Knife in the Dark

Friendship

I was escorted down in my ferrari to the gates, where I was allowed to pass through the gates and into the grassland beyond. Rapier stood there, sizing up the guards, which I would be lying if I told anyone I did not find it amusing, seeing such a short person size up a giant, even if the short person was going to win hands down. When Rapier noticed me there, he turned his attention away from Sam and walked towards me, getting within two metres before being stopped. He looked like he hadn't slept in days and was ready to kill me.

"The great King Astor, how lovely to see you again." Rapier's eyes didn't leave me, which made me want to laugh at the tough guy act. "My name is King Xana, and if you so much as say one thing during this story, I will kill you. After you left everything returned to normal. We all made our plans on how we were going to take back our kingdoms, then we split up, going our separate ways to deal with our own problems, while you didn't even notice. I took over the feeble man in a game of cards, where he bet away his kingdom to me. Voulge singlehandedly took down an army and slew the ruler of Warren. Guisarme simply assassinated her enemy, while Loch poisoned his. Katana beat his opponent in a one on one duel, Sling didn't even need to attack anyone, they died just before she arrived, and Raven simply won a debate and took the title off her's." I could tell he was annoyed, to the point where I was worried for my people's health and safety. "But Glaive has a problem, he is required to beat the usurper in a battle of wits, the same scenario as ever, one goblet is poisoned, the other one isn't. He needs your help to destroy the king before he has to drink from the goblet."

I started stalking him. "Why should I help any of you? You all left me and threw me out, I don't expect you to care, but know this, I am not taking my country to war over a petty problem that I no longer need to be a part of, go tell Glaive that if he wanted my help, he should have at least given me something that I could use as a bargain for this. While I know how to beat him, I will not tell you, King Xana, for the fact that you were just as much part of this as Glaive was. If you wanted my help, you should have thought about it before you kicked me out, before you all disowned me, before I was left to my own devices. You should have thought about that before you began treating me like dirt." My anger flared, which was the first time my men had seen me like this, and they were definitely scared of it. Rapier had a start, but quickly recovered from the attack to save himself from running, which was just as likely to happen.

"If I gave you the power to have your revenge on each of us in turn, would you help us?" He was desperate, it was obvious, he needed this more than anything.

"No Rapier, I will do this for you, don't expect me to do any more favours for any of you until I have written apologies from everyone, but I will help you, because that is supposedly what friends are for, so I don't know what to call you. I will find a way to make sure you make it up to me, one way or another, you will, and I will most definitely be there ready for it when it does happen." I loved my ways of asserting power, I now held all the cards, not Rapier, not Glaive, not anyone, me. I was going to make sure that no matter how much they tried to be kind and polite, that in no way were they going to be getting one up on me. I silently laughed to myself at how well it was going to work, that Rapier was at a lost end, if he tried to push something onto me, I would simply reject it, and I was too valuable to him at the moment for him to do that to me.

"Yes, yes I will do anything Knife, anything, I just need your help, we must march on that kingdom now! Or else we won't be able to beat him in time." Rapier was on the point of insanity, his eyes darted this way and that between the sky and myself, as if expecting something to attack us out of the sky, something big and large and powerful.

"Rapier, if you want me help, we do things my way. We will have no army, otherwise Glaive will look weak and appear to need the help of enemies to get him into power, no, we must be powerful and strong, but we can not fight Glaive's battles for him, it is just not the correct etiquette." I loved toying with Rapier, he was so funny when he got annoyed. His voice would become vibrato, and his entire body began to shake, like he was going to explode at a moment's notice.