Everyone fought their way into the Central Tower’s throne room. Sitting on the throne, a spot reserved for the fort’s Overlord, was the alleged two-headed Troll, a male by the look of things. The figure stood up and grabbed his club. His opponents then drew their weapons. Orbak leveled his blade at the Overlord and gave a look of contempt. “THIS FORT,” he shouted, “IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE GRYPHONS!” One of the heads, wearing a metal helmet, then looked curiously at him, as if examining him. Malnar then noticed that the other head had pure white eyes.
“Daddy!” she whispered as she pointed at the eyes.
“I see them.” The helmeted head was then moving back and forth, then it groaned in frustration.
“Can’t see or hear anything in this!” Just then, the Troll appeared to have sprouted human arms and placed them onto the helmet. Then…the head and arms fell off the back of the Troll’s main body to reveal that it was just a one-headed Troll with a Human on its back!
“I thought something seemed fishy about this!” snarled Orbak. “Which part of my family are you?!”
“Oh, you know,” answered the human as it got the helmet off to reveal a man, “your first cousin twice removed on your dad’s side.” Marshii and Orbak goggled at the man. The man then grinned as he saw Marshii. “Hey! Marshii! Old friend! How’s the Endeavor been?! I heard it became a Mechanica!”
“Barath?!” asked Marshii.
“You know him?!” inquired Orbak.
“We were roommates when we were medical students! Besides, this freak was the head of the Vorkath Monastic Hospital!”
“Oh, yeah, I remember the whole affair. My family shunned him after that.”
“So much to catch up on,” chuckled Barath. “Where do I start?”
“How about your arrest?!” demanded Orbak.
“What, after that affair? My prison shuttle never made it. We got shot down by pirates. One of them hit me on the head with a hammer. But, you know how our family works. Like an Orc, getting hit on the head was a headache at most. You wanna kill us, you gotta take the head clean off. Does the job every time! …Well, most of the time, I think…dunno. Never been really sure about that.”
“Oh, we’re sure it’s all the time!” snarled Razel.
“Allow us to demonstrate!” growled Dazel.
“…You freed them…” gulped Barath to Orbak. He then turned to the Troll. “The Human and Mermaid are friends. The Blenders, watch them! Make sure they don’t do anything suspicious like, you know, KILL me!” Malnar then nodded to her father before he continued his questioning.
“How did you end up here?” asked Orbak.
“Well, after the pirates shot my shuttle down, I was taken prisoner by them. Spent a lot of time in their brig, like, two years. They captured this Troll here a year later. We were cellmates until I gave him a way to spring us out of there! He jumps out, pirates and their respective organs and limbs go flying, now, here we are, the best of friends!” The Troll mumbled something. “I told you, you work for me now, so I’m gonna call you my best friend!” The Troll mumbled again. “You’re right, I SHOULD tell them about the fort. Well, it’s a long story. You see, after the Final War started, we decided to find some place to hole up and wait out the rest of our lives while the Realms died around us. We kept it hidden for about a year until I stupidly forgot to recast a redirection spell, giving way for a Gryphon to find us. The rest is history.”
“You refused the call to arms?!”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with staying alive!”
“And you’re a member of my family.” Orbak rolled his eyes at the cowardice on display.
“Well, it’s been nice catching up,” mused Hanjar, “but we just came by to tell you that the fort, as per our arrangement with Orbak, is ours now.”
“Yours?!” Barath laughed. “Oh please! There’s no one in Realmfleet who can put up with being Overlord! It can be a pain in the ass to the uninitiated. You gotta feed your followers, train your followers, make sure you don’t get killed by your followers, it’s a pain.”
“A pain my son believes he can bear. He feels he is ready to try his hand at command and Orbak has told us that, since it’s in Gryphon territory, it’s his to command as the new Overlord.”
“Well, good luck to your son,” wished Orbak. “We’ll just chain Barath up, put him back in prison, and…”
“KILL THEM ALL!” Barath shouted to the Troll. The Troll roared and swung his club into Malnar, breaking her ribs and throwing her into a wall. Orbak then grabbed the Troll’s head and began counter-dominating it.
“You’ve taken your last order from him!” The Troll was then released, and his eyes went back to normal.
“My sincere apologies, My King!” he begged as he fell to his knees, his hands clasped in prayer. “I never meant to…!”
“Out of my way!” Orbak then shoved the Troll aside and went straight for Barath. He charged up lighting in his hands, then fired a large stream of it at Barath. The lighting struck true and threw Barath into the wall. The attack continued, then Barath flung his arms to the side and ended it.
“ENOUGH!” he roared. “YOU ARE ALL BENEATH ME! I am an Emboramii, and I will not be bullied by…!” Orbak then grabbed Barath’s head and slammed him into the wall repeatedly, then stopped only to punch him repeatedly, reducing him into a bloody mess.
“Daddy!” groaned Malnar as Marshii tended to her. Orbak didn’t let up for a good minute. When he stopped, Barath was coughing up blood.
“…Please!” he begged. “Just do it! Kill me already!”
“…You aren’t worth the effort, you coward,” snarled Orbak. He grabbed the side of Barath’s head, his eyes glowed red, and he used his domination voice. “I will not stain my blade with your coward’s blood! You are beneath contempt, pathetic creature!” He then put his other hand to the other side of Barath’s head and pressed hard on it. Barath’s eyes glowed red as he screamed.
“DADDY! NO!” cried Malnar as she got up.