A portal hummed to life in front of two men. One, the greatest Royal Magister in two centuries, and the other, the king. King Theodore, known as “The Mad King” for his slow descent into insanity over the long years of his reign, aging and desperate, had made one last gamble. To delve into the source of all magic, and to cure him of his mortality.
The Royal Magister slumped to the ground in exhausted relief.
“It worked. It really worked.”
Theodore looked to the racks of potions and alchemical ingredients, to the blueprints and diagrams covering every inch of the large wooden desk cluttering the small room. His gaze passed over a tightly locked door to linger on the torn page of a small book, hidden behind a stack of paper.
“Indeed it did. Now. Give me the potion.” He said in a commanding tone.
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The Magister handed the King a glowing flask filled with what seemed to be clear water. The King drank. A shudder ran over his whole body, drawing in strange wisps of transparent fog from the swirling portal. His previously aging face and body began to shine with renewed vitality. Wrinkles gained from his long years of life faded back into his face and his formerly hunched back straightened. He spoke, sounding for all the world that he hadn’t lived through five wars and countless years of rule.
“There is a way to undo its effects. A way to end my rightful reign! I saw it in the blueprints. Blueprints YOU tried to hide from me. You betrayed me!”
“No, I fixed that. I swear! I would never betray you!” The Magister cried out from his position on the floor. It was beginning to dawn on him that his exhaustion wasn’t entirely natural.
The Mad King leaned down, looming over the Magister.
“Nevertheless, you can no longer be trusted. You know too much.” The king reared back and, relishing in his newfound youthful vigour, kicked the Magister into the still-open portal. The Magister fell screaming into the void, and the portal winked shut behind him. Leaning against the other side of the laboratory's door, an eavesdropping young boy began to cry.