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"There was a king and there was a jester."

King Johan raised an eyebrow at the odd introduction to the story.

Kurt was not a jester per se - or at least, Johan had never considered him as such. The serval was more of a storyteller, an entertainer. Sometimes Kurt had acted as an adviser as well, filling the roll of his long deceased wife, but the serval had never overstepped his role. Obviously, Johan knew he was the one with a higher authority in the room, but he'd never subjected his loyal courtier to any kind of humiliation.

It wasn't like the bear would have felt comfortable doing so, either.

"Is anything the matter, King Johan?" Kurt asked, seemingly catching the surprise in his expression.

"Oh, nothing," the bear answered. "That's just... an odd way to start the story, as there is, uh, some resemblance between its protagonists and our current state of affair."

"Oh, my king, pray tell if you wish to hear a different tale!"

Kurt was no jester, but Johan could tell by his tone that he was, indeed, jesting now.

"You know I never go against your creative impulses," the bear assured waving a paw. "Let us continue with this one. I'd love to know what you have in mind."

Kurt replied with a wide grin. Sometimes the serval smiled too much, Johan thought - then again, it wasn't like there were any laws against it.

The storyteller cleared his throat.

"There was a king and there was a jester," Kurt began anew.

Johan found words coming to his lips and let them out.

"Only the jester..."

The bear stopped talking as soon as he noticed Kurt was looking at him, that inconvenient smile still spreading on his feline face.

"You were saying, my king?" the serval asked, tilting his head.

Johan looked back at him, bewildered.

"What?"

"Just now. I heard you say something."

"Huh." The bear blinked slowly, then scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "I don't have the slightest idea what it might have been. My apologies."

Kurt cleared his throat yet again, an amused look in his eyes. How cheeky!, Johan thought. Of his personal storyteller to have such a nerve! The serval was lucky he liked him.

"There was a king and there was a jester," Kurt started for the third time in a row. "And they would meet from time to time. The king liked to hear stories, you see, tales of places the jester had been, things he had done."

The similarities between the story and reality kept on striking Johan as weird, but the bear decided he'd interrupted enough times already. He decided to listen, trying his best to keep a neutral expression.

"So the jester took pleasure in surprising the king with new tales and things whenever he asked for them," Kurt continued. "Except, as time passed by, the jester naturally began to run out of tales to tell and things to show. So the jolly fellow found himself in a predicament - would he be able to remain in the king's court if he became boring, dispensable? Would the king still keep him by his side?"

Johan relaxed on his seat. That was where the story diverged from reality. Kurt had never found himself in that situation - or at least, he'd never mentioned it in the past.

"And thus, the jester began to rely on strangers to come up with tales, to gather marvels for the king to see," Kurt continued, stepping closer. "And this arrangement worked for a while, until the jester began to think that perhaps this wasn't worth the try. He kept putting himself in dangerous situations, keeping bad companies, just to amuse his king. Hadn't he done enough already? Hadn't he kept his interest for long enough?"

There was a weird cadence Johan had never heard in Kurt's voice. The king knew he was a good actor, but it still felt like the serval was being completely serious about the tale he was telling. It sounded a bit frightening, to be honest.

"That's when he heard about the pendant," Kurt continued. He was now less than three steps from Johan's throne. "A magical pendant with the power to enthrall anybody who would be foolish enough to stare into it for too long. The jester talked to a few people, made a few deals... and soon he found himself in possession of that jewel."

It must be a sapphire, Johan found himself thinking.

Then, he frowned. Why had that thought slipped into his mind? He tried to reassure him by thinking all magical pendants were usually depicted as a sapphire. He could picture it clearly in his mind as Kurt talked. A big, shiny prism - blue as the deepest sea. As invaluable as it was fascinating.

"It was, indeed," Kurt added with a big smirk, "a sapphire."

Johan had a feeling that having come to the right conclusion so easily should have been a thing to worry about, but his mind was focused on something else at the moment.

The sapphire, specifically. The idea of it wouldn't leave his mind. Kurt's words would usually hold that power over him and paint beautiful pictures he couldn't forget easily. He was an excellent storyteller and adviser, after all.

Except... this time it felt different, somehow.

"And so, the jester came to the king and told him about it," the serval continued. "Told him the story of himself and the jewel, unveiled his plans completely. For this wasn't the first time he'd shown the king the pendant. He'd already made the king stare into the deep blue many, many times - so many times, in fact, that the king was by then utterly, helplessly conditioned by the precious jewel."

Johan tried to lift on the chair, but his body felt heavy. No matter how hard he tried to stop thinking about the pendant, he could see it right there - dangling in front of him, glowing mysteriously, forcing him into a subservient, naturally submissive mindframe. A groan grew inside the bear's chest, but it never left his throat. His muscles tensed, but moved nothing.

"And whenever the jester began speaking about the jewel, the king would go back into that preciously suggestible state." By then, Kurt was right in front of Johan. So close that he could have just reached for his crown and taken it. "And the jester would talk. And the king would listen. Forever and ever."

The pendant. Johan struggled, trying to get rid of its hold in his mind, but it was overwhelming. Even if it wasn't physically there, the idea of it was so deeply ingrained in his brain that he couldn't fight it.

And it wasn't the first time he'd given up to it, either. Now he sort of knew, even if he would forget it again.

"There was a king and there was a jester." Kurt's words came in a whisper. His piercing gaze went through the king's vacant expression, a malicious gleam deep inside his pupils. "Only the jester, you see, was also the king."