Alfred yawned as he buttoned up his cotton pyjamas, his eyelids now heavy as his body craved sleep. He removed his glasses to give his face a quick wash in his en suite, the warm water helping him relax. He stared at himself in the mirror, his vision a little blurred now that he wasn’t wearing his glasses but he could still make himself out. He appeared a little worn out despite not really doing much today but as Francis had said earlier, a little sleep and he’ll be as fresh as summer flowers, or something like that.

“Did I really just dream all that?” he pondered to himself.

He couldn’t get it out of his mind. The whispers, the buzzing in his head, the vanishing guests, and that creepy voice going on and on about waiting. He wanted to say that it was nothing more than a bizarre daydream, or a weird illusion, or some strange phenomenon. Whatever that was that happened in the garden, he knew for a fact that it had happened.

“Maybe it was some weird enchantment, or it was part of the ceremony... or maybe Francis was playing a trick with me?” Each King had their own unique magic power, though it was never to be used for personal amusement. Francis had a humorous nature but even Alfred doubted he would use his own power to play a trick on him.

Well whatever it was he knew he shouldn’t bother dwelling on it any further. It wasn’t as if any harm had come to him, and no threats were made against him.

“A good nights sleep is all I need,” he yawned as he climbed onto his oversized bed, wrapped himself in the super soft sheets, and snuggled against the mattress until he was in a comfortable position. “I’ll talk to Yao about tomorrow,” he decided, clapping his hands so that the lights would dim.

He sighed as he stared up at the ceiling, letting his thoughts wander. The ceremony ended with everyone happy and content, even Yao seemed overly pleased with how everything went. Everyone focused on the Diamond Queen, praising her for her beautiful singing and even the stoic Diamond Jack smiled as he congratulated her. They all shared drinks and stories and as the night dragged on they all retired to their rooms.

Alfred recalled how Francis danced with his Queen, the pair of them smiling and laughing like there was no tomorrow. He then looked around him, finding himself incredibly small on this large bed of his, which was saying something because Alfred himself was rather tall for his age. Those feelings he hated began to resurface, and he rolled about in annoyance.

“Who needs a Queen anyway?” he told himself. “My old man and the Kings before him did just fine without one. If only he didn’t waste so much time trying to-.... argh... whatever.”

He rolled into the soft sheets and closed his eyes, hoping that he would at least dream of something pleasant. The scented pillows helped him relax and soon his consciousness began to fade.

——————————

Something was stirring him from his slumber. At first it was just a small noise but as his mind began to return to the land of the living, it was getting louder and louder. Soon he found that it was impossible to go back to sleep with that irritating sound. He snapped his eyes open and sat up, rubbing his eyes and muttering curses.

“What the hell, I can’t even get a good nights sleep,” he grumbled.

He looked up to see it was still dark and was about to clap his hands when he noticed something. He rubbed his eyes again and tried to focus them, but as he looked around his room he realised that something was off.

“This... this isn’t my room.”

Although his eyesight was still a little blurry, he could still see that he was no longer in his large bed but now he was on a smaller one. The room itself was smaller, and all of the decorations were different to the ones he had in his own room. There was a couple of large bookshelves with a desk covered with empty books. A table with a single chair and decorated with flowers in a vase. A large screen decorated with pictures of flowers of every colour. A cabinet with fine dining utensils displayed and a large and ancient looking grandfather clock that ticked away. The room had a regal feeling to it, even the bedsheets were covered in beautiful patterns.

It was all interesting to look at but the question still remained; where the hell was he? Also how did he get here?

“Please tell me that this is a practical joke,” he murmured to himself, rubbing his eyes for the twelfth time to make certain his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.

With his mind now fully awake, or as fully awake as he thought, the odd noise that had disturbed him was still present. As he focused in on it he discovered that the sound was... crying?

He looked around and soon noticed an archway that led to another room, a flickering light coming from the chamber beyond and also where the noise was coming from. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end as thoughts of ghosts and spirits began to flood his mind once again. Was he being haunted? Was this what this whole thing was? First the weird voices in the garden and now waking up in a different room with something emitting an eerie crying sound from another room.

“Why me?” he stammered, wanting to curl back into the bed and go back to sleep, hoping that he’d wake up back in his room.

Maybe it was a dream? A nightmare? Everything felt real, too real, for it to be a dream. Whatever it was, he wanted it to end. He tried squeezing his eyes shut and counting to ten like he did back in the garden, but after reopening his eyes he found that it didn’t work.

“Dammit,” he hissed.

He looked back at the archway and although he wanted to stay exactly where he was, something was telling him to go and find out who was crying. Maybe it was his heroic nature to help anyone in need that convinced his body to force itself off the bed.

He crept towards the archway, convincing himself over and over that it wasn’t a ghost or an angry spirit, it was just someone who was hurt or lost or something, something that wasn’t a ghost. His heart thumped hard within his chest, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, and he was fairly certain he was sweating.

He soon found himself in another small room only this one was more of a lounge, with velvet couches, a coffee table and more bookshelves filled with books. The flickering light was coming from a modest fireplace with a roaring fire.

It was another nice room but something had caught Alfred’s eyes that made him freeze in place.

Someone or something was sitting right in front of the fire, completely hunched over and trembling. The crying sounds were coming from it so that solved that mystery, but who or what was it? Alfred couldn’t quite make it out as the fire made it look like a silhouette from where he was standing, so he had no choice but to step closer.

He swallowed the lump in his throat as he moved closer and closer, trying his hardest not to make a sound. The closer he got the more he could make out. It was a person (thank God) who was hugging himself with his face buried in his arms, sniffling and sobbing for whatever reason. Alfred began to debate with himself whether to call out to the person or not.

It was until he was standing almost right behind them that the person suddenly sat up, his sobbing now ceased. The room was now silent with the exception of the crackling fire. Alfred froze and wasn’t sure what to do or say, he couldn’t even get his mouth to open.

The person sat completely still for a moment. Before Alfred could even try to say something, the person’s head looked over it’s shoulder, it’s eyes locking onto Alfred. Alfred stared into a pair of teary eyes that were as green as emeralds with insanely thick eyebrows right above them, it’s messy hair almost hiding them from sight.

The expression it was making, with the light of the fire upon it’s face, was so terrifying Alfred finally let out a cry of fear and jumped back.

The person also cried out in terror, dragging their body away from Alfred and reaching for the poker by the fireplace. “Who the bloody hell are you!?” it barked, standing up and raising the poker in a defensive pose. “Don’t you dare try anything!”

Alfred had stumbled backwards and landed on his backside, now trying to drag himself away from the terrifying person moving towards him with a potential weapon. Given the masculine voice despite the scrawny build it was clearly a man, a very angry and scary man.

“How the hell did you get in here?” demanded the armed man, waving the poker around.

“W-wait a sec!” pleaded Alfred, still uncertain if it was a ghost or not, “I seriously have no idea how I got here!”

“How did you get in here!?” snapped the man, “what do you want? I swear to God I’ll beat the living daylights out of you if you try anything!”

“I don’t know!” wailed Alfred, absolutely scared at how vicious the man was with his words.

“I want answers and I want them right the hell now,” shouted the man, “Tell me right now how you got in here or you can kiss your face goodbye!”

The angry man marched towards Alfred with the poker raised, clearly confident that he had the upper hand. His eyes were full of determination that was trying to mask his own fear, and the way he scowled at Alfred would make babies cry.

“Did he send you? Were you sent to terrorise me? Is this all part of some sick joke?”

Nothing the scary man said made sense. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“LIES!”

Alfred was still hopelessly confused and terrified of this potential ghost. He tried pushing himself away with his feet, raising his arms in self defence. “Please WAIT!” he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut.

He fell over backwards and before he even realised it, he opened his eyes and found that he had fallen back onto his own bed. He was no longer in that dark fire lit room with the scary stranger, he was back in his large royal suite, the sunlight pouring in through the window.

He sat up and looked around, making sure that this was 100% his room and he was on his bed. His heart was still thumping and he was drenched in sweat. It took a few minutes before his mind had finally accepted where he was and came to the conclusion that it must’ve been a dream.

“What a weird dream,” he sighed, flopping back into his bed, wondering why did he dream about a scary man crying in front of a fireplace.

——————————

Alfred tried his best not blush as Francis laughed after hearing about his bizarre dream but now that he thought about, who wouldn’t laugh at such a tale. He focused on munching on his pancakes that he drenched in syrup whilst the Diamond King was trying to stop his laughter, slapping his hand against the table.

“Oh Alfred, you can be so adorable,” teased Francis, grabbing his glass of orange juice.

“Don’t be mean to him,” pleaded Erika, the young Diamond Queen sipping away at her tea. “You would be terrified if a... um... excuse me, your highness, but what was it that attacked you in your dream?”

Alfred huffed and repeated what he had told them earlier. “A scary man with caterpillar eyebrows, hair that looked like the fur of a drowned cat, and a face that would make babies cry.”

The Diamond Queen tried to stifle a snort, the whole thing sounded far too amusing than it did terrifying. Francis snorted himself and forced himself to drink his juice. Alfred just stuffed his face full of his pancakes and down his coffee.

“Why did I bother telling you,” he pouted, finishing his breakfast. “I should’ve known you’d tease me.”

“Qui, but you make it so easy,” replied Francis, pulling out a napkin to wipe his lips.

“Well what would you do if someone like that came at you with a poker?” snapped Alfred.

Before Francis could reply, Erika answered for him. “He’d scream like a child and jump out the nearest window.”

“I would not!” argued Francis, “my Queen, how can you say such things about me, your King.”

Erika giggled as she placed her tea cup down. “You make it far too easy,” she teased.

“I make it easy? You’d run and hide behind poor Basch and cry until your tears flood the Kingdom,” countered Francis with a triumphant grin.

“Well at least he’d be able to put up a fight,” giggled Erika, showing no mercy to her King.

Alfred watched as the pair of them bantered among themselves, not realising he was staring at them with envious eyes. The worst part was when the pair of them noticed, they immediately stopped and went back to finishing their breakfast.

After the three members of royalty finished their morning meal, they excused themselves and whilst the Diamond Queen went to spend some time with Diamond Jack, Alfred and Francis went through a walk through one of the many courtyards, one with a beautiful fountain in the centre.

“Ah, I won’t see you for another month I’m afraid, my friend,” sighed Francis as he plucked a rose from a shrubbery they passed, inhaling its sweet scent, “the annual Dinner between the four kingdoms, that you’ll be hosting this year.”

“Oh I’m looking forward to it,” chuckled Alfred with a hint of sarcasm, “Yao is going to be relentless with me to make certain it turns out alright.”

“It’s easy,” chuckled Francis, “we sit down and eat. Making it anymore simple would be a challenge. Well if I have one worry, it’s your Kingdom’s idea of food.”

Alfred seemed confused. “What’s wrong with our food?”

“Oh I don’t know, cheeseburgers and deep fried chicken isn’t what I call a meal fit for a King,” muttered Francis, the very idea of him eating anything like that made him crave a carefully prepared pastry.

“Relax, Yao has arranged to have a chef come in from his native city to the east,” assured Alfred with a grin, “I heard the food they have there is just as good as yours.”

Francis scoffed at the idea that someone from another Kingdom could prepare food better than his own, but was relieved that he wasn’t going to eat anything dripping with grease. Alfred knew how to host, he had a talent for that, but his idea in fancy cuisine was limited to overly sweet deserts and fatty burgers.

As they walked by the fountain, Francis ran his fingers across the surface of the water. “Alfred, do you remember what we were talking about last night? About your supposedly thriving Kingdom?”

“Yeah,” answered Alfred, thinking back to last night before the ceremony, “what about it?”

“Well as I said, I don’t believe your Kingdom is thriving,” explained Francis, “it’s almost as if it’s... standing still.”

“Standing... still?” Alfred was confused. “Kingdoms don’t move last time I checked.”

Francis chuckled and shook his head. “Hmmm, how should I explain this?” He stroked his beard and stared down at the water in the fountain. “Imagine all four Kingdoms are ships. The citizens are the passengers, the King is the Captain, the Queen the Navigator and the Jack the Quartermaster. In order to progress, make discoveries and explore the seas, the ship must sail and everyone on board must play their part. You with me so far?”

Alfred nodded, understanding what Francis was talking about but was still unsure what it was all about.

Francis continued. “Well your ship is still in harbour. Mine, Ivan’s and Ludwig’s ships are currently out there sailing across oceans and seas. We go through storms, make fascinating discoveries and broaden our horizon. However your ship just stays in harbour and is unable to experience what the other ships are going through. You’re just... standing still.”

Listening to Francis’ explanation made Alfred think for a moment. Was this how the other Kingdoms saw his? Whilst they were continuing to advance and grow, his own Kingdom was just stuck in one place? The Kingdom of Spades was still a mighty Kingdom that put the others to shame with its power, but were they no longer impressed by it just because they were missing a member in their court?

“I’m not trying to insult you, mon ami,” insisted Francis, placing his hand upon Alfred’s shoulder, “but you have to understand, not having a Queen isn’t something you should be proud of. I don’t know why your Kingdom lacks one but I do know your father and all the Kings before him were trying to find the reason.”

Alfred felt that tinge of resentment come back, but he pushed that feeling aside and forced on a smile of assurance. “I hear what you say, but you don’t need to worry. We may be a stationary ship to you, but we’re still a functioning ship and we can still sail without a Navigator.”

Francis seemed to smile sadly. “Qui, but a ship without a Navigator can’t go anywhere without getting lost, can it?”

Alfred had no response to that.

The morning dragged on until it was at last time for the Diamond King, Queen and Jack to return to their kingdom. Queen Erika thanked Alfred for allowing her to perform the ceremony, the Diamond Jack didn’t glare at him so much, and Francis kissed Alfred on both cheeks before bidding him farewell.

Alfred climbed a watchtower and watched them as they exited his Kingdom upon their beautifully decorated carriage, heading back to their wealthy Kingdom to the south. His people waved to them as they left, cheering them on as they headed home. Then they went back to what they did in their daily lives. Alfred sighed as Francis’ words echoed in his mind.

“A ship without a Navigator can’t go anywhere without getting lost, can it?”

Although he had told himself and others over and over that the Spade Kingdom didn’t need a Queen, he could not deny that deep down he wished he had one. He was tired of sitting next to an empty throne, tired of sitting with the other Kings as they sat with their Queens, and above all else he was tired of everyone showering him with pity because he lacked a Queen. These thoughts and feelings of his made his resentment towards a Spade Queen grow, until he both desired one and didn’t want one at all.

With his mind full of confusing thoughts, he decided to hide out in his room and try to relax for the day, hoping that he could go through one more day without being reminded of what his Kingdom lacked.