Chapter 27: The Last King
Athena recovered first, which took approximately three seconds. This was longer than usual and indicated something about the magnitude of what she was processing.
"Beginning of what?" she said.
The Skeleton’s golden eyes moved from Vedas and traveled slowly across the ruined city, across the broken roads and the crumbling towers and the crown symbol carved into every vertical surface that still had one.
Then it raised one arm and pointed past all of it, toward the deeper dark beyond the city’s far edge, toward something that the darkness was hiding rather than the ruins.
"If you wish to continue this path," it said, "take the key hidden within my palace."
Silence.
Arthur looked at the direction it was pointing. Then at the Skeleton. "You have a palace?"
"I was a king."
Arthur nodded. "...Fair point."
The Golden Skeleton began to laugh. A dry old sound. The sound of someone who had forgotten how long it had been since they last laughed.
Arthur scratched his cheek. "But it’s still around? I thought it would have been destroyed or collapsed."
The Golden Skeleton’s eyes slightly dimmed. "It only remains because I sacrificed too much to preserve it."
The plaza went quiet.
Everyone felt there was more to that answer, but nobody knew what.
Athena had already moved forward, notebook in hand, with Athy reseating herself on Athena’s shoulder in the manner of something that understood they were about to get more information and intended to be positioned correctly for it.
Athena stepped forward with her notebook already open. "You were a king who ruled more than a tribe?"
"Yes."
Athena stopped writing. "Then goblins truly had a kingdom." She said it quietly like she was trying to come to terms with it.
The Skeleton looked slowly across the ruined city. And for the first time since the plaza had gone gold, something appeared in those ancient eyes that was neither pride nor grief.
Nostalgia.
"We did," it said. The wind moved through the broken structures around them. "At our height, our banners ruled over half of the Veridian Realm."
Nobody moved.
Half.
The goblins blinked before then blinking again as if they had misheard what the skeleton had just said.
One hunter laughed and then covered his mouth. Because he realized he wasn’t laughing because it was funny. He was laughing because he couldn’t believe it.
Suri looked down at her own hands and then up at the city around her. Then at the throne. "We weren’t just monsters," she said.
Nobody answered. Because nobody could.
One hunter looked around at the city. "...How?"
Nobody answered.
He pointed toward the roads. "The towers... The palace." He looked down at his own hands. "We’re Goblins. We can’t build this."
Silence.
The Skeleton looked at him. "Why?"
The hunter blinked.
"Why do you believe Goblins cannot become great?"
The hunters had no answer for that.
Suri was looking at the ground.
The Skeleton didn’t say and simply stared at them. Then it turned towards Arthur.
"You," it said. "Do you agree?"
Everyone looked at Arthur.
Arthur smiled. "Of course not."
The hunters froze.
Suri looked up.
Athena’s pen stopped moving.
Mithra tilted her head, but she didn’t say anything and waited for Arthur’s answer with a smile.
"What?" the first hunter said.
Arthur looked around. "One Goblin?" He nodded. "I agree they are pretty weak."
Several hunters lowered their heads.
Arthur pointed around the city. "But ten thousand? All of them working together?" He smiled. "That’s a force that even the greatest beast would fear." He shrugged. "That’s basically how humans do it. If we can’t beat a beast by ourselves, we just work together to do it."
The hunters were staring at him.
Suri had stopped breathing for a moment.
Gruk opened his eyes.
The Skeleton nodded. "You understand the result."
Arthur tilted his head. "...Not the reason?"
The Skeleton smiled. "Exactly."
"So, what–"
"Figure it out."
Athena sighed. "I hate mysterious people."
Arthur laughed. "I kind of like them."
"...What?" Athena glared at him.
"They’re fun."
"Your opinion is ignored."
"We’ll figure it out," Vedas said softly.
Arthur’s smile widened.
"Oh? My partner seems ready to dive into–"
"I take it back."’ Vedas quickly said, making Arthur and Mithra laugh.
Gruk walked over to the first hunter and gently tapped his shoulder. The first Goblin Hunter looked up to see Gruk smile. "I know... It’s hard to believe, but that Goblin King is the proof... That it’s real... Our history is all true."
Each word made the first Goblin tremble.
Gruk had tears flowing down. "We were great... Weren’t we?"
The Goblin King looked at him for a long moment. "Yes," it said. "There are no lies."
Suri pressed the back of one hand against her face. The First Goblin Hunter trembled before tears began rushing down his face while the other hunters had lowered their heads. Vedas stood very still in the way he stood still when something was going on inside him that was too large for his expression to hold all of it.
The moment felt like something that should not be interrupted.
Then Arthur said. "If your kingdom was that powerful, what ended it?"
Nobody moved.
Athena lowered her notebook, the Hunters stopped smiling, and even Gruk became serious.
The Skeleton turned. It looked at the broken roads, and the crumbling towers and the throne it had been sitting on in the dark for longer than anyone present could accurately measure. It looked at all of it the way someone looked at the result of a choice they could not unmake.
"We were a mistake," it said.
Nobody understood.
"What happened?"
The Skeleton looked at her. "...I can’t recall."
Silence.
Athena froze.
Arthur frowned.
Mithra blinked.
Suri looked confused, and the Hunters exchanged nervous glances. Gruk looked shaken while Vedas crossed his arms and Melo tilted her head.
Then golden particles drifted from the Skeleton’s armor.
Everyone noticed.
The cracks spread across the ancient plates before they broke off. Then these pieces shifted into small balls of light that began drifting upwards.
Mithra’s expression changed. "...You’re disappearing."
The Skeleton looked toward her.
Then it smiled, and the smile was the most human thing it had done since the plaza began glowing. "A king’s duty ended long ago," it said. "I simply had not yet finished waiting."
More particles drifted free.
"Wait... I thought you wouldn’t leave until you–" Vedas started with a worried look.
"But I have."
"Huh... Me?! But you only just–"
"And that’s enough." The Golden Skeleton closed its eyes. "Trust yourself more. I believe you can succeed where others... Besides, you have an interesting partner to help you."
Vedas blinked before glancing at Arthur. "... I really do."
The throne beneath him began cracking. The city itself seemed to tremble, yet everyone didn’t care about it. All of their attention was on the golden skeleton that seemed to be taking their breath away.
The Skeleton’s eyes moved toward Vedas.
Then Gruk.
Then Suri.
Then the Hunters.
Then the beast tamers.
And finally the beasts.
"The kingdom is gone," the Skeleton said. The golden light was dimming by degrees. "But perhaps." Its gaze settled on Vedas one last time. "Its future remains."
Arthur smiled. "I think... he likes you."
Vedas blinked. "...Really?"
Arthur nodded. "He trusted you."
Then it was gone.
There was no sound or collapse, simply the golden light fading away like it was never there in the first place.
The plaza became completely silent.
Then the world began changing.
Athena froze first.
The city began to go next.
The nearest section of road lost its clarity first, its carved edges softening and then going. The stone below it became just stone without the quality that had made it a road. The tower to the left of the gate followed and then the gate itself. The buildings on the plaza’s edge were next. And soon, the entire forgotten kingdom dissolved in silence.
What remained after was a forest with broken stones and walls covered in vines.
Suri stared.
One Hunter dropped to his knees while another simply looked away.
Gruk stood motionless like a man who had finally found proof. Only to watch it disappear moments later.
The silence lasted several long seconds. But then Arthur started walking with a chuckle.
Mithra blinked. "Arthur?"
Arthur looked toward the forest and then smiled. "You know what?"
Everyone looked at him.
"I don’t think he wanted us to remember the kingdom."
Silence.
"I think... He wanted us to understand why it disappeared."
Athena froze.
Arthur pointed deeper into the forest. "So... I guess we should go ask the palace."
Mithra laughed. "I was wondering how long it’d take you."
Arthur grinned. "I’ve been trying to wait."
Everyone follows.
Suri hurried after them, and the hunters followed Suri.
Gruk smiled. "...Looks like our Chief picked the right humans."
Then he followed too.
Comments