Abuse of Magic

(WOW! YOUR STATS CHANGED A LOT! MAGERY ALONE WENT FROM 4 TO 10. THAT IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL I'VE EVER SEEN. I DON'T THINK IT'S YOUR CAP EITHER, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO INCREASE IT HIGHER. STELLA'S STATS HAVE IMPROVED EVEN MORE THAN YOURS, BUT THIS CHOSEN OF RUNES TITLE IS CRAZY. I WOULDN'T HAVE MINDED THE DIVINITY FROM ALL THOSE BLESSINGS, THOUGH.)

[We only returned the divinity to the gods that like Joseph. The penalties they ate. That should have taught you something.]

(OH, IT DID. I'M JUST GREEDY.)

Joseph turned towards the door, a second after Stella did. He didn't even draw a rune. The runes were already inscribed all over him, he just willed the door to open, and it did. A man was standing there, with his hand raised to knock, a terrified look on his face.

Stella whipped her head towards him, "Joseph?"

"This will be handy, Stella," He said, looking at his hand as the runes faded back out of sight. "What do you need Fred?"

"Carlos has brought up a rather severe charge, your majesty, and the council was unsure how to proceed," he stammered, clearly wishing he wasn't the one before them.

"What? Why? The council has authority to deal with most issues until I can finally cure the realm. I'm so very close now. Why can't they handle the charge?"

"Um… the charge was brought against… you, your majesty."

Stella stared at Fred, too surprised to react. Then with a slight shake of her head, she said, "Against JOSEPH?! That's ridiculous!"

She turned to Joseph, "He must be defective. I'll go fix him."

"Wait, Stella," he said, preventing her from jumping through his shadow with a surprised look from both of them, "We need to hear him out first."

"What?!"

Suddenly, Daisy's voice was in his head, "Yes, Daisy?"

"Thank, goodness! Magic has been crazy around the kingdom the last couple of days. It's been full of static. I've barely been able to contact anyone, but it just cleared up, so I wanted to let you know. Someone named Carlos is claiming that you are a threat to the kingdom, and there's need to remove you from the throne? I thought you should know!"

With a shake to his own head, eerily similar to Stella's from a few minutes ago, Joseph motioned for Fred to proceed him to the throne room. With a swallow of fear, Fred nodded too quickly and turned, walking faster than he really needed to. With every step, a trail of mana particles briefly glowed in Joseph's wake.

"Looks like pixie dust," Stella mumbled as she waved her hand through the trail.

Joseph grinned and turned back to her, "I am no pixie."

She smirked. "Then what is it?"

"Joseph dust, obviously," he said with a laugh.

"Hmm. I think a better name is needed for it," she said as some disappeared into her purse.

Joseph raised his eyebrows, but really didn't want to ask what she planned to do with it.

Everyone stiffened as he walked by, but he wasn't sure why. It could be that they had heard about the charges, the trail of mana particles, or because his mana territory was controlling them. If he chose to, he could stop their mana from circulating inside their body. It was an interesting feeling.

XxxxX

As they stepped into the throne room, Stella smirked as the NIKMESH hide hanging on the wall seemed to shudder in fear. META was glowing on Joseph's forehead, as if proclaiming ownership. A middle-aged man was standing before the throne, glancing at them with partially disguised disgust and uncertainty. This had to be Carlos.

Joseph had left his battle gear in his room, so he was only wearing his white orichalcum crown and a solid black monocrystalline cloth. It was tailored so well; Stella decided the rune MAKING must have filled in for Joseph's lack of skill. Perhaps, these runes weren't such a bad thing, they made him look better.

Noting the looks of confusion and indecision on people's faces, as soon as Joseph sat on the throne, she stepped up in front of him and stated in a clear voice, "KNEEL before your king."

She made the demand only stretch as far as the room, but everyone listening from other rooms had to respond as well. She watched as Carlos, and several around him, tried to resist, but their bodies didn't pause in the motion of kneeling.

"Rise," said Joseph, and she moved back to just behind his right elbow.

Everyone stood, looking around as if to confirm that they weren't the only ones affected.

"I am told that we have a serious issue to discuss and it wasn't suitable to be brought unto the council."

Carlos stepped forward, determination in his eyes, as those around him remained back, with cautious looks on their faces. It was obvious from their body language that they didn't know just yet if they fully believed the allegations being brought forth at the moment.

"You may speak, Carlos," said Joseph, setting his gaze on the man.

Stella studied the man that dared to decry her Joseph, and noted with some satisfaction, that his thick dark hair had been forcibly regrown with magic. He carried himself well, as a former mage of the Western Kingdom would. She didn't remember anything special about his magic, that made him stand out from the other mages that agreed to come with them when they fled north from the coming army. His etiquette seemed well trained, and he was leaning heavily on it as he stepped forward to speak.

"Lord Joseph, due to your continuous irresponsible behavior, I am forced to declare that you are not fit as the king, and thus I am compelled to act to prevent further harm to the kingdom." He smiled sadly, as if he is truly sorry to come before them with this crap.

If Joseph hadn't grabbed her hand, she would have stabbed him right then. The specific cuts she would have made flashed through her mind, in order to make his death as painful as possible. Without glancing in her direction, she could tell that he heard that through their enhanced mind link, and tried to quell her spike of anger so as not to distract him from the matter at hand. How she hated politics!

"Is that all? Surely, you need to list specifics for such a serious charge? Call witnesses and such."

The man gaped at him, and gave a half-hearted laugh, as if he couldn't believe Joseph didn't understand.

"What need have we of witnesses? Twice the kingdom has been viciously attacked with hundreds or thousands dead, while you were too busy to attend to us."

Stella glared at Carlos, knowing how deeply those words hurt Joseph. Squeezing his hand, she fought her urge to cut out this man's tongue.

"Our king knows the name of every person harmed in this kingdom, and he brought everyone of them back!" growled Stella. How dare this insufferable man say such hurtful things!

"Yet, he wasn't here to prevent the damage! Only showing up to resurrect and repair after the fact. Trauma has happened, and he can't take that away! He acts as if it never happened, and everyone should bow to him, because he reversed things. He barely implements laws, without thinking about the ramifications of them, before running off again. We are told of all these gods that are coming for us, yet I wonder if they are only attacking us, to get to him? Maybe if he leaves, our kingdom would be spared their vengeance?"

His voice had risen by the end, and many in the crowd were nodding as if he had made valid points.

"Is that all?"

Carlos shook his head in disbelief. "Is that all?! You keep a woman with you, and haven't named her your wife, or even a consort, contributing the degeneracy of the youth. You are clearly inexperienced and not suitable to lead so many people. You have wantonly brought beings from another realm into ours, to satisfy your own ego, when we already struggle with sufficient resources. You brought in a duke from the central kingdom, and elevated him to a council position immediately without consulting anyone else."

"Is that all?"

Stella was impressed that Joseph was able to keep all of the emotions that were swirling through his mind out of his voice. She kept her face frozen, to prevent her killing gaze from activating. Joseph wanted to do this his way, so she would let him. Until her gave her the go ahead, she would wait.

The crowd was murmuring amongst itself, trying to figure out if what Carlos claimed, were really worth overthrowing him. She could see that there were some who were thinking it was, but they were mostly those from the Western Kingdom. Those from elsewhere, were not as convinced.

"What more do you want me to list? Is that not enough to prove you are unfit as king?"