Ancient Kings

Chapter one





Tor sat back a good ways from the others, the cushioned crushed green velvet bench under him not feeling nearly as soft as it should have. That had to do with a combination of factors, including the fact that he was ready to spring up and charge the giant in front of him from across the room. Not that doing so would actually be a good idea. The huge redhead was the Prince after all.

And his best friend.

"It's not that... Look Tor, you have to understand how delicate this whole thing is... Father can't really side against Count Morris in this, which..." The words trailed off, a thing that Tor got at least. The whole situation was a vast problem. One that didn't have a good solution at all.

Three days before, Count Morris' heir, Sandra, who was also the head of the Lairdgren Group, murdered a young woman named Regina Helmsley. Right in front of Tor too, so it wasn't like he didn't know that she'd done it. No one doubted that part. The problem, it seemed, was that the Conserina hadn't been trying to kill anyone at all. She'd just been planning to knock Tiera down and hadn't really realized that the other girl was standing too close behind her for the trick to work right. The poor thing hadn't lasted even seconds, her head being torn in half like it was. By a weapon that he'd created.

His sister's girlfriend.

Tor kind of wanted to get up and flee the Palace about then, but didn't, because it would be cowardly and probably not protect him from what was coming anyway. His sister wasn't... in her right mind. Not at the moment. No, there was going to be backlash from this, and if they all got out alive it would be a miracle.

Rubbing at his face, trying to wipe away the whole thing if he could, a sense of exhaustion took him. It wasn't real. He'd slept well enough, except for the image of Regina falling to bits in front of him the whole time. The poor thing.

"Well, we can't just tell Tiera to back down, and I really don't think that she's going to hold off all that long. She's been hiding her thoughts from me, but the pure rage coming from her pattern kind of gives how she's feeling away. I don't suppose you have a plan? I'd normally suggest groveling, but... Honestly I don't think it will work this time. Not yet." That last line got addressed to the other red haired giant in the room. The King. Richard.

Instead of glaring at him for suggesting the idea of humbling himself to a fourteen year old girl, the man just nodded and sighed. It was a huge thing, one that spoke of having had very little rest himself in the last few days. Then, he had a lot to worry about, didn't he? An overthrow attempt, along with a possible civil war coming and all that.

"I know. This is perhaps the worst timing for a thing like this. Even if all were peaceful and calm I doubt that I'd get out of it unscathed. Right now..." He looked at the far wall, then after about fifteen seconds of silence his gaze slid over to Count Lairdgren.

The much smaller man was about four or five inches taller than Tor, but otherwise looked like a slightly older version of him. Identical in a way that only twins could be, normally. The actual reason why was different than that, supposedly, since the Count was several thousand years old and Tor only twenty, but in a way it was kind of reassuring. After all, the man was great looking. Black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin meeting up with perfectly balanced features that made him look almost unreal. Enough so that it was like he had make-up on, even though Tor knew that wasn't the case. It wasn't something he controlled, but it beat being ugly, as far as day to day life went, since he didn't have a choice in how he looked really. No more than anyone else.

It was a strange thought, and he snapped out of the state he'd fallen into as soon as the man spoke, the voice a little flat sounding, like his own used to be a lot, and still was from time to time. It had a heavy sound to the undertone, as if the fellow had already done this before and was only going through the motions of caring. Maybe he had? Just because it was new to Tor, that didn't mean someone as old as Burks wouldn't have seen it, or something close enough to not make a big difference as to how it made him feel.

"I know Richard. Tiera won't take this well, I fear. It is, of course, my fault. I assured her that making peace with the Morris family was a good idea, and that has not gone well at all. I don't see a good way out of this. It will most certainly end in death. We need to pick who dies for it carefully however. Doing otherwise might lead to much greater losses than we wish to bear."

Tor felt like glaring, but before he could say anything nasty sounding his younger brother Timon spoke up. He was sitting across the room, very close to Princess Karina actually. Enough so that the back of her hand was resting against his leg. It would have made him jealous, before. Karina and he had been close friends once. Maybe they still were? It wasn't like that had been years before, and they hadn't had a falling out or anything. It seemed a bit strange that she was trying to be that cozy with his little brother, but Timon had already spoken of it. She was setting the stage for a marriage with him, in just a couple of years. They couldn't have sex to tie them together yet, Timon being too young, so the Princess was being friendly in other ways.