Rules of One's Soul

Ch2 A Game of Souls p2

It was a miracle. It was a d*mmed miracle barely anyone saw the scrunched up, sobbing mess of the Duke of Puzzles surrounded by Heart attacks from a certain insane jester. Only the night guard wondering the halls had seen. Curious by the noise of the elevator being used. The same second he saw the duke, he was threatened to be put on 'feeding Jevil' duty if he said a word of what he saw to anyone. Terrified him enough to keep his mouth shut at least. The rest of that awful night was a blur as he couldn't remember stumbling back to his room or managing to even fall asleep with the loud storm or the lingering mixed emotions from the encounter he had less than a minute ago, but he chalked that up to being too emotionally drained from that.

He woke up still groggy in the morning, and wouldn't have gotten up if it weren't for the fact that the King would've been displeased and no one wanted to displease his highness for fear of his anger. And because Lancer needed someone.....

The next few days fell into a similar routine of getting up, putting up a fake smile, and just doing anything but go near that elevator or trying to remember that night. He busied himself with his noble duties of puzzle making and being what Lancer put into terms a 'Lesser Dad'. Or in his own terms, a permanent royal caretaker. Which was basically what he was being told to do anyways, so no real loss. He really didn't mind. He could use the distraction. Honestly he didn't know how much time had passed. Days, weeks, a month or two maybe? Didn't matter. As long as he didn't see that thing ever again he was totally fine. He had a hard enough time dealing with the anxiety and empty feelings that came with the memories. Made him constantly want to vomit.

About maybe a year had passed since the incident and it was slowly starting to get better. He didn't improve on puzzles but he made an upgrade to the control crown that seemed useful. Until the fateful day the lightners fell down. That was a day he truly wished he didn't see the king's anger. But thing's turned out much for the better it seemed. 'King' Lancer was much more friendlier and trustworthy than his father though there was still work needed to be done. It was when he announced releasing all prisoners prior to his father's downfall, that the real melt down started.

The possibility of Jevil running around?? Free?! Where that lunatic could attack him-....anyone at any given moment and spread his insanity like a plague?!?! All the feelings of unwanted belonging, sickness, and that kiss- if he could even call it that- all came rushing back at ounce and he nearly passed out from all the overwhelming thoughts alone. By god he tried as nicely as he could explain to the child that releasing the kings and many common folk were fine, but the Jester would be too mean to let out......

It didn't work.

The overwhelming feeling of dread filled him the very day the other kings were released and slowly everyone were reinstated back to their positions as Kings, servents, civilians, guards, etc. While all of this was going on, the spooked duke didn't see any trace of that menace or hear any of that wicked laugh or gibberish wording. Lots had noticed the Duke's strange behaviors, and only Lancer had a mind to talk-

The child came bounding up to him, tugging on his pants leg to get his attention. "Hey, Lesser Dad. You aren't looking too hot. Are you sick or something?"

A flinch. The Duke brought another strained smile to his face and gave the boy the calmest look he could muster. "O-Of course, mine littlest worm. W-What ever gave thou that silly thought?"

He cocked his head to the side and gave an obvious confused look. "Well, you're acting really weird. Like, when Dad used to yell. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Ahahaha. No need to worry about-t mineself. Thy King should just tend towards his d-duties and thine subjects."

"Ok...If you're sure-?"

"I am! Don't worry non. Eh..." His eyes glazed off to the side for a moment as if uncertain about something, before looking back to the child. "B-But on a curious notion......have thee seen thine foolish inmate a-around lately?"

Lancer tilted his head further with a blep, not exactly sure what he was talking about for a moment, before realization flashed across his face. "Oh, you mean Uncle Jevil??" He flinched at the name, but Lancer didn't seem to notice. "Someone unlocked his cell, but he won't come out...But he still eats stuff."

"Well, we cannot simply force thee to cometh out if he doesn't wanteth too, can we? Ahe....W-Will thou excuse me?"

Carefully prying the hands of the child off him, he turned and began to walk away-

"Where are you going?"

He looked over his shoulder for just a brief moment, "I just need to makest sureth of something. G-Go on back to doinge what thou waseth attending too."

"Oh...Ok, Dad."

He watched as Rouxls quickly made his exit towards the other side of the throne room and out one of the giant doors. What was going on with his Lesser Dad?

A few days had passed since the incident and he wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not. On one hand, the lunatic hadn't even left his cell even though it's open, which was good. On the other hand, the stupid cell door was wide open and he could get out at any given moment, which was unacceptable! His own fears escalated by one thousand when Lancer said the words 'Uncle Jevil'. How-.....WHEN did that come to be?! When did Lancer even have time to even sneak down there let alone give that menace the title of Uncle?! Where did he go wrong!?

Luckily, Lancer was too busy with his new duties as King to even worry about Jevil. For the moment at least. But the sensation of knowing the innocent child could be easily influenced by him, and get hurt in the process.....He tried not to think too much about it or let his emotions cloud his trust in Lancer's new abilities as King but it all came to a head when one afternoon the child rammed headfirst into his leg when exiting the kitchen. The small child landed on his rump with a thud and a metal plate clattered against the ground, sending food all over the ounce clean floors.

"Lancer! Watch'est where thou runeths off too," he said scolding the round child, "What would thine people think if they seest their king running into things with food in his hands?"

"Sorry, Rouxls." He quickly got up to give the much taller man a hug around the leg before swiftly turning back around to pick up the scattered dark candies. Rouxls rose a brow at all the sweets and sighed.

"Lancer, you shouldn't eat so much junk food this early into the day. Tis most unbecoming of a king."

"Oh. They're not for me."

"Then whom art thou-?"

"Uncle Jevil likes sweet things. He really seems to like dark candy from Mr. Seam's shop, so he's gotta like these."

Rouxls froze. He suddenly felt his body nagging him and the familiar rock feeling in his stomach fly back at lightning speed. He swore he would've fell over if his body wasn't frozen in utter horror at the moment. Lancer, not noticing his father's sudden silence continued-

"I haven't seen anyone take him food in a while. They say they're too scared of him attacking them, which is weird if you ask me. So I'm going to make sure he's fe-"

"NO!"

The sudden shout startled them both as Lancer flinched back up to meet the melting man's frozen posture. Thinking quickly, Rouxls smiled that strained grin of his and gave a small chuckle, a habit he inherited to mask stress or emotions the King wouldn't be pleased with. Old habits died hard as they say. Lancer was still staring up at him in disbelief before asking-

"N-No?....Why not?"

"I- Um- He-......Y-You can't go down there?!"

"Why not?"

"I-...Because it's..." He could feel the slimy sweat start to run down his face, he had to think quickly if he wanted to keep the child from becoming suspicious. "B-Because thou cannot just s-simply leave thine's position as king now, can thee? W-What if there's an emergency that requires thou's attention? Being king means you have to take a lot more responsibility now."

"Oh. That's a good point. I don't want to miss anything." Rouxls sighed in relief at the notion he wouldn't go- The sickeningly sweet smell of the star shaped candy hit him before Lancer thrusted most of the picked up candies at him with a toothy grin with his tongue sticking out. "Then you can do it instead!"

.....What?

"What?! L-Lancer, you can't be serious? Art thou?"

The young spade held up his paws again. "Yeah! You help me with lots of things, and no one else will do it, but you're really brave Lesser Dad!" His tiny tail wagged behind him. "If you can talk to Ex-King Dad then you can feed Uncle Jevil!! He's not scary anyways, he's actually really fun!!"

"B-B-But-.....Ahehe. L-Lancer, doth thou know that a king needs his royal advisor? I-I won't do it when you-"

"Lesser Dad, who's king?"

He sighed. "Thou art king. But I-"

"Then as King Lancer, I order you to feed the Royal Fun Uncle!"

"Lancer, I shouldn't-"

"Follow the rules, Lesser Dad."

He stared down at the blepping child for a while opening and closing his mouth like a fish. There was no loophole around this, and he must follow the kings given out by his liege.....No matter how young they were or how terrorfying it was. So sucking a deep breath and ignoring the flair up of dread in his stomach, he made a graceful bow before hissing-

"Of course, Mine Majesty. I'll be sureth thine jeaster gets nourishment- OOF!!"

The sounds of candies scattered against the floor as his body was tackled by the happy spade child in a hug. Rouxls fell onto his rump just as the energetic spade let go and hopped off.

"Thanks, Lesser Dad!," he happily shouted over his shoulder before running off, "I have new king stuff to do before bad stuff happens!"

The taller man watched the round child bound off down the hallway and around the corner before disappearing. Leaving him sitting there on the cold stone floor surrounded by scattered dark candies. The sinking feeling in his stomach got heavier. He would have to go bad down there and feed the touched starved lunatic. He just hoped that he wasn't on the menu.

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BING!!

He flinched hard at the soft ding of the doors as they slowly opened to show the stone steps leading into the dark abyss below. The Duke remained routed to the spot staring straight down into the unholy darkness, faintly making out the outline of the bars and stairway thanks to the few torches lit up on the walls. But no yellow eyes looked up at him. No insane laughter echoed off the walls. Nothing. He cautiously leaned out and took a good look around the entrance -he wasn't about to let that maniac spring out on him again- and nervously ran his eyes over the cold stone walls with what light was available to him. Nothing.

His body slowly began to melt from the added pressure that the small imp could literally be anywhere in this mess, the emotions of fear and anxiety bubbled up, and the urge to just leave was very strong. But he couldn't. He couldn't ignore the rules to follow when it came to his majesty's orders. He'll just leave the food by the door and run. Yeah that'll work. His body trembled as he slowly took a step forward, and placed it on the first step. Nothing. A small bubble of relief came over him. So taking a deep breath, he slowly placed one foot after another and descended the stairs, the sounds of his footsteps echoing off the walls. A strange feeling nagged him closer to the bars as he lowered into darkness, heartbeat increasing. He ignored that heartbeats and feelings that twisted in his gut and just kept going. When he had gotten to the bottom of the stairs he stopped.

He stared silently ahead. Frozen.

Silence echoed throughout the cell with the only sounds being the drips from the ceiling and his heavy breathing. He could see the many plates of food that was left there, most likely by a guard in a hurry to get the task done and get out of there, they were all indeed empty which meant two things. Jevil never really left, or they had a rabbick infestation in the lower half of the dungeons. Either way, it was terrible to him, and something that needed to be done. He'd just get it over with. He slowly turned his head over to where the cell door was, to Rouxls horror it was wide open for the world to see. He took a moment just staring at the open doorway with mixed emotions....before starting towards it. He could just leave Lancer's gift right where the other's left the food, but....I don't know. Something just compelled him towards the opening. Like a moth to a flame. It was probably just his parental instincts telling him to make sure, for Lancer's sake, but.....There was something else. The nagging feeling and tugging his soul received everytime he even remotely thought of the dungeon or Jevil. He just needed to look to make them go away. And the only way to do that was too look. If Jevil wasn't in there, then he had a big problem.

The cell door was a little smaller than he anticipated which caused Rouxls to bow down in order to go through, but it didn't shake his feeling of dread whatsoever. And all too soon he found himself just standing a few steps away from the entrance staring out at the surrounding darkness. It was so dark he couldn't tell where the back wall was, it was certainly dark enough to hide a person yet it seemed completely empty. There wasn't any noise at all or anything to indicate any living being was here other than the abandoned empty plates outside. Whatever, he had a bigger problem to deal with now. Keeping Lancer safe from that freed Lunatic-

"Rouxls, Rouxls? Have you come back, back to play our game?"

Two yellow pinpricks appeared from the darkness, making the Duke freeze. From the darkest corner of the room, the jester's face emerged along with the rest of his body. The two just stared at each other for a moment, not moving. Jevil staring almost like not believing the man before him was real, before a wide fanged smile started to spread across his face. Rouxls reacted by giving a small strained smile of his own feeling more of his body start melting. The urge to just turn and bolt grew, but this time....THIS TIME his heartrate increased in a strange way that sent heat to his face and he mentally cursed the stupid soul mate conspiracy.

"Have you come back, back to me? Noone's ever returned on their captured, captured free will?" He asked in a hollow voice. But it didn't sound like the emotionless hollow voice of a madman, it sounded more devoid of any happy expressions except maybe a little hope stuck into it. From the way the yellow orbs eyed the taller male, it seemed he was searching for some concrete. They stopped at the small amount of food in his hands. His smile just became a little bigger and he looked back up to Rouxs with a hopeful feeling in his eyes. "You brought me dark candies, candies? Feeding me?"

"...L-Lancer has toldeth me t-thou has a liking for....s-sweet things? *a-hem* H-Here. These art meant f-for thou," he somehow managed to stammer out while holding out the plate of food towards Jevil.

"For...me, me?" He stared at the plate in Rouxls hands for a moment before he blinked and began to approach the larger man from the other side of the room. "You brought food to me?"

"L-Lancer wouldn't have wished it any other way." His eyes wary looked over the smaller jester approaching. He never really noticed before, but Jevil seemed a lot smaller when he wasn't forcfully hugging him or bouncing around his cell. His clothes looked worn, not exactly old, but had a few tears here and there and missing a patch or stitch. The ruffled collar around his neck and his shoes seemed to be new though. Probably Lancer's doing? He didn't look the least bit grimy or dirty as a prisoner should be. He looked.....strangely almost normal. Or as normal for a court jester to look. The bells on his hat jingled the closer he got to the duke and for maybe the first time, didn't look that threatening. But as he learnt from before, don't underestimate anything down here. "I-I'm surest thou will like thine delicacy to thou's ta-"

The plate was quickly snatched from his out stretched hands, he froze in surprise as the Duke watched a smiling Jevil open his mouth wide and just poor the candies into his open mouth before snapping it shut like a trap puzzle. The snap echoed around the room followed by the clatter of the plate when Jevil dropped it. The jester happily giggled at the shock on Rouxls face, wagging his tail and jumping up into the air to sit crosslegged in mid air. How could he even hover?? A clawed hand grabbed at his own, and when he didn't pull away, clung onto it.

"I almost thought for sure, sure you'd never really, really come back since yesterday. Lancer was kind enough to open my freedom, freedom for others to come join, but sadly, sadly no one has stayed for too long. Only giving me plates and food and nothing more, more." His eyes widened just a little as he let out a series of giggles. "I was sure you'd come back, back!"

"Thou...did?" Was he expecting Rouxls to just waltz down the stairs at any moment any day since ...well since who knows when? That was a bit...sweet. But also a bit weird.

He gave a dry chuckled and gave a face that could've been sheepish. "I knew you'd want to finish the game, game you started.~ Just couldn't resist the urge to back, back down from a challenge to your captured rules.~" Oh, good lord. Did he think Rouxls came down there to give him food because he missed him?! "I admit I maaaaaay over down my heart's, heart's desire for you-" Rouxls internally winced at the mention of the heart attacks. The cut on his shoulder stung for days. "-but it's all in the name of your opponent's affections, affections.~" Wait. Was he saying that the heart attacks was his way of showing his affections?...He wasn't sure how to take this strange news. "But I wonder what the great Duke of Puzzles, Puzzles will make as his next move?~"

Rouxls stared at him for a moment and he couldn't help the next words that stumbled out of his mouth. "Art thou forgetting what happened the last time I visited thine prison cell?"

"Which part?~," he purred almost dreamingly. His hand now kneeding Rouxls's held hand, "The usual, usual retreat and gathering of wits for the game, game is to be expected-"

"How about when thine attacks or didst thou forget my reaction to that...." he shuddered a bit "...kiss? What was that? A surprise sprung on thou's opponent to lower mine defences?"

Jevil giggled and rose a brow to being questioned. "Maybe, maybe. But You can't deny, deny your soul's calling towards me.~"

Without warning, he reached out his other hand to place on his chest, over where his soul throbbed at the touch. Rouxls flinched at the sudden reaction his own soul had towards one touch. What the-? Jevil however looked rather pleased at his soul's reaction to his own and sighed in a content way.

"Opposites, opposites do really attract.~"

"N-Now holdeth on one moment," he stammered out as his face flushed a lighter blue, "Thou does not see t-the rush thou's pushing?! A-And what of mine feelings?"

"Your soul calls out to mine, mine. You came back, back. What more feelings do you possibly need?"

He didn't say anything for a second. "Well....I say we take thou's......game slower."

"Slower?" He asked tilting his head.

"Y-Yes. A-As you can see-" He straightened his back up to speak professionally. "-I-I'm still Lancer's caregiver and thine majesty needs a royal adviser and whomst tis better than I?"

"Understandable.~ Lancer's naivity could cause problems."

"And who'll take care of other things liketh lawkeeping, mine shoppe, thy puzzles,-? Certainly not Lancer."

"Of course not."

"Then you understand?"

"Of course." He sighed in relief, which was shattered by what he said next. "I've always wondered, wondered what the outside of freedom had turned to be. Is Everyone still, still trapped or free? Perhaps it's time to make a journey."

He felt his stomach drop again."Wha....What does thou mean?"

He grinned. "I think it's time to take our game, game.~" He purred and leaned closer to rouxls who gulped and leaned back slightly from Jevil's advancing face. He felt his face flush hard at the sudden closeness as the imp whispered. "To the next level. Level.~"

A quick peck from the imp's cool lips got him to freeze in place as Jevil giggled and seemed to jumped around him and out the cell door behind the frozen duke. Rouxls stared blankly ahead as his brain processed what had just happened, and he could only say one thing about the situation-

"Oh, fucketh me...."