13.

It's good to be King...?

As the group entered the castle, they were greeted by silence; no guards were to be seen and the building looked like it was deserted. They quickly carried Kain into one of the guestrooms.

"The castle is much too empty for my taste..." Cecil murmured, torn between worry for his people and his friend Kain, who laid on the bed, his breathing shallow.

"Then you should check things out..." Rosa said, while she searched in a cupboard for some clothes to bandage Kain's wound. "Dawn, you possess some knowledge about the art of healing as well, right? Would you help me?"

"Certainly." The silver haired woman answered without hesitation. "We need some water." As she wanted to leave the room, she caught sight of Ms. Farrel who was leaning upon the doorframe, a look of utter confusion in her eyes. "Ms. Farrel, why don't you take a seat? You're looking exhausted." She shoved the woman gently, but resolutely, toa chair.

"I want to help as well..." Diane sobbed, sitting on a chair besides the bed and stroking Kain's hair.

"But you are already helping me..." Kain murmured and gathered all his strength to reach for Diane's hand. "You're here with me..."

Cecil gave Kain a worried look before he motioned Yang and Golbez to follow him. "We better look for Cid..."

The castle corridors were deserted as well. However, as the three men approached the throne room, sounds of a loud argument were audible -- one of the voices unmistakably being Cid's.

"What's going on there?" Cecil motioned Golbez and Yang to stay behind. Quickening his steps, he pushed open the double doors to the throne room, rather upset.

Cid was standing in the middle of the room, arguing loudly, his face flushed with anger. He was surrounded not only by some citizens of town, but also by several guards and maids of Baron Castle. As the King of Baron entered the room, the argument stopped and everyone looked at him, surprised.

"What is the meaning of this uproar?" Cecil demanded, his tone rather loud and commanding, and unlike the way he normally spoke to his people.

"Cecil!" Cid's voice was a mixture of worry and relief. "These people here insisted onspeaking with you and the guards just let them through!"

The townspeople looked upon their kingwith a rather sullen expression, although no one dared to speak.

Cecil's scowl shot to one of the guards: "Why aren't you on your post?"

"Oh...your Majesty... The request of the people sounded urgent and we couldn't possibly leave them standing in the cold! We thought that this would be in your interest as well..." The guard said sheepishly, the unusual rough tone of his ruler unnerving him. "We thought that the castle would be safe even if--" The man finally got aware of the slightly disarranged attire of his Liege. "Are you well, Your Highness? You look like you just had a battle..." The guard seemed to slump down inwardly, as he probably knew to what this discussion would lead to.

"Your observation is right..." Cecil's voice was still sharp. "In fact we just had a battle in the castle courtyard you were supposed to guard! Kain Highwind got hurt quite badly..."

A murmur went through the guards and some bowed their heads, ashamed.

"What? Kain is hurt?" Despite his dislike towards the Dragoon, Cid looked worried.

"He'll survive... Rosa is taking care of him right now," Cecil informed him as calm as he could. His expression became upset once more, as he focused his attention back on the guards.

"You still have not answered my question!" Although the Paladin doubted that the guards would have been able to stop Morrison, it worried him that they had just neglected his order. "In these dangerous times, carelessness could mean our doom..." "Didn't I give the give the order to let no one into the castle why we were away?" He motioned towards the townspeople.

A young officer of the watch cleared his throat. "Your Majesty -- please listen to what the people have to say... Perhaps then you will understand why we let them through..."

"Is that so?" Cecil frowned, but as he saw the pleading look on the faces of his people, his expression softened. "It is my duty as King to listen to the worries of my people..." Also, as he had not spent much time in Baron lately, the last public audience lay back quite some time, as well...

"Very well," he said, his voice more gentle now. "What matter is so urgent that you had to enter the castle in such a way?"

Having the chance to bring their wishes forward, the townspeople exchanged triumphant glances and started to whisper with each other. Finally, a middle aged woman stepped forward and curtseyed. "We did not mean to cause you any problems or act disrespectfully, Your Highness -- we just wanted to warn you. We have the feeling that you do not know of the great danger in your midst..."

Cecil knew at once what the discussion was leading to. "It seems that Golbez's warnings and doubts were justified after all..." Still, he tried to maintain countenance. "And this great danger would be?"

"This black-haired stranger that's living in the castle for some time now. We know that he has evil intentions!"

Cecil tried to appear as calm as possible. "I can assure you that you don't have to worry about him. I'll explain about--"

"You don't have to explain about him!" A man interrupted him, loudly, no longer caring that he was in the presence of a King. "We know that he is Golbez!" His outburst was followed by an upheaval under the other townspeople, guards and castle servants, and everyone starting to talk at the same time.

Just in that moment Yang, followed by Golbez, entered the room. "Cecil, is everything alright? The argument seems to have gotten louder..."

As the people spotted Golbez, an even louder commotion broke out. "There he is!" At once some of Baron's citizens were rushing at him, two guards in tow, who pointed their lances at the throat of the black-haired man. Golbez froze in movement and held up his hand in surrender, grinning quizzically. "Seems that I wasthe reason of the argument..."

"Have you all lost your minds?!" Cecil approached the guards and slapped away the points of the lances with one hand. "You know him!"

The Paladin was sure that most of the castle guards had suspected from the beginning that Golbez was the master wizard who had overtaken Baron, but no one had ever complained openly about Cecil's decision to let Golbez stay as a guest in the castle. "Or did they just not dare?" Cecil got more and more aware that the unusual authoritarian behaviour he was displaying lately was unnerving the people.

"Your Highness, we have reason to believe that this man here is tricking you and is trying to overtake the Kingdom!" With slight hesitation, the guards pointed their lances at Golbez, again. "We're just trying to protect you and Queen Rosa!"

"Your worry about the Kingdom does you credit, but what you say is nonsense." Yang now joined into the conversation. "This man here has been living in this castle for several weeks now, and has done nothing to earn your mistrust! In contrast..." He faced the townspeople. "Haven't you seen that he was the one who closed the Serpent Way in order to save Baron from the monsters?"

"That's only part of his plan! He only protected us in order to gain your trust -- the monsters could even be his work! Since the time the Lunarian moon and he has turned up, the amount of foul creatures is increasing day by day! That's how it started as well, as he invaded Baron back then!"

Once more, a loud and roused discussion broke out amongst the people.

"Don't deny it your Majesty!" A maid pleaded. "We know where this man came from: we all can see the moon in the sky! That can't be a coincidence -- he must be Golbez!"

"Yes..." a man agreed. "Can't you understand that we're afraid, Your Majesty? The town gets attacked by monsters, then this stranger appears and you don't inform us of anything! Aren't we trustworthy enough to know of certain things? Aren't we the people you promised to protect?"

Each of the words stunglike a burning needle in Cecil's torn soul, but he still tried to sound calm: "Yes -- I promised to protect you. That's why I can assure you that I would have told you anything of importance--"

"But for us it is important to know if this man is really Golbez! Or have you already become part of his dark plans that you won't tell us the truth?" A young man demanded.

"Listen--" Cecil started, but was interrupted by Golbez's dark voice.

"We should stop with this game now, Cecil..." Without fear, Golbez reached for the lances pointing at his throat and pushed them aside with ease, giving him space enough to take a step forward. The people around him backed away a bit, afraid.

"Everything your King did was only for your well-being. If you're looking for the reason of the recent happenings, feel free to put the blame on me. I'm in fact Golbez, although I can assure you that I have no plans of taking the world over or anything similar to that. At least none I know of..." Although his words were ironic, his voice was earnest.

For a moment, the townspeople did not know what to do, nearly surprised that the dark- haired man had so willingly revealed his identity. Then the weapons of not only two, but several guards were directed at the wizard, again.

"You are arrested!" One guard said with a slightly trembling voice.

"That's enough!" Cecil exclaimed, barely able to contain his anger and despair about the situation at hand. "In which name do you arrest him? Surely not in the name of Baron." He turned to the townspeople. "And what about you? Accusing me of not telling you of Golbez's identity, but look at yourself! Had I told you before about him, would you have reacted in another way other than what you are doing now? With what right do you accuse and arrest him?"

"With the right that you, as well, can give us no other explanation concerning the recent happenings!" The middle aged woman from before replied stubbornly.

"If this is your only worry, I can inform you that we already have a suspect..." Cecil retorted. "It's a group called--"

"The "Dark Paladins". We know about them, Your Highness." One guard said quietly.

Cecil and his friends nearly stopped breathing. "How...?" Yang was speechless.

"During your absence we had a visit from an official of Tororia," One guard started to explain. "He had an urgent message for you, but as he was in a hurry and wouldn't wait for your return, he gave it to us, instead. The Dark Paladins are only a peaceful group -- through false accusations and reports you should be made to believe that they are behind the recent happenings. You should get distracted from the real culprits and their plans: The plan of Zeromus to overtake the Blue Planet once again with the help of his slave Golbez!"

Cecil could not believe what he had heard and decided to forget about Royal etiquette. "Have you lost your mind? How can you believe such things? Zeromus was destroyed!" He told the guard. 

"The townspeople can't be under a spell, can they?"

An argument whether Zeromus was dead or not broke out, until a young man addressed Cecil once more. "We would like to believe and trust you, Your Highness, but we are not the only ones fearing that lately your judgment is not as objective as it used to be. Until you cannot show us real proof that the Dark Paladins are a danger, we demand that the black mage Golbez is confined to the dungeons!"

"The only one getting arrested here is you, if you don't leave the castle at once!" Cid snarled. "You're accusing your King of treachery! Aren't you ashamed?"

Though some of the guards looked down, the townspeople persisted on their request. "This is nothing against our rulers--we want to protect their lives as well as our own ones. You probably wouldn't arrest us for wanting to protect this country, would you, Your Highness?" A woman asked.

Cecil studied the people before him -- they had become quiet and were watching him, some fearfully, some sullenly, others blankly, but everyone was wondering if their King would really order the guards to arrest them.

"The woman is right... I cannot arrest my own people... I left them uninformed and alone with their fears and now they have decided to take the matter into their own hands... But to follow their wishes would mean..."

He gave a help searching look towards Yang and Cid, but both were looking at him with desperate expressions and were at a loss of words as well. Cecil's gaze locked with one of the guards, a normally very dutiful Lieutenant -- the man was shaking his head, as if to tell him that he would not follow an order to arrest the townspeople. Golbez seemed calm and was watching every change of expression in his brother's face with attention.

"So... It seems it all depends on me now... There's only one way out of this mess..." "Very well..." Although the young King of Baron had a lump in his throat which nearly seemed to suffocate him, he exclaimed with a firm voice:

"I believe that I have to apologize to you. Perhaps my judgment concerning the recent happenings has indeed been clouded... But I will not permit, that this "confusion" on my side, destroys the trust of Baron's citizens. As a proof, I will grant your wish and hereby order that this man here, Golbez, be arrested. He is to be confined in the dungeons until we have reason to believe that he isn't responsible for the crimes you accuse him of."

Cheering broke out through the crowd oftownspeople.

"But Cecil..." The mouths of Yang and Cid were wide open in surprise.Cecil held up his hand slightly, motioning them to stay silent, then faced Golbez, his expression full of sorrow. The guards stared at their king, obviously surprised by his sudden change of mind as well.

"Didn't you hear the order of your liege?" Golbez asked, his lips curved into a smile, the expression of his eyes inscrutable. "Haven't I told you that your King wants only the best for you? So what are we waiting for? You know how to get to the dungeon, don't you? Or shall I lead the way?"

The guards ignored the jesting of the wizard and turned their attention on Cecil, instead. "Very well Your Majesty -- you have made the right decision!" They exclaimed and led Golbez out of the room with drawn weapons. Cecil swallowed hard, as he watched his brother leaving the room under the escort of the guards.

"Thank you, Your Highness." Some townspeople approached him, happily. "We knew that we could rely on you after all..."

A maid curtseyed before him. "I'm going back to work now, Your Majesty."

"And we will go back to our posts!" The guards stated. "We're sorry for what happened to Sir Kain, but we could not turn down the townspeople... We will not leave our posts without your consent again..."

Cecil nodded and dismissed them with a slight motion of his hand. One guard stayed and approached him, sheepishly. "Please forgive me for not telling you sooner, but this message reached Baron just this morning." He pressed a sealed letter into Cecil's hand and left.

"Cecil. Do you think that it was the right decision to arrest Golbez?" Cid asked since everyone except for him, Cecil and Yang had left the room.

Cecil's face depicted the harsh decision he had just made and he ran a nervous hand through his long hair. "I saw no other way out in that moment. Although my people do not seem to be under a spell of Mallack, they are easy prey for his beliefs in the state of mind they were in. I had to prevent them from loosing even more of their trust in me..."

He became aware of the envelope in his hand and hastily broke the seal. As he scanned the contents of the letter, his expression became more and more serious.

"The townspeople will loose their trust in me, soon enough..." He murmured, letting the letter sink down.

"What do you mean, Cecil?" Yang asked. "Why will there loose their trust?"

"I have made a decision... We have to act - lets get back to Rosa, Kain and the others - there I can explain everything to you..." Without giving his friends time to protest, Cecil left the room.

Cid and Yang exchanged glances, not knowing whether the sudden determination of their friend should calm or frighten them...