Blindfold

By,

Rune Wolfe

Disclaimer: I own none of Kyou Kara Maou

Note: alright, now I have something to say. As of late I have received a few notes saying that someone hated this story so much and its just sooo terrible, and all I have to say is: THEN WHY DID YOU READ IT? This isn't a oneshot, you can stop whenever you please. I don't see why someone would bother reading a 24 chapter story if they hated it, that's just a moronic waste of one's time and helps neither one of us because saying 'I hated it' doesn't give me anything to go on as to improve my writing and just makes me think that you are silly for bothering to finish it in the first place. No one said you had to read my story, and if you dislike it please explain yourself so I can look to correct the errors in my writing. To those of you who actually like this story, I apologize for wasting your time with this note. I don't mean to sound mean, I know there are people who won't like my writing, I am definitely not a perfect writer, but I get frustrated with unfounded criticism. I am not adverse to criticism (if it is explained) but I am adverse to arrogance and ignorance.

Again, I apologize to those of you who faithfully follow this story. I appreciate your patience with me.

–Rune Wolfe

Chapter 25: Shatter the Mirror

Wolfram's eyes fluttered open to find he was lying on his back staring at the ceiling of a room which was not the dungeon. The ache in his body returned momentarily and he began to feel dizzy. "Yuuri…," he sighed, a vague memory of his fiancee's presence clinging to the shards of his blurred memory. Shifting his golden head, he allowed himself a glimpse at his chest and arms. He had been bathed, and his wounds had been bandaged.

Weakly he called out again, his voice breaking too much to be understood. He froze at the sound of footsteps across the room.

A soft voice reached his ears as a sweet face came into his view. "You're finally awake." A young boy, looking to be no older than Yuuri, with pale blonde hair smiled down at him. For a moment Wolfram was certain that he was dead and that this angel was about to tell him so.

"Where is… Yuu…ri?" The prince tried again, lifting his head slightly before becoming to nauseas.

"He is with Cobalt… I must go to him now." The boy sighed knowingly, stroking Wolfram's hair momentarily and moving to stand. His white robes flowed with his movements, accentuating his divinity.

"Wh-who are you?' The prince coughed.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten me?" The boy teased as he drifted towards the door. " I may not look the same, but I am still the same little spark that I've always been." With that he disappeared into the corridor.

Wolfram merely stared, lost in the painful pulsing in his head. Through the din in his mind he could not draw an image for such a person. A spark? What had he meant by a spark?Yet with his exhaustion his mental quest did not last long, and he began to drift into sleep. The soft blankets became Yuuri's warm skin, and his thoughts became a pleasant dream he did not wish to free himself from.

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Yuuri writhed against the ropes that bound him in place. He was getting far more desperate as time went by. He hadn't heard from Conrad since they had separated and was beginning to worry that he too had fallen into Cobalt' s grasp. The guards merely watched him, laughing at his pathetic attempts to loosen the binds.

"Even if you free yourself," one said, "you will not be able to get past us." His companion chuckled in agreement. They found this amusing, the great demon king as weak as a newborn pup.

The other joined in the mocking, "why don't you use your famous 'Maou powers?'" He poked at the boy's shoulder with the base of his spear.

The boy-king ignored them, it wasn't as if he could just call upon his powers. They came and went as they pleased, without Yuuri's command. He wished that he had them, that he could destroy this whole godforsaken castle and save Wolfram. But try as he might, he couldn't. It was then that a sickening song drifted in from the corridor.

"Three Spitzweg bastards in my home

Three little bastards all my own

Which little bastard is alone?

Which Spitzweg bastard shall go home?"

Cobalt.

Yuuri's heart fell still, seemingly gone from his body. He had all of them, Gwendal, Conrad, and Wolfram; those people that he cared for so much, his family. He hung his head as the door was pushed open.

"M'Lord," the guards bowed in unison.

Cobalt merely nodded to acknowledge there existence as he stepped in through the doorway. "Ah, my dear king," he murmured, grasping Yuuri's chin in his hand to lift his face, "have you been good?" The guards sniggered behind him.

"He's been writhing like a lil' snake, m'lord," the larger one announced, he resembled a dog begging pathetically for a treat from a stingy master.

"Yet you didn't manage to get out, did you?" Cobalt grinned. "Thats good, or else all my preparations would have gone to waste." He stepped back and turned once again to his soldiers, "have the gallows be prepared?" The men nodded obediently.

Yuuri swallowed hard, "gallows? You're going to hang me?"

"We couldn't do that Maou heika," the general sighed, as if what the boy had said was incredibly ignorant. "We have a crossed prepared just for you. Isn't that nice? So much more interesting than the old gallows, and far more suiting of a demon king. The nooses are just for your friends."

It sickened Yuuri. Every word his said was disgusting. He spoke of execution as if it were a game. "You still haven't told me why… why are you doing this? What have I done?"

Cobalt lowered himself to look Yuuri in the eye. "Why? Because you took away everything I ever had. You made to world think I was a criminal." He stood abruptly, and slapped his prisoner hard across the face. "No punishment I could ever give you would make up for what you did. Why did you give them my name? I had been your friend, and you turned me in when I was an innocent man!"

"You raped me!" Yuuri screamed. Yes, he remembered, he could see it all now. The hours of agony those soldiers had put him through, Cobalt's voice ringing in his head.

"I had no choice," the man growled, "You saw it, Yuuri, you were there. I didn't have any other option. They were going to kill both of us if I hadn't. They had guns, I had nothing." His face had taken on a shade of red from his fury. "and that was after you sold me to the police like a mongrel."

Tears had welled up in Yuuri's eyes, "No I didn't see it; you gave me that god damn blindfold. I didn't mean for any of it to happen, they didn't tell me that they were looking for a criminal. They just asked if I knew any soldiers."

"It's too late to say that you're innocent, I am going to make you pay here and now for everything you put me through." Cobalt snapped.

Just then the man froze. The feel of a blade against the back of his neck stilled his actions. "General Forrester you shall do no such thing."

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Conrart held his breath, sucking in his stomach as much as possible in another attempt to squeeze through the bars. Twisting his head into various positions, he free his arm, then his, and then bit by bit the rest of his body. He had found that the bars had the widest gap in between them at the level of his head; therefore he needed to climb a ways up in order to go through.

Gwendal shook his head, "you are going to get yourself killed." His younger brother had been trying this for what seemed to be hours.

"I would rather that then sit here and let Yuuri die," his brother said matter-of-factly, "Besides, I'm out aren't I? Now all I have to figure out is how to get down." He gazed down below him, cautiously gripping the bars of his cage, they were to high to jump and trying to climb down the chains would be risky.

"Perhaps the way to get down is to find the way we got up," Gwendal mused, watching with slight amusement as his brother climbed about the outside of his cage.

Conrad thought for a moment, that was actually a good idea. Glancing above his head, he squinted his eyes, trying to make out the shapes above him. He had to get closer. Carefully he began to climb towards the top of his metal trap, relying mostly on the strength of his arms as his feet could not find trusty footing. As he reached the point where the bars curved furthest outward, he slipped, yet soon regained his anchorage. Finally he stood upon the highest point, grasping the chain that suspended the cage high in the air.

"Do you see anything?" Gwendal's voice called from below him.

Conrad squinted again, everything was much easier to see now. "There's a giant pulley. I just can't figure out how it works."

The dark haired brother thought for a moment. "Can you reach it from where you are standing?"

"Just barely," was the brunette's doubtful answer. He reached out his hand to see how well he could grasp it. His palm could just barely touch the metal rig, but it had possibility.

Gwendal called to him again, "is there a lever of some sort?"

Conrad located the lever. "Yes, and it's just in my reach."

Gwendal smiled, "then we have found our way out."