The Darkest Price

Saffron gripped his hand tighter around his sword as the room got more and more crowded with Ty'Scians. It seemed not all of the royals had come here yet. So maybe the one he would be married off to wasn't here. He wondered what she was like. Maybe it was the girl in front of them, talking? She was pretty, but she also seemed not to care in a way. Maybe neither side much wanted this?


Saffron wasn't sure, but getting out of here seemed fine if it wasn't for going to see the King. The boy could only imagine what the man was like. Human? It hardly seemed possible from what Saffron had heard.


"That sounds...fine."
 
Felrer paused at the entrance to the greeting hall, a hand resting upon the solid frame as he took in the party of royals and their escort. The Terrians were all so easy on the eye, features so open and charmed and they looked, not to mention, so unsure and out of place with such a contrasting backdrop of the darkened castle, standing out like a beacon. He wondered idly which of them would be his, certainly not the child, though even at nineteen he realised he himself barely looked to be such, rather a year or so younger, and with an encompassing glance at his siblings and a skeptical look directed at his father's advisor; he had never trusted the man-, Felrer's eyes finally settled upon his younger sibling.


"You're lingering, Kirei..." His voice was low, muted, yet as he spoke it was easily carried across the hall to the assembed group as he addressed her, and although he straightened his posture, leaning up off of the door as he spoke, he made no move to enter the room. She had been sent by their father to greet the arriving party and bring them to the throne room, however now here he was sent to fetch her, his sister having taken to long. However he could tell by the others' attendance why she had been held up in the task she had been given.


As he looked over the others attending once more, unaware of the link they would soon share his eyes settled upon the blonde boy, visually perturbed by his new surroundings, at being in a foreign country, or perhaps at the whole situation Felrer could only guess aware it could be all of them and many more, his eyes narrowing slightly at the nervous grip he had on his sword before moving up to striking eyes, and he appeared to be almost debating with himself as he wondered whether or not the boy would become a threat to his father, before finally looking toward Kirei once more.


"The King is waiting"
 
Vladimir turned and walked out, heading to the throne room just moments after Felrer, the heir to the throne of Ty'Scia, had walked in. He was eager to see if the king would actually be in the throne room and alive. If he was not then the assassination was a success but if he was then he would have to do quite a bit of work to ensure his tracks remained covered. Even if the assassination was a failure, he was sure that the king should at the very least be weakened by the combination of the poison acting on his body and the fight with the assassin. His assassin had been most cooperative so far with his plans and all he had to promise her was a place of power once he was sitting on the throne.


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Kitano whispered to his servant and close friend, Natani, asking her to help him make his way to the throne room. He did not wish to make father wait any longer by keeping anyone behind. He was a bit curious however as to who he would be matched up with. He took notice to the fact that one of the Terra royals appeared to be a child. He could only imagine what might be going through her mind, being forced into marrying a stranger in a strange land. He hoped that she would not be scared by everything going on and especially Felrer. He knew that his brother was not always a pleasant person to put it mildly.
 
(By the way I edited Rosa's form she now has magical ability)


Nodding Bret stepped forward away from his siblings so as to follow the Ty' Scians, "Then we shall go to the Throne room," he said. The prince resisted the urge to look back at his siblings for support, he set his jaw and moved forward with confidence. He even managed to plaster a kind and collected smile upon his face that felt and hopefully looked natural. Bret almost felt as if he were stepping into battle instead of meeting his future father in law.


While he walked he scanned the group for the girl that was to be his future wife and the Queen of Terra. His eyes landed on a dark haired princess. Her crimson eyes held a wild beauty and strength. He subtly analysed the way she walked trying to determine which side of her body she favored and any possible threats. The Prince was looking at his possible wife as if she was an opponent in battle, however he felt no hostility towards her.





Rosa followed her brother's lead squeezing Enma's hand softly. "The tapestries are kind of pretty, don't you think?" she whispered leaning down so that her hair fell across her face hiding it as they walked. She straightened up rolling her shoulders back and made sure her dress was in order, to say that the princess wasn't nervous would be a lie but she managed it well. If anything she was more nervous about meeting her legendary future father in law.
 
Kirei looked at her brother Felrer and then to the Terrians. She turned and started walking. She ignored all others, mostly her family and her new "family" as well. After a while she noticed Bret looking at her. She gave him a look.


"It's rude to stare at people." She then smiled and walk right through the doors leading into the throne room. She saw their father had yet to arrive, but she knew he would appear when he wanted to. She waited for the others to join her.


Toan sighed deeply at his sister, shaking his head. She was showing off her power of course, ready to prove her strength. He opened the door and gestured for the Terrians to enter.


Emna noticed the squeeze. She looked around and nodded at her older sister. "Yes they are. I guess...the place is kind of pretty," she admitted.


 
While they walked to the throne room, Damion looked over at Alex, who was gritting her teeth and trying to resist frowning. He raised and eyebrow to that. "I'm guessing the situation didn't go well?" he said speaking nonchalantly, not really caring if the Terrians heard him.


Alex was angry as they walked to the throne room. The incident that happened earlier kept replying in her head. She couldn't believe a magic user had the guts to kill her while she delayed the execution. When she finds the person, he's the one going to be executed. Then her thoughts turned again to the Terras. When she greeted them Alex didn't have to worry about exposing she was a vampire. Unlike some vampires, her vangs showed up at will. If she wanted to kill someone, or just scare the shit out of them, she had the ability to grow them out at anytime. So to the Terras, and about everyone else, she was just a regular vampire hunter.


When Damion asked the sarcastic question she forced a smiled and looked over at him. "Of course it didn't. What made you think that?" she said sarcasticly to him, keeping her voice down a bit, but not down to a whisper.


Damion grinned, but didn't turn his head to her. Laughing lightly her responded back. "Oh nothing, just a random guess i suppose." Damion guessed that Alex got there too late and the woman was executed, but the way Alex was angry, it was something worse than that.
 
With a reassuring nod, somewhat apologetic, directed at Kirei as she passed, Felrer stood back and waited for the rest of the group to leave the hall before following suit, robes sounding mutedly with his movement as he followed silenty behind, listening to the floated snatches of nervous conversation.


They put on a good show of bravery, he would give them that, though accustommed to the emotion he could see it in their actions, the way the man overcompensated with his movements, how the young women held securely to the little one... they were afraid. They had every reason to be. Unlike their homeland Ty'Scia was dangerous. Darkness was born and bred here and the shadows held depth, vampires, werewolves, asassins. It made him wonder how they would adjust, unaccustomed to such a brutal way of life, where the lines between life and death were blurred.


Entering the throne room, Felrer waded through the assembled group of royals, both his siblings and those soon to be, his hand rising to rest atop his younger brother Kitano's head breifly in an affectionate gesture as he passed; his siblings those few who he openly displayed it toward-, moving to and climbing the steps leading up to the kings throne, only to slow toward the top most ones and lowering himself to sit, leaning against an elbow lounging as the other hand coming up to cover as he yawned. The impression he gave almost leonine, a predator awaiting it's master's arrival and command as he indeed waited for his father, the king of Ty'Scia's arrival.
 
Saffron followed mostly behind the others in the group, not looking forward to his first meeting with his future father-in-law. He was sure the King was some horrible man. Maybe disfgured or something. It was hard to believe he was human after hearing some things. How could a human possibly do any of those things? Something had to be wrong with him and Saffron had no desire to learn exactly what. His children alone made him feel uncomfortable and wanting to run. He couldn't imagine what their father would be like. He also wondered about their mothers, but he had learned that many of them had a different one. Saffron couldn't imagine his father sleeping with different woman. His family was close, but he could not see the Ty'Scians being close with any of their siblings.


"Stop worrying," he muttered to him. No use in worrying about it now. They were going to meet the King anyways and soon learn of their fiance. That was also an uncomfortable thought. Who he would be marrying.
 
Rosa coughed softly one hand pressed to her temple, the onslaught of emotions in the room was giving her a throbbing headache. She knew her siblings would ignore her assuming she was just frail and the excitement of the day had gotten to her. No one knew of her gift of feeling peoples emotions and she wanted to keep it that way. At this point she was unsure if she would share this information with her husband but Rosa couldn't think about that right now. No she just needed to focus on blocking everyone out. She closed her eyes not caring who saw, praying that everyone would calm. The princess had been none to faint in situations where emotions became rampant and overwhelmed a crowd. Rosa prayed it didn't get to that point.
 
The group waited for a couple minutes but then something happened. The air grew heavier, if that was possible. Something about the throne room seemed to become...wrong. Darker. Suddenly a man appeared from behind the throne. Hanyer assumed that there was a door and room located somewhere back there, but he had a feeling he didn't want to know what it held.


But his mind was too busy looking at the man who was the King. King Tylaer moved with an easy grace and had an air that clearly stated he held himself above everyone in the room. He looked over all of them, from the Terrians, to his children, to his other subjects. He smiled, a cruel and empty smile and Hanyer felt himself shiver. There was no way this man was human. It was hard to believe. Sure he looked like a human, long black hair and bright blue eyes and pale skin, tall and well built. All of it showed that he was human. But the rest, the way he carried himself, the aura he gave off.


King Tylaer nodded and seated himself, the room an uncomfortable silence. No one knew what to say or do and so they waited. After a minute the King spoke, his voice making Enma whimper and hide behind Rosa.


"Welcome Terrians. Welcome to my home. You all seemed to have grown up quite well, much better than the children I had last seen." He looked around and located Enma and made a beckoning motion to her. Enma shook her head, not waiting to get any closer to the man than she had to. But Tylaer made it again and this time Kirei walked over and practically threw Enma at him.


Enma stumbled and fell, but got up quickly. She looked back at her family and then to the King. King Tylaer smiled the cruel smile again. "And this must be the baby that the Queen had with her. You were such a beautiful baby. Squealing and crying as your mother died. What I wouldn't have given to send you to death with her at that moment." Enma, not able to take it, began to cry. The King looked at her and then started to laugh. "Oh and look! Crying again! Maybe you do want to join your mother after all."


Hanyer felt himself grip his sword, but a motion nearby sent him to the floor. Toan stood over him shaking his head. The King ignored the exchange. He made a motion for Enma to go and the young girl scurried back to Rosa, still bawling her eyes out, trembling.


The King stopped laughing but the amusement was still there. "So each of you Terrians will tell me your name one by one. The oldest shall go first."
 
Vladimir sighed in his mind. The king was still alive and seemed to be quite well in health. The assassin had failed and so had the attempt at weakening him using poison. Things were not going well at all. The royal children of Terra were here and the Ty'Scia royal family was still alive. Still, it might be possible for his plan to work still if he managed to get assassins in before the weddings. He hoped that after serving the royal family for a century, he would have been armed with enough information about the king to get the job done but alas, it was not to be it seemed. He refused to give up however.


Some changes would have to be made in the plans. He could fall back to his other options and have Dimizar and his recently acquired band of mages release those demons from the warp. Then, in the confusion, he could deal with the deal and royal family himself. That girl, Alexandra, would definitely be trouble for him however. He might have to fight her at some point but as it was, he was untouchable due to his position and he planned to make full use of the perks. He had not expected that he would end up using demons to get his dirty work done but he had kept the open viable just in case.


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Kitano was displeased with his father's actions but he dare not voice his thoughts. He knew that he was only alive because he had value due to his special abilities. Otherwise, his own father would have had him killed for his disability. Why must his father have to be so cruel? He put the thought out of his head after a moment. It was no use dwelling on it. The king would never change his ways and he knew that. But there might be a tiny bit of hope for change in him. After all, his eldest brother, Felrer scared him from time to time with his killing of the servants among other things but receiving an affectionate gesture from him every one in a while made him think that there might be some amount of love within the family.


Kitano had heard that at least two of the couples would be leaving Ty'Scia and heading to Terra. He hoped that he would be in one of those pairings. It would take him a comfortable distance away from his father and more importantly, away from Ty'Scia. He had felt that something horrible would happen but he could not place it. That and he had heard some very good things about Terra and going there might be quite pleasant for him. The only problem he could think of with going there is that he would miss his siblings and friends. Still, he did only have two friends and they were Alex and Natani. The latter might be able to come with him to Terra but he doubted it.


Kitano enjoyed the thought of going to Ty'Scia but he wasn't exactly expecting it. He would not be particularly disappointed if he ended up not going but going would be something of a fresh start in his mind. A new land with new people. From what he had heard, many of them would be quite pleasant but he expected some level of animosity towards him. After all, not many if any at all thought good things about those from his homeland.


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Dimizar watched from his tower as the gateway's construction was finished. It had taken a whole year of work due to scarcity of resources with which to do the construction and he had been overseeing the project from before Vladimir had even thought of involving the use of demons bound and controlled by the chaos mages. Thankfully, the last two days had provided most fruitful in getting the number of mages required to operate the portal. Bringing enough energy to it to cause activation would be very draining but once activated, the only way to close a chaos portal is to destroy it.


http://digital-art-gallery.com/oid/18/880x765_4805_Chaos_Portal_2d_fantasy_magic_chaos_portal_rings_arrow_picture_image_digital_art.png (About how the portal would look.)
 
Aa they walked into the throne room, the others walked pasted them as Alex placed a hand on Damion's shoulder and gave him a slight squeeze, in return he turned around and looked at her. She said nothing but gave him a small, and subtle nod. Damion only responded with a nod too, and a worried look. As she released her hand from his shoulder he turned and caught back up with the group., but not before she flashed him a reasurring smile. Alex stepped to the back of the room, she was nothing of importance to their little event, she was just an observer today.


When the king talk, Alex smirked at his.... personality. 'He is still the same lively, and cruel king. Just the like the king before him, and the one before him. The list goes back all the way.' Or at least that's what Alex remembered. Before she would not turn her head towards news or events of the dreadful kingdom, she was too busy with her reckless clan. Always making trouble before, not following rules, but that meant their eternel life ended quickly. Just like what would happen now if anything like that happened again.


As they talked, Alex's thoughts turned back to the incident from earlier, made her tighten the fist that was at her side. A magic user was at work when it happened, Dimirti's little friend would would be it. SHe knew for sure something was going on, and when she found out what, they would be the one's recieving the cruel execution.


_____


Damion mentally sighed when he was walking away from Alex and catching up with the group. He was relieved she came today, he would have a mental break down. For some reason he hates arrange marriages, but he's scared of them too. When the king displayed his.... 'warm welcome' Damion kept back the urge to stop him and help the crying girl, but that would never happen, at leats not when it invovled the king of the cruel kingdom.


When his father told them to announce their names, he looked to the terrians. Damion wondered who he was arranged for marriage to. And also hoped she hated the marriage thing and they could just marry, but have semi-single lives.


_____


Stefan sighed as he looked to the castle. "Poor Alex." but he heard snort from behind him, Stefan turned to find an older clan memebr. "More like poor Damion, I saw him earlier this morning. That boy looked like he was about to either puke his stomach out, or slowly kill someone." the man made a snort laugh before turning serious. "So leader went to confort him?" more of a statement then a question. The guy snorted again, this time Stefan turned and looked at him. "I don't see why she talks t humans. Saving them is one thing, but to talk to them? Messed up." With that the man left and returned to the main room of the hideout.


Then he remembered that some of the clan members were only members because they knew they would die a painful death if Alex was the leader. It's like she's from a scary story oyu tell your kids to freak them out. He found it intersting that they were that scared of Alex that they joined a clan they don't believe in, and embrace the beliefs.


Stefan frowned as he turned to look at the sky again. "Maybe she wants to be as human as possible?" he asked himself quietly, so no one could hear, even though he was outside by himself. "I know I would..." he said sadly before turning to go inside.
 



Rosa stood quietly holding her sister beside her while sneaking peaks at the rest of her family. She could just feel the fear radiating and it wasn’t just from her siblings. Oh know at least one or two of the Ty’scian sibling was afraid but she wasn’t sure which. The Princess next felt a dark foreboding presence and it nearly made her knees buckle, his emotions were so dark and twisted it made her physically ill. Rosa could feel the color draining from her face and her hands became clammy as she beckoned for her brother Bret. He obliged slipping close to her. With Enma behind her and Bret on her other side she was able to support herself and felt reasonably safe, then the King walked in.


He was a man tall in stature and dark in appearance. His emotions were a muddled see of pain, anger, grief and misery that swept across Rosa harshly. It took her breath and she was forced to gasp for air but than she could breath for one of the Ty’scian girls had thrown Enma before the King. The Princess started to take a step forward but Bret jerked his head his eyes never leaving his youngest sister. The prince could not bear to lose both sisters and no action would be taken until there was physical harm. So far the king was just being mean and cruel and no matter how much it angered him Bret wasn’t going to step in just because of that. No he had to pick his battles.


While Enma stood on that platform Rosa’s eyes were glued to her, she was forced to bite her tongue as he spoke about their mother and pure hatred resided in her eyes. Her stomach still churned as if she was going to puke but now it wasn’t nerves oh no it was her future-father-In-laws presence that made her ill. When the girl was back in her arms Rosa held her close pressing her into her maroon and gold dress as she whispered in her ears.


Bret placed one hand on Enma’s head and gestured for all of his siblings to come closer and seek comfort in numbers as he spoke. “I am Bret, heir to Terra’s throne,” he called in a strong voice that carried well in the chamber.
 
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