So Eret wanted to make a difference as a ruler. He wanted to help people, get shit done. But then he realizes that he’s just a figurehead, a puppet for people to blame for all the decisions Dream was actually the one making.
So he says he’s leaving. He throws his crown at Dream and finally tells him where he can shove it.
But Dream just smiles at him, “Did you really think that I would just let you go?”
Then Eret is surrounded by guards and they drag him off to his room and lock him in there. A pretty bird in a golden page.
So he sets out on destroying his cage. He takes a decorative sword to the curtains, the bedposts, desk, walls; anything he can do damage to. He uses a chunk of flint at the bottom of a chest to spark a fire on the sword’s blade and burns all the capes and finery he can get his hands on.
Until all he has left it a couple white shirts and black pants. He only hesitated a little when he throws the red fur trimmed cape into the flames.
By the time the guards see the smoke seeping from under the door, Eret has climbed down from the balcony and is sprinting through the courtyard.
He doesn’t get far. Eret gets tackled before he makes it halfway to the castle gates.
He wakes up in a room with bare walls and all the furniture nailed to the floor.
Back in the golden cage.
-
He makes speeches and smiles at the people with a knife pressed to his side . Every attempt to escape or even think about alerting anyone to the true nature of his position is met with bruises that can be hidden under clothes and threats to his life. The more he cooperates the more often he gets fed so he learns to be the puppet that he is.
As a reward for his good behavior, Dream gifts Eret new crowns and clothes and the privilege of talking to someone who isn’t a guard.
-
Everything changes when L’Manberg explodes and withers are set loose upon the land. Eret wished the same would happen to the rest of the SMP. He wanted to watch this stupid fucking castle burn to the ground with Dream inside it and stand in the ashes
That’s when Technoblade starts hanging around. He’s apparently one of Dream’s allies since he helped with the destruction of one of the greatest thorns in his side.
But Dream never let him get anywhere near Eret. Probably because of his propensity for slaughtering heads of state. Eret almost wished he would so he could be put out of his misery.
Every once in a while he and his entourage of guards would pass Technoblade and Dream arguing, sometimes goodnaturedly, sometimes on the verge of violence.
He didn’t think he imagined the way the self proclaimed Blood God’s eyes lingered on him, gaze unreadable.
It’s been almost a month since Technoblade started hanging around the castle when he’s finally left alone with him.
Dream runs off during a dinner with the three of them. Eret, as usual, hadn’t said a word throughout the whole thing. He never talked around anyone but Dream.
If he ever told them the truth, then the green bastard would just kill them. So what was the point of talking?
“Soooooo” Technoblade drawled, “How’s being the buddy of a tyrant going?”
Eret jolted when the guy addressed him directly, no one talked to him anymore. But he stayed silent. He’d heard it all. The people he met at the lavish balls and events he was forced to attend usually didn’t mince words.
They told him exactly what they thought about him and his supposed servitude to Dream.
“No comeback? No pretty speech? Aren’t you supposed to be a valiant leader?”
Eret snorted and looked up, meeting his eyes for the first time.
“What? Is something funny?”
“We both know how powerless I am. I’m sure Dream’s told you all about my escape attempts.”
Dream had no doubt bragged to his newfound friend and ally about how he had a lovely little king all locked up and compliant.
“Escape attempts? What, does he have you locked up in here?”
Eret just stared at him, blank faced. He had thought that Dream had told him everything but now he wasn’t so sure.
The joking grin fell off the warrior’s face.
“I’ve said too much.” Eret stood abruptly, “He might kill you if he finds out that you know. And I don’t want anymore blood on my hands.
“Guards! I want to go back to my room.”
“Wait-“
Eret leaves escorted by the ever present guards before Technoblade can get out more than a word.
Technoblade tries to talk to him after that, cornering him in hallways and rooms, but Eret refuses to talk to him. Dream didn’t like it when Eret talked to other people too much. Even those he saw as allies.
Eventually, Technoblade leaves the castle; off to do whatever he does when he’s not breathing down Eret’s neck. Things go back to normal.
Sort of.
It’s like talking about his imprisonment renewed a fire in him that hadn’t been lit in over a year. Slowly, Eret starts gathering things, a needle here, a decorative dagger there, until he has enough supplies to get him to the border of the kingdom. All of it safely tucked away in a whole he had cut in the bottom of his mattress.
He even snatches a shirt and some pants from an unfortunate servant who he felt a little guilty listening to searching frantically for their stuff.
-
Eret’s smarter this time. He doesn’t break a window or cause a ruckus. He dons the servant’s clothes and wears a brown cloak with a hood when he calls his only guard into his room and strangles him with a scarf.
Sucking up to Dream over the past couple weeks had paid off so there was only the one.
He’s just walked out the gates when the alarms are sounded and the guards shit them behind him. No one give him a second look. After all, what kind of king wears a commoners clothes?
-
Eret creeps out of the city in the cover of night and sets out on getting as far away as he can from the SMP. He gives L’Manberg a wide berth, they would probably turn him right back over to Dream.
By the third night of traveling, Eret is exhausted and in a snow biome. He hasn’t slept in days and he only has the threadbare cloak that he stole for warmth.
He can just barely see lights of a cabin of sorts ahead of him when he finally collapses from the cold and exhaustion.
-