Wraithvine visits hir friend, the young king, to see how things are doing, to introduce hir traveling companions, including the very nervous immortal healer dragon, guised as a gnome, and to relax since the winter months were lousy for travel.
https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03534-i246-heavier-than-you-think -- Anon Guest
[AN: Bibrid last appeared in An Unusual Affliction ]
His friends and family called him Dex. The rest of the world knew him as King Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, tenth of the name. As a young Hellkin, new to the crown[1], he had begged Wraithvine for good advice. Now a decade or two had passed, it was time to check on progress.
What the crowns of the area referred to as The Infernal Empire was neither. There was no emperor, merely a council of crowns working under Pax Infernus. A peace forged between nations by the Thrice-Sworn King, Kormwind IX. A peace maintained by the knowledge of how much worse it would be for all of them without it.
The old walls of Whitekeep were maintained out of historical pride more than any need. They were not the gleaming alabaster of poetry, but a dirty greyish-white, since they were quarried from the stone that Whitekeep couldn't export. Dingy diorite and adulterated quartz. Staffed with guards whose duty it was to prevent crime rather than punish it.
Those guards performed their inspections without malice. They had a protocol that they followed for everyone. No exceptions. Even the current king's siblings and niblings endured the same scrutiny. Whitekeep had a long history of justifiable paranoia. It would be a millennium or more before the entire realm began to relax a bit.
Wraithvine first introduced Bibrid to Kormwind IX, who welcomed them with some of his homemade cheese and a hefty tankard of home-brewed cider. He'd taken to retirement like a duck to water, though he was still sensei to anyone willing to learn the Art of Shadows.
"Three stories in the same room," the retired king toasted the other two. "The Thrice-Sworn King, the Eternal Wizard, and the first son of the Silver Dragon." At Bibrid's alarm, he said. "You can relax. We're smarter than to try keeping a dragon captive. Whitekeep has enough trouble without that kind of sin on our souls. I should hope my boy's smarter than that, too. If you wish to stay... you can. Gods know we could use some healers around here."
"You have problems with health in your nation?" worried Bibrid.
"Not my nation any more, I just live in it," dismissed the retired king. "Nein, we always need healers. If we can find ways to prevent problems, all the better. Getting people to accept that..." glowing eyes rolled. "Can you believe people don't want to get cowpox in order to fend off smallpox? Ridiculous."
Wraithvine, helping Kormwind IX's wife with the day's bread, asked, "How goes the democracy?"
"It was a wild five years at first. Petitions and counter-petitions left, right, and centre. People have started to think about things in the long term at last. Though there are attempts from the Kents to try bringing back slavery to a realm that never had it. Pity for them their freed property has the vote as well."
"Narc," Gikka swore, entering the dining chamber in the arms of a living shadow. Once more, her sticky draconic fingers had found something that didn't belong to her.
Kormwind IX sighed. "Are you going to learn or am I going to have to send my Tulpa along to keep you out of trouble?"
Bibrid boggled at the retired king's shadowy duplicate. "The Art of Shadows," he breathed. "That's... terrifying."
"Thank you," said Kormwind IX. "You know... if you need it... we can also keep you safe from those who'd chain you."
Dex made it official, the next day. Drawing up an edict of protection for Bibrid, enforced by the Demon Lord of the Mountain and guarded by Pax Infernus.
Regardless, Bibrid decided to stay in safety before he began touring the kingdom as a healer.
[1] Technically a cunning, decorative device that latched onto his horns. It's known in Whitekeep as the Demon's Diadem.
[Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash]
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Finally, Birbrid found a home he can feel safe at, settle down in, and not be afraid of some {censored} imprisoning him for his power.
Whitekeep does not grow fools :D