The King is no king, he is no lord and he is just a normal man. He is however the kindest and most caring man White has ever met and if one were to ask her, the King is her favourite person in the whole world. Might be why she stares at him as a mother would at a son, as she leans on her cane, listening to him give instructions to one of his soldiers.
In a sense the man is her son, all the years spent walking around the 'old city' and finding him during the Second Purge in a burning and broken home. All the days she spent nursing him to health in the transporter her husband had bought for them. Months teaching him how to speak again and the years till this moment raising and keeping him safe. She smiles watching him pause after a rather long stutter, then continues.
The King stares at her as the soldiers, Enforcers as he would claim, walk away. His eyes call to her, walks to him her hips screaming silently with every limp.
"Mother, the Council arrives in a few. Shall you stay at my side or is your pain too much?" He asks her holding her hand.
She cups his face with the other bending to kiss his forehead then his cheeks. The boy is beautiful and if her husband would have lived to see him, he too would have called him so. He would have written him a song and his voice would be stuck in these walls.
"My boy, tis you who would have me know. I will stay if you wish me to. You are a king my boy and all of us are at your whims," she says.
"I would not be anything without me mother. You are the birth of my legacy and I would like you to stay in the meeting with me,"
She pinches his cheek slightly.
"I do not trust them mother, they are outsiders. They do not understand our purpose and..."
"Hush boy! These people understand that you need to eradicate the disease that is the Three Monarchs Acropolis. It is their wish too and they would offer you their help because you would offer your own,"
She watches him struggle to find words and pinches his cheek once more. He leans his face further into her hand smiling.
"I apologise mother. I know you brought them here to help I only fear they might not have your will,"
"Then you will make them see it and you will force them to abide to it no matter what. You are a king my boy, they are mere men," she says.
She takes her seat next to him just as a guard opens the door for their guests.
***
"Mrs. White, there's been a development!"
The guard stands inside her room, her face riddled with shock and fear. She rises further reaching for her glasses by the bedside, the screams follow from outside.
White follows the guard each limp sending bursts of pain up her whole body. She almost slips as her cane misses its landing but steels herself. The guard does stop for her, going on when White waves her away. The sight she meets is one she would not have dreamed of today no matter how well she knew her boy.
He sits on one of the Council member's chest, the body half-burnt. It's a surprise that the screams are still as loud as the King touches him once more. She should have known he would lose his mind without her control. Now he's ruined her plans and their lives completely.
"What do you think you're doing boy!" She demands.
The boy looks up in fear at her and stands from the body, the screams faded completely. He looks around at the remaining Council members who either cower or glare at him and her.
"Mo-mother, I-I-I must apologise for my behaviour. I-I-I seem to have lost control when this piece of trash called you a pawn in their President's game," he says.
She closes the gap between them, the boy bracing himself for her hand, but she instead holds his shoulder. She stares him in the eye looking for any sort of fear and finds none but for her. She turns to look at all the persons in the room, her own guards, the King's and the Council and their guards.
"You will apologise to these folk Achia Kun. They are the reason we are where we are,"
The boy pleads with his eyes but hers remain firm. Before he speaks, one of the Council Members, a tall and lean man in a very unique black suit that seems too big for his frame, steps forward a sword in his hand. It appears a normal sword to her.
"Listen to your whore mother boy! Apologise now or risk our retribution!" His fellows seem emboldened by this move save for two, a woman still surprisingly seated and a very young manin long white robes. "King?" He spits.
"The power we hold is not for trivial men who hold old titles and have no respect!"
White drops her hand focusing on the lean fool.
"Council man, there is no need for violence. I am sure my son does not understand your position and I will teach him that after he apologises," she says to him her eyes on the approaching Council members and their soldiers.
"No, you should have taught him so long ago whore! He disrespects us because of your failures as a mother. I should punish you in his stead,"
With that the fool lunges at her nearly grazing her thigh as she evades the blow. She lifts her cane just in time to block another blow, lifts her hand to touch him when he opens his mouth in the loudest scream she's ever heard. She watches as his face boils, the skin melting and falling from his skull. When he falls Achia stands before her anger in his eyes.
"Forgive me mother for bringing violence to your house at a time like this," he says.
"I will offer you my forgiveness my boy, if you show these fools why you are king,"
She leans on her cane watching the King move at the speed of a sound gun blast, bodies falling either into ash or half-charred things, screams filling the room. When he is done, only the two Council members, the robed boy and the woman remain. White notices that none of them show any fear or shock on their faces. Achia's power must have been known to them by the tales spread around.
The boy now kneels at her feet, his head down. She bends a bit caressing his head.
"Stand my boy, all is forgiven."
He stands embracing her, almost crushing her ribs. She knows he hurts for ruining her plans, she feels it in the way he breathes on her neck.
"I say, the rumours stand true don't you agree Eli?"
The woman now stands her hands clasped. The robed boy called Eli smiles from where he stands though his eyes betray him with the fear.
"Finally I have seen the power of the King and I must say, he will be pleased as I am to see that you Mr. Achia are a force to be reckoned with," she says.
"Siari, we should let him know that his nephew is dead." Eli says.
Siari turns to him then back to the remains of the lean fool a few paces from White. She laughs, the girl, at the remains and turns once more to Eli.
"I'm sure he won't be bothered if it was by such power Eli," she says.
Achia crosses the distance grabbing her by the neck.
"Tell me why you shouldn't suffer the same fate as they woman,"
Her eyes flash with fear for a second then her resolve returns. White looks at Eli who doesn't for once seem fazed by the happenings as if waiting for his turn.
"Because, I believe now. I believe now that I have seen what you can do and I have never seen such a display as I have. I believe now that you are a king. I believe now that you are the King they speak of,"
The King looks at Eli who stares back his eyes empty of any emotion.
"Do you believe boy?" The King asks.
Eli shifts his gaze to White. He looks back at the King and nods.
"The kneel before the King,"