Niklaus had just about enough of the dungeons in less than an hour, he seldom could imagine those who spent years-even decades in the bland rooms. He had no idea how long he sat there with his back pressed against the cold stone wall, staring at the bars of his cell. He was not happy about it, but the thought of his revenge made it almost bittersweet. He would make those guards regret having ever been born.
A small flash of movement caught his eye, daring to distract him from his vengeful thoughts. The mouse darted towards him, whiskers flicking to his scent. He held out his hand, letting the shaking creature climb onto his arm.
His scent subtly shifted from the smell of a gentle breeze to the smell of freshly baked bread, buttered with sweet jelly-a child's lunch perhaps. The mouse seemed to find comfort in the smell, curling in his palm, content with his touch. This was not an unusual thing.
Through the grated window, he heard the sound of a heavy door opening and closing. A pair of golden eyes suddenly appeared in his view, peering down at him. The door swung off its hinges, crashing against the far wall. In his grasp, the mouse startled awake and bolted to the wall, squeezing through a crack in the mortar.
Standing in the doorway, golden robes billowing in her own aura, stood Lilith, his elder sister. Her golden eyes bore into his. Out of all his siblings, Lilith looked the most like their mother. Regina would even go so far as to call them twins, or some twisted doppelganger. His mother was dark as the night, while his sister radiated light, like the brightest sunny day. He was almost blinded from looking at her in the dark dungeon. Never before, had Niklaus seen something or rather, someone so misplaced.
"Well, my sister," Niklaus motioned towards where the mouse had fled as his scent changed again, this time to the smell of wildflowers in the spring. "You've managed to scare away yet another one of my 'oh so many' friends with your horrendous presence."
"Friend?" Lilith blinked. "Has my baby brother fallen so low he can manage only the rodents befriend him?"
To any other this might have been seen as an exchange of insults, but Lilith's smile never hesitated. Even Niklaus managed a small quirk of his lips. He rose to his feet, lanky form towering over her. His dark clothes were almost comedic beside her bright clothes, they were like Yin and Yang, opposite sides of the same coin.
Lilith stared at him a moment longer before wrapping her copper tanned arms around him, squeezing with the strength of ten men. "Oh I am so glad to see you Nicky!"
Warmth fluttered in Niklaus chest even after he managed to wiggle from her grasp. "I am..... pleased to see you as well my sister, and don't call me that. It's Niklaus."
She took his actions with a grain of sand, instead, linking her arm with his, she plucked a strand of hay from his shoulder. "Ah Nicky, I never doubted you were alive."
As she led him from the dungeon, they passed a large cell. He caught the slightest of glimpses. Inside, he saw two forms, chained to the wall. He recognized them as the two gatehouse guards. Their armor was dented and torn; bruises littered their skin. Lilith smiled at him as he turned back to her. "Don't mind them Nicky, not your worry."
"I can handle them myself, there was no need for you to get involved," Niklaus carped. "I had my own plans for them."
"Very well," Lilith waved him off, behind them he could hear the grind of the chains opening and closing at her whim. "You may have all the fun brother."
Niklaus smiled genuinely as they moved on. "You know, for a dungeon master you are far too soft hearted."
Thwack!
Niklaus nearly let out a laugh when Lilith's hand met his shoulder because she wasn't tall enough to reach his head. "'You know, for the son of an ancient anthropomorphic personification, you are rather stupid when it comes to socialization.' Why did you not call me?" She mocked him.
Niklaus shot her his most ferocious glare. "I don't know, why did you think I was dead?"
"Not I, brother," Lilith deflected. "Though most of the council was sure of it. No one believed me-except for grandfather, of course."
As they ascended the stairs into the grand palace, Niklaus pondered her words. He briefly thought of his siblings and how they would react if he had died. He knew Lilith would likely mourn for only a day or so, as her duties would permit. But the others.....he was not so sure of their love for him. He believed they felt the same as him-that they were only united by blood and name, nothing more.
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A wall of silence smacked him in the face as Lilith led him through the grand archway and into the Council room. On each side of the marble sundial stood over a dozen occupied thrones, each unique to the monarch who sat on them. All his life he had heard of the council's assemblage. His father would tell him and his siblings' stories of its members. About the endless mazes of Time, and the caves of the Fate's.
At the front of the grand hall, his Grandmother and Grandfather sat on either side of the empty throne of Dreams. Life and Death had never been too content with each other, separating their realms one opposite sides of the universe, with a entire galaxies between them. Life radiated everything good in the world: kindness, compassion, hope. Her smile held infinite amounts of unconditional love for everything in creation. Her soft green eyes watched him move with no traces of judgement or prejudice. Her husband, Death, on the other hand was the exact opposite. His grandfather always had a hateful look about him. Where his grandmother sat with her head held high, Death was hunched over in his shroud of shadows. Her skin was brazen and flushed bright with rosacea. He looked like a withered skeleton with pale, gray skin stretched over his form.
Lilith's heels clicked loudly in the silent room as she dragged Niklaus to the center, where his siblings were waiting. As he stood amongst them once again, he wondered how it was that they were all related. They shared no similar characteristics, no physical similarities. Each of them was uniquely different from the others.
Linus, his eldest half-brother watched with his hands crossed respectfully. Niklaus shrunk under his stare as always. The same stare his father had. Linus was the largest and strongest of them all, the first-born son....the first to absorb a fraction of their father's power. Linus was always with their father; every moment of their childhood was about trying to be as great as Linus.
"Glad you could show up baby brother," Linus smiled, his single milky white eye watching him mockingly. A long-jagged scar stretched down his long face, neck, and under the hem of his silver tunic. "Though you are late-"
"-as usual," Niklaus' half-brother, Percival pipped up.
All of a sudden the glassy stone floor seemed very interesting. The sulking Prince slipped to the back of the group, sharing nods of acknowledgement with siblings whose names all blended together over the years. Lilith stood beside Linus, pressing a golden hand over his chest.
Life stood from her throne, gracefully gliding down the stairs. Under the council's gaze, Niklaus began to understand the gravity of his father's passing. Nothing would ever be the same now that the original monarch of the Dream realm was gone. This was new territory. No monarch had ever died before, only the rare few had retired and chosen their heir whilst living.
Niklaus stood nearest to the gilded archway: a quick plan of escape fresh in his mind. He wondered if anyone would notice if he slipped out the door and fled back into the city-back to the palace hidden in mystery. His place of comfort-the only place in the entire universe that was completely and utterly his and his alone. But Lilith's cat-like eyes captured his, glinting in warning.
"Hello, my grandchildren," Life pulled her attention off him. Her voice draws him in, making it impossible not to memorize every word she spoke. "What has it been, nearly a thousand years since you all have gathered together like this?"
"Try two millennium, three hundred year, a month, twenty-six days, fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds," Niklaus' half-sister, Armani, muttered under her breath. She sank deeper into her blue cloak, her body wavering as endlessly as the spring she protected. Three marbles she held in her hand clanked together, her fingers fidgeting. Niklaus had always thought Armani memorable. Out of all his siblings, she was the only one constrained to a single place unless permitted to leave. But she preferred it that way, isolation with the fountain of youth, tracking every second as it flew by. Always waiting for someone worthy to earn her blessing, to earn immortality the hard way. "Twenty-three......twenty-four......"
"Can you blame them?" Bo'Az cackled. The old blind fate sat on a throne of threads beside her sisters and their father. Niklaus' Uncle Destiny read silently; his throne of sifting fabric rippled as his empty eyes scanned every word carefully.
His daughters, the fates, would write the stories-the destinies of every living creature, then he would read them and bring them into fruition. Niklaus had always wondered what was in store for him, but knew to never ask. His half-sister Estelle had done so. And their Uncle had told her the truth. She promptly went mad with paranoia, locking herself in her mothers castle. Never to leave again. To this day, he still didn't know what she had found out, but he decided he didn't want to know either. He realized, in fact, that Estelle was not in the council room.
"That's enough, Sister," Barnaba sighed, as the eldest, she sat between her younger sisters to prevent their bickering. She sat with a basket in her hands, weaving silver strands of life with her own hands.
"What? Uncle Dream was hard enough to stand," Bo'Az waved her off. "Each of them is at least half of him!"
"Oh what a load of rubbish!" Niklaus' Brother Carlias shouted over the uproar of his siblings. Niklaus himself wanted to protest his cousin's words, but stayed silently in the back.
Life's face turned sour, her voice like an earthquake. "Enough!"
Silence.
No one dared to breathe too loudly.
"My son is dead!" Life's voice wavered. "Your father is dead and you're behaving like a pack of rabid dogs!"
Niklaus eyes fell wide. His Grandmother had never once dropped her smile his entire life, now she was on the verge of tears. Which was normal for a grieving mother. Except she was no ordinary mother. She was the first mother. Her children die every day in the mortal realm. He wondered if the tears were not for his father, but instead, for he and his siblings-and whatever trials and tribulations their father will make them face still. It was not beyond the Old King to be spiteful even in death.
"Why are we here, Grandmother?" Niklaus hardly managed to choke out enough air to make the question audible as all eyes trailed to him. His was usually quiet at family gatherings, some would say invisible. But if no one else wanted to ask, he would, just so he could leave sooner. "If Linus is to be crowned king, then why have we gathered if not for his coronation?"
Linus tilted his head to Niklaus, almost in a brotherly way of saying thank-you. Life's gaze turned on him, studying her youngest grandchild. Nilaus self-consciously shrunk in on himself, hiding in his dark robes.
"Finally, one of you has the nerve to ask the real questions instead of standing around like a bunch of lost chickens!" Death crowed, his shroud rippling around him.
"Ignatius!" Life scolded. "You are being highly inappropriate given that your son is dead!"
Death sighed begrudgingly. "Yes, Letitia Dear, my apologies."
"Thankyou," Life's smile returned, her dimples sinking gracefully into her face. "As for your question Niklaus, love, you have all been summoned here because Linus will not be taking the throne as planned."
An uproar of complaints surged forward. "Instead!" Life shouted. "Your father declared on his deathbed that there shall be a tournament, to prove which of you is truly meant to be the new Monarch of the Dream realm!"
Niklaus ears rang with his siblings screams. Linus being the loudest protestant of them all. Now he understood. He knew why Gloria was running a stall in his name. The kingdom would soon be divided, rushes of proclamations of loyalty would be made to earn the future monarch's favor. Absolute chaos was about to start.
"What if we wish to withdrawal from the tournament and not compete?" Carlias asked.
"We have narrowed the contenders down to ten of you who have already accomplished great things in this kingdom," Life produced a bundle of envelopes from within her robes. "But only six have agreed to compete, or well so, your mothers have only allowed six of you their blessings."
On the very bottom of the pile, Niklaus recognized his mother's seal. Oh, how he hoped it was for one of his other true-blood siblings and not him. His heart pounded in his ears as Life began to read off the names of each accepted letter. "Lady Daphne sent her blessing for only one son, Linus....Lady Sarahmi-must really want one of you to win girls, she's accepted for all of her children-Armani, Penny, Estelle-"
"-Estelle?" Linus asked. "She expects the hermit to fight for the throne? No one in their right minds would allow her to be Queen, that's insane!"
"That is what has happened, now hush before I remove you from the polls," Life fired back. Though Niklaus said nothing, he agreed with Linus. That Estelle would only get hurt. But he only had a moment before his thoughts were interrupted. "Queen Dowager Regina of the Aether realm, has sent two letters back in response."
Niklaus prayed silently, begging for his name not to be on one of those letters. He was the least qualified, and would surely be destroyed if it came to a play of power. Especially against Linus or-
"-Lilith, dungeons master," Life read off. "And........"
Everything went silent save the beating of his own heart. He saw her lips move, but no sound came out. His siblings all turned back, eyes wide with surprise. His name.....she had called his name. His life was over. Nikalus was not one to fight, he wasn't a warrior like Lilith or Linus, and he wasn't a calculated schemer like his half sisters. He was nothing compared to them, in both power and experience. His siblings had fought wars-lead armies, while he stayed in dream land. Living in peace amongst the mortals dreams, which had always perturbed his family.
No, he begged. Please don't let this happen.
"I wish to withdrawal from the tournament!" Niklaus muttered, shock still ringing in his ears.
"I'm afraid that's not possible," His grandmother frowned. "According to the old laws, once you sign your name to the contract you are bound in mind and body to it. Unless you wish to tell me this signature was not made by you and was perjured? In which case the culprit will suffer a thousand pains."
She flashed the written document so everyone could see clearly his signature beside his mothers. But Niklaus new, the way the N was curved, and the letters were too graceful-it was not his handwriting, but his mothers. Niklaus' handwriting was messy, unskillful. But hers carried the grace millennia of practice brought. His stomach boiled with anger. She had killed him. His own mother had damned him for her own gain.
"My apologies," Niklaus swallowed the lump in his throat. "I had just forgotten the document is all. Please excuse me."
Hot tears burned to the brim of his eyes, as he bowed, turning to leave the council room. Several voices called after him, but he was not listening. He needed to leave. To find solace. He charged through the castle halls, completely reliant on his ever-expanding memory of the palace. When he reached the outside of the castle it still wasn't enough. He needed fresh air, away from the palace, and away from the lingering thoughts of his indisputable demise.
He needed to think. Though in this case, that probably wasn't for the best.
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