Chapter 15

It’s been a couple hours since I arrived at the library, I was still waiting for the other two to get here. I was in my little retreat room trying to find out more information on my uncle. “Room can I please have a cup of hot tea?” I asked aloud. The room created a small table and a chair for me to sit on and gave me a cup of tea. There are no records of Tobias anywhere. Almost as if he never existed in the first place. Then I had an idea. “Room, can you pull memory’s from my grandfather that have Tobias in them and show them to me?” I asked. Every time a member of the royal family dies their memories are recorded into a type of viewing system in case of evidence or anything like that. It took a moment for the room to collect them all but when it was done it showed all the memories the previous king had of his first born.

The memories basically floated in the air and if I pointed to it the room would enlarge it and play it. I started looking through memories and it had only been a couple minutes when Celia and Tiberius walked in, they closed the door and stared at me. “What are you doing?” Tiberius asked. “I finally got a guard to tell me about Tobias and until a couple minutes ago everything I looked through had absolutely no record of him. Then it clicked! Grandfathers memories. So I asked the room to pull all the memories of Tobias grandfather had and that’s when you walked in. Care to watch them with me?” I said. I could see the mischievous grins on their faces, “Absolutely!” They both said.

The first memory was a little too obvious, it was grandma giving birth to him so we found it safe to skip through it until a year later to skip the baby stuff. We started watching the rest of the memories, it was like the guard told me, Tobias was obsessed with our family heritage. And he got into trouble a lot. After about an hour of going through memories, we finally found the one we’ve been looking for! “Your majesties! I’m so sorry to wake you up but we need you both to come with me. The guards are following Tobias and his brother outside. We wanted to inform you while the others perused him.” The guard said. I could tell my grandpa was nodding his head. He woke my grandma and they got dressed as quick as they could and followed the guard out. They ran off the palace grounds and into the forest, they caught up to the other guards and followed them to where the boys went. They walked up to a small clearing no bigger than maybe a few feet in every direction. Tobias had my father’s arm in his hands, “Were you followed?” A man called out. “No it’s just us,” Tobias called back. “Victor this is the friend I told you about, he’s going to make the magic come back to our family.” Tobias finished and the man walked to the fire in the center. “For a small price yes.” He said. I could see my grandfather and the guards positioning themselves around the clearing so they could ambush them. “Tobias, I’m scarred. I don’t want to do this anymore.” My father called. “There’s no turning back now. Everything has already begun child.” The man called back. He turned the fire green and began to chant something. My grandfather gave the signal to start, I saw my grandmother go in the direction of Tobias and my grandfather went for my father. “Victor! Are you hurt?” He said to my father. My father shook his head. When he looked over to the guards they were grabbing the man who was the acclaimed wizard. But he struggled so much they had to kill him. Just then there was a scream and my father looked behind him to see Tobias looking at his mother on the ground, the dagger bloody in his hands. No one saw the dagger but it was clear Tobias meant to kill his brother. “Katia! Katia!” My grandfather cried and tried to shake his wife awake. But she would answer. She was dead from the stabwound to her heart. He grabbed Tobias and fought to get the knife out of his hands, “Tobias what have you done! How could you do this?” My grandfather asked him. “It’s what had to be done to bring back our magic. To bring back the power that we had! You should be grateful!” My uncle was shouting now and trying to fight his father.

The guards were able to subdue him from behind and knocked him out with the hilt of a sword. “Take him to the dungeons and make sure he’s chained” was all he said to them. They nodded and headed back to the palace. My grandpa slowly walked back over to my grandma laying lifeless on the ground by my father. They sat there together holding Katia, and mourning her. When the sun started to rise they finally picked her up and carried her to the palace. They were both heartbroken and in so much pain from Tobias’s betrayal. When they reached the gate to the palace, more guards rushed out to help them. “No, she’s gone. Please take her to the healers house for a proper preparation for a funeral.” You could hear the numbness in his voice, after that the guards took Katia from my grandfather and started walking a different direction. “Victor, I want you to go clean up and try to sleep then come see me.” He said to my father. He nodded and walked away. After that I saw my grandfather walk to his office and call for one of the council members that deals with family affairs.

“Your majesty? You called for me?” The councilor said. My grandfather nodded and motioned for him to sit down. “I have a problem. There’s an act of treason that needs to be attended to.” He said calmly. The councilor looked confused, “I’m sorry sire, but I strictly deal with family affairs. Should I summon the justice councilor for you?” He asked. Grandfather shook his head. And continued, “No, I will speak with him later. I need you because this is a family matter. Tobias, my first born son, killed his mother last night while trying to kill Victor for a wizard. I need to know the options I have to be able to deal with this legally.” The councilor was shocked, and rightfully so. We listened to all the legal ramifications and then listened to justice councilors advice on the matter as well. Everyone agreed it needed to be kept a secret as much as possible. When everything was finally said and done he had made a decision, talked to my father and headed down to the dungeon to see my uncle.

“Tobias.” He said flatly. Tobias looked up and said “I did what I had to do. Can you say the same? Can you say you fought for the birthright of this family? That you did everything you could to bring it back?” My grandfather let no emotion show. “What you did was illegal. Despicable. Treasonous. Normally you would be executed immediately for your crimes. However, you are a high royal. There are rules we have to follow. You are hereby stripped of your title, and status. You are hereby disowned by this family. And you will never set foot in the kingdom again. You are banished forthwith under penalty of death. And I will never see or speak to you again. Your penalty will be served tomorrow morning.” My grandfather finished speaking and left the dungeon with Tobias screaming at his back. The whole council was gathered, when my grandfather walked in they all looked to him. “Victor is my only heir. Tobias’s information will be purged. There will be nothing left to tie him to this kingdom or family.” He turned and started to walk out when they responded “Yes your majesty”.