The kingdom of the malaise (32)

'What a horrendous place this has become'

A tall grey cloaked woman wearing a triple marked helmet of the Kingdom before its fall stood on the crown of the lighthouse.

Her cloak which was lined with gold fluttered in the calm winds that buffeted the lighthouse, the sounds of waves crashing against the shores sounding out from beneath the cliff face of which the light house stood on.

Silently rubbing the long silver rapier in her hands with a clean white cloth that had several flowery patterns on its lacy surface.

Carefully folding the cloth with one hand and tucking it into her breast pocket, the woman stared through the slits of their helmet at the orange sunset that casted the sky and its clouds in orange colors.

"My Queen" Three voices overlapped with each other as the Queen turned around.

Silently facing the three golden masked figures in white cloaks kneeling towards, her the one in the middle took that as the signal to begin talking.

"The Collector, Scribe, Blacksmith, Ghost, Tailor and Fisherman have not deviated from the norm and are still doing their own thing"

"The Malaise'd Interloper has lost his army of infected beings after failing to finish off the survivors of Stilt Village and will most likely go acquire more infected beings to replenish his lost army."

"The Swamp Priest has sacrificed many of the survivors underneath his rule to Mama Tick."

"Missus Crypt Demon is still doing her job and keeping the Crypt's Darkness at bay."

The White robed woman kneeling to the Queen continued to tell the Queen of the happenings of the island without a change in their tone.

From the happenings of the more mundane things such as the states of the various figures of importance, the status of the survivor communities.

To the more of note happenings such as the Malaise'd beings that were scattered all over the cursed kingdom of the malaise.

"Conjuctivis escaped confinement for the first time in a while"

"The Timekeeper is still holes up in their clocktower"

"Most notably, the Concierge has been slain by a new comer-"

"What do you mean by that Kleio?"

Hearing the Queens words, the Servants slightly flinched in surprise upon hearing the calm, lilting voice of the Queen in the first time in many time cycles.

"If you mean by the newcomer, the Concierge had been slain by an accidental that accidentally treaded into the clutches of the time loop that the timekeeper had cast onto our kingdom."

Hearing those words the Queen fell silent.

And as the servants of the queen that had been with her since the War of the Red sea and have accompanied her since her birth.

They were sensitive to the mood of the Queen.

And because of that they could tell.

The Queen.

Felt a bit of hope.

"My Queen" Kleio quickly bowed lower to the Queen hurriedly speaking as she did so.

"It is not wise to bring your hopes up my Queen, the accidental, although able to end the life of the Concierge with their blade and has been reported to be a new swords master"

"With just the abilities of a sword master it is a tall order for the accidental to slay the Hand of the King and retrieve the last of the Boss Cells"

Hearing those words, although their was no outward change in her appearance.

Only the skies getting slightly cloudier, the mood of the queen quickly plummeted in a downwards spiral.

Seeing that, the Servants felt the change in mood through the air and quickly responded to it.

"My Queen, if you desire, we can test the newcomer for his skills and if he is a seed worth nurturing may we

Hearing those words, the dark sky slightly cleared up and the Queen turned her back to the three servants and continued to stare blankly at the horizon line, the orange sun now casting yellow rays across the sea surface.

Seeing that the Queen had turned their backs on them the Servants briefly vowed their heads to her once again before moving.

Glancing at her sisters, Kleio nodded to the youngest amongst them as they moved away from the Lighthouse walls upon which the queen resided upon.

"Calliope, you understand what you need to do correct?"

"Yes Sister"

"Remember to make sure that the man is suitably compensated after this."

Finishing her statement, the two servants slowly returned to their place as gatekeepers of the lighthouse.

Jumping off the side of the lighthouse, Kleio watched her sisters fall into the darkness of the lighthouse.

Silently staring at them descend into the shadows cast by the blanket of the sun, Kleio closed her eyes beyond the golden mask and retreated to her abode just below the crown of the lighthouse.

---

Calliope fell to the lowest parts of the lighthouse, alongside her sister Eutrepe.

Watching her latch onto a ledge somewhere in the middle of the lighthouse and clamber into the slightly decayed structure without problems.

Calliope continued to fall to the bottom of the lighthouse.

Fidgeting with her golden bracelets in the middle of the fall, Calliope closed her eyes as the ground neared her.

Reopening them with a jolt, the ground shook as her legs crashed against the ground and caused the dirt to undulate like waves around her.

Seeing that happenstance, the youngest servant manifested a pair of incredibly large chained balls that were reminiscent to the spike ball traps that lay dormant and scattered all around the kingdom.

Swinging them once to obliterate an oblivious giant green man clothed in dirty rags and carrying glowing pink barrels.

Calliope burst into a run and began making her way to the location that the man named Slade was located.

Unaware that the Malaise'd interloper was also making his way to where Slade was located, having acquired a brand new army of the Malaise.

Slade himself?

Well he was the victim of what some called workaholism as he had spent the entire night trying to figure out new and improved ways to exploit his abilities. 

Something he now found the time to do now that he wasn't preoccupied with trying to figure out many of the new functions that continued to appear with his growth.

And underneath the sunlight which slowly dawned onto the earth upon which they stood, Slade purposely blinded himself and only relied on the map displayed on his mind to move around.

And so far he was doing a great job at it.

+++

Tree

Also decided to cut off a majority of the things I planned for the Kingdom of the Malaise which I finally decided upon a name.

Alongside that I decided chopped off a majority of the first chapters.

So besides the corrupted arc which is the same.

Everything before will be new.

First chapters in the new world is gone now.