The Apathetic Knight

The Apathetic Knight The Royal's Saga, Book 1: The Apathetic Knight Written by Kristen Elizabeth Preface August, 300th Year of Ashland Rule (AR) "And how is it, exactly, that my infant daughter was nearly kidnapped?" The duke snarled, and I flinched against his rage even though it was not directed at me. His anger was directed at the knight who had been participating in...less than savory behavior, when he was supposed to be protecting my daughter. A kidnapper had managed to make it into her bedroom, killed her nursemaid, and taken her on their merry way, for heaven’s sakes! This knight seemed particularly terrified now, but hadn't cared enough to take proper care of my daughter in the first place? "Do you care to explain this?" My husband, Duke Leodore Renard Severing, asked the trembling soldier. "How is it? Will you sit there, silent? You seemed to be so caught up in your desires until you found out that your charge had been taken!" The knight bowed further, pressing his face to the ground at my husband's feet. "It is because the young miss...her blood..." The duke and I both flinched, and I felt my eyes fill with tears. I knew that this would be a problem, of course I had. However, I had hoped that my love would make a difference, that adopting them as my own would save the twin infants from the scorn of our people. It seemed that it had not. You see, I could not naturally conceive children...the duke and I had been so full of hope, when we had married...and through seven miscarriages, he'd tried to be patient and understanding. Not once had he ever been unkind to me about my lack of ability...however, the leaders of the noble families, the king, the other dukes and marquesses especially, had started to press him for an heir. He was under such strain from the knight’s faction, especially, because his line needed to be continued. His line was a powerful influence in the Knight’s faction, and he had earned his hard-won position through much trial. The need for an heir had reached a crucial point. If he remained without an heir after the tenth year of becoming the duke—since he had taken over this dukedom by force, rather than a natural succession—then he had to automatically surrender his position as the head of this dukedom and pass his title to the next noble in line. Our empire, the Ashland empire, was not an empire that allowed polygamy. Even our royal family did not take concubines...however, in order to hang onto the seat that had been hard-won through a revolution, overthrowing the evil dictator who had reigned over this family before him, the leaders of the families had come together and begged for my husband to take a lover to produce an heir for him. The king had agreed. Thus, my husband and I had divorced long enough for a secondary bride to wed my husband and provide an heir. The new wife, a noblewoman of the Mage Faction in another nation with the typicallysilver hair for a mage, had come and fulfilled her duties well. She had been stunning and I was already jealous of her, but then she'd fulfilled her role where I couldn't. She had recently given birth to a pair of twins; two beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauties. Then, she and my husband had divorced, I had been reinstated as the duchess, and I had adopted the infants as my own children. My new son, the handsome lad that he was, was beloved and adored. He would be disliked for his background, of course, but he was the son that my husband had desired. However, the other twin…the daughter, a beautiful and stunning baby girl…had not been a part of the plan. When she had arrived a mere hour after her brother, the duke had broken down and cried, feeling as though he had slapped me in the face not once, but twice. We had anticipated having one child, not a second. I hadn’t necessarily seen the girl as an issue, but everyone else in the dukedom took issue with the fact that I had to accept two new children into my arms as my own rather than simply one. To say that I wasn't jealous...would be a lie. Of course, I was bothered that a concubine, an arranged wife, could give my love not just one, but two children in the same instance. He hadn’t been the problem in our marriage bed, after all. I had been the problem. The miscarriages…I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t have been so selfish as to wed my husband to begin with. However, I imagined that they were my own...or I tried to, anyway. I was also blonde-haired and blue-eyed, but the shade was completely different. These children had gotten their father's beautiful, silvery-blonde, platinum hair and his light gray-blue eyes, whereas my hair was more of a wheat-gold color and I had darker, bluer eyes. The people of the duchy had very...mixed feelings about the children, as their rightful duchess hadn't given birth to them. They had been mothered by a high-ranked noble from another country, who had come by the King’s—my husband's uncle’s—request. She had acted only as her designated role for the duration of their time together to conceive and produce the heir and she had not once been rude or disrespectful to me. In fact, she had been very sympathetic and king. However, she had been part of the Mage’s faction in a neighboring nation and had been chosen to strengthen the alliance with the mage’s and knight’s factions in our nation. The knight’s faction and the mage’s faction in each nation were always fighting to keep balance and struggling with control. Currently, our nation was ruled by a Knight’s family, and when the issue had come up that we needed a surrogate for the duke—another member of the Knight’s faction—the mage’s faction had insisted that, in order to keep peace, we choose a woman from a mage’s faction family in another nation. Those in the Knight’s faction reluctantly agreed, but they were extremely dissatisfied that two children had resulted from the union. We wouldn’t know entirely which faction each child took after until they were a bit older, but according to the physicians who had delivered the children…the son exuded a powerful knight’s aura while the daughter held a darker, swirling energy that didn’t feel like a knight’s aura. Though most of the other higher-level noble houses didn't look excessively unfavorably upon the children—because it was true enough that they had, themselves, pressured the duke to go down this path—many people in the middle-level noble houses, and many of the commoners, as well as the knights, didn't think too fondly of the children. Especially the daughter. My husband had originally been the son of a very corrupt, arrogant duke who had reigned with terror and fear over the duchy, taxing the people far beyond what was acceptable, taking slaves and beating the staff, killing people for fun...he had even taken to selling children from the duchy. It had been a dark, cold, vile duchy to live in. My husband, backed by the king for his kindness and compassion and his righteous manner, who was actually the second son, had taken arms against his older brother and his father, taking over the duchy. Now, he was backed by the rest of the noble families as well. I had originally been a daughter of a duke from the neighboring nation, who had been set to marry the first son of this dukedom. Looking back on it in my memory, it was at a banquet shortly before the rebellion, when my husband had approached me on the terrace and had done something that nobody else had ever done; he'd asked me, honestly, what I wanted. He had seen my introduction to his older brother, whom had been insulting and rude, hateful and cruel to me right away, as his father had sneered at the situation in the background. I hadn’t been happy to learn that this beast would be my husband. So, I had been honest with the younger son, and told him that I was terrified of his older brother, because rumors had spread that the oldest son was much like the father: cruel, abusive and unrelentingly vile. He had confirmed as much, but had leaned forward, whispering in my ear, asking me if I would like to have a way out of that fate. I had been eager to hear his solution, and I had blushed when he had told me that he fancied me himself, but would never push me into marriage. He wanted me to choose him, to trust him. So, I had placed my trust in him, and waited to hear news. I had heard the news a few months later that my betrothed had been defeated on the battlefield, along with his father. I had come, with my father, to this kingdom's palace, where all the nobles stood asking the king what was happening, when the doors to the palace had burst open. In had strode a battle-hardened, bloody, powerful-looking young man, an unsheathed sword in his right hand and two severed heads held by the hair in his left hand. He had reached the throne, and tossed the heads down at the king's feet, before he kneeled, sword held in hand horizontal to the ground, lifted in the air as a sign of dedication. "I proclaim the deaths of the Dark Duke and his firstborn, in your glory, Oh King, Bright fire of the Ashland Empire," he said, face bowed. "I ask it in the name of this fallen duke, the Lord Duke Severing, to bestow the title of the house upon me, the Second son, Leodore Renard Severing, in reward for honoring your wishes and fulfilling our agreement." The king had stood, head high, black hair swept to the side and hazel eyes piercing. "You have served well, second son of Duke Severing, Leodore Renard Severing. As reward, I bestow upon you the title of Duke of Severing. You have honored my requests of you, even killing your own kin, to see justice brought to the empire. You have honored your dukedom by disposing of the tyrant who had ruled over it with violence and fear. Though this man was my brother-in-law, I held no love for the way that he ruled over his dukedom and thus requested that you remove him and his tyrant first-born from the seat. You have held up your part of this task. I shall not only gift you the title of the house, but another request as well. Ask any request of me, and I shall bestow it if it is within my power." My duke had glanced back at me, and I had smiled, giving a small nod, and he smiled triumphantly before he gave his attention back to the king. "I ask for the hand of Lorelei Elizabeth Wolfe," he said, lifting the sword again. The king seemed surprised by this. "The betrothed of your late brother?" He asked, stunned. "I'd had no idea you coveted her. Your brother had acted so disappointed when I'd set her to marry him, but it seems that she wasn't completely ill-received,” the king had said with a wry grin and a wink in my direction. “So be it. I shall grant your request. You may marry at your leisure." I smiled as I remembered it, now, but I was saddened again when I remembered our struggles to conceive over the last several years. Finally, as our time grew to the halfway mark to have an heir and the nobles had started to panic with my lack of capability, he had finally given in to the demands. It was a tradition to assign a Knight from the Knight's faction to each and every noble that was born with the rank of a Marquess household or higher, so being a duke, of course his children had immediately had knights assigned to them. Once the children turned thirteen, for their coming-of-age ceremony, they would get to go to the Knight's Order headquarters and pick their own knights...but their assigned knights had to keep them safe until then. However, the knights had taken very unkindly to having to protect the girl, and it was becoming a chore to keep her protected. This simply wouldn't do. Daughter or not, extra child or not, more mage-blooded than knight-blooded or not…she was still a human being, whom I had adopted and looked at as my own. She was still my husband’s daughter, and I knew that he loved her even if he felt guilty to me that she was born... "I order this knight to be banished from the dukedom and stripped of his knighthood," my husband said, turning to face his throne. "I cannot have my children placed in imminent danger simply because their knights do not uphold their blood. They are of my blood, and that is all that should matter...to any of you," he said, eyes gleaming dangerously as he glanced over his shoulder at the room again. Soft, panicked murmurs flowed through the room, and I glanced at the knight as he was taken away. I sighed, leaving the throne room and going down the hall, to the room across from our royal bedchambers, and I stepped inside, peeking in at the children. The boy's knight stood there beside his crib, at attention and ready, while nobody stood by the girl's crib...she hadn't been assigned a new knight yet. Servants were still getting the dead bodies cleaned up, and I approached the girl's crib. She looked up at me with bright, light gray eyes that looked gold in the candlelight. "I am sorry that your knight was so uncaring for you, Kynareth," I whispered. "Sweet Astaroth has such a faithful, dutiful knight since he is the son...but you, sweet girl...it looks like your standing isn't very good in their eyes," I said, sad. The knight shifted uncomfortably, glancing away. "Thank you for keeping Astaroth safe," I told him. "You did your job well. I know that they rushed at you to try to take him, as well...you simply couldn't protect them both on your own from such a large group. It wasn't your fault, and the duke knows that." He kneeled, face lowered. "I tried my best, your grace. I know that many of the knights do not favor these children...but I do not mind. I know that it isn't your fault, nor is it the duke's fault. You both tried very hard before taking these measures...this was simply the result that allowed him to keep the Duke's seat. We need him to be the duke, and I think many of the knights and middle-ranked nobles have forgotten how horrible the late duke had been before his grace took over the duchy. He is a kind and just man." I smiled. "You are right." "If they can be protected until they come of age, then they should be able to each get an Oath-Sworn Knight who will truly put them above all else," he told me. "The knights who are stationed here in the duchy may have their own prejudices and negative opinions, but a knight from the Knight's Order will not hold such views." "If they can just remain safe until then, that is," I grumbled. I sighed, glancing at them both. "They are...utterly stunning children," I whispered. "They are," he agreed. "And quite calm, both of them. They seem well-mannered and have calm dispositions. If anything, the boy is a bit more sensitive than the girl. She seems...unnaturally aware, almost. Her energy is not that of the Knight’s faction." I contemplated this, glancing at her again. “Another fact to be wary of, it seems. The knight’s faction families are not happy about this. We are a knight’s faction family. To have a child who seems to be of mage-blood, they are quite disgruntled.” It was true, her eyes watched me with a wary calm that Astaroth did not have. He was aware and calm, but not in the same way. Though Astaroth seemed highly aware and focused, he was a bit more reactive and more sensitive, and cried a little more often. Kynareth was unnaturally quiet. I wondered, in that moment...what kind of people would they become when they grew older...