North America / Kingdom of Yorkania (Crownlands of Manhattan): December 27th, 1517.
It was a beautiful night for the world.The birds were chirping their songs as mankind went about their nightly routines with smiles on their faces at beauty of the city, but also sad looks on their faces at the horror of it whether it be financially, emotionally or physically, yet if you were to look closely at a kingdom. To be more specific, inside of a bed chamber, you can see a beautiful woman staring at a unique looking painting with a face that did not move, but eyes that could make even a candle blow itself out.
Her outfit being that of a white night gown and a white shawl suit like attire with gold earrings and, her makeup down flawlessly and her hair loosely down.
(Morgan's POV)
"What do you three think of this paining." I asked calmly while staring at the painting with myself in the middle of the painting next to the dead pig king and the royal children.
Their faces blurred with four letters written on them.
T.
R.
A.
S.
H.
The chamber was silent.
A woman adjusted her throat loudly from behind me and adeline's voice said with a little shakiness "It is a most excellent piece of art your majesty, right gia'anne."
"Y…yes your majesty, a fine piece of art." Said gia'anne from out of nowhere with her head bowed as she fiddled with her fingers my
A older man adjusted his throat with a little laugh and adam said out of nowhere as he rubbed his bearded chin "A unique piece indeed your majesty, If you'd ever like to sell it for some dollar please do inform me first, I'll have your treasury so full that the entirety of europe would swallow their own shit in rage."
The chamber was silent.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush. Lord tribeca, you shall marry lady gia'anne de roosevelt." I said calmly while looking back at all three of them sitting on the sofa dressed in luxerious attires.
The chamber was absolutely silent.
Gia'anne had wide horrified eyes.
Adeline couldn't hide the smile forming on her face.
Adam raised his right hand full of gold rings and said with a sigh "I decline your majesty."
The chamber was silent.
"I'm not disobeying your majesty's decree but I'd like my wife to already be seasoned and rip with extra flavor, not to little but not to much." Said adam calmly while rubbing his beard with his right hand.
Gia'anne breathed a sigh of relief.
Adeline gritted her teeth but didn't say a word.
"She is of marriageable legal age, do you not want a virgin, my lord." I asked calmly with my eyes squinting subtly.
Adam adjusted his throat slightly and said with closed eyes "I do not your majesty."
"I like your mindset, very intriguing lord tribeca" I thought calmly.
"I see, you shall marry lady adeline de' roosevelt. I hope to see more of you three within my inner circle henceforth the coming days." I said calmly while glancing at each an every one of them.
The chamber was silent.
I looked back at the painting on my desk and moved it aside while grabbing a quil pen with ink on it and started writing on a blank piece of paper.
*Sksk*
"Lady gia'anne shall be admitted to school in the name of morgan I, once graduation she is to Inherit the title of countess roosevelt and
all of the remaining assets, castles and estates still attached to the title." I said calmly while putting the quil pen down, closing the paper and holding it up between my fingersz
Gia'anne had a flabbergasted look in her face and Immediately said with a stutter "B..b…"
"We are extremely grateful your majesty and will never forget this act of kindness and your forgiving nature of my demented son." Said adeline Immediately while standing up and curtsying with gia'anne.
Adam stood up and bowed with a smile and said "I am not Interested in politics your majesty so what do you gain from my usefulness."
"Ah. Right, you have too much money for my current economy so you will be my temporary bank to stabilize it, what was your net worth again...12 billion." I said calmly while rubbing my smooth chin.
Adam was absolutely silent and said "It is 55 billion your majesty but I shall gain something to out of this correct."
"Indeed. Just as your money gets moving that is." I said calmly while balling up the paper and flinging it at him.
Adam caught the paper and bowed once more while saying "I shall excuse myself now, your majesty."
"He even knows timing" I thought as adam, adeline and gia'anne left the chamber.
I looked at the painting again with my eyes squinting as I thought "I haven't heard from john in awhile"
(John Snow's POV)
"Sir, what is the situation looking like." Asked a cold deep voice in a all black cloak like attire.
John was silent for a moment and said with a cold tone as he put the telescope down "Not good, not good at all, the catholic church has soldiers stationed at the border between jersey and yorkania right under our noses, this is suspicious, something is suspicious here and I don't have a good feeling about this."
The five cloaked figures behind john were silent.
"Do we inform her majesty." Asked a woman's voice from one of the cloaks.
John was silent for a moment and said with his eyes looking off into the distance "Two of you are with me and the rest of the three will keep monitoring, start moving."
Three of the cloaked figures vanished into the night.
John put the telescope away and started to sprint into the distance with inhuman speed.
Their cloaked figures creating a blsck blur like pattern.
(Galahad De' Bronx's POV)
The underground chamber was silent.
Not peaceful.
Not calm.
Silent in the way blood becomes after it stops being fresh.
Lloyd doward burttback sat tied to a wooden chair in the middle of the chamber with both of his wrists chained to the arms of it. His face was swollen beyond recognition, one eye shut, lips split, nose broken, and dried blood crusted around his beard like he had tried to kiss death and death had found him ugly.
Galahad stood in front of him shirtless.
His light skin was covered in sweat and old scars. His black trousers were loose around his waist, his boots planted firmly against the stone floor, and his huge muscular frame blocked the candlelight behind him like a wall that had learned how to breathe.
"Where did the crate come from." Asked halahad calmly.
Lloyd coughed.
Blood dripped from his mouth and onto the floor.
*Splat*
"I told you already your grace. I don't know. I was paid to move it. That's all." Said lloyd hoarsely with a weak smile forming on his busted lips.
The chamber was silent.
Galahad stared at him.
Lloyd's smile stayed.
Smooth.
Too smooth.
"I am a simple captain. A humble man of the sea. I do not ask questions when coin is heavy and cargo is private." Said lloyd weakly.
Galahad's eyes did not move and said calmly "Again."
Lloyd swallowed and said with a trembling breath "I do not know."
The chamber went still.
Galahad stepped closer.
*Tak*
Lloyd's one good eye followed him.
"I dislike lies." Said galahad calmly.
"I swear on my dead mother." Said lloyd quickly.
Galahad's right hand moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
*BOOOOOOM*
His fist slammed into lloyd's mouth.
The chair rocked backward.
Blood exploded across the stone floor.
*SPLAT*
Yellow chipped teeth scattered across the chamber floor.
*TAK* *TAK* *TAK*
"GGGAAAAAHHHHHH." Said lloyd screaming at the top of his lungs.
Not like a man.
Like something being dragged out of a butcher's hook.
His head hung forward as blood poured from his ruined mouth. Teeth, spit and red strings of flesh dripped from his lips onto his chest.
The chamber remained silent.
Galahad lowered his bloody fist and said calmly "Again."
"N…no…no more." Said lloyd through broken gums and blood with a stutter as he shook his head violently.
"Where did the crate come from." Asked Galahad calmly.
Lloyd breathed hard through his nose.
His body trembled.
"Church." Said lloyd weakly.
Galahad's eyes sharpened.
The chamber became colder.
"What church." Asked galahad calmly.
*SPLAT*
Lloyd spat blood onto the floor and said with a trembling voice "Catholic. It came from a catholic storehouse near the jersey coast. Not the kind with poor people praying. The kind with soldiers pretending not to be soldiers and priests pretending not to be thieves."
Galahad was silent.
"The crate was brought by men with red wax seals. Papal seals. I didn't ask. I didn't want to know. I saw men in black robes, jersey men, and one man with a black stag ring. He paid me. He told me to keep it chained and deliver it across the northern sea." Said lloyd weakly as he coughed.
Galahad stepped closer.
Lloyd flinched so hard the chains rattled.
*CHK* *CHK*
"The black stag ring." Said galahad calmly with cold eyes.
"Joseph's inner council. I don't know his name. I swear I don't know his name. But the others bowed when he spoke. He said the crate had to reach judal before the next moon." Said lloyd quickly with his good eye barely stay open.
Galahad stared at him for a moment and asked calmly "What was in it."
Lloyd shook his head quickly and then froze when galahad's fist tightened.
"I don't know. I don't know. But I heard it." Said lloyd desperately weakly.
Galahad's eyes narrowed and said calm but Immediately "You heard it."
Lloyd nodded with blood dripping from his chin.
"Scratching. Not like a rat. Not like a man. Like metal dragging against metal from inside the crate. Sometimes the chains moved when nobody touched them." Said lloyd with a horrified look in his one good eye.
The chamber went silent.
Galahad's jaw clenched once.
"Anything else." Asked galahad coldly.
Lloyd breathed shakily and said "The priests said something. One of them said rome had failed with poison and would not fail with hunger. I thought he was drunk. Priests drink too. Everyone drinks. I should have drank more."
Galahad's eyes became cold.
Very cold.
"Repeat that." Said galahad calmly.
Lloyd trembled.
"Rome had failed with poison and would not fail with hunger." Said lloyd weakly.
The chamber was silent.
Galahad looked down at the blood and teeth on the floor and back at lloyd and asked calmly "Who knew about the road attacks."
Lloyd's face went pale.
"I don't know." Said Lloyd quickly.
Galahad raised his fist.
"WAIT." Said lloyd screaming with blood spraying from his mouth.
*SPLAT*
The chamber echoed.
Lloyd panted and said with shaking shoulders "Jersey smugglers. Priests. Men with no banners. They were all talking about roads. Grain roads. Villages. Storehouses. They said the queen mother feeds her people, so her roads must starve first."
The chamber was silent.
Galahad stared at him for a long moment.
Lloyd started sobbing.
"I told you everything. I told you everything. Please. I love having teeth. I loved having teeth. They were ugly but they were mine." Said lloyd weakly with tears streaming down his face.
Galahad turned away from him and grabbed a cloth from the table and wiped lloyd's blood from his fist.
Slowly.
Calmly.
"Your teeth were a poor defense, be grateful I got rid of something that was rotten and of poor quality." Said galahad coldly.
Lloyd was silent with gritted gums.
The chamber door opened.
*BOOM*
A cloaked figure stepped inside and kneeled.
"Your grace. John has returned." Said the cloaked figure calmly.
Galahad's eyes moved toward the door and asked calmly "With what."
The cloaked figure lifted his head slightly.
"Confirmation." Said the cloaked figure.
The chamber was silent.
Galahad looked back at lloyd's ruined face.
Lloyd shook in the chair, bloody, toothless and suddenly aware that the woman upstairs was about to hear everything.
Galahad grabbed his black shirt from the back of a chair and started walking toward the door.
Behind him, lloyd whispered through blood and broken gums.
"She is going to kill me." Said lloyd quietly through blood and broken gums.
Galahad stopped at the doorway.
He did not look back.
"No." Said Galahad calmly.
The chamber went silent.
"Her majesty does not waste death on men like you until usefulness is finished." Said galahad with a cold look in his eyes.
Lloyd's body trembled harder.
Galahad walked out into the hall.
*Boom*
The castle was silent around him.
The kind that came before steel.
The kind that came before morgan le fay learned exactly whose hand had reached for her roads, her food, her people and her throat.
Galahad moved forward with blood still drying across his knuckles.
"Rome. Jersey paid the hand. The church guided the blade" Thought galahad coldly with his jae subtly clenching.
The hallway torches flickered.
At the far end of the corridor, john stood in his black cloak with two shadow guards behind him.
His face was calm.
Too calm.
Galahad knew that look.
It was the look of a man carrying news ugly enough to make even stone listen.
John bowed his head slightly and said calmly "Your grace. Her majesty needs to hear this at once."
Galahad walked past him while saying coldly "She will."
The two men moved down the corridor together.
One was the shadow.
One was the sword.
And above them, somewhere behind white doors and candlelight, the queen mother waited.
…
THE END…