The Throne Hall of the Sun Palace of Helios was a masterpiece of architecture.
Soaring columns of white marbles veined with gold stretched up all the way to the high ceiling on which a beautiful depiction art of Apollina facing the sun was drawn.
The space was vast enough to hold hundred of people and designed aningfully to make the whole place glow and shine and make the two throne standing on the dais ahead, with the King’s throne on a higher step compared to the Queen’s throne a step below and diagonally to the King’s throne.
Both were ornated in a red silk and velvet of fire and golden ornants, and both currently empty except for the King’s throne, on the seat was resting the golden Crown of the King.
After King Marconius’s death the hall had fallen briefly into a state of silence but after the recent disappearance of Lumiel, the young man who was crowned as king a week ago, the hall had turned quite noisy.
And they had quite a reason as their Kingdom had been now Kingless for a whole week.
Every nobles of consequences status of the caporal had gathered there to discuss of the future.
The crisis was real enough after all.
The Crown Prince Lumiel newly King, had apparently chosen a fiery suicide over the burden of rule.
And to be truthful, most of them weren’t even that surprised. They knew the boy being weak minded. They had seen him faint literally at his own coronation much to their shocks, as if heir opinion of him couldn’t have been any lower....
Regardless it made perfect sense for such a weak boy to crack under pressure especially after his Father’s death.
Well it was definitely a secret blessing for them.
He had simply saved them the painful process of finding a way to remove him later.
But now there was an important question.
Who sits next there?
Certainly not Queen Eliana.
In their minds, she was a broken won, consud by grief that make her politically inert.
"I think the answer is obvious."
A deep voice spoke up answering that question.
The speaker was Count Roland Kestrel, the Lord Chancellor, a neat looking man with blond hair slick back. He had been King Marconius’s advisor.
"No one will sit on the throne for the ti being. We will govern by council, deciding together," he said.
"And for how long, Lord Chancellor?"
The scoff ca from the other side of the room.
Marquis Elbert Ashcroft.
Dark hair shot through his scalp with streaks of grey and quite cunning look.
"How long are we going to be Kingless?" He asked, sweeping his gaze across the assembly. "Every Kingdoms on the continent knows we have lost our King. They sll blood and they sll power waiting to be taken. They will be considering an attack to seek seats the Fla before the week is out. We cannot remain headless, we cannot afford it."
Murmurs of agreent rippled through the room.
The Fla of Helios, their blessing and curse right now.
Every neighbor envied it.
As every Kings would.
And now that King Marconius died...
"Just imagine, when the news of Prince Lumiel’s death spreads, if it hasn’t already," Elbert continued sensing his advantage. "They wouldn’t hesitate. They will see nothing but opportunity in our weakness."
"I surmise you have a solution to present, Lord Ashcroft?"
A man with slick hair and wire rimd glassed, asked with hidden sarcasm.
He was Mark Lewin, the Viscount and also Treasurer of the Kingdom.
His words were clearly tinged with sarcasm.
However Elbert didn’t even blink.
"I do, indeed. We must place soone on the throne imdiately. Soone with the rightful blood to sit but we have lost Prince Lum"
"We still have the Branch House of Helios."
One of the nobles muttered.
"Distant relation," Elbert dismissed it with a wave of his hand? "Diluted blood, unacceptable for the prestigious throne of the Sun."
These were clearly exgaerrated bordering insulting words but everyone kept silence.
"Then, what do you have offer, Lord Chancellor?" Roland asked, his eyes narrowing to slits.
Elbert smiled as if he asked soone asked him.
"Thankfully, Princess Lenora is still with us, alive and of marriageable age. If we marry her to a loyal talented young man, their children would successfully continue the royal line, and restore order to our Kingdoms with our strong advices of course."
"And I suppose you also have an idea about the loyal and talented young man, Lord Chancellor?" Lewin asked, smiling, knowing exactly where he was going next.
"Indeed," Elbert nodded. "My eldest son, Vincent."
Silence fell over the hall.
Roland and Lewin exchanged a glance about to roll their eyes. Everyone had expected this.
Elbert wasn’t just suggesting a marriage, he was tagging a coup by wedding ring and for the benefit of his House.
Everyone knew Elbert’s dream was to get his blood into the royal line.
He had managed a foothold already, his daughter Ravenna, was one of Lumiel’s wives. She wasn’t the first wife, and she obviously hadn’t any ti produce an heir yet. For a man Elberts’s ambition, a foothold wasn’t enough, he wanted the whole mountain.
Now however with Lumiel conveniently out of the picture or so he thought...Elbert was playing the long ga.
Marrying his son to Lenora wasn’t just about securing a consort, it was an about placing the crown on a head that answered to him.
"Lord Ashcroft has a point nonetheless."
A new voice cut through the murmurs.
Everyone turned.
The speaker stood apart from the cluster of nobles, which was fitting. He representing a power that often rivaled the crown itself.
Bishop Edmund of the Church of the Sun.
A bald man with eyes like slits, rarely speaking but always observing.
Elbert’s smile widened.
Having the church on his side?
That was the golden ticket.
However he was celebrating victory too soon.
"However," Edmund continued. "I am not certain your son possesses the capacity rule a Kingdom as Helios."
Elbert’s Amiel vanished replacing by a scowl.
"I believe," Edmund went on, unperturbed, "that soone from the Church would be far more suitable. Soone with Helio’s blessing to beco Princess Lenora’s husband and potentially the future King."
"Soone from the church?" Elbert scoffed. "Please, Lord Bishop. We don’t want a theocracy. We do not want priests telling us how to run a Kingdom."
"Everything the church of the Sun does is by Helios’s will," Edmund replied, his tone hardening. "By refusing one go us, you are insulting Helios himself."
The nobles flinched hearing that.
It was a cheap tip, hiding behind divine authority but effective one.
Everyone knew about the Sun Church easy ways to brand soone as heretic...
"There is no need to fight and quarrel over who will be sitting on the throne next."
A feminine voice suddenly rang out calmly.
Heads snapped toward the entrance.
A young woman walked in.
She couldn’t have been more twenty she walked and held herself higher than the nobles present there.
Long wavy blond hair frad her face partially tied back by a beautiful ribbon and she wore an erald gown that probably costs more than most of the nobles’s estates.
Her erald eyes matching the silk stared at them.
Eleanor Goldwyn.
Lumiel’s third wife.
But in this room, she was mainly known by her surna.
Her father was one of the wealthiest rchants in the known world , the financial backbone of the Helios Kingdom as well.
And Eleanor was her father’s daughter in every ways that mattered.
She stood there there, hands clasped behind her back facing down a room full of n who despised her origins almost as they coveted her family’s wealth.
"There is no need to fight," she said. "I do have to admit, I fail to understand the purpose behind this urgent summoning in the throne room without its King. We still have a King after all."
"King Marconius is dead, Lady Eleanor, or have you been napping?"
A jeer ca from Viscount Crumber, a man whose debts were almost as large as his gut.
Laughter rippled through the hall following his words.
They simply hated that a woman not born of true noble blood interrupting them.
They hated a rchant’s daughter, one with bought title daring to speak to them.
But their attempt to humiliate failed much easily on Eleanor.
She just smiled, politely.
"I do apologize. Perhaps you have misunderstood my words, Viscount Crumber. I was referring to our new King. His Majesty, King Lumiel."
Crumber laughed again, louder this ti. "You have been indeed napping for quite long, My Lady. The Prince Lumiel—"
"His Majesty," Eleanor cut him off.
Crumber glared at her, his age flushing but she held her smile.
"His Majesty King Lumiel chose to end his life by jumping into the Fal," Crumber spat out. "It has been a week, the King is ashes now."
"We do not know that for certain," Eleanor said. "HIs Majesty might have chosen to undertake the sacred ritual."
"It has been a week, Lady Eleanor," Roland said, shaking his head. "No heir in the history of Helios as returned after more than three days in the Fla. Anything beyond ans death. It is not a matter of opinion, it is historically factual."
"Perhaps then for His Majesty Lumiel, it would simply take longer than his predecessors. The first of his kind," Eleanor replied, clearly refusing to let it go.
Another noble scoffed openly at her words.
"What are you even still doing here, Lady Eleanor?" He sneered. "Maybe you and your father were happy to buy a share of royal legitimacy, managing to convince the sick King to let you beco one of Prince Lumiel’s wives but it is over now. The investnt had failed. You have no reasons to linger in the capital."
Chuckles rang in number along agreents. They clearly enjoyed this, putting the rchant woman into her place.
However Eleanor kept her composure.
Instead, she just let her polite smile drop from her face.
"I shall stay because I am still the third wife of HIs Majesty," she replied coldly. "And until King Lumiel’s death is confird, irrefutable so, I shall remain his wife, and I shall remain here."
The nobles nearest to her actually swallowed, by the sudden shift in deanor. She was quite intimating when she wanted to be...
"I am asking all of you," Eleanor continued, sweeping her gaze across the assembly. "Have you have noticed the shift in the Fla of Helios? After King Marconius had passed away, the Fla had significantly dimd. However a week after King Lumiel entered the Fla, the glow returned. I have witnessed it on my way here. I saw it glowing brighter than ever before. This cannot be a coincidence. If you do lack the patient to wait for your King and do not have faith in him, then so be it, but to not presu to force to leave."
"No one will be force you to leave, Lady Eleanor," Elbert said stepping win to regain control of the room. "However none of us have any wishes to wait for an eternity on the slim hope that His Majesty might miraculously return. By then all Kingdoms would have attacked us."
"You won’t be needing an eternity, Elbert."
Everyone froze hearing that.
And slowly, heads turned toward the entrance.
Standing there was a smiling man.
User Comments
0 comments from readers