Nineteen years previously

King Arturian, the eleventh, sat on his plain grey hardwood chair his Grandfather decided was the throne, cheek resting on his fist, lost in thought. At the same time, his one-year-old son and grandson played behind him, closely watched by one of the maids. She also happens to be his Grandson's Mother; unfortunately, she refuses to be raised, saying she prefers her station. The King didn't mind. He still calls her Daughter-in-law, much to many of the noble's annoyance. After all, his own mother was the daughter of the city Tanner.

A noise from the babies made him look over, finding little Theo trying to take a small wood block with a glyph painted on one side from Michail, the son of his eldest son Benson. A gift from his mother, she called them alphabet blocks, claiming it's never too early for children to begin recognizing words. Thinking of his wife, the Queen, took him back to the problems in his kingdom and how they started.

At first, everything seemed OK. The strangers acted friendly, asking questions, and learning the local language. They would happily lend a helping hand to anybody that needed it. Even the King eventually let his guard down. He began sending them out on missions to stop rampaging monsters or bandits sneaking over the borders from surrounding kingdoms. He even lifted one man to the position of royal councilor above the heads of most of the nobles.

However, he never entirely gave his trust, keeping the royal library and the seven towers locked while swearing everyone who knew about them to secrecy under pain of death. Of course, this didn't stop rumors and speculation from the general public.

One year after their arrival, the King married one of them and made her Queen. Over the next year, she explained the reason for several of their strange quirks, such as the quest system and something called EXP. The Queen also told him that if any of them ever managed to kill him and all his heirs, they could claim his kingdom and magically enslave everyone.

Arturian was skeptical at first until she explained that it had already been done with a minor noble family on the fringes of a neighboring kingdom. The King and Queen, along with his seven champions, began to plan for the future.

For two years, the kingdom prospered, but soon rumors began to reach the King's ears of missing trade caravans and villages being wiped out on the fringes of his kingdom. He sent parties out to investigate but always got the same report that there were no witnesses.

Eventually, even trade between his neighbors stopped. While this was inconvenient, it didn't mean much as the Kingdom is, for the most part, self-sufficient. Trading only for spices and some rare commodities unable to be made by local craftsmen.

However, after six months without hearing a single word from any of his allies, he became worried. So he sent his eldest son to the west to investigate what was happening in his closest ally's kingdom. Something terrible must have happened to stop all communications.

Benson rode hard under cover of night and utilizing a couple of fast travel points while avoiding the King's Road. He reached the pass through the mountains in a week. He found a massive fortification built across the pass. The wall stood nearly two hundred feet tall, and he could make out hundreds of archers standing at the top shooting arrows down at something below.

Not sure what was going on, the Prince dismounted and crept closer, hiding behind a boulder and peaking around. He found thirty or so men with black eyes and darkened fingernails shouting obscenities at the archers as they kept throwing balls of dark flame.

The flames never reached the archers. They only scorched the massive wall a short way up. Before long, the last man fell with nearly thirty arrows sticking from his body. Moments later, the body vanished, and Benson slowly crept out from behind the rock, hands in the air.

The archers tensed and drew their bowstrings back, but a man with a red lapel stood forward and told them to lower their bows. stepping closer to the edge, he looked down and shouted, "Benson is that you?"

King Arturian paced before his throne. "Its been a month since I sent Benson to the border he should have returned by now."

A tall woman in a white gown sat on a smaller throne beside his own, holding the Prince's as they played on her lap. His daughter in law standing next to her, making faces at them both.

"Relax dear, Benson is a champion of Andoon, nothing or no one inside the Kingdom could get in his way. --- Unless they had a large enough group."

As if speaking about him called him forth, the door to the throne room slammed open, Benson sprinted across the hall.

Benson dropped to his knee, but before the King could wave him up, he had jumped back to his feet and run forward to stop panting in front of his Father.

He handed a parcel and a scroll with the Emperors' seal to his father without saying a word and collapsed. The King saw several bloody wounds peeking through from the scraps of his son's clothing, and he began to go into a rage.

A small white hand rested on his shoulder before his Queen bent forward, placing a hand on Benson's back, a soft green glow flowing from her hand into his back. "There are no internal wounds, he has lost to much blood. I can stop the bleeding, but he will need to rest for a few days and drink plenty of water."

Standing up, she turned to find Rachel clutching the children tightly to her chest as she stared down at the Prince. "Rachel, Benson will be fine. Here let me have the kids before you suffocate them." The Queen said while smiling softly.

Rachel thanked the Queen before bending over the Prince. She began checking him for more injuries until Benson jerked. Sitting up while looking around before quickly kissing his wife and jumping to his feet, making the Queen raise an eyebrow. "You should settle down or you may begin bleeding internally."

Benson nodded at her but began talking fast. "They're coming tonight. I overheard them. They somehow found out the Emperor sent plans and hurried to get a force together to overrun the palace before we could mount a defense.

At these words, everyone in the throne room tensed while the Queen clutched the children tighter, moving closer to Rachel as if between the two of them they could defend them.

The King looked up from the scroll with a pale face. "Gather the champions and get me the Cardinal. Get everyone else out of the palace and as far from the Capital as possible now!" Saying this last while staring at Rachel and the children.

- - - - -

Present-day

Theodore ran as fast as possible some of it was the order, but mostly he ran from the shame of what the Demon forced him to do. Even worse, because he wasn't aroused no matter how much she rubbed against him. she ordered him to be stimulated whenever he thought of her. Not easy to stop thinking about someone you hate to the very core of your being.

Sighting a line of green to his right, he did his very best to force his body to change directions enough that he will intercept it sometime in the next half hour or so. It should be water; how else would anything grow in this rocky wasteland? Why is the land here so strange anyway? I literally left a dark swamp this morning where the sun never shines, and now I'm in a desolate rocky waste. Weirder is this band of green running along the edge in a straight line as far as I can see. or maybe it's not strange. What do I know? I never left the swamp before this. Well, not entirely true Aunt said I was born in the Capital, wherever that is.

These idle thoughts kept the Demon off his mind long enough to reach the edge of the forest. Upon entering, he heard the familiar sound of water nearby. Hoping it is a river, he pushed his controlled body as hard as possible toward it. Finally, I can wash that Demon filth off. he thought with some excitement.

Pushing through the brush, he spotted the water. Well, not a river, but a pond will do just as well. He briefly considered why he heard splashing when the water is sitting placid without a single ripple; however, the need to get clean pushed the thought away.

Pushing his body a bit faster, he bent his knees, ready to jump the last few feet. However, as his feet left the ground, a body slammed into him from the side, smashing him sideways into some prickle bushes. When the two bodies stopped rolling, he felt the control from the Demon reassert itself, and he began fighting his way back to his feet.

Getting to his hands and knees, he got ready to spring forward when a palm-sized green stone slammed into his forehead. He fell backward, a surprised look on his face as his mind was clear for the first time since the spear to the back of his head.

- - - - -

Anita Barnabus only slowed enough to grab the Prince's clothes as she sprinted off the road into the flatlands on the trail of the Prince. Gross, these smell like a swamp. She thought as she stuffed them into her pack.

She removed her old lady disguise as she ran, soon revealing an athletic young woman in green and brown leather. Perfect for sneaking around in the woods, which will work out great considering the direction the Prince is heading at the moment.

Anita grinned as she found herself closing the gap between the two. not that outpacing a malnourished village boy without shoes is much of an accomplishment, but whatever.

However, her smile soon faded as she saw him start to veer slightly to the right. Shit, now he will probably make it to the tree line before me. After a moment of thought, she shrugged. It's OK; what's the chance he will find a monster as soon as he enters the woods?

Half an hour later, she had closed the distance to a few yards as he entered the woods. Moments later, she joined and immediately noticed that he had managed to change his course once again. Anita would have screamed in exasperation at the sight of the Prince grinning as he sped up to leap into the pond if it were at all possible. How the heck did he find a Razor Eel nest as soon as he entered?

The thought of the Prince jumping into that pond scared her to death. After all the time her family and many others spent pretending to be slaves to one Outworlder after another while searching for one of the Prince's only to see him die. No, I won't let that happen.

Sprinting forward at her fastest speed, she came up alongside the Prince. Cringing at what she was about to do, she slammed bodily into him, both tumbling end over end into a prickle bush. This is going to sting so bad later, but at least I'm wearing clothes.

Almost immediately, she felt the Prince begin to fight his way from their tangle of limbs. Reaching into her front pocket, she grabbed the greenstone given to her by her Grandfather when she started going out on her own to hunt or pass messages to other families.

Oh no, you don't. Slamming it into the Prince's forehead with way more force than she meant to. But in her defense, she was afraid he would get away.

Anita stared at the surprised Prince. But all she could see were eyes so blue they seemed like sparkling gems. She was so entranced she never noticed that she had crawled practically in his lap to get a closer look.

- - - - -

Theodore watched in mild amusement at the girl. The young woman kept drawing closer until she was practically nose to nose. With a slight cough, he spoke. "Look, Miss, you're gorgeous, but I don't think this bush is the best place." Wait for it.

Ah, there it is. As he expected, her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as she jerked back, scrambling to her feet. Then she began to sign. "You can speak, How? Why?." Then it dawned on her what his Mother was. "Are you a Demon?"

Sighing, he slowly stood up. Doing his best to keep his manhood covered. She made it harder, mentioning Demons, which brought a certain one to mind. "No I am not one of 'Them!' the geas just don't work for me. Well not anymore. Do you have any idea how hard it is to fake. Let me tell you, I have to actually bite my tongue to get the whole blood effect, because I honestly don't know if those Demons can smell it or not." His explanation seemed to help a little. Or at least she stopped reaching into her sleeves, presumably for a weapon.

He could see she still didn't entirely trust him. "Look at my eyes, are these the eyes of someone who has killed innocents?"

This last question seemed to do the trick, and she finally let out a breath, and her shoulders relaxed.

Suddenly he could feel a slight throbbing in his head. He reached up and ground his fist into the side of his head, hoping to hold off the compulsion for just a little longer. A moment later, the greenstone she smacked into his forehead was thrust into his hand, and she mimed rubbing his temple. Doing what she wanted, Theo felt immediate relief and grinned before thanking her.

Instead of the reaction he expected, her face turned scarlet, and she looked away slightly, but not enough to let him entirely out of her sight. Then something seemed to come to her. She pulled her pack around to her front and rummaged until she pulled out his clothes, which she tossed his way, trying not to look.

He stared at his clothes before it occurred to him how she could have them. His own face burned with shame. "You were at the road when that all happened." it wasn't a question.

Turning away, he caught sight of the pond again. "I really want a bath."

At his words, she spun toward him, looking like she would tackle him again. Then she held her hand in a stop don't move gesture, bent down, and picked up a stick.

Never taking her eyes off him, she threw it toward the pond. Before it hit the water, the pond seemed to explode as hundreds of slimy fish with long, razor-sharp incisors tore the stick to kindling.

The woman razed a single eyebrow as if asking, still wanna go for a swim. Theo just stared mouth agape, and turned deathly white. Hurriedly getting himself dressed, he put on a beaming smile and stepped forward, hand outstretched. "My name is Theodore Arturian the twelfth. To whom do I owe my life?"