The young, inexperienced, king made some serious mistakes and now his lands are in chaos. He begs for his people to send for Wraithvine and friends, so he can get advice on fixing the mess. His worst problems? He's young, inexperienced, and his advisors are not exactly always honest with him. -- Anon Guest
A child king is loved by his advisors. Mostly because those advisors can shape him, direct him, and coddle him from the truth. You almost never find a regent who tells their royal charge to beware a power-hungry flatterer. Nor one who gives advice on how to spot such venal creatures in their court.
An heir to any given throne may take their seat as young as twelve, but most have regents until they come of age at twenty. Takakura Navaro had taken rank, crown, and throne at twelve, though he had technically been king since the age of seven.
Of such circumstances, rotten realms are made.
Fortunately for the kingdom of Navarrus, the king's Whipping Boy[1] had a large family and the evil viseer was chronically short-sighted in more ways than merely visual. Thus, they showed the young Takakura the unsightly truth.
He was obligated to take power as soon as he could, and thereby send the viseer and anyone who spoke like him to the dungeons. Takakura's second act as true king was to send for the one soul that could improve everything.
Wraithvine.
It might have made a better first impression if the guards hadn't been overzealous and dragged Wraithvine there in chains.
His majesty was appalled.
"Keys! Now!" Takakura hurried to unlock the bindings. "I'm so sorry, sir. I hadn't the time to sift through my soldiers for the nicer sort. I told them to fetch you and didn't specify nicely."
Wraithvine shook hirself off and patted parts of hir body back into life. "I rather gained the impression this was urgent. Where are your parents?"
"They died just before my seventh birthday. Brigands on a route they took to avoid... neighbour trouble." The kind of neighbours who would send assassins in the night if the trouble got too intense, or declared war if it got tremendously bad. "A route recommended by the ex-viseer, come to think of it."
"Ah," said Wraithvine. "One of those."
"Yessir. I'm sorry, sir. I'd appoint you in his place, but -uhm- I know you prefer to wander. I just... need some help to get it right."
"Ex-viseer?" said Wraithvine.
"As soon as I could, I locked him in my dungeons," said Takakura. "And anyone like him, too."
"An excellent first step," allowed Wraithvine. "Let's continue that house-cleaning."
[1] The Divine Right of Kings holds that Nobility got where it was through the blessings of the gods, and therefore a young prince or king should not be punished for misdeeds. Thus, a less noble child is raised with his young highness and punished in his place. Some future tyrants delight in this loophole.
[Photo by Sarah Penney on Unsplash]
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