The Duke and the Cube

The boy approached the chair holding the box. The crowd fell silent as he stepped forward and kneeled, holding the black cube high in the air. "Sir, Duke of Yored: a gift. For you".

The man in the chair, a stretched, bony figure, smiled and stood. As he approached the boy, the cube responded, as if in anticipation. It parted from the boy's hands, then lifted in the air. The man extended a gaunt hand to claim it. The cube quivered.

He exhaled through his nostrils with a reserved smile playing on his lips. "Finally," he breathed, barely audible to the pathetic boy knelt before him. He flickered his eyes towards the boy, his face a calm mask once more.

"You have done well, my son," the man said. He gestured around the box like an ancient witches spell and its sides blossomed like a flower. Inside lay a crystal; fractured and oddly shaped. The gem glinted under the torchlight of the stone castle. 

"What is it, sir?" the boy ventured to ask. His voice trembled with fright. The Duke cast his eyes down towards the boy, his face impassive. 

"That is nothing of your concern, child," he answered with almost a kind of fondness. "You have done well in returning this to me. Know that I am pleased."

He closed his hand on the crystal and felt a jolting shock. He snatched his hand back in surprise. "Why does it shock me?" he hissed almost inaudibly. "Has this been tampered with? Who gave this to you?" the Duke demanded of the boy.

The boy swallowed hard and gained his resolve. "Sir, I do not know of any tampering, sir," he stuttered. "A man handed this box to me at a flea market, this day two weeks ago."

"And how did you know to return it to me?" 

"At first I kept it a secret - hidden beneath my bed - but it rattled and rattled for days, long into the night. I took it to a loyal and trusted friend - an antiques dealer, if you will - and he urged that I must return it to you."

The Duke, sated by the boy's story, focused upon the cube once more. The crystal settled in the centre winked and twinkled beneath the flickering lights. 

Taking a deep, composed breath, he brought the tip of his slender finger to touch the mysterious stone. At once, the box glowed and began to emit a strange hum, almost too high a frequency for human ears. 

The boy and the guards gathered closer in wonder, startled as suddenly the Duke was enveloped by light; in the blink of an eye he was gone. The crowd blinked, dumbfounded. 

The box lay on the floor, looking as inanimate as it had when the boy had arrived. With a shudder, the sides of the cube began to lift and close, sealing the crystal and the Duke inside its four walls.