"Good morning my prince." a beautiful elven maid in a silken gray and silver gown greeted Jax'in.
He sat up and noticed that he was back in his room, the same maid was walking around his room opening the curtains.
"Good Morning." He said in confusion.
"Is this real..." He whispered to himself.
"I'm sorry Your Highness, did you say something?" she flashed a smile as she flowed to his bedside.
"Are Father and Mother awake?" His body replied leaving him even more confused than before.
"Yes, they are waiting for you in the courtyard." she said with a curtsy. "Your Coming of Age ceremony is today, don't you remember Highness?"
It was as if a floodgate had opened, Jax'in remembered this day. It was the day the war started.
"Inform my parents that I will be down momentarily." Jax'ins voice informed the maid.
'What? No, we need to sound the alarm. We have save everyone we can!' He lashed out in his mind.
Even though he wanted to don the set of moonstone armor he always kept in his room, his body moved towards the closet containing the silken fineries his parents had surprised him with the day before. He remembered the joy that it brought him as tears fell from his eyes.
"Jaxy are you ok?" came a soft voice from the doorway.
"Na'mia, when did you get there." Jax'in said as he turned towards his little sister.
"Kera'yla said you were awake so I came to see you." She said with a wide toothy smile.
"Did she now, what else did she tell you." Jax'in said as he scooped the her into his arms and hugged her.
"Well, I asked her why she had slept in your room last night, she said you made a nice warm evening snack for her." she said with a smirk.
Jax'in spluttered in surprise, while as elves it wasn't uncommon to be promiscuous, it was frowned up to even hint at it with children. While by any other races standards she may be an adult at 58 years of age, she was still only in her late teenage years to elves.
"Will we be making another seat at the dinner table tonight brother?" she cackled at the flustered look that flashed across his face.
"No, not for a good while I hope." Jax'in said in embarrassment.
"Don't let mom know, she only approves of that human princess that was here for magical studies." she patted his head.
"Why aren't you ready for my ceremony yet?" He quickly changed the subject.
"I just got back from fencing practice." she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"How'd that go?"
"I lost, Master Gen'val is amazing." she said with a swoon in her voice.
"And also older than our parents." He said with a little bit of disgust.
"That doesn't me he isn't impressive." she squealed at him.
"Hahaha, go get changed, today's going to be a big day." Jax'in said
'If only I could tell you just how big it was going to be..' Jax'in thought.
"I will, sniff sniff, you might want to wash her scent off you, you know how mom is." she mocked him.
Jax'in smiled to himself as his sister closed the door to his room. It only took him a handful of minutes for Jax'in to to freshen up and change his clothes. He was adjusting his appearance in the tall mirror in his room when his door opened once more, revealing Kera'yla in a beautiful silk and sheer dress.
"You look handsome Your Highness." she smiled coyly.
"You look stunning yourself." he replied with a flush creeping along his cheeks.
Jax'in quickly turned around to finish adjusting his clothes when he felt something soft and warm press up against his back. It was Kera'yla, she was burying her face in his back. He wished he could turn around and embrace her one more time. But this wasn't real, these moments before his ceremony were some of the last few happy moments that he could remember.
"You'll definitely attract plenty of attention from the nobility..." she said in a barely audible whisper.
He did nothing but smile, while in his heart all he wanted was to turn around and wrap his arms around the women behind him. Instead he put his arm out saying.
"Care to escort me to the carriage?"
"With pleasure, my Prince." she said with an almost sad smile on her face.
'I'm sorry Kera'yla.' Jax'in thought to himself.
Na'mia joined them as they passed by her room. She wore a beautiful white gown with silver trim. Upon seeing her brother she winked at him and took his other arm.
"It's only proper for a gentleman to escort the ladies." she said in mockingly posh voice and a wink at Kera'yla.
As they were walking down the stairs Jax'in finally caught a glimpse of his parents. They were just as he remembered them to be. His dad giving him a thumbs up and wink after seeing the maid on his one arm, and his mom. Well, she was giving him her customary tight lipped smile and a raised brow.
"Good Morning, Father, Mother." Jax'in and Na'mia said.
"Good Morning, Your Majesties." Kera'yla said with a low curtsy.
"Enjoyable night son?" Jax'ins father, Jax'bereth asked with a smirk.
"As enjoyable as it can be Father." Jax'in replied.
Smack Smack
Both his mother and Kera'yla slapped Jax'in. While his mother was wearing a look of indignation, Kera'yla had a flustered look on her face before stammering.
"I a-assure your H-highness, no such pleasantries were exchanged last night."
Jax'in thought he was going to make it out of the house with only that, but as luck would have it. Na'mia had to chime in.
"That's true mother, they were just making ghost noises in his room until late last night, it's why he slept through fencing this morning."
She wore a shit eating grin as Jax'in and Kera'yla both stared at her in disbelief. Jax'in couldn't help but let his jaw hang as another resounding slap across the back of his head rang through the main hall. All the while his father was laughing so hard that his mother ended up slapping him across the chest as well.
"Ouch! Na'mura, that wasn't fair." he protested.
"By the Gods, you and your son are just terrible." she huffed, sticking her nose up into the air.
While all this was going on the head butler of the palace had approached from the door and let a small smile grace his otherwise obstinate facial features. However that smile disappeared just as quickly as it arrived.
"My liege, the carriage is outside and waiting." he said in a remarkably unemotional voice.
"Ah, good, we shall take off in a few moments." Na'mura said with a hint of respect in her voice.
"Ma'am, you should leave now, you all are already several minutes late for the Ceremonial Procession." he said in his deadpan voice.
"Very well, children. Let us leave." Jax'bereth said in an overly jovial tone of voice.
The procession went exactly as Jax'in remembered, thousands of Lunar Elves, Solarian Elves, Nekarians, Peranians, and Humans were among the massive crowd of cheering people. After all, it wasn't an everyday occurrence that a member of the Royal family come of age.
But Jax'in knew exactly what was coming. No one ever really questioned why the Humans came armed, for most Humans prayed to the God of Battle, so weapons were essentially part of their religion. But tonight was different. Tonight they sought to slaughter the gathered masses.
Jax'in screamed in his head. Begging for something, anything to let him change the outcome. To let him save his people from being slaughtered. And then, it started. The first scream of the night that started the massacre.
"Daddy! Wake up, please wake up."
Similar cries filled the air as every human in attendance drew their weapons and started slaughtering the helpless masses. The few mages that were among the crowd tried to fight back, but there were too many humans, and before long even those few mages were killed. The driver to the carriage Jax'in and his family were in had been slain near the start of the slaughter from a lucky arrow catching him in the chest.
"Mom, what's happening why are the humans killing everyone." Na'mia cried.
"It'll be alright sweetheart." Na'mura comforted her.
"Jax'in, when I tell you to, you take your sister and you run. You run and don't stop until you know you're safe, understand?" he said before kicking the door open and blasting a nearby human with a spire of hardened rock.
"I need to go out and help your father. You listen to Jax'in, he'll keep you safe." she said before pulling both Na'mia and Jax'in into her arms "Kera'yla, go with them."
"Stay safe Your Majesty." Kera'yla said before Na'mura rushed out the carriage, taking the spear from from a rushing human and running it through his chest.
"Now! Head for the Palace!" screamed Jax'bereth as he unleashed a wave of earthen spikes into the oncoming humans.
"Lets go!" Jax'in said as Kera'yla stepped out of the carriage only to be struck in the side with an arrow and looking at Jax'in with sorrow in her eyes.
"NO!" howled Jax'in as he sat up.
"Easy there Elf. You're among friends." Said an old Nekarian to his left.