Seanfram Manor

V

Since the days of Azar Synk, the monarchs of Deneb were referred to as the Lunar Rule, following a comment he made during his Fourteenth Royal Address, the royal family are the moon glowing in the middle of the night, that's what he said on the fourteenth year of what was nearing its ninety-eighth, almost a hundred years of the royal family that ousted the previous monarchy during the Great Occupation, the entire army of Peiuoa traveled to the Olivine Palace and stormed it, the father of Azar himself personally tied the hands of each member of the Denebian nobility and led them outside, where they were thrown into carts, sent to Peiuoa and sold as slaves upon their arrival. The rightful ruler of Deneb was Azar's uncle Sammot but, since he had no heir, being sterile, he would be succeeded by Azar, the firstborn of Peiuoa's supreme commander. After Sammot took the oath of the throne and was sworn in as king, the Synks moved out of Peiuoa entirely and left it without a Head of kingdom. The land almost crumbled with the internal disputes that ensued, every clan that was close to King Sammot of Peiuoa attempted to install itself as the new leading group. As for Azar, his turn to rule came much earlier than expected, for his uncle cited him to speak in private and revealed the reason why his right leg had grown limp, he removed his shoe and exposed a pink foot deformed by edema. The stench was unendurable. At his seventy years, Sammot struggled with diabetes and gout, before the Great Invasion coup he had consulted his health advisor and his health expert about his symptoms of gangrene, treatment would be immediate but they were doubtful of a complete cure, they suggested amputation, to which he refused. Now the occupier of the Denebian throne, he was subjected to intensive care so he could continue his duties, drainages and light surgeries in his sleep chamber, he demanded that mages and sorcerers visited him, someone had to restore his health by radical means, he ordered that every Enlightened Magic book be examined until something was found about limb regeneration procedures, and if that were insufficient, that every book on Enlightened Magic be seized for royal examination, not for any particular reason, but the mages and sorcerers were of little use, they could only help by alleviating the pain and making every nose in the Olivine Palace desensitized to the foul smell. Sammot was desperate, the manuals had no information and tens of thousands were still to be read as he was rotting by the second, until one visit of note came in the form of a hooded figure who appeared in front of him, tall and quiet.

"Let the hood be removed."

The stranger complied and discovered their face, the aspect of an authentic Peiuoan. The answer that they were there to provide was simple, with the touch of a hand they would liberate the blockage of venous and arterial flow that suffocated his foot. They pressed on the numbest region and soon enough the foot regained its normal color. The king stared back, incredulous, he did not feel any different, it was still bulbous, maybe it was a trick to change only the color of his skin.

"Your Majesty" the hooded figure spoke, pitiless, "I have granted you the chance to preserve your foot, but drainage will remain necessary until your last breath. The infection has become part of your being. There is no way to fully revitalize decomposing tissue. You ask, in effect, for a cure for death. If you so want to get rid of this threatening disease, you must cut off that foot. Several applicable magical procedures can be proposed afterwards, but you are delaying your rehabilitation by not cutting it. The way I have reestablished your blood flow will prevent the infection from spreading onto the rest of your body after the amputation. This is the most that can be done."

King Sammot thanked the hooded figure for their attendance and ordered they be expelled from the palace. Then he turned to his health advisor and his health expert and said "I prefer the drainage. I will cut it off. I will cut it off." But days passed and every time the surgery was about to commence, Sammot ordered it be postponed, promising that he would get around to it, at least after discussing the matter with Azar. Notwithstanding the consternation prompted by his impending decision, the crude truth of the hooded figure's exploit was setting in: by widening the veins and arteries, infected fluid now flowed along with circulatory fluid, worsening the king's condition much faster. From one day to the next, he was completely unable to stand. With humiliated exasperation, he decreed that the hooded figure be captured and executed. The relocation of the king to a wheelchair immediately caused concern among the court, especially among the family. During family dinners, he would say that he would like his casket to be driven around Peiuoa, his homeland, his people would be so nostalgic for him as he was for them, they would attend his farewell, he would say it to the air and those around him worried, and Azar would lower his head. One summer morning, he invoked the family and the court to formally announce the reason he was bound to a wheelchair, and he raised his tunic, the only clothing he would wear by then, discovering a completely necrotic leg. The general reaction was of sheer horror and disgust. But everyone kept the greater realization to themselves, there was no prognosis, the king's life hung by a thread. The days following the demonstration, the infection accelerated wildly and whole extremities started to fall off. He passed away on the third.

The mortuary procession made the rounds through Peiuoa, where many plebeians attempted to derail or knock it over. "Traitor to the kingdom, traitor to the kingdom", they yelled as they threw excrement and spoiled vegetables at it. The casket returned to Deneb clawed, stained and smelling of ash. The legitimate king for a little less than three weeks.

Their traces were too feeble to be identified and their whereabouts were never found, but what was later confirmed was that the hooded individual was under an appearance-shifting spell; whether their involvement was relevant to the king's demise and that, in that case, they acted maliciously is still disputed.