No Such Thing as Good and Evil

“That completes my report, sire.” A shakingly nervous Faun said. The goat like creature was on one knee in the royal chambers of Merellien, kneeling Infront of King Elluin Venali.

“You’re telling me, a dragon pretending to be that dirty criminal I killed all those years ago, and some unknown run-away noble’s child are the ones ruining our plans?” The king snarled. The king was a fairy, and was wearing red and purple robes, with a golden jeweled crown atop his head. He was sat in a red velvet chair and was sipping on wine from a golden chalice.

“Yes, sire. 5 of the 7 towns we had captured have now been freed. All 5 of them were freed by the same pair.” The faun said, then grimaced as he steeled himself to say the next part of his report. “From everything we have seen through the orbs, we believe it may actually be him, not just someone pretending to be him.”

The king growled, causing the faun to flinch. “Are you calling me a liar? Are you saying I didn’t actually kill him?”

“No…sire…I would never…. I apologize if that’s how it sounded.” The faun stumbled.

Elluin growled again. “Whatever, I don’t have time to punish your disrespect. We need to take care of this issue immediately and get our plans back on track. First, I want you to call up the dragon hunters and have them enact the same strategy we used to tame Lyari. That should help bring Alessandria to their knees. Who exactly to target, I’ll leave up to you. Second, I want a line to Normuc, specifically their knight commander Alexis. If I remember correctly, he was not a fan of The Black Devil, and would surely love an opportunity to take down someone posing as him as well.”

“Yes sire, right away.” The Faun said. He shot to his feet, put his fist over his heart in a half bow, then marched out of the room, closing the door.

King Elluin waited a few minutes to make sure the Faun was out of earshot before he got up out of his chair and threw the golden chalice across the room, which slammed into the wall, painting it red with wine. “Of course that piece of shit dragon would re-appear right as my plans are finally in motion.” He then began to pace back and forth in the chambers with his hand to his chin in thought. “He has to be taken care of quickly, quietly, before others find out. And who is this fairy girl? What do I do about her?” He then paused and looked rather scared. “What if she’s some noble from Alessandria. What if they hired him as a mercenary to foil my plans. But would they do that? He committed treason of the highest order as one of their knights, why would they then turn to him? No, none of it makes any sense. Why has he re-appeared now than, after all these years!”

The faun had remained on the other side of the door, completely silent, ear plastered to the hole in the doorknob. While a mere servant to the king now, the faun was actually a relatively talented warrior at one point, and could hide his echos, which he did to trick the king into thinking he was gone. He heard the entire outburst from the king before he began to walk away, muttering to himself. “It’s actually him, he’s not dead. I knew it, I knew that weakling could never have killed the black devil. How did we let someone like that take our throne on the back of such an obvious lie! What do we, what do I do?” He then turned back towards the door and frowned. “Maybe I’ll make some plans of my own, but how, where do I start?” He then smiled an evil smile. “Of course, its right in front of me! That same black devil. If I can flush him out into the open, then Elluin will have no other choice than to admit he lied. And I think I have the perfect person in mind.” He began to laugh to himself as he walked down the lavishly furnished hallway away from the king’s quarters.

The tablet in Aeriths shop began to vibrate. “Elmyra can you get that!” Aerith yelled, but got no answer. The tablet was currently on the front counter of the shop, while Aerith was brewing potions in the kitchen. “Elmyra!” She yelled, but got no answer still. She sighed and took off her apron, then strolled out of the kitchen to the front counter. “I swear ever since Faylen and Shade left, she has been out training and taking jobs non-stop.” She then reached down and grabbed the tablet off the counter. She clicked a symbol on it, placed it by her ear, then began to speak. “Hello, Leomoi…”

She was cut off immediately by a manic voice. “WHERE IS HE!?”

“Where is who?” Aerith said pulling the tablet a bit away from her ear. “And who is this?”

“It’s Gaelin. Where is Shade!”

“Gaelin, is something wrong? Did something happen?”

“Where is he!” Gaelin yelled again.

“I don’t know, I don’t have a tracker on him, nor does he have a tablet. After they left, I haven’t heard from them. The last I knew of them was when we last spoke after the hotel incident. Why, what’s going on?”

“They took her! They took princess Vestelle!”