A Stain on the Royal Tapestry

Chapter 31: A Mourning

 "I should have known! I should have figured it out sooner!" Lewis yelled at Theo, who watched Lewis pace back and forth across the room, tears running down his face.

"Your majesty it is a blindside to all of us. He fooled all of us! You cannot blame yourself." Theo respectfully responded, "Your majesty as acting regent it is your decision what you want to do with Kaden."

"I should hang him for treason!" Yelled Lewis, with a sob.

"As your advisor, I can say you legally have every right to do so, even if he is your brother. Treason is treason." Theo explained.

"You saw him, right? You saw him lower his sword, you saw him step back, you saw him hold me down?!" Lewis asked, looking for assurance that it was not all some bad nightmare, or that he had misremembered. If he was to sentence Kaden to anything, he had to have proof.

"Your majesty, every single one of the guards in that area, as well as a few witnesses who were up on top in the watchtower with me saw it all happen. You have at least fifty witnesses. I also have witnesses of the conversation Kaden had with the guards as he proclaimed it a duel, in which they could not by traditional and legal rules interfere in the battle. The second it was proclaimed an evenly matched duel, a three on three-fight, which all of our intel showed was the case no one could do anything to stop it. If I was there I would have challenged it, but Kaden probably would have had me killed or at least suspended me."

"I have other charges I want to make against him as well." Lewis proclaimed.

"If you have proof you can do whatever you want, but I can see that your conscious is weighing on you. Why don't you wait until Varick recovers, you both can come to a decision together then."

"If he recovers...." Lewis muttered followed with a trembling sigh.

"He only has a broken rib or two. Any cuts have stopped bleeding." Theo attempted to show hope.

"He's been unconscious for three days now, his breathing extremely labored... I feel like only Serephina could wake him but I cannot risk bringing her here." Lewis countered. Theo was about to offer more words of encouragement when a knock came at the door. Lewis shook his head at Theo, not emotionally able to answer the door in case it was the news he was dreading.

"Who is there and what news do you bring?" Theo asked as he opened the door to a frightened nurse.

"I have orders to tell Prince Lewis that his brother is stirring." The nurse gave a timid smile, before curtsying and walking back towards Varick's room. Lewis quickly followed behind her, every person on the way to the room kneeled to him as he was acting regent. He shivered as he never imagined they would ever be kneeling to him.

"Serephina?! SEREPHINA!" Lewis heard Varick yelling from inside the room. Well, that is a good sign. Lewis thought to himself before entering the room. Lewis's eyes welled with tears as he saw his brother, who he thought was murdered in front of him, looking at him with a relief filled smile.

"Lewis! You are alright!" Varick exclaimed, noting the last memory of Lewis being that he looked to be injured.

"Not a scratch, " Lewis shrugged, "wish I could say the same for you."

"But..you were kneeled over in pain weren't you?"

"No, I was not. I will get to what happened in a moment, but I want to assure you Serephina is fine. She knows nothing about this."

"But Edwin! Edwin is going to take her..." Varick sat up before wincing and laying back down.

"Shh," Lewis carefully approached, "You have to be more careful you have broken ribs. No need to worry about Edwin, you killed him, and made certain he was dead."