With how most of them would be too busy to meet up again the next day, it was decided they would come together again in a few days instead, next time with the last Prince as well. That was the hope of the King, at least. The Princess had other ideas.
“How does the search go?” Elijah asked, when the Princess had followed him down into his section of the castle. Instead of entering the laboratory, however, they continued ahead and went inside the Royal Healer’s personal chambers, a room he had never personally visited.
“It goes well,” she replied vaguely, as he closed the door and stopped anybody from listening too easily. “We’ve gone through all the faces of the Royal Mages and identified all that have at some point been involved with the rituals.”
“How many?”
“Nearly half,” Vera answered, making him freeze midstep. “And, to make it worse, most of them are from the older generation and in high-ranking positions. It’s just Alin and a rare few others from that age group that aren’t conspiring against the country.”
So many…
“If they have such a force of Mages and power already, why haven’t they just stormed the castle and taken over already?” Elijah questioned, taking a seat at the small table next to the bed. The sheets were neatly folded, cleaned, and ready to be put on by anybody who would occupy the room in the future, yet so many other personal possessions were still there. “I doubt that the Royal Guards could hold them back by themselves.”
“The guards would be able to do little, but… you are underestimating what Alin is capable of,” Vera said. “He is old, he has trouble standing, but his magic might be on another scale than Rubeus’. While others might reign supreme in one-on-one combat, Alin could take on armies by his lonesome. His ability to terraform on a massive scale wasn’t honed through building villages if that makes it more understandable.”
It was hard to take over a country when the very earth you stood on was trying to crush you. Elijah, having heard the stories of thousands of warriors drowning in stone by the Earth Mage’s hand, took back his criticism.
“So they think that whatever they summon can triumph over him?” he questioned.
“Him and the handful of other old Mages that would fight by our side in the event of an attempted mutiny,” she confirmed. “Even without him, the others would stand a fair chance. And even if they didn’t, it would cause enough destruction that the only thing left would be a city of rubble and little life. To take over, they would need a power far greater than any Mage in this country currently possesses.”
“Hence a beast from another world that can stand unmatched,” Elijah concluded, Vera nodding before they both grew silent. Seconds stretched into minutes, and his eyes began to wander through the room. The personal possessions he’d noted before were inspected in greater detail, and the wear and tear on most of them became more clear. They’d been well-loved, from the books with worn leather bindings, to the pipe which had been worn thinner through decades of use, and finally, to the small telescope which sat next to the circular window that allowed you to see plenty of the night sky when the sun was gone. The last one was the most interesting of the three, however, as he could see it had been used recently. As opposed to everything else in the room, it didn’t suffer from a mild layer of dust. “I take it you have an interest in stargazing?”
“... You grow more observant by the day,” Vera replied, surprised for a moment at the question until she figured out his methods.
“If the only thing you touch when you enter is the telescope, it is not hard to guess that you’re fascinated by the stars.”
“How do you know nobody else has the key to the room?”
“Too much of a risk, else you would’ve allowed the old Healer’s family to be given all the personal possessions that remain.”
While he might’ve had the title of a healer, it didn’t stop him from conspiring to kill the King, and it wouldn’t do good for the family of a traitor to realize he was such.
“I’m not even meant to have a key myself,” Vera commented after a few seconds, before pulling out the key in question. It was old, with a few smaller cracks and chipped-off edges at the side. “Only the Royal Healer and his family may have one, but… I was special. Reynold knew I wanted the telescope, to look out into the sky and be told about its wonders, so he gave me a key so I could use it whenever I felt the need.”
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to simply buy you another telescope?”
“They tried,” she admitted. “But it turned out that the magical part came from the explanations, so Reynold was forced to assist either way. By using his, it meant I didn’t have to go through the pain of adjusting the settings. It was easier that way.”
She continued on, giving small bits of history about her and the old Healer. Some parts were good, some were bad, and some half-stories seemed more made for the princess than they were for Elijah. It was strange, sitting in the dead man’s room and listening to it all, but whatever else in this world didn’t possess that strange charm as well?
“Why haven't you taken out the telescope at some point?” Elijah finally asked. “The old Healer isn’t using it anymore, and I can promise you that the stars are not in my field of interest.”
If he wanted a meditative state that he found relaxing, he would start gardening and not look through a lens for five hours trying to find the right angle of the moon.
“Taking the old items feels a little wrong, don’t you think?” Vera countered, giving out a smile at the thought. A real smile for once, and not one of those fake ones she used to unnerve those who knew of its lacking authenticity. “Not something a moral and upright princess would go about doing.”
“You’re plotting to kill your brother the second you figure out where he’s hiding,” Elijah dryly noted, getting a slap on the shoulder for his efforts. “'Moral' isn't the word I would use.”
“The ends justify the means?” she tried, chuckling at the look Elijah gave in response. “That was a bad one, I know, but I still like to think myself a good person. A person planning to commit a few more murders for the sake of the kingdom, yes, but it will save more lives than it will end.”
“I can’t say anything against that,” Elijah supposed. He could remember the chaos before Serenova became official, the chaos while the war was ongoing, and the chaos that came after.
People didn’t stop having no food, people didn’t stop having their lives ruined, the soldiers who gave up everything to fight were left with no battles to partake in, and a great depression flooded through the happiness as half the people of the newly founded country found themselves with no place to place their plates. Only years of work had allowed those issues to be pushed away, yet that had still required so many to die in the process.
That was another reason the King was so praised. He was the one who didn’t focus on his own wealth, on how lavish the capital city was supposed to be. Kulvik was given the basic defenses, the basic administration, and Mason had left the city within a month to go on a tour across the country with Alin by his side. Others had been left behind during that time, managing the daily tasks and getting orders through letters while the King and the Earth Mage had helped rebuild nearly a thousand villages.
Seeing buildings that could stand hundreds of years, buildings that no storm could break, and buildings that could protect them and their harvests from the cold winter all be built in a matter of minutes had caused such an ideal view of the King. To shake his hand, to see the years of pain be repaid with the new, there was no question why the public had looked at Mason with such pride. A common man rising to the task at hand and doing it better than anybody could have ever dreamed.
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But that’s not going to last forever, is it?
Elijah had known that from the moment he’d heard of the Heartroot, and he’d grown even more sure of it once he had seen the King before his own eyes. Mason was not long for this world.
Neither was Alin. Even if the Earth Mage was in great health for his age, able to walk with a cane and eat with a great appetite, the years were still closing in. Could he live another ten years? Perhaps, but the old generation would leave sooner or later.
“What will you do, once all of this is over?” Elijah asked. “When your father has died peacefully, when Alin joins him, and you’re meant to keep on going?”
“I… do not like to think of it,” Vera admitted. “Hope that Phillip rules well? Maybe hope that he has the time to look at something other than his sword and find a person he loves? We need a new generation after ours, and we need them to be powerful if we’re to keep what we have now.”
“The Royal Mages who wish you harm likely won’t be a problem anymore, at that time,” he added. “Too old to try and usurp anything of importance.”
“Perhaps, but that won’t mean that the danger is over,” she countered. “The foes that we’ve had from the start will begin to reappear. Castilla would love to have their rebelling county back, along with the hive of wealth it possesses, and Ethon… the elven kingdom across the sea might’ve helped us keep our independence, but they would not mind having us either if we’re unable to fight back properly.”
Serenova was right on the edge of the continent, settled between the sea and the giant country they had come from. Danger from both sides and not a danger that could be easily dealt with.
“Any ideas on how to keep power?” Elijah asked.
“Hope that the new generation of Royal Mages work hard and reach the peaks of the old?” Vera supposed. “The Dungeon allows us to train them for war, though they haven’t done so much in recent years. With peace, those with an Affinity for the magical arts don’t feel the need to learn how to kill effectively. They instead wish to research, to discover the corners not yet searched through, and to broaden our knowledge of the world. A noble effort, I’ll admit, but one we’ll have to change very soon.”
“Pens can’t always beat swords,” he commented, remembering the butchered saying from his past travels. The promises of peace rarely sat well with those who could gain from the chaos of war. “And, if all else fails, you have plenty of wealth to hire mercenaries.”
“Having your own army is already expensive,” the Princess muttered, likely having gone through the budgeting for such an event. “Training up your own soldiers would be better in the long term, which is something we need to prioritize when any of the countries start pushing in.”
‘“We,’” Elijah repeated. “Did you mean to use that word?”
“We, yes,” Vera confirmed. “You’re doing great as a Royal Healer, at the moment, so I was rather confident you would stay for more than the six months you initially accepted.”
A chuckle escaped him before he knew it was coming at all.
“I think you might’ve misunderstood how long I plan to stick around,” Elijah corrected her. “If Sasha wasn’t being so frustrating, and refusing to leave the city behind, the others and I would’ve already fled.”
“... You truly feel no love for this country?”
“No more than the love I have for Castilla,” he confirmed. “Think of me as neutral above all else. I see what goodness drives you, and I can tell that you’re a person the gods will look upon with favor, but I was never somebody like you. I lived for myself, lived to enjoy what time I had, and I am not one to sacrifice my own breath for that of another.”
“And yet you haven’t left the city, because that would mean leaving two others behind,” Vera commented, making him mutter some not-so-nice words in reply. “Perhaps you haven’t lived most of your life with the thought of anybody but yourself, but recent times have been different. Your action of selflessness, of taking in two half-dead people you found on the street, delayed what could’ve meant the end of this country. One act of good, and you’ve already done better than most who will ever live. Why not continue that streak once this problem is all over?”
…
Elijah didn’t answer at that time. He didn’t know what he could say, so he kept his mouth shut. Vera didn’t press him either. Maybe she knew what thoughts she had planted in his mind to grow, maybe she was as evil as ever and manipulated him into staying, or maybe she was just pointing out the things he was already planning to do.
Was he a good person? Looking through his entire life, Elijah would say no. He’d helped with so much death and pain and torture and spilled blood. Thousands had died because of his actions, and the only things he had thought of at those times were what he would get to eat after finishing his work.
Yet he’d started to grow empathetic to those who had suffered. Many years needed to pass for those thoughts to grow, and for Elijah to realize what he was feeling, but they were there now. And, from what Vera had said, his recent actions had been what a good person would do.
… She really is good at manipulating others, isn’t she?
Maybe that family of hers had always meant to be royals, with how smooth their tongues could be at times.
Elijah went back to work afterward. It was nothing complicated so close to the end of the day. Some herbs were harvested, and put up to dry, and others that had already been put up two weeks before were given treatment through mortar and pestle before being put into their separate bottles. Nothing that required any thought.
Certainly, nothing that required much time either, as Elijah was able to leave within a few hours of work. He checked in with Vera at the end, making sure the messages she sent to the two in the dungeon returned with an all-clear, before leaving for his home yet again.
Aleksi was out of bed and sitting at the table in the kitchen when he got there.
“Still pale, I see,” Elijah commented, but the giant waved away the worries. “Any serious discomfort?”
“An empty stomach, itchiness in the right eye, and I’m terribly bored,” Aleksi rattled off. Elijah could do little about the last part, but the first two weren’t hard to treat. Meats were treated with fire, potatoes were boiled, and a simple sauce was created on the side. Nothing too serious, and it was able to cool down slightly while Elijah took a look at the eye that was causing problems. “How does it look?”
“Well, you would have to tell me,” Elijah replied, getting a laugh out of the man. “Hold still now, or I’ll be poking it out before I find anything notable.”
That kept the giant quiet, allowing him to properly inspect the regrown iris. He hadn’t been sure how it would heal, since it had been cut in half horizontally, but it seemed to have been a worthwhile effort. It wasn’t as quick as the Elixir would have done against a knife to the chest, but progress was made regardless.
“There’s still a lot of residue floating around inside,” he could finally confirm. “You’re going to be working blind for a few more days while the Elixir finally figures out how to handle it.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Aleksi asked.
“Then you either deal with it, or we cut it open and see if it heals better the second time,” Elijah offered, getting a shove from the giant as they shuddered at the thought. “You’ve had your intestines pulled out before being used to try and strangle you, but it’s a cut on the eye that’s too much?”
“You try seeing a blade go through your vision,” the giant fired back, to which Elijah could say nothing. “That’s what I thought.”
He just shook his head before serving the dinner for the day. It wasn’t terrible, needing a little more salt, but neither felt the need to fix it. Food was food, and it filled their stomachs well enough to let them go to sleep early.
Elijah proceeded to not move for ten full hours.
His body had been allowed to recover some of the rest it hadn’t been allowed in recent days, and it was more than happy to take all that it could. It was only the fact that he still had to upkeep his duties as a Royal Healer that he didn’t return to his slumber for another ten.
Aleksi wasn’t completely ready to head to the smithy that day either, so the giant stayed to tend to the shop while Elijah hurried along once more. The guards greeted him by the entrance as normal, the servants wished him a good morning when he passed them, and his assistants…
“What are you doing?” he asked, entering into the laboratory and seeing them hurry about. Six burners were going all at once, liquids boiling in dangerous amounts yet neither assistant doing anything to fix it. Instead, they were opening up for more flame on more stations, increasing the load that needed to be tended to.
“The Royal Guard sent out an emergency order for this afternoon,” Oscar explained. “They want everything that can help with post-battle recovery.”
…
That wasn’t normal.
They pleaded for him to stay and help, but Elijah didn’t listen as he headed out instantly. Down the stairs, down two hallways, and over to Vera’s section of the castle.
He nearly went head-first into Harper who was hurrying out with widened eyes.
“You know already?” she questioned.
“No, but something is going on regardless,” Elijah answered.
“The Royal Guard entered the Dungeon twenty minutes ago while led by Rubeus Hayes.”
As it turned out, they had been fooled. Vera had already sent a warning out to the two hiding deep within, but he wasn’t sure what could be done.