You're interupted - roll the dice

You begin to probe more deeply, searching out the reason behind king Caravis' faint life ****. You appreciate Leshak - just as you did not bother to ask what he was doing with the wards he watches silently as you focus all attention on your magical senses. How many idiots there are who would demand a play-by-play of the delicate process. You feel that you're starting to make progress when the door to the bedroom opens.

"What are you doing?" asks some idiot from the doorway. You only barely register the man as one of the king's higher ranking servants before he flees, shouting "Guards, guards!" At least he's sticking to the classics. Perhaps when he brings the guards back he can say "I found them in here" - just to make clear he didn't let you in.

Hmmm. You've got about ten seconds to do something before at least a pair of the king's guards race in here. With few options speedy enough to matter you decide on a spell your first master taught you - a kind of life sharing. It's mildly dangerous and overkill for most health problems, but it was always meant as a spell for saving the mortally wounded on the battlefield, where seconds count. Like pouring pure **** on dying embers to rekindle a fire.

You drive a mass of life energy into the king, sharing your own in the mix. The guards burst into the room, servant in tow, just as the king sits bolt upright in bed and you fall to the rich carpet behind the bed, your muscles suddenly unable to support your body. Through your spell you know the effect the extra life **** is having on the king. Everything will seem brighter and louder than normal. Time will seem to move more slowly.

As the guards run around the foot of the bed king Caravis puts together what's happened, where he is, who you are and, importantly, what you're probably doing. "Stop!" he shouts to the guards, his voice as commanding as always. As soon as they do he looks down at you. "Fantastic! Excellent work Lord John, I feel so very alive." Looking back at his guards he tells them to carefully lift you up onto the bed.

"I imagine this isn't permanent" he says, half to himself.

You manage to say "No, your majesty, I'm afraid not" in a little more than a whisper.

Lying on your back you notice Leshak, somehow glued to the ceiling. He's pressed between a pair of roof timbers.

The king notices him too. You worry about explaining this until he lets out a hearty laugh and says "Come down from there, master Leshak. I never imagined I would see the two of you together in the same place."

The guards look both shocked and a little chagrined as Leshak lets go, drops and lands on his feet in a crouch.

"Well well. That certainly explains a few things. I wondered how a single mage, even such a skillful one, could break through the wards without any warning. But you," he looks at Leshak,"have always claimed you could do it. I didn't doubt it, either."

Leshak gives a slight bow. "I have always wanted make the attempt. I am glad that I was able to do so for a good purpose."

"Yes, quite. Now Lord John - can you tell me how long this spell will last?"

You manage another whisper. "Half an hour. Three quarters at best. If I can find the cause..."

The king shakes his head. "If it were something that could be cured that way I would have asked you and a few other mages to take a crack at healing me. However, if I have half an hour I will not waste the opportunity." He hops out of bed and slips on a heavy robe. You have to grin a little. The king rarely meets with people in his private rooms, yet if he must meet someone after rising from a sound sleep he has a particularly regal and elegant robe to do so in.

His servant brings him some chilled tea. You've never understood the king's love of that beverage, but through the bond you feel pleasure and relaxation radiate through his body as the cool liquid flows down his throat.

The king is just finishing the tea when you hear people coming down the hall. "Ah, perfect timing" he says.

A pair of guards come in, followed by prince Davris and then another pair of guards.

"Father!" he says, giving the king a hug.

"Ah, son. I'm afraid my current condition won't last, but it's good to get out of bed."

Things haven't had time to settle before another pair of guards march in, quickly followed by princess Cerralla. Like her brother she drops any sense of decorum and gives the king a hug too. Even in your reduced state you notice that the two don't bear any animosity towards each other. The eight guards all look relaxed too, or at least they don't look like they're set to instantly **** someone - as relaxed as the king's guards get while on duty.

Leshak is the one to speak up. "You haven't been in a coma, have you? Ill, yes, but this is one of your plans."

A smile creeps across the king's face. "Yes indeed. A plan, though I cannot claim the credit for this one. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Or you Lord John. My illness accelerated and I had to move up the timetable. What would you say is the greatest threat to a kingdom with a new monarch, fresh from success in wars?"

"An alliance of their enemies?" says Leshak. He pauses and then says "No, wait. Politics."

"Precisely. Dozens of nobles who think they did very well during the wars and deserved more. Dozens more who want more wars so they can claim even more territory. Their greedy eyes can't see how far their desire overreaches their ability to hold that ground. Davris, would you mind continuing?"

The prince starts to pace and tells you "Over the last few years I have been approached, repeatedly, by interested parties. A number of lords and ladies imagine that they will do better with me on the throne. The warrior son who will follow in his father's footsteps and finally carve out an empire from the Dressa desert to the Arthavin sea. They all piled me with promises and whispered suggestions in my ear. I could declare myself, claim all my sister's lands and they would fight alongside me, first to take my 'rightful' place and then against our enemies abroad."

"Pure stupidity," the king says with a laugh. "None of them can control the lands they have, never mind the lands the wish for. On top of that all our most experienced veterans are getting too old for another war. They have money and lands of their own and most want to concentrate on raising a family."

Davris continues, "I had a dream and an idea hatched from it. I talked to my sister and father. We decided to use these plotters and kingmakers to our own ends."

Cerralla steps in and says, "I had seen enough of our lords behavior on their own lands, even when they were trying to impress me and convince me to marry their sons. The wars have made this kingdom stronger, but these nobles eye each other's lands even more than those of our enemies. Success has built their lust for power to such an extent that many believe they deserve half the country for their 'selfless service' to the crown. By the time Davris told me of his plan I had already seen that whomever I married would destroy the kingdom. I could pick a man who was honest - all the schemers would turn on me together, incensed that their 'right' to get their child on the throne was taken from them. I could pick the son of one of the kingmakers - and that family would use their connection to the crown to attack all their rivals."

"A full blown civil war would be terrible for the kingdom." says Davris, "I realized that what we needed was a way to remove most of the powerful and dangerous nobles from power. But we couldn't simply accuse them of wanting more power, that's only natural and the other nobles would stand together with them. We needed either for them to fall in battle or we needed charges of treason and other such high crimes. Then we could we take them down, one by one, with their fellow nobles cheering on the new monarch while they did it. I brought the idea to the best strategist I knew."

Cerralla gives her brother a smile at the compliment and says "We can avoid most battles entirely. Each of us will end up with some honestly loyal people on our side, but we will collaborate to make sure the dangerous nobles are well split between us. Whenever we go to siege or capture we will aim at the holdings of these kingmakers, whittling down their power. When the time is right the other side will swoop in, catching one of them unprepared and nearly alone. Meanwhile we will come up with excuses to have the truly loyal protect cities, harbors, mines and other things vital to the health of the kingdom. We aim to deliberately start a civil war and then make it the only civil war in history where the citizens and peasants grow richer while the most vicious nobles and the most avaricious merchants lose lands, money and their lives."

"I believe it will take two to four years, depending on how lucky we are. We will keep things at a near-draw that entire time. Then, at the end, my forces will manage to capture my brother. After touting him as the only possible monarch for years the nobles still fighting for him will have **** but to submit. Some final house cleaning and we can wrap it all up with a bow."

The king puts down his empty glass and says "Best of all, the enemies outside our borders will see this as a chance to make friends with the new king. Davris will be quite ready to promise all sorts of treaties, agree to all manner of plans to make joint attacks on their enemies and so forth. But when he is captured, tried and 'killed' Cerralla will have whatever gold and materials they sent in aid but will be free of all those promises. The powerful noble houses will either be undone, with most of their lands taken by others during the war, or they will be lead by younger, more loyal and more moral lords."

Caravis looks at you and then at Leshak. "The king's guard all know. There is a short list of palace servants who know. Yandelle knows too. She has always been an incredible manipulator and will make certain that both sides are kept in coin by our worst merchants."

"Lessia doesn't know" you whisper.

The king looks surprised. "She was to have been told. What went wrong?"

"She slipped out," Davris says, shaking his head. "Once she head the news about you her new friend caused a distraction and Lessia climbed out a window, took her carriage and ran for it. I would have told you, but you were sleeping peacefully and I had word that her carriage was already returning."

You try not to laugh as you try to picture Lessia doing all of that. "She came to me. Her and Bethany, both looking frightened out of their minds. Told me about the promise."

"Ah..." says the king. "Not that I doubted your loyalty, but it speaks well of you that Lessia went to you."

Suddenly you hear more people coming down the hall. But unlike the last two times these people aren't covered in mail and armored boots aren't clinking against the carpets. Ceralla and Davris hear it too and both duck for the door to the private bath before they're seen together.

Lessia bursts into the room along with Bethany and Leshak's catgirls. The catgirls are held back by the guards, but Lessia is allowed to pass. She runs to her father, hugs him and squeezes hard enough that you think you can feel it through the bond. She starts trying to blurt out what's happened until, through teary eyes, she realizes that you are here too. She takes a few seconds working through how that might be possible, but finally looks back at her father and says "Father, I've decided. I want to marry Lord John."

Those words bring everything to a screeching halt.