Chapter 9

"What... ? What does he mean that Aric doesn't love me as much as he did Andrea? How could he say that he knows for sure that Aric only stayed with me because I was the only person he had sex with? Aric's not that type of person!

"No, that couldn't be it. He's just trying to make me feel bad. Aric loves me more than he ever loved her, I know he does. I just know he does, " thought Brianna, but deep down she was starting to wonder if there was really any truth to that statement.

Earlier when he talked she felt that Wolfgang wasn't lying to her, and even now she still felt that way for some unexplained reason. But he might only also be telling her only how he perceived things and not from anything concrete that Aric said or did, Brianna thought hopefully.

But even as her thoughts raced around in her mind on what he just said, she was still feeling a deeper hurt inside as an outsider compared how her relationship looked to him versus the one with the only woman she ever had ever truly competed against, and to all it still seemed that she came up short.

Aric, still locked in his mental shock over what revelations he had heard, totally missed the exchange between Brianna and Wolfgang. He was still trying to come to grips with the different levels of interference he was hearing had taken place in his life.

"But why, why would you do that to me, to us? Why would you ruin the lives of two people who were that close to me like that? Why would you put the two people I loved at the time more than in anything in the world, in the position to not only screw me over, but to make me despise them enough to not care if they ever lived or died?" asked Aric starting to get really pissed off.

He was still floating between sadness and anger, but he realized by the size of the file that there must be more to cover that he needed to know. He wanted to know how fully this man had been screwing with him.

In hearing the stress in his voice Brianna looked at him with even more hurt and sadness. It was starting to pull at her heart to hear what she thought from him was Aric sounding so wistful over what she felt he saw as a missed opportunity to be with Andrea.

"At the time I couldn't take the chance that you might ally yourself with a King, or in this case a future King. You were too powerful. By the lifestyle they lived in the castle they wouldn't have had any problem using you to further their own ends.

"And even if you had the best of intentions, they could have used that as a spring board, sorry I see your confusion at that word, think of it as a place to launch your power from, even if you didn't want to conquer the world on your own. Daven could have used you for his own ends. We couldn't have that," said Wolfgang

"But I would never do that, I was trying to change him for the better. I was trying to make him a better future King so that the people wouldn't be so oppressed under him like they were under his father," said Aric.

"Yes we learned that later, but you must have known now that he would never have been able to be changed. Men who want to change aren't the ones sleeping with other men's wives and girlfriends, all while trying to justify why what they just did wasn't that wrong. They don't screw over friends and claim innocence.

"He only looked out for what he could have gotten from others. But you still don't understand that do you? I can see that even now. You still can't see that he was only using your friendship for what he could get out of it because you wanted nothing from him.

"And you were so trusting at the time that you would have done anything for Daven. Don't you realize that he even got you to go fight in a war when you really didn't want to even be there? Even though you trained in weapons use you hated killing others. And yet there you were on a battlefield because he asked you.

"Let's not forget that if you wouldn't have done it for him then you most certainly would have for Andrea if she had asked. Look at all the fights you were rumored to be in as a teenager because of her. You never could really say no to her. You loved them both just that much," said Wolfgang as he looked hard at Aric.

While Aric was thinking on what he just said to him, and still finding it hard to believe, on hearing those statement about Aric not wanting to fight in that war and that Andrea could have, and often did, make him do things just for her, Brianna lightly jerked as if she had been slapped.

What the conversation started to whittled down to from what she could see was that for one, Aric never really discussed the fact he didn't want to be there at that fateful battle that activated his power. This was news to her. She never knew either of them had that much of a hold on him.

As for the second point, he didn't argue about not wanting to go to war or that he would have gone if Andrea had asked no matter how much he hated it.

He didn't appear to be disputing any of Wolfgang's new claims.

Brianna remembered suddenly that when she asked him to fight while the twins were younger he refused to fight in any of the border wars they did, and didn't, and nothing she said could make him do it for her.

As she remembered that, it seemed that Aric wasn't the only one who was getting rocked by all the information today. It was just another spike into her heart to hear this and not hear her husband deny any of it.

Looking up and feeling lost as he tried to grasp what Wolfgang was saying he quietly said "What about Aaron, your legend always said that those close to me could either hurt me or be hurt by my actions as well, you couldn't have possibly had a hand in that. Aaron seemed to be affected by just being friends with me."

Aric was starting to feel out of his depth here.

"No sorry to say I had an indirect hand in what happened to that good man as well. Well to be perfectly honest, I had nothing to do with the problems with his first wife, uhm Jewel and later she changed it to Gemma it says here.

"But later what happened to his second wife Lichelle should never have happened if we had been more careful. But there was no way to stop what happened once it started," said Wolfgang sadly as he once again looked deeper in his file.

Flashback:

"Your majesty I see your doing well," said Peter as he worked around the room cleaning for the King.

The King had finished up earlier with his latest lady for the afternoon and after a light dinner he planned to summon another one to attend to him for the evening. He wanted the room spotless before his next encounter. So Peter diligently cleaned.

As Peter passed by a table with a brandy snifter on it the King held out his hand for the glass. It was a signal for the man to hand it to him.

"Of course your majesty. So how is the search for young Aric going?" asked Peter as he reached out the glass with both hands to the King.

He was trying to gain any information he could where young Aric might have gone off to. Aric had disappeared into the night and no one seemed to know where he went. Even Aaron had no idea where he was now. If he turned evil form all this they needed to be ready, but first they needed to find him and prepare.

He almost drew back at the look of anger in the King's face before the King took on a new look of boredom as he answered, "The street urchin doesn't want to help those who took care of him, so be it. We don't need to waste our time on trash like him." said the King.

Forcing a laugh Peter said "Well we might get better results in tracking him down if Aaron wasn't so tired from being married to such a young wife..."

Seeing the King swivel and stare hard at him, Peter realized his mistake.

In fishing for any new information about Aric he had totally forgotten about the law passed a few seasons back by the King giving him the right to sleep with all new brides on their wedding night. Instead of gaining information he had just given some away.

He could see by the reaction that the King must not have known anything about Aaron's new wife, and now that a cock hound like he was did, he would stop at nothing to have her no matter what she looked like.

And he knew that the King wouldn't have passed up the chance to be with her, if for no other reason than to rub Aaron's face in it. Now that he did know about her he would do what ever it took to sleep with her.

As Peter had these thoughts he realized that this couldn't possibly end well.

Taking his leave he quickly reported this new wrinkle to Wolfgang.

"No, Master Wolfgang, his wife is dead and it's all my fault," said Peter as he sat shell shocked.

He was on hand as the men brought in a wildly struggling and grief ridden Aaron. He kept trying to get back to the body of his wife that was across another horse with a blanket tossed over her body to hide it.

No one liked to see a grown man cry, and the mood was somber. As Peter tried to report the facts to Wolfgang he kept going back to the conversation in his mind that led to all of this.

"No Peter it is not. You didn't cause this to happen, or certainly mean for it too. What happened falls squarely on the King's head. His greed and lust for what was not his is what caused her death. Normally I try to avoid involvements in other nations if I can, but I can see that it is well past time they do something about him," said Wolfgang bitterly.

The more he thought about it, the more Wolfgang was pissed.

By all reports Aaron was just like his father Jason, and Aaron worked hard to protect the people in the face of a King who was only seeking his own pleasure from them. And similar to how his life turned out seasons before when he was forced to put down a bad King himself Aaron needed to do the same as well for the happiness of the public.

"Quickly, go to the two guards responsible for this and tell them that they have to make this right, and if they are unwilling you will make sure everyone knows who they are and what they did. To protect yourself tell them one other person knows about them as well and if anything happens to you that they will seek out Aaron and his men and tell them who they are.

"Once that is done then seek out Aaron, but only after he's had time to grieve for her, and suggest this to him and his men as a way to overthrow the king in one night," started Wolfgang.

Wolfgang then started recounting what he did millenniums ago himself to overthrow the King from his youth to Peter as a basis of suggestion for Aaron to try to do as well.

After hearing that the two guards had killed themselves and that the staff and soldiers were getting ready to overthrow the crown, Peter offered his suggestion to the assembled men as a plan to drug the nobles during an upcoming party, but Aaron adds a caveat that no one can kill the King but him.

On informing Wolfgang of what Aaron said Wolfgang grimly nodded to himself as he saw the parallel between himself and Aaron once again.

Wolfgang later was happy to learn that Aaron had a similar success to what he had using the same plan. He thought he would, as he was a good man as well.

And Wolfgang again uses Peter to suggest to Aaron and his men how setup the city with a Chancellor at the head and a council to rule the land. It was the first step he felt in giving them some form of democracy.

Aric sat back in wide eyed shock at hearing what happened. He couldn't believe that this was all orchestrated by Wolfgang.

It seemed so elaborate for his involvement. It was hard to swallow that he was the one who impacted Aaron's life so long ago and that it really wasn't his fault. It was just too unbelievable. Everything at the time seemed like it all just happened.

But again he had facts that no one else knew, like for example that Aaron chased the King to the highest battlement and stabbed him so that he fell off. Facts that Aaron said no one else knew made it hard to discount his involvement.

Even while he was lost deep in thought, this time he wasn't so far out of it that he missed Wolfgang's off handed comment that if he hadn't ever returned home to visit they may never had picked up his trail to follow him to where he was then living.

Asking what he meant by that Wolfgang again looked through the very thick file for the proper entry.

Flashback:

"Aaron, I see being Chancellor agrees with you and the people seem to be happier than they were under the previous King. I'm glad to see that everyone advice worked out as well as it did," said Peter.

Peter no longer worked in the castle cleaning as a butler, but he did stop in time to time to check on Aaron. Aaron for his part welcomed Peter as an old friend who gave him some good advice from time to time.

"Yes, I'm glad to see that it is starting to work for all, but the continued setup is still the hardest work. Setting up public services is the hardest part because while it was done before by the crown, the King just pressured everyone do what he needed done.

"As it stands now, we need to make sure everyone is dealt with and paid fairly. And the push for competition for those jobs is fierce. There are some who are trying to get ahead any way possible," said Aaron slowly.

While he was the Captain of the guard there were ways to make everyone play nice, but now he had to use diplomacy to get everyone to play nice so that they continued so in the future.

"I have faith in you, as do the people, or else they wouldn't have asked you be the one to oversee the changes. But you know I from time to time I wondered where that young Battlemage went off to. I'm sure he could help you as well. As well liked as he was I'm sure that he could have helped you talk to the people," said Peter.

Frowning for a moment Aaron said "As I've stated before he has had enough betrayal for a lifetime and he needs to get his life on track before he is asked to help anyone. I hope wherever he may be that he gets the peace he needs."

"So he didn't tell you where he was going before he left?" asked Peter.

"He asked for a horse and I gave it to him and that's all I needed to know. Peter I apologize, but I need to prepare for a budget meeting. I'll excuse myself now," said Aaron changing the subject.

As Peter left the building he was still frustrated.

Aaron was too close to the boy to not know where he went, and they needed to find him again so that they could keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn't start using this as a reason to abuse his power. They had a stake in his life to try to first keep him from doing that, but if he couldn't be persuaded, then he would need to be put down.

Peter mentally told Wolfgang of his failure yet again to find young Aric's whereabouts.

It was pure luck that Peter found out.

He happened to be in the market square when young Aric and a red haired beauty came back to North fields. On seeing Aric he followed him and watched as the two split up and Aric went visiting the market.

But when Aric met Andrea's father he was able to hear where he was not staying!

He quickly reported it to Wolfgang and Wolfgang had a spy dispatched to Mariner's Deep long before Aric and Brianna ever returned.

"So if I had never returned home I would have been free of your interference for the rest of my life?" asked Aric wearily.

"No, not really. But if you hadn't returned Aaron and his first wife wouldn't have found peace. I'm still amazed how often you managed to fix people's problems and situations.

"But no, I would have still found you long before now. You're forgetting about your children aren't you," said Wolfgang as he smiled while he looked at the pair.

"What about my children!" Brianna asked a bit loudly and coldly. She was still stinging at the hurt from all the history being brought up around Aric today.

"Oh come now, you have to admit that your children are pretty famous. We knew you sent your daughter to that guild almost immediately before you did. But even though she was honing her skills she was contained there so we concentrated on the boys since we knew we couldn't get a spy in or anyone to betray the guild for us.

"I wasn't happy to learn how well they started to enjoy fighting in those border wars, so we took action to curb them. But you didn't stick around long enough in one spot for us to set anything up. But I was happy to see that Aric was refraining from fighting, or I might have had an issue with him at the time as well, but the boy's natural ability needed to be curbed.

"Once they returned home, they still showed all the classic signs of looking for eventual world conquest. They really didn't have anything negative happen to them and they were all excited from the rush they got from fighting," said Wolfgang as he looked at them hard.