring the Joker back. It sounded all so delusional and silly but Alfred had no other option or plan than to go with it to find the magical item if it really existed.
A car drove off the lane and stopped beside Alfred with a Toris peaking out. "Sir Taylor, where have you been?"
Toris opened the door and got out of the car but Alfred wondered how he should get the Prince's hair if he wasn't allowed to touch him.
