• tab The King descended down the worn stone stairs into the dungeons, the soft swish of his robes and the tap his footsteps his only companions in the gloom. Torches flickered in iron brackets fastened to the walls, chasing away the otherwise encroaching dark of the underground. The air smelt musty, despite the lack of moisture that would provide fungus and moss breeding grounds. Upon reaching the lowest step, he turned right at the stretching passage, moving past closed wooden doors.
    tab He had never truly understood why the castle would need a dungeon in the first place. There was no ill in the lands, no criminals to be put away. All of that existed in the realm connected to the one the kingdom inhabited, a place influenced by it yet influencing itself. Strife and hardship abounded, but the two were necessary in the fledgling dimension. Only in time would survival give way to greed.
    tab However, for the first time, a holding cell was not bare. The King paused outside of it, his fingers rubbing the cold, hard key in thought. His dark eyes gazed into the cell through the small barred window. The torchlight behind him revealed little in the small room save for one dark corner that it could not penetrate.
    tab Fear entered his mind, and doubt. He knew within his heart that would he was about to do both felt wrong and had to happen. Events had already been set in motion and the words of the spell had largely been spoken. Only a few things remained to be done and then he would speak the final phrase, for better or for worse.
    tab The others, those he loved as brothers and sisters, would not understand, nor would they be willing to. They had passed judgement and overruled his own. They did not believe him, nor his visions. A betrayal had hardened their hearts and ensured that what had not been forgiven would be turned against them. The harmony they sought would come in another way.
    tab Yet still...this was treason.
    tab The King inserted the key and the door swung open at the brush of his fingertips. He stepped into the cool cell, the clink of chains emanating from the corner as the wearer shifted. Red eyes stared out at him from the darkness, their pupils shrinking as the King slid the torch he held into a bracket.
    tab The man reclining against the wall was garbed in black, just as he had been for the past uncounted millennia. He pushed his dark hair out of his face and tried to manage the smirk that accustomed his face, but it faltered ever so slightly.
    tab "You didn't expect me." The King stated. The man, his dark brother, glanced away.
    tab "I'm quite alright with facing my future in this place if it means I never see any of your faces again." He replied after a long moment had passed in silence.
    tab "Would that I could take your place." The King said back remorsefully, a smile crossing his own features. His dark brother cocked his head to the side, curious at the underlying tones in the voice. The King clasped his hands before him, clutching the key against his body.
    tab The dark brother tried to smirk again, even chuckling half-heartedly, and gestured at the complex that sat above the dungeons, the chains attached to the wall rattling. "I heard that our dear family would not let me see light of day again, yet you pushed for my freedom. They wonder at that. And now you stand before me, forgoing their distrust."
    tab "And now I stand before you." The King repeated, taking a small measure of satisfaction in the unease that visibly washed over his brother.
    tab "I would know why."
    tab This time, it was the King that took a while before responding. "We are in the same boat now, brother." He muttered. "Traitors, you and I."
    tab "I can hardly call it 'the same boat' if you merely visit the damned." His dark brother said. He crossed his legs beneath him, trying to sit more comfortably on the bundle of blankets and pillows that served as his bed. "Although, it is a start, for an advocate of the righteous such as you." The last part came out as half-growl.
    tab The King shook his head. "You are wrong. Harmony is what I defend. Balance among the powers." He unclasped his hands and toyed absently with a lock of sorrel hair. "You were ever the balance where it concerned our brethren after I resigned my post to reign."
    tab The dark man raised an eyebrow. "This peace still holds. And, with my imprisonment, it seems it will last indefinitely."
    tab "A wonderful concept, yes." The King mused. "Would it not be better for the world, for all, to live under that banner? An escape from calamity and misery. Selflessness in favor of selfishness." He sighed and looked back at the hall outside of the cell sadly, as if there was still time to retrace his steps and make it so. "But...that would be wrong."
    tab "Wrong?" The dark brother laughed condescendingly. "You second-guess yourself!""
    tab "I do not." The King looked back at the man, halting the deep laughter with a calm statement. "An ideal peace is just that. Ideal. It is something to strive for and to be savored. To be given peace would be an empty existence. There would be no suffering in the balance."
    tab "So you call yourself a traitor because you think this?" His dark brother said, misunderstanding.
    tab "Yes, and no. I am here to free you."
    tab There was silence once again. His dark brother stared at him dumbfoundedly.
    tab "I..." He began, then rethought his words. "I serve that which seeks destruction."
    tab "Our sister serves creation, and the rest of our family preserve the fundamental aspects." The King added.
    tab "And you would free me?" He finished in pure disbelief, half-hoping it was true. When the King didn't say anything, he started to laugh. It was a mad sound, full of malice and promising discontent, yet sane. It carried on for ages, unceasing, and echoed in the lonely place. Once again, the King wondered if it was too late to turn back.
    tab Eventually, it died down, his dark brother, wiping away tears of mirth with his sleeve. The King waved a hand and the cuffs snapped open. The ring of metal striking stone rang almost as loud as the laughter.
    tab "You are a fool." His dark brother growled happily as he shifted slowly from his crouch, grinning with pointed teeth. His nails darkened and elongated, sharpening as they hardened.
    tab "Perhaps." The King replied as the torch in the cell and the ones lining the length of the hall died out at once. He closed his eyes against the glowing red gaze of his dark brother and readied himself for the inevitable blow.

    ~<o>~


    tab The King woke sometime later, cheek pressed against the cold stone floor from where his body had lain crumpled upon hitting it. He groaned as a wave of pain from the right side of his face made his head swim and he pushed himself stubbornly to his feet. The torch flickered to life when he steadied himself against the wall. He gingerly touched his cheek, wincing at the gash that had been torn into it, and opened his closed eyes. Or rather, his left eye. His right, he found out painfully with his fingers, was gone, as was his right ear. If he had ever been vain, the realization that he was disfigured would have him avoiding mirrors for the rest of his life and wearing a mask.
    tab He stumbled out of the cell, one foot slipping on the small pool of blood in the doorway, and supporting himself as he moved down the hall. More torches flickered to life, lighting the way. It took a long time at the slow pace to reach the staircase, and even longer to climb the ascending flights. No guards stood on duty when he pushed the door open, still clutching the key to his dark brother's cell in one hand. Nor was there anyone in the halls to his private rooms. Every step was agony, every heartbeat pulse throbbing in his face and threatening to send him into the cool release of unconsciousness.
    tab Halfway there, a serving girl spotted his bloody progress. He waved off her questions, stating that they would be answered soon if they had not been already, and bade her to help him. Confusion, concern, and suspicion floated in her eyes, but she did as he asked. He sank deeply into the chair that looked out of the window in his room and closed his eye again, hearing her rush off and shut the door behind. Some time later, he heard her return, and stirred out of his stupor long enough to drink from the cup she handed him.
    tab As he felt the cold sting of water pour over his face and the girl fussing about the condition he was in, the King drifted off into slumber.
    tab The same vision appeared in his blurry dreams. It was unchanged, a relief to him, for that meant he had done the right thing after all. The faces of the innocent and the corrupt moved about in their crowds as his brothers and sisters fought relentlessly against his dark brother and those who opposed them; unseen, unheard, and unthanked. Yet it was right. Good and evil existed to balance one another. Imprisoning one to let the other thrive was somehow worse than if evil were to triumph over good.
    tab A silent battle to most, but in his dreams they were as loud as could be.
    tab Dawn had already arrived by the time the King woke, although he was not sure if it was the dawn of the next day or one farther along. He raised a hand to his face and felt the stiffness of bandages and gauze wrapping about his head. He did not dare to remove them, and pulled the small mirror from its hanging on the wall down without glancing over at it to see his reflection.
    tab Food had been laid by, presumably by the serving girl who was not present, and the King ate every bite listening to the morning calls of the birds. When he was finished, he took the crumpled papers that littered his writing desk and the waste bin beside it and burned them in the hearth. No written words would justify his actions to his family, nor would they provide clarity. Not when they would not even remember him.
    tab After that, he stripped and donned plain clothes and a brown cloak, pulling the hood up and over his head. Only then did he look in the mirror. Lines crossed his noble face, crow's feet from laughter and ones from tiredness. His remaining dark eye glittered with a serene sadness and the gauze covering his lost one looked odd to him. His long, sorrel brown hair was streaked with black and white, the darker tone predominant. He was not old, nor was he young; timeless, in some senses of the word.
    tab The King replaced the mirror back on the wall and looked one last time at his room before he closed the door and locked it.
    tab The halls were spotted with serving girls and boys, maids and grooms, and each one whispered quietly to themselves as he passed. The King didn't mind, waving a few times at pairs of guards on patrol. He wasn't waylaid, even when he stopped at the end of another hall and waited patiently for all of its inhabitants to filter out. He strode down the emptiness and stopped outside of one of the doors, raising a hand and knocking.
    tab The door opened a fraction, and then shut. The King sighed in sadness at the reception.
    tab "We must talk." He said, although he knew it was a useless effort.
    tab "There is nothing to talk about." Came the muffled reply from his red brother behind the door. "You ignored us and now everyone shall suffer for it."
    tab "I know what I did." The King replied. "But this is far more important than you realize." There was no response this time. "Brother, please, you must listen to me. Had I not done this, there would be nothing to truly protect. I beg your forgiveness at my fault, but it was necessary. The balance of creation was in jeopardy and would have been void. My visions told me true. Had I not heeded them..."
    tab "You are wrong. Your visions are tricks." Anger entered his brother's normally calm voice. "A veil was put over your eyes and like a blind man, you followed whichever's hand was extended to you first, both to your folly and the dooming of the world."
    tab The King looked at his hands quietly, as if he could still see the red of his blood coating them. "All I have done, I have done in the best interest of you and my subjects. Is there nothing that I can say to you that would have you listen to my words?"
    tab "No." The answer was definite, final.
    tab "Then..." The King faltered, at a loss. "I must hope that all of you come to understand, in time, while I am gone. Until you learn what I have and remember me." He stared at the wood of the door. "Farewell, my brother."
    tab Under his breath, he sang the final verses of the spell, his heart growing heavier with each note and each word that passed his lips. He steeled himself against the tears that threatened to come to his eye and when it was finished, an overwhelming feeling of loneliness came over him. After a while, he raised a hand and knocked again.
    tab The door opened and there stood his red brother, his flowing mane of hair crimson and bright against his dark clothing. He was unsmiling but the light in his eyes was stern and kind.
    tab "Greetings, high master," The King said, bowing at the waist. "It is an honor to see you in person."
    tab "I do not know you." The man said, looking him over and noting the recent injury.
    tab "Forgive me," The King bowed politely again. "I do not mean to bother you, but I find myself lost in these halls. I had business with one who lives here and was told to give you this." He handed the key over to the man. "But now I find myself lost and cannot find my way out." He chuckled helplessly.
    tab The man inspected the key, stared at it hard for a moment as if it was a mystery that had been presented to him, and then shrugged as he tucked it away i a pocket. "No matter," He smiled and stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him. "I can show you the way out to the grounds." The King fell in step behind his red brother. The servants of guards in the halls gave the pair a cursory look, if only to wonder who the brown-cloaked and wounded man was.
    tab As they passed one of the inner gardens of the castle, the sun beaming down from the open roof, the King glanced over. Inside sat his other brother and sisters. His blue brother lounged in the grass while his green and white sister chatted; the former were in traveling gear while the latter brushed leaves from her white dress. His red brother made no comment, traversing the castle in silence until they exited into the courtyard and then stood before the entrance. The doors were shut and guarded.
    tab "We had problem with security," His red brother explained. "Our traitorous brother somehow managed to escape even after we judged him fairly. The search is headed by another of my siblings."
    tab "I see." The King nodded, walking forward. At his red brother's call, he turned back. Emotions flitted over his countenance as he struggled with something that was unable to come to him.
    tab "Farewell, stranger." The man said at last with a wave. "Be wary, as well. Dark times come upon us."
    tab The King nodded again and walked away, never glancing back at the pristine walls of the castle.

    ~<o>~


    tab He followed the road for hours, his eye squinting under the glare of the sun. How far he went he intentionally didn't take note of. Eventually, he saw a dark spot on the side of the road. It was his dark brother, he realized as he neared, staring back the way that he'd come almost forlornly. They shared a look, one of strangers meeting on the road for even this sibling's memory had been wiped, and they shared the road for many miles in silence.
    tab The King said farewell to his dark brother, who sneered at him despite willingly having him as a traveling companion, and he stepped off of the road into the stretching forest. He walked and walked, his legs never tiring yet it was his mind that grew tired. Sleepy, he thought disjointedly, but he moved doggedly on. Animals large and small watched the strange man push on through the morning, the afternoon, and the beginning of the evening.
    tab A song came into his head and he began to hum it, and then sing it. It was sad and happy at the same time, mourning the past and celebrating the future. It kept him company, strangely enough, and made his journey a little more pleasant than the silent trek.
    tab Just as suddenly as he'd entered them, the trees ended and he found himself in a golden field that disappeared into the horizon, perhaps almost as large as the forest. A large tree stood in the middle of the first, reaching its leafy branches high into the blue sky. The King headed towards it, determined to pass it and reach is intended destination. But as he entered its shade, the weariness upon him doubled and he all but fell against its trunk. He blinked owlishly and lowered his hood, his arm falling back to his side soon after.
    tab It wasn't his destination, but it would serve. His eye drifted closed against the golden grass and his breathing slowed, the tune he sang interrupted by widening yawns. And then, beneath the tree, the Forgotten King became the Dreaming King, hidden from all else until the time arrived that he would wake.