Destroying A Legacy

Chapter One: Lafew

One: you'll never be King, no matter what the sword says.

Two: if one of your former admirers stages a coup and wants you to rule over the Noblesse, give up the power.

Three: when someone else becomes King, or Regent, pledge yourself to them as their Protector and swear to kill Driscoll to defend them.

Every night, Lafew Merman read the list over and over, to let these three points sink into his mind.

And when he went to bed, every night he had the same nightmare.

He dreamt Julius Driscoll's followers. Sometimes, by the time Lafew arrived, they had already killed everyone and they displayed Peretti's body for everyone to see. Other times, they tortured Ralph and Viola in front of him. There were times where they tortured Tranio. There were times where they killed Lafew himself.

All things considered, the latter was the one that scared him less. If only it wasn't for the fact that for once he had something to leave behind. His friends. His mission to take Driscoll down. Ever since the man escaped and tracked him down, he'd made it personal. Lafew sometimes thought it should have been personal from the moment Julius Driscoll killed both of his parents to get over the Robin line. But ever since Lafew was crowned True King, his enemey stopped being a monster of his past, created by survivor's guilt. He became a real nemesis.

During the day, Pembroke kept insisting on calling Tranio and Lafew boyfriends. 

"I know what you dreamt about all summer," Pembroke let Lafew know once they boarded the train for Thyssen, the school where youths like them learnt of the ley lines.

"You keep telling them not to torture your boyfriend," Pembroke added unhelpfully.

The blood in Lafew's veins froze. He never knew that he talked in his sleep. Had he been doing it all summer?

"I really hope you haven't told your father any of that," Lafew said, suddenly bothered.

"Why? You won't see him for months,"Pembroke huffed. "You say you've battled so many rogues, and you're afraid of my dad? I think you're a liar."

Lafew was not afraid of Pembroke's father. Okay, maybe he was. But it all started when he was adopted, and progressed when Shylock Etting started drinking, and hitting Lafew. The more Shylock drank, the worse it got.

That summer they were at the point where Pembroke had only teased about 'Lafew's boyfriend' trying to laugh it off as a joke, and what Lafew got was two cracked ribs, a black eye and a punch on his mouth that split his lip.

A few days before Pembroke started to scare Lafew with the idea of telling his father that Tranio and him were really boyfriends. He was curious to see how Shylock would take it.

Pembroke had inherited a sadistic mindset from his father.

Of course, Tranio and Lafew weren't really boyfriends.

"If you tell them about Tranio," Lafew said defiantly. "I'll tell them Isabella broke up with you because she caught you shagging the blogger, Titania Amfitheatrof."

Pembroke made a start, with his hands ready to strangle Lafew. Lafew escaped, and started running. Thankfully, he was fast.

"So unfaithful of you," Lafew said, between laughs, "to hit Titania on the head. Did she make you angry?"

When they got off the train, they boarded the bus to Land's End. It was owned by the Noblesse, which explained why there was an usher, who insisted in giving all the other passengers a Wi-Fi password.