The last day of meetings with the Queen's Guard had begun. Helen sat across from yet another discomforted young man in abject silence.
Having Mehlsanz observe the castle for the past few days had been a rather convenient means of gathering information. Only two of Helen's brothers, Nathaniel and David, lived with her in Belgrant Castle, but all seven brothers were currently visiting. They had, of course, rushed to be by her side as soon as they heard the news of the assassination attempt. In fact, one of the reasons she had decided to employ this strategy was for the peace it afforded her from their incessant "advisement."
To her mind, the most likely culprit was her oldest brother, Prince Gabriel, as he had been the presumed heir to the throne before her ascension. And yet, according to Mehlsanz, Gabriel was not behaving strangely. If he was guilty, then he was hiding it well enough to fool someone he couldn't even see. However, Mehlsanz could not keep eyes on him at all times while still observing the others as well.
The young Lynnette Edith had thus far proven loyal. Mehlsanz had not seen her tell anyone of Helen's orders, even when asked by her comrades, but again, Mehlsanz could only give an incomplete account of events.
The drawing room's side door opened, and a blond-bearded man popped his head through. He looked directly at Helen. "I know you wished not to be disturbed, but I need to speak with you."
Helen excused herself and stepped into the adjacent room with him.
This man was William Belgrant. He was her husband. And in the event of her death, all the power of the Crown would pass to him.
According to Mehlsanz, he had been working harder than anyone else to find the assassin, but that somehow made him more suspicious in Helen's mind. If she was honest, he was the very last person she wanted to be responsible for the assassination attempt, but that was emotion talking, not reason, and she refused to let that blindside her.
Still, it made little sense for him to desire her death. Yes, he was the King consort and not the King regent, but there was no terrific discrepancy between the two, unless his political views were wildly different from what he claimed they were. And surely, fourteen years of marriage had taught her something of this man's heart. He may have had the biggest motivation to kill her, but she couldn't imagine him doing such a thing. At the moment, anyway.
Taking long, slow blinks with bags under his eyes, William led her to the other end of the L-shaped chamber, and motioned to the rather broad, elderly woman standing there--his aunt, Duchess Jezebel Belgrant. "She told me something that I thought you should hear," said William.
"I believe I know the assassin's motivation," said the duchess.
Helen merely waited for her to elaborate.
"It has to do with your tendency to... ignore certain members of your council. Most members, in fact."
"I am not certain as to what you are referring," said Helen.
Jezebel frowned, and the many wrinkles on her plump face turned down as well. "You know there is considerable support for the expansionist movement, yes?"
"We believe your opposition to the movement is what prompted the attack," said William.
"Ah," said Helen. They weren't telling her anything she didn't already know. There wasn't much else that would spur one of her brothers to kill her. But these two probably didn't know that her brothers were responsible. All the same, she guarded her tongue. Until she knew their true loyalties, she saw little reason to give them information needlessly.
"I'm surprised you needed us to tell you," said Jezebel. "A queen should know her court better." The woman had never been short of criticism.
Helen gave a squinting smile. "I will take that under advisement. Can you tell me who leads the expansionist movement?"
"I'm afraid not," said the duchess. "There are at least a dozen council members supporting it, all of equal standing."
From the corner of her eye, Helen saw Mehlsanz phase through the wall. She decided to thank the duchess and the King for their information and return to drawing room, reaper in tow.
'You really think your husband did it?' said Mehlsanz. 'He seems like a decent man.'
'I must be certain. I never gave it much thought before--and perhaps I should have--but I recall William being initially reluctant to marry me.'
'Oh? And you weren't?'
'I... quite fancied him.'
'Aha.'
'He has never been terribly affectionate. But then, neither have I.'
'Y'know, I had an arranged marriage, too. Though, I was a slave, so my parents didn't really have a say in it, either.'
Helen took her seat again. 'You were a slave?'
'Only until I was old enough to give birth,' said the reaper. 'My master sold me off straight away. Little did they know that I was infertile.'
With the young guardsman still present in the room, the Queen just glanced at Mehlsanz.
'Anyhow, you should really get some meditating done.'
'I still do not understand how you could need me to protect you from anything.'
'Yeah, well. The world is a bigger and scarier place than you yet realize, Your Majesty.'
'Please do not call me that.'
'Helen of the House Belgrant?'
'Simply Helen will suffice.'
'Okay, Simply Helen.'
'You...'
'Sounds like the title of a movie. "Simply Helen. Come along as one woman discovers what it means to be herself." I bet you'd go see it, too, you generic old biddy.'
'You are insufferable...'
'Yeah, you definitely would.'
'Please return to observing the castle.'
'Fine. Do your meditation while I'm gone.'
'Very well.'
The reaper left, and Helen attempted to do as she was asked, but she found it incredibly difficult to meditate with a stranger watching her. Surely, the guardsman must have thought she was sleeping, and the idea that he would then return to his comrades and tell them of how he saw the Queen sleeping on the job was more than enough to disturb her focus.
At length, however, Mehlsanz interrupted her vain efforts. 'Oh no...'
'What is it?'
'I found a wandering soul in the basement. Someone died down here. And recently, too.'
'How recently?'
'Hours, at most.'
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Hector didn't mind the highway so much. The turns were long and gradual, and there wasn't much traffic this early in the morning. The only bad part was having to avoid road debris. He couldn't just run over a blown-out tire or a plastic jug and expect to keep control of the bike.
Save the dwindling towers of Brighton, rolling green hills filled all horizons as he sped across the road. White and dark clouds spotted an otherwise blue sky, and Hector could see a faint drizzle gathering on the visor of his helmet. Garovel had pointed out that it was unsafe to continue using a helmet that had already been involved in a collision, and Hector had promised to find a new one at the earliest convenience, since they were obviously so safety conscious.
He couldn't remember a time when he saw the Atreyan countryside so clearly. The most mundane things drew his gaze. A massive, lone tree, branches sprawling higher and wider than anything he'd seen in Brighton. A quaint flock of sheep grazing on a hill, shepherd and dog not far away. The faint shadow of eastern mountains on his right, thankfully not between him and Sescoria.
Then he felt the bike shake beneath him and realized he was straddling the yellow ridges in the middle of the road. He corrected his course and decided to save his gawking for later.
'There are some things I should tell you before we get there,' said Garovel.
'Things?'
'In particular, names. I don't know what we'll encounter in the capital, but I figure this'll become relevant eventually, anyway, so I might as well tell you now.'
'Okay.' Hector was just trying to keep his eyes on the road.
'With reapers, there are two big entities: Abolish and the Vanguard. The balance of power shifts between them. Though, for all I know, there could be a third major power these days. I'm a bit out of the loop, if that wasn't already obvious.'
'Hmm. These two sides are at war?'
'Constantly. All over the world. Been that way for ages.'
'Geez... what are they fighting about?'
'Well,' said Garovel, 'you remember how I said that some reapers are trying to make things worse?'
'Yeah?'
'I was talking about Abolish. That's what they do.'
'Why?'
'The main reason is that they all want to "move on" into the afterlife. See, they believe that the reason reapers exist is to ferry human souls into the afterlife; and moreover, they believe that once there are no more souls left to ferry, our "purpose" will have been fulfilled, and we will then be able to proceed into the afterlife ourselves.'
'But... is that, I mean... is that true?'
'No. It's bullshit. There's absolutely no reason to believe we'd be magically transported to another plane of existence just because everyone on Eleg dies.'
'Y-you're sure?'
'Even if we suppose that it is true, I still think it's fucking crazy to use it as justification to destroy humanity.'
'Eesh... They really wanna destroy the human race? I mean... that's just so...'
'Stupid?'
'It's just... you guys can still die, right? I mean, if these Abolish guys wanna get to the afterlife so badly, then why don't they... y'know... have one of their servants kill them or something?'
Garovel sighed. 'Because they believe in that fucking thing called "destiny." They think a higher power has ordained us to be reapers, and if we kill ourselves to avoid that divine responsibility, then we get punished in the afterlife. Or some shit like that--I dunno. It's all very disturbing. And also, because they're cowardly, deluded bastards.'
'But... wouldn't a higher power or whatever... have a problem with them killing everyone?'
'One would think. Hey, I told you they were fucking crazy.'
'Gah...'
'Though, I imagine that some reapers have actually done that before--just trained up a servant in order to end their own lives. But obviously, those reapers would be dead now, and not causing problems for us.'
'Mm, good point...'
'And honestly,' Garovel went on, 'I don't think all the members of Abolish actually believe it, either. I think some of them just relish the opportunity for destruction. Which, y'know, I can almost understand. Destroying things is fun. But not when it causes wanton misery and death.'
'That kinda sounds like... someone we already know...'
'You noticed that, too, huh? I've been wondering if Geoffrey is somehow tied to Abolish, as well. But if he was, you'd think that he would've already known what reapers are before he met us.'
'Maybe he was lying.'
'Eh, that's a strange thing to lie about. And I'm not sure Geoffrey even knows how to lie. He was more than happy to talk about his murders.'
'Ah... so then, what about this, uh... Vanguard group? They're trying to protect the world?'
'Yeah. You have to understand, though, that both groups can be broken down into tons of smaller factions, each with slightly different goals or variations on the beliefs of the whole. While we might be able to find allies in the Vanguard, we can't count on them to always be friendly. I remember a few reapers there that we really don't wanna be around.'
'Wait. Are you a member of the Vanguard?'
'I used to be. My last servant and I worked with them for a long time, so I know a lot of reapers there.'
Hector's brow perked up. 'Your last servant... what happened to him? Or... her?'
'We'd been together for a while, and he'd grown tired of it all. He decided that he was ready to die, so he asked me to release him. And I did.'
'What was he like?'
'Some other time. Right now, you need to know the big names--the most powerful servants in the world, that is. The names that everyone knows not to fuck with, including us.'
'Ah, uh--okay...'
'There are four names you need to be particularly aware of. They are Dozer, Morgunov, Sai-hee, and Sermung.'
Hector squinted. 'Dozer...?'
'You know how there's also a country called Dozer, right?'
'Yeah...?'
'That's not a coincidence.'
'Oh...'
'Morgunov and Dozer both lead Abolish, even though they're said to hate each other. Sermung leads the Vanguard by himself, and Sai-hee is neutral.'
'This Sermung person fights two at once?'
'It's not just them, remember. They have armies of reapers and servants supporting them, and even though they might be the most famous, their highest ranking subordinates are also extremely powerful. But yes, Sermung is an absolute monster.'
'I see...'
'Age is generally the determining factor. These four people have been emperors of the community for, I dunno, two or three hundred years now; and that's because they've survived the longest. I think Sermung is about six hundred years old, and I think the others are all similar.'
'Eesh...'
'I know a little more about Sermung, because I actually met him before--him and his reaper, Tenebrach.'
'Whoa, what were they like?'
'They were a fiercely impressive pair. Honorable, intelligent, and... they had this odd presence that was just... overwhelming to be around.'
'You said... he's six hundred years old, but... isn't that actually kind of young? I mean, if the oldest servants are the most powerful, then I would've thought he'd be like... as old as you, basically. Y'know, thousands of years.'
'Ah. Yeah. Well. There's a long and complicated history, but suffice to say, the most powerful people in the world tend to get killed, eventually. The longer an empire exists, the more prone to corruption and so forth it becomes. Sooner or later, new generations rise up; a massive power shift takes place; and then it's utter chaos until a new balance of power is achieved.'
'But not in the past couple hundred years, you said?'
'Things have reached a kind of stalemate, I suppose. Big shifts in power generally require these rising stars--that is, servants whose power is skyrocketing because they're constantly involved in huge conflicts. Which happens quite a lot, actually, but I think the trouble nowadays is that the emperors are all paying close attention to this. When they see some young gun making waves in the world, they don't just ignore that person.'
'What, so they just kill them?'
'Or recruit them, yeah. That's the deadliest time period in a servant's growth. You suddenly have four giants breathing down your neck, and you're left with a choice: pick a side, or try to survive long enough to become an emperor yourself. Which isn't exactly a fun dilemma to be in. I know a lot of reapers intentionally release their servants before they reach that threshold just so they won't be targeted.'
Hector's eyes widened, and he shifted his hands. 'A-are you gonna do that with me?'
'Don't be stupid. Of course not.'
'But then... are you saying you want me to join the Vanguard? Or... become an emperor? Because I wasn't really planning on, uh... I mean, I...'
Garovel laughed. 'I just want you to stay alive, Hector.'
'I... I mean, you're talking about all this crazy stuff, but... I just wanna protect people... y'know, if I can...'
'That's good enough for me. We'll worry about it later.'
Abruptly, Hector noticed a highway police truck coming the opposite direction. His posture went rigid, and he held his breath as he waited for it to pass. It did, and he watched in his side mirror, making sure it didn't suddenly turn around.
After a few minutes, he relaxed again. Then he took the next turn too wide, ran off the road, and flipped the bike into a ditch.