Marcis was blunt in his assessment of Everly's condition.

“I can’t do a damn thing for her,” he said after giving his daughter’s comatose body a careful examination.

With Marcis in tow, as well as Claudia who insisted on accompanying them, Grail had quickly returned to the memory palace, where the inner circle stood gathered in Everly’s sleeping quarters where she rested on her bed, still unconscious.

Seraphine sat by her lover’s side, holding her hand, and dramatically weeping. Ghost Knight…wait, no, not Ghost Knight, Dullahan stood immobile as a statue, silently guarding the room, as Carter and Grail paced impatiently, and Beverly kept muttering fearfully to herself.

“What do you mean by that? Her condition is clearly related to your foul mutation,” Grail said accusingly as he pushed past the other man to lay a hand at Everly’s cheek. “She described it as such shortly before this incident. Feeding off the emotions of the citizens.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Marcis replied. “Everly’s abilities clearly outstrip my own. To feed on the emotional energy of thousands of people simultaneously. Not even in my most twisted fantasies could I hope to achieve such a thing. My little girl is all grown up and has left her papa behind.”

“Stop sounding so pleased with her,” Grail said angrily. “Can’t you see she’s caused harm to herself?”

“Of course she has,” Marcis said. “No worries, it’ll be a valuable learning experience for her. Now she knows how a mosquito feels if you squeeze your vein while it feeds.”

“Do not compare her majesty to a lowly parasite!” bristled Carter in outrage.

“My dear Goblin, I’m afraid that a parasite is exactly what my daughter has become,” Marcis said. “Emotions are the expression of the soul. The taste of them is both empowering and extremely addictive. Even if Everly awakens, I’m sorry to tell you that she won’t be quite the same from now on. Once a wolf has had a taste of lamb, it never stops yearning for it.”

“Hey, whoa, pause. Rewind to the part where you said if she awakens,” said Beverly with frightened urgency. “Uh, are you saying there’s a possibility that she’ll stay like this for the rest of her life?”

“I’m afraid there is,” Marcis nodded. “She may very well have destroyed her mind and is simply a sleeping body. Those are the risks associated with this power.”

“Well, fuck nuggets!” Beverly said miserably. “Grail, what are we going to do now? I’m sure you remember that Everly has made enemies with some extremely motivated, extremely powerful douche wads who won’t wait quietly for an opportunity like this to pass!”

“Beverly, calm down,” Grail said to her in a stern voice.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, stupid! This is bad news, old man! The worst news! Without Everly, we’re screwed!”

“I said to calm down,” Grail repeated. “Use your head, girl. If Everly’s mind were truly gone, this palace would be as well. So would anything else connected to her. She nearly died two years ago, and it directly affected everything and everyone that her powers maintained, including myself. The fact that I’m perfectly fine is proof that Everly is still intact. Just sleeping.”

“Oh,” Beverly said. “Okay, that’s good. Yeesh, why didn’t you say so?” She then gave Grail a playful slap on the shoulder. “I was really freaking out for a minute there.”

“Don’t lower your guard just yet,” Grail advised her. “We still can’t reach her, we still don’t know if she’ll awaken on her own, and until we can resolve this situation, we’re essentially without leadership.”

“Perhaps I can be of assistance with that?” Marcis said helpfully. “The role of steward should by tradition fall to Everly’s closest relative. As her father, however reluctant I would be to receive such power, I would humbly accept—”

“Not happening,” Grail said bluntly. “Ever.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Beverly said incredulously.

“Your kind offer is not necessary,” Carter said with polite curtness.

“Ha, ha,” Claudia snickered. “You suck, dad.”

“Alright, alright, just thought I’d make the offer,” Marcis said amiably. “For the record, though, I think I would have done an excellent job.”

“The kingdom would have become a blazing inferno by noon tomorrow,” said Grail. “No, I’ll be assuming the reigns of command. I’m the first of Everly’s creations and I already command her armed forces. Carter, I ask that you continue to run the administration in Everly’s name and serve as my second.”

“As you wish, General,” Carter said with a bow.

“Hey, don’t I get a say in this?” Beverly whined.

“What would you like to say?” Grail asked her.

“Nothing, I just wanted to feel included,” Beverly admitted.

“You will be,” Grail assured her. “Because we can’t let anyone know that Everly is out of commission. And for that to happen, you’ll need to publicly assume her identity.”

“Uh, what the fuuuuuuck?” Beverly said with a squeaky voice.

“Beverly, this is important, and I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t necessary,” Grail said patiently. “We need to present an image to the world of strength and unity. We need you to be the face of that unity until Everly can reclaim her role. You’re the only one who can do it.”

“No, wrong, bullshit!” Beverly said. “Make Dullahan do it! Just pull her out of that stupid armor and then she can finally be of use!”

“What? No. Noooo, no, I can’t,” Dullahan said, as panic slowly grew in her voice. “I can’t do it. I can’t, I just can’t. Not without my armor, it isn’t safe, it isn’t safe!”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Cleverly! Stop being a freak and start being helpful for once!” Beverly said without empathy.

“I’M NOT CLEVERLY!” Dullahan shouted with mounting hysteria. “Cleverly died! She’s dead! I’m all that’s left, and I can’t leave my armor, please don’t make me leave my armor!”

“Peace, Dullahan. Peace. No one will force you to do anything,” Grail said gently as he stepped towards the armored girl and placed a reassuring arm around her. “Stay in your armor, stay as safe as you’d like.”

“Thank you,” Dullahan said quietly as her head drooped. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t be what I’m supposed to be.”

“That’s not your fault,” Grail told her. “You’re already doing an excellent job in your assigned role. Nothing else will be required of you.”

“Thank you,” Dullahan said once more before her voice trailed off.

“Fine, fine, whatever!” Beverly said. “If she won’t do it, then let’s just recall Neverly—”

“That would be an even worse idea than handing control to Count Marcis,” Carter said primly.

“She’d take over the entire institution,” Grail said. “Every square inch.”

“Nev wouldn’t do such a thing!” Beverly said half-heartedly.

“Nev would do such a thing,” Marcis smirked. “Of all my children, she’s the one with the most ambition.”

“These homunculi are not your children!” Claudia snapped resentfully.

“We’re duplicates,” said both Beverly and Dullahan with offended voices.

“Whatever,” Claudia said with a disgusted roll of her eyes.

“I find myself liking her less and less as the days go by,” Beverly said nastily.

“I find myself agreeing with you,” Dullahan said with equal displeasure.

“Oh, girls! Don’t waste the spring of your youth in pointless disharmony,” said Marcis with a smile. “Better kisses than disses, as the poets say.”

“Shut up, Dad,” Claudia said in annoyance.

“Your intervention is unrequired, Marcis,” Dullahan informed him coldly.

“Stay out of this, pops,” warned Beverly.

“As you like,” Marcis said cheerily. “Carter, please escort me to a room, if you will. I think I’d like to take a nap.”

“You aren’t staying here,” Grail said immediately. “I’ll have a portal opened to your home in a moment.”

“That won’t be necessary, Grail. As long as my daughter is sick, I insist on being nearby,” said Marcis.

“I said no,” Grail insisted. “I don’t trust you being anywhere near her. No doubt you sense an opportunity for mischief. Well, I’m not going to let you play any of your games.”

“Fine,” Marcis said with a long, drawn-out breath. “You know, Grail, despite our long friendship, I’m very much beginning to believe that you don’t like me very much.”

“Just get out,” Grail said after a portal sprang to life beside him.

“Always a pleasure seeing you, everyone,” Marcis said to the group. “Claudia, will you be accompanying me?”

“No,” Claudia replied.

“A man is never alone who has family,” Marcis said with a small frown as he stepped through the portal.

“Good riddance,” said Grail. “Now, getting back on topic; Beverly, Nev can't be trusted not to take advantage of this situation. Her ambition and unpredictability make her too much of a risk to be our figurehead. It must be you.”

“Goddamn it,” Beverly said bitterly.

“I’m glad you understand,” Grail said with a small smile.

__

Marcis wondered what he had to do to prove himself to his daughter’s friends. To improve his image in the eyes of others. At first it had been amusing to play the role of a scamp; he never could resist an opportunity to annoy Grail whenever it sprang up, and he’d always enjoyed teasing his children, but it seemed to him lately that a genuine mistrust had sprung up between him and the people that he considered his family.

Oddly enough, this bothered him.

Marcis didn’t very much enjoy it when things bothered him.

He knew he lacked character and morality and was very proud of the lack of personal growth that he’d managed to sustain throughout a lifetime of treachery and hedonism. What he lacked in empathy and humanity, he made up for in wit, good manners, and a genuinely jovial nature. He hated no one and loved everything. So why wasn’t that enough to sustain him these days?

The answer kept coming back to Anne. His deceased primary wife.

What had been the purpose of their marriage? He’d unceasingly found little ways to torment and annoy her and she’d done the same. They’d fought over everything imaginable and had come close to killing each other more than a few times. The intensity of the emotion she’d directed towards him had been unlike any other he’d ever tasted.

They’d been a wretched pair of vainglorious schemers obsessed with dominating each other, and yet…hadn’t there been a sort of tenderness at the core of their relationship? Hadn’t there been a mutual acknowledgement and respect between them that others simply wouldn’t be able to understand? Regardless of their passionate hatred, hadn’t they completed one another?

What a strange thing it was to help your daughter murder your wife only to later realize that you genuinely loved her.

That you missed her.

The irony of it should have made Marcis laugh at the absurdity of life but instead it made him feel despondent and alone. Good food and fine drink didn’t taste the same. Books became boring to read, and his old mischievous endeavors sparked no joy within him. For the first time in his life, Marcis began to feel old. Even watching his daughter slowly transform the nation into a reflection of her twisted will brought him no pleasure.

What was worse, was the constant rejection from her circle of friends, whom he’d considered himself an honorary member of. It seemed that there was a silent understanding that anyone who befriended him would have to choose between him and Grail. And to a man, the group chose Grail.

“Well, it’s not as if I don’t deserve his contempt,” Marcis said to himself. “I did play a considerable role in killing many of his comrades and dirtying up the nation with that silly little civil war. But how long does he intend to hold a grudge? It seems unfair to me. All I ever did was try to keep amused in this boring life. I’m no different from anyone else in that regard.”

Sighing at life’s little injustices, Marcis began walking to his wine cellar to get a bottle of something to take his mind off of the day’s troubles when he smelled the familiar but unexpected scent of blood wafting throughout the air. Seeking the source of the aroma, he turned the corner and discovered one of his household knights lying dead on the floor with his abdomen slashed open.

“Ah,” he said mildly. “Well, that would explain it.”

Relieving the corpse of the sword held at its side, Marcis decided he would have to forgo his evening wine and investigate this strange occurrence. As the lord of Van Belsar County, it set a poor precedent to allow any of his men to be murdered in his own home. He had his reputation to consider, after all. With that in mind, he set forth into the darkness of his shadowed home.

Along his way, he discovered more dead knights and servants. It seemed that someone had torn through the manor, quite skillfully, and defeated his men in simultaneous combat. That spoke of a rare talent with the blade. Could the killer be a Sword King? The precision of the mortal wounds dealt out to his men suggested it could be nothing less.

Each of them died from a single mortal blow. None of them had received more than a single cut.

“Truly, the craft of a master,” Marcis said admiringly. It made him think of his dear Anne once more. She’d been the finest creature with a blade that Marcis had ever seen. Even Everly hadn’t been her match. He’d lost count of the number of times she’d effortlessly trounced him during their sparring matches.

What a woman she’d been!

“Grah,” Marcis said bitterly as he entered his receiving hall. “Look at me! Behaving like a sentimental old fool lost in memories of the supposed good old days. It’s so pathetic, I could weep. Perhaps I will weep! I’ll pour a glass to my beloved and praise her as the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Wouldn’t that be sweet? Maybe I’ll even say I’ll never love again. That would complete the image, wouldn’t it?”

“You seem troubled, Count Van Belsar,” said a soft voice.

A woman stepped before Marcis dressed in a splendid, formfitting white outfit doffed with a white cape. Her hair hung down her shoulders in ebon curls, and her undoubtedly attractive face was disguised beneath a white half mask that covered her piercing eyes.

In her hand, she wielded a regal-looking blade stained with blood.

“I believe I was until the moment my sight fell upon you,” he said rakishly.

“The last thing you’ll ever see in this life?” she said with a smile that matched his own.

“If only,” he said wistfully. “I’ve recently had a palm reading done. I was told my lifespan would continue indefinitely until the day I met my equal. It simply hasn’t happened yet.”

“Sadly, the stars may have misled you, my lord,” replied his guest. She then raised her sword and pointed it towards him. “Count Marcis Van Belsar, in the name of the revolution, I challenge you to honorable mortal combat.”

Marcis began to snicker uncontrollably. The swordswoman was not amused.

“Does my challenge amuse you, Count? Does the idea of dueling a woman tickle your elite sensibilities?”

“Not in the slightest,” Marcis said once he’d regained control of himself. “I apologize for that rude display. It’s just…my daughter has access to these amazing interactive stories from another world, and one of her favorites is this ridiculous tale called Mortal Kombat. Ever since she forced me to watch it with her, I just can’t take that term seriously. The chorus that screams those words aloud whenever the characters battle each other, it’s just so much to take in. I wish you could hear it; you’d understand.”

“I fail to see the humor here,” the woman said. “I advise you to take my challenge seriously, Count. This battle will be a true test of might."”

“Dun-dun-dun dundun-dun-dun-dun-dundun, Mortal Kombat!” Marcis sang before he could stop himself.

The woman stared at him in disgusted silence, clearly displeased by his outburst.

“Fine, then. Die like a fool,” she said angrily before lunging forward to thrust at his heart.