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The Three Realms The Three Realms (Book 5: The Final Fight)

3 Realms 5-19

A manhole cover moved out of its slot near the stables within Largandra’s castle. The person who moved it, Arsha, poked her head out and looked around. A horse mare, Sun Walker, goggled at seeing her usual rider. She was about to whinny in happiness, but Arsha put a finger to her lips. Sun Walker then looked around, then she shoved her muzzle into the side of the mare next to her, knocking the other mare, Moon Swimmer, into a wall. Moon Swimmer was startled and squealed at her attacker in warning. Sun Walker didn’t listen and ran her into the wall again. That prompted a fight between the two mares. The Stable Master woke up from the noise. He then got a pair of stable hands, both men, and they managed to separate the two mares. “A damn shame,” muttered one of the hands.

“Yeah, Arsha being in the Over-realm,” replied the other, “really took a hit on Sun Walker’s mood.”

“Can you blame her?”

“Not really, my husband’s been stuck in the Under-realm. I’m going just as crazy from the separation.”

“Yeah, and I was supposed to be traveling the Realms as a new Forsorna man.”

“All right, I know the separation of the Realms has delivered a hard blow to morale,” remarked the Stable Master, “but we still have a job to do. We must continue as if our real King is here.”


While the distraction went on, Arsha and her team made it to the maze. “Good girl, Sun Walker!” Arsha thought to herself. She then led her team through the maze and eventually arrived at the maze junction. She then made the deliberate wrong turn and found the secret passage. “Perfect!” she whispered. She opened the trapdoor, and the team went in. The passage was very narrow and short, so Gorfanth had to bend over as the team followed Arsha in single file. After an hour, they arrived at another door. Arsha put her ear to the door and hear a conversation going on.

“It is no concern of ours whether or not your family has…what was it again?” said a man in an oily voice, the nemesis of the Royanas, Skain.

“Erm, food, Your Grace,” replied a woman. The man scoffed.

“You really should have thought about that before the wall came up!”

“Sir, the wall has cut us all off from the lower fields! It’s endangering us!”

“How dare you!” Arsha then heard a slap and the woman yelped a millisecond after that. “I had that wall erected for YOUR safety and you dare tell me you can protect yourself better than I can?! That’s treason! Take her to the dungeon!”

“Sir! You can’t-!” protested the woman.

“The correct form of address is Your Majesty! Take her away! …And get the cleaning staff in here! It smells like a sewer! …Or maybe you guys DO need a shower.”

“It’s not us, Si…Your Majesty, I can personally assure you of that,” remarked a guard.

“Well, it ain’t Skain-” Arsha decided that that was the signal.

“SKAIN!” she shouted. The passage opened and the strike team swarmed the throne room. The guards briefly leveled their crossbows at the team only to see the Royanas.

“Your Majesties! Your Highness!” cheered one of the Guards. Everyone knelt to them.

“What’s all the ruckus?!” barked a voice. “I’m trying to-!” Irmalii rounded a corner and clapped eyes on the Royanas. “…I must be sleep-deprived!”

“Since you’re not throwing these pieces of trash in the dungeon, yes!” snarled Skain. Irmalii then slammed her fist into his chest for that.

“You will address the Royanas with respect, you throne-swiping, thin-blooded, purity-obsessed freak!” growled Irmalii. She then turned to Arsha and ran to give her a hug.

“Hold it!” called Arsha. “My team and I just went through the sewers, and I don’t want to spread its stink onto everyone else.”

“Erm, hello?! Rightful King here!” called Skain. “We’ve got intruders and-!”

“Thrandoshius Skain!” boomed Elgrad. “For usurping the throne during my absence, for reintroducing slavery into the Mid-realm, for other crimes too numerous and horrible to mention, I hereby declare you too dangerous to be kept alive!”

“I won’t bow to you anymore! The Mid-realm throne is MINE!”

“No, it’s mine! Guards, has that poor woman made it to the dungeon yet?”

“No, Your Majesty,” replied a guard. “But there ARE good people who did nothing wrong that are trapped there.”

“Get them out and put Skain in there! After that, seize his lands, confiscate his possessions, liquidate everything he has! Only when I get word of his financial assets being reduced to zero will he die!”

“YOU UNGRATEFUL-!” Irmalii clubbed the back of his head and knocked him out.

“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” she greeted as two guards hurried off to obey Elgrad’s orders.

“Good to BE back,” sighed Elgrad. He then took a whiff of his pits, then his face contorted in disgust. “I need a shower!”

“Yeah, no offense, Your Majesty, but you and your team reek!” Irmalii covered her nose, as did the rest of the guards. “We’ll have the serving staff draw you all a shower.”

“Thank you, Irmalii,” sighed Arsha. She then realized something. “Where’s Kartambo in all this?”

“The seditionist?” growled Irmalii. Elgrad then gave Irmalii his full attention.

“Why use that word with our trusted advisor?” he asked.

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, I’m afraid it’s you who are using the wrong words concerning him. Kartambo did nothing as Skain took the throne. He actually announced his support.” Elgrad’s eyes went wide in fury.

“Once I’m done cleaning the sewer stench off me, I want EVERY scrap of information on him!” he growled.

“At once, My Lord.” The strike team were then led to the baths as Irmalii headed off to obey her rightful sovereign’s commands.


Over in Frigandor, a Revenant Elf woman was sobbing hysterically. Yulduk and Tormo looked on in pity. “Poor Lontrel,” mumbled Yulduk. “She had really high hopes for the Markulak line of robots. Then Model 7 had to go and betray us and kill his successor!”

“You know, I think she’s lost her marbles because of it,” replied Tormo. “Yesterday, she thought she was a chicken.”

“We better get her a Shrink then!”

“Oh, we can’t do that!”

“…Why not?”

“We need the eggs!” Tormo laughed while Yulduk frowned.

“What’s that in your hand?”

“Just a hammer.” Yulduk then took the hammer from Tormo.

“Real classy to joke about someone grieving!” He then bonked Tormo on the head with the hammer. “Come on and help me console her!” He grabbed Tormo’s ear and dragged him over to the woman.

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