"I'm so sorry, Old Man."
Ryan was standing with a bottle of wine next to the bed where the magically comatose King Uther of Lyonesses lay. Ryan took a swig while staring at his friend with one eye open, then stumbled over to flop down in a chair, "Irony. This is the same room I woke up in after the demon lord tried to assassinate you."
Ryan eyed the bottle then put it aside, "Charity would be so pissed if she caught me drinking. Lilith as well. She stopped by. I think she has the hots for me and that is going to be very awkward." He gestured to the side of his head, "Reed's back, by the way. He's asleep right now. I find it odd we can sleep when the other one is awake and running around, but... there ya go!" He eyed the bottle, "My life is so fucked up right now."
A long time passed before Ryan spoke again, "So... I'm not Reed. I should have made that more clear, to begin with. Sorry, I played on your sympathies. It was... nice... to be a kid again. I meant it when I said you were more of a father to me than my biological male parent ever was." A long pause, "Both of them, in a way."
Ryan reached out to take the bottle and have another swallow, "My original dad and I didn't get along very well. Mostly my fault. I don't know, I'm just... bit too headstrong. He died. He just got old. Nothing special. But it happened just as I was leaving for college. I fucked up that first semester, wound up in the army..." He took another swig and then put the bottle aside, "Lot of regrets."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Speaking of... I honestly tried to save your son. Arthur. Your son, Arthur. I thought I had him. I thought we could work things out. Damn it, when I saw him come up over the lip of the crater with Betty, I knew he was dead. There was no way I could save him. He was just so..." He abruptly jumped up and threw a series of frustrated punches at the air, then spun around, "FUCK!"
He turned around several times, looking like he wanted to punch something, but never quite committed to the action, "Part of me doesn't want you to wake up because I am not looking forward to telling you Arthur is dead. He tricked me. I should have known something was up and I let him get away with it. I let my own..." He punched the air again, "Stupid! I'm so stupid."
He looked at the king and stared.
"For what it's worth, I think he did all this with the best of intentions. He wanted to save you from me. Fucked as that is." Ryan rubbed his face, "Your other two sons are doing fine. We're trying to figure out who's gonna be the next king. I have no clue. Whoever it is, I'll look after him. Both of them. I'll... keep them safe until you get back."
"Your chancellor's son is trying to come up with the antidote. They had some to give you when they finished their plan, but Arthur kept it on him so... when he went up, the antidote went up with him. Kyle Junior says he knows how to make more." Ryan bit his lower lip, "People are calling for his execution. People are pissed. Monica told me people think that it's impossible for the chancellor to not know what his son was doing. They said there was some sort of rebellion about a hundred years ago that went down like this."
Ryan walked over to sit down on the end of the bed, "I'll leave that up to you. I think enough sons died over this nonsense. When you wake up, you can decide who needs executing." He chewed on his lower lip for a while, then stood up, "I'll check on you later. I don't know how long this is going to take, but I'll find a way to bring you back. For what it's worth, this appears to be something like a combination of what was used on Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I know you don't know what that means, but It translates into, you'll be in a magically induced state of suspended animation. So, technically you aren't aging." He nodded a bit, "I dunno if you can hear me or not, but I'll make sure someone sits in here to keep you company. I'll have them read reports to you, on the off chance you are awake... somehow."
Ryan clicked his tongue, "I just hope you aren't out cold for a hundred years, like in the fairy tale." He snorted and chuckled, "If you are, I'll have to start calling you Rip Van Wrinkle." Ryan stared at the wall, "What the hell was the author thinking?" He turned to walk out the door.
As he did, he missed the single tear that rolled down King Uther's cheek.
One of Arthur's many mistakes had been underestimating women.
In the end, his revolution was doomed to fail. Even if he had managed to kill Lilith, enslave Ryan, and flawlessly take control of the country, he had made the mistake of completely ignoring what had happened at the Lantern Festival. He was so dismissive of the influence of women on politics and the running of a country that he had forgotten that not only had every major and minor noble family in the nation had a least one woman at the lantern festival, but that there were many visiting ladies from other countries as well.
And Reed Demonslayer Had Saved Their Lives.
He never even considered the possibility that it would have had any effect on politics. You see, it isn't that behind every great man is a great woman. It's that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. The only person in this world who gives a boy unconditional love is his mother, and not just young ladies go to the lantern festival.
A tent full of mothers, daughters, and wives from many noble families as well as up-and-coming wealthy commoner families witnessed Lilith selflessly lure the attacking horde of hundreds of demons away from the tent. In that act alone, everyone came to respect Lilith and was prepared to praise her for her self-sacrifice.
Then Like A Total Legend, Reed Flew In To Save Her.
Not everyone witnessed the entire fight, but by the end, everyone in the tent had pulled back the canvas walls to bear witness to Reed saving Lilith, cleaning her off, turning to the approaching beast the size of a castle, and engaging it in one on one combat all for his one true love. Then, seeing her savor mortally wounded, Lilith glowed with holy, pearlescence light, smote the fell beast, then rushed over to raise him back from the dead with the power of love itself, before lapsing into a coma from the strain.
The fact that the number of demons was closer to two dozen, the final beast was only the size of a small house, and Lilith was using magical tattoos carved into her body and not the power of love, really didn't matter much. If you fill a tent full of women who don't know how to fight in the path of a swarm of monsters, they are going to be terrified. Relieve that fear by saving them, then leave them alone to talk among themselves, they are going to come to some interesting conclusions.
Conclusion One: Reed Demonslayer is the absolute juiciest bachelor and a bonified hero.
Conclusion Two: Lilith is a goddess.
Contrary to the belief of the men of Lyonesse, most women crave their own personal power, just like Lilith. It's just most noble women are told that's not their role. Don't work too hard, you have better things to do... like my laundry.
The problem is, every woman who was slighted by a man, every woman who was ignored by a man, and every woman who was ever struck by a man has, even if ever so briefly, wished for the power to fight back.
Lilith was living the dream.
If Arthur had succeeded, it wouldn't have mattered, because if the ladies of the empire found out that Lilith had been executed, they would have poured poison in the ear of anyone who would listen and turn the entire kingdom against Arthur. If later they discovered that Reed was Arthur's mind-controlled slave, every single woman who had been at the Lantern Festival would have convinced every member of their family to rise up and save him. In the end, Arthur's short-sightedness had doomed him to failure.
Arthur never learned the inescapable truth that a king might rule the land, but he still needs the respect of his people. Without their loyalty, he has no power. The moment he turned on Reed Demonslayer and Lilith Darkwold, he had turned every woman in the country against him.
Fortunately for everyone, his insurrection failed before people knew what was going on. Instead, the whisper network learned that the very night Arthur betrayed his fiancée and the national hero Reed, there was a fierce battle with the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord had cursed the prince. All of his actions were because of this 'madness curse'. Reed fought with the Demon Lord in a battle of wits and won, but was cursed in turn. Instead of succumbing to the curse, he struggled to control himself, and through the power of love, his sister, Lily managed to reach Reed.
Reed freed everyone from the Demon Lord's Trap, but the prince got loose and using one of Reed's weapons, tried to assassinate the hero, and in the process, died. In the massive explosion that was visible for miles, by the power of the gods, Reed survived.
At least that's the story The Queen allowed to get out.
Anyone who survived and witnessed the events was arrested and either 'disappeared' or was told that they would 'disappear' if they didn't repeat the official story. There were several reasons for this version of events to be released into the wild.
First, it was an attempt to save face. The rest of the royal family had been taken completely off guard by the insurrection. When The Queen first learned about how far everything had gone, she had already been confined to her wing of the Palace and cut off from any of her informants. She didn't know that Lance had been thrown in the dungeon along with the headmaster and other key people that Arthur needed out of the way for his purge.
It was after her son Morgan came to liberate her that she resumed control of the palace, freed all political prisoners, and learned to her horror that Arthur had used all of her advice to full effect. She had spent many years privately telling her son how to be King and the many things that he'd have to do when he first took control. However, she gave that advice in hopes that she'd be there to 'double-check' his choices. She never thought he'd just flat-out start executing people. Even though the violence only truly got rolling on the day Arthur blew himself up, in the end, about a half dozen nobles died as well as about another hundred soldiers and about forty influential commoners across the kingdom.
It was a disaster.
The second reason was that Lance was the inside favorite to replace the king. He was by far the more popular of the two remaining princes. However, he spent the entire time of the coup sitting in a prison cell doing nothing. Morgan was the one who openly marched through the streets with The Ugly Eight and liberated the palace. The nobles might favor Lance because he looked the part of the king, but the common man supported Morgan and he was the one with mass appeal.
Why?
Word had gotten out that Morgan was a light elementalist.
Apparently, he had been blessed by the goddess so that he could lead The Ugly Eight against his demonically cursed brother and save the kingdom. He had been a lackluster air user up until the crisis, then he received a 'divine blessing' and was now a bona fide light elementalist and healer. Again, mostly whisper network manipulation on behalf of the queen. If Arthur was a victim of a demonic curse, then the son blessed by the gods would be the obvious choice to lead the country.
The third reason was to put Lilith into play.
As much as the Queen's heart ached over the death of her most favored son, she didn't have time to mourn. She needed to move quickly before too much pressure built up to make Lance the next successor. In this story, Lilith is a heroine in her own right. Lilith was betrothed to the Crown Prince, so it stood to reason if the queen could get her to declare she was engaged to Morgan, then Morgan would be the next Crown Prince.
Boy was everyone surprised by what happened next.
