The Infernal King | 1 ✓

CHAPTER IV | DESPONDENT DESTINY

       KEION WAS RIGHT—the riots were indeed commencing. As more and more of the villagers awoke to hear that their beloved King Tevenot had been poisoned, the tension mounted. The emotions that seeped into the air were mixed: anger, frustration, denial and despair. Wails as despondent as the destiny that they would be faced with could be heard throughout Fribois.

Even through the closed door, Maarit heard hysterical sobbing coming from outside—the sound was loud enough to make the thick walls seem as though they were made of parchment. Slightly annoyed at the overwhelming reaction, Maarit rolled her eyes and stalked towards the front door, yanking it open once again. She looked to her right, only to see two women crying their eyes out.

She whirled around to face Keion and Helios, closing the door over again. "Oh, for the love of God," she said unsympathetically, in a slightly harsh tone. "Yes, I get it—their wonderful king has been killed. But must they really be crying now? You'd think the sun hadn't come up or something."

"That is slightly insensitive, don't you think?" the older of the two brothers said to her, seemingly taken aback. His sky blue eyes flickered defensively. "Our mother," he said, gesturing between himself and Helios, "is devastated as well. King Tevenot is adored; and while I would not go as far as to cry for him, even I must admit that the man was a great king."

"That isn't what I meant," said Maarit tersely, running her nimble fingers through her dark, tangled hair. She crossed her arms over her chest, shivering lightly in her dressing gown, which just barely shielded her skin from the cold air circulating around in the home. "I simply meant that they haven't a clue what is in store for them. Pri—I mean, King Theodoracius is going to kill many innocent people. That is what I foresaw, and people are just standing around and weeping! If they think that this is bad..." She trailed off ominously, reluctant to allow her mind to dwell on what lay ahead.

"But the thing is... they don't know everything that we know," Keion reasoned.

"What can we do?" Helios asked. "How can we draw attention to the problem at hand?"

Maarit swallowed nervously and with difficulty—she was feeling as though her throat was closing. She knew what she needed to do, no matter how unpleasant it seemed. "We... we should be alerting others about the fact that our new monarch was the one who killed the previous one."

Both brothers gaped at her, dumbstruck.

"What?" Keion commented questioningly. "Maarit, how? Unless they know that you're a soothsayer—which they undoubtedly cannot know—no one would believe you. They will believe that you're just spreading rumours."

She pursed her lips so tightly that they nearly turned white and nodded at the two men. "Exactly. I couldn't care less if people know that I'm a soothsayer. That is the absolute least of their worries. They're distressed about Theodoracius taking the throne, but they do not even know the extent of what he has done. He killed his own father!" Maarit exclaimed. "If people knew, wouldn't he be executed for it? Or, at the very least, imprisoned and replaced as king?"

Neither of them answered. Perhaps it was due to the fact that no one quite knew the answer.

"We must at least attempt to do something," she stated forcibly. "It seems that the three of us are just about the only people in the entire world that know Theodoracius murdered his father. We have knowledge of an event of the past, as well as what the future of this country holds. I do not think we should be keeping this crucial information to ourselves."