The Fifth Chapter

711 B.Z.

March 17th

“This is outrageous!” the king roared. His voice was strong, so much that it boomed through the halls in an almost mystical way, as if his very voice itself held explosive magical powers. I'm sure if Jason was here Kronus would shout him to pieces.

We were still in the palace, me and Dianna, and were in the midst of discussing with her father about my attempted assassination.

“Zidonius, I sincerely apologize,” he said, clenching his fists. “It's my fault. Security was lax for the party.”

His jaws clenched and I could hear his teeth grinding. His fangs must had been flat by then.

“But… an attempted assassination in my own home? My palace!?” He massaged his temples with his knuckles. Fumes of heat swirled around him like wisps.

“Father, calm down,” Dianna soothed and held his arm. “That's not good for your teeth.”

The king looked at his daughter and in the short span of a second, his tension released and his frown softened into a sad smile.

“Heh, you're both still alive anyways. I shouldn't be angry.”

He gazed adoringly at his daughter.

“By the way.” He turned to me. “Zidonius, how did you do it?”

I looked at him awkwardly for a second, puzzled.

“Do what? Your majesty?”

“That… your wounds healed so quickly… and the blood you lost seems to have not affected you in the least.”

“Oh, that.”

I didn't need to keep it a secret from the king, but I didn't know everything about it.

“I can't die,” I said bluntly.

“That's… it?” the king asked, unsure of me. His eyes were piercing, trying to see through me and scanning me suspiciously. I couldn't blame him for precaution, but we knew each other for several years.

“Yes, your majesty, and that's the most I can gather.” I replied uncomfortably. It was the truth.

“Strange… you've never told me this before… So then you're not mortal, but neither Fae…” He stared at me curiously

“... Right, I'll need to talk to my advisors about what recently happened. No doubt Shoe is already punishing the boy, but something about all this is… suspicious.”

He turned to leave, and as his words echoed in my mind, something suddenly plastered itself in the head of my brain.

“... They're going to come...” I recalled Jason's quiet, personal murmurs. “... Why…”

“Wait! Your majesty.”

“Yes Zidonius?”

I was going to speak of Jason's last whispers before he left and my theories of other parties at play, but my mind changed when the king turned around. I had a more detailed look at the man who ruled Warsa.

His face was haggard, eyes were dim, tired, hollow, and he was more wrinkled than yesterday, perhaps even gaunt. The man aged years in a day.

“Ah, never mind your majesty. Perhaps paranoia has struck the both of us.”

He walked away quietly with a solemn aura surrounding him.

I felt sympathetic and didn't want to add to his stress. No doubt, without his daughter and wife, he would had gone insane long ago. I wondered how long the king could last. This was his job, his obligation for every single day of his long-lasting life.

He was the king, and he already had enough to worry about.

I would talk to him about it the next day.

The following day,

March 18th,

I had just woken up and was patrolling the perimeter. The palace was situated uphill so I could see much of the bustling city. This was mostly a place of trade. We had marble and copper for trade. Food was provided by the surrounding farms for the most part. It was all fertile grassland. We were also a coastal city so we had a huge harbor.

Warsa was truly the center of trade.

A decade ago the king signed a peace treaty with all the surrounding states and prosperous growth and wealth followed. The king and his army still remained vigilant of the other states eyeing his treasury. He was afraid they'd swoop in and take over. He wasn't a great warrior nor a great general, but he hoped one day a great king of Warsa would come along and lead a great campaign to revive the Empire in his and his ancestors’ name.

At the moment though, life was content.

“Zidonius!” I heard someone call.

I turned around and saw it was Lidas, one of Terisius’ warriors. He was rushing towards me with a serious expression.

“Protector, something urgent has occurred with the king.”

“What!? What happened?”

He looked around for a moment and shook his head ominously.

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“Not here, it'd be better if you saw for yourself.”

I didn't want to delay a single moment. The King’s matters were above all else.

“Lead the way Lidas.”

He nodded and hurried back into the palace with me following behind.

The halls were empty, strangely, but the sheer urgency of the king's mysterious situation was overwhelming.

We stopped in front of the king’s room and he turned around.

“I'm guarding the door. The king’s problems cannot be unveiled to anyone.”

I nodded, then suddenly a high-pitched scream came from the room.

I pulled out my xiphos and rushed inside.

There I saw on the bed the corpse of the queen, her blood smeared all over the bedsheets. In her chest was a dagger imbedded to the handle, and her face was frozen in shock. Her head turned limply towards me and I saw her lifeless eyes and gaping mouth, crimson drooling from her lips.

“What… have I done…?” I heard a soft murmur.

The king was on the floor at the bedside. Staring his bloodied hands with a ghastly appearance. He looked like a revenant, with a pale, clammy skin, sunken cheeks, and darkened eyes.

Then he slowly lifted his head to look at me with dull eyes. The usual shine was gone.

“Zidonius.”

“Y-y-your majesty,” I stuttered.

I was petrified.

“I can't do this anymore.”

My mouth was open, but I found it difficult utter a word. The scene absolutely suggested that the King went insane and murdered his Queen.

But why?

His resignation would anyways be surrendering his bloodline and Warsa would be in political turmoil while other states preyed on us. The Councillors were also slow decision-makers.

“But y-y-you're the king! The one and only!”

“I can't do this anymore.”

“Y-your majesty, we can fix th-”

“I can't do this anymore!” he screamed.

Immediately he jumped unto his feet and rushed towards me. I backed up a step, but didn't bring up my xiphos in defence. He couldn't kill me anyways. But instead of that, he clenched my sword by the blade, grabbed the end of its hilt, and plunged the sword into his stomach. I could feel his life drain away.

“I'm sorry, Zidonius. I'm sorry Riza.”

He violently coughed, spewing blood on my chest. My grip weakened and I released my xiphos.

“And I'm sorry… Dianna…”

He slumped down and collapsed on the floor, with my sword still implanted in his stomach.

I stood there with wide eyes, still trying to register what just happened.

They died.

What would happen next?

I heard banging on the door, and I was drawn back to reality.

“Your majesty are you there!?”

“Your majesty!”

Realizing what could happen if I stayed, I stepped over the king’s corpse, silently praying to the Gods I meant no disrespect, and rushed over to the window. I knew there were bushes to cushion my fall. I jumped through the window and fell. The door was kicked open with a loud, thundering thud, and guards rushed into the room.

“The King and Queen are dead!” someone shouted. It was Terisius’ voice.

“What happened here!?”

“Last person who came in here was Zidonius 5 minutes ago,” Lidas reported.

“Zidonius…” Terisius murmured. “His blade’s in the King's stomach!” “Everyone head out! He shouldn't be far! Do whatever it takes to capture him! Half-dead! Alive! Or in pieces!”

I looked up from the bushes and saw Terisius calmly looking around from the window. I remained still until he left. A sick feeling welled up in my stomach and I vomitted. Contents of my breakfast spilled out and coated the bushes.

The King and Queen were dead and I was to blame for it. It wasn't my fault, yet it partially was. If I didn't have my weapon at the time he perhaps wouldn't of died. But the man still killed his beloved queen. How was that even logical? Was it mental illness? No he hadn't shown any sign of it, especially one that considered murdering his queen. It was something else, perhaps poison. I was obviously being framed and it was very possible an uprising was commencing. With them dead a new King would be elected and Dianna would be forced to marry.

How would my failed assassination lead to this? Was it connected? Is that why they attempted to assassinate me? Lidas was obviously a part of the setup, but why? Why would he do it? He, like many other warriors of Terisius, were orphans without families. He had no one except Terisius, so why…?

He was one of Terisius’ men, a loyal one at that, so I couldn't think of much except the worst possible reason.

A wise man once told me, “If all possibilities are scratched out except the most improbable, then the most improbable is true.”

Of course, I wasn't told this before that time and I wouldn't be meeting that wise man for a while.

Perhaps Terisius conspired against me. I couldn't find any other alternative. My own mentor, my own master, my own adopted father betrayed me. I was mad at this realization, but held my anger in. Anything brash would reveal me. I had to escape immediately, to the forests possibly. I wasn't exactly invincible or unstoppable. In the end I could be chained up and trapped until my constraints rusted or I was freed.

I thought about my armaments. I was very recognizable, especially with the armor, but it was priceless and very unique to me so I could barely bear to part with it. I had to hide it somewhere. I recalled the ruins Dianna brought me to a couple days ago. People scarcely visited that place and it was remote. It was a good place to hide my things. There was dry sand inside, where there was little to no moisture that'd rust my armor. I could always have a xiphos forged for me again to replace the one I had lost. The hoplon I had was fairly special but it was impossible to recover it at the time.

My plans were simple: escape, disguise myself, uncover the conspiracy, and take vengeance. I had no idea how to go about it though.

Then I remembered Jason’s words.

“... They're going to come...” he said.

If he was still alive I was going to question him. He should be in Shoe’s domain. Shoe’s land was a fair distance from the capital and by foot it would take me a little more than a week. I hoped Shoe would welcome me, but he was still a very close friend of Terisius. I don’t know how it would to turn out but Jason was the only lead I had. The assassination he attempted on me was very suspicious and it might had even been a test. But for what? Terisius already knew about my immortality.

I bought a horse with the few golden drachmas I could scrounge up and rushed out on my task.

I was never trained to be in incognito so it was a whole new experience for me. None were fortunately aware of the king’s demise, but I still hurried along because it wouldn't be long until the news spread. The palace was in a ruckus when I left and no one would take his murder kindly. I had a small, lingering hope though, that some if not many would believe it wasn’t me who committed such a foul deed; hopeful thinking it was. These people had never experienced such plot and conspiracy like this so I didn't know how they'd react.

I peered at the enormous gates that guarded the city. They were set up perfectly for a lochos of hoplites to guard. The walls were guarded with rows of enormous wooden spikes planted inside that could be activated with the cut of a rope. They were lethal traps for siege towers. They costed the enemies many resources to create two towers to bridge across or a thicker one to invade one small space. On top of the walls were usually perioeci archers accompanied by a homoioi swordsman for every 5.

“Hey! It’s Zidon!” one of the guards called from the gates.

I smiled and greeted him. He was one of the many guards I was acquainted with.

“Greetings, Sult.”

“A stiff as always, sir,” he joked.

“Yes, uh, open the gates, I need to go out on patrol today.”

He stared at me plain-faced for a few seconds.

“Patrol? What’s there to patrol?” He laughed.

“I’ve heard of some rogue brigand ambushing one of our merchants. I’m leaving to track them down. Open the gates.”

This was my usual attitude so he didn't flinch. “Got it! Open up boys!”

Hundreds of gears creaked and ground as the iron reinforced gates slowly opened outwards. I rode out as quickly as I could.