Jezebel was sitting in the large conference room at the head of a large wooden table along with the king.
The top ministers of Vussia were gathered around the table discussing a wide variety of important things that had to do with running the kingdom. The talks had already been going on for a few hours now and Jezebel was growing bored and impatient.
‘When is Akira coming? Why is he so late? Did something happen to him?’ countless questions popped into her head. But for each question, there was no answer.
Just when she thought she couldn’t wait any longer a butler entered the room and informed one of the guards near the door of important news.
The Guard immediately walked over to the queen and was stopped by Piet her personal guard. After a few words, the guard left and Piet walked over to her.
“Your majesty the person you were waiting for has arrived,” said Piet in a quiet voice only loud enough for the queen to hear.
“Where is he?” asked the Jezebel, her boredom and unknown questions were washed away with those few words.
“He was sent to the west tower and is waiting there.”
Thud, Thud, Thud.
The queen used a gavel to get the attention of the loudly arguing ministers who immediately grew quiet upon hearing the gavel.
“Everyone, I have some business to take care of so I’ll leave you for now. The king will take over and continue with the day’s agenda while I’m gone,” ordered Jezebel. Before anyone could say anything she stood up and left the room with Piet trailing behind her like a well-trained dog.
She walked swiftly to the west tower and up the winding stairs leading to the tea room halfway up the stairs she heard something hit the ground outside and splatter everywhere.
Jezebel entered the top floor of the west tower and saw Akira looking over the balcony railings at the ground below.
“Akira you’re here!” said Jezebel happily.
When Akira turned to look at her he had an astonished look on his face as if he could not believe what he had just seen.
“He jumped…” said Akira pointing at the ground.
“Really?” Jezebel asked, unsure about what he was talking about. She walked over to the balcony and looked over to see the smushed remains of a human body that had been wearing butler clothing.
The castle guards were hurrying over to see what had happened they noticed Akira standing high above the body and were going to curse him for killing someone, but they became silent immediately after seeing the queen appear next to him.
“How odd!” Jezebel burst out laughing after seeing the body and the guards reactions.
“Akira, come sit over here with me,” said Jezebel while grabbing Akira’s arm and pulling him to the only table in the tea room surrounded by countless cushions.
While walking over to the table her gaze wandered and noticed the gash in his armor that had not been there the day before.
She stopped walking her eyes gleamed with a cold light as she asked, “Akira what happened to your armor?”
“It.. that… umm… just an accident I didn’t have time to repair it,” said Akira fumbling with his words.
Jezebel looked at him for a short a few seconds and then sat Akira down onto one of the cushions and walked to the other side of the small table where she poured a wine into a golden goblet.
“Here drink some of the wine it should help calm you down,” said Jezebel soft and caring as if to a lover.
“Thank you, your majesty,” said Akira as he started to regain his composure.
“No need to call that when we are alone,” said Jezebel shyly.
“Right,” said Akira while taking small sips of the wine.
She poured herself a glass of fresh juice and looked at the desserts on the metal tray.
“Ah! My favorite!” said Jezebel, as her hand shot out and grabbed a muffin that had blood red cherries baked inside.
“You don’t drink wine?” asked Akira upon seeing Jezebel drinking the juice.
“It upsets my stomach,” said Jezebel somewhat truthfully. It did upset her stomach but that was easily taken care of by adding a few special spices to better digest it.
The real reason she was not drinking wine right now was because she was a light drinker and would lose control and become extremely harsh even more than when she was sober and it only took a cup or two. She didn’t want to ruin Akira’s view of her so she had ordered juice to be served alongside the wine for when he came.
“Why were you so late today?” asked Jezebel before taking a large bite of the muffin.
“There were so many crazy things that happened while I was walking over to the castle. Due to those things, I was late,” said Akira with a small laugh.
“Oh? Please do tell me,” said Jezebel with a warm smile, while a flash of cold light appeared in her eyes.
Akira began explaining each event in quite some detail.
“And then you entered the…” Akira abruptly stopped talking. Jezebel had been carefully staring at his face saw that he looked as if he was startled by something.
He looked at his goblet of wine that had been refilled and then looked at Jezebel.
“What?” asked Jezebel puzzled.
“No..nothing. Just my stomach is a bit upset,” said Akira quickly glancing at the wine bottle.
Jezebel seeing this grabbed his goblet and poured it into a vase of flowers on the table. Immediately the flowers began to dry out and turn black before crumbling into a pile of dust.
An unending rage began to build up in Jezebel’s heart as she saw this she had suspicions after seeing the gash in his armor and hearing the events that happened in the morning but now she had proof.
‘Someone is trying to kill Akira!’ she raged to herself. Although she was furious she did not let Akira see it.
“Quickly drink this!” said Jezebel as she pulled out a deep red major health potion from a handbag she had beside her.
Akira hesitated but after a few seconds took it and drank the entire potion.
Jezebel sigh and walked over to Akira, “Come rest on the couch while I have a doctor come to check you.”
Jezebel walked over to the stairwell after helping Akira to the couch.
“Piet, go call the captain of the guards and the palace doctor Immediately,” said Jezebel in a quiet but fierce voice full of anger.
“Yes your highness,” said Piet bowing before leaving.
The rage in her heart was continuing to build, it was as if a fierce thunderstorm was getting ready to shatter the earth.
A few minutes later the old royal doctor stood in front Jezebel. He was breathing heavily and had a few drops of sweat on his forehead from running all the way to the tower and up the stairs.
“Your majesty how can I help you?” asked the old doctor while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“Someone tried to poison my friend. He has already used a major health potion. I want you to make sure he is OK,” said Jezebel still talking in a quiet voice full of anger.
The royal doctor was startled at the news. ‘Who was stupid enough to try to poison someone in front of the queen and no less it had to be her friend. Whoever it was had better have covered their tracks.’ he shivered thinking about the queen’s temper and what would happen if the culprit was caught.
Jezebel paid no attention to the doctor as he was doing his test and waited impatiently for the guard captain to return.
It didn’t take long before she heard the clanking of the heavily armored guard captain running up the stairs.
The guard captain although a little winded from running with full armor was able to recover quickly due to his training and being in much better shape than the old doctor.
“Your majesty,” said the guard captain while bending to one knee and bowing his head.
“Arise, I have a task for you,” after saying this she picked the nearby wine bottle that was few cups short from being full.
“This wine was brought fully sealed by the late butler. It was poisoned! I suspect the butler had something to do with it but he is dead. You are to find out where this bottle of wine came from and who was trying to poison my friend,” ordered Jezebel in a quick and sharp voice.
The guard captain was just as shocked as the royal doctor had been. ‘Someone’s going to die over this, possibly multiple people.’
“Use whatever force is needed to find who it was. I expect you to be back with results before tomorrow morning. Now go.”
“It shall be done right away your majesty,” said the guard captain solemnly.
Piet stepped forward after the guard captain left.
“Piet you listened earlier about the attempted attacks on Akira. You are to investigate them along with a suspected attack that may have happened last night. See if you can find anything on who is behind it,” ordered Jezebel.
“I shall be done before the night end’s,” said Piet resolutely.
Jezebel nodded satisfied with the reply and watched as he left.
***
Night time.
Jezebel sat on the throne in the main throne room. The night air inside the large room was quite cold with only a few green magical torches that never burned out lighting up the large space providing a small amount of heat.
She had forced Akira to spend the night in one of the guest rooms while she waited for the results of her subordinates search. She had full confidence they would bring her evidence pointing to who was at fault.
Midnight was only a short time away before she heard a commotion from the hallway as the guard captain entered the throne room leading a shackled person behind him.
Not long after Piet entered as well with his usual grim face looking even more so. The two of them and the captive walked closer to the throne and stopped ten paces away from it.
“Tell me what you have found out and who that person behind you is,” Jezebel ordered the guard captain.
“I was unable to find much information. But I was able to find the person who sold the wine to the butler,” said the guard captain shoving the captive in front and pushing him onto his knees.
“Why were you trying to poison my friend?” asked Jezebel her anger bursting forth. A strong aura of killing intent was radiating from her position of the throne so much so that it could be felt from where the three were standing.
“My queen I have already told the guards that came to my shop today that I had no idea that it was poisoned. I was given the bottle of rare wine by a member of the magic guild. It was too rare to sell to commoners so I kept it safe until your royal butler came to buy more wine. I am innocent,” said the wine shop owner pleading his case.
“You dare talk to the queen like that?” shouted the guard captain before giving the plump body of wine shop owner a kick.
“So it was the Magic guild that tried to poison Akira. Due to the fact they knew it would not be sold to a commoner and would only be sold to the castle. Fine take him to the dungeon to await his execution tomorrow,” ordered Jezebel with a cold uncaring attitude to the cries of innocence from the man as he was dragged out of the room.
“Your majesty, with the help of the guards that had been on duty in the morning, I was able to find most of the people that were described earlier. After getting the information out of them I cleaned up so you would not have to be bothered,” said Piet.
“Good, so who was it?” asked Jezebel.
“Each person that talked said they were hired by the magic guild. I was able to verify that an attack did happen last night. Only the two suspects were dead already so I was unable to interrogate them but it is more than likely that it was the doing of the Magic guild also,” said Piet. knowing that the magic guild was now going to face the queen’s wrath.
“Go retrieve the captain of the guards,” said Jezebel.
“Yes, your majesty,” said Piet bowing before leaving.
The two entered the throne room once again a few minutes later.
Looking at the guard captain Jezebel began to speak, “You are to mobilize enough soldiers to take over magic guild and kill all who belong to the magic guild. Make sure to have as little casualties as possible, go now and take care of it.”
“Right away your majesty,” said the guard captain bowing before swiftly leaving the throne room.
“Piet you are to mobilize the crimson guards and follow me to go pay the local magic guilds chief a visit.”
“They are already waiting at the gates,” said Piet.
“Good if that’s the case let’s leave now.”
***
500 soldiers of the elite crimson guard belonging to the Vussia army marched down the middle of the street causing a large commotion for everyone that was enjoying the night activities the city had to offer.
People who had been drunk instantly became sober and began to drink even more pretending to not notice that something extremely bad was going to happen.
The crowded night streets became empty as the soldiers march down the streets.
Anyone who got in their way was killed and kicked to the side of the road.
They entered the slums and went to the district with many large buildings.
The 500 soldiers stopped in front of a two-story building that looked quite plain from the outside.
“Surround it don’t let anyone escape,” ordered Piet. The crimson guards obediently did as ordered.
Jezebel escorted by Piet walked up to the metal door of the building where Piet began to bang on the door until he heard a shout from inside.
“Who the fook is knocking at such a late hour!?” shouted an angry voice of an old man.
The locks of the door clicked and clacked and the door was opened a little.
Piet kicked the door with his full power causing the door to slam open and knocking the robed old man behind the door onto his butt.
The old man looked at Piet, Jezebel, and the crimson guard behind them.
“Why are you here? You have an agreement with the grandmasters that you would not do something like this!” sputtered the old man shocked and scared for he knew what it meant to have the queen to personally pay him a visit. But it was not for the reason he was thinking it was for, it was because he had dared to try and touch the queen’s possession.
Jezebel looked at the pathetic old man on the ground with burning hatred.
“Willy Wong you have really wronged me!”
