Advanced Clockwork: Young Writers Prize 2014

Chapter 14

The King looked out of his palace of hallow white halls and golden trim and watched as the world around him changed it's form from night to day as slowly as a snail would crawl over the cobblestone. He did not care for his people, he did not care for the mortals of this world or for those who were to apose him and claim themselves as immortals better than himself. He only cared that he could rule over them as a god among men, as a immortal idol in which they would kneel before and kiss his feet with tenderness. Whether that reason was for greed or for mercy, he cared not as long as they worshiped him. Adam smiled to himself as thought of how much power he had gained in such a short time. Adam, once a young sick Utopian, now a king over a small corner of this surface world. It was too easy, it seemed. All too easy with the people begging for a leader and man to control them.

Adam smiled at the thought of how easy it was, creating a group of fallowers that looked up to him and created an army just to control the peasents below his heels. So he threw out some money, played on greed and fear, promise things would 'change', and even went so far as promise the loyalist of fallowers a place in the puppet cort he created. They were only pons in this game of chess and he was the king, this game was one he would never loose. He grinned to himself, wondering why he had not left that fallen city sooner when it first fell into ruins. But he already knew that answer, even if he did not want to admit it out loud or in his mind.

Eve. Perfect little Eve with her perfect little form and her perfect willpower that would break every system they ever tried to put in her. He frowned at the thought of it, how they put her through Hell and she didn't even seem to care. She was always their main focus, Adam was only the second test. She was their shining star, even is she always fought them without even a second thought to how much pain they would put her through in the end because of it.

He remembered the days he was stuck inside that white room with her. Even though he hated her with a burning pation, she was the only one who would actaully care what he thought, what he said, what he did. She didn't care what they did to her,but when they tried to take him she would jump up and try and stop them. It always worked, since they thought it was a glitch in her programing that was unavoidable. And where the scientists thought it was a glitch, she said it was her humanity. He never understood her, how she always went on about having a soul and a heart even if she was a metalic can of moving parts and hydrolic components. She was the true prophet out of the two of them, the one who gave hope to those who were scared of the darkness that had made them what they were. He knew the moment she made him feel that she was his Ying. She was his opposite, his enemy, his closest taste to knowing what love really was. But she would be his downfall, he knew that. If she did as he did all those years ago, she would grow stronger than him and challange him.

That's what he would do, anyway.

Adam felt a pang in his hydrolics at the thought of Eve, his gloved hand instantly going to his chest as if the instinct for a broken heart was still ingrained into his memory. He despised it, but he couldn't help but smile. She always said that it meant he was alive, the pain in his chest or the simple little feelings they would feel. But he wasn't alive, he was better. He was stronger, wiser, faster, better than alive. If he was alive he would always be in pain, but he knew he would never feel that again. Never again.

"My King." One of his servents said slowly, a tremble in their voice. "You have a visitor."

He sighed and ran a hand through his platum blond hair, putting on his act as he walked away from the window and sat at the head of the dining room table. He did not need to eat but the illution of being somewhat human was better than being like less humain than he already was. "Show him in please." He ordered coldly, watching as the servent scurried off fast. He scowled down at his food and sighed.

"You wished to see me, King Biou?" Adam looked up at the youngest Lord at his beck and call, a dark look on his face as he entered dressed in his colors of marroon and black. Putting on a fake smile, he gestured for Lord Stanly to sit.

"Please, join me." Adam insisted, his smile not reflecting the boredom that his eyes showed. "I would like to talk to you about your offer."

Lord Darek nodded slowly, taking a seat at the other end of the large table. He leaned on his elbows and rested his chin on his connected fists, as if he were thinking things over in his head. "What about? I made it clear that I would offer my experties, but I think that is very limited in this day and age."

Adam waved his hand as if to wave off his coment with ease. "Oh, please, Lord Stanly. You yourself know that this 'day and age' will only last as long as we think that way." He said amusingly, a smirk crossing his face as he spoke. "We would not be here now if I thought that becoming a king was not in this 'day and age'. We would still be working together in pointlessness without real rhyme or reason to our lives if that were the case."

"Some would dissagree." Lord Darek said comfidently, his eyes locking with Adam's easily and holding despite the chills that ran down his spine. "You forced a religion on people so long ago, you made this the way it is, and yet you also kill all those you think would apose you. I, personally, do not see what you could say to change the fact of murder in cold blood to fit into this 'day and age'."

Adam narrowed his eyes and sat back in his chair, glaring at Lord Darek with ease. "My, my, aren't we feeling gutsy today Lord Stanly?" He hissed, every fiber of his being just wanting to reach acoss the table and kill the man seconds though he refrained from doing so.

"I am." He said bluntly, making Adam's arm twitch just a little. "But, let us come back to the topic at hand, shall we? What is it exactly that you want me to even create for you, hm?" Adam sighed and flicked his wrist, one of the servents coming in with a folder in his hands. The servent didn't stay long after Lord Darek took the folder, exiting the room quickly so not to be there for whatever came next.

Lord Darek opened up the file and began examining the contents of it, his hands trembling just a little bit as he flipped from page to page. "I would trust that you would be able to take the time to see that these come to life, Lord Stanly?" Adam said with a grin at the shock on the mortal's face. "Or, should I leave them in more capable hands?"

"How did you even come up with the designs for these?" Lord Darek asked, his eyes wide in astonishment as he looked them over a second, even third, time. "These are all... These would take some time to make. But," He said slowly as he looked up from the contence of the folder. "why would you want these? They are mearly gypsies, savages in the least."

"Lord Stanly." Adam snapped, glaring at him. "They killed a woman in cold blood, they shot your son that is curently in a coma with a weapon that should not even exist, and they used a weapon to set a whole mantion on fire." He glared at the mortal man across from him with a snarled lip as he put his hands together in front of his chest. "Now, the question is, what will you do to avenge what they have done to your son?"

The mortal man looked at him with a mix of pain and rage painted over his features, but Adam had pushed the right buttons to get what he wanted. Snapping the binder shut, he stood up within seconds and put the binder under his arm. "Don't expect this to be done any time soon." He growled, heading towards the door. Adam simply smiled in victory and offered only one sentance as the Lord left his presence.

"Pleasure doing buisness with you."