The weeks that followed after King Nigel's death seemed to pass as quickly as a falcon in flight; the days, hours, minutes and seconds blended into each other...Making it seem as if Miles was at a fixed point in time while the world rapidly shifted around him...
The official report given to the people of the Kingdom at Large was that the King and Prince had perished from strokes...Dying while choking in a pool of their own bodily fluids, such an event causing utter hysteria and temporary insanity to manifest in the young Princess. And with the only real heir to the throne of the Kingdom "in no fit state to take her late father's place" Lord Robotnik "generously" took it upon himself to take up the role of Lord Protector of the realm until, in his words, "Princess Sally recovers from her utterly terrible trauma."
The people just ate it up though...And how else could they? Most of the people in the kingdom of Acorn were illiterate; a byproduct of the neglect of the peasantry by the nobility and a lack of a proper education system. And so, they just accepted Robotnik and Starline's lies as blatant fact, not even questioning as to why their king and prince who had recently been in good health died all of a sudden...However, as stupid as the people of the kingdom were...Miles could not deny that the two covered their tracks pretty well...
The first thing they had done after they had murdered Nigel and Elias was clean their bodies of the blood and ichor...Making it seem as if their deaths had been much more natural ...Then they had dressed the corpses in their best and allowed them a state funeral and burial in the Temple of Chaos like their forefathers before them...Although the folk of Metropolis were curious as to why the Princess nor any of the Knights were present at the funeral...
However, the truth of the matter was that each of the Knights were being held under house arrest in the castle...Their loyalties still lied with House Acorn instead of the "Lord Protector of the realm" as Robotnik liked to refer to himself as, and because of such a fact, he had assigned them guards to make sure that they didn't even get an inkling of thought to escape...They were prisoners in their own castle.
They were given extensive daily routines as to make them easier to keep tabs on and their weapons and armour was locked in the castle's armoury which was kept under lock and key and constantly guarded by Robotnik's men; they could not and would not risk any of them escaping and informing the general public of the truth...Any sparring was to be done with wooden weapons under intense supervision from the guards and at present...That was where Miles was in the castle courtyard; sparring with a fellow squire.
...
The squire made the first move of the mock duel, thrusting forward with the tip of his wooden broadsword before feinting into a slash intending to hit Miles's left leg...However the blow was parried by Miles's shield that had slammed down to block the swing and Miles responded in kind with his own attack; a downward, overhead swing with the wooden blade of his falchion.
The squire dodged back, insectoid wings buzzing in their ears as he flew backwards...A playful smirk present on his face; clearly, he was proud of his aerial manoeuvre, Miles however made no such expression as he kept up his attack. The fox feigned a thrust forward and instead used his shield as a battering ram, sending it crashing into his opponent's ribs, causing him to tumble back, very nearly losing his balance in the process.
"Nice strike Miles! You got me there!" The Squire said, his wings buzzing lightly as he spoke...His tone was high pitched, happy, go lucky...As if the other boy was oblivious to the suffering that was happening within the castle...Miles couldn't help but feel peeved by it, but he could understand; not many other children were as...aware as he was of the true nature of the situation, the Kingdom, hell...Mobian kind in general...Ah well, he supposed he would learn in time...But that didn't matter now, all that he needed to do was to defeat him.
The fox's blue eyes were cold and predatory, fixated on his opponent as they circled each other...Each one prepared to either attack or deafened...Their heats beating thunderously in their chests, each individual second feeling like an eon as their eyes focused on each other...hoping to see any possibly exploitable cracks in their defence...However Miles, being the smarter fellow was able to find one such gap in his opponent's guard; the Squire's leg was jutted out slightly to the side, just exposed enough for it to be a good target to strike...All he needed now was yet another diversion...And that was when he got an idea...A risky idea but if it worked? Well...He'd just need to find out first...
The Squire face shifted in surprise as he saw Miles unfasten his shield and throw it towards him...The makeshift projectile was rather effective; its wooden edge hitting him square in the chest and sending him tumbling back...However, mere milliseconds later he would be brought to the realisation of what Miles was attempting...However he was too late to stop it and he yelped as he felt the fox's fist rapidly collide with the side of his head quicker than a flash, the wooden blade of the falchion smashing against his knee coming not long after and sending him tumbling to the floor.
"Owwww...Hey! You cheated Miles!" The Squire exclaimed angrily, looking up at the fox who gave a smug grin and dark chuckle in reply,
"You do what you must to win Charmy, you were using your wings in the fight. I don't see how throwing my shield classifies as cheating."
The bee merely scoffed in response and rose to his feet with the assistance of his buzzing wings,
"Whatever, just know that cheating doesn't make you a real knight!"
"Neither does being a sore loser."
"What?!"
"Uhhh nothing! Nothing, you just go about your day Charmy, the guards will be here to pick you up soon." Miles responded, realising his statement had been heard and thankfully the bee left as soon as the guards did arrive to pick him up...However, alongside taking Charmy away, they also brought in Sonic whose expression was horrible and grim...Miles couldn't blame him; Sonic was very much a free spirit and deeply enjoyed to play by his own rules and make his own choices, being restricted to a daily routine was anathema to him.
The fox's face fell as the hedgehog walked over, a rather bleak and depressed smile on the hedgehog's face, "So, you beat Charmy, did you? Heh...Nice work, he's a tricky little bugger to bring down due to the wings...Been following my advice, have you?"
Miles nodded sadly and looked up at him, seeing the melancholy in his mentor's eyes and he in a somewhat reassuring voice spoke in response,
"Yeah, I have...Thank you for the feinting advice, Sonic...But I beat Charmy using more... unconventional means of combat."
The hedgehog's brow furrowed slightly and then a rather wry smile appeared on his face. Chuckling slightly, he then said,
"You cheated again, didn't you?"
Miles giggled a little and looked down, his tails swishing around playfully.
"Yeah...Kinda...I threw my shield at him as a distraction and it worked! I wasn't expecting it to but it did and I won the fight!" The fox exclaimed excitedly; hoping that his ingenuity would impress his mentor.
It did, and Sonic gave a small but hearty chuckle, slapping the fox on the back as he spoke,
"Nice work kid, sometimes it's good to break the rules...I mean, in a real fight...A lot of the practice and preparation goes flying out of the window and the victory generally goes to either the bigger and stronger man, or the smarter (and a lot of the time dirtier) combatant. How else did you think I got so far as a Knight?" The pair of them chuckled lightly, however Miles noticed that sadness in his eyes again...And so, in a rather low voice he said.
"Y'know...I miss this Sonic...Actually being able to feel somewhat happy...Ever since Nigel...died...This place has felt as dreary as a funeral march..."
Sonic shared his attitude and so solemnly he replied,
"I agree with you there...It's been rough for all of us...I was left on the doorstep of King Nigel's castle when I was a baby, yet he took me in and allowed me to live in the castle, one of his personal knights sir Charles (Or Chuck as he liked to be called) took me un as his squire when I was old enough...And now here I am years later teaching you what he taught me...Sadly he died not too long ago...Bandit raid when he was hunting with his family...Although knowing the 'Lord Protector' he likely ordered it to try and remove anyone that'd stand between him and the throne."
Miles looked down sadly as he listened to the hedgehog's words, however then a new concern materialised in his mind and looking up to his mentor he asked worriedly,
"How's Sally holding up? I haven't seen her since Nigel was murdered."
"Not good, not good at all...I can hear her crying ever single night...Most likely reliving the memory of what she had seen once she had woken up...And I can't blame her. One day she had a whole family and a kingdom she could call her own...The next? She is a prisoner within what was once her own castle, with the man who murdered her family cruelly taunting her every second of every hour of every day...I do not envy her in the slightest."
The fox's face fell; it was certainly a sobering thought...It was utterly terrible that a woman as caring, kind and intelligent as Princess Sally of all people was being kept in such a state...Not even being permitted to go to the funeral of her own murdered relatives...Having grown up without a family, Miles couldn't imagine the struggle she was going through at the moment...However he was certain that the pain and sorrow within her burned like a roaring wildfire...
His trail of thought then ran to Robotnik and Starline...The architects of King Nigel's murder and his blood ran cold with revulsion and disgust for the pair; Robotnik may have seen himself as the rightful ruler to the country due to how much more 'competent' he was, but his results in the past few weeks had shown him as anything but competent...Instead of investing in infrastructure and improving the treasury and quality of life for the common folk of the Kingdom...He instead blew the rest of the treasury on turning Acorn into a police state by pouring all of the gold into the army and development of military technology...Filling his command network with sycophants loyal to him. All the while the people were neglected and left at the mercy of how well the next few harvests would be for if they were poor...Then there would be a serious risk of famine. But all Public officials loyal to the 'Lord Protector' would do to quell any chance of unrest would be through lying to the people about how all was well...
And as for Starline? Well, Miles had never really trusted religion much to begin with, but seeing the Archbishop of the Kingdom abandon every moral principal the Church of Chaos held was nonetheless shocking and disgraceful; to see someone trusted and elevated to the position of Archbishop of all things murdering all but one member of the royal family all in the name of acquiring more personal power and influence over the kingdom...
But then there was one more conspirator whose involvement unlike the others didn't anger him as much as it confused him; Lord Amadeus Prower...When he had seen him the night that King Nigel was murdered, the Lord had been in a quarrel of sorts with his comrades and had been threatened to stay involved for the safety of is children...And yet he still betrayed them; he had been informed that Lord Amadeus hadn't shown up to the Banquet where the King and Prince had died like he had promised to do...
That simple fact seemed to have enraged Robotnik and Starline who the fox had heard going back and forth on what to do about the Lord of the Iron Coast's seeming betrayal...Robotnik wanted the fox to grovel at his feet and beg for mercy, however both he and Starline knew that wasn't happening; Lord Amadeus was an experienced and brilliant military leader who excelled in guerilla warfare and in open battle...So even if they were able to seize Blackwater Keep, the war would not necessarily be won there and the fighting would go on for months...Maybe even years.
There was also something else though...And that was why Amadeus had spared his life when he was mere seconds away from snuffing it out like a candle...There was no logical reason as to why he would do it, especially considering what Miles had seen during Lord Prower's meeting with Starline and Robotnik...There was something that Amadeus knew about him that he clearly didn't...And he needed to know what it was...And hopefully find an answer to why Lord Amadeus had spared his life as well as throw all of those strange glances towards him...
...
The skies above Castle Acorn were an iron grey as dusk set in; shrouded by the thick clouds above...Thunder rumbling ominously in the distance, with the occasional bright streak of lightning illuminating the distant horizon for a split second at a time...Indicating a faraway, but nearing storm...Each stroke of thunder and lightning made Miles flinch as his eyes tirelessly passed over the pages of tomes upon tomes...Looking desperately for some kind of answer to his conundrum...
Thankfully, his time in the library hadn't been as limited; clearly combat was the only thing that Robotnik and Starline thought that mattered to the training of a Knight...And so every evening before lights out...He would come up here and pour over each and every book he could find, in search of any kind of knowledge on Lord Amadeus as well as any possible means he could use to bring down Robotnik and Starline...However, tonight he felt more than a little deflated despite his victory over Charmy earlier...He had been at this for weeks and yet he still felt like he was getting nowhere...
In every single account and historical tome, he could find, the only information he could find on Lord Amadeus was the information that had been written down in every other one...Why was he so damn enigmatic! It was so damned frustrating, how the hell was that the only info he could find? That he was the Lord of the Iron Coast, his wife and third child died during childbirth and that he was well known for quelling numerous revolts in his own lands...That was it! There was nothing else in the whole damned library that'd tell him anything else...Not even a single rogue sentence that would in the very least hit at his involvement in something fishy...
Miles let out a depressed sigh as he closed yet another dusty, old, leatherbound tome...His eyes strained and tired after yet another long and foolhardy attempt at finding any information pertaining to Lord Prower's involvement...He placed his head in his hands as he felt hope of ever finding the answers he was searching for draining from his system...
However, his ears perked up slightly when he heard the door to the library open and the rather mind-soothing din of rattling cups; Cream was here and that meant that at least he'd have someone to talk to for a little bit...
"Hey Miles! I go some tea her for you...I know you may not want it but...You look like you need it; you look like you haven't slept in days."
The fox chuckled slightly and waved his hand,
"Oh no, it's okay...I'll take it thank you...I'm just a little well..."
"Disheartened?" Cream asked, handing him his mug of tea.
"Yeah, it feels like searching for a non-existent needle in a haystack trying to find any kind of information on Lord Amadeus...If I keep at this much longer then I'll have read my way through the whole damned library..." The fox responded, taking a sip of his tea, not even caring for the fact that he had lightly scalded his tongue by doing so; he was too tired to really care.
The rabbit merely giggled in response, sitting right next to him and grabbing her own mug as well,
"Well, I'm sure you'll find something sooner or later...I mean, at the pace that you read I'm certain you'd have missed something at some point."
"Hey! I'll have you know that I make sure that every single letter is analysed thoroughly thank you very much. Besides, you can't even read anyway Cream."
"Yeah, yeah...Well I'm getting better at it what with your help." The girl responded in a joking manner.
"Oh yeah? Prove it! Read to me that line right there!" The fox asked smugly, opening the book in front of him and pointing to a singular line and the girl squinted he eyes slightly as she read aloud.
"Sure...It says...Hmmm...Seems to say 'You're a complete oaf' Miles." She joked, laughing merrily.
"Hahaha...Very funny...So... Is there any other reason you came over here other than to mess around with me?" He responded, chuckling alongside her and in response the rabbit's eyes brightened slightly and yet another smile plastered itself on her face.
"Well...yes! You see, I was dusting around Lord Robotnik's room a few hours ago and I found something I thought you should see. It might have clues in there." She exclaimed and reaching into the pockets of her dress and producing a small, battered leather notebook, the pages aged to a slight yellowish white.
Miles took it from her hands and looked down at it curiously...And a wry smile suddenly appeared on his face...
"Who would have thought? Sweet and Innocent Cream the Rabbit being a professional thief?" he joked, earning a jovial punch in the shoulder from the servant...
"Not anyone I'd know! Either way though, I had a brief skim through and it seems to be some kind of Medical Journal documenting any and all kinds of affairs brought to the physicians and surgeons in Castle Acorn, here take a read...There seems to be a bookmark in here...Why don't you turn to that page first? It's bound to be important if Robotnik marked it." Cream said, nestling into her seat and watching with interest as Miles did as she asked and opened to the aforementioned page...
The writing was small and neat, written in slightly faded black ink and at the top there lay a singular date '2nd February 1399 A.C' and that was...Rather curious, that was eight years ago, why would Baron Robotnik have a paged marked on something that had happened almost a decade ago? Then he began to read further into the notebook...
"2nd February 1399 A.C
After a long, stressful and laborious twelve hours, I am deeply regretful to say that we have lost Lady Rosemary Prower due to blood loss as a result of complications due to labour...Me and my assistants did everything we could to prevent her death or the infants...But it appears the gods above were not smiling upon her that day and cursed her with an utterly agonising death...I do believe that I will always hear her screams whenever I close my eyes to sleep now...
However, there did appear to be some kind of silver lining...Thankfully the child although believed to be a stillborn at first was able to be resuscitated and brought back from the brink of death." Miles read, furrowing his brow slightly...
It was...Unusual, the story went that both Rosemary Prower and her child died that night...How were the Physicians and barber-surgeons able to bring back a child thought to be dead on arrival...And furthermore, why would every other form of documentation on the matter say that the kid died if this said it didn't? Did the infant die shortly after this was written or something like that?
"We handed the child to one of the Maids so they could nurse the poor babe and calm him down, he seemed to be in utter agony much like his mother however he was able to be soothed and fell asleep not long after...It may have been a small flicker of light in an ocean of darkness over the loss of Lady Rosemary, but at the very least she was able to give birth to a relatively healthy baby boy. However, the child does seem to have some kind of...unusual mutation."
A mutation? The child had a mutation? This was...beginning to grow interesting...However there was also a rather niggling feeling in the back of his mind, telling him to stop here and protrude no further...that he would only find horror if he kept going...And yet his hunger for the truth kept him from closing the book...He had to know what had happened...
"When we were able to get the child out, we noticed that the small boy had a rather minor mutation concerning his tail or rather...tails...The boy has an additional tail, we do not know why this is the case but we can presume that this is the result of the tailbone splitting...We were initially going to remove the additional appendage; however, it did not seem to be causing any severe discomfort or harm to the child; in all honesty it functioned exactly as a regular tail would...I deeply wish that we could have stayed with the infant a little longer...Although Lord Amadeus wouldn't allow it.
After he had been informed of his wife's death by my apprentice, he stormed in and demanded to see his son...His expression upon seeing the child was one I don't think I'll ever forget...It was filled with both...Disgust, sadness and sympathy all at the same time...Then he demanded to leave with the boy and... We haven't seen him since.
An hour or so later, one of the maids came rushing in and informed us that the boy had 'suddenly died of asphyxiation' and that Lord Amadeus would be leaving for the Iron Coast immediately...However, the child was perfectly healthy when we last saw him...I don't think that the boy died...Although, it is not my place to meddle in the affairs of men as powerful as Lord Amadeus...I just hope that the child knows peace wherever he is now...Be it in the heavens above, or in the mortal lands we call home. - Azariah Graye Royal Physician of King Nigel III."
Cream downed the last of her tea and with a smile she turned to face Miles and asked in a rather jovial manner,
"So, have you found anything so far?"
However, when the rabbit turned around, she was met by the harrowing sight of the fox trembling: his eyes wide, glassy and horrified, his breathing uneven and strained and his face as white as snow...The notebook slipped through his trembling fingers and fell to the floor with a dull thud...
"Miles? Are you okay?!" The alarmed cream exclaimed, rushing over to see what was clearly bothering her best friend...However the only noise that would escape the fox was a dull, horrified and heartbroken whisper...
"My...father...it's Lord Amadeus...He's my father..."