“Did you sleep okay?” Loid asked King Marin as he threw a coat on.
“I didn’t sleep a wink. Too many thoughts in my head, I think,” Marin responded.
“Your voice is sounding better,” Loid noticed.
Marin nodded. “It is getting easier to talk. I have to say, it’s hard to get your lungs working after they’ve been inactive for as long as mine have.”
“Let alone your whole body.” Loid smiled a bit.
Yesterday, the two thugs Rocko and Phil had brought Marin to Loid’s inn. The old king was now feeling more down to earth than ever before. He yearned for conversation. He missed interaction with other people. Some people say being in a coma for decades feels like a one night sleep when you wake up.
This was not the case for Marin. Being dead for 200 years caused so much of his mind to slip away. He felt like he had been gone for a very long time, in some black void that was inescapable. He had finally returned.
The four had conversation in that inn room for hours. Marin got Rocko and Phil to admit they had been secretly looting the castle behind Loid’s back, despite Loid forbidding them to ever go to the castle. He was not very happy about that. Rocko and Phil did back up most of Marin’s story though, describing how they had always seen him dead on the floor when they wandered the castle.
It all lined up in Loid’s mind for the most part. As far fetched as it all seemed, it was believable to him. After talking for a while, Loid’s wife Sherry came around. Marin tried acting as far from being suspicious as possible, and said the mask was just for privacy, that he was ‘very self-conscious’ of his looks. She was a sweet older woman with gray curly hair.
Loid had also explained that the mountain range they were nestled in started becoming quite snowy about a hundred years ago, he guessed due to shifting weather patterns. He assured him it wasn’t anything to worry about.
As night fell, Loid instructed Phil and Rocko to head home, and he would lodge Marin at the inn for free.
“That won’t be necessary”, Marin had said, flashing a few gold coins in front of Loid. He didn’t question it, just accepted it and said thank you. He offered a meal too, but quickly realized that nourishment like that was not needed.
Morning was here, but the previous night Marin had requested that they all take a journey up to the castle with him. As much as Loid had shown disapproval to the idea for a while with Phil and Rocko, he gave in without too much fight, showing some guilty interest in wanting to see the castle himself, as well as truly solve the mystery of Sullivan Marin.
“Let’s go pick up Rocko and Phil at their house, and we will head out to the castle,” Loid planned. “Sher! We’re heading out!”
“Be safe, dear,” the two heard from the doorway behind the bar. Loid grabbed the handle to the front door, and the two older men walked out to the snow covered street.
“They live just over here,” Loid pointed a ways down. As they started walking, Marin noticed several villagers out and about, working on various tasks. He could feel the eyes of them staring at him.
“Everyone seems to be noticing me…” Marin pointed out.
“Don’t mind them. They just aren’t used to seeing strangers in the town, especially ones with masks like yours. Heroca is a bit isolated, you know. They won’t bother you since you’re with me.”
“Heroca Town. I feel like that was not the name of this establishment 200 years ago.” Marin stated.
“You might be correct. Mind you, I hadn’t been born yet that long ago, so I wouldn’t know. I retired here shortly after the Harmon Wars were finished. Opened an inn. Been doing that ever since.”
Marin was enjoying the easy conversation that was flowing between the two of them as they walked. Loid seemed to be a really awesome guy. He was experienced, and had a good head on his shoulders.
“The Harmon Wars. Sounds serious.” It was all Marin could say. He was quite frustrated at his ignorance.
Loid chuckled a bit. “You really have a lot of catching up to do, my friend. I’m starting to realize how much you have missed in 200 years.” He turned to face him. “By the way, how were things 200 years ago? More or less the same as now?”
“Things are familiar enough.”
Loid nodded.
They continued walking down the street, passing various village houses that looked a little too similar for Marin to keep track of. Eventually though, they took a turn off the main road and passed a few more houses before Loid walked up to one and knocked on the door.
“Rocko?! Phil?! Time to come out!” Loid said fiercely. Marin studied the shack a little bit. It was one of the least impressive houses in the whole village. Most of it was falling apart. The roof had holes in it here and there. It did not look too comfortable.
“Five more minutes,” said a voice from behind the door.
“You should’ve been ready by now!” Loid insisted. He turned back and looked at Marin with a certain face that read ‘these two dopes.’
After a minute or two the door opened. Rocko was rubbing his eyes. “We’re up.”
Marin gazed in the house through the crack of the door. He instantly saw vases, furniture, and decorations from his castle.
“Where’d you get all that stuff in there, Rocko?” Marin asked.
Rocko’s sleepiness melted away instantly. He became quite alert, and quickly slammed the door shut behind him.
“W-w-what do you mean? What did you see?” He stammered.
“Do you want talk about all that furniture of mine that’s in your house?”
“NO! I mean… yes. I mean, well you know, we were keeping it extra safe for ya.” Rocko grinned stupidly.
“Oi! Whats going on out there?!” Phil threw the door open, coming outside as well. He was fixing the coat he had just thrown on. Marin peered inside again.
Phil connected the dots a little quicker. He slammed the door behind him faster than Rocko had.
“Well, let’s be off!” Phil said, trying to get them away from their house as fast as possible.
“Now that I’m alive again, you’ll be heartily returning my stuff back to the castle real soon, won’t you?” Marin asked.
Rocko nodded his head rapidly. Phil looked bummed, but when he realized that Marin knew, he started to nod his head as well.
Loid looked the most disappointed in the two of them. When they walked by, Loid slapped the back of the head of the one that was closest to him, which happened to be Phil.
The party of four were now heading off the village trail, and started up the mountain. Rocko and Phil walked twenty feet ahead of Marin and Loid. They were yelling at each other a bit, Marin guessed about how they got found out. Occasionally, Phil would push Rocko, with Rocko responding by pushing Phil back harder.
Marin could barely make out what they were saying, but it was something along the lines of ‘you’re the idiot, no you’re the idiot!’
“I’m very sorry, Sullivan” Loid started. “If I had known they were taking from the castle, I would’ve put a stop to it a while ago. I can’t keep track of them all the time.”
“Who are they to you?” Marin asked.
“I… take pity on them. I’ve stepped in a bit as a father figure to them, though I am not related.”
“What’s their story?”
“They showed up at Heroca about seven years ago. Hungry, cold, lacking clothing. They were completely homeless. Somehow had wandered in to our town out of pure luck. I took them in, fed and clothed them. I helped them get a house and they do odd jobs for the village now. Most of the townsfolk look down upon them.”
Marin was now looking at the two in a different light.
Loid continued. “They told me about the castle a while ago. I knew about Nocturne to an extent. I warned them to stay away from the castle, they had no right hanging out up there. They’ve obviously ignored me.”
“They don’t seem to be much of a threat,” Marin noticed.
“Yeah, they’re harmless. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. They do try to act tough though.”
“I really scared them when I was descending from the mountain yesterday,” Marin said, a slight grin under the mask.
“Good, that would do them well. They need to be reminded sometimes that actions have consequences.”
They were halfway up the mountain now. Today brought no snowfall, but a clear sky. The sun shined down on the snow, reflecting the light back to their eyes. Marin had his reasons for taking them up to the castle. He had not yet revealed the reason, though. Loid thought it was to give him a friendly chance to study the castle himself. Rocko and Phil thought maybe it was to have their actions revealed so they could incur some wrath, even though 90% of the damages were not done by them. Neither were the real reason.
Rocko or Phil would sometimes glance back to make sure the other two were still behind them.
“The Harmon Wars…” Marin finally started up again.
Loid grunted. “Yeah, Belek Harmon. The guy was nuts. But he was arguably the strongest fire elemental ever. Was even a grand wizard at Arkana before he turned!”
“Arkana…” Marin mumbled in thought. He couldn’t believe it. He knew that place.
“You must know about that place, right? That wizard city has been around since before the modern year.”
“I do indeed know it.” Marin’s brain started to throb as all these external memories started making their way back into his head. He raised a hand to the front of his head as they walked.
“Are you okay?” Loid asked with concern.
“I was a student of Arkana. I became a wizard.”
“What?!”
“It’s true. I spent my early years there learning the ice element.” Marin admitted.
“You’re a legit certified Arkanian Wizard?”
“Yes, I passed the wizard course in… 601? I was 42 years old at the time.”
Loid was dumbfounded. Could this all really be true? Could he be in the presence of a wizard? They were so rare, and it was so incredibly hard to pass the wizard course Arkana provided. Wizards of Arkana are some of the most powerful individuals on the face of the earth.
Goosebumps traveled down Loid’s back. The hair on his neck stood.
“I-I’ve never met a wizard before,” Loid admitted, trying to hide his partial shock, partial fear.
Marin stuck out his hand to shake Loid’s. Loid brought his hand in.
“You’ve met one now,” Marin said as he shook his hand. “If you don’t entirely believe me, I wouldn’t blame you. I really hope I still have my certification papers in the castle somewhere. If not…”
“Arkana keeps files of every person who goes through their courses.” Loid quickly added.
“Exactly.”
Loid was gaining more and more respect for King Marin with each passing sentence.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“So you fought in the War?” Marin asked.
“Yes. I was a Neo Captain. Neo stands for National Elemental Organization. Trained as a shadow elemental at Fort Graylake. 2nd class.” Loid responded.
“I wouldn’t have taken you to go shadow,” Marin teased.
“It wasn’t my first choice. A friend persuaded me.”
Marin started to feel bad about asking Loid so many questions about the current world. He began to fear that he was starting to annoy him, but the innkeeper insisted that he had no problem filling Marin in.
“Belek Harmon was a grand wizard, eh? One of the seven?” Marin gathered.
“So it’s been said. He revolted from Arkana. Had some ideology that not everyone should have the chance to learn the elements. Only the strongest and the chosen should be able to wield that power. It appealed to a lot of stuck up elementals. It had caused a 15 year war.” Loid explained.
Marin looked over at him. “That’s some concept.”
“Yeah. I understand there are some upsides to an idea like that, but it far outweighs the freedoms people would lose. If he had won, in time, use of the elements would be outlawed, only legal to a select few. And this in turn would cause the elements to become a rarely practiced art, no longer being innovated on. It would cause the art form to eventually die out, erasing all knowledge. Especially if they started burning books and documents on the skills.”
Up at the front, Rocko and Phil were trying to figure out what they were both talking about in the back.
“What are they saying?” Rocko whispered.
“I can’t really tell. Sounds like some old boring history or something. Talkin’ about elementals I think,” Phil said back.
“The king isn’t talking about how he’s going to kill us for finding his vault? For stealin’ all his stuff?” Rocko said nervously.
“I-I don’t think so.” Phil kept jerking his head back sometimes, just to see if Marin was charging up an ice attack to shoot an icicle through their chests.
“I don’t believe him sayin’ he ain’t gonna harm us. I think he’s letting us live til’ we tell him all the information he needs to know,” Rocko guessed.
“What if we pledge ourselves to him? Like, we be his servants. Maybe then he won’t kill us.” Phil tried.
Rocko stroked his short brown beard. “...Maybe.”
Loid caught Marin up with a lot of news the entire way up the mountain. He spoke more about Neo and the War. Rocko and Phil tried guessing their demise. In time though, they were back at the top of the mountain, staring at the great castle before them.
The black, steep roofs were covered in snow. The brick walls of the castle were chiseled in beautiful designs, all the crevices filled with snow. Nocturne Castle was truly a work of art, and now Loid started to realize why it hadn’t ever been destroyed.
“It’s… so much more impressive than I could have imagined,” he stated, staring at it with stars in his eyes.
Marin was satisfied with his reaction. “Built by the finest architects that existed at the time. Not a single coin was spared to make it as great as it could be.”
“I can only imagine the amount of time it took to build,” Loid wondered.
“The beauty ends at the exterior, I’m afraid,” Marin admitted. “The inside is quite devastated.”
As they walked to the entrance, Marin saw his original footprints he made when he first ventured out of the castle. Things were a lot different for him now.
Loid was soaking it all in. He was overwhelmed by the castle. When they entered the grand entrance, they stepped into the large foyer. Loid looked all over, to the ceiling, the walls, and the floors.
“This is Nocturne Castle. I can’t believe the amount of damage.” Loid stated.
Phil and Rocko were completely unfazed. Instead, they were shaking in fear again.
“It wasn’t us! We didn’t do all this! It was like this when we found it!” Phil stupidly cried out.
Marin’s head quickly turned to them.
“All you’ve done is lie to me this entire time. What makes you think I’d believe you?!” Marin asked. He knew obviously that Rocko and Phil hadn’t done all this, but they were dim witted enough to believe that Marin could think that.
Both of them fell to their knees. “I know you’ve been plannin’ on killing us!” Rocko shouted. “Please spare us! We will work for you, be your servant. A king needs servants, right?!”
“Get up!” Marin demanded. “And compose yourselves!”
Rocko and Phil stood back up, and wiped their eyes. They continued to shake in their boots.
He stepped right up to them. The two could see the yellow in Marin’s eyes from behind the mask. He put his hands on both of their shoulders.
“No… more… lies. Understand?”
They nodded their heads quickly.
“If you promise me you won’t lie anymore, I will promise not to kill you. If you break your promise, I will break mine. Does that sound fair?” Marin bartered.
“Oh, very fair, your highness. Your excellency.” Rocko pleaded.
“Stop with the formalities. I always hated those.”
“Yes… sir.”
Marin turned back to Loid. He was still looking around at the castle. Their eyes connected. “If its not too much to ask, I’d love to study the castle. Have a look around.” Loid offered.
“Please do. If you come across any information about what could’ve happened to this place, let me know.”
Marin’s gaze returned to the two hooligans.
“Why did you bring us here anyways?” Phil asked boldly. For being more of a coward than Rocko was, Phil certainly didn’t have a problem blurting out demands.
“I want you two to walk with me!” Marin said happily, almost sarcastic. He got in the middle of the two of them, and he put his hands behind their back to push them forward a bit. “I want you two to tell me every piece of furniture, every item you’ve taken, from my home. And then after that, you’re going to tell me everything you know about this place.”
They took off down a hall. Loid was now alone in the foyer.
The old innkeeper hadn’t seen anything like it before. If you would have told him yesterday morning that today he’d be standing in Nocturne Castle, befriending a deceased king, he would’ve laughed at you. Loid had to convince himself this was all happening. He might’ve denied it, if weirder things hadn’t happened in his life.
Loid had read the cue when Marin walked away with Phil and Rocko that he trusted him to look around alone. He was sure to not abuse that privilege. He walked in an opposite direction than the one they took.
The place was a wreck, but showed signs that it was once a great and bustling castle. Each room he entered was full of cobwebs. He had to swat quite a few away if he wanted the chance to thoroughly investigate a room. He explored all the major rooms first – the library, dining hall, kitchen, theater, and more. All in terrible shape.
Yet he couldn’t help but wonder what each room was like in its former glory. He imagined actors playing out a story on the stage. He imagined shelves backed with books, containing endless knowledge. The kitchen – he had the most vivid imagination, seeing as he was an innkeeper and spent quite a bit of time in one. To see this castle restored to its full potential – it would be a dream to see.
Every once in a while as he explored, he could hear Rocko’s bassy voice coming up with an explanation on how something happened echoing down the hall. Quickly followed up by Phil confirming more or less what he said.
Loid got to the bedrooms. They were smaller rooms, naturally. Most beds were shredded, the ones that weren’t were rotting. He was impressed by the sheer size of the castle. There was easily 200 hundred rooms, he guessed. If he hadn’t a keen sense of direction, he would’ve gotten lost in the maze like halls a while ago.
It made him sad seeing all the broken windows. That was unnecessary to break, especially on the second and third floors. Someone went out of their way to smash each one, benefiting them in no way.
He took a few more staircases up. He took notice that on the upper floors, the vandalism wasn’t as bad, but time still effected everything everywhere. He didn’t even notice that he was now standing in the king’s quarters, Marin’s personal bedroom.
Loid scooped up some clothing. It was worn and tattered like the stuff Marin wore. Same colors, as well. This was the king’s clothing. At that moment he realized where he was. He wandered around more, and found a passage way into a large study. The shelves were robbed but still contained a good number of books, surprisingly.
“This is Marin’s study,” Loid uttered to himself. Desks had drawers pulled out, papers lie everywhere. He felt a bit guilty wanting to pry into his personal documents, but Marin did tell him to explore and uncover any important information.
Loid picked up papers and read them. Some were tax receipts, declarations from ages ago, news and files on people who had long since passed. He was overwhelmed by the amount of potential information he could find out.
When he got closer to Marin’s desk, he found papers that were written in ancient.
Loid knew the language to be the one from long before the modern year. What was Marin doing with papers written in this obsolete language?
He leafed through papers some more. So much of it was faded out and unreadable. He looked up to the wall, and saw a framed document.
It had the seal of Arkana. Loid recognized it instantly. He jogged up to it. The enclosed document was so yellow and faded, but he gathered it was indeed Marin’s certificate of being a wizard. He grabbed it off the wall, when he did, part of the wooden frame fell apart. The disgusting glass cover slipped off and shattered on the floor.
Oh no.
Loid fumbled the pieces of frame, trying to gently save the paper inside.
“Did you find it?” Loid instantly heard. He turned around and saw Marin standing across from him.
“Sullivan! I’m so sorry! I-”
“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Marin walked up to Loid. He held out his hand, and took the paper from him. Marin looked at it for a bit. It was hardly readable.
“Yeah that’s it, year 601, do you see that?” Marin pointed at a portion of the paper.
Loid nodded his head.
“Here, keep it.” Marin folded it in half and gave it back to him. “Let it be a symbol of my trustworthiness, as well as our friendship.”
“Sullivan, I couldn’t. That paper-” Loid tried to explain.
“It doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to. I’m just shocked it’s still here. They left it alone.”
Loid gave in, and slipped it into an inside pocket in his coat.
“Did you find anything interesting?” Marin asked.
“Well first off, the castle is amazing. Truly grand. I would kill to see it in its hay day.”
Marin nodded.
“But when I got here, I noticed some of these papers were hand written in ancient characters. Do you know anything about that?”
Marin raised his eyebrows. “Ancient! Yes, I can read and write in ancient. I encrypt a lot of my personal information in ancient so no one else can read it.”
“T-that’s incredible! Even if you’re from 200 years ago, that language stopped being used over a thousand years ago.”
“Yeah, it really came in handy.”
Loid couldn’t believe that Marin admitted some of the most impressive things so nonchalantly.
“How, being a king, did you even find the time to learn that?”
“I learned it before I became king. I also learned how to play the organ as well. Though mine here seems to not be in good condition anymore.”
Loid looked over where Marin was looking, and saw an undamaged organ. It was covered in dust and wood was rotting, but all the keys sat neatly in place. Huge pipes climbed up the walls. Loid looked around the room a bit longer before returning to Marin.
“I have a bit of a proposition for you,” Marin started. “I’d like to discuss it with you at the entrance, along with Phil and Rocko. They are waiting for us down there.”
Loid raised an eyebrow. “A proposition? Sure.”
The two left the room, and made the descent down the castle back to the first floor, where the entrance was.
What kind of proposition would this king have for me? There’s not much I could offer him, I don’t think, Loid thought to himself.
He looked over at Marin. He fixed on the royal dark blue robes he had on. He looked up at the baggy hood that hid most of his head, with the black mask hiding the rest of it. He looked down at his gloves that he knew hid his decayed flesh, and then fixed on the ring on his finger.
He wondered how Marin really felt about what had happened to him. He wondered how much it bothered him that he was a walking dead man. Marin obviously wasn’t showing too much frustration on the outside, but he also found the king to be quite tempered, and wondered if he really struggled with it in the inside.
They were back at the entrance. Rocko and Phil were waiting for them.
“Oi, there they are!” Phil pointed out.
“We waited here the whole time,” Rocko declared.
“Very good,” Marin told them. They all gathered in a circle. “I have something serious I’d like to ask you.”
They all stood in silence, waiting with anticipation.
“I want to restore the castle. Restore it to a working state again.” Marin stated.
Loid was shocked. He did not expect this.
“R-restore it?” Rocko said. “This huge castle? How are we going to do that?”
Loid silently supported the question.
“I have the funds. But there’s a second part to this proposition. I’d like you three to work for me. To become my subordinates. I will pay you generously, and you can live in the castle.”
Loid was dumbfounded, completely taken aback.
“Naturally, I will be your king. You will obey me. But I am fair, and you will have my protection,” Marin added. “At any time, you can quit. I will release you from my kingdom if you wish.”
“So we are gonna be your servants?” Rocko asked.
“If you would like,” Marin said back.
There was silence for a while. No one said anything. Loid could feel Marin’s hope slipping a bit.
“I-I’ll do it… if Rocko does it!” Phil declared.
Everyone looked at Rocko. “I’ll do it if Loid does it.”
Loid had his hand over his face, deep in thought. After a while, he finally spoke. “Let me talk to my wife.” It was all he had to say.
The four conversed a little more, but the sun was going down. Marin bid the three farewell, as they headed back to the village. The king decided to stay at his castle.
Loid assured Marin that he would be back tomorrow with an answer.
“If we declined your offer, I hope that will be okay with you.” Loid stated.
“Of course it will be.”
Marin watched the three disappear down the mountain. He turned around, and entered the behemoth that was Nocturne. As he stepped back inside the grand foyer, he touched the brick wall to the left of the entrance.
“I’m bringing you back, old friend,” he said to the bricks of the castle wall. “I will not rest until you are restored to your former glory once again.”