Show panicked. Everything they achieved together might crumble if the kid was to create mayhem now. While the kid felt multiple hands grabbing his limbs tight, he whispered.
"Just one bite, one..."
'Don't you dare! You are way too messy for a midnight meal!'
"In there, you did not answer my call, I shall not listen to you tonight..."
'I said no!' Show said while he lifted the kid from the ground and stuck him to the ceiling, three meters above his usual height. The kid fought back until his heart skipped few beats, knocking him down on the spot.
The guard from the other side of the door opened it a second later. There was nothing to see in the room, so he closed it back. Then thought.
'Wait... who knocked if it's not sorcerer Seven? Where's he? Did he just fool me to escape?'
So he bursted in, hoping to see Seven, quietly sleeping.
Instead he saw a gigantic mass of darkness holding a kid with a distorted face mid air. His weapon fell on the ground and with the noise, two red light emerged from the thing.
'I forgot the double check. Too bad, this guy was smarter than the others.' Show thought before making the man disappear before he could scream. Even if the guard saw the kid alone, without his mask, the deception with Satish would've been revealed soon after.
With this only gulp, the problem died in the crib.
Next morning, the guard was reportedly missing. No traces of him were to be find at his home, nor in the palace. He simply vanished during the night. It arose many suspicions among all the palace's workers.
First, some recalled the animal cries and screams reverberating at night. Then the secrecy of the guest who revealed to be a sorcerer. No one knew what he looked like. No one truly knew him except the king and his assistant, or so they thought.
That Seven was strange.
Few argued, saying the cries came from Satish, the kid who was executed for being too much of an anomaly and likely to attract bad luck. The kid that had been healed by the king and executed by the citizens.
Then maybe this mysterious event was the beginning of the end. War approached from a side couldn't no one could anticipate.
The servant's secret meeting in the kitchens was interrupted by the head assistant.
"This case will be solved when we'll find the guard. You have to respect our sorcerer. His presence in the palace is a blessing and he is by no means related to the disappearance. Now you better go back to work before I make it harder."
"Yes master Kianush."
They said altogether.
The man was in his late twenties, taller of most by a head. He was nothing such as a powerful servant, he was the best warrior in the city.
---
When he woke up, Keith wasn't hungry at all. Last night events were but the remnant of a dream. His eyes were healed, yes, but his muscle memory said the opposite. His eyes were not itchy because he kept them immobile.
The memory loss was the best coincidence Show could hope for. He used it to his advantage, the boy relied on him to move or be fed properly.
Two weeks later, the warrior's weapons and equipment were ready as they all solely focused on martial arts or battle formations. Their rations shrunk day after day until they had only rice with a chunk of meat left in their plates.
Their clothes were soaked in sweat daily and their hygiene outshined the poverty standards.
Two weeks prior the prophetic day, the king asked Foresee for her visions.
"How come you're this useless? Never in twenty years you've disappointed me! I don't care, rack your brain, slam it against a door or keep your eyes open for a whole day. See something for me, anything that'll help."
He said, while she replied.
"My king, nothing has changed, I still see chaos and depravation upon our beloved city. I had only one sliver of divination lately... This new life under your benevolence, a son maybe?"
"Rubbish! Nothing has changed here, my lack of courtesy with my escort impedes on my bedtime activities. It'll be my most overrated problem to make a royal descendant now."
She stood in the middle of her ingredients, with a hundred stars drawn on the floor, her ritual would help her power work as she's used to say. But this time she gasped as if a lightning bold struck her in the middle of the room. Chandragupta didn't know what to do as she had violent spasms and convulsions, biting her tongue to the blood in the process.
"Get a hold of yourself! Foresee? ONE!"
The last word woke her up from the critical state, her slave name was the most common word in the country, yet shouted by the one she loved shook her every time.
She picked herself up and spoke after taking a deep breath.
"The gods gave me what you wanted. They've shown me the truth. Your enemy will come from southern gate, alone."
The king regained his composure before asking, surprised from her answer.
"Alone? What do you mean?"
"I saw one guy standing on corpses. Stumbling his way in the city. It could mean either he's a political enemy, either he's one of your relatives."
While adjusting his crown he sighed in relief. Finally something to rely on.
"Both of those are bad omen. But at least I'm mentally prepared now!"
To Foresee, the king had not considered having a child for now. Her protuberant layer of fat hid her pregnancy well enough for the moment, but she knew she'd be in troubles soon. 'I might have to run away.'
She deliberately ate more food to gain weight and hide her child.
With his sharp mind, the king knew the provenance of the child, he was far from being a fool and went to ask Keith's help. He simply ordered.
"Kill Foresee's baby, at any cost."
Routine resumed for all of them.
Daily visits from the court, receiving reports from Kianush, experimenting new potions and spells, praying the gods. None of their activities were worth the time spent on it.
For the city, the level of stress increased by the day because of the incoming threat. Most of the new guards and troops were monitoring the ramparts, waiting for the lone vagrant that'll bring the city to its knees.
Ned, Yotoh and Picco had been assigned to the southern gate. Allegedly wearing the colours of the newfound army of the eye. Their uniform was marked with a red line from their left shoulder to the right hip. It was so dirty the original dark green dye had turned to a soil brown shade.
Their right shoulder pad had an eye engraved on it, the king insisted to carve the same stamp for all soldier, keeping them united with their futile common point while underlining the importance of his trust toward Foresee.
Sitting in his royal garden, the king seeped tea while looking at the many imperfections of his plants. Long thorns and dead leaves crimped his roses, the grass was unpleasant under the bare feet, preventing him to think about the intense heat of the sun. There was no cloud in the sky though a tempest approached.
One week later, the king found a gift placed on his nightstand. A round lump of meat, as big as an apple. It had a translucent skin and hands adorned with thin fingers, tiny ears, but almost no facial features.
The deed had been conducted by Mister Show only, not bothering asking the kid for the night expedition.
The smell reminded him of his battlefield experience. Destroying villages and exterminating lifes to conquer. Chandragupta imagined how his life could've been if he had this child. He could've adopted it, just to keep it for himself. He could've flattened a mountain to have a descendant.
As a tear fell down his cheek, he knew it was too late. He whispered.
"For the better."
His fists were so tight his hand whitened.
Two days later in the red light of the sunset, the three villagers were chitchatting when Yotoh saw something unusual approaching. From the top of the ramparts, an apparently drunk person staggered his way to the gates.
The cloak he wore caught their attention, they decided to go down meet the man.
Their curiosity rose when they called him. The first person to approach was Yotoh, his now healthy lean body allowed him to jump down the wall in a breath. He noticed people avoiding the drunkard by more than a meter, then said.
"Hey buddy, where did you get those clothes?"
The next breath he took almost made him vomit. The man in front of him reeked death, yet Yotoh couldn't see the man's face nor features. His crooked back and skeletal body could be discerned under the cape but nothing more.
He covered his mouth and nose in his elbow and insisted, the unknown man had yet to give one word as an answer.
"I said-"
He stopped his sentence amid when he heard squeaks nearby. With his hand, he rapidly brushed the familiar cloak to reveal half a dozen of rats nibbling the place where organs normally laid.