Heroes of Darkness

II

ALEXANDER

Alexander Specter stood straight and tall in the hall outside his father's chamber. Banette, his Spirit Pokémon, floated in the air alongside him, with a nervous look on its face. Alex tried to put on a calm face, but inside he was excited. Father had requested him personally this morning.

"Ban..." the Pokémon said quietly.

"Oh, calm down," Alex replied. "This is probably what we've been waiting for. Finally, father is honoring us with some kind of assignment."

Banette just growled unsurely in response. Alex was about to try and calm down his Spirit Pokémon again, but the door to the chamber opened. Out came his step mother. She wore a dress in the colors of the Specter family, a dark grey, yet the necklace she wore had a stone of deep blue. The lady Rachel Wake was from Pacifidlog, in the south of the Empress' vast sea. After Alex's mother had passed away when he was a baby, his father had married this woman. Soon after, his little brother Leo was born.

She looked at him with the same look of disgust as she always did. Alex had received that look from her ever since he could remember. "Your father will see you now."

Alex bowed to her respectfully. "Thank you, my lady," he said courteously. He had learned long ago not to invoke his step mother's jealous side.

She didn't let him pass through the chamber door at first, lowering her voice to a whisper so that Alex's father, Lord Specter, couldn't hear. "Don't think for a second that he favors you," she whispered. A grin played across her face as well. "Leo is and will always be his heir. He'll be back soon. The First Generation is done with their instruction and are coming home."

Alex didn't take the bait. In fact, he felt genuinely excited to see his little brother again. He smiled. "Good," Alex responded. "I'll be there to greet him when he arrives at the dock."

His step-mother let go of his arm with a scoff and turned back down the hall. Alex paid her no heed anymore. There was a time, when Alex didn't understand why it wasn't fair. He was the oldest, and by all the laws of the land, he should be the heir as well. One of his school teachers had told him the truth one day.

After the death of Alex's mother, Lord Specter remarried One of the conditions of the marriage was for his new wife's child to inherit the Lordship of Mt. Pyre. It had taken Alex a while, years in fact, to be resigned to this fate. Eventually, he understood that it didn't make him love his brother Leo any less. Instead, he spent his time training and doing whatever was asked of him by his father. Alex decided to make friends, and to become an honorable young man. Now, it seemed that his step-mother Rachel was alone in hating him. Alex knew that nothing burned his step-mother more than that.

He turned towards his father's chamber again and walked in. Lord Specter was seated behind his desk. His large belly didn't allow him to bring his chair too close to the desk. Flecks of grey hair matched his dark grey robes. Banette shivered as they approached him, but Alex approached tall and strong. He wasn't as muscular as Leo or his father, but he was still lean and proud.

He bowed before his father, then stood up straight at attention, hands behind his back. He glanced in the corner of the room, and he could see Dusknoir, his father's Spirit Pokémon, observing their meeting from the shadows.

Alex had to break the silence first. "I hear Leo is coming back from the capital," he said. "I missed his company."

His father smiled and leaned forward in his chair. "No doubt that's what your step-mother told you before she let you in," his eyes were filled with pity. "I'm terribly sorry about the way she acts towards you. You've already had to forfeit a birth right, you don't deserve her scorn... but I'm proud of you, Alexander. I'm proud of the way you treat Leo, and the others around Mt. Pyre. I'm honored to call you my son."

Alex's heart skipped a beat. It wasn't often father spoke to him like that. This was going to be more than just a father-son conversation. Alex could feel it.

"The pleasure's all mine, father," he said, trying to hide a smile as he looked at Banette by his side.

"There is a matter that needs to be taken care of," his father said. He grunted as he stood up from his chair. "Normally, I would have the guards look into it... but I think you're ready."

Alex felt his eyes get wide. He lived to make his father proud, to prove to himself and his step-mother that he didn't need an inheritance to make his father proud. "I'm yours to command, father."

Lord Specter's smile disappeared. "You've worked hard in your training. Your combat skills are superb. Sword, bow, even spear, the arms masters speak highly of you. You're quicker than I ever was, and you're smarter than half of the guards in my service. Alexander, if you can't take my place as Lord after me, I want you to learn to serve your brother as ably as you can. I need you to stand by his side through thick and thin, to be his strong right hand. I think the time is right for you start getting some experience."

Alex's feelings overwhelmed him. This was more than he had ever hoped for in all his seventeen years on this earth. He looked at Banette with excitement, and even the nervous ghost-type Spirit Pokémon cracked a smile with its zippered-lips. "What is our first assignment, then?"

His father looked rather sad. "It's... not going to be pleasant. Do you remember Sheila?" he asked.

Alex remembered her. "The old head nurse? She retired years ago," he recalled.

"She's dead."

The young Lord's son felt a pang of sadness hit him. She was always nice to him. In fact, she was the one who had delivered him when he was born. Poor Sheila, he thought. "She was... old," he tried to say.

His father looked at him under his bushy eyebrows. "It had nothing to do with age. The poor woman was murdered in her bed late last night. I've stationed some guards to stand outside her door... Sheila was a dear friend to me since even I was a child. I want you to investigate her death, and bring the perpetrator to justice. This task starts immediately." With that, Lord Specter handed Alex a silver pin to put on his breast. It was wrought in smoky gray iron in the shape of a Dusknoir.

Alex looked at it with honor. It was a symbol of the Specter family. Whoever had this badge, it was known he spoke with the Lord's own mouth, and carried out his wishes. Alex marveled at his newfound honor and authority. With this, I'm technically even higher in rank than Leo, or my step-mother, he thought. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face.

"This is no laughing matter, boy," his father said quietly. "Your assignment begins now."

"Yes, father," Alex said, bowing again. He and Banette made their way back from where they came from. He was about to exit when he turned back around. Lord Specter was speaking to his Dusknoir now, but stopped to take a last look at his oldest son. "I won't let you down," Alex said.

Lord Specter nodded. "I know."

As he made his way down to old Sheila's room, Alex and Banette took a look out of a window in the mountain and into the bay that surrounded Mt. Pyre. It was always foggy on Mt. Pyre, but even then, his heart skipped a beat as he saw the ship making its way through the mist and rain. He squinted his eyes and he could make out the blue flags with the red design of Empress Glamour.

He looked at Banette excitedly, and his Spirit Pokémon seemed to read his thoughts. Alex ran down the winding stairs in the mountain, past the nurse's room towards the docks.

"Banette?" the floating ghost Pokémon said questioningly.

"We'll check it out later," he reassured. It had been a whole year since Alex had seen his little brother, and Sheila was still going to be dead later. "Leo's home!" Alex ran the rest of the way down to the docks, and watched as the ship made its slow but sure way into port.