A King's Legacy Ch. 39

A King's Legacy

Chapter 39

Guided by Death

"That was a mistake. What you've just done will forever be imprinted on your image as a king." Prince Tyfin rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh as he answered his father now that they were finally alone after the eventful trial. They had argued among the judges plenty during the last of it, but Alocer still had more he wanted to say now that they were out of range from eavesdroppers. Tyfin expected as much.

"Good, I would hope a mighty ruler would have no need to execute a smaller human simply for wanting to live. This is exactly the kind of image I want. This is the kind of king I will be in your wake, father. I did not inherit your thirst for blood." King Alocer scoffed, berating his son after Aster's trial.

"Oh, we both know you inherited it. You only think you won't be pushed to make the same decisions I had. You believe yourself better, but all you are doing is showing off your weak points. You've angered many a noble today-" Tyfin cut his father off before he ever continued.

"I don't care, it was the right thing to do, and when I am king, they will accept my ruling. The nobility of Alora will come to understand." Alocer turned his back on his son as he answered with a stern, yet exasperated tone.

"They already understand all they want to... You may not believe me, my son, but you should prepare yourself for backlash. You need to start considering living up to your potential... Your ENTIRE potential..." Tyfin already knew what his father was talking about. The younger lion answered defensively.

"I will never need such a tool-" Alocer merely started speaking over his son's foolish statement.

"You will... I have let you live your life, form your own opinions, and had you educated in all manner of things. I encouraged you to seek varying and unbiased guidance and counsel from our greatest minds, and often arranged for you to have the opportunities to learn from them. I said nothing about any of it as you formed your own opinions, even about me, just as I said nothing about you rolling around the sheets with your own damned guard all these years... But you ARE going to listen to me now, my son, because I speak the truth." Prince Tyfin felt his heart sink into his stomach, staring at his father in a potent mix of embarrassment, and horror. The younger lion sputtered out in denial.

"I- I don't know what you're talk-" Alocer roared, his shitty day finally getting the better of him as he shut his cub up and continued his spill.

"Oh spare me, you two weren't even slick enough to cover your damned scents, the ONLY reason the entire guard doesn't know is because Sir Syphur has been covering for the both of you! Me and Jagón have known you and Talan have been fucking for years now, we just didn't see a problem that needed addressing. You aren't as smart as you think you are sometimes, and that naiveté is going to be your downfall!"

Alocer stared at his son, who had shrunken down as he just listened to his father and stared back wide-eyed, called out on everything. The older lion sighed, finally having a seat after blowing a bit of the steam off. He continued in a tone that reflected he was only trying to reason with his cub.

"I know you think you know how people work, but you have no idea how depraved they can really be. Lifelong friends that turn on each other for a bag of fifty gold... A father that would turn his own son over to authorities to receive a bounty, a bounty placed for stealing the very same father some food... A starving brother, agreeing to try and murder somebody merely for a chance to feed his sister... Sometimes they are backed into a corner, sometimes they are greedy and sometimes they are just broken, but there will always be those that will do the most depraved things to get what they want, things you would never even begin to imagine." Alocer sighed again, speaking in a serious tone.

"That's what happens when you consume the souls of such monsters. You truly learn to comprehend how terrible people are." Tyfin finally spoke up again, sticking firm to his view on that power.

"Do you even hear yourself? The hoops you would jump through to justify using such a cursed bloodskill... Tell me, are you sure you don't simply understand how those monsters think because that is all you are now? You became the most depraved kind of person yourself... YOU COMMITTED GENOCIDE ON AN ENTIRE RACE, AND HAVE THE NERVE TO LECTURE ME ABOUT ETHICS WHEN I SPARE THE LONE SURVIVOR?" Alocer answered just as firmly.

"It is not about the ethics, nor the morals on the matter, it is about you understanding that there are terrible people in this world, and sometimes, the only way to beat them is by becoming an even bigger monster than they are... You chose the value of a single man over the united respect of your subjects. Killing him would've been a mercy at this point, and even had it made you feel uneasy, it would still be better than ending up as a dead king!" Tyfin only stared back at his father, and spoke slowly.

"I would rather become a dead king than to ever become what you have. I will not take innocent lives, and I will not use that bloodskill, and after the explanation you gave me when I was younger, I don't see how you could ever expect me to..." Alocer repeated it all rather suddenly.

"When we consume, we take from our prey. We take their strength, their emotions, and even their very memories. We consume part of, (if not the entirety of,) their very soul. The parts we take from our prey leaves behind lingering traces, usually only smaller bits of information, just enough to give you a sense of familiarity in the strangest of times. What is really happening, is small bits of their souls are lingering in our own. We take everything from our prey, and we take it all for ourselves, for that is what a king among beasts must do. You consume, or be consumed, there is no other option. You are a LION, start acting like one." Tyfin answered stoutly, clinging firmly to his morals.

"I will find another option then." Alocer let out a low, rumbling growl in irritation as he answered his son once more, his brows furrowing as his eyes narrowed.

"Perhaps you may, and I would be quite content at being made into a liar here... but I won't be. One day, you'll finally learn to accept that not everyone is going to make it to the other side. You'll learn there are predators in this world, and there is prey. I can only hope it is something you'll learn to accept before you ever find yourself one such victim at the mercy of a true monster. One day, it will be you, or them, and perhaps then you will come to accept the decisions I made for my own people. When that day comes, my son, I only pray that it will be you who comes out the hunter, and not the game."

Such haunting words for what would end up being one of the final conversations between the father and son. Tyfin just wasn't certain why the memory was resurfacing in such a moment...

All he wanted to do was cry... He had never felt so vulnerable, exposed, helpless, or at the mercy of another in his entire life. Tyfin was finally learning that his title as a prince offered far less protection than he had ever believed it to. Quite contrarily, he was finally starting to understand his father's words back then. This thought was torn away from him as he let out another yelp of searing pain.

Tyfin heard another dull, bashing sound, and looked over towards Captain Rix with tear-stricken eyes, hoping the great bull had freed himself, and was about to help him. All that answered his plea for help was the large bull collapsing before him after yet another blow to his skull. The prince finally realized this was the end. He had gotten every soldier that followed him through that desert killed, and he was going to die here as well, as soon as the rhinoceros above him was finished taking what we wanted. The pachyderm pulled his dry finger free from the prince's entrance, and whispered down to his trapped prey one final time as he lined the rest of himself up for the hilting strike he was preparing to make.

"Remember to cry for me, pretty kit-" It was an abrupt stop, one the young prince was so very grateful for. As the lion turned his head back and stared through his vision blurred by tears, his breathe hitched in his throat immediately. His eyebrows raised slightly in non-acceptance, and his tears started falling faster than ever before. He croaked out in utter disbelief.

"Talan?" The rhino's eyes were wide, and the smallest trickle of blood had just begun dripping from the burly beast's snout. The pachyderm slowly turned his gaze over his right shoulder, and stared at the warrior that had already slain him. Talan made sure to hold that gaze as his bloodskill took full effect, his ivory fangs still firmly sank into the larger beast's flesh.

"The Hunter's Toll," the name given to the Venatus family bloodskill, a skill only bore by two beasts; Jagón Venatus and his oldest son, Talan. It was a more simple skill, but quite effective. If either panther's ivory fang ever found itself buried anywhere in an enemies flesh, their victory was secured, they could kill their opponent with a single trigger at that point. Talan had seized his opportunity, and landed on the larger beast from the rooftop above after dispatching the archer, biting the rhino on his shoulder the moment he pounced. He bit down hard on impact, and sent the mental trigger immediately, sentencing the larger beast to death for ever laying a finger on HIS prince.

The rhino only stared as the blood trickled out of him, the small red rivers flowing from the beast's nose, maw, and even ears shortly after. Talan wasn't usually one to relish a kill so much, but he wasn't ashamed to admit he had rather enjoyed this one. The panther gazed into the mercenaries' eyes as the lights dimmed entirely, recalling his father's own words fondly in that moment.

"Should you deem yourself worthy of taking another's life, at least have strong enough conviction to look them in the eyes while you do it." Talan had no shortage of conviction that day, and watched in delight as the large rhino collapsed to the side, but the young beast king and his closest guard were far from in the clear just yet. There were around a dozen of the snickering sell-swords left, and Talan was going to face down them all, or so he had planned. The mercenaries still had other contingencies up their sleeves, however.

A familiar crocodile was marched forth, and shoved to his knees by the mercenaries as the boss began to speak smugly yet again. Fraxis looked like he had seen far better days, but the reptile was still alive, if nothing else. That alone was something for the young prince. Tyfin stood, made himself decent again, and clenched his fists in both anger and shame. The king-to-be stared down his foes decidedly; these beasts were not worth sparing. Perhaps his father was right to some degree after all... The living world was better off without some people in it.

===

King Calium was so very exhausted, but his rampant thoughts just wouldn't let sleep take him. Who could blame the poor man? He had been working almost endlessly for nearly five straight months, the defenses along their furthest borders being chipped away day by day all the while. Peuforet holding out as long as they did had given Adamare's secret mission time that was more valuable than any man could measure in such ill-fated days, but even this was only ever going to be a stall tactic.

Calium had returned from another week of grueling work in the cavern only to be greeted with the harrowing news; Peuforet, and the entire forest surrounding it, had been reduced to flickering embers. The second human kingdom had fallen, and Adamare had not yet heard a word on the fate of their young prince, Flose. King Alocer would surely continue pressing on in his assault, and time would surely continue running out for Calium's own people. Sleep was becoming a true rarity for the tired king.

He had roughly three months left, and Death had been strangely quiet, but the king didn't have much choice other than to trust that the deity still had a handle on things, and do whatever he thought he could with the time that remained. The king sat in the chair of his bedroom a little longer, and finally managed to at least close his eyes for a few short hours. He awoke a little while later, helped secure the next load of inventory, and made his way into the cave just as the sun started to crack over the horizon.

This was what he would do for the rest of his days on that earth. The king would set out at sunrise, go work for nearly a week, (taking very few breaks in between jobs,) and come back to receive updates and reports. Despite how long and exhausting those days of such demanding labor seemed to the king, the three remaining months seemed to fly by far too quickly. There were only a few nights left before the attack when Death finally contacted the king once more. The god had waited for Calium to return to his room before speaking.

'Bad news.' Calium stopped where he was, working on the last few pages of information to leave behind in the book for his children. The king answered in both dread, and exasperation.

"If you tell me the deal isn't possible now..." Death responded with a sigh of annoyance.

'Always jumping to conclusions... It's like you mortals believe yourselves omnipotent. The deal is fine still... probably...but the beast king has split away a section of his army to attack from two sides, and I'm certain you'll never guess which direction the second battalions will be marching from now...' Calium lowered his head, and answered deep in thought, cursing such fate.

"So... the main forces from the south, and the secondary from the west... Can we stop the western units from advancing? We know how this ends, but you wouldn't be telling me this for no reason all of a sudden." Death answered honestly.

'If they cross the mountains of the west on the second night of the assault, as they plan to, your anthill will be uncovered the following morning. They will hold their ground, and discover the cavern and everyone inside of it before the third day of the siege is over.' Calium placed his hand over his face in exhaustion, and tried to get to the point.

"And I prevent this how? What else must I do?" Death answered plainly, ignoring the king's fatigue.

'Stall them. Use your shield, and use some of those powder weapons your kind is so famous for, it isn't like you haven't prepared enough of them. You merely have to hold them off for a single day, until the southern army breaks through your outer gates around the morning of the third day, what remains of the western battalions will retreat at that point.' Calium scoffed, as if it were such a simple thing.

"So, You're telling me to just figure it out then?" Death didn't answer, which was all the answer the king needed. The king had a question burning at the back of his throat, but a knock on his door stole away his chance to ask the deity. The king turned as the knight was already opening the door.

"This had better be important..." The king received his answer swiftly.

"Lady Arcella has returned, and she has brought the heir to Peuforet with her." Calium let out a sigh of relief at some good news at last. The king spoke in a relieved voice.

"Send her in, I'd like to discuss some things with her." The knight responded grimly.

"I'm afraid that is impossible, my king. She is unconscious, and has been severely wounded. At this time, we are not even certain if she will survive. It is a miracle that the child did, as he suffered similar burns, although his were far less severe... We've been treating them both since they arrived." Calium barely even felt the sting, still just so numb to all of it during his final week alive. He thanked his knight before dismissing him, and turned right back to his work, pushing on until the dawn when he had finally finished his grand task at long last. The king leaned his head back, closed those golden eyes burning from fatigue, and finally managed to get some decent rest for the first time in months.

Just a few nights before the attack, just as the moon began to rise over the ocean, Calium Aureus slept for nearly fifteen straight hours. It would be the last true rest the king would be getting for decades to come. He awoke with an unshakeable determination to face this fate head on for his children, for his own little sun and moon.

===

Byron Aschefell stood in the meadows on the outskirts of the Adamare mountains, gazing off towards the final battlefield ahead of them in this harrowing war. His mind was seemingly millions of miles away as a younger coyote came running up behind him, delivering his report proudly.

"Master Aschefell, we have secured our battalion's supplies, and are nearly ready to begin the march of the first wave." Byron thanked his young apprentice briefly, but still corrected the cub.

"I am not merely your mentor in this place, and you are not merely my ward. It is General Aschefell here." Syphur dropped his eyes a little as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, correcting himself.

"Right, sorry, General." Bryon sighed to himself, and turned to face the cub at last, speaking apologetically.

"Pay it no mind, I am merely a bit irritated, as we all seem to be." Syphur spoke once more, working up the nerves as he asked his question.

"General Aschefell... May I join you for this final battle?" Byron answered firmly.

"You want no part in this, young Syphur." The coyote was persistent, further pestering his master in that moment.

"But, I need experience, you've said it yourself!" Byron spoke decidedly.

"There is nothing for you to gain from that experience, aside from a heavy conscience. You'll have your chance to fight one day, hopefully against fiends rather than the living." The young coyote really wanted to press his luck some more, but decided against it, feeling rather defeated in that moment. Byron spoke reassuringly to his young subordinate as he turned his back towards the cub once again.

"Had I not thought you were capable, I wouldn't have brought you along at all. I likely would've tried to find some task to keep you occupied, as many of the other generals have with their more adolescent squires. I could've sent you west, let you go compete for glory, gifts, or gold in the rodent kingdom's test of strength, just as the prospective young Rixator calf is, but I brought you along because there will be much for you to learn here... simply not during the battle."

"So I am merely here to observe?" Syphur didn't sound enthusiastic as he continued, "and not even observing the fight? Then what am I doing here? You could've just brought Silbern with you if you merely needed an errand boy, he isn't that much younger than me." Byron cast a stony glance back at his pupil, and Syphur realized the wolf was in no mood to argue. The coyote sighed heavily, turning to leave. The great general stopped him with a firm statement, still smoothing out the rough edges on his little squire.

"You were not dismissed." Syphur stopped, and turned back to his mentor, still feeling his opportunity in that place was being squandered. The older wolf spoke clearly for the cub.

"You are here to learn, young Syphur. Stay with the medic teams, and hang back from any of the actual clash. Walk the human streets with those tending to our wounded allies, step into the aftermath of the charge led by our king, General Venatus, and I, and then come tell me if you feel your experience here was wasted. Tell me then, if you still had wished to be there. Tell me THEN, what you have learned from your observations today... Now you are dismissed." The great general barked out the last of his command and paced off without another word, leaving his squire feeling a little stunned by such an order.