Sylvie paused her narration of the story for a minute, a tear trickled down her pretty face, her glossy skin, her supple cheek down her chin and then to the ground. But she didn’t continue crying reeling herself in, honestly Kush did not believe in a monarch who would cry but did empathies that the loss of a parent was unbearable for anyone.

She then went on narrate that her mother had died long before her father and thus the throne was passed on to her.

“After the chronicalizer sold his story to us and from uncle Marcus’s previous suspicions it was pieced together that Uncle Brutus had somehow gained the power of the curse. Many magicians and sages from all over the world were invited to study the green pool of water in the cave, but either nobody could find anything or nobody reported their true findings. Our court magicians and chemists couldn’t find anything. Even my master the National Guardian Brachios couldn’t come up with anything, he said it was something beyond what has been recorded in books. We attempted attacks on Brutus but over time we realised that Brutus’s power increased with each person the goblin-esque monsters killed and so we stopped doing so. Though he does send those monsters occasionally to scare people away just as we manage to get some peace and tranquillity”

She shut her fist tightly and closed her eyes, grit her teeth but before proceeding she put a melancholic smile on her face again, though Kush knew her expressions belied her inner feeling “Brutus just sits there, he didn’t kill us all because he wants to test my father’s country. That deep demented psychopath” she was unable to control her expression now “Us people from Bhasmachal don’t believe in Gods, that is good you know. Cause I would have cursed the heavens till it became hell. Our island nation had nothing working in our favour when thousands of years ago our founding fathers migrated from other places. Bhasmachal (land of ash) was named so because it was the land of ashes when they started but that snake skinned, jackal puncture a hole in the very plate that he ate from, he plunged us back into ashes” realizing she had lost control, she paused. “Right now we are looking for help wherever we can find”

After she narrated her story, there was a long pause after which Kush asked “Sylvie, please don’t mind me asking this after you went through the entire story, what help would I be? I mean you can’t be asking for my help in fighting the beast would you?”

Sylvie nodded and said “You are right and please don’t feel sorry or pressured to help me in anyway, but I would still like to make this request. This is really unlikely and please believe me I would not have asked of this had I not exhausted every possible method but are you the son of Sagar Samudraputra the former member of Lord Pruthu’s team?” She wanted to add another title but refrained considering the sensitivity and also the fact that she was the one asking for help here.

Kush asked “when you say Lord Pruthu, do you mean Emperor Pruthu?”

Sylvie nodded with a twisted expression as if she already had her answer

Kush was flabbergasted at the question and thought “Can my old man really be the one she is talking about? Mom did say that Dad is amazingly powerful, probably more than anyone she knows”

He then said “I am sorry Sylvie, I don’t really know if he is the one you are looking for, his name is Sagar Samudraputra, but I think it is really unlikely that he is the person you are looking for. He doesn’t look like one of the people who would work to save the world nor does he feel like the type of person to work in a group. Moreover I lost my way coming here and we live on an uninhabited island where only my family lives, I don’t have a way of contacting them currently”

Sylvie’s already tiny hope extinguished when she heard this. As they say, for a sinking person even a strand of straw is equal to a life of hope.

Kush then said “I am really sor…” but stopped mid-way, at the same time as Sylvie and Tara turned their heads around towards the gate, his eyes looking the same direction as them. Kush immediately grabbed at Tanka and was about to swing it at the intruder who was about to come in when Tara raised her hand in a gesture to ask him to stop. The intruder smashed through the door but landed on his left knee his left hand balled into a fist laid flat on the ground, his right leg making a 90 degrees with the floor and his head bent in a salute. “Apologies for the intrusion my liege but I have some urgent information, Prime minister Sir Marcus Aurelius has led his personal army in an assault on the beast, many nobles have decided to join the forces, there seems to many casualties. The beast seems to have overwhelmed everyone, we might have lost a lot of people, the battle is still in progress.” As soon as she heard this Sylvie and Tara leapt on their feet and started running for their horses. The powerful horses started talking with the winds as soon as his they were commanded. Kush followed them on his feet. Sylvie was at the head of the troop of personnel guards when she and Tara realized that Kush was following them. Sylvie ignored him, he was not the reason she reached out to him and now that he could not offer what she needed, she had to think of something else. Though it was rude how she ended the conversation but right now she did not have the liberty to be polite, the circumstances were dire.

Tara though pulled back from the troop and came to its rear, once she was nearer to Kush she indicated for him to hop on. Kush put a hand on the Tara’s thigh and hopped on. He then came closer to her till his body was right against naked back. Seeing as she was not protesting, Kush then excitedly slipped his hand in the deep V of her dress which went upto a few centimetres below her navel, and then grabbed her tight waist pulling her closer still. Enjoying his liberty with the girl, he then slipped his hands higher tracing the supple soft taut skin approaching a mound, but right before he was about to touch it, in came a voice from the person who body he was enjoying “You touch anything more and you will walk back without your other hand as well”. Kush then used otherworldly will power to restrain his hand from having a go at her supple and bouncy breasts. Tara just smirked a little and they went on following the troop of Sylvie’s personal guard.

They reached a debriefing room for the queen’s messenger, it was an efficient system, the advisors and ministers de-briefed the message and came up with solutions, the queen merely selected from them, making it so that the queen makes the decision. Sometimes when the queen believes the solutions are not good she may make a decision unilaterally herself, though she couldn’t make unilateral decisions in all matter, her cabinet ministers had to be consulted first.

Though now that all the cabinet members had used all their troops to fight off Brutus, she was holding all the power now. Tara was allowed to enter cause of status commonly known to all the court but Kush was stopped at the gates by a beautiful metal monster (refer: first couple paragraph of The trouble in paradise 1) who was also part of Sylvie entourage to his house. On Tara’s request Sylvie allowed Kush to stay and though reluctantly, though it was matter of national concern, it was only till daylight when the newspapers brought to it the whole world and also cause of the fact that she felt guilty of treating Kush so rudely. The court staff, didn’t know the history so they simply acknowledged Kush to be someone of importance from his form and weapon, he seemed to be the muscle power they might really need.

“Your majesty, from the current situation we have a few options on how we can proceed namely: support the initiative taken by sir prime minister, stand back and support him if it seems Brutus is killed, stand back and support him if it seems he has turned the tables, do nothing”

Kush tilted his head in confusion at the obvious set of options presented and commented to Tara in hush hush voice “Isn’t she captain obvious?”

Tara looked at him like he was from the countryside but still explained “These people are one of the most efficient people out there, they can’t invent a solution out of thin air, but they have taken care of most of the logistics for any of the queen’s call allowing her to make a call and not waste any time with it”

Kush felt stupid at the revelation and was shushed by one of the court attendants before he could say sorry.

Sylvie was pensive for a few moments before she asked “What did Suresh from Bharat and Imran from Jared say about reinforcements?”

The advisor was silent with shame on her face, she had been responsible for this critical part of the project to liaise with the nobles of these countries to receive support from a unit of Adept level soldiers, cause showing up with anything lower is just like feeding fodder to the beast that was Brutus. Since Bhasmachal did not have anything to offer this was really difficult to make happen. The advisor couldn’t say it out in the open but Sylvie knew it and thus didn’t hang around the issue for too long and said “We are not going to do any of those, we are going to order a retreat, I am dissolving the cabinet of ministers and hereby absolving them of all their powers, they are no longer allowed to hold forces of their own. Relay my command to all and order a retreat”

The advisor clenched her fists in the irritation and said “But Your Highness, please try and understand, we might have an opportunity, would you not reconsider reinforcing the army of soldiers out there to help them?”

Sylvie just turned towards her and looked at her with sombre eyes, the advisor ducked her head and walked away in a hurry to execute the orders. Kush knew it was not his place to make a comment and but it seemed idiotic to waste the sacrifices of everybody who died fighting the beast.

They moved to Sylvie’s study, finally, it was only him, Tara and Sylvie in the room with the beautiful metal monster at the door guarding the door. Kush was following Tara so he was in an awkward position and got stuck in the court alone with Sylvie. At present both of them were not focussed on him talking to each other where Tara was consoling Sylvie and Sylvie was discussing matters with the only person she could. Kush sat away from them across the room, even though he was emotionally moved by the story and wanted to help, he realized he was an unwanted carry along right now. He still maintained a keen ear on the conversation.

“Sylvie why don’t you think about the supporting the army, I heard from uncle Marcus you guys have everything in place and have a plan as well”

Sylvie didn’t reply, she was waiting for the one her father had predicted would arrive, but it had been close to 12 years and nothing had happened, no country wanted to touch the issue. There were a couple of reasons for it, one being the obvious benefit countries got from them losing their competition in trade and the other being, the beast was not killing the entire populace, it was simply forcing an exodus of people.

“You know… my father usually says that a person’s fate is not always in their hands, they may win or lose depending on a lot of things, but if you don’t do anything you are definitely going to lose” Kush said interjecting.

Both the women looked up at Kush together in surprise, they had forgotten his existence entirely and had not pay attention to him. Sylvie simply replied with a bit of irritation in her voice, “I am sorry Mr. Kush for taking your entire morning with my problems, but I must ask you to leave right now, as you might have ‘overheard’ I am too pre-occupied due to today’s matters and am unable to entertain guests. Gloria will escort off the premises.”

Kush too was markedly irritated at his treatment and replied sarcastically “Thank you for your hospitality, but I will find my way out” He knew she was facing an extinction level threat for her kingdom and sometimes people blurt out things they don’t mean in the spur. Kush simply regretted not getting to meet Tara again and went on his way to the hotel to pick his stuff up. He rested up for the night and decided to leave the next day.

Next day he picked his stuff up and headed for the port to ask for directions to the coast of Bharat. He would still swim regardless of how many think him crazy, it was part of his training regimen. Frankly speaking the fact that he didn’t wear it at all yesterday was a mistake for him, violating his father’s instruction.

Kush had enquired about the directions to the port before and had been to a beach before so he was not worried about getting lost. It was here he saw the anomaly. One of the things that markedly differentiated the country and this city from other places was the lack of people, this country was disproportionately underpopulated, but today, it looked as if the whole city was there on the streets, though the streets weren’t as crowded as a market in major ports, but it looked like a busy street today. Must be a festival thought Kush as he made his away to the port. Slowly he saw the density of people increasing. Later he realised people were making their way to the port. The Urbanis were there at the port controlling the crowd. This being the capital city people from nearby towns and villages too were heading this way to hire a ferry.

Kush asked one of the urbanis for what was happening, they looked at him like they would a fool before asking “What rock are you living under? The queen has announced an emergency, the commanders of 50000 strong army fighting off the monster offshore have hit a hitch”

Kush realized the people were panicking and were breaking protocol leaving the country, the queen anticipated this and arranged ferries for them, though it was against her wishes but she didn’t want people to think they were trapped. Kush then saw a ship move northwards, it had the flag of the navy of Bhasmachal. Looks like she finally decided to go sink or swim. The people who had boarded that ship wore red amour, “weird” he thought. He then asked the Urbani for the directions to the mainland, a weird question one might think but he pointed to one of ferries, but Kush then asked for the directions again. The urbani now concluded that the guy was nuts so he ignored and went to his post.

Kush decided to follow one of the ferries which was headed for Bharat, since it would moor at a port it would be easier for Kush to move forward from there.

The ship was over crowded cause people didn’t want to wait for the next ferry, the deck was full of people to brim, it was unsafe. Kush didn’t concentrate on the people on the ship, the fact that he had to remember to emit mana continuously was taking a large part of his concentration. After a couple of hours, irritation against his dad were starting to kick in, this training was the hardest he has had to have and it didn’t seem to benefit him in any way he understood, but like a good son he continued practicing. The ship was moving at a pace comfortable for him, he saw a small kid against the railings on the deck of the vessel, he was shorter than the railing which was meant to prevent man-overboard. The gap between the supports were wider than him, he was one accident waiting to happen, but it seemed like his guardians were otherwise engaged, their lives being overturned and all. Kid was interested in Kush, everybody just thought Kush to be a weird guy to ignore, but the kid was curious. Slowly the weather took a turn for the worse, the waves became larger and the ship started heaving. The kid seemed like he had experience sailing before so he stuck to the railings to control himself as the rolling and pitching became worse. The pitching motion causing a few passengers onboard to get queasy, so they puked their guts out at the railing, Kush tried to steer clear of the ship’s path. The kid still managed to maintain himself as the weather progressively became worse. The waves weren’t strong enough to deter Kush physically, but mentally the water going in his eyes was irritating him, making it difficult for him to concentrate. Just as he was in his mental tussle, the kid was knocked off deck by another queasy person who had come in rush to vomit.

“MAAAAAAAAAA” screamed the kid as he dropped face first into the sea from a height of 8 meters. His mother screamed for her son, but the weather was too dangerous for someone to jump in to save the kid, people grabbed at the woman who was trying to jump herself.

“Oh man!! This is going to be tough”

He went in the water for the kid. He was sinking like a rock and was unconscious, Kush swam up to him and threw him on the deck. The kid was light so Kush wasn’t pushed back too much, but in order to control himself when throwing the kid, it slipped his mind to emit sufficient mana and instantly dropped to the soft sea floor and continued sinking, “Not this again” he thought and sucked in the sand filled water abruptly. He was involuntarily flailing in the loose sand, trying hard to catch some air, slowly seconds passed, turning to a minute, then another half. He couldn’t form coherent thoughts but if he could he would have said, “is this how I am going to die?”. As curtains were closing in on him, everything was becoming dark, only a small bright spot was visible to him which was receding as well into oblivion. When he hit bedrock, it gave a him a small jolt just for one split second he emitted mana and jumped up with all his strength. His push had crushed the bed rock below him, it took a few seconds to fly all the way to air where he passed out. The braces then stopped being heavy when they realized he had passed out.

“SPLAAAASH” came that sound he hit the surface of water hard. The braces absorbed mana from the ambient and nourished his body. Then carried by the currents his body went on in a direction unknown to him.