For Her They'd Do Anything

Chapter 8

Ch. 8 Omniscient

King Avery is beside himself. He knows that he reacted irrationally to the Lamia incident, he just doesn't understand why his first thought was to destroy Lamia. When he would try to articulate that he wanted something else done instead, his head throbbed worse. He had no choice in what he said to General Lacy. His head felt like it would explode clean off of his shoulders. Every concoction he took, cup of tea he drank, bite of food he ate, that all only seemed to make things worse. While Lacy was gone with the troops, Avery had spent most of his time curled up in a ball on his bed. All the curtains closed, no lights, no noise; nothing seemed to help ease his suffering. He does find it extremely odd that as soon as Lacy walked into the dinning hall the other night, his migraine just disappeared. Surely, that is no small coincidence. The only problem is, he doesn't know what could have cause such a reaction. What if it was someone out to get him? What if they gave him some sort of poison or something to do their bidding? That would explain why every time he tried to say something else, his head got worse. But who would try to control him like that? Who would want an innocent village destroyed? And why?

He needs to meet with Lacy and figure out how this happened. He can only hope that General Andrew forgives him for the way he acted, and what he ordered to be done. Hopefully Andrew figured out that something was wrong and found a way around his orders. That would be ideal, that way no one actually got hurt.

Avery sends for Lacy, preparing to apologize profusely for threatening him with the Gallows. Hopefully, he will be forgiven, and they can work together to figure out what happened. If only he had been sound enough to at least think about sending some blood of his off to be tested with their master sorcerer in the castle. She may have been able to tell if he was poisoned or bewitched or what have you. But, alas, his head hurt too much the entire time, and he only thought of it the day after the migraines stopped. It was a slim chance that anything was still in his system, but he took it anyway, sending off a vial of his own blood to be analyzed. She got back to him the next day, there were no traces of anything unusual in his blood. Avery kind of figured that, but he had to at least try. So, unless something else like that occurs, they were essentially at ground zero for that.

General Andrew walks through the study doors, bowing as he enters. "You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?"

"Yes, Lacy. Look I don't exactly know what happened during the Lamia incident. My head was killing me, and every time I tried to say that they needed investigated, not destroyed, my head would feel like it was going to explode. I am so sorry to have put you through all of that. I don't know what came over me. I have my suspicions, and had sent blood to Madame Godfrey to have her look into what could have caused such an issue. I find it highly suspicious that as soon as you stepped foot into the dinning hall, my head immediately stopped hurting. Like it was waiting until you made it back."

"Yeah, that is mighty suspicious. Did she find anything out of the ordinary?"

Avery looks down at his shoes, "unfortunately, by the time I had thought to send it to her, there was nothing in my blood. She has no ideas as to what could have caused such unholy symptoms in the first place. She is currently researching as much as she can, and has enlisted King Astaroth's and King Richards sorcerers for help. They are all currently going through as many tomes as they can find. Hopefully they can come up with some kind of idea, and how to prevent it from happening again. It literally felt like someone had taken over my body and my mouth. I have never felt like that before."

"I thought it was highly suspicious how you were acting from the start. I had never seen you act as though any life is worth more than another. Let alone a whole village."

"Oh, good. I was hoping you had noticed! Please tell me that you didn't follow orders! Please tell me that all of those innocent people are ok!"

"Yes, Avery, they are all completely safe. Even though you threatened to send me to the Gallows, it was my duty to prevent war. I had sent word ahead to Lamia and Astaroth, letting them know the situation. They evacuated as soon as possible. There was not a soul around when we got there, thank God. I did, however, find that there was no evidence of any form of attempts to attack us. I looked everywhere. There was nothing."

"Yes, thank God. I don't know what I would have done if you had returned and had actually gone through with it. And, I am so glad that there wasn't any evidence of them actually wanting to attack us. See, this is why you are the best. You know me so well, and can pick up so easily when something is wrong. This is why you are the best man on my team, so reliable and you have exceptional intellect, and an eye for mischief. Oh, and I am so excruciatingly sorry for how I treated you and that I threatened you with the Gallows. I kept trying to say other things, but those are the words that had left my mouth. I only hope that you will be able to forgive me and we can move past this."

"There is nothing to forgive. You weren't yourself. I just wonder who you were. It seems to me that you were being possessed or controlled by someone or something. That is why I defied your orders. Normal Avery would have never ordered such a horrendous task to be completed. You would have sent investigators and word to Astaroth at least about the issues going on."

"Right, speaking of Astaroth, have you gotten any word back from him yet?"

"Yes, it just came in this morning. He is getting his affairs in order, and will be joining us as soon as he can."

Avery, relief clearly upon his face, exclaims, "Good! Good! Maybe he will be able to help us figure this out! Until then, its going to be business as usual around here. If I show any signs like that again, maybe we should come up with a plan. Like, I don't know, lock me away like the werewolves do when the moon is full? Then, once I am chained up, someone needs to take my blood to Madame Godfrey, so she can test it."

"Sir, all due respect, if we try to lock you up like that, someone could claim a coup and throw us in the dungeons. Plus, last time it lasted for weeks, and you were barely able to function, let alone make decisions. I just think that is a bad idea, really."

"Right, right. Well, how about this then? We come up with a code word that I will use when I have a migraine like that? Once you hear the code word, you will know that something is up. Then, once I turn in for the night, you can take my blood in my room. Shouldn't need more than a vial, really. But, maybe get three vials, just to be sure there is enough for the testing. I don't know what kind of tests Godfrey would perform, but that should be enough. Then monitor me, and any decisions I make are not to be acted upon until I am my normal self. But, to keep fooling whoever is doing this, act like the orders were carried out. They would have no reason to suspect that they wouldn't have been carried out, honestly. Does that sound like a better plan?"

"Yes, I think that should do it. Hopefully, if that happens, Madame Godfrey would be able to determine the cause of it and maybe she can even find a way to prevent it from happening again, or at least a cure or some way to get you out of that state."

"I think she would be able to manage coming up with something. At least, I hope. She is one of the highest ranked sorcerers on the continent, after all." Avery is sure that she would be able to solve this aspect of the case. "If not, she will have the sorcerers community to assist, she just wouldn't be able to explain to them what is happening, that's all. She should be able to come up with something to tell them, I'm sure."

"Maybe we should start coming up with a list of people who would want to harm you or the Kingdom? Anyone you could think of?"

Avery contemplates just who could be the culprit. After a few seconds, he exclaims, "my brother, Edmund! He is the eldest, and my father passed him over for the thrown."

"That is a very good start, but I thought he was on another continent, since he had been exiled ages ago?"

"True, true. Well, do we have a list of all of the citizens that have been exiled from Desmond? Maybe it is one of them?"

"Well, how would they have gotten close enough to you to get you under their spell, or whatever they did?"

"Hmm," Avery leans back in his chair. He is trying to come up with ways that would be possible, other than the obvious. "Well, first guess would be that there is a traitor among us. Who, why, and when is anyone's guess, though. Second guess would be that P grabbed someone somewhere and put them under a spell and ordered them to do the same with me? But, that does seem a little farfetched, but still possible I guess."

"Those are two very good ideas. Or maybe a travelling peddler snuck in something to the kitchens? We should probably check with the food testers to see if they had any issues maybe? Did anyone else who ate the same meals as you have any of the symptoms at all?"

"No, not that I am aware of. I will double check, though." General Andrew was deep in thought, while Avery began thinking of something else. "Say Andrew, do you think that maybe Godfrey could come up with a system to scan everyone for like evil intent against the kingdom?"

"I doubt something like that exists. She might be able to think of something though. Or maybe one of the engineers, Stephen Cotes did come up with indoor plumbing about 20 years ago, and that was brilliant. Maybe they can come up with some sort of security measures to better combat this line of attack? Maybe, when Astaroth comes, we can ask him if he has any ideas."

"Yeah, Astaroth is pretty good when it comes to security. For now though, lets focus on what we can do at the moment."

"Right," General Lacy begins to walk away, but Avery calls him back.

"Hey, Lacy, how is your son doing? He should come and visit soon, I think. Constance has been pretty bored as of late. The other day she spent 5 hours hauled up in the library, hiding from Rose. I swear she will do just about anything to get out of her studies."

"I will ask him if he wants to come over. I think Rose may need reminded that it is okay for them to take breaks, so she doesn't overwhelm Constance. She is all the time either chasing her down or lecturing her with her studies. But I have seen Constance work hard, for hours on end, she only runs when she needs a break."

"True, I will speak to Rose and Constance about it tomorrow. Maybe they should work for two hours and then break for an hour. Keep going with that pattern and do like 8 hours a day max?"

"That sounds like a great suggestion. Next time I see Rose I will let her know that you want to chat with her about something."

"Sounds good Lacy. Alright, back to work. I will see you later." As Lacy left the study, Avery found himself writing down notes on everything they went over today. He puts the journal he wrote in, in a secret place under his chair. No one knows about the floor board that had come up a few years ago. He hasn't told a soul about it, not even his wife. That is where he keeps his most important items.

Avery heads off to dinner, he had heard that Tim was making an extra special dessert tonight, and he can't wait to try it.