The silence that stretched across the throne room was palpable.
Jack’s hand rose in a gesture that seed almost casual, yet carried the weight of absolute authority.
A portal manifested before him. The gateway opened, a rift in space that served a singular purpose. Brutus proceeded through the portal.
The minotaur was massive. His eyes sparked with red lightning. His horns caught the light, their surface smooth, despite bearing the scars of a thousand battles.
He walked toward King Maelor with the steady pace of soone who understood exactly what he was doing.
The guards reacted to this imdiately, now that they could breathe.
Their weapons ca up not from fear, but from protocol. A creature approaching the throne without permission, regardless of what had summoned it, was a threat that had to be neutralized.
Three guards rushed forward simultaneously, their spears and swords moving with the precision of soldiers who had spent centuries perfecting their craft.
"Stand down!" one shouted, his voice carrying the absolute authority of soone performing his duty.
Brutus didn’t slow.
The first guard’s spear drove directly into the minotaur’s chest, landing straight into the heart. The blade sank deep, the guard’s montum carrying him forward as he expected resistance, the creature to cry out or sothing to acknowledge the violence being done.
The second guard’s sword followed, finding the sa target area with brutal precision.
The third guard’s spear completed the trinity, another blade driven deep into Brutus’s body.
Brutus stopped walking.
Not because of pain, his expression didn’t change, but because he had been impeded.
He looked down at the three blades protruding from his chest with the mild curiosity of soone observing an interesting phenonon.
"Master," Brutus asked, his voice erging with casual calm, "am I allowed to kill anyone here?"
The question hung in the throne room like an execution order.
Queen Morvana’s face went white for the second ti in as many minutes. The council mbers who had been silent, dazed, and confused suddenly found their voices.
"It speaks!" one council mber cried out, his voice climbing toward hysteria. "The beast speaks! It’s intelligent! It’s..."
"Guard the Queen!" another shouted, pointing at Morvana as if she were under direct threat.
The guards who had stabbed Brutus began to back away slowly, their eyes wide, their weapons raised, but based on their movents. They understood on a fundantal level that stabbing the creature had accomplished nothing.
Jack’s response to Brutus’s question was asured and absolute.
"No. You are not allowed to harm a soul here."
The word hung in the air with finality.
Brutus reached down and grasped the hilts of the three weapons embedded in his body. With casual strength, he pulled them free.
Each blade effortlessly withdrew from his chest, leaving no trace of injury or any indication of prior harm. The wounds seamlessly closed behind the blades, as if they had never materialized.
He continued walking toward King Maelor.
The guards, following the infliction of injuries, withdrew further, their weapons subsequently lowered.
Their deanor reflected a profound impact from observing an occurrence that fundantally challenged their established understanding of how creatures behave.
’What manner of creature is this?’ Tharaxis’s ntal voice erged in Jack’s consciousness, tinged with sothing approaching respect. ’It takes a blade to the heart and walks away unblemished.’
’A minotaur,’ Jack responded internally. ’Bound to my service. Nearly impossible to kill through conventional ans.’
’Impressive,’ the ancient dragon acknowledged.
’You should pay more attention to the details around , you’d see a great deal.’
Brutus reached King Maelor’s throne and extended a massive hand, offering the rolled Academy scroll with the ceremonial seal intact.
"Your records, Your Majesty," Brutus stated, his tone as casual as if he were handing over a cup of water rather than a docunt that contained secrets that would shatter the kingdom’s political structure. "As my master commanded."
Maelor’s hand took the scroll with the reverence of soone handling sothing sacred.
"Is there anything else you require, Master?" Brutus asked, turning his massive fra to face Jack with the posture of a servant awaiting further instruction.
"No," Jack replied.
Brutus began to move, his massive form turning toward the portal that had brought him here. "I will return to R—"
Jack’s golden lightning erupted beneath his hood.
Not attacking Brutus, the electricity was clearly a warning, a flare of power that cut through the minotaur’s words with absolute clarity.
Brutus stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening fractionally as he registered what had nearly happened.
"My apologies, Master," He articulated, executing a profound bow from the waist with an air of nonchalance that belied his acute awareness of the potential ramifications of his recent misstep. "I spoke carelessly."
The portal collapsed as Brutus stepped through it, his massive form vanishing into the rift, leaving the throne room in silence so profound it felt suffocating.
The council mbers were speechless.
There was a palpable sense of disorientation. One individual emitted a guttural sound, his mind grappling with a profound and unsettling event.
The presence of a sentient creature, one that demonstrated resilience against fatal wounds and exhibited unwavering loyalty to a cloaked figure, was deeply perplexing.
’They begin to understand,’ Emberion’s ntal voice erged, carrying satisfaction. ’They begin to grasp that they stand before sothing far beyond their capacity to comprehend.’
Queen Morvana’s collapse was theatrical and calculated.
She clutched at the armrest of her throne, her body swaying as if she were about to faint. The guards rushed to her side imdiately, their weapons lowered now, their concern focused entirely on their Queen.
"I feel lightheaded," she whispered, allowing them to help her back to her throne. She was monts away from losing consciousness entirely. "The creature... the beast... did you see what it..."
"Your Majesty needs rest," he stated firmly, his voice carrying the tone of soone attempting to redirect focus away from what had just transpired. "The shock of the creature’s appearance has clearly overwheld even the Queen’s considerable composure. Perhaps we should adjourn this discussion until..."
"Adjourn?" another council mber interjected, his voice erging with disdain. "We cannot adjourn. The King is reviewing the Academy records. Should discrepancies be identified, or evidence of falsified docuntation surface..."
He turned to face Morvana directly, his expression indicating a desire to distance himself from the impending revelation.
"Your Majesty, surely you can explain the ranking discrepancies? Surely there is a logical reason why the King was inford his son was a failure when the records clearly show..."
"Silence," a third council mber interjected, interrupting his colleague with a clear sense of urgency. "This matter is not open for discussion later. We must first fully comprehend the situation before proceeding."
Her voice trailed off, and she gripped the throne’s armrest, her knuckles turning white. Her recovery was taking every ounce of her will.
However, her gaze, beneath a veneer of apprehension, ticulously observed King Maelor.
King Maelor had opened the scroll.
His ancient eyes tracked across the Academy’s official records with the precision of soone who had learned to read between lines and understand what wasn’t being said.
The ledger was comprehensive: every ranking assessnt, every achievent, every failure, all docunted with the ticulous care that only centuries of institutional record-keeping could produce.
His expression changed.
While not overtly dramatic, a subtle transformation was discernible. A change in his gaze, a tightening around his mouth, and a newfound steadiness in his hand, which had previously trembled slightly as he unfurled the scroll, all indicated a shift in his deanor.
’What does it say?’ Tharaxis asked internally. ’What truth does the docunt reveal?’
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