6 Months Before the Alodis Banquet

Captain Gambria was in deep, inner turmoil. He hadn't been able to sleep for the last two moons and he battled horrendous nightmares that mocked everything he believed in. The kind of nightmares that makes you rethink past actions and all the moments that place you where you are. But while the captain recognized these nightmares as false to an extent, the reason behind their appearance was not something easily disregarded.

Someone was selling information to the Tieran kingdom. Someone backstabbing roach was placing vital information into the hands of Kallondona's treacherous enemies.

He had begun to notice some things amiss. Like the Ruling Knowledge Council would have mixed information on scrolls given to them on the moment of their arrival. Scouts would go missing near the border to the hostile country. Plans were being usurped and false information spread. It was starting to become a major problem.

While Captain Gambria may not have been known for his intellectual prowess, he was like a dog with a bone. He refused to let go. He knew that a traitor, a spy was hovering in their midst. Someone with the ability to attend Ruling Knowledge Council meetings, someone who had access to Teiran counterparts, and most of all someone who donned a daily mask to fool onlookers.

This is when Captain Gambria began to pay attention. The kind of attention that places a light on every shadow, and a shadow on every light. So, is it any wonder that the captain began to notice some discrepancies in the king's daily life?

As much as the captain wanted to discount his Sovereign, he could not. So, the captain as any intelligent person is wont to do, watched. He began to study daily meetings between the king and his advisors. He began to notice the many disappearances that made up the king's day.

For one, the king seemed to stare absentmindedly at the wall in the most critical of times in a meeting. It was as if the king planned to look away when the issue needed a clear, resolved statement from the Sovereign. The captain on noticing such a time began to notice how the king went from fidgeting his hair over his eyes to pushing back the strands from his amber eyes. Then as a maid closes the manor while her master and mistress are spending a few months on an island property by draping a white silken cloth over a mirror, the king's eyes slowly glazed over unseeing. But what the observant captain noticed is that the king was passing a coin over his knuckles. It was hard to see from any angle of the room but if you looked just low enough and you stared at the bronze knuckles of the king's hands, the viewer would see a circular flat object shifting from forefinger to knuckle.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Now to any noble citizen or trained scholar with reputable interests, this would appear unworthy of attention or hardly remarkable. But as once being a youth himself with a penchant for trouble, Captain Gambria recognized a fellow thief's trick. This was the basic skill any young thief learned. How could one relieve someone of the contains of their pockets if they could not even master a basic maneuver to silence the shift of a coin from one pocket to another pocket? The captain suddenly realized his Sovereign, the person renowned in three countries for being the most considerable dunce that ever graced this side of the continent, was in fact, capable of far more than Kallondona ever gave him credit for. A thief could be unwise, foolhardy, make massive mistakes, but they were never - never - stupid. Stupid thieves didn't make it past their majority in a kingdom as fierce as Kallondona.

The captain began to ponder as to what else the king was underestimated in. It stands to reason that a thief-turned-dunce might be more as well. Maybe even a traitor?

A sharp swear word broke the sound barrier in the captain's ears. As he peered down the hall that led to the Ruling Knowledge Council Hall, he saw his shifty Sovereign appearing dressed in all the finery a drunk can offer. Whatever color the pastel clothes the king was wearing before, they were disguised by the ocher color that only a fine ale can stain. The king was without his circlet as he usually refused to wear it. His hair, instead of its midnight black shade, was a sickly, greasy dark grey as if he had dunked his sovereign head into the mop bucket.

The king began to saunter drunkenly down the hallway saying bizarre statements such as "What can a man do when someone betrays him, feed him to the dogs?" He then began to cackle, coughing on the saliva building in his throat. "Oh, GOOD GOLLY, MISS DAMMIN" SWINE" he shouted at the top of his heaving lungs. "What can a king do when he is surrounded by enemies all around?" the king finished with a vibrato. As he said these nonsensical statements, he walked past the captain to the stairwell that would lead to his wing of rooms.

As his Sovereign passed away lost in the stupors a drunk found so favorable, the captain noticed raised bumps on the pieces of skin on the king's forearms that snuck out into the open between the cloth. As the captain looked closer, he saw the bumps were an angry, irrepressible red, the kind of red that resulted from a serious skin allergy. But what could the king be allergic too? He hadn't mentioned any allergies in court. He certainly had never shown signs of an allergic condition.

As the king disappeared on the top of the flight of stairs, the captain came up with the only conclusion that connected the dots. His Sovereign, the King of Kallondona, the famous swine and drunkard, was seriously allergic to alcohol. So much so, that any contact with the top of his skin left him to break out into boils. But how could this be?

Was he really drunk all these nights and days or was he an actor donning a mask with a script to play out and mischief in mind?

Could this king who seemed to wear as many masks as the phases of the moon be a traitor to his countrymen?

Captain Gambria was determined to find out, but he would need the help of his two lieutenants, Tauron and Ronan. This is how he got himself into the miserable position of offering himself as a swordplay trainer to his king.