Jurdan in the Mortal World

Bamboozled

Or would they cackle in ecstasy and joy as he was dragged into the Tower of Forgetting? Would they demand a higher price for who he served and turned against? Would they demand a slow, brutal tortured death? Or would they show kindness in their Faerie hearts and demand he was freed in the name of love?

Probably not the last one.

There is a gentle tap on my back, and I slowly turn around, claws slowly sinking into my head. Cardan shoves a cup of tea in my face. 

"Drink," he commands. "It'll make your headache better."

"You know I can just take some aspirin and it'll all go away?"

"Asp-er-in?" He looks genuinely confused.

I laugh, and take the tea. "Never mind. I don't think we brought any, anyway."

He sits down next to me on the bed, his weight sinking into the mattress. "We need to do something about Bryern. He can't stay in the castle dungeon forever, y'know." 

I rub my face, exhaustion from the stress and tension setting in. "I know," I groan.

"And we're going to have to do something about it soon." (A/N: i love how he's just like 'jude! we need to do this! we need to do that!' and he's not actually helping XD)

"I know," I sigh, trudging over to the closet to change into a thinner pair of leggings. 

Back in the throne room, Bryern is waiting in shackles. His ridiculous clothing is mud-splattered, and some scratches on his face from rough handling, but nothing bad.

Nothing Madoc could hold against us.

He looks up at me, rage seething in his eyes. 

There's only one question I need to ask. "Why."

He smiles, something not necessarily bad, not necessarily good. "Because Madoc wanted it."

"So you're his humble little servant, ready to do whatever he bids."

He bares his teeth into a vicious sneer. "Isn't that what love does to all of us? Someone so essential, so important, that you would risk your life for them?"

"You don't sound like you particularly enjoy love." Cardan. 

"No one enjoys love. Love comes, and whether we like it or not, once it's there?-it's not up to us to decide. I did not choose to love Madoc. Neither him me. But here I am, against my will or no."

Cardan lays back in his throne, the very picture of lethal power and cool disinterest. "Why then, my friend, do you think we all end up loving...love?"

"Our hearts want it. Why, who knows? But every heart, no matter how maggot-ridden or shriveled, desires love. As long as you are not heartless, everyone wants love."

"Ah. So if all of us want comfort-"

"Comfort is not the same thing as love, High King. I thought you'd have learnt that lesson by now," Bryern laughs, eyes darting over to me.

"Of course. I apologize for the misstep in wording." Cardan smiles, and doesn't bother to even nod in correspondence to his statement.

"Cut the shit, both of you. Bryern, you deserve to be executed."

"And why is that, O' High Queen of Elfhame? I distinctly remember the fact that you betrayed your father, laced his drink with poison, not for love, but for power. You and I's relationship was much less than one of blood heritage."

I know it's a jab to my mortal heritage, but I ignore it anyway. "And I distinctly remember that same father swearing an oath on his life that he would kill me the next time he had the chance. And I would be dead by now, if it wasn't for the fact of...Cardan and I's...unfortunate predicament."

"Ah, yes. He has told me the whole story of his least favorite child. But he gave you an offer." Bryern's eyes shine with amusement. "He told you that you could work for him."

"And would you work for me if I asked?" I smile.

"No, I would not. But what was holding you back from agreeing with Madoc? Love for Elfhame? Or was it power and pride that got the best of you? 

See, I am not refusing your...said offer of working for you because I want power. I am refusing because of my love."

I realize what he's been trying to say this whole time a second later. He must be a fool. "Yes, yes. The reasons might be different, but the results were the same, weren't they? I refused. You will refuse."

He throws his head back and laughs merrily. "Most definitely, the results were the same. But most often in a situation, the results don't matter. The reason is what you need to find out. The reason is the weakness you need to exploit in further...situations.

At least, that is how you seem to think."

He sits on the ground, shackles clanking. The guards raise their swords. He sighs contentedly. "I am perfectly happy to die here, right now, blood spilling onto the floor. Beautiful patterning, by the way."

"Get to it," Cardan says calmly, and the ground raises, bit by bit, until Bryern is on an earthy platform twenty feet above us.

"The point is, you can hold nothing against me. In your quest for power, Jude my dear, you were so afraid of dying. Because no matter the power you had, it was never going to be enough, was it? I assure you, if you had kept your foolish, ambitious mindset, you would be hatching a plan to take over the mortal world right now.

I am not afraid of death. Because I will have died in the best cause I've discovered yet. So don't you think, my Jude, that back in those times," he waves around his hand good-naturedly, "your heart knew that power was never going to be enough for you? That it would always want more and more until you realized it wasn't what you desired?"

The pedestal of black dirt rises up and up and up, until Bryern is at the very top of the rafters. But he makes no move to escape.

"Jude! It is up to you to decide where I go! Up to you to decide what you are going to use in this situation of yours!" Bryern yells down.

I close my eyes, and nod towards the guards. "Now," I tell Cardan. 

The pillar comes crumbling down.