When Kingdom Goes

Act I - Chapter 8

For the first few minutes after Hiro left them, the assassins sat in the bedroom in silence, catching their breath and contemplating what to do next. Their moment of reprieve is interrupted by the sound door opening. Their worst nightmare had walked through the door. It was Rex.

Upon seeing him, all of the assassins tense up, but don't move, for fear of getting into a fight with him. "You all can relax. Hiro filled me in on the situation. Regardless of how I feel about you guys, I won't attack you." Rex says through clenched teeth, suppressing his rage. Despite his words, the tension in the air was palpable. After he speaks, he surveys the room, looking for Rose. He spots her unconscious, leaned up against the bed next to a frightened Vuella. "I'm just here for her." He says, pointing to Rose. He picks her up and walks her out of the room without saying another word. After he leaves, someone else walks in, this time, it's Helen.

"Well hello to you all! I'd like to formally welcome you to the royal palace. My name is Helen Azor. What're your names?" She says with a smile on her face.

The difference between Rex's approach and Helen's approach was night and day.

"My name's Elajuel. I'm the oldest of us. It's a pleasure to meet you. "

"My name is Velajul. It is nice to meet you."

"The name's Vuella, and I'm the youngest. Nice to meet you."

As they introduce themselves, Helen notices that Vuella is still tied up. "It's great that we introduced ourselves, but how come nobody untied you? Let me get that for you." She says while walking over to her. She conjures a magic pair of scissors out of thin air and cuts Vuella out of her bindings.

"Thank you for that. I guess my brothers were too shocked at what just happened to untie me."

"She should have left you tied up if you were just going to start yapping at us." Elajuel says in response to Vuella's jab.

"It's good to see that you guys are starting to get your spirits back up. Aside from introductions, I'm here to give you all your first job."

"Who do we have to kill this time?" Says Elajuel through a sigh.

"Kill? Nobody said anything about killing. Your first job is to clean and fix up Hiro's study. From what I was told, you fought Hiro and Rose there last night and wrecked it."

"We're... Cleaning?" Says Elajuel.

"Yes, you're cleaning. Now dust yourselves off and come with me." She says sternly.
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Helen walks them over to Hiro's study, grabbing brooms, towels, and buckets of water, along with a few tools. Once there, they start picking up all of the scattered books and papers in the room. While picking up papers, Velajul stops to read a few of them out of curiosity. After skimming through a couple of them, he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. He quickly turns around and sees Hiro standing above him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Vuella and Elajuel finally turn around to the sound of his voice, having not heard him enter the room.

"I mean you no harm. You two continue working. Velajul, come with me." Hiro says.

"Yes Sir." He responds with a hint of nervousness in his voice. They walk out of the room and proceed down the hallway in silence until Hiro stops one of the maids passing by. "Could you bring us two glasses of water to the courtyard?"
"Yes, my Lord. Is there anything else you and your friend might need?"

"No ma'am. Also, he's not a friend, he's family. Treat him and his siblings as you would treat the rest of us. Pass this along to the rest of the palace staff."