Cal pressed his lips into a hard line. He was nothing but honorable. Had been his entire life. To be accused of something so terrible as to murder the queen… A queen that everyone had loved. It was unthinkable. The male is lost to grief. He stood silently and placed a hand over his heart. "My King, I will swear on the old gods and the blood granted to me by my father, that none of the House Marcellus would ever think to partake in such a crime." He paused, swallowing his anger, "To have so little trust in us, your lieutenants, your nobles, your council, is disconcerting." He remained in his bowed position for a moment longer before seating, mentally preparing himself for the shouting match that was about to begin.
Ver glared at the nobles surrounding him, like his father, his usually calm demeanor was gone. "Father, calm down. There is no need to blow up, we can handle this with quiet words." He said quietly, even he knew that when his father was angry, people would lose their heads.
Edith's eyes widened. This was shocking. She had come across the country….to be accused of murder? No- High treason! Her silvery eyes narrowed. "My king…" She started, her voice low and rough. She bowed her head to him. "We have been ever-loyal and ever-faithful to the crown. None of us could commit such an abomination."
Well, at least I wouldn't… Edith thought with an accusatory glance at the others. She had to take into consideration that His Majesty was convinced it was one of them, he wouldn't have called them if he was. He would've sent a name of someone else and set price.
So we have a murdered within our ranks.
Cas returns the glare to Edith, “none of us would,” He pinches the bridge of his nose, “what leads you to believe that any of us would do such a thing?”
The King glared at them all, "You think I do not now how you all bicker and manipulate for power? With my wife and I gone any of you snakes could scoop up the throne. Many of your families have been eyeing it for centuries."
Cambria sat still as stone, she did not miss that the King had included his own son in his comment. Yet, something still nagged her about his statement. "My lord, you don't mean…Someone tried to take your life as well?!" If this was true, Cambria needed to return home immediately, to warn her siblings, pull her men back to the stronghold…. War was being declared, loudly and brutally. The King meant to answer in kind.
The King's red eyes met hers with a grimace. "Indeed. The assassin was so kind to leave this beside my wife's dust." He pulled out a oblong shaped object covered in a piece of worn cloth. Dread filled Cambria's gut. This cannot be happening. He tossed the object onto the table where it clattered loudly, the cloth pulling away to reveal a thick stake tipped in deadly sharp silver.
Cambria jerked away from the table with a hiss, her fangs elongating to deadly points. Although, a stake through the heart was just a myth that they had passed on to the humans, the silver was a real threat. Putting them together and leaving it next to the ash of a loved one….an ancient challenge. One older than even Cambria herself. A challenge that was passed along frequently between the noble families during the old wars.
"This is how I know." The King spat to Cas.
Ver put a hand over his mouth. "Oh, oh stars." He whispered in horror, the grief that he had been trying to escape had caught up to him when he saw the silver tipped monstrosity. Mother is gone… Why am I just realizing this?
Cas continues to stand, indignantly, “this is absolutely insane, which one of you insufferable bastards did this?!” He demands, infuriated both by the idea that someone would dare kill someone’s love and the idea that someone would accuse him of doing that.
Cal's mouth had dropped open in surprise at the reveal of the stake, an uncharacteristic show of emotion. It had been so long since he'd seen such a challenge. His eyes flicked to the King, to the stake and back again. Gods. He hoped the Queen hadn't been murdered with that weapon. He stood by his declaration of innocence, for he was certain of the loyalty of his family and men, but he knew it would take a lot more to convince the King of the virtue of House Marcellus. Yet the question lingered in his mind…
Who would do this?
"Be quiet." He hissed to Cas, a scowl plain o his face. This was not the time to get angry and blow up, this was a political war and the first to snap would lose their head.
Cambria's eyes cut to Cas, "Quick to cast about accusations aren't you, Lord Calistos?" She spoke indignantly. She returned to her seat and sat stiffly.
Cas frowns, and sits, not saying another word. He glares in her direction, “what are you insinuating?”
Edith had remained silent, stiff and scowling in her seat. Gunther and Hugo bared their fangs, hissing and growling at the sight of the stake. Edith's scowl remained.
A challenge…
Someone wanted the crown and badly. Otherwise it would be an ordinary assassination. Once again, her eyes slid along those gathered around her. She had no reason to want the crown, she had her own throne, her own empire for heaven's sakes. Her people were taken care of and well, living their lives to the fullest. She'd made sure of it. So who is in need of the power? she thought with a snap of her fingers, loud and crips, silencing her guards. They still stood alert, on edge. She was a bit jumpy herself.
"Someone always has to rattle the cage…" she tsked.
"Only that one's that throw blame are usually hiding guilty a conscious." Cambria replied fiercely. She was obviously distressed and yet she couldn't keep herself from speaking. Her friend was dead. Someone was conspiring. What a mess.
“I am not hiding anything.” He replies as calmly as possible, “you may search my conscious as much as you wish, and you will find nothing.”
Cal frowned, he was inclined to agree with Edith. This meeting was designed to rattle all of their cages. Put the traitor on their toes.
"Petty squabbles will get us nowhere." he said stealing a glance at Cambria and Calistos. "We must unite forces behind our King so that the population knows the nobles stand behind him. A united front will test the will of the traitor."
He turned his attention back to the King, hoping that what he said was enough to bring the accusations away from them.
Edith nodded her head in agreement. "You speak wisdom, Marcellus…" she looked to the behemoth male. A charmer by nature, something she'd have to consider in a later time. Her eyes flicked back to the king. "I am at your command, my Lord." She placed her fist to her heart. No matter the schemes she ran, her heart belonged to the crown first and foremost.
"What do you want us to do? We don't know who committed this heinous crime. So what measure, say you, do we take to find out?"
Edith couldn't help but smirk. The opportunity to shed blood was intoxicating.
In the name of the King…
Cambria ignored the rebuff from Cal. It had been decades since they last spoke and she wasn't going to down that road today. Friends and allies once, but no more. She too looked to the King. I will unleash my revenge another time, Marcellus.
The worn male, was still glaring at them, biding his time it seemed. "I should behead you all since you think you can lie to my face."
Cambria froze, Is there no getting through to him? Is he so far gone? She crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, preparing a tiny flame in her left palm should she have to defend herself. Even against the King, she would not go quietly.
"Yet," He continued waving his hand annoyed, as if they were mere children screeching at his feet. "We are presented with an opportunity to catch the traitor."
This time she spoke, "How so, my King? You are so convinced it was one of us wouldn't revealing any plan you have be counterproductive? The traitor would know what to expect." Unless…
The King began to pace the room, stepping behind each of the seated lords and ladies his eyes tracking them with predatory intent. "If it is a war this coward wants, it is a war they shall get. Come face me, traitor. I have you all gathered here for the mourning of my beloved and here you will all stay until the traitor is caught. Tried to kill me once and failed, now I am ready and waiting." He leaned over the table and spat on the stake before them. Cambria looked up at him as he passed her eyes wide. For the first time in her life she was unsure of her future.
He doesn't mean to…no…he wouldn't. Except. He did.
"I accept your challenge, traitor." He said to the room before slamming through the doors and out of the chamber.
Cas looks between the door and the others, a mildly bewildered expression breaking his usually set in stone one.
Cal cleared his throat, breaking the silence in the room. "That was unexpected." he murmured. He then braced his elbows on the table, leaning forward to address the others. "How are we to handle this?" Ever the gladiator, he needed a plan of action. No. No, they all needed a plan of action. If the King continued own this spiral of grief and rage, who knows what he would do next or how unhinged he would get.
Edith looked after the king, watching the doors close behind him. Such a terrible state to be in. Heartbroken and threatened. Hard pressed and forced to carry on or die and lose everything. She set her chin in her hand, shaking her head.
"He won't listen to reason." She stated. "Not anymore. He wants blood." She stood and stalked to the edge of the table. She paused and placed a hand on his seat. "I say we give him what he wants." She looked to the beautifully encrusted throne. "If we don't, he'll take it. From all of us." she cut her ivory eyes to them. "So we find this murderer among us."
“How do we expect to do that?” He asks. Vampires are a dangerous species, they constantly crave blood, “all of us are violent, blood, and power, thirsty monsters.” He raises a single eyebrow, perfectly arched on his stone face, “and no one will readily admit to the murder now”
Hey, is it oky if my friend takes over my character? They have a pretty similar style to me.//
Hey, is it oky if my friend takes over my character? They have a pretty similar style to me.//
(sure! no biggie. just tell them to pop in anytime. we want to keep it all going smoothly.)
"I am in agreement with Edith," Cambria began, carefully tucking her hair behind her ears as she spoke. "Find this traitor. We have a weeks worth of events to commemorate the late Queen. Who's to say that this would be assassin won't make a second attempt on the King's life?"
Dangerous. What she was suggesting was dangerous. But Calistos was also right, there was no way the traitor would step forward after such a public acceptance of the challenge from the King. We cannot simply stand by and watch our monarchy fall to pieces. She was a master at manipulating from the shadows, something she had to learn as the world around her once proud warrior tribe turned more and more modern. She frowned. If all went well perhaps they could avoid any more unnecessary deaths.
Cutting her eyes to the Lady Edith, who still stood beside the great throne looking like a queen herself, she wondered if the mistress of vampiric crime would be interested in an alliance.
Cal, despite their turbulent history, was a honorable gentleman at heart and indeed would accept any proposal she might come forward with.
Calistos….again she frowned. Her father had once said to always avoid him, but this was war.
Cas leans his chair back slightly, almost as if he could hear Cambria’s thoughts, “there will be bloodshed.” He says, matter of factly, “there is no avoiding it, with the current path we’re taking” He shakes his head slightly, “Perhaps the killer wants this,” he stands and glares at all of them individually, “I say that we, in this solitary moment, allow the killer to come forward. No torture, a quick, swift, merciful death” his voice, rough but smooth, falters not one time.
Cal stared between Cambria and Calistos, "You mean to offer the King's life up as bait?" His voice as deadly cold as the anger shining in his now red eyes. This was approaching the very treason that they had just sworn they were innocent of.
“This is a tactful war. It has started and as a ruler I can, and will, strategize. The king will come of no harm. I swear my title, and generations of bloodshed that lead to it, upon that” Calistos glares, “do you find a problem with this?”
"It isn't as if our King has not survived millennia of infighting, Callum." Cambria stated, finally addressing him. "We are vampires. The true children of night, blood, and violence. We were made for war. Besides, if everyone in this room is as innocent as they claim to be, our Lord will have adequate protection from this coward." She flicked an invisible piece of lint off of her sleeve, the picture of arrogance and power. A Vocorix daughter indeed.
"My only issue is that, lovely Lord Calistos wishes to deal with the traitor mercilessly." she spat the word, "Should we not flay him before the court and leave him for the sun? So those who would think they could rise against the monarchy and point fingers at the noble houses, see that we do not offer leniency?!"
“How we deal with this spineless traitor makes not a single difference in the end. For they will be dead by morning come” he stares her in the eyes, “everyone has had their family rebel against the crown, you should know this my lady Cambria”