eswareinmal | (no subject)

Characters: The King and his Worried Subjects. Oh yeah, and some heroes.
Open? Yep!
Where: The King's lazy throne room. You know, the one that looks like a rich person's den.
When: GHB6
What: Someone made a bonfire of the White Forest so the King is holding audiences to try and calm the crowd.

The cluster of townspeople in the audience chamber is at an all time high. There's never been a forest fire like this before... at least not one that anyone can remember, even if Old Man Signchanger did try and point out that one time way back when he was young (because every one knows that that man was never young!

Heroes who want to speak with the King, however, are assured an audience. If anything, they'll be all but pushed up the line. This may be the most worried anyone has seen the normally bubble headed townsfolk...

The Thorns are too far off for the average person to worry about, but this? This was in their own back yard. The pending destruction of the world as they know it is nothing compared to a giant forest fire you can see!

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"And how would you help? You know not what has befallen him, yet you seek to move him to where you feel he belongs?" The reply was dismissive. "He is not ill. He sleeps to recover."

Selene growled again.

"You brought us here! And yet you assume we all know exactly what it is you need us to do." She spun around, looking at the king. "Instead, we have this fool sitting here, chuckling to himself, and a gaggle of peasants that fell out of a bad comic book." She started to pace in front of the throne.

"We have to do something about the forest, and yet you seem content to leave things as they are, since you already know what happened there. But you're incapable of telling us anything that might actually be useful, God no. That would defeat the purpose of whatever this is."

She marched up to the king, teeth bared. "Tell me, what would happen if I throttled him right here? Left your king dead on his throne? No one is coming in to stop me; I'm a princess, and their king asked to be alone, after all." She was standing over the King, now, glaring at him. "What is happening to this...Kori? Why did the flames burn down the entire forest? What was it looking for that the child isn't? What is the great failure?"

"You assume too much," game the dry reply. "This puppet you see before you can no more act than the shells who walk about you, and you can no more extract answers from him than you could a rock."

The King looked distinctly uncomfortable, but made no move to get out of the way of Selene's glare, instead looking up at the rafters. "You aren't being much help, you know," he pointed out. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

The sound of a snort was his only reply.

Edited 2012-11-14 03:52 (UTC)

"Any assumption is too much," she replied. "But since you won't say a damned thing, what do expect me to do?" She rubbed her eyes. "If this is just a puppet, what are you?"

She looked around the room again.

"What would it mean if you were just to be told? Many tales have been spun from nothing around you, one more would be as meaningless as the rest."

The smoke hovering around the rafters had grown in volume, but there was no scent to announce its presence.

Edited 2012-11-14 04:10 (UTC)

Selene shook her head. "You are actually serious, aren't you?" She turned back to the King, curling up her fist. "God forbid you tell us enough to prevent us from making some manor of horrible mistake. What if I had simply ridden out and taken Kori on my own?"

"There would have been one cranky little White Mage likely blowing a hole in the city," the King half joked. "Besides. Would you have believed me even if I had told you? I'm not such a fool as to not be aware of my reputation among you heroes!"

"Well, now we'll see how cranky he really is." She turned away again and started for the door. So far as she was concerned, she hadn't heard anything worth not going out to see to the boy. Even if he wasn't the main target, his connection to whatever the voice of the thorns was seeking made him a target, whatever he actually was.