Julien was quickly becoming calm in spite of his escape and the impending doom he was sure wasn't far behind. The tears and embraces had been exchanged and there was a lull in the room. Eric, who had been closer to their teacher in the year or two before his forced exile underground, spoke first after a time.
"Where in the name of all things holy have you been? We mourned your loss, even in spite of father refusing any details about your leaving. What happened?"
Julien stared into the fire, seeming taken by it's glow. He searched longingly for how to begin for a minute or two before answering.
"I had been doing some research as a member of the Honor Guard concerning the wizard of the divide. I'm sure you've heard the stories. While I won't go into the details about what I found just yet, I will tell you that everything you think you know is a lie about him and your father has been guarding the truth like a hawk. Now, I asked around, through what I thought were discreet channels about the incident in the Divide and I discovered that everything lines up to the day when your mother went to her village just about 4 or 5 years before you were born, Eric. I don't know the reason for the visit. It could have been to keep her safe from what your father considered a dangerous situation that awaited the soldiers in those mountains. It could have been a lot of reasons, but your father was away for the better part of a year."
"Who told you to ask questions? How did you get dragged into this whole thing? And you were gone two whole years. Why did you leave us?" Andrew asked meekly.
Julien was visibly shaken at the time he'd been away and turned his eyes back to the fire, his eyes beginning to well up with tears once more. Had it really been so long? Had he really escaped four times in such a span? It seemed like an eternity beneath the castle walls with no windows, no sunlight, and no actual contact with a friendly face of any kind. The nights when the only thing keeping him going was surviving the night's despair that he'd been given a healthy dose of after the beatings and between each meal rushed back into his memory and it made him doubly thankful for such a time as this, in the company of what royalty could be if given the proper chance to thrive. And so he pulled his thoughts together once more and continued.
"Your mother was the one who commissioned me for the task of gathering this information as she had tried and tried to find out what had driven your father into the darkness he now rests in. She told me that the most painful day of her life came that year. She never told me what that might have been, but I have to believe it was something Raul made happen. Celeste is a good woman and she was always kind to me and treated our company well and, even though she allow her maids and even myself to look after you, she has always had your best interests at heart. In fact, she may have saved my life and, in turn, yours as well."
The boys and their guards adjusted in their seats to hear the rest of Julien's tale.
"I'll be honest, I had no idea it had been as long as you told me it had been. In that dungeon-"
"Wait, you said in the dungeon?!" Andrew interjected.
"Yes, Andrew. I was in the dungeon nearly all of that time, save for the day or two waiting for your father in my quarters. You boys need to understand a couple of things. First, that day turned your father, who I had always known to be reasonable into a very guarded and untrusting man. When he found out I had gone into the treasury and borrowed a couple of effects for my research, he was furious. He demanded answers from me and after I went over everything with him, he stood and asked me to go to my quarters after returning the things I had gathered and wait. If you could have seen his face as I did...it was like nothing I had ever seen. I went back to my quarters straightaway instead of returning the effects I took, though I had every intention of putting everything back."
Nathaniel and Thaddeus had listened the entire time, marveling at the spectacle of the tale they were hearing. Nathaniel, in particular, was greatly bothered and he clutched his hands to his face in disbelief before speaking.
"Captain, I'm sorry to speak out of turn, sir, but you said the queen may have saved our lives-"
Julien paused to take a swig or two from his cup, all the while glancing about the men gathered there. When he was satisfied his words were being taken in, he continued.
"I began to write a letter to you both, seeing as I had been teaching you all I knew for nearly eight years of my life. You both are like my own blood and I didn't want what I had done to come to you nor could I bear the thought of you believing I had abandoned you both. I finished it and put my seal on the page, hiding it in a chest and all the contents I had gathered within at the lead rafter of my quarters. I fashioned a box and fastened it at the peak. If you didn't know what to look for, you would never find it. I kept only my key and even that I was able to give to a man I trusted and it should find its way to you in the next few days. I told him to wait until I was either dead or gone longer than two years. If your father told you I had fled, that falls in line with my wishes and the key will arrive rather shortly. Had your mother not gone to the king and asked for my life to be spared, I doubt I would have had the time to pen the letter, which will, I promise, serve you well."
"So what about this?!" Eric pointed at his missing hand.
"This..." Julien paused for a long while, trying to unlive the agonizing moments all over in the telling of the events surrounding his loss.
"This was punishment for attempting to escape. It's only now that I have been able to see or hear another voice in my head aside from the man who watched in the shadows and his wretched Artisan who took all of this as a part of my 'selection'. I was picked to become the newest success. His greatest achievement, as if any of what he did deserved any kind of honor or recognition."
"This is attempt number four...and now I'm out. I will never go back. Ever. I promise you that." Jullian stood and beckoned the princes to himself.
"I love you boys. I appreciate everything you've done here tonight, but don't think you guys are going to do anything else here to help. I won't have that on my conscience with everything I know. Remember all of our lessons, Eric...Andrew. Guard them carefully and use everything I have taught you to succeed where I could not. You all know I can't stay here safely."
"Yeah, we know," Andrew said, wiping his eyes the tears that had begun to well up.
As Julien turned towards the door to grab a coat from the closet near the door, the room began to dim, in spite of the lanterns and the fire in the chimney. It came upon the room so suddenly that, at first, they all thought they might have imagined it, but then a plume of black smoke began to billow from beneath the door. In no longer than a handful of seconds, the plume retreated from whence it came, making Julien uncomfortable. His breath began to catch and he was terrified.
The knock came almost immediately after the plume had retreated and a hulking figure stepped through the door, filling the threshold with nary a gap at the frame. It was the man who watched the whole thing, the taking of his freedom, his fingers, his hand, his firm grasp on sanity. The man who watched absorbed the plume and pointed at Julien. With a bestial and thirsty voice, he growled in satisfaction.
"There you are..."
Julien knew there was no running now. In a lightning fast motion, he whipped around, grabbing the blade from Andrew's scabbard. With one final cry of defiance he shouted in the beast's face.
"DAMN YOUR ARTISAN!" And just as quick as his motion was to grab the sword, it entered his body.
A loud growl emerged from the hulking figure as the plume returned, darkening the room for a final time and with the vision of all completely obscured, he was gone and the plume vanished with only a slight scent of sulfur to even confirm anything at all had ever been there. Julien fell to the floor, his life blood rushing onto the floor.
The princes held their teacher in his last moments, weeping bitter tears and knowing that their childhood was now over. This was loss, their first and most personal to that point. And so Julien died that night, fulfilling his promise that he would not be taken again.
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