The King Killers

Political event

Natalya, Nerlureel, Tarin, Fuqwigt, Almyr, Kai, and Tebi arrive in Lord Rayjet's palace and are arrested by a judge for the murder of King Zeitdrache after seeing a sightstone reveal a vision of them breaking into the palace and Natalya stabbing the king from behind. Kai teleports them out of the city, into the desert.

As they approached Rajyet's palace Natalya admired the beauty of the desert and the clay structures around her. She loved how colorful the clothing and the people were. She hated the heat though. She found herself missing her snowy mountains as the bright, afternoon sun beat down on them. Kai led them down the street until they arrived at a huge clay palace. The entrance was lined with palm trees and the archway was very large with beautiful, colorful draconic hieroglyphics painted around the trim. She remembered what Fenneck had told her about Sivania and how the fiefdom, Sethrekar, was named after the blue dragon who resided somewhere in the desert. The guards looked very cold as they led them inside the beautiful palace. Natalya felt a wave of relief wash over her as the temperature lowered when they walked inside. The halls were fairly empty, save a few stoic guards. Natalya started to wonder why exactly they were there. Baegla had known she was one of the hero's of Arrallath all these years and could have easily informed King Zeitdrache of this. Why did he have to send his advisers running all over Thymryu? She was also confused as to why the half-orc and the noble half-elf were still with them. Kai brought them into a room. The room only had one exit, the one they had come in through and on the far wall there was a man, dressed in ornate judges robes. Natalya knew it wasn't Rajyet and she felt that something was very wrong. The walls to their sides were lined with guards. "It's them." One of the guards said grimly. Natalya instinctively held her hand on the hilt of her sword. The judge brought out a sightstone. Sightstones were large orbs that the leaders in each fiefdom used to communicate with one another. Natalya had seen Fenneck use one once. Natalya watched the stone swirl with smoke before they saw a room with King Zeitdrache and a couple of his advisors. They watched as they saw themselves, Natalya, Nerlureel, Tarin, the half-elf, the half-orc, Kai and Tebi, run into the room and attack the attendants. Natalya saw herself sneak behind a column and come up behind Zeitdrache and stab him through the back, killing him instantly. She felt herself overcome with panic and dread. "You are all hereby arrested for the murder of King Zeitdrache." The judge said. Natalya panicked. They were innocent. She saw the others draw their weapons to attack. All except Tarin who started crying and panickily went to turn himself in. Fuck. Natalya thought as she instinctively drew her sword. She blocked one of the guards swords and suddenly felt everything disappear. After a very weird moment of nothing really existing she felt sand hit her face. She sat up and looked around. They were in the middle of the desert now. Natalya couldn't breath for a few moments as the reality of what just happened set in. She had killed Zeitdrache? Her first thoughts went to Fenneck and Baegla and wondered if they had been sent that message. She finally relaxed enough to fully decide that she had not in fact, killed the king and that this was some form of trickery. Why this though? Why us? Why here like this? She was confused. Nothing seemed to make sense. If it was just her she would have assumed it was some coo to dismantle Glitterfjell, but the fact that Nerlureel, whom she hadn't seen in thirty years, and the rest of this seemingly random group were involved stumped Natalya. Something weird was happening. She noticed the rest of her king killing comrades were also in the sand looking dazed and confused. "What the hell?!" She finally said moving toward wood elf who had dragged them into the mess. She drew her rapier and pointed it at Kai's face but he seemed out of it. "Teleporting this many people takes a lot out of me, hold on a moment." He muttered. Natalya was mad though. She moved toward Tebi who was nursing Kai, "The hell was that? You better have an explanation!" She said. "Yeah, this is some bullshit. We trusted you!" Nerlureel exclaimed as he came up behind Natalya. Tarin was crying in the fetal position in the sand and the half-orc and the noble looked confused and angry. Tebi and Kai looked equally as confused as the rest of them. Finally Kai spoke again, "Look, I don't know what that was. Last time we were in Ringstadt everything was fine." Natalya was angry, "I don't buy it. Tell me what the hell is going on? Who are you people?" Kai sighed, "We're telling the truth! I am one of King Zeitdrache's closest advisers and this is my bodyguard." He hesitates and looks nervously at Tebi who gives him a sad little shrug. Kai slowly continued, "Who also happens to be Zeitdrache's...son." Natalya felt confused. The king didn't have a son. It was one of the things that kept Fenneck up at night for fear of what would happen if Zeitdrache were to suddenly die. Natalya squinted distrustfully at them, "The king doesn't have a son, everyone knows that." She said angrily, "Also wouldn't that would make him...the king...if these accusations were true." Kai and Tebi hesitated. Kai spoke, "Well, no one, except myself and a few others...know about him." Natalya felt herself growing more angry and confused, "What the hell do you mean?" Tebi finally spoke, "They hid me because they wanted me to have a normal life. My father didn't want me to grow up as a prince and to take things for granted." Natalya rolled her eyes. "Bullshit." She said turning away and looking out over the desert in despair. "Wait wait. So you're telling me that you're a prince but NOBODY in the entire goddamn kingdom knows this?!" Nerlureel said, dumbfounded. "Not really, no." Tebi said. Nerlureel threw up his giant, scaly hands in defeat, "Well great! So what the hell do we do know?" Natalya looked out over the desert. She could see the hazy form of Sivania in the distance but figured going back through there wouldn't end well. "Well, there is a small town to the west called Breezehaven. Maybe we can try to make it there and figure out where to go next." Kai said as Tebi helped him to his feet. Nerlureel bent down to Tarin who was still panicking in the sand, "Hey come on Tarin. It's gonna be fine. We'll figure this out." Tarin finally got up and looked up at his father. His eyes were full of betrayal. "Dad! What...why did that happen? We didn't do anything wrong!" He started crying again. Natalya felt his pain. Growing up and realizing the world isn't what you thought it was had been painful for her too. "We've been framed. We need to find out by who and why." She said decisively. Nerlureel nodded at her, "Yeah, see Tarin. Everything will work itself out. Don't worry. Me and Natalya are gonna figure this out." He took his son and hugged him. The noble and the half-orc remained quiet but Natalya could tell they were also upset. They started trekking west into the desert. Hoping Breezehaven would soon be on the horizon.