Secrets, Gossips, and Rumors

Chapter 21

Gos was there when Serca left.

Just him, no one less. The King wasn't there, neither was the kingdom. It was just him: Gos. And he watched all the way until she wasn't visible anymore.

Then it was just him, standing outside the castle.

Gos decided to use it to his advantage. He left the front of the castle and towards the greenery on the left side of the castle. He ran through the lawn and into the "royal garden".

There were many flowers of many shades of the rainbow. Pomegranates dazzled on the trees, blueberries sparkled on bushes. The entire garden was an orchid of exotic fruits. Gos, however, didn't have time to admire its beauty. There were other things on his mind.

He made sure no one was there. No gardener or soldiers were in sight. He wondered why (probably it was because Gos was the one who shoved them all out in the first place). Just to make sure it stayed that way, he walked all around the garden, even checking behind the garden. Once, then twice, and just to be safe, three times.

Once he was absolutely sure there was no one around, he looked up at the sky. Putting his hands around his mouth, to amplify his voice, he shouted: "Lysth! Show yourself! I know you're here somewhere!"

There was a long silence that hollowed out Gos's screams. A calm breeze floated by, making the trees sway. When Gos waited long enough, he shouted the same exact words in the air again. That gave a weird sense of deja vu.

Out of nowhere, a red and green cloud burst. A very similar shade of red and green, in fact. The spirit Lysth had appeared. Apparently it had heard his calls.

"You called, Gos?" it asked, like they were best friends.

Yeah, of course. Just start the conversation as though you haven't disappeared for the last week, Gos wanted to roll his eyes.

But Gos ignored that thought. "Why?"

Lysth blinked, clearly not expecting that. "Why what?"

He took a shaky breath. "Why? Why did you cause all this?"

"Cause what?"

"Don't act dumb! Why did you cause the trial? Why did you, you, expel my sister?" He had a hard time putting his anger into words. There was a huge ball of rage he had, and it wanted to explode all at the same time. There were no words that would be able to hold it back, making it escape peacefully.

Lysth let out the tiniest smile he'd ever seen. "I thought you wanted the trial. You said you wanted revenge on your sister. That's what I gave you. Isn't banishing her from the kingdom the best form of revenge?"

"But that's not what I-"

"Isn't she being in the Kingdom the reason you didn't become Trust Keeper?" Lysth interrupted.

Gos stopped dead in his tracks. His anger evaporated all of a sudden. Those words... that voice... Gos's eyes widened, realization hitting him right in the face.

"That was you... that was you, wasn't it?" he asked.

"What was me?" It asked curiously. "The part about expelling your sister, or the trial?"

"You.. that voice was you, wasn't it? You're the one who told me to get revenge on Serca that day. It was your voice that told me to lie to Serca when I had to whisper a secret into the Knowledge Chest. You're the one who caused all of this!"

Lysth's smile widened with amusement, like this was the part of a mystery novel where the culprit was revealed. It let out a polite clap, which shocked Gos, as he hadn't expected its reaction to be so polite.

"Excellent! You finally figured it out, didn't you?" It asked him. "It took you a long time, but it was worth it. And to answer your question, Gos, yes. Yes, it was all me."

Gos was at a sudden loss of words, trying to process everything, the entire scene. Things were so much clearer, yet so much more foggy than before.

"But, I don't understand."

"Understand what?" The spirit asked.

"Why? Why would you do that?" Gos asked, facing Lysth. "What's your, your motivation? Why did you do all of this to begin with? What is in it for you?"

Lysth was now toying with a crystal from the secret box. It dangled it from a chain, swinging it back and forth, watching the crystal. Gos expected it to stop and look up to answer his question. But it didn't.

The spirit just kept quiet. There was a long silence between them.

"Answer me!" Gos shouted at the spirit, breaking the peaceful silence. "Why? What's in it for you?"

It just laughed, as if Gos's anger and rage was it's source of entertainment. It put the crystal down and looked directly at Gos.

"Because, Gos, you're not the only one on a quest of revenge."

~~~

A/N: 

The big reveal! Well, everything will be explained in the next chapter. Still, this was probably one of the most fun chapters to write. This, and the next one. 

Sorry for the short chapter, but I hope this was worth it! 

If you want everything to be explained, go ahead to the next chapter. I don't want to keep you waiting.

Have an amazing day/night!