There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: A Faithful Ally :.

TWs: mentions of a poisoning, mentions of war, mentions of death

***

A few days after King Ren had been poisoned, while he was still fatigued and dizzy if he moved around too much, Lord Skizzle came for a visit.

At the time, Ren and I had been in his office. His hands were shaky today, so I was writing letters while he told me what to put down. I had never gotten much of an education beyond the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics, so Ren would have spell out every second or third word for me to copy onto the parchment. It was a slow process, but it worked well enough.

One of the guards knocked on the door, and then, after Ren told him it was alright to come in, nudged it open a bit. "There is a visitor waiting in the throne room for you, your majesty."

Ren waved his hand in the guard's general direction. "Thank you. You may be dismissed." The guard bowed, turned on his heel, and hurried away. 

"Would you like me to see who it is, my liege?" I asked, setting Ren's quill down on his desk next to the half-written letter we'd been working on for the past half hour.

Ren looked relieved at the prospect of not having to walk all the way to the throne room. "If you would."

And so, I made my way downstairs and halfway across the castle until, finally, I arrived at my destination. There, standing patiently in the middle of the room, was Lord Skizzle. I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding (I was always terrified the desert folk could turn up again and cause us more trouble than they already had).

"Hi!" Lord Skizzle greeted. "I'm here to talk to King Ren about some threats my manor has been subjected to recently. Could you fetch him for me quickly?"

I frowned. "Hmm. Come with me— I'll take you to My King directly. I'm sure he'll want to hear about this immediately." I left the room briskly, and Skizzle followed.

"This place looks amazing, by the way," said Skizz as we walked through the halls. "The reconstruction seems to have gone well."

"Yes, it did," I agreed. "I think both Ren and I are quite happy with how it came out."

"Speaking of the king, where are we meeting him?"

"His office. It's a very private place," I added on, "if you're worried about someone overhearing things."

Skizz let out a quiet whoosh of breath behind me. "Okay, good."

"Will I be allowed to listen in?" I asked him. "Or is it too private of a talk for even that?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Skizz shake his head vehemently. "No, no, you can stick around."

I felt a little bit of the tension in my shoulders fade. I didn't think at all that Skizz would do something to My King, but the poisoning had seriously shaken me, to the point that I didn't want to leave his side for a second, especially when someone else was around. I knew Ren had noticed my sudden clinginess, but thankfully, he hadn't yet mentioned it.

Finally, we arrived at Ren's office. I knocked on the door in a pattern we'd come up with back when we lived above the Emporium, the one that was meant to announce that it was one of us to the other, then opened it. Ren was sitting right where I'd left him, sipping on some tea that'd been delivered to him in the time I was gone.

"That was quick," he noted. "And Skizzle, it's nice to see you, dude!"

"Likewise!" Skizz responded, sitting down in the chair I'd pulled over for him. "Shall we get right down to business?"