Kingdoms Divided

Chapter 7

That evening, Jiban is lying alone in his room staring at the ceiling, daydreaming of what his life can become now that he lives here. He feels at home in a way, and even though the burden of his other life still weighs on him, he is starting to accept that he may have made the right decision. He goes over to the music box that he danced to last night, winding it up once again to listen to it. He smiles with the sounds, but they are interrupted by a knock on the door. Jiban opens the door to see a helper of the castle. "The k- Lennox, has asked for you."

    The helper leads Jiban to a bridge of sorts where the king stands with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. The bridge connects two separate parts of the castle, and shows a view into the back part of the forest that borders the end of the kingdom. Jiban bows to the helper and they bow back, but he shakes it off quickly realizing that was a mannerism he had from the Northern Kingdom. It seems everyone in the kingdom still uses it in some formalities, just not Lennox.

    "You said you could out drink me." Lennox hands him a now poured glass and sets the wine bottle on the railing of the bridge. Jiban takes the glass, "You think one bottle will be enough for the both of us? Especially with how competitive we both are?" Jiban says, starting to take a sip.

"We can always go get more. I do not believe I have given you the final stop of the tour yet." Lennox says, which makes Jiban raise an eyebrow. "If you're going to be staying here, maybe you should learn what all this castle has to offer."

Lennox grabs the bottle as he starts to walk off, Jiban following. He shows Jiban around the castle as they drink together, talking about anything and everything once again. Every now and again Lennox would give the backstory of a painting or other artifact that lies throughout the castle. There is no telling about how much they were having to drink, Lennox is sure to show him all of the different areas for alcohol. He even is drinking enough that when it gets to the room of his family tree paintings that he speaks about each he knew. How his grandfather was a hardass until he had the tiniest sip of alcohol and then he became the most funny person. How his grandmother was the purest woman on earth. How he rarely knew his uncle and two aunts as they spent most of their time in war, never married, not focused on their own love lifes as they were too focused on winning the war. His father and how he was known as the best king this kingdom had ever known. How he won many victories for them and even was said to be the one who would end the war. How his mother was the best soldier the kingdom had ever seen. How loving and kind she was, way better than what anyone could have ever asked for. Lennox is clearly getting emotional as he speaks about his parents.

"I think you may have had too much." Jiban says, not wanting to take over Lennox's vulnerable state to find things out about him. Lennox lays on the floor of the family tree painting room. "You know, I might be bigger than you, but I'll admit- your tolerance is strong for someone your size."

"Yeah, well, I was a rebellious child." Jiban says lying next to him. "Once you steal from your father's cellor so often to impress friends or whatever, you build a tolerance."

"You had a cellor too?" Lennox asks and Jiban thinks for a split second that he might've just messed up. "You must have been well off." Jiban chuckles at that statement, "Yeah, maybe a little bit." He bites his lip before asking a question he had been wanting to ask since being by the river. "Hey, why don't you want to be called king or anything like that?"

"Because I have not earned the title yet. My dad is still the king. He may be dead and I might be the one who is here now with the 'title', but he is the king. Everyone still sees me as a prince, and I can't blame them. Hell, even I do!"

Lennox rubs his eyes out of stress, "I feel like once I have earned the title of king, I'll accept it and go by it maybe. I just want it to feel right first. I want to do something for the respect that comes with being king, not just being the heir to the throne." Lennox says turning on his side now to fully face Jiban. "Okay, it's your turn now. I realize that I have shared so much with you and you have not said a word. So tell me something."