The Trials of King Dimitar
(Background information: this story takes place during a second arranged meeting with King Dimitar. Sophie, Keefe, Lady Cadence, and Wraith are once again at Ravagog to seek the help of 800 ogre soldiers.)
“Eight hundred,” King Dimitar said slowly, rising from his throne, “Say that to my face again.”
Lady Cadence bowed curtly and kneeled at the king’s feet. “We need eight hundred ogre soldiers to help us defend our cities, Dimitar,” she said, meeting his glance, “You’ll need to help us.”
“And what makes you think I would do that?” He scoffed, pounding his feet against the hard ground as if to show how much power he held. “Please remember who’s in charge here, Cadence,” King Dimitar said in a hushed tone with urgency, looking like he was seconds away from air-kicking Lady Cadence out of his turf with his toenails.
Sophie and Keefe both shuddered as she reached for Keefe’s hand, silently praying that if it came down to a test again, they would not have to wash King Dimitar’s feet. If Keefe knew what she was thinking, his immediate response would probably be I call not getting the toenails! And Sophie would jump in with a fun fact meant to tease him and give him some serious cold feet, Did you know that there was a human who didn’t cut his fingernails for 69 years? Way to gross him out, but it felt like too much of a role reversal.
Lady Cadence seemed to understand what he was implying, and she stood her ground bravely. “I don’t want a war, Dimitar. We were once enemies — who’s to say we can’t be allies? Haste will not help you here,” she added rather hastily, making Sophie wonder what her game was.
“Wars are sometimes necessary!” King Dimitar bellowed at the top of his lungs, scaring her and Keefe ten times as much as what would’ve been if Biana appeared behind the king’s throne randomly — and brought Fitz along with her.
Being underground made her appreciate being above and breathing fresh air — she could suddenly picture humans catching air from the elvin world and selling it in supermarkets, Fresh elvin air! A perfect cleanser when you’re more than five thousand miles below or above normal altitude! When she was on the boat coming here, Keefe had been the one holding her, not the opposite — it made her want to kiss the earth when she finally regained her balance and stepped on solid ground again. For some reason, she thought she was going to have a sudden urge to pickpocket him.
Before she could sneak a glance over at Keefe and see how he was doing, King Dimitar stared her in the eye and whispered surprisingly softly for an ogre, “Sometimes you have to break before you reheal.”
Keefe and Sophie both closed their eyes instinctively and reached for each other mentally — Keefe sent her a cool mental breeze that came in a beautiful, dancing light green, while Sophie filled his mind with Silveny shouting KEEFE! KEEFE! KEEFE!
“Nice to know you two can still work together,” King Dimitar boomed, snapping them out of their trance as he snapped his fingers boredly and waggled an eyebrow. “It’s been really fun seeing you two… develop.”
Okay, I really DO NOT want to know what that means, Keefe whispered in her ear. Somehow it felt like a transmission in her mind, and she could almost feel him smirk and grin playfully. The color of light green flashed in front of her, and it was then that she’d realized that she’d never seen Keefe in colorful clothes on normal days. What would he look like in red? The selfish part of her thought, lingering like his breath.
It made her want to hug him — that much more relatable, huh? And glare at him for trying to make jokes in an underground dungeon.
“Nice job,” Lady Cadence remarked, making Sophie’s mind fog up like a pair of goggles after being underwater for too long, “You — we’ve — gotten off point. We need to discuss this immediately, and you need to promise me that you’ll consider it.”
“At the very least,” King Dimitar barked, “We should negotiate a fair trade.”
“Agreed,” Lady Cadence nodded in response almost instantly, “What would you like?”
“Don’t get too clever on me, Cadence,” he warned her angrily before sulking and returning back to his throne, taking his time to position himself properly. “Well, the most fair thing to do would be to bring eight hundred elves into my work camp.”
NO! Sophie and Keefe both screamed inside their heads at the same time. Sophie didn’t even need to use her Telepathy — she knew it, almost as well as she could feel Fitz’s mind.
“That’s a terrible idea,” Keefe said out loud, with so much determination and bravery it looked like it was going to break him. It was too late for him to take it back when Sophie grabbed his wrist — Wraith, Cadence, and Dimitar were all gaping at him, waiting for him to explain. The blond-haired boy Sophie was trying not to glower at looked at the king pointedly and shrugged.“What? It’s terrible! The elves aren’t used to this place. We’ve been down here barely, what, fifteen minutes, and even Foster over here thinks this place smells like a thousand gulons baking in the sun! Unless you're saying that the ogres are going to die in the Lost Cities, that wouldn’t… it’s not fair.``
He said the last word softly, but it would've had the same effect if it had been dragged out. A silent breath held, a sacrifice made, just so his thoughts could be heard. The real him. It wasn't fair that he was going to end up paying a price for it.
King Dimitar smiled, revealing all of his teeth. “I’ve never been about fairness, Mr. Sencen. Your world has never been ‘fair’ either.” He made air quotes with his massive hands.
Keefe managed to grin wider than Sophie had ever seen him do, a sure sign that it was mostly fake. “Awwwww, it’s so cute when you’re trying to counter whatever I say,” Sophie choked, but made the attempt to reach out for his hand in case it would help him at all — though having Grady strangle him did sound better. “We didn’t choose to be born as elves, just like you didn’t choose to be born as ogres. We… we don’t get to decide those things, and that’s unfair. So shouldn’t we be trying to make it all fair so we can live better lives? Isn’t that what you’re trying to do by turning us down?”
Sophie had a ton of questions and bold statements buzzing in her head almost as loudly as a human’s mind.
First: Where was Keefe even going with this?
Second: If he called the king of the ogres cute ever again, he was so done for.
Third: Why was he trying to make things go his way instead of Lady Cadence’s? His great plans usually ended up endangering and almost killing him.
And that was exactly the path he was going down as he told King Dimitar, “Give me a test. A test you never expect an elf to succeed at. If I manage to complete it anyway — eight hundred adorable ogres are coming our way!” He said in a cuddly way that made Sophie want to choke him with a squeezy hug or, well, literally choke him. “If I fail, we send eight hundred elves over to you.”
“Keefe—” Lady Cadence began, obviously not liking how this was turning out — at least, Sophie hoped.
“Nope! I’ve named my terms. King Dimitar’s right when he says that we have to stop faking and covering things and appearing as a ‘united front.’ Oh, yeah, and I’ll add a tiny one to the list I’m sure you won’t mind — Sophie stays out of this.”
If there was one thing she knew about Keefe, it was that whenever he deviated from his usual habit of calling Sophie by the nickname he’d given her, which was really just her last name, “Foster,” things usually turned out to be… intense.
“NO!” She screamed, lunging for anyone she could as Keefe pushed their fingers together. She gasped for air, not even caring what anyone might think of her. “You—You—”
Keefe exchanged a look with her that was much too serious and grave for her own liking.
But she knew what he was trying to say: Do you trust me?
She tried to shake her head so badly, but it turned out as a weak, desperate nod. “Please don’t do this,” she begged with the last of her hope, though she knew it was probably pointless.
Keefe held onto her hand as he walked forward slowly, tightening his grip and not letting go until both of their arms hurt so much that Sophie couldn’t believe it was real. It was happening again — and all she could do was stand by and watch as the helpless boy who tried so hard to save her was going to be risking his life all over again.
For her. He was doing it for her, and that was the part that tore her apart.
Of course she didn’t wish that Keefe would be easier to hate, just that he could stop doing reckless things that only made him sink further and further.
“Wait!” It came out softly and dangerously, like the electric hum of a fence. She was so scared that no one could hear her in the moment that she poured all her emotions out into one scream: “TAKE ME INSTEAD!”
And it worked. Keefe had stopped walking forward and turned back with the same pleading look she’d worn on her face just a few seconds earlier. His eyes were wide open in shock like he didn’t want this to be happening, even tried to believe that — but it was too late.
She liked being too late a little too much now.
“Test me,” she said with all the strength she could muster up, pointing to herself — her blonde hair, brown eyes, and small frame. “Test me, King Dimitar. Not him,” Sophie tried to demand.
The king smiled crookedly, like he was enjoying this a little too much for his own sake. “I suppose we’ll have to ask the boy.”
“I won’t let you,” Sophie smiled, suddenly feeling bursts of energy and strength in her stomach that spiraled from nowhere. You are Sophie Foster. You are the Black Swan’s moonlark. You hold immense power, and you’re able to control when you use it and when you don’t. You can ask for simple things like these — for protecting a friend.
She got slightly choked up on that word as she imagined her thoughts being written down on a piece of parchment that Keefe’s lips had grazed. Friend didn’t really summarize it. Neither did any other word she could think of, and it didn’t help that all the words she’d ever known popped out of existence when she tried to rack her brain for one she could use to describe her relationship with Keefe.
He brought her back every time she needed it, and so did she. They were balanced, two pieces of a puzzle that didn’t perfectly fit into each other — one piece was missing a part that someone had taken off.
But when they were created, they could slide into each other’s missing fragments perfectly.
It was time to get that missing part back by doing what she’d been doing all along.
Was it right? Of course it was. She could feel it pumping through her veins.
King Dimitar managed to cover his smirk with a hacking cough. “Then I suppose you would do the same if he was in your position.”
“Of course I would,” she fired back, feeling immense power brewing in his stomach. “You never had to question that.”
She turned toward Keefe, whose eyes were pooling with tears. His face seemed to wear every emotion ever — an adorable side that cheered Awwww, our little Foster is growing up so fast! Another side that explained his tears — thankfulness. And an angry and betrayed side that warned her that she shouldn’t be doing this.
And his quirked expression that was usually a smirk or grin, replaced by his bottom lip twitching every second as if he was deciding between a few million things to do.
I don’t doubt your ability to protect yourself. I never did — okay, I might have before, but this is entirely different. This is about me. And I might change everything.
And beneath him, she could see a different boy. A boy that could be anything he wanted, even if he was being ripped to shreds.
That part broke her.
She could feel him change as he nodded, very obviously still not giving up while mouthing a silent Thank-you to her.
King Dimitar laughed — a breathy snort that made Sophie’s temples and stomach churn with anger. “Then I suppose you’ll have no problem being my subjects together,” his eyes darted between the two of them.
And that was the moment she felt the ground rise beneath her feet, like she was a gladiator in an arena and fighting with a teammate who she felt like was meant to be her worst enemy and her best friend.
And the worst part was that it wasn’t his fault, not in the slightest.
But that was what kept them going.
As strange as it was, Sophie felt a tug at her stomach; the next thing she knew, Keefe’s fingers were laced with hers tightly as he pushed them forward as much as he could so they could cover every opening together, and it was then that she knew he didn’t want to let go. He saw that it might be necessary, which was what made the day seem weirdly normal — as if today still had the potential to turn out like any one of her other days, which were good considering all the things that could’ve happened to her and her friends but nothing like this one, not in the slightest. Keefe’s attention didn’t shift from Sophie as he squeezed tightly, and Sophie did the same — this time, they were both together, but was it purely by choice?
A glint of moonlight sparkled in the dark version of Ravagog, and Sophie understood what the vision meant. All that glitters is not gold.
“Here are the rules,” King Dimitar announced, scowling at Sophie and Keefe’s expressions — Sophie looked like she was about to dig up an invisible dagger from her pocket and aim it at Dimitar’s head (Lady Cadence had advised her not to bring any weapons or wear any clothing with pockets as to not seem intimidating), and Keefe looked like he was seconds away from passing out — Sophie didn’t know if he was faking it or not, but the greenish tint of his skin worried her.
“Oh, stop it, boy,” Dimitar’s eyebrows creased and he made little attempt to flatten them out, “For faking after using being fair as one of your arguments, I’m surprised by your audacity all the same.”
“You won’t be for much longer,” Keefe promised. Something flashed in his eyes for a moment before it returned back to its idle state, searching the room.
Dimitar clenched his jaw. “Rule number one — if one of you forfeits, both of you, or should I say all of you, forfeit,” he said, waving his arms and gesturing at everyone who had come to challenge him, “And you’ll all be facing the same punishment — though I might be more tempted to draw more blood from you,” he added to Keefe.
Sophie threw her hands up. “No, you’re not!”
King Dimitar smirked. “I have to say, your bravery is surprising me. Not to mention how you’re giving into this so easily. I would’ve expected the rambling to go on a lot longer — which makes me wonder if you two had plotted something before you arrived here,” he said suddenly, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
Surprisingly, it was not Keefe who nearly cut the king’s words off again but Lady Cadence. “Dimitar, we came here to be fair,” she dragged the last word out rather hesitantly, “Regardless of your attitude, we will continue to fight.
“I’m sure you will. Right to the very last second,” King Dimitar retorted bitterly, turning back to Sophie and Keefe before Lady Cadence could jump in again. “Rule number two — no screaming. Any kind of screaming from fear whatsoever will result in an immediate summon of eight hundred elves from the Lost Cities.”
Sophie suddenly felt relieved that a member of the Council wasn’t here to supervise them. This would likely have to go through the Council first in order for the trade to be carried out — but Dimitar had surely thought of that. What was his plan?