Scattered Fragments

Chapter 20: The Trust

Grimm felt the ghost of an inch on the forearm of where his right arm used to be. It usually starts when he gets stressed and, for some odd reason, wouldn't go away unless he ate food. He thought about running to the kitchens and grabbing a bite to eat, but the Queen's meeting would start soon. It was his duty to personally guard her throughout her day to day activities. James had made him swear that he would protect her with his life while he was gone. Closing in on a month now, he still held true to that promise.
He had worked little with Vincent ever since the funeral, almost feeling as if he missed the guy. He wondered how Vincent coped with James' disappearance. There were a select few who pointed the blame to James as well, shouting that he was a danger to the kingdom from the start and if he hadn't been there then the King might still have been alive. Vincent was harder on those people.
"Hey Grimm, how's that arm coming along?" asked one of the soldiers passing by.
"Like a beauty, it should be done soon; just working out some of the kinks," he said as he kept walking.
James was the last Astranovan, not many people knew that. It was something he would rather keep a secret. If anyone had a score to settle with the Onen then it would be him. It didn't take much pondering for Grimm to realize that James might have lead a suicide mission across the Caden Sea. A month was a long time, especially outside the city these days.
He approached the Queen's chamber, squeezing past the two guards and knocking on the door.
"Enter," said the Queen over the chatter coming from inside the room.
Grimm opened the door and found the Queen sitting on a chair while she was worked on by a litter of maids. He was hesitant to enter the room.
"Ah, Grimm, you're here. Just in time, these ladies were just finishing up," she said as she was being looked over by the young maids.
The whole room smelled of a cocktail of perfumes and powders. All things considered, the chamber was hardly a mess, save for the Queen's work desk. Stacked atop of it was all the work she had inherited from her late husband. It was the darkest part of the room, which, in a way, was oddly fitting.
"Alright ladies, I believe you have done a wonderful job making an old lady like myself look as young as you all," she said with a smile.
Grimm said under his breath, "You're not even old..."
The young maids insisted that they keep working, but Queen Miranda hastily dismissed them before they caked her face with powder for the hundredth time. The Queen had a black and purple dress on with blue flowers stitched into the cuffs that matched her crown. Even in grief and mourning, she was still radiantly beautiful.
"Are you ready to go, your majesty?" Grimm asked, bowing to the queen and offering a hand.
Miranda wrapped her arm around his. "Majesty? My, it really is the end of times if you're calling me that. Haven't heard you say that since you were a little boy."
"Cut me some slack, will ya?" He said, opening the doors and walking past the soldiers lined up at attention. They were all his men for the moment. James seemed to have trusted these men and women with the Queen's safety, so he assigned them to him while he was gone. The soldiers followed them close from all sides, weapons at their sides, and faces aimed straight.
"Don't you think this is a tad much for the inside of the castle?" Miranda asked, realizing that a crowd of soldiers guarding her from inside her own castle seemed... silly.
Grimm gave a soldier a silent nod which sent him ahead to the giant throne room doors. "You can never be too sure. Wolves tend to hide amongst sheep in plain sight. You don't realize something is wrong until it's happening to you."
Miranda gave him a raised eyebrow.
"Listen, just focus on Queenly duties and I'll focus on my guardly duties, okay?" Grimm said.
The doors opened and a cold breeze pushed past them. There was a crowd of people inside, some were happy faces, greeting the Queen as she entered, and then there were the councilmen who didn't bother getting up for her, save one or two who were close with Trost. He let the Queen mingle with the guests, as he walked around the throne room, making sure everyone had taken their positions. He noticed Vincent was standing next to the throne, surveying the room.
Look who actually made it for once.
He walked up to him, smile in tow.
"If you're going to lecture me about not making it to one of her countless meetings then you can save it," Vincent shot, sounding annoyed with the possibility of one of Grimm's lengthy lectures.
He laughed. "Having you here makes my night easier. Always nice have an extra pair of hands."
There was no smile on Vincent's face, just a hawk's observant stare around the room.
"Get it? Extra pair of... nevermind," he said, giving up.
The Queen took a seat at the round table, and everyone else followed suit on the chairs to the sides of the room.
Queen Miranda cleared her throat before she began, "First, I want to thank you all for coming, I know traveling has become quite dangerous in these uncertain times, however having all of you here has shown that a broken kingdom can still function as one. It has been a month since Etra was attacked by an unknown group we have yet to identify."
A man in the crowd of guests shot up from his seats and interrupted. "Unknown, we all know who did it! It was those damned heathens across the sea! Those monsters have come and spilled blood once again on our soil!"
Grimm took a step forward, but the Queen put a hand up. "I understand that there has been a very large and vocal outcry amongst the people of our kingdoms that believe the Onen to be responsible for these crimes. My staff and I have been working with the Rose Court, who currently have custody of the Onen girl and are doing their best to locate the ones responsible.
"I do not feel as if our kingdoms are in a position to come into any sort of conclusion without any evidence."
Another person got up on the right side of the room, an older woman this time. "You still keep that filth alive? She was there! Hang her and send the body back to that rotten land!" There was now chatter amongst the guests, and even the councilmen.
"Just because the child was there does not mean she was a part of the crime. Please, we are not trying to put the blame on anyone until we have something concrete to work with."
The chatters started to grow. Councilman Maxwell rose up from his seat, fixing his glasses.
"Please, everyone, be quiet! We have not come to argue, but to discuss the matter at hand," he said with enough authority to shut the scattered conversations down. "It is true, we did find an Onen girl at the site and we have questioned her extensively within the past weeks. We have tried all the interrogation tactics we could, but the girl will not break. Even mutilation didn't seem to-"
"Maxwell!" The Queen roared. "Mutilation? Who gave you the order to touch the girl?"
The room feel silent and tension started to seep up from the floor.
"What else do you expect us to do with our enemies? The girl is a prime suspect on the worst attack on our kingdom since the Astranovan Extermination. They wiped out a whole race in the span of a single night, you expect me to be lenient to one now?"
There were several nods in the room. Grimm looked to the Queen, seeing anger swell her face and turning it red.
Grimm tried to remember the girl from the alleyway that he and James had rescued so long ago. To think that a beautiful sweet looking girl like her was actually an Onen in disguise; he still couldn't believe, nor accept it.
Maxwell continued. "We and the Rose Court have come to conclusion that the Onen girl will not break and even though keeping her prisoner is an option we have explored, it will be too much of an inconvenience to house a being such as herself in a suitable cage for a prolonged period of time. We have voted and have agreed that the girl will be hanged at the site of the late King's demise, two days from now and her body sent back to her own land."
The conversations and whispers started up again like a wildfire.
The Queen got up and pounded the table, causing some in the room jump. "How dare you make such a decision behind my back!"
Grimm looked to Vincent, they knew damned well what was going to happen, so they readied themselves and made sure to keep their hands close to their weapons.
"I'm sorry it has come to this Miranda, I was hoping we could have had this conversation in private, away from our guests, but these are hasty times and we cannot allow ourselves to dwell on such matters for long." Maxwell said, looking to the other Councilmen who rose up with him, save for two; Councilman Donegal and Reigns, two of Trost's oldest friends.
Old man Donegal looked confused, "What is this Maxwell, explain yourself!"
Reigns scoffed, the burly old man adjusted the eye patch across his right eye. "Can't you see Don, the little shit is making a play." His voice was deep and rough around the edges.
Maxwell looked down at Reigns, "Call it what you will, but me and the others standing next to me have realized that this kingdom has paid severely for its calls for peace with those monsters. If humanity is to survive, we must eradicate the Onen by any and all means necessary." He turned to the Queen. "Queen Miranda, surviving heir of House Castello and widow of the late king Trost Brauer, you are relieved of all duties and practices of the crown. Until a suitable King can be found, we, The Trust, will take over the day-to-day duties of the kingdom. As respect to the late King we will allow you to keep your title and home inside the castle, however the title no longer holds any executive power."
Everyone in the room waited for a reaction. Grimm looked to Reigns, not much of a councilman, but an old general. He kept a straight mug, arms crossed to his chest and looking towards the now former Queen, waiting for her response. Grimm was more than sure that Reigns would tear the young councilman a new one, but he decided to let Miranda handle her business herself. He looked to her and saw her grit her teeth, her knuckles were white with the pressure of her closed fist.
"Maxwell..." she started,walking up to the young man. "I will not fight you and your claim. You have made it abundantly clear that you have gone through great lengths to acquire the position you now hold. The only thing I say is this... You weren't there that night, amongst the bodies of men, women and children. You weren't there to see the Kings and Queens fight against those men. You weren't there to watch someone you love die protecting the boy who might as well be your son. You weren't there to see him cry over my husband's body, or see him fall apart. Although me and Trost were never able to conceive a child, we took that boy in and raised him like our own.
"All of you were quick to point the finger at him as well, labeling him a freak and a monster, but that boy was far from that. Everyone who died that night, died protecting someone else. I should have been dead that night, along with the Queen Ariana, but the Onen girl saved us. None of you were there to see her try to fight off those men!" She shouted, the echoes slamming onto the walls and bouncing off, making sure everyone heard what she had said.
"But how would you know that, you were hiding back in the castle with the rest of your Trust."
Maxwell smirked, "Is that all?"
Grimm was ready to beat the councilman's face in until the doors to the chamber were slammed open by a group of soldiers.
"My Queen, we have a problem!" said one of the soldiers, trying to collect himself.
Miranda stepped down from the throne. "What is it?" She demanded.
Grimm blew out a sharp whistle and circled his index finger in the air. His men drew their swords and surrounded the Queen and all the exits.
"Its those beasts that have been terrorizing the outlying lands, they're trying to get into the city and they brought a Juggernaut with them."
****
Alice loved math. When she was a little girl, she loved to learn about numbers and how they got along with each other. Numbers were sometimes nice to each other, they joined together and made each other stronger. Then there were numbers that would get sick, and become less than what they were. Some numbers were generous and divided their attention amongst its friends. It could be said that numbers are like people, always changing. The men who hurt her stopped hurting her one week ago, they just left her alone. So she did math in her head to pass the time.
Number of lashes: fifty a day. You multiply fifty by fourteen and that's... seven hundred. They knew her body would heal itself everyday. They beat her to get information out of her and sometimes just for the thrill of it.
Number of meals: One every three days. Twenty one days divided by three is seven. Seven cold meals in the span of one month. They knew of the Onen digestive system, how our bodies could conserve energy from food for days.
Number of interrogations: Hundreds. Many men and women in odd suits would walk into her cell, and try talking to her; asking her questions about the men who had attacked their kingdom and killed their king. For the first two weeks she tried to plead her case, but her efforts fell upon deaf ears, so she remained quiet during the last few interrogations.
Her time was quickly coming to an end, no one had come down to talk to her anymore, just beat and bash her. She was completely cut off from her power. A device had been roughly injected into her spine, cutting her off from her Dissentia. She wanted to hate them, she really did, but she couldn't. The thought of anger exhausted her. Was this her giving up? Sometimes she wondered why they wouldn't just...
No, she shouldn't think that, Fay wouldn't let her. Even now she could hear her scolding her. When she wasn't counting, she thought about being on Kardia with her. Alice had no idea how much Kardia had changed, or if her parents would even recognize her. Would Fay go, after she was gone? She shook her head. Stop being so dramatic, she thought to herself.
"Just focus on the numbers," said a familiar voice.
She opened her eyes, and the room was bright with torch light. She squinted her eyes, waiting to adjust to the new light. When she came to, a dark figure stood before her. It was a boy with a tattered sheet over him. The black cloth seemed to ooze a dark tendrils. Alice pushed herself back, almost startled to death by the stranger.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked.
He just stood there, looking down on her. He crouched down and kept himself at eye level with her. She had never seen the boy before, but the Essence he was radiating felt... ancient, as if he wasn't supposed to be here.
"Hello Alice. My name is Ryan and we need to talk."