Chapter 1964: Lights of Silver - Part 6
Oliver turned, hurriedly wiping the tears from his face. A look of determination there. "Persephone?" He said. It was the first time that he had heard that name.
"We can assume that to be Dominus Patrick’s lover," Verdant said. "If we piece together the information that we have gained so far. It is a name mentioned with an odd quietness, for the position that she once held. During the time of Dominus Patrick and of Arthur, she was a Princess of the Treeant lands."
"...And the High King saw her killed?" Oliver asked. "Why?"
"It would make sense for that to be the case," Verdant said. "Her name is practically erased from all spoken knowledge of the time. There’s a certain quiet tension around it, which seems to point with a strongness that there’s a degree of corruption there."
"...A Princess, though. One that the High King too likely had an interest in?" Oliver asked.
"Indeed, that would seem to be the case," Verdant said.
"That old man Dominus, falling in love with a Princess... He’s a more bold man than I thought him to be," Oliver said, with a sad little smile. "But... Gods be good, what that man must have endured. He fell in love with a Princess, and the two were likely married, then, if all assume that it to be natural that the two would have a child together? And then the High King saw her killed, out of jealousy?"
"It is mostly conjecture at this point," Verdant said. "But it does carry the ring of the truth. The only question, however, is why nothing was said or done about it. Dominus Patrick disappeared after his battle with the Pandora Goblin, and that’s the last the realm knows of him. There has been no talk of accusations or uprisings. A man of that level of strength, with such a reason to have such a level of anger, and there were no ripples of anything happening? That makes it stranger to me – there is likely something else involved."
Oliver considered it for a few moments, but he shook his head. "No, Verdant... For Dominus Patrick, that makes perfect sense..."
He went quiet, as he threaded together his understanding of the man. The moments of silence that Dominus would have, as he looked off into the distance, as if enduring a great burden. The strange sadness that hung about him, barely masked by the otherwise overwhelming pain that he felt daily from the sting of the Pandora Goblin poison.
"He chose not to exact vengeance, and he endured it quietly alone," Oliver said. "Entirely away from the world. He lost his wife, and he lost his best friend, and he lost use of his own body... and for what, more than a decade, he existed, away from the world, and did nothing but quietly help people whenever he could?"
Oliver bit his lip. "He never said a word at all to me. Not a single thing. I talked about taking down the Pandora Goblin, and he would smile at me, and take me just the little bit seriously. He could have told me all of this. He had every right to be bitter, but he just kept it to himself, quietly, and now I’m only finding out years after he died. Surely he wanted revenge, but he never even pursued it. For the sake of the Stormfront, he just withdrew himself, and survived."
"Survived so that he might teach you, Your Majesty," Verdant said. "I imagine, though I never did get to meet the man, that there must have been great meaning in that. Surely he could have seen it in you – the man you were to become. And surely, he delighted in that, for his final time to be spent in your company, teaching you."
"..." Oliver shook his head. "I’ve always complained that I wish he’d taught me for longer. I feel like the years would have been so much easier if he had. But if that’s... If that’s the suffering that Dominus Patrick endured, by himself, without even breathing a word of it to anyone... I don’t know, Verdant, but surely I cannot complain. If something like that were to happen to Nila, and to you, I would not have the endurance to hold back. If I could not have slain Tiberius for what he did to Asabel, I would have lost myself to anger. Even now, I’m unsure of what to do. No matter what distance I travel, I shall never be as great as the man called Dominus Patrick."
"I am in disagreement, Your Majesty," Verdant said. "Dominus Patrick surely looks down upon you with the fiercest pride. For all you have endured, and the many challenges that you have overcome. He could find no greater pupil than you. His only pupil, and who the realm assumes to be his son. There’s justice in that. Even if symbolically, Your Majesty, you have your role to play. An actor is not a liar, is he? Play your part, as well as you can, for the sake of those great men of the past."
"And you tell me that the part I must play is the part of the King?" Oliver said. "Despite how it wounds me, and how tainted this crown feels upon my head? Despite the fact that I am a peasant, and there a thousand other places I would wish to be, than upon a throne?"
"Despite it, I would ask it of you," Verdant said. "A great sacrifice, no doubt, but I would ask it of you regardless."
"...Until justice is carried out for Dominus," Oliver said. "Perhaps I can bear it."
He heaved a long sigh as he said that, once more giving the sea a glare. "I mislike it. Always the position that I least want to be placed in. I can feel myself falling apart, and the cracks in my heart growing deeper with each day. Some sort of poison eats at me, and I know it not, only that it cannot be worse than the Pandora Goblin poison that Dominus endured daily."