Before Rose could inquire where they were, or what it was Fate had told them on the way when they couldn't hear a thing, Fate had sped out of site.  Grumbling, Gerald started walking down the sidewalk adjacent to a very tall building.  It had at least ten stories and Rose wondered how it managed to stay standing.  It seemed extremely thin, and she began to worry that a heavy breeze would push it over.  It was with this anxiety beginning to build that she hurried after Gerald. 

It was another block before both of them realized that Arien was not with them.  They hustled back to Arien, which took a while since they were jostled about by groups of hostile people wearing black with matching moods, muttering darkly about something called "overtime." Arien had begun speaking to every stranger he bumped into on the street, and strangely (to Gerald at least) the strangers' frowns lifted as he conversed with them, transforming them from angry and self-absorbed, to relaxed and engaged while speaking to him. 

Rose did her best to ask Gerald as many questions as she could about this strange place.  Gerald did his best to studiously ignore everyone.  Finally, they reached Arien and Gerald grabbed him by his rope belt and pulled him along.

"Can't take you anywhere!" Gerald huffed.

"I don't see the harm in speaking to people," Arien whined as he was dragged by the sidewalk like a child on a backpack leash*, "They're perfectly nice ("HA," said Gerald - he'd never met a 'nice' stranger in his 16 years in this future, except maybe Arien), and they're telling me such interesting stories about their lives and this city. 
"Did you know that buildings are built by something called 'Architects' or maybe it was 'Engineers' or something?  I don't really know.  It sounds a bit strange, but apparently, people here believe in Science (he said this as if it were capitalized) and their lives seem to be a mixture of really easy, and confusingly hard at the same time. Isn't it fascinating?"

"It's not fascinating," muttered Gerald. "But you're right about the really easy and confusingly hard thing.  If you ask me, their lives are hard because they're so easy."

Rose said this was all very confusing and making her head spin, though that might be the reverse vertigo she was having from looking up at all the tall buildings.  Or it might have been due to the noxious stench from various bodily fluids, including - but not limited to - urine, which appeared to coat the pavement.  At least she finally understood what all those architects she took on tours of the ruins spent their time doing.

"Are you sure these buildings aren't held up with magic**?" She said, unconvinced.  Silence was all she got as a reply, and she couldn't seem to catch Arien's attention.  He kept exchanging "hellos" with passers-by as he was tugged along, and they, startled by anyone's kindness and interest in seeing them as other human beings, responded in kind.

Rose, experiencing serious sensory overload, culture shock, and a frustrating lack of answers, was reaching the end of her rope.  Just as she was about to scream at Gerald that he was being the worst mentor she could ever imagine, he suddenly stopped and she narrowly avoided crashing into him.

She looked up at easily the tallest building in the whole city.  Rose couldn't see the top of it and thought she might vomit from the effort.  Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and there seemed to be a ringing in her ears. 

Gerald grabbed her arm and pulled her through the front doors.  As the noise and smells of the city fell away Rose began to breathe normally again, and her symptoms subsided as they walked across a large space covered in polished stone which echoed with their footsteps.  They entered a small hallway surrounded by a series of doors.  These, Rose learned, opened into "elevators" which were tiny boxes which hurtled people (and occasionally beds full of the elderly) through space (and possibly time) to another part of the building.  Rose really didn't like this part, and Arien squealed "WEEEEEEEEEEEE" until Rose kicked him in the shin.

Finally, the ride was over, and they exited into another small hall adjacent to an enormous space filled with...everything.  If you've ever been in a thrift store or an antique store, or a scrap store, or a library, picture all of those different spaces mashed together times 10 and that is the space they entered.  There were mountains of everything they could imagine.  None of it in good condition, and most of it blocking what would have otherwise been a spectacular view of the city and the kingdom. It was all color coded.

"Hello?" Gerald called into the cavernous depths of stuff from the edge of the hall.

They received no answer.

"Hello?" Gerald tried again.

Nothing.

"Is there a bathroom?" Rose asked.  Gerald frowned at her and she shrugged.  "What? I have to pee!  We've been going non-stop for several hours."

They stepped forward to move into the penthouse.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

A voice exploded in their ears as a white-hot light flashed, and they were flung back.

Once his eyes cleared and his ears stopped ringing, Gerald got up and tried a spell to let them through.  Nothing happened and he seemed stumped.

"Let me try," said Rose, "I am the Dark Lord's Progeny."  She walked directly into the invisible barrier.  The light flashed red this time and again she was thrown back.  This time the voice shouted,

"I SAID, YOU SHALL NOT PASS!  TAKE THE HINT!"

Arien stifled a chuckle and decided to try something else.   He went up to the opening and said,

"Excuse me, we're here to see someone named the Wizard?"

"WELL, SINCE YOU ASKED NICELY...ONE MOMENT PLEASE."

After several more minutes, the tiniest, oldest man they had ever seen wearing impossibly large glasses and an emerald green robe embroidered with dragons shuffled up to the opening and waved his hands in a complex gesture.

"I'm so sorry, I forgot to turn off my security system, Fate let me know you were coming, but I lost track of time doing some organizing," squeaked the Wizard.  "And yes, there is a bathroom, it's behind the pink books.

Rose privately wondered how long he had been listening to their conversation, and also whether someone had accidentally anthropomorphized a mole and the result had been him.

Rose looked around and indeed there was a mountain of books which all were various shades of pink.  She made her way around them and found a small door which held the bathroom. It was very luxurious, but then she was used to uninsulated shacks with splintery seats.

When she got back she found the Wizard bowing to Arien saying, "Quite right my liege." 

Gerald looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head from either incredulity, or exasperation, or both.

"What did I miss?" She asked

"You must be the princess," said the Wizard.

"Rose, um... Wizard, sir," She wasn't sure of what to call him.

He just nodded, "Yes, I've been trying to answer as much of the Crowned Prince's questions as I can," he bowed toward Arien, who was looking quite smug.

"I'm a king!" Arien chortled.

"He's a king?" Rose asked.

"This young man here, Arien was it? And technically he's the Crowned Prince.  He must undergo the coronation rites before he's king.  I have been waiting quite a long time for this day."

"Sorry," Gerald interrupted, "how did you know it was him?"

"It's quite clear in The Prophecies of Geraldo The Foreshadower, I would expect you at least to have read them being a Mage and all - usually it's a basic level reading requirement.  He really is quite detailed.  Fate said you were related," said the Wizard.

The tiny man looked at Gerald, who blushed with embarrassment and scratched his foot on the floor, "Well..." he began, "It's like I told Fate, I haven't read them in years.  Every boy in my family was prepared in case they should be the Gerald in the prophesies... except me.  I was the youngest of five boys, all named Gerald of course.  My mom didn't even want to name me Gerald.  My name is actually Albert Gerald Pfuffernickle.  My dad insisted that at least the middle name be Gerald - just in case.  My brothers were forced to memorize the whole thing, but since everyone thought there was no chance of my being the Gerald in the prophecy, I wasn't.  He said.  His bitterness was not well hidden.

There was a long, awkward, silence and Arien tentatively patted him on the shoulder.

"Feel better now?"  Rose asked.  Gerald shrugged.  "Good.  So what's the deal with Arien being king?"

"Not technically king yet - Arien is related to the old king through his mother's line.  The last surviving member of the royal line," said the Wizard.

"Oh.  Does that mean we're related?" Rose asked. 

She didn't think she had feelings for Arien, but he was her only friend and having no basis of knowledge for recognizing romantic feelings, she was beginning to mistake platonic affection for something more, and was worried that she might be falling for her cousin.***

"Oh, no my dear, not at all.  You're not actually related to the royal line," Said the Wizard, whose eyes stared unblinkingly at her, enlarged by his enormous glasses.  She wondered if he could see her soul with those things. 

"What do you mean?  I am most definitely a princess!" She cried. "My mother was Queen."

"Well, sure...technically.  But not by blood.  Your mother was actually the daughter of a Marquis, and she married the King, but the King was not your father, as I'm sure Gerald told you by now (he had, several times, too many times to be polite in fact).  The royal line never passed to you."

Rose processed this.  "So I'm technically a princess, but not really, and he's really the king, but not technically?"

"Precisely!" exclaimed the Wizard.  "You're a quick study."

Rose looked pleased.  Arien, on the other hand, looked very confused, but before he had the chance to ask any questions the Wizard beckoned them deeper into the mountains of stuff saying, "I'm so sorry to be rude and keep you standing on my proverbial doorstep.  Let's go somewhere more comfortable."

"Look," Rose said, "I don't mean to be rude (which is precisely what most people say before they continue being rude), but who exactly are you, and why are we here?"

"Hmmm Hmmm," said the Wizard, winding his way through the maze of extremely random (to the untrained eye) items. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were asking a question. I thought you were being sarcastic.  Did Gerald really not tell you?"

"Gerald hasn't told us much of anything except that I'm the Dark Lord's progeny, his words not mine, and that I'm destined to destroy the universe, or maybe save it, and that he'd much rather be drinking in a bar than dragging us around to do whatever it is that we're supposed to do." (Those last were her words, not his). Gerald glared at her back.

"Oh, my! Well then, we must get you on the right path at once!  We only have a few more days until the planets align at the full moon.  I have to find my notes, they're here somewhere.  I definitely put them near the lunch boxes.  Organized chaos, my dear, I know where everything is, don't worry." 

Rose was beginning to worry, Gerald was already deep into worry, and Arien was fascinated by everything, and kept causing small avalanches of items because he couldn't keep his hands to himself.  The Wizard rummaged around for a bit and then came up with a small black book, which Rose was startled he could find as it was buried under several lunch boxes, a book bag, and oddly enough, a lava lamp. 

"Ah, here we go," he said.

"How did you even find that? Magic?" Rose asked.

"Of course! How else do you think everything gets done around here?" The Wizard said.

This launched into an hour-long discussion about how everything in the world was actually powered by magic.  Definitely, anything which was claimed as a "scientific breakthrough," but also many other things - like Tupperware - which Rose and Arien had never heard of.

"You see, mages had to go into hiding after the fiasco with your mother. The destruction obviously wasn't our fault, but we didn't really have anyone who could set the record straight.  In the aftermath, what with the monarchy in collapse, the Aryan Elves invaded again, claimed victory, then precipitously pulled out.  Then there were a lot of wars, then a theocracy was established - and they didn't trust anyone who could do magic, since they couldn't - and started burning people.  Then a democracy, which has been really going downhill lately. 
"Anyway, the result was mages and magicians and witches all had to go into hiding.  We needed jobs obviously, and we wanted to keep making the world a better, and easier, place to live - without getting burned at the stake - so we decided to call ourselves scientists since the real ones weren't really contributing to society and spent entirely too much time contemplating their navels.  So here we are, making the world go round, calling it 'science,'" he rolled his eyes, and shook his head in dismay. 

"So I was right about the buildings?  They're held up by magic?"  Rose said, feeling superior.

"Well, the tall ones, yes.  The shorter ones, those are actually held up by trees that have been cut down and made into sticks.  People called "developers" keep building them all over the place, and if you ask me they must be a product of the Dark Lord.  Their existence is an assault to the aesthetic senses.  Sometimes as I walk by I do a little spell here or there to make them more attractive.  I've tried to tell the city council to do something about them, but it's no use."

Rose understood maybe one sentence of this rant.  Arien was engrossed with people watching out of the large, front, double-height window - giggling about how all the people on the street looked like ants - and Gerald was trying to get the last of the two-day-old coffee in the coffee pot to taste acceptable.  Unfortunately, it was from a previously small coffee shop which had once been good, but lured by the promise of riches, had gone corporate.  The blandness of bureaucracy had seeped into the beans, and no amount of magic would ever make their product taste good.  Especially when it had been sitting for two days.

"So back to this whole saving or destroying the world thing?" Rose said, anxious to get moving on this prophecy.  She was a very purpose-driven person, and not knowing whether her job was to save or destroy the world made her uncomfortable.  Her old cult life was looking better by the minute. 

"Oh yes," the Wizard said.  "Let me see..." he brought out his own copy of The Prophecies of Geraldo The Foreshadower.  "Yes, shouldn't be too hard, you need to be at the castle ruins in... five days time...with the ring...to do battle with the Dark Lord.  If you win, then life will be saved, and Arien will become King."  He looked up from reading.  "Not too hard I think?"

"Not too hard?!"

"Five days?!"

"...Wait, I thought you said I already was King?"

"...I really don't handle "battle" well."

"...go back to the castle?"

"... must be some Firewine somewhere in this mess?"

"Wait," said Rose, "What ring?"

That got their attention.

__________________________
Next time on The Dark Heir...
Rose uncovers more than she bargained for.
Arien practices being king, which looks something like a rooster falling over its own feet.
Gerald finally does some mentoring and wholeheartedly regrets sobriety.
_________________________

*
To all the parents who have used one of these, my heart goes out to you.  Having a "runner" is a frightening reality and some kids really do require a leash.  No judgment.
To all the kids whose parents put leashes on them...you probably deserved it.

**
In reality, they were actually held up with magic, since Science was completely ridiculous, but like most middle-men, sounded reasonable enough to give a large number of people jobs where they got to look or sound important, and it was really the interns who were doing all the real work. 

***
This is never ok, no matter what kingdom you're in, *AHEM Game of Thrones*... Except in Florida...and apparently Arkansas...and nobody wants that.