Long Live The King

CHAPTER 02: DEALS

I spent a few hours thinking of who that "Caesar" was. He seemed important somehow, to my mother and likely even me. Was he from The Order of Talons? But then why would he get such a severe punishment. Maybe he did something against the royal family. Treason? Homicide? What crime did he commit that led to a lifetime of torture, something worse than even a death sentence. 

As I contemplate, someone knocks on my door. "Come in," I say. A maid walks in and announces, "Young master, your grandfather wishes to see you, he is waiting in his room right now." I nod and follow her there, I can't go on my own, door handles are hard to reach by myself. She reaches for the handle and opens the door for me.

After I'm inside, I look around his room. Fancy but not nearly as extravagant as his sparkly son, which is odd, one would think the head of the household got the best place to stay. "You're here," he says, lifting his head from a book he was reading, he's sitting on a chair next to a tea table on the balcony. "You called for me." He motions for me to sit down on the chair opposite to his on the table. I walk towards the balcony, it's a part of his pretty room, I'm starting to get jealous. I climb onto the chair, though I can barely manage to sit on it, I despise my age and height, if only there was a way to get older quickly.

"I have something to ask of you, Aren." That's odd, he must be desperate if he's asking toddlers for favors. "What is it?" I ask, I won't let him just use me without demanding something in return. "I need your help in forging a potential alliance, it will greatly benefit you when it is your time to be the master of this house." An alliance? That's odd, how can a child forge an alliance? Maybe he wants to use my special "characteristics" to his advantage. And he's talking about me leading this house, but Latif will inherit it, and then his children, I won't get a taste of power from here so what's he on about? 

"I would appreciate some elaboration." He sighs at my remark and proceeds to explain himself, "The young heir of The Order of Beauty, Ellis Reeves, she will be here with her mother alter this afternoon." As I understand it, Lady Lily of the Reeves family is the current head of The Order of Beauty, it holds great influence in the Royal Court, the system of Orders in the court was introduced after the current King conquered Nuar and made it a province of Yuhuma, before that, only the King had authority to rule the kingdom. And making an alliance with The Order of Beauty, one of the five Orders.

Good ol' gramps, thinking years ahead for our little aristocratic family that lost what little fame it had with the arrival of the new king. I know he wants me to befriend her, so she must be around my age, but I can't help but ask anyway, "And you're telling me this, why?" He says, "I need you to make friends with her, be on your best behavior and keep her close. She is only a few years older than you, so it won't be a problem. I trust you to get along with her, even if you're different from normal kids." He's asking me to make friends, I don't need any but... this is a hard offer to deny. He said I'll be the head of the family next, and if that's true then this benefits me more than him. 

"Fine. I will agree to befriend her, maybe even more than that if necessary. But on one condition," I answer. "What condition?" he asks, giving me a 'don't-play-with-me' look. Well well well, there are many things I can ask now, many things to demand and many questions I need answered. I could even find out who Caesar is, but I'll leave myself to figure that out. I've decided what to demand already and I won't settle for anything else.

"I need you to answer a little something for me."