Alcingeria Volume Two Chapter Two: Robert's Suspicion

After Ceberus' Cole's funeral, The Scorpions and The Vipers walk back to Queen Estaire's castle. Robert reveals a theory that he developed, but the group just thinks he's paranoid.

Chapter Two Robert’s Suspicion:

Friday July 16^th 1690

We were all met by Estaire at the main entryway.

            “How did it go?” She asked sadly.

No one really said anything, just sad sighs.

            “I see, I’m sorry that had to happen, if my mother wasn’t so corrupt… None of this would’ve happened…” Estaire trailed off.

            “The past is the past, we can’t change that.” I told her.

            “I know… Just… I know. I have some business to attend to, I just wanted to make sure you were all okay. How would you all like to join me for dinner in the dining hall this evening? We can talk more then.” Estaire offered.

            “That’d be great, thanks.” William replied.

Estaire walked off in the direction of the throne room. I saw Robert fidgeting out of the corner of my eye. I turned to him.

            “Is something wrong?” I asked.

Robert sighed then nodded.

            “Yes, something’s been bothering me ever since we stopped the war.” He admitted.

            “What do you mean? What is it?” I asked.

Robert looked pained as he looked to every one of us.

“What if… It’s not over?” He asked.

Walden scoffed at his paranoia.

            “What are ya talkin’ about? Course it’s over, we stopped it ourselves!” He laughed.

            “Sure, we stopped the war Queen Yuka was going to start, but who’s to say that the other rulers of Alcingeria won’t try to do the same thing?” Robert asked.

That stunned us all silent. No one wanted to believe it, then again I don’t think anyone thought about the war much since we stopped it.

            “Call me crazy, but that’s what I think.” Robert told us.

            “I think you’re just being paranoid. The war’s over, no one except for those loyal to Queen Estaire know about the machine guns. Anyone else who knew about them died, remember?” Don asked.

Robert shook his head, his brow furrowed in worry.

            “No, there’s still one person who knows.” He muttered.

            “What? Who?” Erin asked, confused.

Robert looked to all of us, hesitant to say it.

            “Ignacio.” He finally stated.

            “What? Isn’t he the vampire mafia leader?” Antoinette asked.

            “But he died in the explosion when we destroyed the vampire mafia base!” I objected.

Robert pointed at me and shook his head.

            “No, we saw his body right before the explosion, no one saw him die.” Robert shot back.

            “No one exactly saw him walk away from that explosion, either.” Walden argued.

That was a good point. Robert’s suspicions made sense, but I had a feeling he was just being paranoid.

            “Robert, you need to calm down. The war is over, Ignacio is dead. We win, end of story.” Don explained.

Robert seemed to calm down a little.

            “Okay… Okay. You’re probably right.” He sighed.

            “I think we should all go to our rooms. It’s only late afternoon, but we’ve all had a long couple of days.” Martha advised.

            “I second that.” Raymond said, he sounded tired.

            “Okay then, I’ll see you all at dinner.” I said as I went off to my room.

I climbed the staircase and turned down the corridor that my room was on. I entered my room to find that Lawrence was waiting for me. He wasn’t in his black and white servant uniform. He was dressed in casual clothes. Since becoming Queen, Estaire had made some adjustments. Loosening the restrictions on the dress code was one of them.

Lawrence already knew everything about how my friends and I had been plotting against Queen Yuka with Estaire, he knew that we stopped the war, not a lot of people did. Only the people in the castle when it happened knew. Any commoners in Valgate were clueless.

            “Welcome back, sir. How was the funeral?” Lawrence asked.

            “It was hard to handle for a lot of us, but I think we all needed to come to terms with what happened. The funeral helped us do that.” I explained.

            “I understand.” Lawrence responded.

            “Queen Estaire has invited my friends and I to dinner this evening.”

Lawrence smiled, chuckling.

            “I still have to get used to calling her ‘Queen’ Estaire. Anyhow, is there anything in particular you need?” He asked.

            “No, just thought I’d let you know.” I replied.

Lawrence shrugged and yawned.

            “Another good thing about Estaire becoming Queen; as long as their masters do not require their services, servants are allowed to sleep whenever they please.” He said.

            “That’s great!” I said enthusiastically.

            “Indeed. I think I will just nap a while.” Lawrence said sleepily, sitting down in a chair.

I climbed into my bed and just closed my eyes.

 

***

Friday July 16^th 1690

 

Lawrence woke me up just as the evening light began pouring through my window, the dark orange/red glow filled the room.

            “You mentioned that you were having dinner with Queen Estaire, I thought I would wake you up.” Lawrence told me quietly.

I grinned and got up.

            “Thanks Lawrence.” I told him.

            “It is my job, sir.” He responded with a shrug.

            “I’ll be back shortly.” I told him.

I then walked out of the room. As I walked down the hallway to the main entryway, I began to think about how dull things have been around here since we stopped the war. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life like this; having a huge castle to roam as I please in, a servant at my disposal, I wanted to live my life. I wanted to do things for myself. I sighed and walked to the dining hall. Some of my friends were at the table, talking to Estaire. Stella, Erin and Raymond hadn’t shown up yet.

            “Oh, hi Redmond.” Estaire said cheerily.

            “Good evening.” I said with a smile.

I took my seat at the table next to Robert and Don. Tabatha sat next to Don and they were both talking about magic.

            “Magic is seriously the greatest thing ever!” Tabatha said happily.

            “I wouldn’t know.” Don laughed.

            “Oh, I forgot. You know, about your inability to use magic.” Tabatha teased.

            “Hey! Unlike you, I’m human!” Don retorted with a laugh.

Tabatha just giggled as Don’s knife began levitating in the air, swirling around his head. Don looked at Tabatha, puzzled. He then saw his knife flying through the air and sunk in to his seat.

            “Hey! You’re going to stab my eye out!” He snapped.

Tabatha just laughed as she gently lowered the knife back to the table.

            “Sorry, I’m learning to use magic without saying the name of the spell.” Tabatha apologized.

            “It’s really hard, you might not perfect it for a while and you’ll fail more than a few times.” Antoinette sighed.

            “Nah, she’s pretty good at magic. Although the fact that you failed more than a few times doesn’t surprise me…” Walden trailed off.

Antoinette slammed her fist on the table and glared angrily at Walden, clenching her fist. Walden flinched away from her.

            “Geez! Sorry.” He gasped.

Antoinette seemed to calm down. After a few seconds she looked away. Walden then started to look at us confusedly.

            “You guys ‘ear that?” He asked, looking around.

His eyes then began to take on a maddened look as they darted around the room. He then snapped to face Antoinette, who was sitting quietly next to him, smirking.

            “Antoinette! That aint fair! Antoinette!” Walden whined as he put his head down on the table, covering it with his hands.

After a few seconds he looked up, sighing in relief.

            “That’ll teach you.” Antoinette giggled.

A few seconds later, multiple chefs came through the kitchen door, carrying platters of food to each of us. We had roasted duck with potatoes and salad. We all got water to drink.

            “Thank you all.” Estaire said kindly to all her servants.

They all bowed to her and walked to the kitchen silently.

            “So, how is it being the Queen of Vulrock?” I asked.

Estaire shrugged, holding my gaze.

            “It’s so… Different than what I thought it would be. I always knew that I would inherit the throne, just not under the circumstances that I actually did… It’s so hard running the province, but I don’t do it on my own. I have advisers and other people who helped my mother who assist me.” Estaire replied.

            “It sounds like a big responsibility.” Francella remarked.

Stella, Erin and Raymond walked in silently and sat at the table.

            “It is, and a big part of it is mending the bond between Royalty and the commoners that my mother tore so long ago.” Estaire replied sadly.

            “Sounds like your mother did more harm than good.” Raymond remarked.

            “Indeed she did. Indeed she did…” Estaire trailed off, beginning to eat her food.

I began to eat some of the roast duck with some salad. I saw Tabatha levitate one of Don’s potatoes and launch it at him, though not very hard.

            “Hey!” Don laughed.

Tabatha gigged and began eating her own food.

            “We really need a warlock in the group, eh buddy?” Walden asked.

Don began laughing, so did Walden.

            “That would certainly even things up around here.” Don said, casting an evil stare towards Tabatha.

Tabatha laughed and scoffed.

            “Please, that’ll be the day. A witch bested by a warlock, please!” She laughed.

I put a finger to my chin, pretending to think about something.

            “Well, I could always go and see if Jesse wants to join the group…” I trailed off.

Tabatha’s gaze shot to me, her rich brown eyes bore into mine. Instinctively I sunk back into my chair. She backed off and began to eat again. Robert started laughing and so did Macalister.

            “Are you afraid of a witch Redmond?” Macalister asked.

I sat up straight in my chair in surprise.

            “No!” I said quickly, shooting a quick glance at Tabatha.

She was already looking at me, grinning.

            “Well, you should be.” She threatened with a smirk.

We all laughed, even Estaire laughed. I ate some more salad and potatoes. They tasted good, I was pretty hungry.

            “I truly enjoy my time with you, you’re all so funny!” Estaire exclaimed.

            “Ah man, you shoulda seen us before we got to the castle.” Walden chuckled.

We all laughed, remembering all the fun times we had.

            “What’s so funny?” Estaire asked.

            “We all had some pretty great times before we got here.” Francella explained.

            “Oh? Like what?” Estaire asked.

            “Well, there was the time Tabatha and I had the magic duel…” Walden trailed off.

Tabatha shot Walden a look of anger, which shut him up.

            “A magic duel? Cool! Who won?” Antoinette asked enthusiastically.

            “I did, of course!” Walden boasted, pointing to his chest with his thumb.

            “How did you manage that?” Antoinette asked.

            “Well ya see, Tabatha sent a carrot flyin’ my way and instead of dodgin’ it, I cleverly used its own momentum to hurl it back at ‘er twice as fast. Maybe if she was a bit better at magic...” Walden trailed off.

Antoinette laughed, Tabatha didn’t say anything. She just glared at Walden. If there was one thing I learned about Tabatha, it was that she didn’t like having her magic skill insulted.

            “And there was the time we went into the ruins to get the jewelry for Queen Yuka.” Macalister stated.

We all looked to Estaire in worry that Macalister had offended her by talking about her mother. Estaire seemed unfazed.

            “Yeah, your mom sent Ceberus and William back to Riverguard with this weird key thing. Us guys went down to these old ruins the day before. We fought vampires along the way. At the end of the ruins we saw a door with a hole in it. When Ceberus and William came back the next day, they had a key with ‘em, a key that looked like it would fit the door. We went back down there and opened the door, we found jewelry on the other side. Tabatha said that the stuff was full ‘a dark magic.” Walden explained.

            “Why did you bring it back here then?” Estaire asked.

            “See, Ceberus knew that your mom would send guards after us all if she didn’t hear back from him and William soon, ’cause she sent them on the mission to get the jewelry. If they didn’t report back to her, she woulda thought they hit the road with her jewelry.” Walden told her.

            “I see, you had no other choice.” Estaire responded.

            “No, we didn’t.” I said grimly.

            “But that didn’t prevent us from staying here and making sure the dark magic wasn’t used.” Raymond said triumphantly.

            “The jewelry would have been a key part in the war.” Robert stated.

Estaire laughed.

            “Well, the war is now stopped thanks to all your efforts.” Estaire tld us with a smile.

            “Oh come on! We can’t take all the credit!” Stella scoffed.

            “You helped us quite a lot. Heck, if not for your jewelry we would have all died down there!” Erin laughed.

            “Plus, Edwin and his men helped us a lot. They willingly went against your mother to help stop the war.” Don explained.

Estaire nodded understandingly.

            “Credit where it’s due, you all did very well. I would hold a rewards ceremony so that everyone knows about your heroism, but I don’t want to panic the commoners. What would they do if they found out a war had nearly happened? What would they do if they knew about machine guns?” Estaire asked.

            “We completely understand.” Francella said respectfully.

I ate some more of my supper. I finished off the food on my plate, it was very tasty! Estaire yawned.

            “Being Queen is very tiring. You wouldn’t be insulted if I turned in now, would you?” She asked.

            “Oh, no of course not.” Martha responded with a smile.

            “Thanks, I need to get some sleep. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” She said with a smile.

She then got up and walked out of the dining hall.

            “I think I’m going to go to bed now too.” I said with a yawn.

The others all mumbled their agreement. I glanced out the window to see that it was now late dusk, it was dark out. I walked out of the dining hall and made it to my room. Lawrence was there, he had made my bed for me. I thanked him and crawled into bed. I fell asleep.

 

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Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!