FLYNN CLAYMORE

He sat on the four-legged wooden chair beside the grand bed in the king’s chambers, watching Zephyr abed naked beneath the comfort of his blanket.

It had come as a shock when it had happened. Zephyr was without his crown there in the solar, but he was still the king, and… he fell to the ground, not like a king, but like he was a tree hacked down in one swift swing by a burly woodcutter. The prince, Dante, had fallen his seat to the same ground the king lay upon, and was about to be upon him, but he held not a candle to the gilded knight in speed. Ser Aaron was there before him, already having the king’s arms flailing over his golden shoulders, while his silver hands held the king’s thighs in place. They hurried out of the solar then, all three of them, the fourth resting on armoured back and gone somewhere they could not follow.

“The Grand Savant, now!” Dante had screamed at the black cloaks manning the door before he had even pulled it completely open, and the two of them scurried off hastily, their stunned faces, seeking questions they might never get answers to, visible beneath their unvisored armet.

They were already at the king’s quarters and in his bedchamber when Grand Savant Aelred arrived, with a small brown bag of leather in hand and a wailing voice behind him. The queen was here. The guards had supposedly split their roles, one had gone to the grand savant and the other to the queen. Whatever the one that went to the queen had told her, brought her to her son’s chamber muddled, her face showing clearly how shaken and troubled she was. It took a step further, as clear streams each flowed out when she saw him looking lifeless and lying flat while watching the ceiling with closed eyes.

They parted for her, Flynn and Dante, as she rushed to her son’s side, her red gown covering her knees upon her falling to the floor. “Aelred!” She screamed. “What is wrong with my son?! Tell me what is wrong with my son!” Her hands gripped Zephyr’s tightly. It was warm. Still warm.

The grand savant could not hurry as much as he used to for the previous kings, and they knew better than to rush him, that is unless they wanted him to lie the same as the king. But he knew he was taking too long, a little bit too long, his body had lost flesh with age and somehow grew heavier, but he had to put Queen Thalia’s mind at rest or she would no doubt rush him soon enough.

He put his bag on the table, then dragged himself like a snail, along with his large robe of white that swept the floor, towards the king’s bed. He was a little bit faster as he got to the king’s bed, at least quicker than any snail would have. He put forward two middle-fingers, both wrinkled like the other three on his hand and the five of the other hand, and placed them beneath Zephyr’s nose. They were shaking, but he got what he wanted. “The king lives, my queen, rest assured.” He held his robe and turned back to the table, resuming his walk. This time a snail would have been faster.

Her tears stopped with the old savant’s assurance now, but she was still afraid. “How long till he wakes?” She asked, her voice shaking like the grand savant’s hand that was carefully unlocking his bag on the table. “How long do I have to wait till my son wakes?”

“Only the ravens know, my queen. I shall do my part and hope he wakes sooner than later. Pull off his clothes. Help the gilded ser with that, my lord. If you would too, my prince.” The queen moved away for them to do as the man of white had told them.

After his clothes were off, the grand savant touched him here and there. At his neck, his chest, his belly, and beneath his blue hair at the soft edges of his head. “The king has been without sleep for two nights I see. That was too long for him to not sleep,” the old man said as he walked away from the bed and back to the table, where he brought out a small conical steel tube and a paper of crushed mint leaves.

“Two days?” Thalia whimpered from where she stood, her eyes red from tears. “Why would Zephyr not have slept for two days? He takes his milk, always.”

“That question I cannot answer, my queen.” The grand savant took a pinch of the crushed mint and dipped it into the tube, then filled it with the water from a jar sitting on the table, before shaking it vigorously, that is as much as his weak muscles could allow… “My good knight, please shake this tube for me, don’t stop until I say so.” …Which was not much, apparently. He handed over the tube to square-faced Ser Aaron.

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“He has not taken his milk for a while now, queen mother,” Dante answered the question for the grand savant, and it left the queen stunned, she was even devoid of words. “But are you sure it was two days?” Dante asked the grand savant.

Flynn spoke too, “He was fine at the council meeting, and that was a day before.”

“His exhaustion was doubled, my dear lord. And a doubled exhaustion is either a culmination of days without sleep or the exhaustion of two in one body. The latter seems too queer to be possible, doesn’t it? Oh, that’s enough. Yes, yes. Stop shaking.” Grand Savant Aelred took the tube from Ser Aaron and put on his monocles. “If that is all the question, could you hold his head up for this fragile old man?”

Flynn was about to, that was until Dante hurried past him and put his palm behind Zephyr’s head to raise it a bit. “Thank you, my prince,” the old man said as he began pouring the contents of the tube into the king’s mouth, while straining his eyes through the monocle. “There, all done. If he does not wake by the time the moon is out, then he should on the ‘morrow. Fear not, my queen.” Dante laid Zephyr’s head back, and as the grand savant began packing his bags, then did Thaddeus enter.

“Mother! What happened to brother?” He was panting, hard. Thalia opened her arms, but he ignored her and ran towards the bed.

“Do not climb, my prince. Now that he has the chance to sleep, you should let him sleep.” Grand Savant Aelred was done now, he removed his monocle, dipped it into his bag, and readied himself to leave. “If anything else is needed, I should be summoned. Then, if you will, my queen, my princes’, my lord, and my good knight.” He bowed his head slightly, his neck holding it with whatever strength it had left, before he made his way through the door that Thaddeus’ guard had not yet closed shut. Dante hurried after the old man, muttering something to him.

Thaddeus wanted to stay, but Thalia insisted he left his brother to rest, he was stubborn and she had no choice but to take him herself, leaving Zephyr to his Kingsknight and his royal advisor.

But now it was only Flynn left, he had sent Ser Aaron to help with the readying of the milk of the almond, in case the king awoke anytime.

The sun gazed through the chamber’s window from up in the sky mildly, as if it too was sad that the king was in such a state.

Flynn glanced at the shut door, then turned his eyes back to the still face of the blanketed king, and sighed sharply. “Why?” He said, asking the sleeping blue-haired naked man, even though he knew he could not hear him in his dark slumber. “Why?” He asked again, with a look that was part grief and… “why do you still live?” …part disgust.

“Why did she have to come then? Why did you have to come back? Why did you return? You should be gone. Dead and gone.” He dipped his hands into his auburn hair as he lowered his face in spite. “Why are you making things so hard for me? Why do you decide to haunt me?” His voice had begun to crack now, soften and crack. The disgust was seemingly gone and only grief remained.

After a while of burying his face silently in his palms, he began to speak again, “You know I lied. To Melisandre. I lied to her. I told her I did what I did because you had begun to suspect something, but the truth is the more I waited the harder it became, it would have gotten to a point where I would not have been able to harm you. I could not tell her that, right Zephyr? I would look weak. When I noticed that you had lost your memories, I was shocked but I was happy, happy you did not remember that I was the one who poisoned you.” He took his eyes from his palms and back to the bed. “Do you know how hard it was to do that? You were my best friend, it was as though I was being pierced with a hundred knives, fucking hundred knives, Zephyr, a hundred. It was hurting to watch you choke until you died, and here you are again, trying to make me go through all that once more. I don’t know if I can kill you again… and Dante, I don’t know if I could kill both of you.

“What would you have me do? Discard my revenge for our friendship? How could I do that after what she went through? What would you and the wise ravens have me do? Who should advise me, who? Wake up and answer me.”

“M’lord,” the Kingsknight’s voice came from beyond the door, startling Flynn to a calm and a sharp exhale. “I have returned with the almond.”

With Flynn’s reply, the door came open, but as the Kingsknight entered so did Flynn leave. He was done watching Zephyr. He was done watching his friend.