None of us could have seen it coming
GRIFFITH'S POV
For the rest of the afternoon, Isaac informed me of all the things that happened during his trip and I told him the details of the situation with Aldric.
"Kara stopped him from losing his arm?" Isaac asked me in disbelief. "Why?"
"I don't know," I honestly responded. I still couldn't understand why she did it. I was suspicious there was something she wanted but nothing had happened so far. I guess we would just have to wait and see.
As early evening approached Isaac and I set out to pick Aldric up from the dungeons as his punishment had finally come to an end.
We both had somber expressions on our faces. As we dreaded the state we would find him in. We met with the guard on duty in the dungeons and he led us to Aldric's cell. He opened it and we entered.
The guard went to Aldric and began unlocking his restraints.
Aldric was seated on the floor his head hung low. He slowly looked up when we came in.
He looked just as bad as I imagined he would be. Numerous fresh wounds and dry blood across his bare chest.
An appalled expression was on my face. I only prayed his wounds weren't infected.
"God, well don't you look handsome?" Isaac snarkily commented on Aldric's state as we went on either side of him to help him up.
"Isaac, zip it and help me pick him up," I snapped at him. We helped Aldric stand up who could barely move on his own due to exhaustion. He groaned in pain from all the wounds. We had a hard time supporting him considering he was much larger than Isaac and me but we managed to move with him and headed toward his room.
Upon arriving in his room we had him sit down on one of the couches in his seating area. I asked Isaac to grab me some alcohol, bandages, cotton, and water. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't call the physician to treat Aldric. Wounds received from a punishment weren't permitted to be treated by one. Courtesy of Viktor of course.
"This might hurt a little," I warned Aldric as I began to tend to him. I was going to clean his wounds and remove the dried blood with water and alcohol. Before wrapping him up in bandages. Isaac helped me and we were silent as we tended to him. The mood was depressing and grave.
Aldric seemed conflicted the entire time like he was in deep thought about something and was also doing his best to stay awake since he was exhausted. Then he opened his mouth to speak. "Look, I'm sorry you two, I know I promised to keep my anger in check but I couldn't help it Kara insulted Salma and was..." He started slowly in a low voice.
"No, it's fine. We understand, there's no need to..." I tried to stop him from explaining himself.
"I know you're all thinking about it, so I have to say it," he interrupted me though.
Isaac and I glanced at one another for a moment as we wrapped bandages around Aldric's torso.
Aldric was right. We were a little disappointed that he had failed to control his anger. The three of us had agreed that we would do our best to control our emotions when it came to Kara. The only reason she did these things was to get to our heads, she and Viktor wanted us to get angry. We would let them win if we gave them what they wanted. However, at the same time, we knew it was easier said than done considering how cruel Kara was and Aldric's past. Salma, his late wife, and what happened to her were tragic.
"Aldric it's fine," I reassured him once more. "What's happened has already happened. We can only focus on the next thing now," I said as I finished wrapping up his bandages.
"Are meeting tonight?" Isaac asked in a low voice.
"No," I replied. "Aldric has to rest for the night. Kara's still injured so we won't have to worry about her for the next 2 or 3 days so let's meet tomorrow night," I whispered. We were being monitored so we had to watch what we said.
By 'meeting' Isaac was referring to the secret meetings we had about once or twice a week to plan for the coup against Viktor.
To take down Viktor you needed to have a proper plan laid out, as he was a fearsome opponent you had to tread carefully. Which is why we had to stop the people who wanted to resist the port takeover. They wouldn't stand a chance we had to convince them to wait until the coup.
"Speaking of Kara she came to me whilst I was in the dungeons," Aldric suddenly spoke up.
My eyebrows immediately sprung up. "She visited you in the dungeons? What did she want?" I was already worried she had gone to touch him.
Aldric nodded his head. "She gave me some food and water."
For a moment I just looked at him wanting to be sure I'd heard him correctly. "What?" I asked confused.
He nodded his head. "
"That doesn't make any sense," I told him.
"Like hell, I would understand what goes on in her mind,"
"Did she say anything?"
"No, she just forced me to eat the food and then left with no explanation."
I brought my hand to my chin as I contemplated. I was now convinced Kara was up to something. I couldn't understand what she was up to though there was
We then informed Aldric of the outcome of the task Isaac was sent out to do in the port cities.
"...The people are upset many of them are saying they are going to retaliate if Viktor follows through with taking over the ports," Isaac finished off.
We couldn't let that happen because the people did not stand a chance against Viktor's army and he was ruthless. The three of us knew Viktor had no problem taking out a town or two if need be. We had to find a way to calm down the mass hysteria to prevent lives being lost unnecessarily.
Viktor was currently planning to take over all the kingdom's ports. It was only a matter of time until he would turn inland. He would probably put restrictions on all farms, and mines, as well as increase taxes on private businesses and citizens in general.
His goal was to have the entire kingdom under his control in a dictatorship-like style. All resources in the kingdom would be controlled by the royal family.
"This is all happening because my family and I failed to see this coming," Aldric said. "If I had realized earlier what he was doing I might have been able to prevent it all."
"Aldric none of us could have seen this coming no one is to blame," I tried to reassure him. "Viktor is
We really could have never seen this coming. Ultimately, Viktor started his plan by taking over the military power. That way he had the power to do whatever he wanted. Since the kingdom's founding Aldric's family had specialized in the protection of the kingdom. The past kings typically relied on and entrusted the management to the Aldric's Dukedom. Each heir was always the commander of the army. They would give the commander
However, Viktor surprised the kingdom when he decided to join the army as a teenager. No king before him had ever joined. He worked hard in his training and even fought battles alongside the other knights. He became the strongest knight in the whole army surpassing even Aldric who was the strongest person I knew. No one could have foreseen that what he was planning to do was infiltrate the army and learn how it operated so he could start running it casting Aldric and his family aside.
Ultimately, though the army served the king their loyalty lay with Aldric and his family as he was the one who controlled it. Viktor aimed to disrupt that loyalty and shift it toward himself when he became the stronger knight.
Sure Aldric was still made the commander but the damage was already done.