Lurking in the Shadows; Creature of the Night

After hearing the king's question, Benjamin pitted Lord Irvington. He knew that question the king asked wasn't out of inability to pick a punishment for the Lord. Infact when it came to giving punishments, the king was a professional. He asked that question out of the humor he got from imagining what punishment out of the many ways to punish someone would be most satisfactory for a person like Irvington.

"We'd have a meeting with the council tomorrow. After that, we'd visit Father Roberts." Sebastian said as he stood up from the chair. "I'll be in the gallery" he stated as he walk past Benjamin.

Benjamin sighed as he knew what Sebastian was going to do in the gallery. The gallery was a huge space in the palace filled with different paintings of past kings and the past Royal families. But after ruling Denver for over  years now and was still the current king of Denver,  Sebastian had what he went to the gallery for. Only Benjamin knew what he went there for.  Though Sebastian didn't like when Benjamin accompanied him to the gallery, but Benjamin always followed him anyway. But stood outside the gallery door. This time it wasn't any different. Minutes after Sebastian left the room, Benjamin headed to the door and stood in front of it. Not a single soul was to come near the gallery, only a specific maid was allowed to clean it. But whenever the king was in there, they were not allowed to go in or even come close.

Benjamin always stood by the king because he knew Sebastian's story and why he likes coming to the gallery. After all, they both grew up together.

The next day came quickly and no one in the whole kingdom was excited as the king. The Lord's were in a rush as they approached the palace. They had received word from the palace that the king wants to relay an important message to them in their meeting so they did their best to reach the palace quickly and not keep the king waiting. Sebastian on the other hand had a wide smile on his face. He had his breakfast early in the morning and took his bath and dressed gracefully as usual to wait for the Lord's to arrive. He was seated on his throne with a smile on his face as he was expectant of the Lords coming. A maid came with a silver tray of red and green grapes as she offered it to the king who seemed to be in a good mood. He was in a good mood because he was going to punish a human. The creature he loathed. Benjamin who was standing beside the throne didn't fail to get amused by the king's mirth that morning. Sebastian looked at the grapes the maid just brought and joyfully picked them up and ate them.  In a millisecond, the court room doors sprang open and the Lord's of the four villages walked in.  Sebastian dismissed the maid as his focus turned to the men that just walked in. They made their way towards the throne and bowed before him kissing his hand this time as a sign of respect and subjection to their king. "Long live the king" they said returning to their seats.

After that, they all took their seats. Sebastian sighed and  prepared to speak. "I called you all here because of the matter we discussed yesterday. It turns out some of us aren't so honest." He said as his silver eyes glanced the Lords. Lord Irvington was doing everything he could to keep his composure but in real sense, he was the most chicken of all the Lords. It was always easy to detect a lie from him because he was so bad at masking his emotions. Sebastian listened to the heart beat of all the Lords. All of them pumped at a normal rate except for Lord Irvington's. He chuckled inwardly after hearing how uneven Lord Irvington's heart was beating.

Benjamin glanced at the king and he knew the king was using his special abilities on them because of the small mocking smile that was on Sebastian's face. They didn't  even truly know who was ruling them. Or rather, what kind of creature was ruling them.