Chapter 9: The Demon's Reign: The Other Side of the Light (H&K)

"WHAT? NO!" In anger, the king punched Jarald in the face, venting out his held back feelings. Then, in shock of what he had done, he helped Jarald back up, who had fallen over unprepared. A bruise was rapidly forming on the squire's jaw.

"I'm so sorry..." stuttering, and apologizing, he tried to make up for his outburst. Jarald, amazingly, just shrugged and waved it off.

"It's fine." Gruff, and weary sounding, he got up. He was planning to retire to the room, and started head back when...

"..Wait." Kriel came up to him and whispered something in his ear, something that chilled his heart, and numbed his mind with fear.

Jarald grinned weakly, and stumbled along, wondering what kind of person the king really was.

"Well, erm...uh...Jarald is....well, he's not him right now."

"Get to the point, Harald." Silvyren snapped, quivering rage threatening to overwhelm his voice. "I'm not in the mood for a game right now."

Seriya and Sol glanced at each other with worry.

"I'm..with...the.." Harald mumbled something indistinct. Silvyren was not amused, his patience stretched thin as a rubber band about to break.

"Harald."

The air was tense with secrets.

"Lord."

"Huh? What do you-" The Knightmaster stared at the abashed squire in shock. "Sol?" Seriya whispered to the rigid squire, "who is Lord?"

"YOU MEAN YOU'RE FORSAKING OUR MAJESTY'S LIFE?"

Sol nodded weakly as Seriya stared at Silvyren in surprise.

"Huh. That's a good story." Silvyren was sitting back in his easy chair, smoking a pipe. His gleaming metallic hair seemed to taunt Harald, who was standing nervously in the room, awaiting whatever horrible punishment that the Knightmaster deemed fit.

"I should whip you for this."

Harald flinched automatically, recalling a memory of a thieving squire.

Thievery had been looked down upon, and the boy had been given 30 lashes.

The screams still rang in his ears. And dripping blood mixed with the swollen scarlet wounds

"An-anything but a whipping sir..." Pleading eyes focused on stern ones.

"Anything?"

"Ye-yes sir."

Silvyren gazed into the wavering almond eyes of Harald. "Think you can handle knight for a while?"

Completely taken aback, Harald gaped in disbelief. "Whuuu..."

"So you can't handle it?" A mischievous twinkle could be seen in the grey eyes.

"No, I mean, yes, yes sir!"

"All righty then." The Knightmaster rubbed his rubble of a beard and glared with stern authority at Harald. "You have been promoted to knight, along with 'Jarald'. I expect the two of you to follow my commands and obey any order. Come see me tomorrow morning for a private knighting."

"Yes sir!"

"Kriel!" Harald ran towards the figure.

"Huh?" Kriel, a bit lost, looked up to see Harald panting, who smirked and procceded to thonk him on the head.

"Hey!"

"That's for leaving me alone." Harald jabbed him this time, which got out another "Ow!". "And that's for making Silvyren go scary on me."

Kriel rubbed his aching head and side, a bit woeful of what the squire might do next.

"One more thing..."

"Huh..."

"We got promoted."

"Promoted...?" Kriel thought for a second. Then he cocked his head, still fuzzy with a drunkedness from using spells. "Promoted...?"

"So.." Kriel was trapped by the authority in the Knightmaster's eyes, feeling extremely out of rank. "You're playing a game of chance, are you not?"

Kriel hesitated before giving his stand.

"No. It's very unlikely that Jarald will get caught, and I could pardon him, since it was my choice and not his."

"What if I decide to punish them for agreeing? And not everyone would like a king that plays games."

There was a threat in that question.

"Some might find me as someone who can learn to live like them. I will prove, however, if it comes down to such hatred, that I am fully capable of fufilling my position. And if you punish either or them.." The king trailed off.

"What would you do? Fire me? Charge me with treachery? Grant them protection?"

Such things rarely escaped the sharp mind of Silvyren.

"No, I'll just suggest that you lower the punishment since I forced them to follow my commands, for I am their upper, and they should not be punished for what they were ordered to do."

Silvyren smiled.

"You're quite unlike the others, may I say? But the two could have resisted, instead of giving in."

"Well," Kriel held out his hands in an airy manner. "let's just keep it to the fact that I threatened them."

"Wouldn't others despise you more then?"

"I'll address the issue when it comes up, not now, however."

Eyes twinkling, Silvyren laughed and held out a worn hand. "I'll gladly welcome you to the rank of knight, Lord."

The king, now relieved that the worse was over, clasped it and shook the Knightmaster's hand. "I will perform the best I can."

"Well now," Silvyren was back to his gruff position. "for disobeying rules, you must be punished. Any objections?" he said, when Kriel was about to raise his voice in reply.

"No..sir." The word was alien in his mouth, and left a bit of an displeasing taste.

"Very well, you and Harald should go muck out the stables."

A week went by, perfect blue skies, but with a whole lot of work.

Kriel was a bit unused to such work, but active walking and wandering helped him as he was given strict training.

Harald though, tended to slack off, and was often found shooting arrows at a self-made target. Or either snoozing of the effects of incorporating elements into his fighting style, which Silvyren strictly disapproved off.

"After all," he lectured once, "if magic makes you wearier than just plain planning and tactics, what's the point of using it? Sparing magic for dire situations is the key, Harald. You also need to learn how to fight close range."

"I already know how."

"..Without honor, you're lost. As in a honorable weapon, such as swords, lances..."

"Not knives?"

Those words were lost on the often bored squire though. So Kriel ended up teaching some basic mixing anyway.

It was just a week of perfections.

No one expected a shatter of peace.

Sol rather liked the king, way better than Jarald at least. They acted slightly the same, cold, and judging, but at least Kriel was more understanding and he had more control of his temper.

He didn't talk much though, but Sol had seen him humming and smiling while walking in the garden.

The squire did not bring it up with the king, however, and instead showed him some sketches of the area.

Kriel seemed quite interested and often suggested views that Sol found immersing.

It was a bit of a relief to find a fellow appreciator of art, unlike Harald.

Kriel really wished Harald would stop loafing off for once and help him muck out the stables. It was tiring work alone, and as the king stretched out a bit, could feel the strain of his back from scooping out loads of straw and dung. He stretched out a little more, and began shoveling again. Unknowingly, he began to hum, which rapidly turned into a melody.

"Alori base fer,

Alori base fer,

Wen are yuv triven?

Owen de alori vien,

Owen de reques tempest rell,

Thre de emald nemo,

Der de scaruby an emarld pirth

Owen de sedir iye

De ruin sedir iye

Bea bres ve de Iranor animi

Ven alori base fer,

Yuv an alori cris,

Comel to aire

Iranor?"

A lingering smile showed up on his face, only to disappear when Seriya applauded.

"That was, uh, utsukushi. Beateeful?"

Kriel was a bit embarrassed at the applause, and also slightly mortified that someone had heard him sing.

Seriya, unbeknown to Kriel's abashment, hopped over the stable wall. "You have a pretty voice." Seriya smiled at Kriel. "I amu Seriya. Jarald's friend. You're, uh, Lordu right?"

"Yes, yes I am. But I prefer just Kriel."

"Kuri eh-ru?" Seriya blushed a bit. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this country's language yet."

"Where do you come from?" The king was slightly curious, for he had never seen a foreigner like Seriya.

"Jahpan."

"I've never heard of that place before."

"It is bit small." Seriya shrugged. "My family move here when I five. All we spoke was Japanese at home so I did not hear much of your lan gu ah gi. I only hear from brothers who not home much."

"Ah. Well, uh, do your brothers stay here?" Seriya considerably brightened when she heard that question.

"Yes! All six of them are knights now. They very nice but sometimes too nice."

"That's a lot of them..." Kriel, who only had a single little sister, considered the possibility of having six, older brothers. "They teach me how to fight too!" Seriya giggled and skipped around, like a child bursting with a secret to tell.

"That's nice, uh, did you say you're friends with Jarald?" He was a bit confused at the thought of Jarald being, well, amicable to anyone, even this giggling mass of sunshine.

"Yep! He's really nice, and he don't overnice like my brothers." Seriya shrugged. "I don't get why other don't like him."

Jarald..nice? It was a completely unimaginable thought, for all the squire seemed to be was selfish, biased, and a jerk.

"Maybe we could hang out sometime!" The girl grinned at Kriel, who was a bit taken aback by her friendliness.

"Sure, oh, do you know where Harald is?"

"Uhh..." Seriya pondered for a moment, and shook her head. "He might be at arrow practice place?"

"All right, I'll check there later. Nice to meet you...?"

"Seriya! I'm Seriya!"

Kriel couldn't help but smile at the childish personality of the squire(ess?). And Seriya offered to stay and help muck out the stables, which considerably lifted his spirits, and the two chattered away the wearying work.

The day may have been sunny, bright, peaceful and beautiful.

But not in the deep depths of the castle.

"Bring the blood to me..." It hissed in the ancient language, yet Proditus was able to understand It, Its rank, foul breath misting the already darkened room.

It was a foul creature of fear and dark, yet even the darkness and the shadows seemed to be repelled by this..thing.

It once was a daemon called Etheran.

The Reaper, divine.

But now It was just a mass of nightmares and hell.

And Proditus fell prey to Its whispering lies of fame, fortune, power...

It was pleased to find such a weak human mortal, twisted by greed. Just like that foolish mortal years ago. But alas, something had changed him, a power of light, which mortals called love, and all went wrong. It had managed to get rid of the love, but he had run away from It.

But It decided that this time, it will not go wrong, that It will be free, and dispose of this preposterous mortal, that believed such weak will could bend such a strong creature, a wild, feral animal.

It would give him power, and watch as the pieces fall into place...and dominate once and for all.

But first, the mortal must free It from here, and get rid of that hatred light, which hurt It so long ago.

And demolish it, like that other light It had destroyed.

It grinned in insanity, and waited in the dark depths of Its prison, for Its release.

Once Etheran, and now Calicrevus, a monster of horror, a nightmare one cannot wake from, and creature of fear.

Notes: For some reason, it's easier to write with H&K in the beginning, but I like Jarald's changes later on. (You'll find out soon.)

The chapter was intended to be longer, so next chapter will be kind of short?

I am NOT screwing up on my grammar, just writing how I think Seriya would talk.

Sol has longer time in this version. My perspective writing is off.

And Calicrevus is a name of "dun dun dun" evil, so I'll use It.

Hum, what else?

Oh, yeah.

Lol no, don't take it the wrong way. xD Kriel is not gay, or bi.

There is no America in this world, but there that screwed up American English, and there is a Germany, Japan, China, Indonesia, em, maybe some others too. I dunno. D: And I'll probably end up giving them weird names. OH, THERE'S ALSO GREECE. I THINK.

I think the quality of my writing tends to dip and rise.