Crown of Blood

6.1.|| The Trial of Champions

Cage had managed a feat unknown to mankind. With his story, he had rendered Joey, former Lord of Ashley, speechless. He kept staring, his mouth pressed into a thin line. In his own portrait on the sofa, William looked gobsmacked as well.

"How?" Joey finally asked. "How could so much happen? While you were cursed, it seemed as if time was standing still, and now..." He lowered his gaze. "And now, for the first time, I realize that I'm not alive anymore."

Cage shuddered at his words, too aware that he was the reason for Joey's untimely demise. His and William's both. "I know it's strange. It's strange for me to. You're right. Time did seem to stand still for seven years."

"And Kat..." William whispered. "I can't believe that sweet girl is the heir of Endir."

"Well, she is." Cage rubbed his chest, once again aware of the phantom pain inside him which filled the place his love for Kat should have. "And I slayed Fherras and am now king of Iride."

"You were always supposed to be the king of Iride," Joey said, his tone more serious than Cage had ever heard it. "That throne never belonged to Fherras."

True, but as he'd come to realize, irrelevant. "It doesn't matter. The people don't see it that way. We're on the brink of war and I have to waste time with a coronation."

"Cage..." Joey heaved a deep sigh. "You were always so headstrong."

"Says you! The man who threw himself off a ship because he thought he might have seen a mermaid."

Joey chuckled at this. "Well, now you have and they're apparently as lovely as I'd pictured them to be." His demeanor changed, and the same uncharacteristic sadness overtook him. "Ah, my friend, you need so much help and I can't be there for you."

"You already are. The mere fact that I can still talk to you..."

"We're never going to discuss how you managed to do that, are we? Trap our essence in these portraits?"

"I think that was Cecille, not me. My memory from those first days with the curse is very fuzzy." And it was a blessing. All the details of him killing the people he cared for were blurred at best. "Either way, you can still advise me."

"You'll need strong men to fight," William said.

"I have enough of those." A lie, since he still hadn't replaced the missing members of his royal guard.

"Oh, please," Joey said with an eye roll. "We know you're surrounded by idiots. That hasn't changed."

Cage really wished Joey and William were still alive, too. It felt so bitter to be in the Grand Palace talking to his friends without them actually being there. When he was cursed in Darkwood, he had created an alternate reality in which it made sense for Joey and William to be dead, for himself to be sulky and rude. It wasn't the case anymore. He was out in the open and everything that had become his new normal while secluded now felt alien.

"I have to admit I'm a little jealous that you managed to make new friends," Joey muttered.

This drew a bitter laugh out of Cage. "Things would've been much different if I hadn't been cursed, my friend. No one could have replaced you. As it is... I'm lucky to find people who can stand me."

"I don't think you've lost your charisma."

"Didn't you say I lacked all social graces now?"

"And yet, you are king."

They felt silent after that, Cage squirming in his seat. Nothing was how it used to be in their youth when they went on adventures at sea, challenging every obstacle in their path. When William tried to teach them a bit of sense. Now Joey was dead and he had to rely on words rather than actions.