"Your intelligence is the part of us I will always adore Moti," the figure said, smiling arrogantly. Meaning Moti had gotten something right, at least, or so he showed.
Moti looked around and him and every shade of existence started to fade. His figure looked at his quite at ease, enjoying the transaction when few vivid figures formed in front of him.
It was his mother, she looked quite younger but he could still clearly learn her stern gaze. It was too familiar he would know it even if she were a newborn.
And besides her, was a man, her father, who was sitting comfortably as they took in the quiet view in front of them. A lake.
"You having to disregard your birthright for this marriage doesn't bring me peace," his father spoke out as he looked far across the silent water.
"Why do you say that?" his mother asked, confusion visible on her face and a tone of annoyance lightly audible.
"What happens ten years down the line when you hate me for your decisions?" The boy quietly asked, fear evident in his eyes.
He didn't seem as cold as he was, or as manipulative. He seemed caring enough to know when to back down, what could have changed his father to be the man he was?
"Ekon," Ekon had ignored the lady beside him as he continued to stare at the lake. "Ekon," Moti's mother beamed quite strongly the second time, causing Ekon to turn his head in automotive motion.
"I was born into responsibility. I don't like power. I don't have passions and I truly cannot consider myself as ambitious. Stepping down from my birthright and choosing to deny it doesn't feel like a sacrifice, truly," She told Moti's father, her eyes glowing with something. He had seen that passion before. It was just as sincere as when Eshe was ready to jump to all kinds of death with him.
"So," Moti began to speak, confusion playing in his head as he tried to mix the visions together.
"My mother, the current Queen, refused to be the Heavenly General, just so she could marry my father?" Moti asked his figure as he wondered how much she must have truly loved him to do this.
"You can say that, but let's be honest Moti," his comparable began to say as he neared his steps to him. "Our mother wasn't truly making a sacrifice by denying her birthright. She would still marry a crowned prince and live a life of luxury, as she already was. She was only running away from duty."
"You have no right to speak of our mother like this," Moti fired.
"The irony of you shaming me when all your life you've always thought this, is historically humourous. I am you, remember?"
Moti thought for a second, and realised he might as well had been just as guilty, only he never realised how harsh he thought could have been when they were uttered out loud.
"Lwazi," he, hence decided to change the subjected. "What you have just showed me has nothing to do with him."
The world infront of him began to fade again, and vivid colours of his mother besides his grandfather showed. They were talking in harsh bickerings.
"The war Nala, is something I have no choice but to fight," the heavenly general had bestowed.
"if it were under normal circumstances I wouldn't stop you, but you are sick!" Moti witnessed the fear on his mother's eyes as she begged the old man to stay home.
"I know I am! but they asked for your hand Nala, I have already sacrificed so much for you. Put your happiness and safety above this country! You refused to inherit the heavenly power, refused to marry the wolf empire, and these are the consequences, and as your father, I have no choice but to pay for them!" The old man had yelled on top of his lungs as he hushed Nala from her tears, but was suddenly stopped by a hard cough that had him holding on to his dear heart.
"Then let me go on your place," Nala begged.
"You already know, our army is stationed at the borders of the Northern tribe, the only answer is the heavenly army." Her father looked away too fearful he would agree with her. Nala's eyes were just like her mother's, holding the same sternness and glitter.
"Commanding the heavenly army will strain your health father. You will die!" she kneeled, holding her father's shoes as she smeared her tears on his feet.
"I know I will die, I know," he sighed. Finding his feet to carry him to the floor as he kneeled along with his daughter. He embraced her as she continued to cry in his arms.
"Your uncle doesn't know I am sick, if I don't come back alive you'll need to pretend to be in shock. Or else you might be punished for endangering the Heavenly General," he whispered on her ear as he gave her soothing rubs on her back.
"I cannot promise you that," Nala continued to cry.
"Nala,"
"I cannot promise you that!"
"Keeping my health as a secret is endangering my life Nala! Endangering the Heavenly General's life is punishable by death!" Her father screamed on her face as he shook her with his hands.
"I have sacrificed enough for you, don't let my hard work be in vain," his eyes softened when he noticed her daughter had shrunk back with guilt, shock and fear.
"Don't let my hard work be in vain," he begged.
"All these sufferings, that I have simply brought for being your daughter father..." she hiccupped, unable to finish her sentence as she wept on her father's arms. "They are worth it," Her father had reassured her, just before he rose from his position, taking off to his very last war.
Moti was unable to speak from shock. He felt lost and suddenly, his life quite insignificant.
"Grandfather, he never came back, did he?" Moti asked as realisation hit him.
"No he didn't," his other self agreed silently, for the first time showing emotion other than the stoic self.
"What happened next?" Moti questioned.
His other self said nothing, but just motioned in front of him as vivid images showed again. Moti watched his mother marry to the wolf empire. Later she got pregnant, giving birth to a healthy baby boy named Alarick Lwazi. Yet just as the baby was roughly a year, the prince Nala had married died.
"We release you dear," the Queen had told Moti's mother as she sat on the grieving mat.
"What?" Nala had had her eyes nearly budge out of her eye sockets as she wondered if all she heard was true. "Yes, but you will have to leave the child behind."
"You cannot possibly ask that from me your highness,"
"I already have Nala, you are only eighteen, for how long are you willing to stay widowed when you could go back to your country and marry Ekon?" the elderly woman had asked.
"But he is my son," Nala had cried out.
"Do you think if you went back with him he would be accepted? From the day he was born he was bestowed with the title of the crowed prince. He will be safe," Nala could only cry when she heard those words, thinking how she could only leave her son behind. He wouldn't be accepted back at her Crystal tribe, they would see him as a thorn and a result of a peace treaty. And her father who had died just so she would marry her Ekon in peace, would it not be in vain if she refused to leave for her home country?
"So she left him.." Moti realised. "Yes," the other figure agreed. "Alarick Lwazi is her son? And she left him? How did he grow? Lwazi?"
The figure began to manipulate live images of Alarick Lwazi growing into a four year old, yet him already starting his training to lead. By the age of eleven, he had already went to war.
"Do you think we deserve to be the Heavenly General Moti?" the other Moti questioned as Moti found himself in his knees finding the harsh childhood of his recently found brother horrible.
**************
If it was just General Ayana rebelling, we would have solved it long ago, but, General Ayana, she has been dead for the past twenty years."
Azania could feel her breathing quicken. "Dead?" she whispered in great fear and confusion. "Retribution," she whispered in panic as everything seemed to make sense and still manage to confuse her as much.
"Did they show any kind of superior powers? The army and the general?" Azania asked the soldier as her gears quickly started working.
"No, she did not,"
"that is better, you stay guard to the Queen mother's kraal, and station more capable soldiers beside her as protection," she spew out those words as she took a nearby sword as if ready to fight.
"And you? Where are you going?" the Queen Dowager asked, shocked by such bravery from a child. "I must give out orders on behalf of my husband. Everyone in the Northern tribe will be too afraid to face this General Ayana because it seems she was of a highly respectable position, and I, I don't even know her, I can face her head on," she said as she ran outside.
Azania was not only trying to protect the Queen Dowager, but mostly her husband. He was supposed to return soon, and was afraid he would reach the army of the dead before he made it home safely. He had already done so much to make her feel safe as a friend and a companion, she couldn't bring herself to fail him.
Plus, if he died, she would have to marry one of his brothers and she didn't know if she liked any of them, honestly.