Operation Bismarck - The Queen's Meeting
The Prince, the Doctor, and the Advisor sat opposite the Queen. Outside, the sky was turning a deeper shade of red as night began to fall.
The Mund delegation sat in awkward silence. The Queen placed her elbows on the armrests of her chair, rested her chin on her crossed fingers, and stared at her guests.
Frejo, the Prince's advisor, was the first to break the silence. He cleared his throat loudly and began, 'On behalf of my Prince, I would like to express our deep gratitude for your hospitality...'
'Mhm,' the Queen responded disinterestedly. This threw Frejo off balance. He cast a worried glance at the Prince and continued, '...and in light of the new...'
'You have bags under your eyes,' the Queen said, pointing at Frejo's face.
'I... I've had trouble sleeping, Your Majesty. I hope I don't look too unkempt in this state,' Frejo managed to respond. 'This is the first time I've slept on land in a long time, and the first time sleeping on land outside my home...'
'Lie,' the Queen declared, lowering her pointed finger.
'E... Excuse me?' the bewildered Prince's Advisor asked. Ater chuckled. Frejo shot him an angry look.
'You're lying. You haven't slept because you were reading or listening,' the Queen said with a stony face.
Ater chuckled again. The Queen turned her head towards him.
'How... how do you know?' Frejo asked another question.
Maybe your friend can answer, since he finds the whole thing so amusing," the Queen snapped at Ater, losing her previously indifferent tone. Something was clearly bothering her.
Ater looked the Queen in the eyes: "Frejo, you're trying too hard. It's obvious you've been studying the customs of these people. You didn't have time during the day, so you only managed to do so at night. You're acting like a typical aristocrat of theirs, but you're too inexperienced at it."
The Queen frowned: "And how do you know how a typical aristocrat of ours behaves?"
During this entire exchange, the Prince sat silently with his arms crossed. Finally, he spoke: "Because he did the same," said the Prince, placing a hand on Ater's shoulder. "This is Ater, my doctor and protector."
"Protector?" the Queen laughed, looking at Arbor suspiciously. His thin, lanky body, hollow cheeks, and bald head did not inspire her confidence that he could protect himself, let alone anyone else.
"Then he must be a very powerful wizard, since he looks physically quite useless," Theresa concluded. "What's his specialization?"
The Prince smiled: "Blood. The most useless branch in combat."
The Queen concluded that the Prince was an idiot. Nevertheless, she gave him one more chance.
"If he is your 'protector,'" the Queen said sourly, "what purpose do the three warriors who are not with you now serve?"
Ater spoke up: "We didn't know what your protection was like; we thought maybe you might need help with your security."
The Queen's right eye twitched. She slapped it with her hand before anyone could see.
"Are you okay? I can examine you later if you want…" Ater began in a sarcastically friendly tone.
"No, no... Thank you, I have my own doctors," the Queen dismissed him. Ater chuckled again. Theresa ignored him.
"So, 'Prince,' why would the Habsburg family ever want to be friends with Mundia? What do you offer that could elevate you in my eyes?"
The Prince looked at her, puzzled, for a moment. "We wanted to ask you that."
The Queen was now certain. The Prince was indeed an idiot. "It seems you've misunderstood the hierarchy of power..." she said and clapped her hands twice. A whole battalion of guards marched into the room through the doors behind her, forming a line behind the Queen.
Ater calmly stood up from his chair. He removed the black book from his belt and placed it on the table in front of him. "Slow down," said the Prince, extending his hand in front of his Doctor. Frejo laughed. He already knew what was coming. It was about time; this presumptuous, spoiled Queen was already getting on his nerves.
The Queen raised an eyebrow. "What is this doctor trying to do? Write us to death? Ha ha ha," she laughed at her own joke. A vein bulged on Ater's bald head. He took one step toward the Queen.
The moment he moved his foot to step forward, all the guards moved as one, blocking his path to their mistress.
Ater laughed. He was as tall as the spears the guards carried. He turned to the Prince and pushed his black book across the table. The Prince caught it and weighed it in his hand. "Is this really necessary? Ah… I suppose it is," the Prince resignedly said.
Frejo slightly pushed back his chair and put his feet up on the table, reclining. 'I started advising the Prince when I was 15 years old. Now I am 17,' Frejo thought to himself, 'How many people has Ater killed in that time? 100? 1000? 5000?'
Ater finally turned to the guards. The Queen continued to watch the whole debacle with a confident smile. The guard closest to Arbor pointed his spear at his chest. Ater finally wiped the smile off his face and threw himself forward onto the guard's spear.
The sharp tip of the spear pierced through his shirt, skin, muscles, and lungs, and exited on the other side. Ater spat blood directly onto the guard's helmet, who was completely paralyzed with shock. He dropped the spear and took three steps back towards his comrades. Ater fell to his knees.
The Prince laughed. The Queen looked at him with concern. She was no longer smiling.
Ater pulled the spear from his chest with a swift motion. More blood sprayed, falling on the floor, the guards, the curtains… a few drops even landed very close to the Queen.
Ater threw the spear away and brought his hand closer to the wound on his chest. He ran his hands through the waterfall of blood pouring onto the floor. He clenched his fist and whispered something. Only the Prince heard him.
In the thirty seconds that followed, Ater Arbor turned his fist and opened his palm toward the guards, while still holding his gaping wound with the other hand.
The blood on the guard's helmet came to life, moving like a snake, passing through the visor, piercing through his eye socket and out of the other side of his head.
The blood on the floor started to behave similarly, taking the shape of a snake and flying at incredible speed towards the other guards who, in panic, threw down their spears and tried to flee. The farthest one made it to the threshold before Ater's blood caught up to him; the first two 'snakes' went straight through his calves, and the guard fell to the ground. He screamed a moment before four blood snakes entered his mouth. Ater clenched his fist again, and all the snakes suddenly fell to the ground, turning back into ordinary puddles of blood.
The Queen stared in shock at the bloodshed. Ater stood up, still clutching the fatal wound on his chest. He extended his hand towards the Prince. "This melodrama was really unnecessary, Doctor," the Prince said with a jest, tossing Ater his book. Ater gave him a sour smile. The guard who had the blood snakes enter his mouth started choking on Ater's blood.
Ater opened the book and found the first blank page. He dipped his finger into the wound and began hurriedly writing something in the book with his blood. While Arbor was occupied with his task, the Prince stood up and approached the Queen.
"My dear, I think I'm not the one who misunderstood the hierarchy of power."
The Prince sat on the table next to Queen Theresa: "You made the mistake of underestimating us. Now I'll show you what happens when you make a mistake."
The Queen sat in shock, trying to move, to escape, but she couldn't. The gurgling of the choking guard finally ceased. The room was enveloped in perfect silence.
The Prince pointed a finger at her forehead: "Unlike my companions, I haven't studied your customs... Choose a god and start praying," the Prince said calmly.
The Queen blinked rapidly twice: "What…?", she asked, her voice filled with terror, staring at Kasar Veteres, the Prince of Mund.
"Oh… It doesn't matter… I thought you had gods here. I'm not surprised, I suppose. Goodbye," the Prince closed his eyes, focusing: "FLA…"
"Wait!", Frejo shouted, "Are you sure about this? I've read about it. People don't follow the ruler; people follow the crown! You'll never have the support of the people, Theresa can be useful as a figurehead. Killing her would mean declaring war on the entire nation!"
The Prince pondered for a second. He turned to Ater. "What do you think, old friend?" Ater stopped writing. He stood up from the ground and with a loud THUD closed the book with one hand. "Spare the bitch," he retorted. There was no trace of the huge wound on his chest. The Queen was so frightened that she hadn't even noticed.
"Oh, today is your lucky day. Very well… I hope you're aware that we will be calling the shots from now on. I hope you try to betray us, I really don't like leaving you alive," the Prince said with an innocent smile.