Before Alanna could make a move the two guards suddenly jerked toward each other with their heads violently slamming together! The impact was loud and jarring, both helmets were so dented she fleetingly wondered how the guards would ever get them off. Her focus on the helmets caused her attention to drift to another anomaly about them; the two helmets being held together were bracketed by hands. Very large hands.

During the confrontation with the front two guards she had not noticed the third one, the giant, moving in closer behind his companions. She certainly noticed him now as his hands, almost reluctantly, left the heads of the other two guards. Those two drifted briefly, making neither their own movements nor sounds until they were dragged away from Alanna and out of the tunnel by the massive, remaining guard. Hesitant but unsure of what else to do, Alanna followed. At a distance.

Outside the cave she found the remaining guard fashioning some kelp into bindings.

"I do not mean to seem ungrateful, but why did you do that," Alanna asked from what she felt, hoped, was a safe distance.

"I did what needed doing," he answered in his gravely voice while continuing his work. Without looking at her he asked, "are you really Queen Alanna?"

"I am."

"You trying to escape?"

She hesitated, but only for a second. "I am."

"Vulko?"

She did not answer.

She didn't know if it was because he was through with his work on the bindings or if he just wanted to look at her but he stopped his work and that point then turned to her and bowed slightly. "Your highness, my name is Murk. I was a castle guard under your brother's reign and under your father's before him." He took a step toward Alanna, she impressed herself by not backing away involuntarily. "I've been loyal to the line of Fen for longer than you've drawn water through your gills. I wasn't here to stop what Rath did to your brother, but by the green and scaly balls of Poseidon himself I'll do what I can and when I can to bring him down." He looked at the two guards floating behind him, still motionless, then looked back to her, "no matter what it takes."

Her initial assessment of him had been correct, he was indeed a behemoth. He was easily taller, wider and more muscular than any other person she had ever met. His movements hinted at a deceptive speed while his attitude spoke plainly of years of training. He had a wild, untamed quality about him but the sincerity in his words was undeniable. This was an Atlantean in mind, spirit and heart, he could prove to be an invaluable ally but she needed to be sure. "You asked me to verify myself but you had already acted against your companions. Why did you not wait before rendering them unconscious?"

Murk was taken aback by her question. "Unconscious? My lady they are dead." He gestured to the dead guards still floating behind him. "The skinny one? That's Vyren, he liked to fancy himself an assassin, called himself 'Slither' like it was s'posed to be impressive. He had an... attention... for small children. S'best I know those were the only things he killed." This last sentence was framed with obvious disgust. Alanna got the distinct feeling Vyren had been destined to die today regardless of her presence.

"And the other?"

"Xem. He was even worse."

"How?"

"He knew what Vyren was about, he just didn't care. Xem came over from Xebel with your 'husband'," Murk's tone conveyed an understanding of some sort. How much could a guard know? "Xem was one of his people he put among the guards to weed out loyalists like myself."

Alanna's mind was whirling with ideas. "I see. So how did you manage to avoid detection?"

"That's part of the tragedy, my lady. I come from an area far to the south and west of here and had gone back to visit my kin after being gone for decades. It was while I was gone that Rath betrayed the king."

This post was edited on 10/1/20 at 2:23 pm

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Posted by Bard

Definitely NOT an admin

Member since Oct 2008

52030 posts

Posted on 10/1/20 at 2:27 pm to Bard

Alanna had never been able to get an answer from Vulko about what had happened to her brother and how Rath had come to power. She realized this was the time and place for her to get answers. She took a step toward Murk. She was within arm's reach now, having to float above the ground to look him eye-to-eye while he remained flat-footed and firmly grounded.

"Loyal Murk, your queen asks you know for something else." Her voice was pleading now, it should have been full of command. She knew it. She didn't care. "Tell me what happened. What happened with my brother?"

Murk stared for a moment, squinted at her as he studied her. "You really were kept mind-addled, weren't you?"

When put that way, so simply blunt, she felt ashamed. That didn't stop her though, "I was."

Murk nodded. "There are still a few of us in the castle who are loyal to Fen and Atlantis. Vulko was one of us but as he wormed his way into the new regime's graces he had to cut ties to us. It's been years since I've more than seen him from across a street. I figured if it was really you out and about, he had some sort of hand in it.

Not long after you left on your last trip, Xebel sent a diplomatic mission to Atlantis. I'm not privy to what went on with them but it went on well enough that Callum Rath, king of Xebel sent his brother Orus to Atlantis as his ambassador.

Within another year Xebel had an embassy here and Orus had dislodged Vulko as Orvax's chief advisor in all but name. Trade was strong and people were happy.

Looking back it seems ominous, but at the time there were no warning signs. Atlantis and Xebel had had problems over the centuries but little actual violence toward one another. It was under this climate that I took my leave of the guard for a period to return home.

From what I have pieced together it seems Xebel's king requested some sort of emergency meeting with King Orvax at somewhere along the Trench. Callum and Orus said loathsome beasts from the Trench came up unexpectedly and swarmed them. That Orvax and his guards held the line while they escaped to make Atlantis and Xebel ready to meet these creatures in battle.

With no other member of House Fen to assume the throne, Orus used the public's temporary sentiment to be placed on it as Regent to organize the resistance and to head up finding a suitable heir.

He spread his message of fear far and wide, it was a persuasive enough message that it allowed him to 'enhance' the guards of Atlantis and the castle with his own guards from Xebel.

It had been a year since the event, people were starting to tire of being constantly on guard and afraid, his power was beginning to wane and questions were starting to be asked as to why he wasn't doing more to find the nearest heir to the throne."

Alanna could see where this was going. "And that's when I reappeared." Murk's nod was all the confirmation she needed. She could now see the full picture.

Callum and Orus had lulled Orvex into a false solidarity somehow. When the time was right they had lured him out and killed him so Orus could assume the throne. The only flaw was that Atlanteans strongly tied rule of Atlantis to the House of Fen. The Raths had miscalculated this, without some tie to the throne the Atlanteans would eventually reject them.

She had unwittingly delivered to Orus a solid attachment to the throne of Atlantis right when he needed it the most. He began using Silent School sorcery on her mind the moment they first met. He had made her completely subservient. She had gone through with the marriage and had borne him two children with none of it being through her own free will. Orus had seen his attempt to gain power by setting the Trench as the enemy eventually fail. Alanna's arrival allowed him to craft a new enemy: the air-breathers. The watered regions had been wary of dry-landers since the Cataclysm, often using them as old wives tales to frighten children. She couldn't have made it any more perfect for him.

"My lady, there's more," Murk said through clenched teeth. "Had I not left, I would have been there with them. I could have saved your brother. My king." Murk all but shook with frustration and anger, this was as difficult a topic for him to tell as it was for her to hear.

She knew they were both heaping immense blame on themselves for what had happened. She also understood the futility in it. Beating themselves up over the machinations of others was neither healthy nor productive. Nothing positive would ever come of it and that played only into the hands of the Raths. That was something she would not do.

"Murk, I think I have an idea of how we can both make some sort of amends, if you're willing."

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