The Royal Palace

"Oh," she said quietly, her voice almost a whisper.

She hears him shift in the bed behind her, very aware of his naked state, and hers. His thanks makes her feel... inept, almost. She hadn't done anything to deserve his words, but she dares not turn to look at him, and remains on her side, the blankets draped to outline the feminine flare of her hip and the dainty dip of her waist.

"You're welcome," she murmurs quietly, and doesn't speak again. She doesn't sleep, either, but stares across the way at the wall for a long while, going over and over the night in her head.

She had eventually fallen asleep, and the wine had her sleeping long. She was not disturbed by his wakefulness, and in the night she had turned towards him, her hand on the mattress between them. Her long red hair fell over her shoulder and over the pillows, the blankets of his bed still tucked up over her chest.

Even so, in sleep the young and beautiful queen is almost angelic, her expressive face serene and lovely, lips gently parted with her soft breathing.

Grandma made her way up to the Royal Palace once more. She had waited to come to the afternoon, figuring the king wouldn’t be up and about very early considering what he had gone through yesterday.

Finding a palace guard, Grandma would approach the man.

“I’m here for an audience with the king, I was told yesterday at the ceremony if I came by today I would be able to speak with him. If you haven’t heard of this appointment yourself, then I will request that you send for the head of the household as he was the one I spoke to this about.”

Grandma tapped her cane as she spoke to the guard. She had found such an action would usually cause servants and guards to work a bit more quickly.

Grandma would thank Gaspar when he arrived so quickly while also offering an apology for the fact she was waking up the king. She couldn’t help but smile a bit at how in line Gaspar was, the definition of an excellent head of the household. Grandma checked her rings to make sure they were in place as she followed Gaspar to the back.

Although the chance of an assassin attacking in the palace was practically non existent, she always prefered to be on the safer side. As expected from Gauldin, the waiting room is top notch and beautifully decorated, although almost too much so. Either way, Grandma wasn’t complaining. Grandma would help herself to a few of the refreshments while she awaits the king's arrival.

Grandma would prepare herself for the request she was about to make. It might sound a bit radical to the king, but fortunately he was a new king, not some old one stuck in his ways who had been on the throne for 50 years. Still, she must make sure not to alarm him and keep the talk of magic in plain terms.

“I wish to make a proposition to your majesty. Although not common knowledge, especially here in Gauldin, I am the founder of an organization known as The Black Tower. I founded this organization recently as a response you might say to all the terrible monsters and people that exist in this world. Violent dragons, sea monsters that sink whole fleets, vampires that abduct villages, murderous mages, the list goes on.”

“The goal of The Black Tower is to form a force that will bring down such creatures and people before they commit these atrocities, or at the very least prevent them from causing any more atrocities. However, unlike most, we wish to have international presence. We feel that regardless of where one lives, they shouldn’t have to put up with such things. Nations cannot form such a force as it might be seen as an act of war if they sent such a force into neighboring lands, even if it was for a good purpose. However, we are no nation, simply an organization.”

“Now, I shall get to what I request of your majesty. The Black Tower is currently headquartered just outside The Free City. We wish to expand to be better able to protect more people from such things. I ask that Gauldin would allow The Black Tower to form another branch here near the capital. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am well aware that Gauldin has a very capable army as well as many powerful mages. However, our organization could be of great help when faced with threats outside the ordinary. After all, it is what we specialize in bringing down.”

“As you saw just a few days ago, when the unexpected hits, it can hit very hard indeed. If you allowed us to set up in your city we would certainly be willing to work with your army and law enforcement in bringing down these monsters as well as sharing intelligence. I understand if you don’t feel comfortable with such an agreement, but I do implore you to consider it.”

Grandma would wait to see the king's reaction before going into the specifics.

Grandma would nod and continue on, glad the king wanted to know more about it.

“I will start with the operation of our organization. As said before, I lead all branches and what they do is under my authority. Each branch is to be lead by an Inspector who will run the day to day operations but also be capable of going out on local missions if needed. Each branch will also have standard personnel, builders, guards, servants, etc. Our main feature is our task force however. They are a group of people and creatures from various backgrounds that will enforce The Black Towers goal.”

“When a problem arises, we will contact members of the task force who we deem capable of dealing with it and send them out. Of course, we won’t have the personnel to deal with all types of problems such as more standard crimes, but our goal is to gain a force that deals with the more extreme situations. We also will attempt to avoid as much collateral damage as possible, which is why our intelligence department is so important, fighting some beast in the fields before it reaches the city can make a huge difference in the number of casualties caused by it.”

“As for what considerations we would need, well… Some of the towers methods might be unsettling and normally banned by law, although I cannot be certain of this as I do not know the exact laws of Gauldin in regards to magic usage. I will use this as an example, my apologies if this talk disturbs you, but I must do it for clarity. As you know, there are a number of magical creatures and even mages out there that are quite difficult to slay. You can stab them through the heart and remove their head, but then they simply escape as a spirit or regenerate themselves. Normal methods aren’t effective on such creatures.”

“To defeat such monsters, we might have to steal its soul from its body and contain it in an artifact, use magic mages in gauldin would consider forbidden, or do away with the beast by calling down unsavory powers against it. However, although we use methods some might consider unethical or morally wrong, our goal in the end is to dispose of these beast in the fastest way possible so none in your kingdom will have to suffer at their hands. Although these methods might ruffle the feathers of some of your mages or priest, I believe the end justifies the means in this case.”

“Please also realize that although I speak of these less savory magics and methods, none of these would put bystanders in any more danger than standard methods. Infact, it would place them in less danger as the threats would be dealt with more swiftly. The main reason I bring this up is not so much to warn you of the dangers of the magic, simply to warn you of the stubborn people in your kingdom who might complain about such things.”

Grandma listened in silence as the king spoke. She suspected the mages here weren’t quite as open minded as the king seemed to believe, but she couldn’t go too hard onto them. She didn’t want to insult part a major part of the kingdom.

“Although Gauldin may be more experienced in magic, don’t take that to mean that those mages from here won’t judge something without knowing about it completely first hand. Just because weak minded individuals may have cracked when using such magic does not mean it is inherently unsafe. However, to make things simpler, they have put blanket bans on certain types of magic. This is understandable, but it is not understandable to not make exceptions to this ban when there are those who can use such magics safely.”

“I will say this about the magic the tower uses. None of it will cause any harm to the citizens of Gauldin, regardless of whether it be considered ‘dangerous’ or ‘taboo’. As for how we ensure our members don’t end up as the things we fight? Well, we treat them well, offer them incentives, and hope they enjoy helping people. However, we offer them no special treatment. Should they decide to go on a rampage themselves, we would hunt them down and stop them if such a thing happened.”

“Also realize, we usually only hire experienced mages to join our taskforce. Their path would already be at the end so to speak and they would be capable of controlling the magic they specialized in. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t use them or would have them trained until they could control their magic properly.”

“I simply consider this another thing the tower can offer to you and Gauldin. Having mages directly part of the kingdom using such magic might be out of the question. Having an organization with such things though? Much less backlash I suspect. Gauldin may have had no need of such things in the past, but I feel that in the present a number of unsavory presences may have their eyes on Gauldin, waiting for the perfect time to strike.”

“Very well, I shall have a written proposal for this sent to you shortly. A difficult decision to make, I understand, but that is why I have come to you first with it. A newer king such as yourself is far less set in their ways and open to new ideas and changes. Gauldin is fortunate to have you as king in this time of great change. Other kings might refuse to bend and end up being broken by the winds of change, I have seen it happen before. I suspect you won’t have this problem, I wish you the best and hope you have a successful and long rule.”

Grandma would bow her head slightly to the king, giving him a warm smile as she said this last part. She would then depart unless there was anything else the king wished to speak about.