The King's Collie

Part II, Chapter 12: Sanctus

It was the late night, the night after the return of the ship. There was a great feast, in which the population held a general celebration for the King, who returned safely from battle. Felix never liked this glory being pinned onto him. He made no effort to save his own life. He felt guilty, even, that someone far nobler died in his stead. He thought of those few perished Mauretanian dogs, as well as the Cambrian corgi, as he made his way to the Cardinal's office. Nobody Valentian happened to perish in the altercation, or even bore any scratch from it. Knocking on the sanctuary's door, he waited, until the avian answered.

"Welcome, Your Highness," Iago chirped kindly and deeply. The King wasn't convinced by this aura of sentiment, but at least was glad the Cardinal was polite. "What brings you to my office, now?"

"Your Holiness, have you heard the result of our voyage yet? If not, that is my reason for visiting, to tell this," the royalty said, sitting in a cushioned chair. "I have a few other questions, too, though."

"Ah, I haven't heard, actually, Your Highness! Pray tell," Iago beckoned.

"So. We landed on the Lusitanian territory—" Felix began.

"Yes?" Iago nodded.

"—then fought for the land—" Felix continued.

"Uh-huh?" the cardinal beckoned to go further.

"—and we won it, to no casualty of our own," came the lion's uneventful conclusion.

"Praise be. A miracle!" Iago expressed.

"We wanted the governor to sign a treaty, but he... unfortunately assassinated Afon, our Cambrian company, during the ceremony—" Felix began to break the saddening news.

The Cardinal showed no regard for such matter: "Get to the conversion! How many of those heathens did you show the way of Christ to?"

The royal lion looked taken aback. "I'm— sorry, Your Holiness?"

"How many of those canines did you convert?" Iago more clearly asked. "And how many square miles is the territory you claimed? Did you get the chance to claim Lusitania's land?" he asked this flurry of questions that were concerning for a Cardinal to be all too excited about.

"Iago. I realize how much this probably meant to you in particular, to see new people find faith in the Lord, and to see Valentia expand," the King explained. "But we converted nobody, nor did we ever try to, and I find your concern with conquest and the subjugation we fought to counter entirely alarming."

"What?" Iago quickly widened his eyes and loudly cawed. "Did they refuse? At least tell me you took them as prisoners if you didn't convert them."

"My God. Your Holiness, no," Felix shook his head. "They were being kept as disgraced prizes of war, but they are now free as any good souls should be. They reestablished their sovereignty, and I'm sure the nation of Mauretania will grow to be as great of an ally as it once was."

"You freed them?" Iago held his head.

"And you expect me to do anything else?!" the blond-maned lion asked in equal bewilderment, turning his head.

"Sir— Your Highness! Please, listen," the holy avian tried to explain: "Their faithless souls are not allowed into the Kingdom of God, and their species certainly shouldn't have a kingdom of their own," he finished, resolutely.

"That gravely reminds me, Iago—" Felix was reminded of his next inquiry, choosing to abandon this issue with how irreversibly stubborn he knew Iago was on these matters.

"It's 'Your Holiness'," Iago corrected.

"No. Iago," the King disregarded, as he explained: "The Queen told me you were committing executions of targeted portions of our people without the dignity of a trial. What shame such a crime brings to our kingdom."

"Such is the order of your forefathers and the holy word," Iago lied.

"I don't care what either of those might pose to be. She gave you an order, an Act, did she not, to prohibit this, correct?" the lion further inquired.

"...Yes," Iago stammered a little. "I submitted them dutifully, to be printed and enacted by the forces of Valentia."

"You submitted them to no place but the WASTEBASKET!" the King accused with a roar to the last word, and proved as such by lifting the crumpled sheets of parchment with his wife's writing. He would have turned to punch some wall were he not in the house of the Lord. "If you were without the protections of a Cardinal, I would rid you of your position immediately for this."

"Ophelia was without common reason, saying such disorder!" Iago cawed menacingly. "She is much too soft-hearted to know how the sins of a few can damn a whole kingdom—"

"I have let you ramble entirely too long," Felix growled menacingly.

"Perhaps because she is of the fairer sex, who knows not of these affairs—" Iago spoke. He instantly regretted it.

"Enough, of such conspiratorial nonsense!" Felix loudly and quickly roared back, tempted to grab this insolent bird by the neck, but refraining, merely drawing his claws. "I am the king, she is the QUEEN, and our word is as holy as the sky is blue! That is the entire purpose of my crown, and I am tired of putting up with what you so ignorantly spout sometimes, Iago."

Iago looked aghast. "Such profane and hateful words to the holiest man of your kingdom."

"I apologize," was all the king coldly said, wishing he could instead say he only aimed to match this bird's.

"I'll not mind it, so long as you come for forgiveness on Sunday," he nagged, as usual, straining his words to agree to the King's demands.

"I will, yea," the King nodded. "And later that Sunday shall be Afon's funeral, which shall be held here, in our Valentian cathedral. No ifs, ands, ors, or buts." With that order, he left, knowing Afon did not die for such an attitude on that bird's part.

Iago meanwhile threw those notes back in the bin. "I shall be dead as that barbarous corgi and those terrible dogs before I comply to such brazen tyranny," he muttered to himself. How he knew about the Mauretanian casualties remained a mystery.

~