A Guide to Kingdom Building

Aturs, Year of Severus, 15, I.R., the 32nd day of Fall, Arenfall

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"Prince Arterius, is that you?" Lord Prestonheim asked as he looked up.

"Y-yes it's him…August…c-could you get off me?" Commander Crovar answered.

"Syleon? Is that really you, old friend?" The confused Lord Prestonheim asked.

"By the gods! What happened to you August? You looked disheveled!" Commander Crovar touched the silver-haired lord's collar.

Lord Prestonheim sighed in relief, stood up and lend a hand to his friend for him to stand up. He tried to fix his overlapping undergarments and comb his hair with the use of his hands before bowing to the prince.

The silver-haired Commander saw the worried look on his godson's face. He cannot do anything about it. The past 2 days was just a nightmare for him. His sanity was at the verge of breaking. Everything became questionable and downright surreal for him.

He walked over to his bed and sat on it as he pinched the bridge of his nose. For a second, he thought if the prince and his friend was real. Or were they nothing more than one of those illusion the castle seemed to dish out on him.

"Are you indeed real?" He asked both of them. "Or are you just a trick this gods-forsaken castle had made to torture me even more?"

"Godfather, what are you talking about—" Prince Arterius tried approaching his godfather, but Commander Crovar blocked his way.

"What's the matter with you, August?" Commander Crovar slowly walked up to him. "What have they done to y—"

Lord Prestonheim looked at his friend and suddenly saw Commander Crovar's face melting. His skin slowly sagged and red putrid liquid came gushing out of his orifices. His eyes began to drop from their sockets and his hung down his chest.

The silver-haired Commander stood up from his bed and moved away from his melting friend. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't dreaming at all, but it was still there. He breathed in deep and approached his decomposing friend.

"A…a…rrrr…yaahh…weeeellll?" The melting Commander Crovar asked him.

Lord Prestonheim nodded. The silver-haired Commander bravely faced Dhampiirs and lived to tell the tale about it. He saw his fears flashed before his very eyes and fought them to the best of his abilities and this one was no exception.

He knew somehow that it was an illusion of some sort. But how did he acquire such curse? Could it be caused by the Bieroffs' deaths? Could it be possible he was drugged? Or is it the house that's giving him all sort of hellish thoughts that was quickly devouring his sanity? All of those were possible reasons but he hoped it wasn't the case.

Lord Prestonheim reached out for Commander Crovar's stump were his arm used to be as he was melting rapidly. He pulled him close and whispered on his friend's ear.

"Syleon, punch me as hard as you can." He asked his friend.

Commander Crovar sighed and then nodded to agree to his friend's peculiar request. He swung as hard as he could and hit his silver-head friend straight on the jaw. Lord Prestonheim fell to the ground out cold.

He woke up sometime later to the shaking movement of the carriage. He stood up from where he laid on, dazed and confused. He looked around and saw Prince Arterius and his ward along with Commander Crovar at the adjacent seat of the carriage.

He noticed the bandage wrapped around his old friend's right hand. The silver-haired commander tried to open his mouth but was halted by the pain radiating from his jaw. He remembered what he requested his friend to do.

Lord Prestonheim grinned as he touched his painful jaw, "That was a hard punch."

Commander Crovar grinned back at him, "Hah! Your jaw is still as hard as adamantite." He pointed at his hand wrapped in bloody bandages. "I think you broke my hand."

"Did I really?" He sat up and looked at Commander Crovar straight in the eyes.

His friend returned his gaze and shook his head, "Nah. Not really." He laughed out loud.

He wanted to laugh in relief but the pain in his jaw was just something else, "I would've been disappointed if I broke your hand." Lord Prestonheim commented as he recalled their misadventures when they were younger.

August Prestonheim and Syleon Crovar were known infamously to brawl with soldiers and nobles alike, challenging them and claiming the spoils to their own. They were both feared and respected by the Principalia due to their discipline, fighting prowess and magical aptitudes that was almost close to a captians' rank even before they became officers of the knights.

There were still a lot of things Lord Prestonheim had in his mind and wanted to say about his old friend Commander Crovar. But Prince Arterius interrupted both men getting them back to the topic.

"Godfather, what happened there? Why did you ask Commander Crovar to punch you?" The curious prince wanted to know.

"Prince Arterius, I need to get myself together and the Commander Crovar's punch was more than enough to cover that. "Isn't that right, Syleon?" Lord Prestonheim didn't want to tell them what truly happen, he was afraid it might make matters worse for him and his House.

"Is this still a dream, perhaps?" He looked around and even took a look at the barren and desolate landscape of Arenfall's town.

"Would you like another punch perhaps?" Commander Crovar grinned at him showing his sharp jagged teeth.

Lord Prestonheim's heart suddenly sunk, "Syleon, since when did you have jagged teeth?"

"I don't know…may be just for today so …I... could…his friend's voice suddenly changed into that shrill high-pitched sounding shriek that the Dhampiirs had. His friend's mouth suddenly opened wide as its face turned bone pale and tried to devour the prince's head clean.

Lord Prestonheim woke up once more. This time he was sweating profusely. He was still in the same spot where he was at his dream that included the other people in his dream, Arterius and his trusty ward. But Commander Crovar was now at his side, shaking him to wake up.

He looked and saw their terrified faces. Lord Crovar specifically.

"By the gods! Good thing you have awaken!" Lord Crovar exclaimed. "You seemed to have a nightma—"

Before Commander Crovar could finish, Lord Prestonheim grabbed him by the armor and head butted him exactly at the bridge of his nose. The old commander writhed in pain as he stumbled down to the carriage floor.

Lord Prestonheim threw himself out of the carriage. He tumbled down the grassy hill and landed himself in a mud pond. The silver-haired Commander's sanity was going further away from him. He felt that the damned castle was slowly eating his sanity.

The silver-haired Commander knew that he needed to get it out off him. As the days come and go, the illusions become more and more apparent. It wasn't as bad as that of the Dhampiirs illusions, but these ones were designed to make anyone lose their hold of reality. It was not meant to kill him directly.

Rather than extending his life and putting everyone in jeopardy, Lord Prestonheim would rather end it all right then and there. As he waded in the murky pond, he saw stick entangled in the roots of a lily pad. He took the stick and snapped it in two.

He chose the sharper end of the broken stick and aimed it on his neck. Just before he was about to stab himself Commander Crovar came descending from the pond.

"They who protect the waters from the deep I call upon thy force and allow me to bind my enemy! Water Magic Level II: Binding!" Commander Crovar said.

All of the sudden, Lord Prestonheim was covered with mud and roots. The roots quickly immobilized his limbs while the heavy mud made it impossible for him to. Struggle out from it. The binding magic was powerful and downright draining.

"You had me no choice, August…" Commander Crovar sighed. "Whatever they did to you there, we can try and fix but please don't do that again. Losing one friend to that…was one too many." He took the broken stick from his friend's entangled hand.

Lord Prestonheim looked up the sky feeling defeated. What was he doing? Why was he thinking like that? He's been through a lot of heartbreaks and tragedies all his life, but he remained strong. He fought monsters of men and beast but yet he stood bravely against the oppositions. Something didn't feel right.

He looked up to the sky and began to feel dizzy. Something inside him was itching to get out of there. Something inside him was shouting and commanding him to get out of the sun. But the bind was too strong for him to get out.

Commander Crovar touched the mud and was taken aback, "By the gods! August, what have they fed you with?"

Lord Prestonheim couldn't see it, but his friend seemed to be writing something in the mud he was covered with. He knew that the Crovar's were known throughout the ancient times for their affinity with water magic along with a high level of healing magic that the Arteria had never seen before.

Although most of them hadn't been as adept as their ancestors were, they still had a certain level of advance spells that doctors from the Principalia would love to have.

"Sprites that sing the song of water, I come to you and ask for your blessing. Come forth and grant us thy power! Come forth and cleanse this world with your song." Commander Crovar chanted.

Lord Prestonheim felt something inside him move as the cool glowing water slowly begins to engulf him. He felt something from his stomach moving out. He felt it crawled all the way through his throat. Lord Prestonheim could feel the thing getting out of his body. He felt his throat expanded as if to make way for something big going out from him.

Finally, he vomited it out. A dark scaly creature that had a set of appendages hanging limp from its round grotesque body. Its appendages extended towards the sky before the entire monster swelled and exploded in the heat of the sun.

Lord Prestonheim couldn't believe what he just witnessed that came out from him. A grotesque blob of appendages that burst when exposed to sunlight. He felt something more coming out from him he hurled a black viscous liquid before fainting once again.

He woke up a few moments later, laying down in a shade of an Oker tree. Commander Crovar sat right next to him eating on some pomme from the tree.

"You're awake now!" He sighed in relief. "How are you feeling?"

Lord Prestonheim looked at his friend and smiled. "I'm feeling better now."

"Does any part of you hurt?" Commander Crovar asked. "Are you still getting those horrible illusions?"

"Illusio—" Lord Prestonheim stood up immediately. "H-how did you know about that? Are you really—"

"Relax, August, it is truly me." Commander Crovar answered. "Thing is…those bastards feed you Orobus seed. What you saw bursting out of you was the fruit of that seed. Don't worry, I made sure to clean all of it."

"By the gods!" Lord Prestonheim went down on his knees in relief. "Thank you, Syleon."

"Don't thank me for this, August. I was only here to escort our Prince." Commander Crovar smiled. "You should thank him instead."

"I will definitely do that." The silver-haired Lord smiled.