"A king is only worth his people's opinion."
- King Selurm Ravid II of the Galdian Empire
"Power corrupts in various shades, some are just stronger of mind than others."
- King Fedrik Ravid VII of the Galdian Empire to his mentor Stultum, shortly before the expedition to other lands.
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Thunder cracked overhead in the torrential downpour. Stultum looked out from his window of the mansion fearful, his mind continuously playing the events of that fateful journey over and over again like a broken record. He had been placed under careful watch by the king to prevent the possibility of him taking his own life, being as valuable of a scholar as he is.
Tremors rattled his body as the eyes of beast and undead stared into his soul. His breathing became heavy and labored as he fell to his knees, the guard standing watch in the corner of the room began shouting, though Stultum could not hear what. His vision blurred as the sole sound he could clearly recognize was his own breathing. More figures appeared though it could have simply been his mind playing tricks on him. Stultum blacked out from his own fear, as mages rushed into the room to assist as best they could.
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King Ravid VII or King Fedrik Ravid VII of the Galdian Empire sat solemnly on an oak chair in his private quarters having been alerted by his advisor and friend of Stultum's condition.
"Will he...pull through Karl?" He hand rubbed his brow as the memories of the days Stultum tutored him flashed by, he wasn't always an egomaniac, and after the events across the shore, he definitely was anything but. He remembered the various trips he took with him. The time they discovered an ancient ruin and snuck off to explore said ruin before alerting anyone else of it.
"I...I cannot be sure Drik I cannot be sure." Karl took a seat next to the king of twenty-six years. His hand on his knee in an attempt to comfort his friend. Only Karl could be so informal with the king, not even the king's wife Cassioa could hope to be so close to him. The two grew up together, Fedrik being a rebellious youth often crept out of the castle undetected and met Karl in the city slums as a poor urchin. The two became close friends secretly, and he almost always joined him in his studies, Stultum not minding in the slightest.
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"Keep me informed of my teacher's condition as best you can Karl." The king's eyes looked off into the distance, his mind continuing on his recollections in case he would not recover. While the king wanted nothing more than to go to his mentor, the fact was he couldn't. Kings have enemies simply because they rule over others. If he left without proper preparations, his life could be forfeit sending the kingdom in potential strife.
"You can count on me."
"I know I can, I know." The fire crackled before the two in the stone fireplace. The iris of the two men reflecting its dance.
"About the expedition...what do we call this creature they encountered? And...what about a certain hunter they fled?"
"Stultum already wrote a name down in his log during his trip back, Menocrakis or something like that I believe, he never told me directly I merely overheard."
"Mitocrasis was what your teacher called it, I read his journal."
"Why have I not seen it?"
Karl gave a sly smile "You know how the eccentrics of the scientific community can be this last decade Drik."
The king nodded, a faint smile on his lips from memories of near mad scientists attempting to explain some sort of results they found may be world changing in some way. "As for the undead they encountered...leave it to the church. It's on another land across the sea months away by ship. If they want to send the holy guard so be it."
Karl nodded, assuming the response would be as such. In truth the church didn't actively hunt undead since their very creation stems from the Chief of the gods Olgarth himself, they only hunted when the undead became a danger to innocent people. "I'll bring the information to the cardinal's attention tomorrow then."
Drik nodded, his mind already back to his mentor.
"Are you sure...you won't even attempt to sneak out of the castle? You did it all the time to see me when we were younger."
"That was before I grew up Karl." An almost mischevious grin appeared on the king's regal lips. "If anyone discovers I've vanished, even if for moments only, it could spell trouble in the end." Drik drew a fire poker, and began shifting around the logs of the fire "There many people who wish to see the flames of war reignited." A log cracked "And I won't be the firestarter if I can help it." His face grew grim and cruel. While a good king, he held no tolerance for traitors and ill deeds. Killers, rapists, and other heavy criminals received the death penalty without question. So even though the king knew very well he could sneak out successfully, he wouldn't. To him, it was an act that would make him unworthy of his golden throne. Unworthy to protect the people from harm.
Karl became silent, and no further conversation happened between the two for the night.
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The carriage ride to the elf's estate was long and tiresome. inside the carriage sat the black masked elf and the skeleton, bound in chains and collar to prevent any harm to him. The two figures stared back and forth at one another, the elf sizing up and studying the creature as best he could before they arrived at his laboratory. The skeleton, on the contrary, was imagining an eyeball on a regular piece of wood. Not blinking, looking around, or anything just an eyeball of the end of a stick.
The carriage would eventually come to a halt. The door opened by the elf's butler, who bowed and gave respectful greeting to his employer and the estate owner. The skeleton followed behind, pulled by the chain attached to his collar into the massive house seemingly carved from a giant tree. To anyone else, they would be breath taken. The skeleton was too busy imagining a nose on the back of the elf's head.
Very curious, for a skeleton that is.