A Fool's Call {Discontinued}

five

The doors opened, and Balthazar walked slowly into the room, making sure his steps were paced to give him more time to scan the room. Even if he did not fear his judgement, he would still like to know who, and what, he would be dealing with.

The room was made out of layered stone bricks, completely unlike the rough stone path that Balthazar was walking through just a few seconds ago. It was like he had stepped into a completely different area.

The centre of the room was covered in a magic circle of dried blood. The blood seemed to be very old, dried to a deep brown, almost nearing black in colour. The magic circle itself seemed to be composed of multiple circular rings, with strange runes along their lines and what seemed to be arrows pointing in four directions from the centre to the edge of the outermost ring.

Balthazar looked to the far end of the room, where there was an open entryway. Written on its circular circumference were more runes, interspersed with regular words. What Balthazar could understand of it read 'You will be judged: Life or Death'. The entryway was cloaked in shadow, and past its surface Balthazar could only see pure darkness, no matter how hard he looked.

Large stone statues stood at either side of the room. They seemed to be made in the image of human kings and queens, and all had a name carved into their chests. There were eight of them in total, but the last one was a little different. It was noticeably smaller than the rest, and depicted a younger person rather than the old men and women that were the rest of the statues. Balthazar read the name on it. "'Crown Prince Hendrix'. Wait, crown prince and not king?"

"Indeed."

Balthazar turned to face the open entryway. "Who's there?"

"It is I, crown prince Hendrix, son of Grimm, the seventh king of judgement."

A robed figure stepped out of the dark entryway. He was a young man with blond hair, dressed in white silk robes and holding a silver staff in one hand. His appearance matched that of the stone statue made in his image, but there was one thing the statue failed to capture. Just like the man himself, the statue's face had a permanent smile engraved into it, but the smile wasn't quite the same. While the statue depicted a simple smile, Balthazar could feel something creeping behind the smile of the man. Something not quite pleasant as it seemed, something rather sinister.

"So, you are the one who will be judging me?" Balthazar asked. He was wary of this man, but what choice did he have? He came all the way here without trouble, he couldn't stop now.

"Yes, I am," Hendrix said, with his smile never changing or leaving his face. "But not alone."

To either side of Hendrix, two figures emerged from the darkness. Balthazar recognised the one on the right as Hendrick, but he wasn't wearing his plate and chainmail armour now. Instead, he wore simple leather armour, painted in a dull shade of grey. Its design made it clear that it was something of ceremonial use, and Balthazar doubted that Hendrick was well-protected in this armour. If he got his sword from Jarah, maybe... Balthazar dismissed his thought with a shake of his head, knowing that Leonard, Andre, and Jarah were still fully prepared. The most striking thing though, wasn't Hendrick's change in armour, but rather how similar Hendrick's and Hendrix's faces were. Though there were slight variations here and there, their facial features were almost identical. One look and you'd be able to tell that they were twins indeed.

To the left of Hendrix was someone Balthazar did not recognise. Though it wasn't immediately obvious, this stranger seemed to be a woman, though Balthazar could only guess from her slim and petite figure. Her head was slightly bowed, hiding her face under dark shadows cast by her grey hood which also concealed her hair. The rest of her body was covered in grey cloth robes, in the same shade as Hendrick's armour, and of the same design as Hendrix's robes, only less pristine and grand.