Outside one of the side palaces, King Theron tried his best to be calm. After the pandemic had spread, he had requested for his aged parents to stay within the palace premises rather than the remote Crystal Palace in order to provide them with better care.

“Father, how are you feeling?” he asked his father as soon as he entered the bedchamber. The room was arranged to have the bed isolated from the rest of the room, with the incense carrying the scent of herbs in order to keep the air purified. The physician gave him something to cover his nose, and he wasn’t allowed to go nearer the patient.

Even from a distance, King Theron could see the weakened old man resting in the middle of the large bed with a pale sickly complexion, his skin yellowish with blots of purple.

‘This damned plague!’

He felt bad for his father and even more for his kingdom that was suffering, and yet, he could not do anything to save anyone.

“Theron, why are you here?” he heard the man say in a soft yet firm voice.

“I am your son. Why shouldn’t I be here?”

“It’s not time for you to worry about me as I am sick anyway. You focus on our kingdom.”

“I am trying, Father, but it doesn’t seem like the situation is going to get better anytime soon,” he said helplessly.

“Call the High  Priest,” his father instructed out of the blue.

“The High Priest?” King Theron felt surprised as to what a priest older than his own dead grandfather could do in such a situation.

King Esteban coughed.  “Have you forgotten the lessons of our ancestors? We are blessed by the dragon and the phoenix. When you cannot find a solution as a human, you need to seek help from the holy ones who blessed us.”

King Theron didn’t know what to say. Someone tapped him from behind, and only then did he realize that Queen Theodora was also in the room.

“Do as your father says, Theron,” she simply said.

Despite his hesitation, he nodded. “All right, Mother.”

Just as he said those words, he heard his father speak again, “You should hurry. You can’t waste any more time.”

“Yes, Father.”

King Theron then returned to the Grand Palace and instructed Sir Galien to call for the Holy Priest. However, his knight returned empty handed.

“Your Majesty, I went to the temple but the priests there said the High Priest is not in the capital. He had left immediately after he attended the naming ceremony of Prince Keiren and his whereabouts are currently unknown. He might not be in Megaris at the moment. However, the temple received a letter yesterday saying the High Priest will return in a week.”

King Theron sighed. Though he didn’t believe a religious leader could solve these issues, he could do nothing but wait for his return. The young king was desperate, seeing the people around him slowly falling sick without any reason. Though there were no deaths reported in the capital yet, across the kingdom, the number of deaths had reached more than three thousand.

Just as he stepped into the hallways leading to the Queen’s chamber, about to retire for the night, he heard the sound of a baby crying echoing around. He hurried his steps and entered his wife’s bedchamber, where he saw Lady Tyra holding the crying Prince Keiren.

“What happened?” he asked worriedly.

Esther approached him to help him take off his robe. Her husband looked tired but didn’t want to show it. However, he was only tired due to his worry for his subjects, not because he was falling sick.  The plague didn’t affect King Theron like it did to other humans because Esther had shared a fragment of her soul with him,  keeping him safe and protected.

“Lady Clarisa is not well and Keiran is feverish so I had him brought here to take care of him.”

“You did well,” King Theron said and looked at his son who was still red from crying.

Esther went towards Lady Tyra and got the little prince from her, rocking him in her arms as she tried to calm him down. A minute later, the baby started to let out cooing noises and Esther took him to her bed to make him sleep. Lady Tyra excused himself while King Theron approached his wife and son.

The little prince seemed to be exhausted after crying and felt better in Esther’s gentle embrace that he had already fallen asleep by the time the King sat at the edge of the bed…

Esther lifted her gaze and saw her tired husband staring at his son with a crease on his forehead.

“Do not worry. He’s fine now,” Esther told him with a small smile. “Tyra told me you went to see your parents. How is Father?”

“Just like everyone else who got the plague,” he replied with a sigh. “I do not know if it’s due to his old age, but Father asked me to call for the High Priest. What can a priest do? Burn incense and offer fruits to the altar? Those precious fruits are better off given to the starving people outside…”

Esther was surprised. She didn’t feel surprised that the High Priest could help, as she felt that mere human efforts would really be ineffective. What surprised her was that King Esteban suggested using divine means to cope with the situation.

She heard him continue, “….but he will only come back in a week. I only hope there is no delay on his end.”

“Since Father believed in him, I think the High Priest can offer useful counsel,” she replied.

“I hope so,” he said, though he sounded doubtful.

“Well, you look exhausted. Let’s sleep. Should I put out the lamps now?” she suggested, looking at how tired he was.

King Theron didn’t even have the energy to reply as he lay in the bed next to his son. Though he closed his eyes, he was unable to fall into a peaceful sleep, his mind chaotic due to the many worries surrounding him.

——-

When the High Priest returned to the capital of Megaris, he headed straight towards the Grand Palace to see the King in his study.

An old thin man with a long white beard, wearing a pure white robe with long wide sleeves and a cassock that has the symbol of a black dragon, bowed before the King.

“This old servant humbly greets the dragon of Megaris.”

King Theron accepted his greetings with a nod and said, “Please take a seat, Your Holiness.”

The King left his desk and sat face to face with the High Priest in the area set to receive guests. “I believe the High Priest knows why I have you summoned in the palace.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. When I became aware of what happened in the kingdom, I hurried back as fast as I could,” the old man replied with a sigh.

“My Father believes the High Priest can help me in this situation. Does the temple hold a record of a similar situation occurring in the past?” King Theron asked. “I would like to know if there is something we can do.”

The High Priest nodded. “Before coming here, I have indeed verified the records left by my predecessors and have found out this was indeed something that happened before.”

King Theron’s eyes shone with hope, but he still kept himself calm. “Please explain.”

“Once in every one hundred years,” the High Priest started, “natural disasters would fall on the continent. Sometimes, it will affect only a single kingdom, sometimes, a third of the continent. The people of old call this phenomenon the Devil’s Curse, and from the records, it’s been exactly a hundred years since the last curse had fallen on the continent. This time, it has chosen our kingdom.”

“The Devil’s Curse?”

King Theron had a vague memory of this term, as he had a hobby of reading books since young. But he only thought it was some random name uneducated people only came up with to explain natural disasters.

“So does that mean there’s a real devil in existence?” The King could not understand it thoroughly and asked more, “And this devil has cursed our kingdom?”

“The Devil exists, King Theron. In fact, the black dragon is his symbol. It’s not the Devil who cursed our kingdom but he is the one who will save us. He alone can lift the curse,” the High Priest explained. “Many old books are destroyed and human memories are short, so even I could not guarantee his true history, but apparently, this Devil was in fact someone whose name was forgotten, but he made sacrifices to protect the land and the gods of olden times. So to make up for his glorious sacrifice, in order to not let us humans forget his existence, the emperor of the old gods made this curse so that when this curse falls once more, people have to worship the Devil and call for him to lift it up.”

King Theron closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. He didn’t know what to say to this crazy story. Perhaps his father was muddled with old age if he truly believed the nonsense that this High Priest was saying.

“So you mean… we have to worship the Devil and call for him?” King Theron asked though he simply couldn’t believe it. However, he was thinking that doing such a ceremony would somehow lift the spirits and give hope to the ordinary people.

The High Priest knew this young king didn’t believe him. “Your Majesty, I know this sounds ridiculous but there is no other way. We can call the Devil and solve this curse, even if you believe in him or not.”

King Theron had already tried everything and could not help but agree to this last resort. It would be good to give people hope, and there would be no harm in trying.

“What do we have to do?” King Theron asked.

“Someone of the Royal Ivanov bloodline must summon the Devil,” the High Priest replied.

====

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