2 2: The court

Kyo really wasn't kidding when he said »acting face« earlier. Sitting next to me he was calm and collected, smiled politely and made small talk. He suddenly had a regal aura to him, sophisticated and collected. It was as though he was a completely different person!

According to my memories, though, this was the norm. He never really acted like his happy, spiteful self around anyone but me and Laerke. Laerke not so much because he trusted her, but because she was quite literally my shadow. Which reminded me… Where was Laerke anyways? I remember that she's always been lurking close by, so where was she now? How strange.

I didn't really have much time to consider that, however. Because…

BOOM!

Suddenly everything on the other side of the table was covered in blue smoke. The people sitting there hurriedly escaped, coughing in the process. Unfortunately, everyone who came into contact with the smoke seemed to have their skin stained blue, though. And before anyone could say or do anything, the same thing happened with pink a little further down the long table. Then with some kind yellowish-gold at the very end of the table. Soon, everyone but the four people on our end of the table were coughing with a new skin tone.

Slowly, I turned towards Kyo. He only stared back with the most innocent angel look I had ever seen. Really? Not going to admit to it? The smoke did come from the fish plates, after all. And he hadn't even bothered to change out of the uniform yet. I rose an eyebrow at him. And… Now he couldn't hold in his laughter anymore.

I was right, by the way: No one else thought it was funny. However, if you could hear Kyo's laughter, you wouldn't have been able to resist a little chuckle either! Therefore, I am not to blame for laughing. I don't care what you say, it wasn't my fault.

Okay, maybe a little…

It took a few minutes for the both of us to calm down. In the meantime, everyone else had fallen silent. You could have thought that we were laughing at a funeral by the atmosphere. Once I had calmed down, though, I hear someone mutter: "That damn boy! Typical for lokiborn, really. Someone should do something about that nuisance." Of cause I didn't like that, but before I could figure out who in my court had said this, another voice whispered hurriedly: "Don't say that! He has his highness' protection, after all. That would be treason in their eyes! No, if you dare to cross him, you will be lucky if his highness only kills you…"

What a weird thing to say. Was Najiral really that bad? Sure, he was a demon, a demon king even. But still. That seemed a little over dramatic, right? I frowned at the other people around. All of them either glared at Kyo or furiously wiped at their skin trying to remove the paint. But no one dared to say anything, at least not loud enough to hear. Kyo next to me seemed to be aware too, as he winked at the court and bowed, showing them his tongue: "Don't be angry with me. A little fun is important for our new ruler! You should be glad you could amuse him."

Huh? Why did it sound like this was my fault now?

Shaking my head, I stood up. "You are lucky I was finished anyways, Kyo.", I remarked with a smirk, trying to ignore the stares and ease the tension. He smirked back, before clearing his throat and fixing his posture. And once again you could have been fooled, thinking he was a perfectly well mannered aristocrat. With a respectful bow of the head he asked me: "Shall we go then, my prince?" I wasn't sure where he wanted me to go, but I decided to nod and just go along with it. So he nodded back and made a movement with the hand, showing me to lead the way. Great. So now what?

For now I decided to leave the room. There palace was huge and the corridors were like a maze, but the dinning hall was at the end of this corridor, so there really wasn't much a chance to go the wrong way. So I did just that. It worked out, for now. Fortunately Kyo soon joined next to me, instead of walking behind me as it would be proper to do. I was happy about that. For one, it didn't feel as weird this way, and secondly I was able to let him lead the way instead.

Soon, we arrived at a study filled to the brim with books and old looking scripts. Surely the candles were a poor choice. The whole room seemed to be a fire hazard and it surely wouldn't be safe to be in here while there was an earthquake either. Or a fight. Or when you stumbled and knocked down one of these gigantic book cases. It generally didn't feel like a safe space to be in. Then again, it probably wasn't mainly supposed to be safe but rather functional.

With a little effort I recognized this as the study the former demon lord had secluded himself in all the time. Well, if he didn't pose on the throne that good-for-nothing, presumptuous unholier-than-though bas-

…

Woah. Looks like the original Najiral really didn't like his father at all. Even now that it was me here, his feelings were so strong inside those memories that I got influenced by it. It made me wonder what the former demon lord did, but I decided not to remember that. It was probably horrible and knowing wouldn't do me any good. Besides, that man was dead by now. The original had killed him in cold blood in his sleep, so it didn't concern me anymore.

Refocusing on the present time, I noticed that there was a list on the old oak desk. Different names were written down in red, black and blue. One of the red ones had been circled, some of them crossed. And behind some of the blue ones were little checks. And this was…?

Ah. Once again, the memories of the original held the answer: It was a list of the current court, the one the dead demon lord had put together for himself. Blue were the ones who were only loyal to his father and therefore posed a threat now. The ones with the checks were »taken care of«, so basically either exiled, charged with treason or executed on the spot. Elven were down, five more to go.

The black names weren't important to Najiral. They were alright and keeping them wouldn't be a problem, but they were replaceable should there be a reason to do so. In total, there were sixteen names, all sorted by how likely they were to be replaced.

And then there were the red ones. Red had been reserved for demons Najiral either trusted, liked or whose abilities he would need later on. At least this was the case in theory, because there were only four names written down in red, and all of them were because of their capabilities. The one whose name had been circled, a certain Earl Shá Shay, was a demon with incomparably valuable assets, but who still had to be kept a close eye one because Najiral wasn't sure about his true motives or where his loyalty lied.

"Any news on Shay?", I asked Kyo when I remembered this. He sighed. "Still as unfathomable as ever, I'm afraid. But! It's only a matter of time until we figure out more about him. Oh, and there isn't anything interesting about his background either." I hummed at his reply. So basically, he was still a huge question mark and I had to be careful about him.

Coming to think of it, Shay had been one of the people sitting with us this morning. The other one had been his sister and another one of these red names, Shá Lirika. So, then they were in my inner council for now? Better take care to remember their names and faces, then.

Let's see… They were both partially dragons. However, while Shay had a human mother, Lirika's mother had been a vampire. They had another sibling, who wasn't part of the court, though. Instead, he was viewed as a traitor of our kind since he had joined the red crescent alliance. That was an illegal group of angry human rebels, who sought to kill of the Redeye family and end the rule of demons. Shá Keyron was known as the golden-scaled hero to them, and since he and Shay grew up together for a few years as they had the same mother, Najiral had thought it best to be careful of Shay, who had not yet proven his loyalty to the demons like his sister had done.

I see…

Uh, hold up! So there was an entire human organization dedicated to killing me?! And their hero was half dragon? Ah, I really had to be careful about those guys, then. And I didn't think it was a good idea to prejudge anyone based on their family, but I too had a bad feeling about Shá Shay now.

I sighed. Why did everything have to be so complicated? But I guessed I should probably better get to work. After all, I had to replace at least sixteen members of my court. And then there was also a different list about corrupt noble families Najiral had been thinking of striping of their titles to re-grant them onto others, more deserving ones.

Oh, dear… So much work! I didn't really like to work hard…