December 31st, 1610
"So you have finally awoken, boy" A voice said.
Struggling to raise his head, Prince winced, bringing his eyes to the sword protruding out of his belly.
As a shroud of darkness emanated from its iris, the eye of the sword stared deep into the core of Prince's soul. It's terrifying power radiating from its ominous gaze.
"What… What are you?" Prince asked.
"There is no need to speak out loud" The sword said from inside his head. "Our minds are now one"
"What? How is this possible?" Prince thought
"We are connected, or have you forgotten already?" The voice said
"Your wish has been granted" A voice said "The connection has been restored. You will be joined with the ancestor within you who also had that wish."
"You wish to see the truth? So be it! I shall give you my eye, meek descendant of mine" a voice said.(Prince remembered)
"Zoe! Richard!" Prince yelled. "...How…. how could they…" He said tearing up
"Get a hold of yourself! We haven't much time boy!" The voice said
"What… what do you want…?" Prince said
"Right now I want to get out of here! And unfortunately all I have is your puny body to work with! Now, allow me to take over! Give your soul to the darkness!" The voice yelled
"Darkness…" Prince said, drying his eyes.
"So it is true," Lindor said walking into the room. "You've finally woken up."
Walking up to the boy, he carefully examined the dark sword.
"This sword is impaling your stomach, and yet you are not in pain…." Lindor said, stroking his chin. "We have given you no pain sedatives… what is the meaning of this?"
Prince looked down, back into the sword's eye, and then again back to Lindor. His blank expression proved he was none the wiser to what was going on than Lindor was.
"Do you know where you are? What is your name boy?" Lindor asked
"My name is-" Prince began
"Don't tell him!" The voice inside of Prince said. "You are in the basement of a thief's guild, if you tell them your name… You'll die. Let me handle this!"" The voice said
"Why! Why should I listen to an eye coming out of a sword?" Prince said. I couldn't even trust my closest friends! Why should I trust you?"
"There is no time for this" the voice answered "Trust me or not… right now you have to make a decision, a decision that will have consequences."
"Consequences?" Prince asked.
"Here are your options."
"1 Tell the man everything, trusting him with your life honor and future. If he ends up just being a thief, he'll hold you for ransom, or torture you until you reveal some hidden treasure your family has…
Release me from this sword, and I will handle this situation!
Lie to the man, tell him you have amnesia, and that you don't remember who you are… Hopefully he plays along... if not he will kill you
Choose wisely… he's starting to get suspicious.
"If you refuse to answer me, I will lock you down here until you do." Lindor said. "And if that fails, I will resort to other methods..." He said rubbing the underbelly of his sword hilt. "I must know the truth of that sword."
"I… I don't remember who I am" Prince said "I have no idea what's going on or what this sword is doing inside my stomach…" Prince said looking down at the terrifying blade.
"Is that so..." Lindor said. "In that case... you are of no use to me!" He ylled drawing out his sword. "I will simply kill you and draw the sword forth!"
"Wong choice boy…." The voice in Prince's head said
Drawing his blade, Lindor brought it down hard and fast onto Prince's neck.
"Shadow eye!" Prince yelled
In an instant, Prince's eyes blossomed into red bloodlust, and his hair once again became black and untamed. Reaching for the sword in his stomach, Prince caught Lindor's blade mid attack.
"Well that's quite a surprise" Lindor said locking blades with Prince. "I take out my sword and your memory suddenly comes back"
"Fool!" Prince said, pushing Lindor back. Rising up from the table he forced Lindor against the wall. "You dare challenge me!"
"Lord Lindor!" Alphonse said coming down the stairs. "What's going on?"
"Hey step away from the boss!" A man with a sword said. A crowd of men had gathered all aiming to take Prince down.
"None of you interfere!" Lord Lindor said dismissing them "Boy! Or whoever you are, shall we go into the basement to settle this score!"
"Very well!" Prince said
Prince followed Lindor down a dark stairwell into a basement that resembled a small dungeon. There was an empty cell with shackles dangling from a chair, and various whips and other torture devices hanging off of a rack.
A large area free of any obstructions was at the center of the basement, a perfect spot for the two men to settle the score. Lord Lindor and Prince stood across from each other in the poorly lit basement, ready to joust. Their faces barely made visible by the two torches on either side of the room.
"I will end this quickly!" Prince said striding towards Lord Lindor
"Wolfgang," Lindor said.
As he chanted the words, a set of metal claws erected from his knuckles.
OOOOWWWOOOOOOOHHH!!!! Lindor howled, licking his claws. His face grew long and sharp, and his body began to rapidly grow in size. His white beard and sideburns grew out, more and more, until nearly half of his face was covered in white fur.
"Did you think you were the only one with an artifact?" He laughed, flicking back his long white hair.
Prince laughed maniacally at his opponent readying his blade. "That makes you a wolf in poorly dressed clothing I suppose" He chuckled
Running across the basement to Lindor, Prince swiped his blade at him, colliding with his claws.
"If this body wasn't so weak...." Prince said, pressing down on Lindor. "I would have sliced right through you!"
Following his attack with a flurry of blows, Prince hacked and slashed at Lindor, desperately trying to draw blood.
Parrying Prince's attacks with relative ease, Lindor jumped backwards landing on the wall with both his feet..
OOOOWWWOOOOOOOHHH!!!!
Spring boarding off the wall in a tremendous burst of alacrity, Lindor pounced on Prince with all his might swiping his claws at his sword.
Prince raised his sword to guard, attempting to receive the impact of the powerful blow. Lindor collided with Princes sword, filling the room with the sound of metal. He dragged his claws across Prince's blade, briefly illuminating the room with a set of sparks.
For a brief moment. Prince became unbalanced, blown back from the force of the attack.
Using the momentum of his attack to spin, Lindor landed a spinning roundhouse kick to Prince's chin.
Stumbling backwards, Prince used the edge of his sword like a crutch keeping him from falling over.
"This… this is…" Prince said, touching his mouth "Blood?"
As he dragged his blood stained fingers across his clothing, a fiery rage erupted in his eyes.
"This body is weak…" He said dabbing his mouth with a cloth. "But battles are not won by strength alone!"
Once again he ran at Lindor with his sword dragging behind him.
He made an exaggerated motion, a swipe that had no chance of hitting Lindor. Lindor easily dodged it, leaving Prince wide open.
"Your mine!" Lindor said readying a counterattack.
In an instant, Prince vanished from Lindor's view. The only thing Lindor could see was black darkness, with a distant flame flickering in the distance.
"He… he took out the lantern!" Lindor said "I need to get to the other side before-"
Before Lindor could recognize his mistake, his sight went black. Prince had removed the other lantern.
A drop of sweat ran down Lindor's cheek. He desperately squinted through the dark, trying to find some trace of his opponent.
"Very well! You have actually put yourself at a disadvantage boy!" Lindor said confidently "You can't see any better than I can. And with my knowledge of the area-"
"Fool!" Prince yelled coming down on Lindor with a devastating slash him from behind
"Shit!" Lindor grunted
Reacting as fast as he could, Lindor lurched forward. The tip of Prince's cold steel ran down his back, taking a clad of his fur of his back.
"That... was close…" Lindor thought "One second later and that wouldn't be fur on the floor, it would be by my spine!"
"Did you really think an eye that can see the truth wouldn't be able to see in the dark?!" Prince yelled "Let me show you the difference in our power! Even though this boy has only activated the shadow eye, in this room filled with darkness I should be able to use that arte."
Lifting his sword above his head it began slowly shrouding itself in darkness, as a cloud of black energy began to pour out from within it.
"This power is insane!" Lindor remarked "Its pitch black in this room but somehow it's getting darker! If I don't do something soon…"
"SHaddoooowww!" Prince said.
"..."
There was a long pause.
The two men stood just a foot away from each other silently in the darkness. Almost a minute of silence passed as Lindor patiently anticipated Prince's attack.
"What are you…?" Lindor began
As he approached he saw Prince's eyes had returned to blue and that his hair had returned to its normal form. He stood frozen in the same position holding the large blade over his head.
"What… what am I doing?" Prince said dropping the sword. Stepping back he looked around confused at the situation.
"I see…." Lindor said nodding his head "So that's the way it is."
"What? There's an ancient being living in me!" Prince yelled.
He and Lindor were in the cell in the basement, reflecting on the events.
"It seems so," Lindor said. "The sword you carry is an artifact. These ancient weapons have the souls of our ancestors embedded in them. They are incredibly rare and difficult to find, usually only nobles and men from the holy circle have them." Lindor remarked.
"How did you get yours then?" Prince asked.
"I killed a man who had it." Lindor said coldly, rubbing his hand over the hilt of his sword.
"You... killed someone?" Prince gasped. "For a weapon?"
"My boy, surely you don't think I got to my position without killing someone? Just what kind of times do you think these are?" Lindor asked.
"What… what are you talking about?" Prince asked.
Lindor looked at Prince suspiciously scratching his chin. "Just how naive is this boy? Has he spent his whole life in a castle?" He thought
"That amnesia of yours is quite potent" Lindor said. "It's almost as if you've no idea how a common man survives in these times… Almost as if you were sheltered from these truths…" Lindor said scratching his chin
"What about those artifacts…" Prince said, changing the subject "What do they do? How do you use them?" Prince asked.
"An artifact only responds to someone who has the same family ancestry." Lindor explained. "Once it makes contact with an ancestor, it responds in unique ways depending on the lineage. My sword turns me into a werewolf, but I have seen other artifacts that turn into great beams of light or even rivers of water."
"What… does mine do?" Prince asked.
"Nothing," Lindor said. "Nothing at all."
"What? What about the eye! What about the transformation!" Prince exclaimed.
"That was something…. completely different." Lindor said placing his hand on his chin "Listen, when you connect with an artifact, you don't connect with the ancestor… only their power. For some reason you have collected the soul of your long lost ancestor, and he is able to take over the bodies of other artifacts! I took a good look at the sword, it belonged to Eustace the Pirate! Nothing to do with darkness! Also he seems to be able to, under the right circumstance, be capable of taking you over!"
"What!" Prince yelled.
"When you were fighting, you were nothing more than a mindless puppet serving his wishes. Your case is not one I have seen ever before."
"So... what now? Are you still going to kill me?" Prince asked trying to move his restrained hands. He was bound by handcuffs in the empty cell, strapped to a chair.
"No…" Lindor said "That would be a waste…I want you to join my crew. Together we can learn to harness that darkness together"
"Harness darkness… I… I don't want to do something like that!" Prince said "I want… I want to go home" Prince said.
"And where would that be?" Lindor asked curiously
"Anywhere but here!" Prince yelled shaking his shackled hands.
Letting out a sigh Lindor turned to Prince with a candid expression.
"Are you sure you want to go out there right now? Now of all times?" Lindor said.
"What do you mean now of all times?"
"I guess you'll have to see for yourself," Lindor said, removing Prince's handcuffs.
Prince came to the entrance of the Den of Wolves.
"Just how long... has it been?" He said walking towards the entrance door "Since I've last seen sunlight?"
Opening up the door to civilization, Prince's eyes were filled with the warmth of the sun's rays. Taking in a deep breath, he basked in its grace, savoring the moment.
"If you were to love someone and it turned out the person you loved never existed... were you ever in love at all?" (He remembered Godefroi saying)
He reflected on his interactions with Zoe and Richard
"Did you guys ever love me?" Prince asked
"Of course we do!" Zoe and Richard answered in unison.
Closing his eyes Prince pressed his fingers into his forehead, trying to block out the memories.
"I wonder Zoe… when I've lost everything... will you still love me then?"( He remembered)
"So much has happened… and...According to Lindor, I've been asleep for 3 days." Prince thought to himself. "Mother… Father... Uncle… they're probably worried sick… I need to find my way back to the castle."
"You're just going to let the boy go?" Alphonse said in disbelief "We went through all of that just to let him go?" He and Lindor stood on the veranda of their secret lair, watching Prince walk into the sunlight.
"He will be back sooner than you think" Lindor said
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because…" Lindor said sadly. A cold confidence reflected in his eyes as he watched Prince below, reentering society. He marveled at the naivety of Prince's sun basking eagerness. "He has nowhere else to go."
"Out of the way commoner!" A soldier yelled.
Out of nowhere what felt like metal smashed into Prince's nose sending him tumbling to the ground. An armored knight stood over him, retracting the elbow he had thrown back to his side.
Wiping the blood from his nose, Prince watched as a group of soldiers escorted four prisoners bonded by chains. Their clothes had been completely torn to shreds, leaving just a filthy bag remaining on their bodies. It covered their faces, masking their identities to the public.
"Yes yes! These are the atheists charged with defying the will of the Catholic Church!" A man on a stage shouted.
At the end of the street a large stage with a set of gallows was surrounded by a mob of evangelists, armed with torches and pitchforks..
As the prisoners were escorted down the street, the angry mob of bloodthirsty people gathered around them, spitting at them and hurling insults.
Naked and embarrassed, the prisoners had sticks and stones hurled at them, as the mob began chanting "Shame!"
"Yes yes! Shame them! Shame them! How dare they make a mockery of our lord and savior!" The announcer cried
One of the prisoners was a naked woman. Metal nails shot out from her breasts, showing the markings of what must have been an excruciating torture. As tears soaked the bottom of her sack mask, she clasped her bloody hands together hopelessly trying to pray to god.
"Filthy Whore! God spits upon you! PTU!"
A man shot a disgusting wad of spit, smearing itself across the woman's neck.
"You look filthy!" A soldier barked, raising his whip.
The women let out a blood curdling scream stumbling from the crack of the whip. Lashing the back of her neck, the soldier removed several inches of her skin, covering her neck in blood. As the wound gushed open, the blood easily drowned out the stain she had received from the vulgar commoner.
"Yes! Now that's better!" The soldier laughed.
"This… this is horrible..." Prince said, nearly vomiting at the sight. "Why am I watching this?"
Clenching his stomach he looked away from the horrific scene, making his way up the street. "What could those people have done to deserve that?" He thought walking on.
"Yes Yes!" The announcer roared "Now that our heretics have been captured we shall now commence the execution of 4 members from the house of Bourbon!"
"YEAHHH!!!" The crowd roared
Prince froze in his tracks.
His body slowly began crumbling to pieces, shaking as he tried to maintain his composure. Grabbing his chest, he squeezed as hard as he could, trying to force himself to breathe.
"This sensation…" He thought, tearing up "It's happening again! I... I can't breathe!"
Spinning around he saw a man with a megaphone approach the woman with the wound gushing from her neck.
"Our first heathen that we shall purge" He said, removing the bag from the woman's head. "Is Carolyn de Bourbon!"
As the man took off the woman's mask, her blond hair dropped from her head in a clotted mess.
Prince started hyperventilating. He stumbled, falling to the ground, trying to grasp reality.
"Did I just hear…No...? There's… no way..." Prince thought
Standing up again he tried to get a good look at the woman on the stage.
Her face was bruised, horribly. Her eyes and lips were purple, inflated to nearly twice their normal size from severe swelling. Her hair was damp and cluttered, looking as if it were chewed up and spit out by some vicious animal. The woman on stage resembled nothing of the radiant beauty that had raised Prince. And Yet…
Resting on her cheek was a beauty mark, a single distinguishable freckle.
"MMMMMMMOOOTHH" Prince yelled
"Control yourself boy!!" Lindor said, grabbing Prince.
Covering Prince's mouth with his hand, he muffled the screams of the weeping child.
"We will now deliver this woman's sentence!" The man yelled
"Noo!!!!" Prince yelled through Lindor's hands.
"She shall be burned at the stake!" The man said reading the proclamation.
"Noo!!!!" Prince cried out for his mother.
Looking up from her body, bound by chains, Carolyn sought out the familiar voice amongst the rambunctious crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her weeping child, in the middle of the mob of torches and pitchforks.
For a brief moment their eyes became connected. That moment felt like years, as all of their emotions they were bearing were interchanged within that short time. Tears poured out of Carolyn's eyes as she saw her son being protected by a gentleman with white hair.
"Prince!" His mother yelled looking towards the sky. "I always hated that you hung out with that peasant girl...But look at this miracle! Those small decisions I hated, have led you here! They have led you to life!" She screamed. "This event is no different! Believe in the future that this tragedy will bring you to! I love you my son!" She screamed
As she screamed a man walked up to her with a torch.
"You… shouldn't see this…" Lindor said dragging Prince away from the scene. Prince punched and kicked trying to fight his way out of Lindor's grasp.
"Mother!!!" Prince yelled reaching his hand out towards her on the stage. Tears ran from his eyes like waterfalls as he recalled the last thing he had said to his mother.
"I named you Prince because you are the Prince of my heart. You are the future of the Bourbon family and I want everyone to address you with respect. No one is going to respect you if you walk around with a whore on your ar-"(Prince remembered)
"Get off of me!" Prince yelled yanking his mother's arms off of him. "I… I hate you!"(Prince remembered)
"I'm… sorry…" Prince said as the torch drifted through the air, thrown by the executioner.
As tears poured down his mother's face, he saw her smile one last time before she was engulfed in flames.