Every lord and high lord, and whoever else were in their bedchamber at the time, in the castle were forcefully escorted back into the throne room, except for me. The guards were scared shitless at affronting me. My little demonstration earlier had served to remind them of who I was, despite my apparent drunken state and fall from grace. So it was “Please, Milord,” and “Thank you, Milord,” all the way.

I was one of the last to arrive since I had already been under lock and key. I saw Anders and Chione standing to one side, a pair of guards behind each one. Silas and his friend had been dragged into the throne room, naked. So were half the lords and high lords, and almost all of their associates.

“Why is he not in irons?” the crown prince screamed the moment he saw me being escorted in.

“Beggin yer pardons, Yer ‘ighness,” the guard who had drunk his own piss started subserviently, bowing at the waist. “The prisoner behaved ‘isself, ‘e did. Came willingly.”

“I don’t care, he’s a prisoner and must be treated as such,” the crown prince retorted. The guards looked hesitant to do what they were ordered to do.

Alfred did not like the pause, immediately he growled, “You heard the Crown Prince, do as you’re ordered.”

The guard on my right turned to me, with a fearful look in his eyes, he whispered, “Please cooperate.”

With a smirk, I got down on my knees, the sound of sabres clearing the scabbards behind me preceded the cold steel touching my neck. Immediately I removed the edge on the sabres if they started to get any ideas. However, mostly I focused on my connection with the spell crystal inside Silas’ body.

“This the last of ‘em, your majesty,” a guard said as he brought in a furious looking Soldier Boy. One of the guards was sporting a broken nose with a spectacular set of panda eyes.

“What’s the meaning of this, Your Majesty?” he asked, almost demanded, with just enough deference in his voice as to not be disrespectful.

“Now that you’re all here,” Alfred said in a loud voice, amplified by a mancer by his side. “Someone has murdered the newly appointed High Lord Walther.”

The High Hierophant stepped forward. “As a servant of Gyzbohr, it falls to me to judge and pass sentences. Bring forth the witness, Cleric.”

A cleric of Ghidana brought forth the serf I had positioned to be the witness. He was quivering so much I almost expected a clacking of bones as his knees hit each other repeatedly. The man was that scared. It was not every day someone was brought before such an august company as the king, high hierophant, and all living lords and high lords in the Kingdom.

“Serf, do you concede, to tell the truth in the eyes of Gods and Men?” the High Hierophant intoned almost ceremoniously. I yawned and let out a fart. He shot me an irritated stare. It took the serf almost a minute to stammer out a “Yes, Your Eminency!”.

“Tell us where you were around midnight,” was the first demand, not a question, by the High Hierophant.

The serf stammered through another answer. “I had trouble sleeping, so I was wandering the corridors.”

After the cleric had determined the truth, the High Hierophant turned accusatory towards the serf. “Why were you in the corridors of the Lords? Those are forbidden for the likes of you unless you have got a task there.”

“I’m sorry, Your Eminence! I don’t know, I just felt an almost—unnatural pull to be there, please don’t punish me, Your Eminence!” the serf begged, still an almost incoherent mess with all the stammering, pauses and so on.

“Clearly the work of Gyzbohr. He knew a cowardly deed would take place, but it’s not his place to stop the wickedness of man,” the High Hierophant preached. “He provided an instrument for his justice. My good man, what did you the God of Justice want you to see?”

“I heard several people screaming, then—then a large thump and the screaming stopped,” the serf explained haltingly but picked up steam and confidence as he went on. Clearly he was buying into the bullshit spewed by the High Hierophant. “Sounds of something being squished, wood splintering could be heard. It came from Lord Wal—apologies—High Lord Walther’s room. I was standing just a few metres away. The door banged open and a figure ran out of the room. I could only see it was a male, he was dressed in a dark yellow robe.”

“Did you not see who it was?” the High Hierophant sounded dismayed.

“Not at first, but as he was turning the corner further down the corridor, I saw his face. It was Lord Silas,” the serf said accusingly. He had all the posture and confidence of a righteous hero by now.

“Lies!” Silas shouted. “I was asleep the entire night.”

The cleric of Ghidana spoke up, “He’s telling the truth.”

“Impossible!” Silas gasped.

Alfred stood up, roaring, “Seize him!”

A short scuffle ensued and soon Silas was on the floor in front of the cleric and the High Hierophant. Alfred descended on the man as well, furiously hollering, “Why would you kill Lord Walther? Are you a rebel? Despicable scum!”

“My Liege!” Silas tried to protest his innocence, but Alfred kept raining insults down on the man.

When he was starting to run out of steam, the High Hierophant said, “Let’s test him again. I’ll make sure that no tampering is going on. Clearly the cleric and the priest who conducted the questioning made a mistake. I’ll see them punished.”

Silas, clearly thinking he was seeing a lifeline, grabbed hold of it and clung to it. “Yes, I’ll undergo the test. You’ll see that I didn’t do it. Someone must be setting me up!”

The High Hierophant looked shortly at the cleric who shook his head almost imperceptibly. He was probably out of mana. So instead another cleric was waved forward.

The first few questions were just control questions, but I was ready to trigger the spell crystal. Normally I would have to be touching to perform memory magic, however, pre-programmed spell crystals with another human as the focus would work just as well.

“Did you envy Lord Walther getting the position as High Lord?” Alfred asked with a vicious sneer on his face. Silas hesitated before he reluctantly admitted that he had been envious. Alfred revealed a gotcha-smile. “Did you kill Silas.”

“No, I was asleep the entire night, until your men woke me!” Silas vigorously proclaimed his innocence. I activated the memory crystal.

The cleric got a complicated look on his face. He released his hold on Silas’ head and took a few steps back. Under the watchful eyes of every lord, high lord, the crown prince and the king, he announced in a shaky voice, “False.”

“No! It’s the truth!” Silas shrieked struggling to get free of the hands holding him. “You’ve to believe me, I was asleep all night.”

“Your Majesty, the robe the serf described lay on his floor,” one of the guards behind Silas spoke up. “He was also lying naked in bed with this young servant.”

Gasps of horror went through the locals. The High Hierophant intoned loudly, “Abomination! Kill him, in the name of Gyzbohr purge his vileness from the face of Camcesa!”

Timing was everything and this was what I had waited for. First I triggered the illusion crystal. I could have done the illusion without implanting it, but by using it as a focus to release the spell from a distance, I would change the point of origin for the mana. Hopefully, concealing the mana in the chaos that followed.

Suddenly the begging and weeping Silas stopped begging and weeping. Since the guards were touching him, I had to sync the illusion with his physical body. However, since they only held his arms, I could manipulate the rest of him.

Silas looked up, a murderous look in his eyes. In a deep voice, he proclaimed, “The Godslayer is coming, he’ll show you the true face of your Gods. Before ripping them to pieces, like the treacherous scum that they are!”

He started laughing maniacally, the High Hierophant looked ashen-faced when he shrieked, “Kill him!”

A guard’s sword was descending on Silas, meaning the time for the rest of the act was now. With a burst of magic, stone spikes shot up in a half-circle behind him, impaling and flinging the guards away. Silas stood up, pointing at the High Hierophant, and a wave of stone spike started shooting out of the ground. Travelling in a straight line for the Hierophant.

‘You better fucking act now Anders, you fucking dimwit!’ I silently cursed, seeing the moron not reacting despite being forewarned. The High Hierophant snorted and waved his hand. The magic stopped, but only for a moment. I observed this with a slight smile since I had split off some of the magic, just before he dispelled the line going for him. It was a predictable move. The two new offshoots hastened towards the King and the Crown Prince.

“Die lowly dogs!” Silas laughed while running away. In reality, he was running around scared shitless, he just wanted to get away, no matter how much he screamed it was not him, no one could hear him. I shot Chione a significant glare, and I could see her heave a sigh, making me almost able to hear the exasperated tone of the air escaping her.

She jabbed a pointy finger into Anders’ side. Almost like she had pushed the belly of a dancing toy bear, the moron finally started moving. Having been prodded into action, he acted swiftly. A wall shot into existence right in front of Silas, making him run straight into it. The fucking moron still acted like a fucking fed, despite knowing what was at stake. The next thing he did was summon manacles of stone to restrain Silas. That would not do.

“I shall hunt every one of you down, I’ll slaughter your wives, sons, and daughters. I will make your world burn. Death to the Betrayer Gods! Long live the Godslayer!” the illusion of Silas screamed as he struggled to get out. With an irritated thought, I summoned a powerful burst of stone magic and used the spell crystal in Silas’ body as the focus. Hopefully, things were chaotic enough for people to think it was Anders who did it.

A sharp edge of stone formed beneath Silas’ spine, running the entire length of his body. It started pressing upwards, and with a sickening sound of flesh, bones, and muscle being ripped apart he was cleaved in half. Intestines, organs, and blood flew in every direction. So did the disgusting smelling content of his intestines and stomach. An acrid sewer worthy smell spread across the room.

The people closest to poor Silas got showered in the gory bits, including Fatty, who started screaming like a little girl. However, only the closest and a scant few other people paid any attention to the demise of Silas. Their attention was centred on the horrific scene of their King and the Crown Prince. The High Hierophant had managed to save the King from anything worse than a large wound in the stomach. I had been unable to disembowel him completely.

The Crown Prince, on the other hand, was a completely different story. A rock spike had entered his head and exploded it from the inside, while the rest of his body remained impaled on the spike. I had learned my lesson when Anders had been saved by Chione. Like a goddamn zombie movie, you had to go for the headshot.

Like an overripe melon falling to the ground, his head had burst apart, sending blood, bone fragments, and brain matter splattering across the nearby lords, and most importantly his father, who had been right next to him.

While everyone was busy staring, retching, screaming, running away in fear, or any combination of those, I took the time to drunkenly walk over to look at the body of Silas. I laughed drunkenly, “What a show, oh man, this is just the best entertainment I’ve had all week.”

When I got closer to the body, I made a production of slipping in the blood and landed face first on one half of the body of Silas. Without anyone noticing, I retrieved the spell crystals. I did not dare to use any large amount of mana with the High Hierophant and priests on the alert, even if they were a bit distracted.

With the application of a little mana on the links I had with the spell crystals, they dislodged from inside the cleaved body and flew into my hand where I drained them of mana. When they had dissipated I clumsily got to my feet, bits of intestines, blood, shit, and brain matter plastered all across the front of my clothes.

I caught a few people staring at me. I shrugged. “Last time I was covered in this much blood was at the Bastion. Can I get some wine, please?”

Of course, the stink and stickiness were grossing me out. I wanted nothing more than to clean up. However, my drunken, slovenly, and slightly perverted image needed to be maintained, and this would definitely boost it.

The King finally regained his senses, he had just been staring at his son’s corpse since its head exploded. He fell to his knees and started wailing, “My son! Why would the gods allow such a thing?”

The High Hierophant looked shocked as well, but he still had the presence of mind to shout an order, “Everyone out! Now. Guards confine everyone to their room.”

The guards snapped to attention and did as ordered. They started to herd us out. The guards tasked with escorting me dared not grab me, they politely showed me the way, for two reasons: I scared the heck out of them, and I stank like an unflushed toilet.

I made sure to fall in next to Chione, who had been separated from Anders in the hubbub, I think most likely on purpose from the way she had moved that I had seen. I threw a dome of silence around us and made an illusion that looked like we were just walking along, no talking.

“What the fuck was that? Anders almost ruined the plan!” I hissed at her. Even though I knew no one could hear us, it still felt more than a little weird conspiring with guards walking right behind us.

“He froze up,” she answered with a shrug.

“He was fucking forewarned.”

“It seems I chose the wrong horse to back after all,” she said with a heavy sigh. “He stands for the right things, but he lacks the decisiveness.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me kill him?” I asked hopefully.

“No, it’s too late for that. The plans are already in motions,” she said with a shake of her head.

I felt disappointed. “Tell that fucker that he better milk it for all it's worth. I gave him a golden opportunity to be the hero that saved the king and crown prince, but he fucked up. I had to fucking do everything. Again.”

“Just concentrate on getting the orcs to summon their heroes, I’ll handle Anders.”

“Better stow the attitude, remember you’re mine as soon as they do. Unless you’re going to go back on your words?” I asked suspiciously. I immediately cranked as much mana into my lie-detecting giant priestly magic as possible.

“I won’t. I’ll wear your collar and manacles.”

“Good,” I said when I sensed the truthness of her words. I let the spells drop as we had to go separate ways in a few seconds anyway. ‘I’ll just make you kill the fucker over and over again when that happens. Slowly.’

The election of the new High Lord was settled in a quick meeting between the thirteen lords of the High Hold of the late Walther. The choice fell on Maelk. My support came at a cost for that though. It would require striking the law that reserved a large part of my lands for the High Lord’s use. Something he gladly conceded. Who would take over his Hold, he would inform us at a later date.

I also ensured to pay a visit to the prison where Silas’ lover sat, awaiting his execution, for being an abomination. With some coins changing hands, I managed to convince a priest to commute the sentence to castration and life as a serf. I also arranged to buy him. After buying him, I handed him to my troopers. They would ensure that he would be healed fully when we got back to the Hold. What job he would do, I would leave to the managers.

The day after the death of the Crown Prince we were all sent home, and I gladly went home to my family. When I rode up to the house, all my wives and kids were waiting for me. I had only dismounted, when I was mobbed by a herd of kittens, who started climbing up my clothes. Soon I had an armful of kittens, all trying to lick my cheeks.

For once Garion was not in cat form. Instead, he walked on unsteady legs up to me. Reaching his arm up for me to pick him up. I shifted the five kittens to my left arm, manipulated my cloak to flow around and form a basket so I could hold the squirming tykes in just one arm.

I then bent down and picked up Garion. His small arms went around my neck. “Hey kids, I’ve missed all of you. Have you been good for your mothers? Have you protected them?”

I got a bunch of happy meows, and Garion pulled back from the hug. He nodded seriously. He had a serious look on his face like he was concentrating hard on something. For a moment I dreaded he was about to defecate. Changing diapers was not my idea of fun, but I had done a few diaper changes. The kittens and Garion, after he learned to change into a cat, went on the toilet in their cat form, and Emma had taught them to be housebroken.

He opened his mouth and haltingly said, “Va—Farth—Father!”

I just stared at him in wonder as a bright smile lit spread on his face. It was his first word. He started repeating it. Or at least the first word I had heard him say. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I hugged him closer. I felt a pair of arms enfolding me from behind. A body moulded against my back, a familiar one, the scent and the way she placed her head between my shoulders, I knew it was Lily.

“He’s been practising while you were gone, it’s all he has been saying,” she whispered. I could hear the joy in her voice.

He clearly knew we talked about him. He laughed happily and tried to climb over my shoulder to get to his mother. She giggled and took our squirming son before he fell down. Immediately he tried to say something else. “Mut—Mo—Ma—Mommy!”

That started the waterworks for Lily. She was both sobbing and laughing from joy at the same time. It was bliss. Emma was the next to greet me with a peck on the cheek before scooping up the protesting kittens. “Welcome home.”

“Thank you,” I managed to reply before Shenerah gave me a hug. She was one of my wives, and I cared greatly about her. However, we both knew that it was the loss of Yathanae and the love of Emma, which bonded us together. She was barely attracted to me, so there was little intimacy between us normally.

Mina was next and gave me a long smooch, with her little sister making gagging noises in the background. Nina had grown up a fair bit, but she was still a young teenage girl. She was mostly spending the time looking after the kids these days. Something she loved. She was holding Zac at the moment.

Nathalie went for a slightly shorter smooch, and Nina came up to me afterwards. With a little flush in her cheeks, she said, “Welcome home, Milord.”

“What’s with the ‘Milord’-bull—uhm—crap? You’re my sister-in-law. It’s Karth,” I said, almost swearing in front of the kids. I caught myself, but still received a clearing of the throat from Lily. I gave her an apologetic smile. Gently I took Zac from her arms, but he immediately started crying.

I shushed him and started rocking him gently while humming a lullaby I had heard Mina sing for him. It was out of tune since I was a bit tone-deaf. He started calming down, but he was still fuzzy and not completely happy about the situation. I cheated a bit and transmitted a memory fragment of my feelings for him. All the love I felt for him and his siblings. That immediately calmed him down and he started smiling and kicking.

I made sure that it was not implanted, but just that he felt it. I had to be very careful because unlike his siblings, he was without magic. His barrier was solid, with him being so young, I was fearful of trying to open the barrier. I did not know what would happen if I opened the barrier of someone who did not have magic.

Nina narrowed her eyes. “You’re cheating somehow, aren’t you? He never calms down that fast when he starts crying.”

“Guilty as charged, I’m just letting him feel the love I have for him and all the others,” I said gently.

She gave an annoyed snort and mumbled, “I wish I had magic.”

I turned to Nathalie, looking at her swollen belly. “Another moon, right?”

She rolled her eyes, and replied with a sigh, “Moon and a half, you know that!”

“Right, sorry,” I said with an apologetic smile.

“Why?” she suddenly asked fearfully. “You’re going to be here, right?”

“I’ve been there for every birth, I’ll also be here for this one,” I answered. I sighed, I had a lot to tell them, so I handed Zac to Nina. “Could you take the kids for a glass? I need to talk with my wives.”

She snorted. “Talk. That’s a good one.”

“Normally you would be right in your assumption,” I said with a smile. “However, I do really have to talk with them.”

She nodded and cajoled Garion and the kittens to follow her. She had to promise them a trip to the kitchen before they reluctantly followed her. Emma narrowed her eyes, her mouth creasing into a frown. Mina and Nathalie looked worried. Lily hugged me from behind again, asking into my back, “What do you need to talk with us about?”

I told them everything that had happened. Emma was the first to offer her opinion, “I don’t like it Karth. She’s tricking you somehow.”

Mina and Nathalie agreed though Mina pointed out that my magic had told me she was telling the truth. Lily was the only one that did not say anything. When I looked at her, her eyes were wide open, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Lily, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” I asked, concerned about my first wife. She just started sobbing, turned around and started running away.

I just stood there staring, not comprehending what was wrong. I looked to the others for guidance. Mina shook her head, Emma rolled her eyes. Nathalie gave me a compassionate smile, “She’s upset you had a child before Garion.”

“She already knew I had been with other women before her,” I protested like the dunce I was.

Nathalie let out a small sigh. “It’s her hormones, they’re making her very emotional.”

“What do hormones have to do with anything?” I asked, not understanding what she was hinting at.

Emma slapped the back of my head. “She’s pregnant, you idiot. Two moons along. She wanted to be really sure before she told you.”

I felt warmth spreading through my body, I was sure I had a stupid smile on my face. Emma slapped the back of my head again. “What are you waiting for? Go after her already.”

“Right, right!” I said and ran in the same direction as Lily. ‘I’m going to be a father! It’s going to be great! Wonder if it’ll be a boy or a girl? Can’t wait to meet him or her.’