Laxion Hosarusson
So are the rumours true?As Laxion left the throne room, deep in thought, he did not quite realise that Torinus was not following him as he should have been. The boy had stayed behind, a certain suspicion playing around in his eyes. The king had not been acting normally at all during that last exchange with the Bey. No on had seen it, but Torinus had been watching the king rather closely, and he had spotted the strange actions, that briefest moment when he fell - ever so slightly - back into his seat and appeared to lose consciousness for the shortest second. He was still stood there as the other advisers began to leave, and the seriousness in his eyes quickly faded as he bowed deeply to the king before turning and going after his father.
He caught up with him in the courtyard where they had left their wagons, and the stable-boys informed them that their luggage had already been taken up to their rooms.
'Steve should be up in the kitchen with Cla- uh, makin' sure the cook has everythin'. He'll be down in jiffy to show ye to yer quarters, m'lord adviser sir.'
'Laxion will do, no need for all these formalities,' Laxion chuckled slightly and told Torinus to run up to the kitchen and see that this Steve came down quickly. As the boy entered the kitchen, the sounds of giggling reached him.
'Steve! Not here, not now you dirty litt- ooh!'
'Oh lets 'ave sommadat.'
'Um, Steve?' Torinus' voice perked up as the boy peeked his head round the kitchen door, 'the Lord Adviser Laxion has requested you.'
'Oh! Yes, eh, b'right there, uh, just...just checkin' th- the raspberry pie, ain'at right Clara?' Torinus smiled awkwardly and nodded slowly as he backed away and shut the kitchen door behind him.
'He'll be right down,' Torinus informed Laxion when he got back down, 'he's just tasting the raspberry pie with Clara,' Laxion gave Torinus a funny look and Torinus shrugged bashfully, 'it's...it's some good raspberry pie?'
Rolling his eyes, Laxion turned away and allowed himself to inspect the architecture of the courtyard for a while. It was a rather large courtyard, square in shape and stone tiling. There was a large pathway which led from the courtyard to the castle gates, and several staircases which led up to the ramparts. The courtyard also led into the stable, which had within it a staircase leading to the back entrance of the kitchen, and several other entrances and stairways leading to different parts of the castle complex.
When Steve finally descended, he led them through one such entrance and up a series of staircases, before going down a long hallway and leading them up a spiralling staircase into a large tower overlooking the courtyard. The tower had one large room and two smaller ones. The large room was only accessible through a small doorway from one of the smaller rooms. The smallest room, which Torinus took, had its own entrance, but also had a little door leading into the small room, which Laxion took for his own. The large room had within it many empty shelves and three desks, and Laxion immediately, without evening getting changed or inquiring about the baths, set about placing the many tomes and books he had brought with him on the shelves. Various phials and powders were placed on other shelves, and piles of paper and parchment were put neatly on one of the three desks. Ink pots and quills were likewise neatly placed, ready for usage at the shortest notice, and for some half hour the old man was distracted by a particularly fascinating tract in a tome he had read many years ago discussing the reasons behind Salon's decision to drink the hemlock, written by Merikles, one of Salon's most brilliant students. Many questioned the truthfulness of Merikles' account, and whether much of what he attributed to Salon was indeed Salon's own thought.
He was torn from the work by Torinus.
'Did you notice the king earlier?' he asked as he walked in, crunching on an apple.
'Hmm? The king? Yes, he dealt with that fiasco rather well,' Laxion did not raise his head as Torinus took a seat on one of the wooden chairs.
'I mean, didn't you notice anything odd about the way he was acting?' at this Laxion raised his head and gave the boy a quizzical look.
'Odd? What do you mean?'
'When he was speaking to the Bey, for the slightest moment there, he seemed to lose consciousness. Did you not see?' Laxion looked at the boy gravely before he continued, 'I mean, you've heard the rumours. If that's anything to go by then he might be seriously ill. Don't you think you should check? Maybe you can help him,' Laxion slowly closed the tome and placed it on one of the two empty desks.
'There is but one way to ascertain the truth,' he sat at the writing desk and picked up one of the pieces of paper he had placed there earlier and, lifting the quill from the ink pot, began scrawling quickly on it. It was a short letter, and once he had signed it with his name he blew on it and told Torinus to bring the candle, and the seal which the Little Basileus had handed him before his departure. Once the letter was sealed, he gave it to the boy and told him to go to Rurik and give it to him.
'Wait, Rurik? Are you sure?' the boy seemed uncomfortable with Laxion's choice.
'Why ever would I not be sure? He is best placed to know, is he not?'
'But what makes you think he would tell you even if he did not know?'
'Why would he not tell me the truth? Does he not want my medical experti- ah...' realisation dawned on the old scholar and he sighed.
Politics.
Rurik would not give such critical information to one whose loyalties were potentially with someone else, he would most likely not want Laxion's expertise even if he needed it - what was there to guarantee that he would not use his closeness to the king for some malignant purpose? Had not the late king himself been done in by one of his most trusted advisers after all...
'Torinus, I am not here to play these political games, and you should not either! I understand what you were doing in there now, curse your idiotic attempts at political manoeuvering! You shan't continue with whatever feeble plot you have, and you most certainly shan't drag me into any of it. Cease, boy, and do as I have told you.'
Torinus raised his hands in an attempt to profess his innocence of all that Laxion accused him.
'Off with you, and none of these antics you hear?' the boy nodded meekly and quickly scurried from the room. Laxion watched his departing back with some severity, before sitting back in his seat and thinking on what the boy had said and done. He wanted nothing to do with any of this cursed politics.
He stood up and ran his hand across the spines of some of the books until he came across a slim volume. Nilu Fratacelli's
On Kingship. It was a book cursed by the clergy in Dieuporteille, and the likes of Ser Bastien would probably set the Inquisition upon him if he found it here, but it was tolerated back home. Some scholars condemned it, others differed and praised it, others thought it an evil work, but a necessary work. Why was it so condemned? Why was Fratacelli's name amongst the most cursed, a synonym for all things perfidious and treacherous? It was because he spoke of politics in this work as it was. He did not embellish it, he did not glorify rulers as saints. He spoke of them as the base political animals they were, and he bared to the world their antics and wiles.
Laxion had no wish to enter this political maelstrom, but he would be a cursed fool if he did not tread carefully! He sat back down, and he opened the book.
Frettzo
Vec
Lord Zee
Double Capybara
