A fairy tale (gay) Christmas

🌹December 11th🌹

Court advisor Zyris Rosen🌹

When something is so suspicious, yet so natural, how do you explain it? When work turns into war, and fun into seriousness, will I be able to hold on to what I know and love?

❄️🌹❄️

February 11th, three years ago.

"-and so, as king, I declare war against all of our neighboring kingdoms except the ones by our eastern boarder. No soldier shall go without work, and no traitor unpunished"

The kings speech, before his third war after getting into power. King Corum had only been king for so long, yet every decade was plagued by war and shortages. He was a very unpopular king.

I was very young back then, it was my first year as court advisor, just after finishing my studies. I don't know if I trusted the king at that point, but I chose to do what he asked me to. I became the crown princes personal tutor, and later on also princess Amalias tutor. Every day their lessons consisted of war propaganda, trying to make the future ruler of our kingdom into a war maniac, just like his father.

I don't know if Clearblue fell for it or not, I don't know if his opinions had changed from our lessons.

But now he was on his way, through thick snow and cold night air, escaping from whoever was trying to kill him. Jackson was with him of course, but the whole escape plan felt too risky in my personal opinion.

"No traitor shall go unpunished"
That's what the king had said. So who was the traitor among us?

December 11th, Zyris Rosen

My king.
I am deeply troubled to deliver such news, but the royal escape fortress was attacked last night. A dozen soldiers and knights, from Secils platoon, tried to attack us. They had clear orders to kill whoever was inside the castle.
Thankfully their mission was stopped by us, and we lost no men.
We managed to capture one of the assassins, who admitted during hearings to have been tricked by Knight Secil into thinking that we were the enemy. The young assassin has now joined our crew, and we are very positive that he speaks the truth.
He also mentioned that knight Secil had orders from a very powerful man, which leads me to suspect a traitor among your most trustworthy men, your majesty.
To secure the safety of the royals, one of them have left the castle in company of head knight Jackson Winters. In case of more attacks we will consider taking stronger measures for their safety. Awaiting your command, we will try to stay put until further notice.
Your loyal advisor, Zyris Rosen

I sigh and place the letter inside an envelope, and close it with a royal emblem. The letter is almost heavy in my hands, just like the atmosphere in the castle.

It's only been a day since the crown prince left with Jackson, yet every moment feels worrisome and troubling.

And its not like we are not in trouble! Every moment is tense as everybody waits for the enemy to attack. Who knows, this time it might not be as easy as last time, and we don't have Jackson here anymore. The knights and soldiers are training as much as they can, and constantly keeping a lookout for the enemy. Mina leads them and hosts practices for their muscles, speed and tactics.

Protecting the royals is not an easy thing.

I'm in charge of the paperwork, but there is not much of that. Only a few letters that I need to send from my temporary study. Instead I hold daily lessons for the royals, mostly about how to lead a country for Amalia, and how to be a queen for Daisy. Even though it feels far fetched, we never know what might happen to Clearblue.

Everyone is so busy and tense, it's even worse than before they attacked. Who knows when the next hit will be? In times like these, my usually calm exterior has crumbled and nausea fills my stomach the moment I wake up, to the moment I fall asleep. But the world of dreams isn't that good either. Usually I don't have nightmares, but for the past week, that's all I've been having.

Brutal nightmares, about death and horror. It shakes me to the very core, and makes it hard to be productive the next day.

So I've been trying to get my mind off things a little. Usually when I do that, I take time to train my advisor scholars and new servants that the king assigns me. It gives me joy to see them learn fast and get a brighter future from before. Now I don't have any scholars, as mine are somewhere in their hometowns probably, preparing their families for war.

But there is someone that needs to be introduced and fit in as fast as possible, and that's Teno, the little assassin. According to the knights he is very good with his sword, and good with animals. Since he has given us a lot of valuable information, I can see him getting promoted into living at the palace. It's the perfect opportunity to teach again, so I spent my morning and evening with him.

He is a good kid, that's all I can say. Cute yet mature and respectful.

But all in all, the day is stressful, the night is stressful, and my life is stressful. Usually Christmas is stressful for a whole other reason, right? All that cleaning and work that has to be done before the holidays, yet still time to enjoy the decoration and family gatherings.

Now I don't have time for any of that. I really hate war, and I hope to dear goodness that Clearblue doesn't become a war maniac like his father, or grandfather.

It's best to lay peaceful and strong, right? No more wars please! It's Christmas after all!

And so as night turns into day, and day into night. The moon shines just like before. The stars look they same, the sky looks the same, the animals look the same. All that really changes, are the humans. So why don't we just... stop?

❄️🌹❄️