Beginning of the end

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No one can recall dates any longer. Help was coming, they had promised. Who wouldn't believe the promise made to by the brightest minds of the time to the richest families of the time? It had been long enough now that the original citizens of Rapture now had young adult grandchildren. The city had been built just for them. Their lavish playground, or so they liked to believe. It was many years now since anything had been truly 'lavish', it was only as the joy now made them see it; glorious and delightfully decadent.

Some families considered themselves better than others, and rightly so. Few had the money and the power, while the many lived in squalor. One of these families were the Jansen's. The eldest son had two beautiful daughters, who in the society they had left would no doubt have been attendees of many parties and balls, all for the purpose of finding a husband. As it stood, the youngest girl seemed the most adept at wearing her mask. By day she was the spoiled little princess she was supposed to be, making fun of the lower classes and generally being a horrible person. But as night fell and her joy pill began to wear off... She often thought of life outside her parent's massive apartment, of life in the 'workers' levels of the city. Anika Jansen would fall asleep troubled by the things her imagination thought up. It was this particular night that she had finally plucked up the courage to slip out of her parent's home, though of course she would stand out a mile in her expensive clothing and perfect make up.

"She hopes you kill me, along with the goblin king's army." Anika breathed, the light in her lilac eyes seeming none existent now.

"Very well, I believe the entire castle enjoyed seeing your backside every time they fell down!" Deacon shot back.

"And? What else did she say? What did she say about Victoria?" Clearly the king cared very little for her fate. He was already waving her off. His own blue eyes were on fire now. He was going to kill their king. He could almost taste the victory now. 

"I don't know know why they would. They see yours every day, all day!" The young woman shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. Her chin was out and she was daring him to cross her. Their war was far from over and it was probably going to get worse before it got better.

"Let Elliot go, and I'll tell you." Anika told the king firmly. "Take him to a healer and you'll have your daughter!"

"Only because they grovel so perfectly." Deacon breathed, proving to be rather hard to infuriate.

For a brief moment Arthurian's eyes widened. He knew then that she was telling the truth. No one but his mother knew this secret. "Fine. But I will not let the boy go if that's what you're thinking. I am keeping him here until both of you have outlived your usefulness." 

"They do, perhaps. But I do not." Victoria hissed, now nose to nose with him. "I am going home, your majesty. And I will be taking my sister with me. No dresses required." She turned on heel and marched back toward the bedroom, not seeming to notice the soldiers scrambling to bow as she passed them.

Anika resisted the urge to smile when she saw Arthurian's reaction to what she had said. It would seem she did indeed have something to bargain with. "Fine. Then I go with him to see the healer."

"That is a sight I would very much like to see!" Deacon called after his wife.

Arthurian's eyes narrowed. "You are pushing it." He snarled, motioning that the slaves open the cell. "You are lucky I am so desperate."

"Apparently, you'd much rather see it from my sister!" Victoria shouted back.

"Yes, lucky." Anika snorted as she made a rather regal exit from her cell. She owed Eliott so much, and this didn't even begin to repay him.

Deacon huffed loudly and rolled his crimson eyes. "What is your obsession with trying to palm your pathetic sibling off on me?!" He demanded as he stomped after his queen.

"Ani..." Elliot tried his best to catch up with her, feeling as if he'd been drinking. He shook his head and tried to clear his vision, knocking both of them into the wall. "Run..." he hissed in her ear. "As soon as you are able run and don't look back." 

Victoria paused and turned back to him, giving him a look that any husband in the ranks would understand. Then she turned and continued walking. 
"Making up with her will be fun, sire. I will prepare the messenger while we wait for you to return." The Captain said in a soft purr.

"I wont." Anika breathed, daring to slide her arms around Elliot. "I wont leave you with them, Eli."

"Do you honestly hate me?" He asked Victoria seriously once he found her in his bedroom. "I only want to give you the world, is that really so bad?!"

The healers room was filled with people even Anika would recognize. The mystics that were there looking over her when they arrived in the goblin king's castle. Elliot stopped short, fighting to shake his head. "No...not this..." he wheezed.
Behind him Arthurian chuckled. "What's the matter, boy? Discovering something you don't like?" He walked up one of them and patted her head. "All is well, wouldn't you say, Samantha?"

Victoria's head shot up and she shook it. "I am not Anika. I am not the prophecy. Had I not lied to you to save my sister, you'd give me nothing but a right proper boot back home. Better question is, what are you playing at, sir?"

The named Samantha was watching both Anika and Elliot with a steady gaze. "You didn't smell the magic on her?" She asked with an indignant snort.

"But you did lie, and I didn't care!" Deacon shouted in exasperation. "I was miserable to think that meek little kitten was to be my queen!"

"You traitorous bitch. The king will murder you for this. All of you." Elliot snarled. 
Calmly, Arthurian grabbed the back of the goblin's head and slammed it into the wall. "My girls wear never working for the king. They've been working for me for years. Wake up, boy." He chuckled.

"But what about the prophecy everyone seems so concerned with? They all say her name. Not mine. It was her name you called out last night on the marital bed. Not mine." Victoria reminded him.

"Stoppit!" Anika pleaded again, pushing Arthurian away from Elliot to stand between the both of them. "Hurt him and you wont get a thing out of me!" She informed him.
"And this was the useless one?" Samantha asked with a quiet chuckle. "I imagine Deacon is having a field day with the other one."

"Was this before or after you had revealed your lie?" Deacon snorted. "The onyl one concedrned with nametags is you, my love."

Arthurian shoved Elliot at Anika and turned his attention to Samantha. "The other one is what I'm worried about. We need to move this thing more quickly. If he falls in love with her, he will triple his power. I won't be able to stop him. Never mind force him to give me back all that he has stolen." He pushed back his hood, reveling a twisted monstrous face that not even a mother could love. "You lot failed me on so many levels. I should kill you all right now."

"Stop calling me that. There is no one to hear you." Victoria said softly, turning to the closet in hopes of finding something more sutible. The closet complied offering her a simple dress, still in black and red. She betrayed herself by smiling at it and reverently touching the fabric. She'd never allowed herself even simple beautiful things. "Anika loves the pure magic of this place. I...must admit I find it a bit frightening. This closet...it's giving me what it thinks I want...or is that you?" She asked, turning to look at the king with the dress held against her.

Anika's fingers were shaking as she touched Elliot's face gently. "This is all my fault..." It wasn't the first time she had told him that, and it wouldn't be the last.
Samantha was smiling as she looked upon Arthurian without fear. "You make that threat so often it has lost all meaning, my king." She purred. "You forget, she needs to fall in love with him in return. You know Deacon... You really think anyone can love that self obsessed child?"

"What does your heart tell you?" The king asked simply. "What does it matter what Anika thinks?" He added, smiling very slightly as he watched Victoria move with the dress held against her. "I discovered something while you were sleeping earlier. It would seem your baby sister... Has bewitched my best friend enough that he has betrayed me and disappeared with her. You wouldn't know anythign about that... would you?"

"Turn him into a monster the way he did me. Guarantee me that." Arthurian snarled, turning his back on the mystic. "I want the bastard dead. You can't even do that right. Stupid girl." 

Suddenly Victoria couldn't look at him. She returned the dress to the closet, keeping her back to him. "I made him leave with her. Told him to take her to the neighboring kingdom. I betrayed you. Not him. You must understand...I was trying to save her..."

"To have him dead is to end any suffering he may endure." Samantha pointed out. "Of course... I could always turn his lady love into a monster, see how long the vain king wants her then."

Deacon didn't see it that way. "If he was any kind of loyal, he would have refused." He replied thinly. "I'll have his head for this, you know that, don't you?"

"No!" The roar startled everyone else in the room. Arthurian snarled at the mystic, making it clear how much he disliked her idea. "Concentrate on the king. And stop using his name. It gives the fool power. I hate names." 

"I could see that he cared for her a mile away." Victoria said, seating herself in an ornate chair across the room. To her hidden delight she found a hairbrush on the vanity and began to try and pull it through the tangles in her silken hair. "Could you not...see the way he....was staring at her?" She asked, gritting her teeth as she got caught in one of the worst of them. "He...loves...her."

"Fear gives a thing power." Samantha replied, seemingly unaffected by Arthurian's outburst, like she was rather accustomed to them.

Deacon simply couldn't accept this, though he was stood behind Victoria and took the brush from her fingers to gently work on the tangles himself. "He was staring because she was such an ugly little troll." He replied. "Elliot would never fall in love anyway, it isn't something he has ever known."

"What would you know about power? You are a slave." The king snapped. "Do as I say. Concentrate on a way to weaken him. I am intent on getting my hands on both girls." 

Victoria closed her eyes, the feel of the king's fingers in her hair seductive. "For him being your best friend, you don't know him very well do you?" She breathed.

Samantha was smiling again, some of her pale blonde hair slipping out from beneath the hooded cloak she wore. "Well you already have one of them... One that is apparently in love with a goblin. One taste of her, and you could have magic all of your own."

"I know him quite well, thank you." The king sniffed. "Elliot has no interest in the foolishness of love, besides... He wouldn't want her anyway. He knows how... disruptive that would be to the kingdom."

"Screw magic. I want nothing to do with it. You see what it has gifted me with." Arthurian scoffed. "I will use her as a tool to get to my mother and...Victoria. Nothing more. Stop trying to put thoughts in my head witch or I will kill you."

"So I'm to understand that you're that only one allowed to do it?" Victoria asked, tipping her head back as the king's gentle brushing stopped. "As I see it, love doesn't care abour disruption." She laughed softly, offering him a smile.

"Kill me and you will have to start again with a new mystic." Samantha pointed out, rather gleefully.

The king laughed gently, leaning over and kissing Victoria's lips lightly. "I'm king, I can do as I like." He purred.

"I hate you." Arthurian snarled, showing her his teeth. "Stop preening and make me a tonic. This body is hurting. It's tearing me apart from the inside." 

Victoria fixed the king with a light gray gaze. Her eyes were beginning to change colors as well. "I know." She breathed.

"Or perhaps you are simply too weak to endure the pain. Deacon probably could." Samantha replied, again with that strange smile.

The king kissed Victoria's throat lightly, slowly moving along her shoulder. "As Queen... you could too..."

"Shut up, you whore!" He roared, beginning to throw things around the room. "You know nothing!" He made a grab for Anika in his rage and lifted her off her feet. "Make it stop. Change me. Change it all."

"I am not the one you wanted...remember?" Victoria breathed, her body on fire. She didn't dare move. It would all come apart around her.

Anika could barely breathe Arthurian's grip was so tight.
"Now now, you think if she could dot hat, you would still be standing?" Samantha purred. "She is made of magic, but doesn't have access to it... yet." She added, though didn't enlighten Anika about her origins any further.

"In case you forget... I still wish you to be my queen, regardless of what the prophecy says." The king breathed. "I would choose you over that silly child any day."

The king of the neighboring lands wouldn't have time to respond to this as Elliot leaped to his feet and tackled him. "Let go of her!" He roared, sending both men sprawling. Arthurian dropped Anika and turned on the goblin, his body beginning to shift into its true form. Few people were able to catch him by surprise. The young man was going to pay dearly for it.

"What if I asked you to prove it to me?" Victoria asked, nervously pulling at her fingers. She didn't believe Deacon's words. All her life everything had been centered around her sister. Her father had insisted she set aside everything to protect her, to ensure she was happy and safe. She didn't think that anyone would ever care what happened to her.

"Girl, I would pull on your pup's leash, if you know what is good for him." Samantha warmed coolly.
Anika was still gasping for breath and rubbing at her throat, but she hoarsely called for Elliot anyway. "Please... let her heal you... Don't worry about me."

"How does a man prove he married the one he hoped for?" The king breathed, turning Victoria around so he could kneel before her where she sat.

Red eyes flashed as Elliot turned to her, blood sliding past his lips. He was in little shape to fight but he was prepared to die for her. It was clear as he didn't seem to notice the talons digging deep into his stomach. 
It was Arthurian who spoke, glancing towards Anika. "I made a deal. Heal him, girl." He snarled at Samantha. "Now, tell me what my mother said."

"A kiss." Victoria whispered, a blush stealing across her cheeks. "To start..." she laughed softly, realizing how silly she sounded. This man was a king. He had no time for her games.