“Have you lost your mind?!!” Darius shouted at Tristan.

“No, I’ve just grown tired of watching you and father let my kingdom fall into a squaller” Tristan responded with a sneer.  By this time, the guards stationed around the room had started to move towards Tristan.  Tristan glanced around the room before pointing his sword at Darius.  “Unfortunately for you, brother, in order to ensure my rule is uncontested I’ll have to wipe out the competition.”

It was at this point that Darius finally noticed the blood on Tristan’s blade and his eyes turned dim as he asked “What have you done Tristan? Where is Jacorr? Where is Jason?”

Tristan looked at his own blade and responded, “I did what I had to.”  At that moment, the guards finally made their move on Tristan.  Before they could grab him the blood on his sword started to boil as it began to glow a deep red.  Rupert turned from Tristan and moved to tackle me to the ground “Everyone get dow-” he tried to yell before an explosion shook the great hall.

Screams sounded through the hall as smoke, dust, and debris spread from the explosion.  Rupert managed to push me down, and as I hit the ground I tried to roll back to my feet.  But as I am out of shape the maneuver only managed to bring me back to my knees.  As I tried to stand the rest of the way up a wave of power pushed me back flinging me towards the throne.

I gasped as I had the wind knocked out of me and looked back down the great hall towards where the wave of power had come from.  What I saw was Darius summoning his own weapon, a glistening white sword, to his hands.  As I tried to catch my breath Darius and Tristan began fighting.  I scanned the rest of the hall with my eyes and saw the mangled corpses of the guards who had been standing closest to Tristan when he unleashed the blast.  I saw a few of the guests who had been in the hall struggling to get up, while others were lying on the ground either dead or unconscious. 

In a corner I saw Olivia crouched down with Sylvia standing over her conjuring a wall of mana to protect the two of them from the collisions of power firing off from Darius and Tristan.  I called on the mana in my core to do the same, even using just enough mana to block the shockwaves was causing my heart to start racing faster than I could sustain for long.

I managed to struggle to my feet but as I did so I noticed guards starting to flow into the great hall and beginning to form a circle around Tristan and Darius.  Before they could surround them though, soldiers wearing armor with a white sun emblem, the sigil of the Holy Grand Empire, on their chests began to enter the hall through the main doors. They began attacking the guards that had tried to encircle the fighting princes. 

I tried to move towards the fight, but Rupert appeared from in front of me and began pulling me towards the throne.  “What are you doing?” I demanded as I tried in vain to pull free from Rupert’s grasp.  “We have to get you out of here Prince Gale” he responded while continuing to pull me.

“I need to help Darius” I tried to reason back to him, but he didn’t stop pulling me until we were standing in front of the wall behind the throne.  “All due respect Prince Gale, but in your condition, you will be of no help in the fight” he said as he pulled a sconce on the wall opening up a secret passage.  I vaguely remembered father showing me this passage as a kid so I knew that it would lead out of the castle.

“But I should hel-” I tried to say but Rupert cut me off with a stern tone.  “It is my duty to protect you, and I will fulfill that duty at any cost” he said.  I looked him in his eyes and could tell he would not change his mind about this any time soon.

 “Fine” I said.  “I’ll go” Rupert let out a small, relieved sigh when I said that.  “However, I order you to help Darius in my stead.  Try and stop Tristan if you can, and if you can’t then get Sylvia and Olivia out of the castle.”  He looked like he wanted to say something but stopped and instead he smiled and bowed respectfully to me.  “As you order” he said while he pulled the sconce a second time.  As the passage started to close, I saw him turn his back to me and start to glow as he began to channel his mana.

Once the passage had been sealed again, I was surrounded in darkness.  I once again started to call on the mana in my core, but this time I used it just to generate a small light.  Of course, even that small amount of usage caused my breathing to start to get ragged.  I began to head down the passage all the while trying to think of why Tristan had done this, and what else he might have planned.

As I was walking down the passage I paused and looked back over my shoulder.  The image of Olivia curled up in a corner went through my mind. I pictured the image of her crying as Tristan slowly approached her with his sword drawn and sighed.  “Sorry Rupert, I won’t be able to leave after all” I said to myself.

I turned and started jogging back down the passage towards the great hall.  When I was about halfway back to the hall, I felt the passage suddenly shake.  I tripped and fell to my knees.  I looked behind me and squinted as I tried to see what could have caused the shaking.  Rather than see anything I felt another rumble coming from deep in the passage somewhere.  That was when I heard a loud cracking noise and noticed that the roof of the passage was starting to cave in.

Not good. I thought to myself as I stood back up and began sprinting down the passage back towards the hall. Not good, not good, not good. The roof of the passage started to crumble down behind me as I ran.  I’m and idiot I thought to myself. If I knew about the passage, then it stands to reason that Tristan does too.  I thought back to his conversation with Darius, he mentioned that he would wipe out the competition to his rule, so of course he would take measures to destroy this convenient escape route.  I mentally punched myself as I continued to run towards the entrance.

I squinted as I saw a light coming through the entrance to the passage, either the passage shaking or the fighting must have caused the door covering the entrance to give out, leaving an unobstructed path back to the great hall.  Just as I thought that I might be able to make it a piece of rubble struck my back and sent me flying forward and to the ground.  My head hit the ground hard, and my vision started to fade as I heard the tunnel continue to collapse.  The last thing I saw was dust clouding my vision before I blacked out.

…

I groaned as I felt a sharp pain in my head.  I opened my eyes and found that I could not see anything.  When I tried to stand up, I was surprised to find that I did not have much difficulty in doing so.  I shook my head a bit and tried to clear my vision and a faint light filled my vision towards the mouth of the passage I was in.  Glancing behind myself revealed that the entire passage behind me had caved in.  It would seem that the piece of rubble that had hit me had also pushed me out of the way of the cave in.  I looked back forward and began to move towards the entrance to the passage.

When I neared it, I began to hear voices coming from the great hall.  While I was unable to make out what was being said, my heart dropped when I realized that it was Tristan’s voice that I was hearing.  Just before the entrance to the passage I noticed something glinting on the ground.  I stopped to inspect it and I realized that it was a dagger.  Picking it up I decided to move slowly through the entrance and had to squint as light flooded my vision.

As my vision returned to me, I was shocked to see the scene before me.  Tristan was leaning on the side of the throne with his back to me.  Out in front of him was a bloody scene.  I could see the corpses of both guards and soldiers lining the floor of the great hall.  Towards the middle of the hall, I saw Darius lying facedown in a puddle of his own blood not moving.  Olivia was crying while latched onto his body and Sylvia stood defiantly between her and the soldiers that had encircled them.  Lying down surrounded by a circle of dead soldier was Rupert, he too was in a puddle of blood not moving.  I felt my eyes start to tear up as I looked at my oldest friend lying dead on the ground.

“Kill them” Tristan said as he stood up straight next to the throne.  Sylvia tried to use her mana, but it was clear she was exhausted and wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight against the soldiers.  That snapped me out of my grief and without thinking I stepped forward bringing my arm around Tristan and holding the blade of my dagger to his throat.  “Don’t move” I called out and everyone in the hall paused for a second and looked towards me.  Tristan tried to pull himself out of my grasp, but I just held on tight and pushed my dagger hard enough into his skin to draw blood he then realized it was futile to resist and stopped trying.

“What is your plan here Gale?” he asked calmly.  “Are you going to kill me?”

“And why shouldn’t I, after what you’ve done?” I responded coolly.

“Go for it” he said, “but when you do Sylvia and Olivia will die as well.”  The soldiers turned back towards Sylvia and pointed their weapons at her again.  “Though I suppose that wouldn’t be such a bad thing for you.” He continued on, “Once I’m gone, and they’re dead, you’ll be the only one left to inherit the throne.  You’ll get to become king.”

“I’m not like you.” I spat back, “I don’t want the throne”.

“Ah.” He exclaimed, “So you’ll just kill me, and walk away.  Leaving the largest power vacuum our country has ever seen.  How many thousands of innocents will die before the next ruler is decided that way?” He asked.

“How many innocents died here in your attempt to take the throne” I responded.

“Oh please” He sneered, “Only a handful of people died here, and you could hardly call them innocent.”

“What about Jason, your nephew, a boy barely twelve years old? Was he not innocent? What about Jacorr?” I shot back.

“Jacorr was a fool who would’ve sided with Darius, and while Jason’s death is unfortunate, it was necessary to ensure the stability of my rule” He responded.

“What a short-lived rule that will be” I said as I pushed the dagger harder into his throat.  When I did so a soldier took a swing at Sylvia cutting her shoulder as she fell to the ground.

“Mom!” Olivia cried out as she moved to try and catch her mother.  Another soldier stepped towards her and raised his sword up to finish off Sylvia. I instinctively lessened the pressure of the dagger on Tristan’s neck.

“Wait” Tristan called out. The soldier paused and looked towards us, but kept his sword poised to strike. “What’s the matter Gale? Can you not stomach the sight of them getting cut to pieces?” he mocked.  I looked at Olivia who had tears in her eyes as she grabbed onto her mother and held her close. “I swear to you brother, if they die you die” I said loudly.

Tristan simply chuckled to himself “So what are we going to do Gale, are we going to stand here like this until the end of time?” he asked.  Time seemed to stretch on forever as my mind started racing as I went through every situation and outcome; I could think of trying to find a way for Olivia and Sylvia to survive this situation.  Finally, I sighed as I realized there was only one way that they could make it out of this.

“If I surrender, you will spare them” I said with authority.  “Very well” Tristan responded.  “Give me your word that…” I paused for a second before continuing “give me your word as king that no harm shall come to them” I stated.  Tristan thought for a second before answering. “So be it, I give you my word, as King of Reis, that no harm shall befall Sylvia or her daughter Olivia.”  As he finished his sentence, I dropped my dagger and stepped away from him.  He immediately turned, grabbed me by my collar, and threw me down the steps of the throne and onto the floor of the great hall. 

I gasped for breath as the wind was knocked out of me.  When I tried to stand some soldiers moved forward and forced me into a kneeling position in front of the throne.  One of the guards put his sword to my throat.  “Shall I kill him, my king?” the soldier asked. 

“Not yet, he’s harmless” Tristan replied.

Tristan then looked at me and sneered as he moved to sit on the throne.  “To think that if you had arrived just a minute later you would’ve been too late to save Sylvia and Olivia, and then there would have been nothing to stop you from killing me.”  He paused and looked at me thoughtfully “you really have fallen far over the past few years brother, you used to have such potential” he clicked his tongue in disgust. “Now... you are nothing more than a disappointment.”  As he finished the statement a soldier walked into the great hall.

“What do you have to report, is there trouble among the remaining guards?” Tristan asked.

“No sire, the city guards have surrendered after hearing of your victory over the would-be king Darius.”  He paused as if he was unsure whether he should continue.  “Go on then, spit it out” Tristan said almost sounding bored. 

“There is a ship in the harbor.” The soldier stated. 

“More of Darius’ men?” Tristan asked.

“No sire, it appears to be a ship from the demon continent.  But I’m not sure what they are here for.” The soldier finished his statement.

Tristan’s eyes lit up as he heard the soldiers report.  He then looked at me with a slightly wicked smile.  “The demons only ever come to trade for slaves.” He said, “and as luck would have it, I happen to have quite a valuable slave to sell them.”