Azalea...
Reed groaned and pinched his glabella. Sighing, he decided to take a short respite from all paper works.
He sighed looking at the stacks of documents which almost looked like a mountain on top of his table.
"My head hurts." He complained while gentle massaging his temples. He had been working nonstop for the past few days.
He had to finish the urgent documents so that he would be able to make time to attend the Enclave.
Though he was quite overwork, he did not miss to feel the presence from outside his study. He knew that a shadow knight was hovering outside his window.
"Trevor…" He called out.
By the time Reed opened his eyes, the shadow knight was already inside the room, kneeling before him.
"Your majesty". Trevor's gruff voice filtered his ears.
Reed rose from his seat and took the scroll presented by the shadow knight.
When his eyes fell on the report, Reed looked quite grim.
"So, it has begun…" he muttered. "I see. Then, I have to pay him a visit."
He then threw the report to the fireplace. As the paper was engulfed in flames, Reed asked the shadow knight to prepare.
"Make arrangements. I will have to pay my father a short visit."
"Should I accompany you, my king?" Trevor asked as he prepare for departure.
"You can simply follow me."
Trevor then disappeared from his sight.
The next day, Reed found himself travelling towards one of the abandoned caserns in an isolated town of Formosa.
"I cannot believe that he had chosen to stay in this forsaken place." Reed grumbled as he pushed his horse towards the outskirts.
Although, his father was stripped off his title as a king and had been banished from the Enclave, Reed could not find it in himself to simply cast his father out.
So, the best arrangement he had managed to negotiate with the other kings was to isolate his father somewhere rather than having him executed.
At first the Enclave rejected his appeal but after convincing them to seal his father's skills and ability as a king, they conceded.
Since, Bulrush was convicted, he was thrown in that town with just a bare minimum necessity for him to survive. With his powers sealed and limited supplies, he could not do any harm to others.
Or that was what Reed had thought.
He left his horse with the shadow knight. Together with a couple of knights as guards, they navigated towards the casern.
When they finally reached the place, the young king was shocked. As he finally opened the door, he saw pentagrams drawn on the walls.
"This place reeks of blood and death." one of the knights commented while preparing his sword.
"What in heavens are these?" he gritted out as he hastily looked for his father.
They scrutinized the pentagrams which were reddish in color. It was as if the caster used blood as the catalyst.
"Your majesty, we have to careful!" Trevor warned him but he paid no heed.
He rushed inside the casern while looking for his father.
"My son! My son!" King Bulrush's voice echoed through the walls. Reed finally managed to find him in one of the make shift laboratory.
Reed was dumbfounded when he saw the former king of Azalea. His dark locks with occasional greys were matted as if he had not taken a bath for a very long time.
He wore tattered clothes unbefitting of a former monarch. And he reeked of urine and filth.
"where are the people in charge of his former majesty?" he asked while looking around. Then he signaled for the knights to investigate.
The knights left except for Trevor, who acted as his guard.
Reed's attention returned to his father. Bulrush looked more like a lunatic than a royal.
"You have to find it, we have to possess the Larmes! It is the only way." Bulrush cried out as he tried to approach Reed.
Reed did not shy away. He held his trembling father and guided him to a chair.
"Father, you have to stop this. Mom is dead." He talked as he tried his best to clean up his father's clothes.
"I also commissioning the best healers to cure Rozen." He tried reassuring the former king.
His sister got the same illness as his mother. So he had been finding ways to cure her. But as of late, he had to leave taking care of their youngest sibling to Briar.
Briar was more doting and from the reports, Rozen had been feeling much better with Briar as a guardian. "There is no reason for us to find the Larmes."
The former king suddenly grabbed his arm. Reed was a bit surprised at how strong his grip was.
'Father should not be this strong.' He thought as he tried to pry himself off.
But Bulrush held on. "You are wrong, my son."
The former king's eyes shifted from brown to pitch black. It was as if an entity had taken hold of him. "We have to find it. The others are on the move."
"others?" Reed muttered.
Just then the former king lost consciousness. Reed asked the knights to clean him up and bring him to bed.
The other knights had given him some of the things they were able to discover. The former king's caretakers seemed to have fled.
And aside from Bulrush, it seemed another person had been occupying the place. There were traces of dark mage.
"I have to make sure that it is true..." He said before he inspected the casern.
To his astonishment, aside from what his knights had reported, Reed had discovered certain grimoires which were considered taboo.
"There is no way, father is involved in this." He slammed his fist on the table which caused some of the papers and scrolls to scatter.
As the papers had gotten disorganized he saw a particular report about the seal of Azalea.
"How come the seal from Azalea got like this?" he muttered to himself when he saw the report.
"I had never touched the seal and father's power as a member of the Enclave was revoke. How did it got corrupted?" he muttered. "I will have to check the seal before I get back to the capital."
Unbeknownst to him, a shadow was approaching behind his back. Sensing danger which was inching forward, Reed drew his sword.
Blades clashed and the knife was knocked out of his attacker's hand. However, Reed was dumbfounded when he saw who it was.
But before he could move, a thick cloud of darkness, flared from the corpse and enveloped him.
By the time, Reed gained consciousness, he was lying on one of the spare beds in the casern.
Trevor gave him the gist of what had happened. But Reed looked indifferent despite receiving such information.
Instead, he had asked about the seal from Marjoram since he got curious after he read about the data from Azalea.
"Your majesty, this is what we have found." Trevor said as he handed the data to the king.
"I never thought that it would be a girl. To think that they would choose someone unexpected. And to think that she was closer than I thought." He smirked as his eyes began to shift from brown to black.