The Secret of the Elements

Meeting an Old Friend

King Henry's POV

"Hagen is no where to be found in the castle your Majesty." Carl said behind me.

I was facing one of the widows in the throne room. I was holding my left wrist with my right hand behind my back.

"Keep looking." I said as calmly as I could.

"Yes your Majesty." Carl said as he turned to leave. As Carl left Xavier walked in.

"I'm guessing they haven't found him yet." Xavier said walking up and standing beside me.

"No they haven't." I said forcing my anger down. I could feel my anger boiling inside me. Xavier could see me my anger building inside of me.

"You need to keep calm Henry I'm sure we'll find him eventually." Xavier said trying his best to calm me.

"Who knows where he is! For all I know he could be with those secret elements and their pathetic group of friends." I said trying to keep myself together.

"I'm disappointed in Chris. He could've done so much more than run around with a group of secret elements." Xavier said with disappointment in his voice. Both of us heard the throne room door open and Xavier turned to see who it was.

"Your Majesty you have a visitor." One of the guards outside the throne room said.

"Who is it?" I asked not turning away from the window. I didn't have any meetings scheduled with anyone today.

"If it isn't my good friend Henry!" Said a familiar voice. I turned to see Dugal walking into the throne room.

"Dugal it's been a long time since I've seen you." I said walking up to him shaking his hand.

"You look well, I assume everything has been going just fine?" Dugal asked.

"Yes except my nephew is no where to be seen." I said with a serious tone in my voice.

"I can see you had plans for him did you not?" Dugal asked studying me.

"Yes I did, I wanted him to become the next King. But the day after I told him that he disappeared." I said.

"Maybe that's the reason he left." Xavier said from behind me. I had forgotten that Xavier was there for a little bit.

"Who is this?" Dugal asked.

"This is Xavier he's the captain of the royal guard and one of my closest friends." I replied. "Xavier this is Dugal." I motioned towards Dugal.

"It's nice to meet you." Dugal said extending his hand for Xavier to shake.

"It's nice to meet you too." Xavier said shaking Dugal's hand.

"Now What was it you said about Hagen?" I asked Xavier.

"I was wondering is the reason Hagen disappeared was the weight of the responsibility of being King." Xavier said puting his hand on his chin.

"It is possible but I don't see Hagen doing something like that." I said.

"He has been acting rather strange lately." Xavier said.

"How so?" Dugal asked.

"When he brought that Ice element I swore I saw something move in the collar of her dress but Hagen insisted it was nothing. And I passed him is the hallway once and he seemed to be hiding something under his cover and he walked into the dungeon but when we walked back out he didn't have anything." Xavier said.

"Has he been HELPING THEM!!" I yelled angrily.

"I thought you said Hagen didn't have any interest in the secret elements." Dugal said.

"I didn't think he did. I thought I had trained him to be like me but it's obvious I failed." I said disappointed in myself.

"I'm sure he can be persuaded." Dugal said.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

Hagen's POV

I was sitting next to Aria and Conner. Aria was leaning on Conner's left shoulder and Conner had his arm around her. Aria's bird Coco was flying around and landing on everyone's shoulders, it was his form of saying hello to everyone. Coco looked at me then flew up to me and landed on my shoulder.

"Oh hello." I said looking at Coco. I put my hand up to him and he jumped onto my left index finger. I pulled my hand away from me so I could see him better. Coco looked at he then started happily chirping at me.

"That means he likes you." Aria said.

"Oh well I'm glad you do Coco." I said petting his head gently with my right index finger. Coco closed his eyes showing me he enjoyed it.

"Hey Hagen I have a question." Conner said.

"What is it?" I said.

"If you don't mind me asking how did your parents die?" Conner asked.

I fell silent. I stopped petting Coco and he looked at me with sad eyes. I didn't like talking about it but at the same time I really wanted to tell them.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Conner said noticing my silence.

"My uncle killed them." I said in a monotone voice.

"He did?!" Aria said taking her head off of Conner's shoulder. Coco flew up to my left shoulder and nuzzled my face in an effort to comfort me.

"What's going on over here?" Rosie asked as she walked over with Zane. Ava, Bonnie, Chris, and Eric walked over as well.

"Hagen just told us that his uncle killed his parents." Conner said.

"He did?!" Rosie said reacting the same way Aria did.

"Yeah he did." I said.

"But why?" Chris asked.

"I think it was because of my mother." I replied.

"What about your mother?" Zane asked.

"My mother was his sister and she was a lot sweeter and compassionate that my uncle is. She taught me to be kind to other and care for people who don't have their basic needs. My uncle didn't like that. He wanted me to be cold and push away people who need help and he wanted me to kill innocent people." I said putting my face in my hands.

"So he killed them so he could make you just like him." Bonnie said with her arms crossed.

"Yeah he made sure that I wasn't around when he killed them but when I got back home I knew it was him. I could tell that his sword had been used." I said.

"How did you know?" Ava asked.

"I could see a hand print stained on the handle of his sword it was obviously it was the blood from my parents." I replied.

"Wow I thought he was bad enough but now I hate him even more." Rosie said.

"I've hated him ever since that day but I had to hide that fact so he wouldn't kill me either." I said.

"Speaking of killing we need to have a plan for if Dugal finds us here so we don't die." Chris said.

"But we don't know anything about him." Eric said

"I do." I said

"You do? Since when?" Zane asked.

"Since my uncle took me to his private study. He also gave me a journal of all the information he had gathered about Dugal over the years." I said.

"Well what are you waiting for tell us what you found out." Bonnie said.

Something about the way she looked at me made my chest burn.

"Ok let me get the journal." I said standing up to go get my bag.

I grabbed my bag and took it back with me. I sat back down and opened my bag. I grabbed the journal and opened it it the section about Dugal. Everyone sat down around me as I started reading.