Chapter 9.5: The Demon's Reign: The Other Side of the Light (J&K)

Kriel muttered something under his breath.

"So you are one?"

Harald received a punch in the head, and while dazed, the king bent over and whispered something chilling in his ear.

All he did was stare at the king in profound disbelief.

"Well, I'm sorry of socking you in the head." Kriel actually felt a bit ashamed at his reaction, but all Harald did was nod and wander off.

"Jarald..." Silvyren dragged the squire's name, like calm before the storm. "Tell me who your partner is."

It was not put as a question. It was a statement, a command with authority, and most likely included the dishing of punishment.

Jarald just glared back with a challenging stare, willing naught to be broken.

He didn't except a break in the Knightmaster's armor of strict obedience, however.

"Jarald please..." Silvyren sounded weary and old, and a bit saddened. "I just want to know what your situation is so I can help you out."

"Why would you want to help out someone like me?" The twin was still on guard, careful, weary of this possible trap.

"You're still my student, and I do my best to help my students. And I don't want anymore harm to come to your already distraught reputation."

Jarald tried to grasp the meaning of this. Is he doing this for me, or Harald? Silvyren seemed to favor the brother, and probably just wanted to protect him instead. But the squire needed help anyway, and decided to drop the bomb.

"Well."

Sol and Seriya eagerly eavesdropped on the conversation, and were now awaiting the answers.

"Uh..Kriel is posing as Harald........" he muttered.

"Speak up."

And with the echoing answer, three thuds were heard, two outside the door and one from Silvyren toppling over his chair.

Silvyren wondered if it was a bad idea to temporarily promote the king and Jarald to knight.

The king perhaps was fine.

For just yesterday, he met the king in person

"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 Harald will get caught, and I could pardon him, since it was my choice and not his. And he seems to smart enough to live by his wits."

"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."

"Let's see you perform the best mucking out the stables then."

Silvyren chuckled to himself, recalling the face of shock on the king's face after giving him punishment before quickly melted back to a mask of unreadable emotion.

He had accepted without objections.

The Knightmaster was amused at what kind of game this whole thing could turn out to be.

It was a wonderful, tiring week.True, the two did not get any closer, for Jarald did his best to ignore that Kriel existed, but the king enjoyed being outside, instead of being cooped up in the castle.

Sol was slightly shy, and a bit afraid of the king, but once the squire opened up and showed his drawings of the areas around the castle, the two were often seen discussing good views for scenery. Kriel could not draw, but he had an eye for views, as Sol found out.

Jarald managed to frequently get into fights though, for his fuse was short, and often snapped at Kriel.

The only time he ever seemed to smile was when the young foreign girl tagged around and chatted with him.

Seriya, the mass of sunshine. She was from Japan, a place that Kriel had hardly heard of. She apparently had six brothers, all of them who were knights, and took care of her. But Seriya once told Kriel that she liked Jarald the best.

"Why?" Kriel questioned, unable to believe anyone would like the arrogant Jarald.

"Because he really nice. He know when to be nice and when to stop being nice." Seriya smiled. "He also talk about fun stuff."

Kriel was having a bit of trouble following Seriya's speech. "Fun stuff?"

"Like what he did as child. He had a lot of adventure stuff."

"Oh." Kriel couldn't imagine Jarald as being this happy ball of cheerfulness, much less being a child.

Kriel ended up mucking the stables with Jarald, for he ended up in another fight. Sprouting bruises and curses, Jarald headed towards one end of the stable, while Kriel started out in the other. The king was perfectly fine with just the company of horses, but the silence of speech became slightly unbearable.

Unconsciously, he began to sing without much thought to his surroundings or actions.

"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?"

Jarald had stopped working when he heard the first few notes, a bit surprised that the king was singing. He crept a bit closer to listen, and there, he was, a half smile on his face, a slightly dreamy expression.

The squire was slightly confused, for he couldn't portray the king as a singer, for he had a tendency to be cold, not, well, happy like this.

"Er.." Kriel jumped at the sudden sound. Jarald was staring at him from across the stall.

"What." The king snapped.

"That was nice..."

Kriel's face became a bit of an alarming red and he flashed around obvious flustered.

"So you think it's such a big deal for me to...sing? Oh, right, nobles aren't 'mortal' in your views." he said scathingly.

Jarald just resumed pitching out the straw and muck.

True, the week was rough with the two knights, but still it was quite a comforting week.

No one knew the dark that was lurking in the 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: Yey! I'm done. It was originally intended to be longer, but cliffhangers are quite, good?

Yeah, I hate them too, but fellow readers, have fun! (It's quite obvious though)

Yeah, I'm not messing up on my grammar; that's just how Seriya speaks. I think I'm still rough with talking about Sol.

Kriel is NOT homosexual or whatnot. Just clearing that up, *cough* person *cough*

Horrible description of Calicrevus eh? I'll be mainly calling him It, since his name is supposedly so evil that the dark lengthens..you know, that "He-who-should-not-be-named" stuff. NOT Voldemort, the other versions.

Again, 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 THINKERS. :D