WISTFUL DESPERATION

The message of Constantine was passed to the king of Mytigon and it put the poor king under pressure, little did he know that his adversary was facing even more pressure than him. Elliot had returned with the head of the reaper and it was hung on the wall of the council room, he was proud that his father had congratulated him on his return but there was something that Elliot needed to clear out with his father.

“Father, I thank you for putting your faith in me and letting me going on this quest but there is something that happened during my fight with the reaper’s minions” Elliot watched his father closely, he wanted to know if his father would lie to him.

“What happened, my son?” Ivan asked with a calm expression, he probably already knew where the talk was headed but he stayed cool.

“When I was fighting with the two mutated corrupted, one of them just fell to the ground with blood gushing out of its chest… I didn’t slay that beast with my sword or magic powers” Elliot paused as he noticed how his father fidgeted when he was explaining the experience, it was obvious to him that his father had a hand in it.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Ivan was playing it cool without trying to reveal too much.

“Nothing actually, it’s just the fact that there is only one person that knows how to do the ‘One shot-kill’ arrow technique and that person is in our special ops department, I am just wondering what he was doing all the way out there, father? Why did he kill the beast that I was supposed to kill? Why didn’t you keep to my request father?” Elliot walked a step forward as he asked a question, he stopped when he was barely a few feet from his face.

“You were up against two enemies that had animalistic instinct, there was no way that your poor strategy and your blunt sword was going to come out of there unscathed” Ivan let the cat out of the bag, there was no point hiding what was already open.

“There is no faith in your voice, you didn’t believe that I was going to survive through and you sent help to follow me, that’s so unruly”.

“I am the king of Mytigon, I can’t put the life of my son in danger without a little bit of insurance… I am glad that you came back alive because that means you are ready for the next phase of your life… which is marriage” Ivan figured it was best to drop the message to Elliot now, there was no time left because the king of Briggs had given him a deadline to meet his demands.

“I do not think that I am ready for that sort of attachment” Elliot said to his father but there was no way that he was going to dissuade his father from a plan that he had already set in place.

“It is customary that the prince should have a princess by his side when he is 20 years old, I am not getting any younger so that means one day you are going to rule this kingdom and all the lesser regions, you cannot be the king if you don’t have a wife” Ivan made it sound as customary as possible so that there wouldn’t be much suspicion, Elliot was still stuck in disbelief but he knew that he couldn’t tell his father a negative answer because he didn’t have a choice about the matter.

“I do not want to be hasty about such things, I need some time to think, select very carefully and also get to know the woman that I am going to marry…” Elliot was trying to get his father to stall the marriage proposal for a few months.

“Of course, you will have a chance to do all of that and even more… there is going to be a ball in which different maidens will dance and showcase their beauty, you shall select ten who will stay in the royal palace and be under your strict watch, I shall also oversee the welfare of these maidens until you finally choose one, the plan is straight forward and it will make you be able to do all the things that you complained about… it’s best that we do it as soon as possible otherwise we shall raise questions from the council of elders” Ivan made his motive as pure as can be, he saw that Elliot was slowly conceding to his point so he furthered it by adding a statement that made his son almost throw up in disgust.

“Or maybe you prefer men instead of women?” Ivan said with a sly smile, Elliot fought the urge to throw up because of how wrong that statement sounded.

“I love women and I have been in some relationships with some women during some quests, sometime ago… I can’t remember where but I know that it was someplace somewhere..” Ivan could easily tell that his son was lying because Elliot had overused one word to exaggerate a detail that doesn’t even require much talk, Elliot could not look into his father’s eyes when he spoke and that was another sign that told Ivan that his son was trying to evade the situation with lies.

“It is customary and it is compulsory as well, if you are worried about choosing the shortlisted ten maidens then I shall arrange a judging committee to make their selection depending on beauty, etiquette, social background, and their way of dancing of course… having a good body is one of the necessity as well, they must possess the body of Aphrodite herself and have the will of-” Ivan was about to start rambling before Elliot stopped him from going further.

“Fine by me, as long as I don’t get involved in the long order of ceremonies… you can send out the invitation but please consult me for a date and don’t do this without my consent this time” Elliot left his father’s chambers after that and Ivan let out a sigh of relief that he had actually managed to convince his son to get married.

“Now all that’s left is to plan the ball and prepare for everything to fall in place” Ivan said to himself with a wide smile that spread from ear to ear, he did not waste time in sending out invitations to small villages and the lesser provinces as well, Ivan invited a few royalties to the ball and he wanted the daughters of such royalties to be part of the ball as well so that it would all look and feel original.

Nothing ever happens in a small insignificant town as ‘Borcher’, it was a town that was filled with lowlifes and poverty stricken people living their everyday life based off survival and instincts, they had no king but they had a council of elders that oversaw everything that happened in the society, it was quite a shock when they received the news about the ball, the elders found it as too good to be true and it was quite hard to believe that the king of Mytigon would actually acknowledge a place like Borcher as one of the possible villages to get a wife for his son, they read the letter over and over again before they finally concluded that the invitation was real.

Borcher was a small village that had no economical backbone, they were poor and decentralized in their political system and the corruption made the town conditions even worse, but in the rough, trash filled streets of Borcher was a maiden so pure and fair in all her ways, one that moves so gracefully as if her feet barely touched the earth whenever she strides, she was beautiful even though she was mostly covered in soot due to the hours she spent in the kitchen with her mother as they tried their possible best to keep surviving with the little income that they made from the restaurant, she was full of hope and spirit and when she heard the announcer spit the news of the ball, she had nothing else on her mind other than the new found dream of getting selected by the prince. It was a desire that had suddenly engulfed her and she burnt bright with the flame of such desire and she had the willpower to follow her dream.