Edward hugged his cloak tighter around his shoulders as he passed a pair of travelers walking along the road in the direction opposite him. He heard them scoff as he ignored their casual wave but he couldn’t be bothered to care other than to further pull the cowl of his cloak lower so that his face would be hidden completely in its shadows; it wouldn’t do for someone to recognize him out here even though he was days away from the castle already. That pair of travelers was the third that he had encountered today, a sure sign that he was nearing his destination. He was exhausted from the days he spent on the road, and wanted nothing more than to find an actual warm bed to sleep in.

“No spine at all,” he heard Jade mutter behind him as she clipped her Pokéball back onto her belt. The lithe woman was a warrior to the core, aggressively challenging everyone she came across to a battle. “At least the others before them put up a fight, even if it was pitifully weak.”

“Can you blame them?” he replied. “The road ahead is long, and those who don’t know the passages through the caves will likely spend weeks trying to find their way to the Plateau. They likely think it best to conserve their energy for the journey ahead.”

“Only the strong make it to the Plateau,” Jade said to herself. “I’m doing them a favor by crushing their spirits now.”

Edward didn’t bother to reply but paused as the path came to the edge of a small bluff, unbelting his canteen and drinking deeply to slake his thirst. He surveyed the forested land below by the light of the setting sun, spying a bridge downstream that would take him and Jade across the river below to the small cluster of cottages that was their destination.

“How many times have I asked you to raise your hood,” he chastised his companion whose loose black hair was whipping about her comely face in the furious wind. “I don’t want to be recognized by anyone.”

“Come on, Ed. No one knows us out here in the wilds,” Jade whined. But still she reached behind her head anyway and raised her hood. Satisfied that her face was now sufficiently hidden, Edward began to pick his way down the side of the bluff, following the rocky path as quickly as he could before he lost the light of the sun completely.

By the time he and Jade crossed the river and entered the small hamlet, the day’s light had been extinguished, leaving the two of them to try and find the correct building in near total darkness. Luckily there were no more than a handful of shabby homes and buildings in this backwater excuse for a village and Edward quickly found the one that said ‘Rowt 26 - Inn’ in ugly handwritten scrawl.

I’m surprised these peasants can even write, Edward frowned as he placed his hand on the door and collected himself. All of that will change when I am King.

He opened the door and stepped into the most depressing room he had ever laid his eyes on. Detailed features of the room were impossible to make out in the poor light of the sputtering fire, but what little he could see made his stomach curdle. Rats and roaches scuttled away from the door as Edward’s eyes roved over the depressing bar. Dust centimeters thick lay on tables and chairs that looked like they hadn’t seen occupants for years. Cobwebs hung from the walls like tapestries, the few actual pictures that graced the walls too faded and indistinguishable to even recognize.

Edward and Jade approached the bar where they found a somewhat portly bartender polishing a glass with a rag dirtier than the glass itself. Despite the slight bulging of the man’s stomach, he polished the glass with sharp eyes and arms the size of small tree trunks. One of the man’s only two patrons nursed a half empty glass with a far away look in his eye, while the second lay snoring softly with his head on the bar; there were a half dozen empty glasses scattered about his slouched form.

“Food or drink?” The bartender rumbled, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. His brown eyes pierced Edward and immediately unnerved him. “Or maybe you need your Pokémon to be healed?”

“Give ‘em two ales, Abe. On the house,” Edward turned quickly to see the speaker descending from the stairs that led to the upper level, flanked by two of the largest men he had ever seen. Jade tensed beside him, ready to fight, and Edward relaxed a little, thankful that he brought his oldest friend along with him on this journey.

The man seated himself at one of the few tables that could be considered ‘clean’, his two goons standing menacingly with folded arms on either side of him. The bartender Abe tapped Edward on the shoulder handing him a dark murky brown ale. Edward wasn’t sure if that was the actual color of the beer or not but he didn’t care to find out.

“And your Pokémon, young master?” Abe asked, a fake smile plastered on his round face and free hand extended towards Edward. “Shall I heal them for you?”

“I wouldn’t trust you with my Pokémon if death itself were coming to claim them,” Edward told the man, ignoring the offered drink and turning towards the table to speak with the man he came all this way to meet.

Jade followed behind him, choosing to stand behind Edward while he seated himself across the table so that she could glare menacingly at the two men that were more than twice her size.

“You’ve traveled a long way, young master?” The man half asked. He blinked his beady black eyes and steepled his fingers together as he looked Edward up and down. “You may call me Salem. Perhaps you would like to retire first this evening so that your woman may tend to your needs? Then we can discuss our business tomorrow when you are well rested.”

“I’m not his woman, rat,” Jade spat venomously, as Salem ran his eyes up and down the length of her body. “Watch your tongue lest you find it removed from your head.”

Edward eyed the two large men as they shifted and flexed their muscles at Jade’s obvious threat of violence.

“Thank you for your offer of hospitality, Salem,” Edward said, trying to diffuse the now palpable tension, and keep his already mounting frustration under control. “But my companion and I will be departing as soon as our meeting here is concluded. We have other matters that require our attention.”

He had actually hoped to stay the night at the inn before he stepped foot inside, a week on the road had completely exhausted him. The illusion of hospitality had been shattered the moment he walked through the door though, and he wouldn’t stay in this inn for a second longer than he needed to even if the innkeeper offered him money to sleep here for the night. The back of his neck itched and he turned his chair slightly so he could keep an eye on the bar and innkeeper; the man had returned to polishing his glass but he was now leaning forward on the counter and Edward could tell he was trying to listen to the conversation.

“Very well then, young master,” The shifty man seated across from him spoke smoothly. “What brings you all this way to our humble little village?”

Edward didn’t immediately reply, choosing instead to observe Salem as the two of them lapsed into silence. He could glean nothing from the man though, his weasel face a perfect mask. “I’m told that you have men for hire, that you are discreet and can get certain unsavory jobs done.”

“You’ve come to the right place then,” Salem flashed a smile, revealing a mouthful of yellow rotted teeth. “Though our services don’t come cheap, young master.”

“Money is no object,” Edward said offhandedly. “All I require of you is secrecy and your guarantee that this job cannot be traced back to me. My involvement in this being known to others would be detrimental to my future plans.”

“We are professionals, sir. This I guarantee,” Salem rasped, disgusting smile never leaving his face. “And the job that you would have us do?”

Edward looked over his shoulder at Jade’s blank face, he had gotten good at reading her poker face after all of these years. “Now is not the time. To be frank, I don’t trust you. And only a handful of people that I trust currently know of our plan. Just know that I have more than enough money to pay you whatever you require.”

“It saddens me to hear that you don’t trust the men you’re about to hire, young Prince Edward,” Salem sneered. “Especially since the job we’re being hired for is the removal of the king from his throne.”

Edward barely heard Salem’s words over the high pitched ringing in his own ears.

How do they know, Edward silently lamented, face unreadable. All of my carefully laid plans, years of work, gone.

Faster than anyone could react, Edward flipped the table up into the faces of Salem and his two goons. In one fluid motion he stood and drew his short sword, unclipping a Pokéball and tossing it out at the same time. Jade hadn’t been idle either, tossing a throwing knife with pinpoint accuracy into the eye of one of the two goons before drawing out twin daggers of her own. From her Pokéball a Croagunk appeared while a Pawniard materialized from out of Edward’s.

“Sucker Punch!” Jade yelled to Croagunk, the purple frog wreathing his hands in darkness and leaping onto the chest of the now one-eyed mountain man, where he began pummeling away mercilessly. Jade darted in behind her Pokémon, daggers going to work on the wounded man’s exposed stomach, opening cuts everywhere.

At the same time Pawniard rushed the other man, sword arms heated red from Metal Claw and extending outwards to pierce his belly and spill guts onto the tavern floor.

Before Edward could follow up with his own Pokémon he heard a soft thwump followed by Jade’s scream of rage. He looked over to see a single crossbow bolt had pierced Croagunk and the bouncer, nailing both of them to the wall.

The bouncer was already long dead, having been pummeled by Croagunk, cut by Jade, and now impaled by a crossbow. Edward looked on aghast however as Croagunk himself hung impaled and unmoving. He dangled eerily, crucified by the bolt, the arrow piercing the back of his neck and nailing him to the chest of the dead man.

“Recall him! Quick!” Edward yelled to Jade. “There may still be a chance to save him if we can get him to a Pokémon Center!”

He breathed a sigh of relief as Jade returned her Pokémon to the safety of its Pokéball, but before either he or Jade could do anything else, he felt the cold press of steel against his neck. He turned to face the bar and the two drunk men, now completely sober, one of whom had a knife pressed to Edward’s neck. The bartender stood behind the bar with his crossbow leveled at Edward’s chest, already having redrawn the weapon and loaded in another bolt.

“I’m going to recall my Pokémon,” Edward said as clearly as he could. He reached down slowly and unclipped Pawniard’s empty Pokéball, then returned his Pokémon. He sheathed his sword, Jade following suit beside him, and to his immense relief the goon lowered the knife away from his neck.

“Well, that was certainly quite fun,” Salem said as he extricated himself from the shattered remains of the table. He paid neither the dead bouncer nor the one groaning beside him with a gut wound any mind, choosing instead to sit at the next available table where he then gestured to the empty seat across from him. “Shall we continue?”

Edward couldn’t keep the shock from his face this time. “You still want the job? Even after all of that?”

“Like I said we’re professionals,” Salem assured Edward with a nasty smile. “But the fee for regicide has just gone up, young master Edward.”

“Can you not speak of it so casually,” Edward sighed as he seated himself across from Salem. There was no going back now, it was time to hammer out the details of the contract.

“And another thing, you will not address me as Edward,” he told the man. “As I said, this cannot be traced back to me.”

“As you say young master,” Salem crooned. “What shall your new moniker be?”

“To those closest to me, I am known simply as Ghetsis.”

“As you say, young master Ghetsis.”

Finally, Ghetsis held back a smile. The throne will soon be mine.

Abraham Ryker was back to polishing his beer glass as Salem oversaw the clean up of the bar. The bouncer with the gut wound had begged for a hospital but Salem mercilessly cut the man’s throat, the less people that knew about his plan the better. The two goons who had first been seated at the bar took care of disposing of the two bodies, and Abe wondered if Salem was having them disposed of at the same unmarked gravesite by other people; probably.

That would leave he and Salem as the only two men who knew of Prince Edward’s plans. Or should he now call the young man Ghetsis?

Abe narrowed his eyes at Salem as the man walked over to the bar and seated himself, content that his limitless cronies would adequately clean Abe’s tavern.

The innkeeper poured Salem a pint and the man took a long draught, smacking his lips in satisfaction. “It’s a shame those two kids refused a drink. You have the best ale I’ve ever tasted.”

Abe sniffled, content to say nothing as the man rambled on.

“You heard everything then?” Salem asked as he drained the last of his glass.

“The important parts,” Abe told the weasel.

Salem looked at Abe for a long time before he nodded slowly, chuckling nervously to himself and wringing his hands together. “And what do you think, boss? Everything went smoothly?”

Abe looked down at his pathetic subordinate and grinned wickedly. Faster than a man his size should be able to move, he grabbed the man by the back of his neck and pinned his head down onto the bar.

“Wait! Wait!” Salem shrieked, hands extended not to Abe but to his countless peons who looked like they were about to foolishly rush the bar and innkeeper.

“I think you speak far too much, Salem,” Abe whispered threateningly into his ear, low enough so no one else could overhear. “Your loose tongue almost cost us that deal and then believe me you would be out in that ditch with the other four.”

Salem nodded his head against the bar top and whimpered. “I’ll do better, boss.”

Abe released the man who took a moment to gather himself before straightening up. He nervously tapped his fingers on the bartop so Abe poured him another pint. “But I suppose your performance was passable, as those two fools seem none the wiser.”

“So we’re doing it then?” Salem calmed as he began to drink deeply.

“Aye,” Abe spoke softly to his subordinate. “But not yet, we need other pieces in place before we make our move. The king is stronger and better defended than you or ‘Ghetsis’ would ever think.”

He rubbed his thigh idly as his henchman finished his second round, the joint where Abe’s leg stopped and his prosthetic began pulsing in phantom pain.

“And my reward?” Salem whispered so low that Abe barely heard him. “You promised me the kingdom. That is, if you don’t want it of course!”

“Salem, I care not for this puny kingdom of piss and mud,” Abe smiled down at his subordinate, enraptured by the fact that Salem had no idea about what Abe was speaking of.

He patted his hip where he kept a little locked diary; it never left his person.

“My kingdom will be far greater.”