3 Prologue Part 3 - Chapter 3

Nihilvid darted towards Sebastian like an arrow, whilst Sebastian stood still, watching Nihilvid zoom towards him, his grip on his sword slackening and his eyes slowly closing until he could see nothing, only being able to hear the loud but rapid stomping coming closer and closer, faster and faster, until Sebastian began to slightly open his mouth, whispering; "Kalosummonitores sta plasiain moumihi oi exousiaquod touautem oi anapnoispiritum…" Sebastian opened his eyes again, but also this time his mouth. Both his eyes and the inside of his mouth glowed a bright yellow.

Sebastian then roared "HAGH!" As he shouted his mouth spread open, gaping wide, flashing the room in a bright yellow and firing a gigantic pulse of energy towards Nihilvid. The pulse shrieked and echoed throughout the room rattling everyone's ears except Sebastian's. The noise drowned out Nihilvid's and his house carl's shouts and screams as their armor cracked and they, their belongings and training dummies were blasted off of the floor and into the hard stone walls behind them.

The entire room continued rumbling after the shout and then eventually quietened down to hear the moans and disgruntled mutterings of a delirious Nihilvid and company; but also quietened down to hear Sebastian speak, "I hope the next time we'll meet, you'll be tightly gripping damp and cold iron bars; damp from your pathetic tears. Terrified of your soon to come execution. Evil scumbag." Sebastian then stormed out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him.

*

Sebastian walked out of the palace again, but this time he left the palace through the back exit which led to the palace gardens. The gardens were gridded with uniform green hedges that sparkled with the summer noon sunlight. The hedges created narrow paths leading to wide-open circular clearings. In the center of these clearings were intricately sculpted fountains containing statues of previous Kings and Queens from the Ilios royal family lineage. Around the fountains were flower beds containing roses and glimmering delphiniums. Sebastian found sitting on a bench at the edge of one of these clearings were Darthmund Dedriacko, duke of Filodoxia, and Drackiella Voldard, duchess of Ecthra.

They were both giggling and chatting whilst loosely holding goblets of wine in their relaxed hands. The wine would occasionally spill and splash out of their cups after they shook from laughter. Darthmund used his spare hand to gently stroke a stray cat that sneaked it's way into the gardens and would purr after every scratch of his chin. Whereas Drackiella would feed the cat pieces of bread that she tore off a warm loaf which sat on a glistening gold platter and small glass table next to her side of the bench. She would then stare in awe, with flushed rosy red cheeks, repeatedly stating how cute the cat was; coming up with various potential names for the cat that she would instantly criticize and shut down as soon as she mentioned them; claiming they weren't good enough for such a good and perfect little cat.

"Hey, Sebastian, my man! Take a wine, chuck that armor off and join us!" Darthmund cheerfully shouted when he caught eye of Sebastian entering the clearing. Darthmund was a tall and well-built man, with long and lush black hair. Despite wearing no makeup, his eyelashes were black, long, and sharp. Contrasting from the thick and dark outer-rims of his eyes were the bright scarlet of his pupils that shimmered through the shadows that were projected onto the top half of his face by his long fringe. He wore an embroidered deep purple velvet top that brought forward the top's gleaming gold flower decals.

"Won't mind if I do. Surprised you haven't drunk all the wine considering how giddy you both are." Sebastian said as he looked inside the golden jar of wine that he poured into a spare glass next to it. "In fact, it's mostly full. Were you expecting me here?"

"Of course. It's a gorgeous summer noon, who wouldn't be out in these beautiful gardens." Drackiella said as she tore another piece of bread from the loaf. Drackiella had black and curled hair that was long enough to reach her lower back. Her blushing cheeks were just as red as her thick and stark crimson lips and short and quilted silk ball gown dress.

"Well, members of the Ilios family won't be."

"Really? Why is that?" Drackiella quickly asked as Darthmund's smile diminished and Drackiella's was forced up.

"Mary has fallen ill to a severe fever, so my wedding will be postponed until further notice," Sebastian said as he held up his wine glass to his face, without drinking from it. Darthmund suddenly started to frown in response.

"Oh really? That's a shame." Drackiella said. "I was looking forward to the wedding so much as well. I look forward to getting back home, though, so it's not too much of a bother for me. I just hope Mary recovers quickly."

"You look forward to getting back home? Do you hate the capital that much already?" Sebastian chuckled.

"Oh no, the capital is wonderful. Especially the Palace; I've loved staying here. I'm just anxious to get back home because the star that fell onto the courtyard of my castle is still there. And, you know, it's a star. How are we supposed to know what it does or what it will do? I'm worried as to what it could do and what I'll find when I get back. If anything unexpected happens I'd want to be there with my son and my siblings."

"Must have been terrifying to wake up to a star smashing down onto your castle, but is there any reason why you're not just getting rid of it by blowing it up with a black powder bomb?"

"Oh, uh, my, brother has been very intrigued by the star for some strange reason."

"Intrigued by it? Did he find something on it?"

"Um, no… not yet. He thinks there could be something to excavate from it, but I'm thinking like you, it should just be blown up, but my brother insists on keeping it."

"Well, you are a Duchess, you could just tell him no."

"Even though I am worried, I trust my brother's intuition."

"Hmmm… so what did the star look like? I heard it looked like some kind of rock."

"Yeah, I guess it looked like a rock, but giant rocks don't come flying down from the sky, so it can't be just some rock."

"I wonder if there's some sort of magical material that could come from it… maybe a type of metal?"

"I've seen it, and I doubt it." Darthmund interrupted. "But, to be honest, I think it'd be best to keep off the subject considering how terrifying the whole situation is to Drackiella. We're here to relax and be happy, not to worry."

"Yeah… it most certainly is scary." Drackiella responded. "I had no idea if another star was gonna come shooting down or not. Even if another didn't come down again on the same night, who's to say another wouldn't come down again the next night, or the night after; or even during the day? How are we supposed to fathom how the stars work, or even what they are?"

"I see, sorry for asking."

"Oh, it's no problem…"

There was then an awkward silence as sweat dripped down Drackiella's and Darthmund's faces and Sebastian was in deep thought, his wine glass further away from his mouth, the wine within not touched at all.

"Harrietta how dare you!" the three heard a voice shout behind their bench; in the narrow garden path behind them. The three looked at each other confused until Darthmund got up quietly and peered over the hedge to see the King of Ilios shouting at Harrieta, the Queen of Ilios. The King was tightly grabbing and shaking a torn white cloth shirt in Harrieta's face. "I found this in the spare room that you decided to sleep in over our actual bedroom, last night! Explain yourself!"

Darthmund sat back down and whispered what he saw to them, occasionally interrupting himself with giggles. The other two began laughing when they heard, but Darthmund shushed them and ushered them over to the hedge where they all squatted down next to it and pressed their ears to it.

"Um, uh, are you sure it's not yours, dear?" Harrieta said timidly.

"No of course not! Why do you think the shirt is torn!?"

"I, uh, I don't know dea-"

"It's because I tried to wear it, woman! Who the hell have you been messing with behind my back!?"

"I don't want to tell you dear, but I promise I'll make sure it won't happen aga-"

"It won't happen again? Didn't you cheat on me with another woman a few years ago!? You promised to never do it again back then, didn't you? And now look!"

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I don't know what I was thinking."

"Just tell me who it was!"

"I'm not gonna tell you."

"Why not!? Was it one of the royal guards!? One of the tall and muscly war-hardened royal guards!? Did he chat you up when escorting you from place to place!? Tell me!"

"No, it's not any of them!"

"Why am I even asking you? You're an unfaithful lying piece of scum! Those Royal Guards… not only did one of them kill one of my daughters, but they then go on to fuck my wife on the same night!? Disgusting! I'll chop off all of their heads myself!" The King turned around and walked away. The queen grabbed onto his shoulder to pull him back. Sebastian glared down at Darthmund and Drackiella.

"Wait! They didn't kill Mary, Sebastian already told you that!"

"That boy knows nothing! He's just trying to make things more complicated than they actually are! All of this nonsense will be over with the beheading of five simple people. Easy!"

"Fine, if it will make you see sense, I'll tell you who I slept with!"

"Wait…" whispered Darthmund as his smirk dropped to a solemn frown. "Did they just say Mary was killed? Didn't you just say she developed a severe fever?" Drackiella suddenly flinched.

"Oh my god" Drackiella whispered, her smirk also dropping to a frown. "I thought I misheard him when the King said it. Is that true Sebastian? I can't believe it!"

"I'll explain later, let's just keep listening," Sebastian whispered, they then continued to eavesdrop, but now with solemn curiosity.

"I slept with Nihilvid Withered." Harrietta resolutely proclaimed.

"You slept with… the scumbag that threatened to ruin us!? How could you!? Of all people!"

"He's changed, he doesn't hate us anymore. But, of course, that doesn't excuse my actions. We're married, I have a duty to be faithful to you. I'm deeply, deeply sorry."

"I don't care about your apologies. You've done this twice. You don't love me…" The King's anger tempered to sorrow.

"No, I do… no… I don't love you. I think it's time to face reality and remember that this is primarily a political agreement, not a romantic bond, ok?"

"Yes, which is why I'll do what I can to keep this hidden."

"That's great. So we're on the same page now? No hanging? No decapitation? Everyone's happy and peaceful, now right?"

"Are you joking? Those guards were useless so they're all hung. Nihilvid has no business with what's underneath your silk and he should have been chopped up years ago when he dared to threaten us! Not to mention either the guards or the Dukes were the ones to kill Mary, so if I kill Nihilvid and the guards there's a high chance that one of them will be the murderer of Mary, and therefore, justice will be served!" The King turned around once again to walk away, but this time briskly and resolutely, ignoring the Queen's pleading hand on his shoulder.

"Well, Mary dying is sad, but Nihilvid getting killed is a ray of light in the darkness," Sebastian said. "We'll have to do something about the King killing those guards, but I'm sure that will be easy to work out."

"Why didn't you tell us about Mary's death, Sebastian?" Darthmund asked sternly, as blood dripped from his and Drackiella's nose. Half of the wine in their wine glasses was drunk, whereas Sebastian's wine glass was full; completely untouched.