The next morning, Lady (Y/n) was the first one to wake up. One of the maids handed her a letter and a small package from back home. She checked out the content of both, now she was staring out her window, lost in thoughts. She was honestly quite surprised that she was this calm. Maybe it was so shocking that she couldn't react to it, maybe she expected to receive this... She looked inside the small box again, then leaned back in her chair with a groan, rubbing her face.
"Oh (Y/n), you hopeless romantic..." she mumbled to herself. "You really are a fool."
She stood up and got herself ready for the day. She took the package's content and put it in her pocket.
Despite it being the last week of the Shuffling, Wally's list of things to do did not get any shorter. There was a lot to take care of and a lot of questions to search the answers to. But right now, he was walking through the castle's hallways with a merry smile on his face. He was going to see Lady (L/n) and that made all worries go away. The Sun was shining bright, the birds were singing, unlike the plumbing, which has been silent ever since yesterday!
Wally went to a big balcony, the highest in the castle, where they could talk in private. A table with two chairs has been setup and Lady (L/n) was already there, her back facing him as she was admiring the view.
"Lady (L/n)."
She quickly looked back at him when he spoke. His heart skipped a beat. Now that he was aware of his feelings for her, her beauty seemed to have duplicated.
"Your Highness." she stood up and curtsied. "Good day to you. I hope you had a good night of sleep."
"Better than ever." he nodded as he went up to her. "I apologize for making you wait."
"Oh not at all," she gave him a polite smile. "I'm the one who came earlier."
After a maid set up the tea set, Wally asked to be left alone with the lady.
"I see you've come prepared." he said after the door closed, noticing the binder and other documents on the table.
"Well, it is an important meeting. I see you didn't take notes of the actress' testimony."
"I remember it all." he tapped his temple.
(Y/n) huffed a smile, but it quickly went away.
"You can sit back down." Wally spoke again.
"I would rather stand actually... It helps me think."
"Ah, yes. I did notice that you never sit when you present a project." he smiled. "Am I right to assume that we are to begin today's meeting? I'm ready when you are."
"Um, before we start, there is one matter I would like to talk about."
"What is it?"
She started to look around.
"It's just the two of us, correct?"
"Yes. Is that a problem?" he tilted his head.
"No. It's good, actually."
"Oh? Is it personal?"
"...I would like this conversation to stay between us."
His heart beat faster in anticipation.
"Alright." he nodded. "What is it?"
"I just have a question that I need you to answer."
"Yes?"
A moment passed. She's been avoiding eye contact, searching for her words. Was she nervous?
"My Lady." he smiled, making her look at him. "Like you said, it's just the two of us."
She took a deep breath... Then frowned.
"Did you kill the King of Spades?"
The King of Hearts' expression dropped, his eyes wide open.
"Actually, I know you did it. I just want confirmation from you."
(Y/n) has been scared of his reaction ever since this morning. He looked shocked into silence. Her frown deepened, she was less scared now.
"Our own King was murdered. Did you really think we weren't going to look into that?!" she tilted her head. "Well you're right. With the Great Departure and the massive theft, and a lot of other internal issues with the Kingdom, there was just too much going on for the High Council. They didn't have any time to worry about that... Which is why I took it upon myself to investigate this matter!" she placed her hand over her heart. "I would dedicate all of my free time to this secret mission I gave myself. However, for the longest time I was at an impasse. I'll admit it, I almost gave up... Until a few weeks ago, when I was given the golden opportunity to attend the Shuffling. Thank you very much for that." she bowed her head. "Now, may I walk you through my process?" she asked. "I have been keeping this to myself for so long, and to be perfectly honest, I have been dying to share it with someone."
'I still didn't have any time to do that with Catherine and Gwendolyn.'
No response from the King. He was motionless, as if frozen in time.
"Now, obviously, when his body was found, I wasn't there. I couldn't have a first hand inspection of his body nor the place it was found in at the time it happened, so already I had my work cut out for me. Thankfully, I got a hold of the maid who found him." she picked up a document from her binder and cleared her throat. "The King was found in his chamber when she went to change the sheets that morning. He was laid on his back, fully clothed, as if he fell back onto the bed. He was skinny to the bone, as if he had been starving for several weeks. There seemed to be no sign of any physical injury, there was no blood anywhere, and he was very dry, like his body was decomposing- But of course, the maid didn't stay too long to check. The poor thing..."
She paused to look at the King of Hearts, see if he would say anything. He didn't, and besides, did she even want him to...?
"Since there was no physical injury, and based on the state of his body, I concluded that some kind of magic must've been involved. Now there's one thing we all know: the King of Spades – and every others before him – was the strongest magic-user in the world. So whoever killed him, it must have been something or someone powerful... I suspected you right away." she gestured towards him. "Not just because he was the King of Spades and you're the King of Hearts, but because the last time the King was seen alive, he was leaving his castle on horseback, on his way to your Kingdom." she tilted her head. "To attend the yearly meeting between the four royals of the land. But here's the thing: no one saw him come back...
"But I know," she raised both her hands. "that doesn't prove that you did it. Let our judgement be unclouded. So the first question I asked myself was of course 'how did he die'? I don't know anything about magic – much less the lethal kind – I couldn't ask anyone about it, and any book on such dark magic was stolen from our royal library during the Great Departure." she sighed. "I was stuck. The idea that it was the work of a poison of some kind did cross my mind, but the King of Spades was known to be almost indestructible, with a stomach so strong he could drink poison and only get a stomachache. You could say it was just a myth. But again, he was the strongest magic-user of all...
"So yes, I was stumped... And then, I got the opportunity to go into the royal library of your castle." she tilted her head. "I borrowed a few books but I knew that the knowledge I would need would be in the books that...people would look at me weird if they saw me take them. No matter how many times I would peek into the library as I passed by, there would always be someone there. And then... And this I have you and Frank to thank for, I got the password that would allow me to have the royal library all to myself."
Wally's eyes widened a little more.
"So I took books on dark magic, poisons, none of the things I read about would fit however. None of them would've left the King in the state he was left in, nor would they not leave any trace. And then I found a book on magic weapons, the legendary ones to be precise, and how Queen Ambrosia had one of these. A sword that, once the magic within it activated, would pierce through one's very soul and only their soul. Anything physical would go unscathed, so it wouldn't leave any trace on the body. Although it did not explain the King's almost mummified state, I decided to followed through that lead to see where it would go...
"Something strange happened however: I couldn't for the life of me find that sword. Of course I couldn't actively snoop around your castle. But you would think that an artefact such as a Legendary Weapon would be put on display for everyone to see if it wasn't being wielded anymore. I brought up the subject when I was paying a visit to Mr. Pillar and I came to find out a key piece of information. When the Queen died – may peace be on her soul now that her enemy is dead – she left her sword to you. And you've asked your royal blacksmith to reshape it to suit you better. You carry that sword almost everywhere you go, and there are talks about how only you can wield it...
"But again, that does not explain the state the King was in. I was stumped once more... And then, during a lovely tea party with the young Duchess of Hearts, her father the Duke and the Queen of Clubs, I witnessed her Majesty perform a neat magic trick: Making lemonade out of a lemon by extracting all the juice and all the moister out of it... You drained him of his blood, and as a final blow, you destroyed his soul...
"Now you may be wondering why I'm still hung up on the sword. If the body did get drained of all his blood, he would be dead on the spot, there would be no need to do anything else. And you are correct... If it wasn't for this other key piece of information that made this entire case all the stranger to me. You see, in the Spades Kingdom, when a magic-user dies, you are to immediately perform a short ritual. You make a potion using a crushed leaf from the Dark Forest – a lot of them fall and are taken past the mushroom line by the wind. It might be a dangerous ancient magical place, but it's still a forest like any other. – then you pour it in the mouth of the deceased. The potion will squeeze out the last remnants of magic from the person's soul, which will then float out of the body in the form of a string of light, flying away and disappearing into thin air, given back to the spirits..." her gaze wandered for a second before she shrugged. "Now of course, that last part is just Spades belief, but that is concretely what happens. Now you would think that, for the world's most powerful man, this would be a whole light show. However when I spoke to the maid who found him..." she leaned closer with a frown. "She told me nothing happened...
"Even if he had been dead for the one whole day and one whole night he was gone, a person's magic – their very soul – dissipates and disappears after – I studied this in your library – from a day to a week, depending on how powerful the person was. In the case of the King of Spades, I shall make an educated guess and say that his soul would've dissipated after..." she leaned back and thought for a moment. "A whole month at least. And yet, his body was empty of any magic whatsoever. Because he didn't have a soul anymore, because you wiped it out of this realm using your sword!" she pointed at him.
A moment passed. Wally was still just staring at her with big eyes. She huffed.
"That was my immediate conclusion anyway." she shrugged. "However there was a big piece missing from this puzzle. You see, my maids were tasked to mingle with the servants of the guests here, to get an idea of the word going around, people's opinion of us and what have you. And every morning they'd report back to me. I did ask them for another thing though: I wanted to know what your servants thought of the King of Spades. Of course, I didn't actually need to learn of such things, I already had a good idea of his reputation. The reason I gave them such a task, was to find out more about the day of that yearly meeting. Because of course when you talk about royalty, you want people to know that you saw them the day before they were found dead. And here's what I found..." she flipped through the pages of her binder before taking out another document. "The King of Spades was so scary and bad-tempered, that almost the entire East side of the castle and the estate would be evacuated before he'd arrive. So it would've been only you four, without anyone disturbing you. Not only that but...no one saw him leave. But the next day, they watched Julie and Frank leave. And on that very same morning, the King's body was found."
Her expression became colder.
"It was widely accepted that he left late at night, eager to come back to his Kingdom..." she placed the document back and left a hand on the table, tapping it with her nail. "However, I say it's bullshit."
The King of Hearts leaned back, shocked at the word that came out of her mouth.
"Every Spades person and their mother knows that our King hated to leave his own Kingdom- Much less even his own castle! The rare times he would make a public appearance, he would say what needed to be said, and then he'd leave right away. And let's not even get started on his hatred of the Hearts people – He never really gotten over the Eclipse War – I'm going to make a another educated guess and say that those meetings with him would last..." her eyes wandered as she thought before looking back at him. "A short hour at most. There is no way that he stayed here for an entire day. There's just no way...
"But yes, the big piece of the puzzle missing." she nodded, as if she was asked about it. "So, with all of this in mind, we can conclude that he was killed here in this castle. But then it begs the question: how did his body find its way back to the Kingdom of Spaces and in his own bedroom, without anyone seeing him or anyone else?" she pointed at an invisible point A then at an invisible point B. "And I was at an impasse once again." she shrugged. "I searched for invisibility cloaks, came to find out those don't exist – and I was disappointed – super speed potions, the only thing that would make sense was some king of teleportation. But I couldn't find any spell of that kind... And then I learned, after the chariot race last week, that the reason why there are no teleportation spells, is because such a thing can only be achieved with the use of magic crystals...
"But I also learned that for such a ritual there needs to be two crystals: one on the person, the other at the spot they want to teleport to. Now how would a magic crystal find its way to the castle of Spades? An easy enough question to answer." she shrugged. "Those annual meetings wouldn't always take place in the Kingdom of Hearts. Just like the Shuffling, you four would take turns. And the meeting before that last one was in the Kingdom of Spades. You could've very easily hide a crystal somewhere in the castle during your stay there. As soon as the theory came to my mind, I immediately asked a trusted butler back home to search the entire estate for a magical crystal. Unfortunately, they didn't find any. And the King's body was buried, along with everything that was on him when he was found, as is the custom." she paused, glancing to the side. "In all honesty, it made sense to me that no crystal was found. Of course you would've taken them with you to get back."
Wally noticed that she never said 'the culprit'. There was no doubt in her mind that he did it...
"So I thought to myself 'alright. He would've needed four crystals for this operation. One on his person, one on the King's body, one somewhere in the castle of Spades to get there, and one somewhere in the castle of Hearts to get back'... But then I remembered, a fifth one must've been used. For the King of Spades wasn't the only one who mysteriously came back. His horse was found as well, back in the stables, alive and healthy." she pointed at the horizon. "She is still there to this day, along with her harness which, unlike the King's belongings, remained untouched. So I wrote one more letter to that same butler, asking him to look into the stables for me..."
She took a moment to look into the King of Hearts' eyes. He looked paler.
"I wonder how but, maybe just like me, you've forgotten about the horse." she said. "So yes, the butler did find a crystal into the pouch of the horse's harness, and he was kind enough to send it back to me."
She pulled something out of her pocket and slammed it on the table. The crystal was perfectly oval, of a pastel red color. A moment of silence passed.
"Now," Lady (Y/n) broke the silence once again. "you could argue that it could be anyone's. But here's the thing about you, King of Hearts: all of your teleportation crystals look the exact same and all of your magic crystals are locally made for you and your court's use only. I learned that when I spoke to Miss Partridge about teleportation, after the cheating incident at the chariot race! And I am forever grateful to her for that." she paused. "This, plus the other evidence I have presented, all point to the fact that you killed his Majesty the King of Spades." she glared. "So, if I may, I shall ask you again, did you kill him?"
Wally was still just staring at her, but this time, (Y/n) waited for him to say something. The wind blew, as if it tried to lift up the heavy tension but failed. There was a lot of questions on Wally's mind following her monologue. But none of them mattered to him at the moment. He replayed all of the interaction she's had with him, with others, now knowing two truths: she's been on the case since the beginning, and she's been suspecting him all along.
"You..." he expression turned sadder. "You tricked me?"
"Me?!" she gestured towards herself and glared at him. "For your consideration, I have never once told a lie. The only lie I ever told was that I would put my full trust in you. And even if I did tricked you, I'm sorry, whose fault would it be?" she tilted her head. "Mine, whose only crime was to look for the truth? Or yours, for assassinating the King of Spades and being the sole reason why my Kingdom was on the verge of collapse, while you did nothing?!" she hit the table with her fist then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that you must feel uncomfortable upon being faced with your actions, but I must remind you that you and me are having this conversation right now because of what you did." she took another deep breath to calm herself. "With all that being said, what I ask for isn't reparation, or compensation- I'm not even asking for justice!" she raised both her hands. "All I ask for is a few short minutes of honesty, where you stop being the kind perfect King of Hearts, and I stop being a member of the High Council of Spades, and we just be honest about what happened, in this space only and for this moment only!" she gestured around the balcony. "And then, we can move on with the meeting and go back to creating peace together."
Wally's gaze lowered, still processing everything she said, his eyes darting slightly and his shoulders were tense. (Y/n) pursed her lips and gulped. She took the risk of putting all her cards on the table now that she couldn't be proven wrong. But maybe...
"Are you going to kill me now?"
He suddenly looked at her with big eyes.
"...You can."
His eyes widened some more.
"That's fair, now that you know you can't trust me... You can take my life, make sure the truth never gets out. You can take credit for all my research papers and all the ideas I shared with you. Take all that I own and all that I have, it's all yours. Just..." she looked down, clenching her shaky hands together. "Please. Please. Help my people." she looked back at him with glassy eyes. "They don't deserve to be miserable."
Wally sighed, his shoulders finally dropping.
"You really are a brilliant woman." he said with a faint smile. "You are correct on all fronts. Yes, I killed him."
(Y/n) pursed her lips and took a deep breath. Hearing it from him lifted a weight off her shoulders, but it added a much heavier one on her heart. She kept a stern face however.
"If I could ask some following questions... Were Julie or Frank, or anyone else in on it?"
"...No." he shook his head. "It was just me."
She nodded, looking away for a moment to process that. Then looked back at him.
"As for the motive, I don't doubt that you did it because, well, he was the King of Spades and you're the King of Hearts. Still, I would like to hear your thought process on this. I'd like to know so that, as you yourself said, we can make sure 'history doesn't repeat itself'."
Wally looked down again, searching for the right words. He sat at the table and poured himself some tea. He gestured the teapot to her, silently asking if she wanted any. Not breaking the silence of this moment, she simply held up a hand and shook her head. He put the teapot down and added a couple of sugar cubes in his cup before slowly stirring. He then took a sip and sighed.
"I must start by saying that this had nothing to do with business, it was only for personal reasons."
(Y/n) nodded.
"I figured." she said.
"...The King of Spades rarely made any public appearance, you said so yourself. Not only the late King, but the one before him, and the one before him, and so on." he said, keeping his eyes on the content of his teacup. "Have you ever wonder why's that?"
(Y/n) frowned.
"You might not believe me if I told you but... As royalty, the other three royals would be the only ones to see him regularly." he looked up at her. "And I can tell you, your King has never been replaced once, ever since the founding of the Four Kingdoms. The King of Spades was immortal."
Her expression fell into one of shock. She finally sat down, across from him.
"What...?" she let out, under her breath.
"It's a secret that is passed down from ruler to ruler, within the Land of the Four Kingdoms."
"Why keep it a secret?"
"He wanted to. He was indeed very short-tempered, if we were to ever expose this information, he would probably rage war on us all." he looked to the side. "And my mother made me promise to never go to war. No matter what he did." he paused. "It would be the hardest task I was ever given." he looked back at her. "I'm sorry if you take offense to this blunt truth, but the King of Spades was a dangerous...thing."
She frowned, confused, leaning a bit closer and listening closely.
"I'm sure he wasn't always like this, but that didn't matter. He was ageless yes, his body stopped regressing after seventy years or so, but his mind became worse and worse throughout the centuries of his ruling. He was nothing but a senile old man filled with paranoia and pride. Always tormenting us with his stories, taunting us with his knowledge, he hated us for not being him and he made us know that. Still, we did nothing. He was immortal, there was nothing we could do..." he looked down. "Then one day, during one of our meetings, he put his hands on Julie."
(Y/n)'s eyes widened in horror and she covered her mouth.
"He struck her and I went for his heart without a thought." he clenched his fists. "Despite not missing, despite impaling him, he still didn't die. He laughed at my face and left without a care. His own blood was pouring out of his chest as he did, but halfway out of the room, it stopped, it healed." he paused, his eyes staring into space, unblinking. "It was the first time I saw him bleed. I thought... If he could bleed, he could then somehow die."
(Y/n) became paler.
"And at that moment, I made a promise to myself. I vowed that I would dedicate my entire life, restless days and sleepless nights, my blood and sweat, I'd give it all up to find a way to destroy this man and every aspect of him from this world. And I would dedicate the rest of my existence, until my dying breath if I have to, to erase the very mention of him from the history books until he is nothing but the distant memory of a nightmare that haunted our childhoods."
(Y/n) leaned back in her chair. It was the first time she was scared of Wally. If looks could kill, she wished he wouldn't look at her right now. She noticed the teacups and the teapot has cracked. He took a deep breath before taking another sip from it.
"And so... You know the rest." he spoke again. "And you're right, I did nothing following that. Because, and this I am now ashamed to admit it, my hatred of him extended to the Kingdom of Spades itself and its people."
(Y/n) let out a long sigh, hanging her head down, shaking it slowly.
"I learned of the Great Departure, of the massive theft, and of the newest High Council and the...inexperience of its members. I thought I would receive a letter right away, asking for my help. But I never did. At that moment I was reminded of the Spades' pride. Of course you would try to take care of this yourselves... I was honestly surprised that the Kingdom was still held together after almost a year now, although rather loosely. You see, the problems your Kingdom has are not just a product of your King's passing, they've been here for a long time, he just didn't do anything about them." he glanced to the side. "For someone who claims to love his people, he sure likes to make their lives as unpeaceful as possible."
(Y/n) pursed her lips. A moment passed.
"The Shuffling was approaching, I had to invite the representatives of the Kingdom of Spades. I didn't know what to expect, to be quite honest, but I was prepared for the worst. And I was right to do so, since, on the very first official ball of the Shuffling, the young Marquis of Spades challenged someone to a duel." he looked at her. "But I didn't expect you to step in. In fact, I didn't expect you at all... You admitted it yourself, you are but a small noble, the lowest class of nobility, the only information I could find about you was that your family is the oldest line in the Kingdom. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find you suspicious. My guard was up."
Her head still down, she glanced up at him.
"...But another thing I didn't expect was the impact you would have on me." his gaze softened.
She leaned back, taken aback.
"Somehow, our paths kept crossing. At first, I thought it was on purpose on your part. No matter, I figured that keeping a close eye on you would be the most sensible thing to do. Julie and Frank liked you and I thought that, if we were to be on friendly terms and work together, then things would be different for the relationship between our Kingdoms, things would go well. And it did, it all went very well in fact, I worried for nothing after all." he looked down. "And as time passed, I found myself looking for you when you weren't near..."
Her eyes went big. After a moment, Wally looked back at her.
"Words like these are a tricky things for me, so I'll speak without restraint." he looked into her eyes. "You are the most beautiful being I have ever gazed upon. You carry yourself with humbleness and yet your simple and honest kindness always ends up lighting up every room. The first time I heard you laugh, it pierced through all the shallow chatters with its genuine joy. It was all I could hear at that moment. It is now my favorite sound in the world and I could recognize it from a mile away. Every time we'd talk, I would grow curious a little more, I now want to know every little thing about you. Every time you'd cry, I felt honored that you'd let me see you vulnerable. Every time you'd laugh...I wanted to hold you and never let go. And as I walked out on this very balcony today, I looked at you, and I saw what I wished would be the rest of my life."
(Y/n) blushed, her heart beat like a drum. But the two of them looked devastated.
"But after what I did, I can only wish so. For now I know that we are both burdened with things that are greater than ourselves. And I'm sorry for being so selfish and confessing my feelings on top of it all, but I can't help it. I love you. I love you." he became quieter. "And in my most private moments, I dream of us. Simpler, sweeter times, where we are just neighbors. Living in a happy, colorful neighborhood with all our loved ones. I come visit you everyday, so often that we can't tell which house is whose anymore... And we just talk, and laugh." he smiled sadly. "I would give everything for that dream to become true."
The wind blew again. (Y/n) looked up, blinking rapidly so that her tears wouldn't fall from her eyes. She looked back at Wally, looking into each-other's eyes again. What could she say to that, after everything else he said? She took a deep, shaky breath.
"I-"
Just then, the two of them heard the footsteps of someone running over to the balcony at a fast pace. Wally stood up, ready to get between Lady (L/n) and whoever was approaching. The door busted opened.
"Lady (Y/n)!" the Baroness of Spades exclaimed in a panic.
"Catherine." she stood and rushed up to her. "What's wrong?"
"Catastrophe!"
"What happened?!"
She simply handed her a letter. Without question, (Y/n) took it and quickly read. Her back was to Wally, so he couldn't see her face becoming paler.
"...I'm going back." she strode away. "Prepare a carriage- No! I'll go by horseback, it'll be faster!"
"Are you sure?" Catherine followed her.
"Yes, my home is big enough to house them, and we could prevent it from spreading! You get the horse saddled up, I'll quickly get my things!"
"Okay!"
Their voices faded away, then it was silence. Wally stayed still. Of course, he wanted to follow her wherever she was going now. But he didn't feel worthy. He sat back down and sighed.
(Y/n) gave some quick instructions to Catherine and Gwendolyn before leaving on her horse, back to the Kingdom of Spades. It would be a long journey, but if it went smoothly, she could get there in only a day. She could feel a tear in the corner of her eyes. She quickly wiped it away and focused back on the road ahead. But the tears kept building up, she sniffed and tried to wipe them away again, but they kept coming.
"Dammit!" she sobbed.
In the vastness of the country side, she let out her overwhelming emotions in the form of a scream.
Later that day, the King of Hearts learned from Lady Catherine what happened. There's been an outbreak of Spades Plague, a hundred-or-so people infected. Such a thing hasn't happened in centuries, therefore everyone thought it was gone for good. He realized that Lady (L/n) has ran face first into danger, but he knew she won't be careless about this matter. If anything he thought, of course she'd run back home for the sake of her people. Once again, he wanted to help her, but didn't feel worthy.
With his guilt, her gone, and their conversation unfinished, Wally was left with a certain emptiness. The one comforting thought he clung onto was that, with her away from the Hearts Kingdom, she wouldn't be in danger anymore.
And so, he went to work on a solution to his own ongoing problem, as he said he would, with the assistance of Miss Partridge. The royal sorceress took notice of his melancholy as he was studying some books in her 'cottage'.
"Have you confessed, your Highness?"
"Huh?" he looked up from the book he was studying. "Ah. I did... However, I didn't get to receive an answer. On account of her leaving..."
"Yes, you've told me." she nodded. "I can tell this troubles you greatly..."
She caressed the top of his head.
"I'm not a child anymore, Miss Partridge." he said, though he was smiling faintly.
"Apologies, I can't help it." she smiled back. "You know, there is an old expression the people of Hearts used when, you love someone so dearly, their mere absence leaves you with a certain emptiness."
"What is it?"
"...A shame it was reused during the war, but I still like it. It's called a total eclipse of the heart."
[Title drop! 👏]