Tale of Four

Tristan sat, feeling a drop of sweat falling down the side of his cheek, making himself as still and small as possible. He had been given the right to sit by Anton, and ever since then, all three of them were completely silent. For the two siblings, it seemed natural, as if silence were the state they would be in around one another, yet for him, it was a suffocating time that weighed on his heart.

’When Elias burned me with his power, it was better than this. This is terrifying. Why am I in a room with these two?’ If asked a week ago if he couldn’t have imagined the moment, Tristan was sure he would have laughed in the person’s face, wondering where they got such an absurd theory from, wondering if they even knew who he was in the palace. ’Annabell. Please come back. I want to go to bed. This is so much worse than leaving the Palace.’

”Child.” Anton finally spoke, breaking through the silence. Tristan looked up and saw that Brandon was slightly surprised, not bothering to hide his emotions in front of his brother in such a private setting. ’The fact he’s speaking is surprising. How little do they talk?’ ”Your mind wandered easily.” Anton said with the same flat, aloof tone he always did, before lazily leaning against his fist, ”Tell me, why were you scared when looking at me in the merged state. You can lie if you want, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t. I’m curious after all.”

Tristan gulped and looked between Anton and Brandon, wondering if he could really say in front of who should have been Anton’s biggest political rival. Anton noticed Tristan’s actions and chuckled. Taking a look at Brandon, he saw the man wearing a thin smile. ”Child, do you really think my brother wouldn’t know all there is to know about me. Even if he didn’t know what you were going to say, I trust he could find it out himself.”

Tristan flushed red with embarrassment. Usually, he prided himself on being quite skilled in a diplomatic setting, able to hide his true intentions, but in front of Anton and Brandon, that mask was stripped away, his subtlety completely erased. ”Forgive me, Your Grace, Chancellor.” Bowing his head, he heard them chuckle again. Rising, he took a deep breath,

”Your body.” Gulping, he remembered the horrid sight, ”Your entire body is a den that houses hundreds of creatures. Hundreds of blood red spiders. Spiders that fight, hunt, and eat one another, until only the strongest stands.” Tristan took a deep breath and met Anton’s gaze, ”I mean no offence when I say this, rather I speak what I saw. You aren’t human anymore. You are entirely different from us. What happens when that taboo Annabell speaks of reaches its final stage?”

”Your dove says the merging process is a taboo, does she?” Anton half smiled, ”What a strange set of words.” With a small smile, the two stared into one another’s eyes. Slowly, Antons changed, becoming like the spiders, as his pupils and whites split apart, multiple separate eyeballs existing in the small gaps on his face. ”But this is the power of our founder.” His voice changed ever so slightly, a small clicking sound following each word, making Tristan instinctively tense up. His fight or flight instinct kicked in, but his body chose neither, being petrified on the spot by the sudden change.

Tristan held his breath, even when he needed to breathe, as the hairs on his body stood up. Not even his eyes could move as he wondered if this was where he died, for releasing Anton’s secret. ”Brother.” Only Brandon remained unaffected as he gently placed his hand on his shoulder, ”Cease these actions.”

”Brandon...” Anton’s voice clicked, a tone offended at being told what to do.

”The boy is terrified, and it isn’t good to let that side of you have control for too long.” Brandon’s hand squeezed a little harder, ”Stop showing off.” Anton gave a fake smile, and his eyes turned back to normal. The moment they did, the invisible pressure lifted off Tristan’s shoulders, and he collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest, taking rapid, deep breaths.

”Never reveal what you saw, child. I will know if it was you if this leaks. The others who know, I trust with my life to never say.” Tristan meekly nodded and recaptured his breath. ’There is danger in the merge. Brandon all but confirmed it. Yet Annabell said it was perfect. Does that mean the merge is a constant battle between the two for control? If Annabell and I reached that stage, what would happen?’

The two watched with interest as Tristan fell into thought. Both could see he was terrified, but even still, even when his life was threatened, and he was a hair’s breadth away from death a second ago, he still couldn’t break a habit of thinking over what just happened.

”Your Grace.” Tristan’s mind remembered something important, more important than them all at the moment. ”Prince Elias.” At the mention of Elias, Anton’s gaze sharpened as his eyes narrowed, ”Do you know about his merging?”

”Of course I do.”

”The merging process affects a person personally. That is correct, isn’t it?” Anton nodded, ”Prince Elias, I can’t be sure if it’s because of his summon, but his personality is strange because of it, soemthing his sister has noticed as well.”

Anton’s fingers danced on the armrest. ”I know.” Tristan opened his mouth but stopped what he was about to say and lowered his head, unsure why Anton didn’t seem to care. The king looked at him for a while before sighing, ”I understand your concern, but this is just a difference of philosophies between us. I let him, in fact, encourage the merging as it brings us closer to what the First King was. Obviously, you don’t do that, seeing as how you call it a taboo.”

”But...” Anton raised his hand to stop Tristan.

”If he can’t even overcome soemthing as minor as that, he cannot bear the weight of the throne.” Anton coldly said, ”You will not lecture me on how I raise my child and your future king. If you are that fearful of it, become someone who can advise him. If you don’t have the strength to do so, keep your thoughts to yourself.”

His words finished and were followed by a tapping on the window. Brandon opened it, and the two creatures quickly ran to their respective summoners, forcing them to embrace them. ”Tristan. That thing isn’t human anymore.” Annabell screeched in horror. ”I don’t know what it is, I can’t be sure, but it isn’t human. I...I...I think I was right. It’s a corpse. A dead woman controlled from somewhere else. A ritual, they did a ritual. One with the Magi and blood. Blood Magic and arcane arts have been mixed together, I don’t know, but it isn’t normal, it’s a taboo. They broke a taboo. I’m sure. They broke a rule of the world”

Annabell rapidly said her words, overlapping each other as her words nearly got lost in the echoing that followed them. ”They broke a taboo, they shouldn’t have, but they did.” She cried again, with even worse horror than when she spoke about merging.

”Calm down.” Tristan tightened his hold on Annabell, rubbing her favourite spots, forgetting who he was in the room with. ”It’s okay. You weren’t caught, were you? Please tell me you weren’t caught.

”I wasn’t. The stupid lizard’s power worked fine. They didn’t see us. But Tristan, that thing shouldn’t exist. I don’t know how they learnt to do soemthing like that, but they did it.” Tristan looked up and saw Anton and Brandon looking at Annabell, with deathly cold gazes, a deep, murderous intent in them.

Bradon looked to Azikial, who shook but nodded in agreement. With a sigh, he turned to Anton. ”Your Grace.” Brandon said slowly, each word lathered in venom, ”Is this enough proof for what I have been warning you about for years?” The murderous intent in his words wasn’t hidden as he took his monocle off for the first time. Letting Azikial climb up his shoulder and nestle into his neck, he took out a handkerchief and wiped it. ”Give me the order. I will personally oversee it. I will fix our family’s mistake.”

Anton took a deep breath. Although Tristan could tell he wanted to act on Brandon’s words after hearing Annabell’s words, he shook his head, ”No, it’s not enough. We have no proof. Only the words of a bird. The Great Lords won’t buy it, but Lord Elvissia.”

”Brother...”

”Brandon. I can’t sanction what you want.” He turned to the man, ”Get the proof, and I will do it. This doesn’t prove anything you fear, only reinforcing what we already know about them.” Anton coldly said. Tristan saw Brandon hand shake as he wiped his monocle, nearly snapping it in half as his knuckles whitened.

”Brother. Please. I am not crazy. You know my judgment has never been influenced by my own emotions.” Brandon’s voice was a mixture of desperation and anger.

”Brandon, I will not say it again. I believe you are right, but I can’t do anything with this. I can’t sanction it. Unless you can persuade the majority of the Great Lords of this action, I will not let you do anything without hard evidence.” Getting up, he placed a hand on his older brother’s shoulder, ”Do what you have to do, but if you harm them before you have what I need, I can’t protect you. Like you were warned before, I will let you burn to protect the dynasty, and I do not wish to do that.”