Mabsuli Blood || txt

Seventeen: Too Hard Too Fast

Maybe he was just too naïve. Maybe all those years being secluded in a castle surrounded by the same people every day for nearly fifteen years impacted his way of choosing who to trust. Or maybe he was just trying too hard.

He'd never understood violence and the way people thought it was a viable way to solve their problems. You can say more with words than you ever could with a sword. But maybe that's why. Because everyone loves a good fight, and when faced with it, you're forced to cooperate unless you wish to die. But words are easily kept or silenced, swallowed down thickly and locked away in the deepest recesses because spilling them hurts one's pride and one's pride must not be dented, so it's better to hurt the other person by not letting all the words spill.

It wasn't like he could refuse to put up the elaborate charade the royals had set up. He was their attendant and he had to do as they said, even if it meant going against his own beliefs. So he went and swallowed down his words of objection. Who would listen to him anyway? They were all set on it. Even the very boy he served, his best friend, the closest person to family he ever had, told him to follow along. Be the puppeteer and play their enemies on strings.

Get close.

Eliminate.

Simple until it wasn't.

Until he fell into a trap he didn't know could've ever existed.

A trap that left his moral compass spinning, his mind a game of tug-of-war that neither side could win because right when one was about to claim victory, the other gave a sharp tug and landed them right back where they started. Common ground. No winners. No losers. Just the same.

Because the people he considered family said one thing, but the person he considered a friend said another.

He found himself being swayed, their words tossing him around, shoving him one way only to turn around and throw him the other. Having to swallow his words and hold his tongue because one wrong spill and everything comes crashing down with only him to blame.

Having to make a choice only to have that choice tear him apart in the end.

All because he fell too hard too fast.

~~~~

Kai's parents had quite the reputation around Mabsulle. Two kingdom renowned doctors known for using a mixture of magic and modern medicine to cure their patients of any disease. So it was no surprise when the king and queen of Mabsulle themselves requested the two doctors to come to the castle and become head of their nursing staff. They accepted the position immediately and moved into the castle, only leaving to treat village patients. This act of kindness to their non-royal patients despite their new position only furthered their great reputation.

When the news of their son's birth spread, everyone was happy for them, for they were sure their son would carry on the Huenings' great legacy as the most talented doctors Mabsulle had ever seen.

Who could've guessed that that very kindness they were praised for would be the very kindness that killed them.

The doctors had gone to answer a plea from an old woman to help cure her husband, dying of disease. When night fell and they hadn't come back, King Kang set out guards to check on them.

It was a horrid sight to see; the house a mess, red decorating every inch of space, and four bodies lying on the floor. An old woman whose mouth was sewn shut. An old man with a knife sticking out of his throat. And two doctors with stab wounds covering every inch of skin they could see. It was concluded that the deranged old man attacked his wife and the doctors before killing himself.

Mabsulle mourned the loss of the two great doctors, and in the back of their minds, they wondered if their son would follow his parents' footsteps.