Banquet Dinner - Part 4 [Dark Fury]

Thirty minutes into the activity of dinner, every one noble displayed refined etiquette while they ate. Elizabeth all the while had decided to stick to a plate of soup instead which had earned her a large number of scrutinous gaze fired aggressively her way. She was aware but maintained her calm unfazed by any of it.

In her defense, she knew she wasn't as skilled in refined etiquette much to the degree with which the Royal family were having their supper. Therefore, she'd figured it much easier to proceed with the simple act of downing a handful of the hot pot instead.

Briceus paid no mind to anyone else at this point; to no one else but himself. He could not eat as much; his mind not completely impervious to the thoughts that half of the people he was dining with were extremely dreadful of his presence; his aura ever so frightening and intensely blackened that even the Queen had to deliberate properly on her next choice of words.

"Your Lordship-" Queen Athena began.

"In the eve of yesterday, it became common knowledge to all and sundry that you had apprehended a certain creature of the Dark to the Dordragon prison. Now I must confess that having heard that, my peace of mind got threatened the most and I had it hard sleeping all through the night"

Briceus stopped eating and listened, everyone else doing likewise.

Feeling victorious in her heart, Athena continued… 

"However, to my utter dismay, news got to my doorstep this morning of a maiden with modest beauty who had spent the night in the bedroom chamber reserved solely for the King's actual maiden. Also that the Creature of the Dark had been set free at about that same hour in which the maiden had appeared"

Seeing that everyone's overall attention was now hinged on her, gave her the morale boost to push through with her twisted words. 

"I would have you know that a rumour of a compensation deal came upon my hearing in the early hours of today. The coincidence is totally remarkable. Still, I had to rebuke the source of the news seeing that it is impossible for the King to have made an erroneous judgement so soon and to have this maiden girl in his subtle detention; decided upon shutting her up by letting her have his body in compensation"

Every listener became awe-struck at the Queen's words. Ezekiel's face stiffened while his Lord, Briceus maintained his golden silence.

"Outrageous!" someone shouted.

The information was bulky and Elizabeth's brain cells shot dead for a few minutes at least. Much later came the tempest of raging emotions; her mind doing her the favour of going berserk on her.

'What is the meaning of these words? And why is the Queen being indirect with her words when it clearly involves me? This was her purpose of bringing me to dine with the house? To ridicule me subtly or is it just my imagination. Also, does His Majesty really think me to be so cheap that his body should be the only medium with which to compensate me? No! I don't believe any of it! The Queen is probably referring to someone else. Not me' Aldrich had all the while been observing the various facial expressions which Elizabeth had put in very little effort to hide.

Turning towards his mother in a demeanour of deep curiosity reflective in his stare, the Prince then went ahead to allay his worries to the Queen's hearing. 

"But mother! should that be the case indeed? IF so, then it is highly encouraged to have the truth revealed and deliberated upon behind closed doors to save the King's face" 

"Queen Athena, tell me… who is your source?" said Briceus in a cool but demanding tone, completely ignoring Aldrich's assertion.

"My source has been duly punished by me for mouthing such abominable things about you, You Highness. He is not of much importance anymore" said the Queen swiftly in a bid to cover her tracks.

"Then what is more important if not the bearer of this foul news?" Wauter then took upon himself the invisible baton from his sister seeing as she had no ready answer for Briceus.

"Your highness! It is wise to note that one can only curb gossip as much as he would want to a limited degree. Should the news divorce the Castle walls then talks will abound even among the majority of the aristocrats of the King's mistake!" The side talks immediately began as confusion loomed over the Banquet hall… 

"If the King made a mistake by saying this person was a creature of the dark and really wasn't, how can we trust from his judgement that the reverse is not the case?"

"You are right. News like this can only span from a source of truth. It is impossible for smoke to brew without lighting a fire first"

"Hasn't any one of you observed the strange girl in our midst?"

"Who? That maiden… I actually felt she seems off from the start"

"This man should not be called one of us in the first place because he has a half demon side ticking slowly, soon to explode on all of us in an instant"

"Did I hear you say half demon side? He is whole demon living in the flesh among us"

"My poor life! And here, I thought I was the most uncomfortable one stifling my fear to dine by his side"

"Not you! All of us! Even the Queen cannot contain the sight of him"

"Enough!!!!!!!!!!!"

Briceus' voice thundered violently slamming the hefty table with as much vehemence that should have left it split in half but instead a wheezing breeze swept through the table shooting up everything on it; plates, spoons, cups, jugs, pots, candle lit saucers, everything took to flight and suspended in the element of time and space, completely frozen.

"My god!" somebody shouted.

The dread was REAL. Also imminent was an ominous cloud of darkness turbulently fuelled about the King whose limbal rings had become coated with darting flames of burning hell which consumed his overall vision. 

"My god!"

Everyone trembled. Men of essence cowered to their knees. Those who could move fell to the ground. Those who remained standing lost touch with their limbs.

Even Ezekiel fazed out, staggering a couple of light steps in retreat. He had never seen such dark fury. The Castle guards stood aloof, their armoury slipping off their hands in the process.

Elizabeth's pulse ramped up and she froze; her breath trapped for more than a couple of split seconds. She felt her heart bounce off her chest with the same magnitude as the growing turbulence. 'Is this the end for me?' 

"Briceus!! Return to us at once!!" Borlach, the Grand Duke shouted with a tone of fury salted with a tinge of fear. 

Athena, at the recent unfolding, was frightened to her bones. A spiralling globe of pitch blackness then began to build up in enormous volume and portal behind Briceus. Seeing this, the Queen passed out. 

Aldrich, due to the urgency of the situation, lost his ability to move. His feet had since become numb and reaching out to his mother to help her was by far the least of his worries compared to his own life. 

Wauter's wife clung so tightly to his cloak that her nails soon began to dig deeper into his bare skin, piercing through his inner fabric and causing him pain.

Elizabeth's most pressing demands at this point was the dire need to relieve herself.

'He really is the devil!'