King John was seated in front of David's cell when he finally awoke. He slowly came to and found his king, his brother, watching him. "You're finally awake," the king spoke quietly and cleared his throat. He was still trying to understand what had gone wrong within his knight to betray his friends.
"And you're still gawking at me," David scoffed and his voice had returned to his normal tone and pitch after a few blinks of his sleepy eyes. "Seriously, you're the king. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?" he stretched the word 'king' as a way to show that he saw him as no authority figure.
The king honestly had no clue where to begin or if even speaking to him was even going to go anywhere. Was it even worth wasting his breath? David may already be beyond his reach at this point. But he had to try.
"Do you remember the war, Sir David?" he asked after a moment of thought, ignoring the question entirely.
"Of course I remember the war, old man. And also, why do you insist on calling me Sir David? You do realize that that title means nothing to me," he questioned sharply. His eyes formed like daggers at the king.
The king remained calm as much as he did not want to, he tried to reach his brother beneath the corruption. "Because at one point in time that title you claim is so worthless, meant a great deal to you."
"See that's where you're wrong," David replied. "It had never meant anything to me," he crossed his arms over his chest. "It's like I said before that brute took me out, I should have left long ago." His breathing quickened, "You hardly won the war and you think after all this time you could win again? It took all of the races to take my Master down and you think you are strong enough now that it's only humanity that remains?" A pause from David, "You live in a damned fairytale, old man. You and your kind will not win this time. You will perish and I cannot wait to be the one to rip your life from you." His eyes were like daggers of hatred as they bore into the king.
The king was being torn apart with the venom-like words of a man that he once called brother. And the man seemed to be relishing in the pain he inflicted. The king regained his voice, "You claim that your hatred is not of Varamont's doing. If so, have you been keeping this to yourself all this time? If you hated me so dearly, why didn't you leave? I never forced you to stay."
David laughed at King John's words, "You honestly believe that I am going to sit here and spill my guts to you about how I feel? I took you for a daft old man but I am the one in a cage and yet here you are as the fool." He laughed even harder this time.
The king stayed quiet for a moment as he watched any remaining hope of pulling his knight from the darkness melt through the stone floor. This man he watched through the cell door looked like the man he fought alongside with twenty years ago but he was someone else entirely. A stranger in a brother's body. This didn't feel like Varamont's magic though, this hatred felt real and raw.
King John stood and met his gaze with the smug look on David's face, "You are no brother of mine."
David leaned forward in his seat with one hand on his knee, "And I never was." The smile of a man who knew how to inflict pain with mere words spread slowly across his face. His eyes filled with satisfaction.
The king turned his gaze from the corrupted knight and walked from the dungeon. His exit was chased by the maniacal laughter of a man that had lost himself.
David had been unconscious for a few hours by the time the king had gone down there to speak with him and now the sun had begun to fall to the horizon. As the sun set, as did the temperature outside. The townsfolk would soon be entering the keep to find sleep for the night.
Evander, Alrid and Melganoth were eating supper in silence when the king slowly opened the door to the Grand Hall and let the door gently click into place behind him. The three men met his gaze as the click from the door echoed in the empty hall. He leaned his back against the door and looked to his Trust.
The king's face was one of a defeated man, a grieving man, "He is gone." He said plainly, "That man downstairs is no longer Sir David." He cut himself off, "David, rather. That man is no knight of mine. I never knew him."
Evander poured a hefty mug of ale for the king and brought it over to him. "Come have a drink with us. It is time that we formulated a plan on how we are going to find these spies. I do hope there are none left for us to find but evil lurks in every dark corner of the world."
The king accepted the offered drink, "I do suppose evil never takes a rest, and neither shall we." The two men took their seats. Evander and Alrid on one side of the table and the king and Melganoth on the other.
The plan was simple. Melganoth would walk about the castle grounds and meet with the townsfolk making pleasantries. During his walks he would actively search for any more spies. Alrid had pointed out that the people that were going to be most likely the spies would be the elderly. Melganoth would keep a keen eye on those older townsfolk for signs of the abyss.
Alrid would stand watch during the dark hours for obvious reasons. His elven sight was vastly superior to anyone in the kingdom. He could thank his mother for such a gift.
The night after the revelation of David's treachery, Alrid, Evander, King John, and Melganoth sat outside the keep and watched the light snowfall. The king had been mulling over what to do with the hounds and David. "He told me that even before the corruption that he had wanted to leave." The king lowered his gaze to the stone floor. "He said that his title of knighthood had never meant anything to him. He used it to get within our inner circle, I'd wager. And as much as I want to believe that it was the magic speaking, I cannot." His left hand found the pommel of his sword and rested there.
A gentle chilled breeze blew past them, flowing their cloaks gently as it strolled by. "He harbored such hatred in his words. Such anger was within his heart and I cannot fathom as to why or how it had become filled with such rage."
A thought came to him and he looked to Melganoth who had been sitting on the bottom step. "Mel, how does the abyss infiltrate the mind?"
The demon shifted his body to meet the king's eyes, "Well, the mind in question must first be in a weakened state. Any strong negative emotion or situation can be enough to open the mind. But not just any one mind can be controlled. From my experience, the mind itself must first be weak. Someone with strong mental fortitude can resist.
"Allow me to explain further. First, if the mind is of weak-will then it is susceptible. When someone that lives in a way that further weakens the mind it becomes easier to control. Once a bit of the abyss is placed within, it will then draw from whatever its host feeds it." He let his words hang in the air for a moment, "With David's case, it seems, he was weak-willed in his harbored hatred for you. The dark wizard then placed a bit of the abyss in his heart and over time it swallowed him into it. The reason his words felt so real was because it is likely that they were genuine. The abyss made his hatred more pronounced and in a way it removed any barriers left that had been preventing David from acting on his hatred."
The king didn't know what to say to this. He had still hoped that what David had said was to be blamed on the abyss. But after what Melganoth had explained he could see that David's words were likely real. David had honestly harbored all that hatred in his heart. He let it poison his mind. And where he had gotten it, the king knew not.
The king had finally lost all hope for his brother in arms, "Why did he not just come speak to me? He need not suffer silently." King John said this more to himself than to any of the three men that sat beside him.
"Either way," Melganoth spoke again, "He is lost to us."
The king hated hearing that said aloud, but it was something he needed to hear. "Only one thing left to do then," a pause from the king. "We must find his accomplices."
Evander asked with uncertainty a question that may change the future of the kingdom, "What do we do with the spies when we find them?"
Everyone now looked to the king for his answer. It was quiet for a long while before he found his voice, "We cannot trust them. Especially not David. The gallows will find use again in the days to come."
No one, especially Evander, had ever thought the king would go so far as to execute his own. Something had finally snapped within the king. He had lost too much. He would not allow his people to be killed by some low-life spy. He had to put the safety of his people before himself or risk losing more of his people.
David was no longer his friend, his brother, he had made that very clear. This man was a spy. A rotten traitor. An enemy. Nothing more. And there was no place for enemies within these walls. They will meet the noose.
"And I shall be the one to execute them. I cannot ask someone else to do what I will not. I am the king and it is my duty to protect my people. Even if it is from one of our own. No matter the cost." King John's voice had changed. It had taken on the tone of a man who a part of himself had died.
His eyes glossed over as he was trying desperately to hold back tears. "This war will be the end of me. If I live to see it through, it will be the end of me."
The young Alrid had been sitting on the stone staircase wall in silence this entire time. "I lost my mother," his young voice piped up suddenly. "I did not understand death at the time but somehow this feels worse. I did not know Sir David for as long as some but mourning someone who isn't dead feels worse. The brotherhood is what has died. And along the lines of it you feel like somehow it was your fault it ended." His voice was shy as he felt that since he was still very young even by human standards that he wasn't qualified to speak on the topic of loss. He seemed to be forgetting the company he kept. The men around him cared not for how young he was. Alrid was a valued member of the Trust they kept and he was seen as strong a man as any of the ones present.
King John seemed to come out of the shell that had been forming around his heart. He smiled a bit as he looked up to the young elven man, "I still think about Endira to this day, Alrid. She was a fine warrior and an even better friend."
"I could not tell you how she was as a mother, sadly," Alrid sighed heavily and dropped his gaze to the stone.
Evander placed a hand on the shoulder of his son, "I can tell you that, my son. She was the absolute best mother that I could have ever asked for you. My only wish was that you could have gotten to know her better through personal experience rather than stories." He smiled warmly, "But you will always have me." Alrid returned his father's smile with one of his own.
Melganoth had been watching curiously at their interactions. "I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being in the presence of humans." The three men looked to the face of their demon friend. He had the look of someone who was very content with where he was at that moment. He had the look of someone who knew he sat around friends even though he had only met the king and Alrid a short few days ago.
"What do you mean?" Evander asked his friend with a light-hearted chuckle.
"Well," Melganoth began. "For one, humans and demons seem to grieve the same. We come together as one. We comfort the ones left behind and look to the future. Because that is how it is, isn't it? The ones who die are not the ones left with the emptiness of the departed. The ones left behind must move on without them. The dying is the simple part. It's the part of leaving life behind to those who remain is the difficulty in all of it." He smiled, "I find it comforting to be around humans and in a way, my kind lives on through you and I think that's beautiful."
Alrid smiled at Melganoth, "We enjoy having you around. I am all the more better for knowing you. I am glad that your kind is not all gone. We have you and I am thankful for that."
The sun dipped halfway below the horizon by this point. Its rays sent out vibrant oranges, reds and yellows across the dying sky like the brush strokes of a painter. The men watched as the sun fell from the sky as it signified the end of a horrible day and hopefully tomorrow would bring better times.
"Well," Alrid broke the silence, "I suppose my watch begins now. Would anyone like to keep me company?" The Trust shared a warm laugh together in the cold of dusk.
Just because the world was falling apart around them didn't mean they had to fall apart along with it.
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