บท 16: Deaths

Queen Zyne had sent her messenger to two different kingdoms in search of something powerful, forged with different magic from different wizards.

"Get me two young generals", she commanded.

Sek had noticed that something had come over his mother. Earlier, he blamed old age, but now, it was getting serious and he didn't like the direction in which her recent behavior was going. He had gotten intel that she had sent someone out of the kingdom and wondered what it was all about. He knew she hated Seth and hoped that his mother wouldn't do something stupid that everyone would live to suffer its consequences.

* * *

"I need both of you to follow this to the letter. No mistakes!"

"Yes, My Queen," both of them answered simultaneously.

"Arrest Ling. Take him to this location..." she handed one of them a paper, "there are chains there that I had fixed, strip him and bind him."

Both the generals looked at one another.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Your Majesty"

"On no account should anyone know about this mission, otherwise, I will have your heads. When it is done, report back to me."

They bowed and took their leave.

Zyne had sent a letter to the wife of one of the warlords in Japan and had gotten a pleasant response. She had replied to the queen with the answer to her request- A personal ninja, a highly-skilled assassin to do her bidding.

Since his arrival, the assassin had always been around Zyne in the shadows. Even during the daytime -- the queen would look around and not find him but when she made the signal he had taught her to make, he would appear in seconds. Queen Zyne was wowed. He even signaled to her that he had no name, so all she had to do was give him the order and it will be done swiftly.

"There is a witch. I do not know if she is still alive but I want her dead."

Zyne gave him the woman's description, reminding him that her looks would have changed from what she knew. But she was someone banished from The Red Kingdom and that should be helpful to him finding her location if she was still alive.

"Witches live long anyway... with all the blood they drink," Zyne had said with disdain.

The assassin left in the blink of an eye.

* * *

Early the next morning, wailing was heard throughout the palace.

King Zain had died.

Sek, Queen Zyne sat on his bed with the king's body laying on the bed.

Queen Zyne was a shadow of herself already. She had cried so much that there was no strength left to weep anymore, only sounds could be heard from her now. As for Sek, he was just staring at his father's corpse. He knew this day was near but as it had happened, he discovered that one can not be entirely prepared for the feeling.

Prince Seth heard the news and rushed down to the king's room. The guards at the door gave way for him to enter.

"GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!! LEEEE-AA-VV-EEE!!"

"Mother... he was his father too. You can't do that."

"Oh yes, I can. Guards! are there bees in your ears? Get this demon out of my room!"

Seth didn't wait for the guards to get to him when he turned around and walked out of the place.

[Either she was getting senile or it's what grief does to people], Seth thought.

Prince Sek had followed his half-brother out of the room too. He felt bad about how his mother had acted.

[To think she did and said all that in front of the maids and everyone present. That was wrong]

"Seth! Wait up... You walk too fast."

Seth stopped, arranged his face because he knew he was frowning, and he knew what could possibly happen if he allows himself to get too upset. He didn't want Sek to see that side of him, at least, not yet.

"Hey, brother! I am really sorry for your-"

"Our loss, Seth," Prince Sek said.

"Yes. May his soul transcend."

"Amyn! I want to apologize on my mother's behalf... what she said... how she acted. Don't take it to heart, alright?"

"It is nothing, Sek. Oh! King Sek."

Sek was taken aback. It hadn't even occurred to him that he was king now. He hugged Seth, and that was when tears rolled down his cheeks.

* * *

Seth's biological mother had not died.

She was still alive but was getting older by the day. After having her son 25 years ago, a day did not pass without her thinking about him. She wondered how handsome he'd look, and she knew he would have powers because of the things she had put in place before his conception.

There was a spy she sent to keep an eye on him, that kept bringing reports to her until one day, the reports stopped coming through. Then, she knew they had killed him. The strand of hair she took from her baby when she just birthed him got missing when they bundled her suddenly and dumped her in another land. She was filled with anger and pain but as time went by, old age coming too, she didn't have the strength to keep up.

She also thought that if she tried to get close, her son's life might be in danger. She had heard from another spy she sent that he was being kept in a cottage somewhere. He had told her that he couldn't get close as there was some kind of force protecting the place.

She knew that magic all too well. It must have been the handiwork of that Ling wizard.

Today, she woke up with an eerie feeling.

She hoped all was well with her son, where ever he may be.

She felt a presence in her room... her sight had dulled almost to the point of blindness over the years but not her senses.

"They have sent you."

No response.

"Get it over with before I cut you down myse-"

Seth's mother didn't finish her statement when a steel blade slashed across her chest, deeply cutting her lungs. She was dead in seconds.