The Dead King

The first thing Gus felt was a steady, aching pain radiating from his side. He slowly opened his eyes, and found that his vision was blurred. His head turned side to side, trying to make out his surroundings.

Gus was in a room, one he was completely unfamiliar with. He blinked a few times, trying to regain the sharpness his vision normally had. He attempted to move his arms and legs, and found the task nearly impossible.

He was in a terrible state, that much he was gathering. What happened though, he tried to remember.

The girl… the knife… the stabbing… Marin!

Gus jerked his head to the side again, trying to make out fine details of the room. He now realized he was in a bed, with the covers up to his upper chest. What had happened?

As a few more moments passed, Gus recalled that he had indeed been stabbed by the rogue, and Marin had scooped him up from the ground, carrying him in unknown directions at a fast pace. He recalled his King yelling, shouting in desperation, at random city dwellers, trying to get him help.

How did that go? Gus couldn’t remember, he had faded out shortly after that, and what felt like a long sleep later, he had awakened in a bed, laying in a room he had no memory about.

Gus took a deep breath, and a low moan comprised his exhale. He was in a decent amount of pain, but at least his vision was steadily recovering. He looked again to his right. There was something rather large besides him. It was clear like glass, maybe of a blueish hue.

Gus blinked a few more times. What was that thing? It had two large spikes sprouting from either side of it. As his eyes refocused, it started to resemble a bird. The two spikes were wings. It was a type of bird with its wings spread open.

Gus closed his eyes again, and fully rested his head on the pillow. How long had he been out for? Whatever had happened, King Marin must’ve succeeded in getting help. He was in a bed, recovering. He hadn’t died, that much was certain. Well, not yet, anyways. He wondered if he had woken up during the slow consumption of the poison in his body. Perhaps he was still on his way out.

No. Not yet. Gus wouldn’t go down yet. His eyes shot open again, and his vision was clearer than ever.

The object on a pedestal besides him, it was a beautiful ice sculpture of a swan. A SWAN!

This was the work of Marin, he knew. Gus couldn’t believe it, after all this time, and everything that had happened, his King remembered one of the countless scenarios he bombarded him with during the journey to Tarenfall that took ages.

The man did it. He had created a swan. Gus took this as a good sign. Whatever was going on, whether he was recovering or perishing, everything was okay. Marin had seen to it that he was being taken care of, and all was alright.

“Hello?” Gus finally cried out, with great effort on his part.

He didn’t hear a response. Looking to the other end of the room, a door was closed. He was in this room alone, and as his senses started to work again, he took note of the dust that coated everything. The room had a smell of decay. Where exactly was he? This was no hospital. He felt as if he was in a house that was slowly perishing from rot. Perhaps he had this in common.

“Hello?!” Gus tried again, a bit louder. He attempted to sit up, but that was not something he would be capable of. The instant he tried, a sharp pain ran through the area where the dagger had met his body.

Then he heard a noise, a rumbling of sorts. Footsteps rapidly pounded the floorboards in the distance, and then in the next instant, the door flung open.

It was Marin.

“Gus? Gus!” He cried out, running to his side.

“King Marin!” Gus gave a second attempt at trying to sit up, but Marin’s hand instantly met his shoulder, forcing him to stay in place.

“No, don’t try moving about. Stay as you are, it’s okay.”

Marin knelt at his bedside. “Oh Gus, I’m so relieved to see you awake. You are indeed recovering. The doctor’s antidote is working!”

Antidote? What a relief, Gus thought. He was on the course of betterment, not of death. Marin had really pulled the rabbit out of the hat with this one.

Marin clutched Gus’s hand through the blanket over him.

“How are you feeling?” Marin inquired excitedly.

Gus shrugged his shoulders a bit. His mouth stretched. “Not exactly well. But I suppose I’m much better off than I was.”

“You were knocking on death’s door, that’s for certain,” Marin explained. “I barely found help in time. God, I would’ve blamed myself forever if you had perished. We have a studious doctor to thank for your life.”

Gus continued to feel Marin’s glove covered hand clutching his. He looked into Marin’s black mask. Sky-blue crystal eyes were the only thing radiating back at him. Gus began to imagine a face behind that mask, one of great concern and care.

Gus then looked slightly to his right, and eyed the swan sculpture once again.

“It’s very impressive,” Gus stated, his eyebrows gesturing at the crafted piece behind the King.

Marin turned to look at it. Even he had to remind himself that he created it, somehow.

“Thank you,” he responded. “I’ve never tried something like that before. It took a few do-overs before it looked right. I’m no artist by any means.”

“You could’ve fooled me.” Gus laughed.

Marin laughed.

Then Gus coughed, and the sharp pain coursed through the wound once again.

“Easy, easy, there,” Marin told him.

Gus did a hard swallow. “You know, who would’ve thought we’d be seeing those damn rogues again so soon,” he said.

“Not I. It still baffles me what they had been trying us for. Two of them are dead, by the way,” Marin explained.

“Dead?!”

“I’ve got two more to go. I will get them.”

“King Marin…” Gus tried.

“No, don’t try it. My mind is set, it’s what they deserve after what they attempted. I gave them the benefit of a doubt the first time we met them in Tresdor. I was easy on them, all things considered. A day-long timeout for attacking us. But they have taken advantage of my good graces, and now they will pay.”

“Well if you’re certain that hunting them is what you’re going to be doing, I hope you at least recover your jewelry. Your necklace-”

Marin grabbed his shoulders. “My WHAT? My CROSS?! They had it?!” The gem eyes of the black mask from the outside showed zero emotion, but Gus could tell it was flooding the inside of it.

“Y-yeah. The chick. She dangled the thing in front of me shortly before stabbing me.”

“Oh, by the divine.” Marin released his grasp, and turned away. “I am a mixture of relieved and furious. It is beyond me how they managed to pickpocket it off of me. Never once did I feel them near me. Never once had I suspected it was gone. Then shortly after taking care of you, I grasped my chest, and realized it was no longer a part of me.”

Marin stood back up, and faced the swan ice sculpture in deep pondering.

“I think I’ve underestimated these rogues. Especially that woman, their little leader. I think I’m out of touch. I’ve been gone for so long, I… I’ve forgotten… things,” Marin admitted.

“Where have you been?” Gus asked.

Suddenly, Doctor Eisen appeared in the doorway. Gus looked over at him with slight concern.

“How is everyone?” Eisen asked.

Gus wondered what was wrong with his speech.

“Ah, doctor, please enter.” Marin turned towards Gus in bed. “Gus, allow me to introduce to you Doctor Edward Eisen, the man who saved your life.”

Eisen approached the bedside where Gus lie. Gus got a good look at him, and if Marin hadn’t just explained what he had done, he would’ve never trusted someone who looked like him to do any operations on him. He looked like the poster-child of a mad scientist.

“You’re a young lad.” Eisen told him after a moment of staring at him through his lens-focused wire glasses.

“Uh… thank you. And thank you for saving my life,” Gus mustered. “I’d shake your hand, but I’m not really capable of that at the moment.”

Eisen doubled over, laughing hysterically. It was not a good laugh. Quite the opposite, really. The cackle was a mix of a hyena and a choking parrot.

For some reason, that was really humorous to the doctor. “Yeah… yeah,” he responded, after recovering his composure. He adjusted the glasses on his face. “Worry not, my patient, for mobility will be granted to you in the span of…! Three days or so. We’ll see.”

Eisen turned to face Marin. “Now that your underling is conscious and thriving, you’ll be taking off, I presume?”

“Indeed,” Marin responded.

Gus was confused. What was this about?

“Where are you going?” Gus asked his King.

“I’m going to kill those two other rogues, and recover my necklace. I didn’t want to leave until I was firmly convinced you would be okay.”

Gus had half a mind to offer his assistance, but even without his sickly state, he was realizing he wouldn’t be much help. These rogues had mastered skills far beyond anything he could contend with. The only people who could defeat these enemies were strong elementals like Marin.

“The doctor here will take care of you during your recovery. I will be back everyday if I can to check in on you,” Marin informed him.

You’re leaving me with this mad man?! Gus thought to himself, still not fully trusting of this doctor who looked more like a devious reptile than a human.

“I can assure you, you are in good hands,” Eisen tried convincing Gus. “If you need to go to the bathroom, there’s-” Eisen stopped in realization. “Uh, I’ll be back later!” The doctor marched out of the room, apparently remembering something important had to be done.

With Eisen gone, Gus looked over to Marin, who had finished adjusting his belt and was pulling his gloves up higher on his arms. He was getting ready to depart.

“How in the world will you find them?” Gus asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you have any leads?”

“Nope,” Marin responded.

Gus was a touch shocked that Marin was acting with such haste. It seemed reckless. Usually Marin did everything with a plan, and seeing him so bold to wander the city with no lead appeared to be an act of desperation. He really had a bone to pick with these rogues, he had never seen Marin yearn for revenge this much before.

“Don’t worry about me, though. I’ll figure it out,” Marin added.

He started for the door, but turned around last second. “I need you to rest and recover. I trust this doctor. He had no reason to help in the first place, yet he did. Even with… a certain situation he became aware about. So, let him help and take care of you. Try not to let his likeness get to your head. He is quite eccentric, but means well.”

Gus nodded. “Okay.” He hadn’t much of a choice, but was willing to do as his King said.

With that, Marin left the room. Gus stared up at the ceiling, and started feeling the weight of drowsiness overtake his body. He would need more sleep.

Back out in the hallway, Marin found Eisen standing outside a door near the end. The doctor scratched his chin in thought.

“Doctor? Is everything alright?” Marin asked.

“Well… technically yes. I uh, well there’s something in bathroom that I need to take care of,” he answered.

Marin raised an eyebrow, but Eisen could only take his silence as a yearn for a follow up.

“I created an experiment. A live one, and I uh, trapped it in the bathroom to deal with later,” he continued.

There was a gurgling noise coming from the other side of the door. Something in the room was slurping.

“Problem is, I don’t exactly know what it’s going to look like now,” Eisen finished with.

“Do you need help?” Marin asked.

“NO!” Eisen snapped. “I mean… no. I can certainly handle it, I’m just calculating the best way to do so. I need to ready this bathroom for my patient, and that includes disposing of someone – something – that I thought was going to SERVE ME!” He yelled the last part for the creature in the bathroom to hear.

It responded with more wet slurping noises.

Marin could only imagine what sort of horror lived beyond Eisen’s bathroom door, and even more so what chemicals and ingredients he used to create the thing. The doctor certainly was an innovator, albeit one that perhaps focused on the wrong category of science.

Marin began to wonder what dark secrets the doctor could have, stories and experiments that would never come to light. If anyone could help him with his predicament though, it would be him. Eisen seemed to be good willed, even if it was just a recent change of heart, and one that could be temporary.

Eisen swatted at Marin. “Bah, don’t worry about me. I’ll have this all sorted out by the time you’re back. Go on and take care of whatever you need to do.”

Marin gave a nod, still unsure of the situation, but had enough faith. He passed the doctor, and headed through the living room, to the front door.

Eisen had gently sat the front door back into the doorway a while ago. Marin had broken it off its hinges the day he brought Gus in, and the doctor had done his best to make it appear like it was still functioning.

Marin tried the handle, and to his surprise, it began to swing open normally. Half way through opening though, the door slid away and began to fall. Marin grabbed it, and swapped spots with it.

Outside, he did his best to pull the door back into the doorway to conceal the fact that it didn’t work. He reminded himself to reimburse Eisen for the damages. That door would need fixed sometime soon.

The morning was almost over, as the sun crept to the middle of the sky above. As he had informed Gus earlier, he had no leads, and no idea how to track the two remaining rogues down. Marin had half a mind that they might still be looking for him, and wandering the city might be enough to warrant another encounter.

In the event that they were no longer pursuing him though, he would need to track them down instead. Marin gazed over Eisen’s yard that comprised of dead grass and mechanical scraps lying about. He was going to need a plan, and the first thing he believed he needed to do was gain information about the rogues in the city.

There was a decent chance that these two specific rogues with red bandannas weren’t originally from here, and if that was the case, there would be no luck in ever finding them again. If they were local though, his best shot would be visiting a tavern down town, one in a poorer section of the city, and inquiring about where he might find their whereabouts.

He sighed, knowing this was going to be an up-hill battle, but pressed on by walking forward, and down the stone path way of Eisen’s yard, leading to a common road of Tarenfall.

Back on the main street, Marin began to realize that he might be in over his head. He paced the street of Tarenfall, passing buildings and houses, with no aim. So far, every event had been placed in his lap, and for the first time, he would need to initiate one for himself.

It didn’t help that every denizen of the city did their best to ignore him. He was reminded that he was a masked stranger in tattered, cheap, brown clothing, and not a single person would waste their time with him. They all walked passed him, giving the secret King not a second look.

Minutes turned into half an hour, which then slowly grew into a few hours of Marin wandering the streets of the large city. He did well to memorize the street name that Edward Eisen lived on, to easily return back without getting lost. That was revealing itself to be a wise move – this city was a true maze of streets, a monster of an urban land that put Whitewood City to shame.

Marin had been keeping his eye out for some sort of tavern or club he could enter when he arrived at the poorest section of the city he could find. The buildings were run down, in desperate need of repair, and the people walking the streets looked no better.

The King grew impatient after not seeing any buildings that advertised his criteria. He rounded street after street, hoping to find at least one establishment that would offer him some potential. Nothing did, and after a while, Marin began to wonder if he should give up on this effort and return back to base.

Marin then turned to notice two rough looking thugs at a street corner, discussing some sort of shady business. He wondered if there would be any luck in approaching them. Marin hesitated, he stood there still for a moment, weighing his odds. It didn’t take more than that for them to notice him staring, and at that point, he was forced to make his decision.

“Excuse me gentlemen, I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me,” he tried as he walked towards them.

“You better keep walking, bud,” one of them responded, clearly not in the mood to help him out, and more in one to display an act of dominance. His voice was threatening, a tone of potential violence.

“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m simply trying to-”

“GET LOST!” The other demanded, gripping his fists, preparing himself for a physical encounter.

Marin quickly stepped back, arms in the air. He turned around and walked away in a rushed pace, not another word escaping from his mouth. A few of the bystanders witnessed the encounter, and Marin could feel many eyes on him as he stepped away in embarrassment.

Marin had no fear for his life or well-being, that much was for certain. As easy as a snap of his finger, he could have their blood frozen solid. It was not an approach he planned for at all, though. He wanted to draw as little attention to himself as possible, and that course of action would be an easy ticket to getting the authorities to notice him.

He was, however, majorly discouraged, and felt defeated. His current methods appeared to not work, but Marin was not one to change course so quickly. Perhaps he just needed to find the right people.

Once Marin was sure he had cleared enough blocks from his sour encounter, he began sizing up the wandering locals again, and gauged them to see who might be able to offer him some assistance.

He took notice of a man walking alone, who looked to be trying to mind his own business. He held a few books in his arm, a strong grasp that would prevent anyone from easily knocking them out of his hold.

“Excuse me sir!” Marin yelled.

The man looked a bit frightened at the masked beggar who, to him, looked to be asking for money or conducting a scam.

“I have a few questions!”

The older denizen gripped his books tighter and quickened his pace, not a single time attempting to even look in the direction Marin was at.

Marin took the hint, and just watched as he sped-walked down the street, clearly concerned, or even annoyed.

Marin scratched the back of his head. More people were watching him again. He locked eyes with a larger woman who was watering a few plants outside a building, who had boggled at his effort to try to strike up conversation with anyone.

“Ma’am, could I-” Marin started, as he walked towards her.

“Noooo!” She screamed as she lifted her water pail and ran into the building behind her.

This isn’t working. It’s this mask. This damned mask I have to wear. Turns out when I’m not with less suspicious company, everyone appears to be afraid of me. What will I do…?

Again, Marin took off from the area, sticking around for too long might bring a guard, and that was not an encounter that he cared to deal with at the moment.

He walked again, turning street corners, city blocks passing by him. He was given the same treatment everywhere he went. All the people ignored him, treated him as if he were invisible. There would be no chance to get help if everyone he tried talking to refused to interact with him in any way. He began to wonder if he should go with Plan B, and start freezing the city until he found the rogues, and in turn, his beloved golden cross necklace, which had a purpose other than being just a piece of jewelry.

Marin still persisted with Plan A for the time being, and tried again to inquire with a few people. If anything, he just wanted a tavern location. From there, if he could sit around long enough, maybe he could converse with the barkeeper on finding the rogues.

Finally, he got a man who responded, but it was wording he did not want to hear.

“Maybe I don’t know where the tavern is. Maybe I don’t like what you look like,” the orange bearded man replied.

“I understand that my appearance is bothering you, but I assure you, I’m just trying to recover some stolen items from me. I’m looking for some rogues who-” Marin was cut off.

“You’re looking for some rogues? You need to study yourself! Go back to wherever you came from, and maybe have a decent look at your pals. There’s all the rogues you need. I’m not helping out some masked weirdo like you!”

“Please! They have red bandannas, black leather clothing, and-”

The man he was pleading with flexed his muscles and raised his fists. He took a step towards him, a threatening look on his face that told Marin he was in for a fight.

Marin backed off. Again, he raised his arms, hands open, signaling that he wanted no more trouble. He walked off as he had every other time, occasionally turning around to see if he was still being stared at.

At this point, Marin was truly defeated. Every attempt to seek help resulted in humiliating failure. He had no idea it would be this hard to communicate in society with the way he looked. He cursed his undead state, and slumped down to the ground against a building’s wall.

Now he truly looked like a loser beggar. A masked old man, in burlap clothing, sitting on the pavement with no ability to help his current situation. For a moment, he even wondered if this was the life he deserved for himself, instead of the one he had been trying to rebuild.

He sighed again, and slumped his hooded head into his arms, deep in thought as to what to do.

“Hey.”

Marin heard someone’s voice close by. He raised his head, and from the ground, looked up at a man he had never seen before. He had straight blonde hair, that fell flawlessly down to his neck where it had been cut to. A cigarette was in his mouth, below that was a bit of scruffy black facial hair that only covered the bottom of his chin.

He was younger, in his thirties. He reached up for the cigarette, and pulled it from his mouth, a trail of smoke lingering behind as he brought it down.

“You said red bandannas?” He added, barely looking down at the King’s pathetic state. Instead he stared at his surroundings, a detailed focus for anything out of the ordinary.

“Y-yes. Covering their face,” Marin desperately replied.

“Black leathers, with dark purple trim?” The blonde haired man added, now leaning against the wall Marin sat against. His voice was soft. His tone was cool, calculated, and professional.

“Yes! There was a bit of purple edging, as a matter of fact!” Marin confirmed, shocked that this individual knew so much, even such a small detail that he himself almost overlooked.

“Mhm, mhm.” He took another drag from his smoke. “I think I might be able to help you.”