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A King's Lament

Eons ago, one of Marius' instructors made a fool of him in front of the Royal Court. It was a teaching moment in his life, but it wasn't permanently ingrained in his mind because it was humbling. It was because of what his father did to the instructor for daring to embarrass the Crown Prince in court.

No one dared to embarrass or publicly humiliate a member of the Crown ever since.

Because of this, the taste of being made a fool of rarely soured Marius' mouth. Not since that fateful incident. For the majority of his existence, he'd been infallible, unerring, faultless. And it wasn't because his subjects feared to point out his mistakes, but because he stopped making any.

The King of Nostraza made no mistakes.

That was before he met the fucking half-breed.

He'd made the mistake of trusting the half-breed's word. For that, he'd been made a fool of in front of his greatest enemy. He'd been left to stand on that cliff while the Spirit made off with its host like a complete and utter fool.

Marius threw back his head and laughed. His Royal Guard looked like they were about to faint. He'd been raging like a storm these last couple of days, but the worst of his anger had dissipated by now, leaving laser-like focus and vindictiveness.

Marius wanted to recapture the half-breed and wring his neck.

He should have listened to his sea witch, should have heeded his warning. He should have continued to seduce the Prince until the half-breed had fallen for him and he was able to bed him and successfully absorb the Spirit into himself. He should have pushed him to the ground and fucked him senseless as soon as he got a chance until he had completely assimilated with the Spirit of the Sea. He should have spread his ass cheeks apart and plunged his cock deep into his bowels, splitting him in half. He should have shoved his cock down his throat to silence his insolent back talking.

They spent years attempting to locate him, only for him to lose him in the most embarrassing way. Like a fool!

This mistake was going to not only cost his people, but the whole sea. A Dark Zone not too far from Nostraza -the biggest ever yet- was spreading at an exponential rate. By now, it had decimated kilometers of coral reefs and rendered the seabed inhabitable, practically dead. Even the humans were taking notice, not that they would ever be able to determine the true cause for this phenomenon.

While the damned Spirit continued to suck the life out of some parts of the sea and feed it to Astria, his people continued to suffer. Already they'd been forced to change trade routes to avoid the Dark Zone. The Dark Zones were growing 'stronger' too; the sickness was starting to take hold faster now, sometimes only from a single passing through the zone. Before, you'd have to spend months in the zone to be affected. As a result, the empire's healers were exhausted and couldn't keep up with the rising number of the sick.

Marius' laugh abruptly stopped.

He rose from his desk and, with his magic, summoned the sea witch who appeared in less than five heartbeats.

"Yes, your Majesty." The sea witch bowed low.

Marius ignored his shaking. "Did you find the mage?"

While the Spirit might be concealing his host and his mother from detection or magical influence, the same could not be said for the Astrian mage, Erasmus.

"Yes, my-"

"Take me to him."

"Yes, my-"

Three knocks on the door silenced the sea witch.

"Come." Marius bellowed.

The sea witch disappeared.

The double door slowly opened inward and the human triplets entered, followed by another human.

"Your Majesty." The triplets stopped at the threshold and kneeled on the ground, waiting for permission to enter.

Marius' eyes narrowed on the human male.

Hakan, the half-breed had called him. His friend, the one who'd been unlucky enough to stumble upon their world. Truly a case of the wrong place at the wrong time.

Marius smiled.

The human flinched. He was dressed like a slave, just as he ordered. But Marius decided to spare him the sheer clothing and golden harness. Instead, he was shirtless and was unaccessorized except for two gold cuffs around his biceps. He wore plain gray pants and no shoes.

"Enter." The triplets rose in unison -they rarely moved out of synch- and a triplet tugged the human forward into the king's chamber by the shackles around his wrists. He stumbled forward on unsteady legs. He looked dazed and terrified at the same time, aware yet in a semi-permanent state of disbelief.

Marius saw that he was cleanly shaven and had been waxed all over, and then oiled with the most expensive, most fragrant oils the Palace stocked. His olive skin glistened bluish white under the light of the hanging luminous jellyfish.

The half-breed looked better.

Marius blinked. The intrusive thought had appeared in his mind out of the blue of the sea, surprising him. He shattered it before it started to take root.

"Bring him to me," he beckoned with a wave of his hand.

The halfbreed would come for his precious human friend, and when he did, Marius would never let him get away from him again.