To Be King

Marisol bustled around the shrine all morning, packing anything she could and hiding away the shrine goods. “Orfen! Move! I need to get into the altar!”

Orfen laid on top of the altar, basking in a sunbeam... as he had been since breakfast an hour ago. Marisol put her hands on his side and tried to push him off, her feet sliding on the ground. Orfen shifted and for a moment Marisol lit up.

But Orfen merely stretched and rolled over, his lion-like tail wrapping around his body.

“Ugh!” Marisol cried out in frustration and stamped her foot. “Racqein!” She whirled around to find her older brother and cry to him... but he wasn’t there. “Racqein...?”

*

After breakfast Racqein disappeared, heading immediately for underneath the shrine.

For Cruxion’s tomb...

“You shouldn’t lie. Lies and secrets disrupt bonds.” Cruxion lectured as Racqein silently descended the stone steps.

“If I didn’t concede to them, they would never let me out of their sight,” Racqein muttered. He reached the bottom of the stairs, swatting away cobwebs. Without a torch he couldn’t see a thing, but once he removed the eyepatch and looked through the eye Cruxion controlled, he could clearly see the coffin in the center of the room.

It had been many years since the coffin had been touched and so Racqein had to use all his strength to lift the lid, breaking one of the rusted hinges in the process. With Racqein’s eyes, Cruxion looked down at his mostly decomposed remains and said with a tone of unease, “It is estranged to look upon a corpse and know it is yours.” Racqein ignored him as he took the blade in Cruxion’s hands. It was ornate, encrusted with blue jewels, sharp, and gleaming silver. It looked entirely untouched by time.

“Of course it does. It’s enchanted.” Cruxion’s voice answered Racqein’s observations.

A little annoyed at receiving an answer to a question he didn’t ask, Racqein shoved the sword into the soldier’s sheath he had stolen months ago and left through the crypt’s other entrance that only he knew about.