Azazeal stood, polishing his sword in the Black Hall, the silence in the room deadly.
The sound of the soft fabric on the steel blade was a quiet noise in the stillness enhancing the tension in the room.
The air was cold and biting, heavy with an almost unbearable sense of menace.
Kael was in the room trying to remain invisible as he watched his older brother clean the sharp blade for the 100th time,
The royal healer was bowing before Azazeal, so low his shoulders shook under the burden of the king's silent rage.
"You understand the seriousness of what I'm asking," Azazeal said, his voice deceptively serene as he examined the blade. The frost of contained fury glinted in his grey eyes.
"I shouldn't have to tell you to keep my queen's health stable no matter what."
The doctor swallowed hard, sweat beading on his temples despite the chill.
"This subject knows, Your Highness."
Azazeal laid the blade aside, focusing now entirely on the doctor, his face inscrutable but thrumming with threat.
"Speak freely. If you've got something to say, now's the time," he questioned noticing the nervous look on the old man
Summoning what small courage remained, the healer raised his head slightly.
"T-the queen has suffered greatly, my lord. This subject is praying you find the culprits and punish them for their offense."
The king's silence lingered, stifling and scary. Then, without a word, he reached for another sword, dragging his fingers along its sharp edge. The metallic rasp was the only sound as he said,
"What is your intention in saying this?"
"Only to plead for justice, my lord. She is … fragile," the doctor whispered.
The doctor has a flashback of Elora treating him kindly on his first day at this castle.
Even though the queen doesn't speak a lot and acts like she doesn't fit in their kingdom.
She has never for a moment treated those who serve her with disrespect.
He felt that maybe Azazeal might dismiss the case and take it with levity, because everyone in the castle knows the weak relationship between the king and the queen.
Azazeal tightened his grip on the sword hilt. The barest clench of his jaw gave way to the storm below the surface of his stoic expression.
"Keep preparing the medicine my queen needs , ensure her recovery. You bring only one trusted assistant to aid you.
Should any errors happen regarding her health, I will spare no mercy — neither to you nor your entire family."
The threat weighed heavily on the healer's knees, threatening to buckle them, but he managed a trembling bow.
"This subject understands, your highness."
"Go," Azazeal commanded, finality in his tone.
As soon as the doctor departed, two dark-clad men stepped from the shadows of the corridor. Dressed from head to toe in black and masked so their faces were obscured, they knelt before their king.
Azazeal seized up his sword again, examining its edge with a detached gaze.
"Who poisoned my wife?"
One of the figures spoke, the voice cautious but wary. "The perpetrator took their own life before we were able to question them, Your Highness."
"We found out that the meal at the banquet wasn't the one that was poisoned, but it was the pudding she had eaten in her chambers before she came out that was laced with the tiger's blood. So she was undoubtedly targeted."
The thin blade sliced through the stone table before him with an earsplitting crack, cutting it in two clean slats.
Dust and shards flew, but Azazeal did not move, his features as cold and measured as before.
"Kill them all," he said, his voice chillingly calm.
"Every servant, every cook, every maid who handled her food that day. I don't care if their bones are never found."
They nodded not daring to defy the king's cruel verdict, if anything, the king was usually more brutal on a normal day but for some reason, he was lenient with this order.
One of the masked men walked forward hesitantly.
"Your Highness, before she committed suicide, we found out that she was a rogue."
Azazeal's eyes stared at him coldly
" A rogue? "
His brows furrowed, that can't be possible, rogues are mindless werewolves with no direct thought, they only kill unreasonably and are feral, they aren't sane enough to plan a poisoned attack, so how was that possible
" Yes your highness, during my investigation, I found out from the castle maids that on that day, that particular maid had been acting dull and cold.
T—They said she was behaving like she was possessed by something. "
He brought out a white handkerchief stained with a green gory liquid and placed it on the slitted table.
" When she killed herself, we found this green stain, it's the color of her blood."
"Wait, can I see that? " Kael asked, scrutinizing the green liquid.
His eyes widened as he pointed to the handkerchief
" This is the same blood mark I found on the rogues that attacked the western pack lands.
The rogues came in a pack that night and acted in coordination, like puppets being controlled. We all know rogues don't move in packs and are just wild wolves who have lost their sanity, but when I fought them that night, they acted like trained soldiers ."
Azazeal stared at the handkerchief his anger rising with each evidence placed in front of him.
" Take it to the apothecary, I want a result by morning," he growled out
The shadows, powerful and malevolent as they were, bowed and disappeared as suddenly as they had come, leaving Azazeal alone.
He returned the sword to its place on the wall, deliberately and almost ritualistically in his movements.
"Casteel," he called, his voice reverberating.
From the shadows came the skilled knight, wearing a red robe. At his side hung a sword with a hilt like old leather.
"My wife will know no harm ever again," Azazeal vowed, speaking quietly but firmly.
Casteel bowed his head, he didn't say a word but he was well aware that his number one priority now was to protect the queen at all costs.
Then he too walked away, leaving the black Hall silent once again.