The goal of the High King

How many days had passed, Hikary could no longer tell. Hidden in this dungeon beneath the castle of the High King, there was no indication of time. Only a candle lit their small cell, which held nothing to keep them comfortable; the few blankets they had received were filthy and chewed on by mice. They had received no visitors; no explanation and no friendly faces. They received food twice a day which was surprisingly enough of high quality; Hikary thought this was most likely because the High King did not allow bad food in his castle and well, if you can handle prana this well surely your crops flourish.

Of course, they had not heard anything from Stelline either. What had happened to her sister Hikary could only guess. Was she safe? Was he treating her well? If only they could get out of here… but it was of no use. The guards that brought them food were always with at least three and they had made it very clear there was no chance they could overcome them. The walls were thick and strong and they were underground anyway; there was no way they could get out except through the door; and it was locked in more than one way.

No one had said anything for hours now; everything had already been said and discussed at least twice. Hikary did not even know whether Yuuro and Taira were awake or not. There was nothing to do and nothing to talk about. No way to help anyone, and no way to gain anything. How could they have been so stupid? What would happen to them? Would the High King simply keep them here, locked away underneath the earth he controlled so well?

Ruki watched the sun go down through the tiny window in the closet in the castle’s nursery. As the castle stood on top of the hill and she was on the first floor, she had a magnificent view over the city. She had never known it was this big… it was truly a gorgeous sight. Houses and streets everywhere, covered in the soft purple glow of the prana. She could see the special sites like the opera building, the museum and the park, but also the house where the Bond was living.

When the sun was down, Ruki would come out of her hiding place. Not that everyone would be off to bed yet, of course not, but there would be less servants and no more visitors. Plus, darkness would cover her. She had slept a few hours during the day, and her body was quite uncomfortable now as there was of course no bed in this closet. The remaining hours, she had plotted her investigation. She was sure she would not find any information just lying around, so she had to sneak into Shanjahen’s office. That would be her first goal. If she was unable to find anything there, she would continue to search the castle.

When the sun had gone down and the last traces of daylight had disappeared, Ruki slowly opened the door of the closet. Of course, the nursery was completely abandoned still, and somehow Ruki felt the cribs and toys stared at her, waiting for her to pick them up and use them to relieve them from their forgotten existence. She ignored them and walked to the door, listening whether someone was on the other side or not.

It seemed completely quiet, so Ruki opened the door. There was no one in the hallway, and she didn’t hear any sound coming from the other rooms either. This truly was a deserted hallway… Ruki closed the door and left the hallway, making sure she made as little sound as possible. She slipped through the hallways, carefully making sure there was no one around. She was surprised at the small amount of ponies in this part of the castle. Was this castle too big for this family?
Of course, it wasn’t just used as a living space for the royal family, but also as a place where parties were held, political matters were discussed, and where there should be enough place to receive all royal families of the entire west. Of course on normal days large parts of the castle were disserted, and Ruki was not aware of any special occasion. Well, it worked only to her advantage.

Ruki slipped down a staircase which led her to another dark hallway. Different from the ones upstairs, this one did not smell like dust. It seemed like the rooms here were still in use, at least during the day. She sneaked into a room which didn’t have its door locked and realized it was indeed a working room, though a small one. In the moonlight, she saw lots of books lined up against the wall and the desk, which filled half the room, was full with papers and books. She examined the papers, but they did not contain anything interesting for her; only tax reports.

She left the room and went to examine all the other rooms in the hallway, but she did not find anything of interest in any of them. She realized these were not random tax reports and other government papers but often requests from the several countries to look at certain cases. She even found an office for criminal records. All very interesting, but nothing of value to her.

For hours, Ruki searched on, careful not to get noticed. She had to hide from servants a few times, but she was careful enough so she did not get caught. She went to several departments of the castle, but none of them even had a small clue of what the High King was up to. Of course the castle was big and she could not cover everything in one night, but she already was beginning to get desperate. What if there was no proof of anything?

Lost in her thoughts, Ruki suddenly noticed a large door with a pony standing guard in front of it. The pony, dressed in the clothes of the royal guard, was clearly there to guard the door. He didn’t move or do anything else. If she would not be protected by Takato’s spell he would have noticed her already. The royal guard were selected for their ability to wield prana, but Ruki knew this was also their weakness; they were so depending on prana they did not use their other senses. She could see the guard clearly, standing a few meters away from him covered in darkness, but he did not see her at all. Still, she did not risk anything and backed off slowly.

She had done this right in time, because from the other side another pony was approaching.
“Good evening.” The guard greeted the new pony and slightly bowed.
“Good evening my man. I’m here to inspect the prisoner.”
“Of course, sir.” The guard said, and opened the door.
“Please note the stairs to the basement have not been fixed yet, so be careful on your way down.”
“Thank you.” The man said, and he entered the door. Ruki could hear his hoofsteps fade away.

So… there were prisoners in this castle. An odd thing, considering the prison of this country was located just outside the city, and there were also some smaller ones at the police station. Why would the High King possibly keep prisoners inside his own castle? Surely it was something he did not want everyone to know about. I need to get into the cellar too. Ruki decided.

Obviously, the entrance over there would not do as it was heavily guarded, but there had to be another way in. Takato had told her how he had gotten lost in the maze below the castle once as a child. It was a complex system of hallways and rooms, but it was all connected. Obviously the doors were guarded with prana, but that would not stop her. She slipped out of the hallway she was in and began to look for more doors that could lead to the cellar.

It took her an hour, but she finally found one in a deserted hallway with offices that were no longer used. She could see it was heavily locked with prana, but there was also a normal, ordinary lock on it. Of course, she was prepared for this and brought out her tools that she had used on so many missions before.

The lock opened quickly. It wasn’t a tight lock, probably there for show as they depended on the prana too heavily. Ruki stepped in and closed the door behind her, leaving her in total darkness. Slowly she descended the stairs, careful so that she would not fall, and made her way through the following hallway by touching and hearing. The only light she saw was that of the prana of the doors on both her sides.

After a while, the hallway ended and she had no choice but to open up another door in the wall in front of her. The light from the torches on the other side almost blinded her. Scared that someone might be there she closed the door again, but after a while she decided to peek in, and she saw no one. The hallway was not lit very well, only two torches on each side, but it was enough to see clearly that there was no one there. She waited to listen for a bit, but she didn’t hear anything either, so Ruki entered the hallway and closed the door behind her.

She slipped through, and noticed the doors here had little windows with bars in front of them, enabling her to peek inside. She didn’t see anything behind most of them, but when she reached the last door, she saw light coming out of the window. She looked through the window, and gasped.

In the room, she saw a white pony with silver mane and tail, her body covered in silver swirls and dots. She had never seen this before, but what startled her most was the fact that this pony was in chains, and that she was bleeding on her head. She couldn’t see it clearly because of the pony’s hair that was covering it, but she could see the blood on the floor. What on earth was Shanjahen doing?

Ruki quickly opened the door and entered, after making sure there were no guards around. “Hey… can you hear me?” she asked softly, sitting down next to the pony. She put the pony’s silver hair aside to see the wound on her head, and Ruki gasped. The pony was a unicorn. So Shanjahen had found one… upon closer inspection however, Ruki saw there was a cut in the pony’s horn, and that was where the blood had been coming from. The wound seemed open still, but Ruki did not have anything with her to stop the bleeding.

“Who… are you?” The unicorn muttered, the first sign that she showed any sign of consciousness. She didn’t even open her eyes.
“My name is of no importance. I’m here to help you. What did the High King do to you?” Ruki said, trying to comfort the pony.
“The High King… my friends… murder…” The unicorn muttered, but it made no sense to Ruki.
“Has the High King murdered your friends?” She asked.

“No… Came here with family… looking for stones… the High King offered… to help if I helped him with… research…my friends captured… will be murdered soon… please… save them…” The unicorn whispered, unable to speak properly. Ruki saw the pony was exhausted and in pain. Who could do something so cruel?

“I… I’ll go look for your friends. I promise, I will rescue them. But I need to get you out of here as well.”
“No… The High King will not let me die… he still needs me… save my family first…”
“Yes. Okay. I will do that. I will find your family and save them, and then we will get you out of here as soon as possible.” Ruki assured the pony. It would be the most sensible thing to do anyway, considering the state the pony was in… there was no way she’d be able to get her out unnoticed.

“Thank you…” The pony whispered. Ruki got up, but the unicorn stopped her.
“Could you please… pass a message on to my friends?” she asked.
“Yes. Of course. What is it?”
“Tell them… Shanjahen wants to do… what we want to do. Tell them… he must be stopped… because he wants to… break one of the guardian stones… to force out the guardian… and enslave her to do his bidding.”

“What?” Ruki didn’t understand half the message, but she did realize that this pony knew exactly what she was here for.
“Please… pass it on to them. If we don’t stop him… we will not be able to stop the fading of the stars.”
 “Yes. I will. Please, do not worry and hold on. I will be back for you as soon as possible.” Ruki assured the pony.
 She left the room and went back to the dark corridor. Yes, she would free the unicorn’s family, but first, she had to inform Takato.