“My Liege, your stasis chamber is prepared,”

The king glanced to the aging face of the man who’d called out; a fourth or fifth generation butler of his, he couldn’t quite remember, some of the long spans asleep had clouded his memories over the centuries he’d ruled.

“When will it be next?” The king asked without a movement from his leather-like lips. Sebastian, his butler, had always found the device he used for speech rather eerie, but he would never allow the thought to show on his face. He’d been trained since birth to serve his majesty so something like this was a matter of course.

Clearing his throat, Sebastian pulled a notepad from his jacket pocket, it was for effect more than anything as he had obviously already memorized the King’s future schedule.

“The next appointment is two years from now. Starting with Your Majesty’s inspection of Lantis Academy’s graduation expo.”

“The time goes fast,” The king chuckled, remembering the previous gradation as if it were yesterday. “Has there been any rumors about the entrants this time around?”

“Your Highness…” Sebastian muttered with a hint of exasperation lingering in his voice, “You know how serious The Academy handles security, let alone any names or information, it’d be a miracle if we could even figure out what they had for dinner.”

“Heh,” The King grunted from his chest, finally placing a hand roughly onto an orb inlaid into the armrest of his throne. “I could use a rest I suppose.”

Nodding with satisfaction, Sebastian followed quickly after the throne carrying the King towards the sleeping ward.

“There was one bit,” Sebastian said as he caught up beside the King. “There are probably eight of them enrolled this time.”

“Oh?” The King glanced over with an eye while keeping his other focused solely on guiding his way.

“Mhm,” Sebastian continued, ignoring the shiver running his spine. “General Fulgen, at the request of the Twelfth Prince, employed reconnaissance techniques to measure the fuel loads of the floatplanes landing near Isla Lant...”

“I won’t hear any succession talk from you Sebastian. Mind your words.” The King growled as he stopped his Throne abruptly.

“My apologies, Your Majesty.” Sebastian declared while falling painfully to his knees. Bowing his head to the floor, he didn’t dare look up to meet the gaze he knew was coming from the King.

 “I’ll forgive it because I learned something interesting.” The King eventually called as he returned his movement towards the awaiting chamber.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The halls leading toward the deeply hidden ward of the castle were lined with conduits and piping that shook and dripped as they shuttled odd liquids towards the royal statis vat. Few but the ghost maintaining the machine could even identify half of the machinery so after a time it began to blend into the scenery. Metal machines, turned black from centuries of grime build-up, passed the throne ignored by the king’s chameleon like eyes as he made his way toward the long sleep.

“Sebastian,” The King spoke without bothering to instruct the man further.

Well trained that he was, of course Sebastian knew exactly what he was supposed to do and instantaneously stepped forward to help ease the king up from his throne. Gingerly leading the feeble King a handful of steps, he then helped him turn and lay back onto a slanted frame mounted to a set of sturdy arms hanging from the ceiling. As soon as his body was comfortably situated, a set of grips wrapped his limbs into a soft embrace.

Quickly stepping away, to respect his lieges privacy, Sebastian quickly recognized the familiar smells of the liquid bath filling with a strange substance as the sound of the mechanical arms holding the king slowly eased him down to lay in the thick ichor.

His clothing, which had been little more than a simple hospital gown slowly disintegrated as the lightly acidic mixture of proteins, medicinal fluids, and nanoparticles began reacting to the mana and radio-waves being pumped through the massive contraption centered in the castle.

“Dream well Your Majesty.” Sebastian spoke while raising his arm to a trained salute.

“Mm,” The Throne spoke eerily as the last bit of the King’s consciousness hung on as the vat filled rapidly. “Sebastian, you are dismissed, have your heir wake me.”

“At your will.” Sebastian answered with a gritted jaw.

With his final order given, the King finally shut his eyes and began to allow the artificial drowsiness to win-over his mind. While told to ‘dream well’, it really wasn’t anything like that. There were no dreams, it was simply like shutting your eyes and opening them in a new time. He’d likely have forgotten what a dream was if not for the insincere wishes said to him each time he was laid to rest.

As always, he expected to feel the sensation of shutting his eyes, and then opening them to the chill of the draining liquid, but instead he felt heat as his eyes flickered open. It was dark too, which was strange, the area was always lit perfectly when he was woken up. What was happening?

Then the heat became noticeable again, but stronger.

‘Ah,’ The King thought as the sensation finally clicked in his head. ‘This is pain, I’d nearly forgotten. Perhaps I’ve been stabbed?’

Then again, the heat came from another location, this time the side of his abdomen. He was sure of it now. It was a much deeper heat that spread through his stomach quickly. He forced a cough but found his chest and lung still heavily filled with the fluid which had previously been keeping him alive.

Choking on the mixture of blood and thick ooze, the King died slowly, with the medicine in his lungs slowly healing him as if to prolong the suffering.

 The King’s death was not reported immediately, as nobody was permitted to enter the ward while he rested. It would be some-time before the death was finally discovered. But by then most of his body had already been consumed by the vicious liquids meant to prolong his life.

This is not the story of the murder of the King of Avalon. Nor is it a story of the ‘War of the Red and White’ that followed; as the factions supporting the various princes battled for their blood-right.

 This is the story of a world where technology and magika are nearly one and the same, where history swayed through the early discovery of an impossible phenomena known as Magic.