Control… Balance… Emotions… Three concepts that Arthur had struggled with for as long as he could remember. Ever since he'd asked his father for permission to step outside the castle, these lessons had begun.
He sat crosslegged, ignoring the pain from the numerous bruises that covered his body. He kept his breathing even, trying to keep himself from triggering a wave of pain from his cracked ribs.
"Focus on your core, young phoenix… and completely conceal it. Just like we've practised," a gruff voice echoed through the room and into his ears. Arthur did as he was told, visualising the flame core within him.
A beautiful white orb burning with bright incandescent flames. His mission was to snuff out these flames and conceal the aura of this element residing within his body. He watched the flames get weaker and flicker slower until they were snuffed out, leaving a white orb behind.
"Now stand, young prince."
"Do I have to?" Arthur cried out.
"Do you want to go out and play with the others?" the gruff voice called out to him.
"More than anything!"
"Then, stand," Arthur, against the pain that plagued his muscles and battered body, raised himself from the ground, straining to keep his balance.
Purple bruises covered his body from head to toe. The pain was all he'd come to know since these 'lessons' had begun. He opened his sapphire eyes and set them on the man commanding him.
The man's face was expressionless and hard, with only his soft eyes to betray the kind heart hidden behind them. In his hands, he held two lances, both blunted. That didn't mean they wouldn't cause harm.
After all, the prince was covered with bruises from head to toe. The man threw one of the lances at the prince.
Arthur struggled to catch the weapon in his hands. It felt smaller in his younger hands but that didn't bother him. The prince expertly spun the lance in his hands getting a feel of the spear before brandishing it in one hand and getting into a ready fighting stance.
The man's expressionless countenance remained unchanged. Instead, his eyes glistened with a thin layer of tears before he dashed forward, attacking the young prince.
Metal clashed against metal, the prince quickly on the defensive and struggling to keep the man's attacks from landing. It was nearly impossible to keep up with the man's pace.
His footwork, form and agility were on different levels compared to that of the young prince. Even then, the prince felt that the man was holding back.
After a few seconds, the first attack went through, striking the prince's chest in a vicious thrust that sent him flying several metres back. As a reflex, the white flame core he'd just succeeded in concealing threatened to break free.
The prince rolled on the ground and pulled himself into a foetal position, holding the fire within with all his might. Arthur shut his eyes and gritted his teeth as pain radiated through his chest. He felt as though that one attack should have been enough to shatter his sternum.
The pain was nearly unbearable and keeping his flame core tightly sealed was even harder to do with this much pain radiating through him.
"Get up, Prince Arthur… and face your enemy," the man growled, taking slow steps toward the prince.
Arthur forced his eyes open, stars staining his vision. He grabbed his lance and tried to get up, only to fall on his knees. The stars that stained his vision increased and a dizzy spell gripped his body. The man blurred from vision…
'Blasted cinders!' the prince cursed, leaping back just in time to avoid the weapon that was aimed at his shoulder.
The enemy's lance struck the ground with a loud clang. Arthur had only barely escaped… and he continued to do so for a few more seconds before a horizontal swing connected with his side, hurling him sideways with so much force he rolled a dozen times before coming to a stop.
The prince coughed blood and pulled himself, curling into a ball. What was the point of all this?
Just to conceal his flame core, he was forced to go through extremely painful training to make sure there wasn't a situation when he'd be forced to summon the flames that made him who he was.
Tears rolled down the prince's eyes. He couldn't remember a day when he hadn't gone through this kind of pain… and he was reaching his tolerance limit.
"You're almost there, Your Highness." The man's voice was softer this time.
He gently touched the prince's head, rubbing his hair affectionately. Arthur whimpered and sobbed, hiding his face from view.
"How much longer? Why do I have to go through all this? It hurts, Conrad. It hurts so much."
"I know, prince Arthur. But you know why it has to be this way," Conrad replied, stroking the prince's white silk hair.
Arthur knew how the story went. He knew why they all had to learn how to conceal their flames from the rest of the world, "To keep our people from the threat of the Red Dragons, we must stay hidden at all times."
Arthur had heard this numerous times but it didn't stop the elders from saying it time and time again. The enmity between the phoenixes and the dragons ran deep, forcing their kind into hiding.
That said, there was a way they could live normal lives without having to live in fear of the Red Dragons. And that was by concealing their Flame Cores. Without their flame cores, they could simply pass as humans.
Learning this, however, was easier said than done… and even more so for this specific prince.
Arthur's flame core was oddly more active than others, easily erupting into flames the instant the prince felt threatened or even excited.
As a result, he was ordered to go through an arduous training routine to break this habit. One exposed phoenix could cause the downfall of their entire race. Prince or not, Arthur was no exception to this rule.
The prince had been beaten, thrown into tubs of water of extreme temperatures, electrocuted, thrown in flames, tortured and several other painful procedures to teach him how to keep his flame core intact and dormant.
"Please keep in mind, your highness, that all these painful training sessions are nothing in comparison to what would happen to you if you were to ever reveal your flame core to the dragons," Conrad cooed, still stroking the prince's hair.
Arthur knew this too, but that didn't change the fact that he was in constant pain. The prince let out a stifled cry before a searing wave of heat erupted from his body, spreading outwards in a loud explosion.
Conrad was violently thrown several metres away from the prince, crashing into a pillar that held this underground training room. The man landed on the ground, uninjured except for his singed clothes.
The young prince lay on the ground, surrounded by white incandescent flames, weeping loudly. His flame core had proved too powerful and the flames within had shot out of him, overpowering his control over them.
The young prince now lay in the centre of the fiery carnage, lying spreadeagled and weeping openly, no longer caring to hide his tears. The pain was intense…
Conrad sighed in defeat, rubbing his hand through his hair.
Arthur had failed…
Which meant his training would proceed the way it had. Until he learnt to conceal his flames. Until he learnt to lock away the fire within him.
The older man hadn't come across another phoenix with a core this difficult to keep contained or any with flames as potent… but that wasn't the point now, was it?
The mission was to teach the prince to conceal his flames. The road ahead was going to be a long and painful one… and from the troubled look on the weeping prince's face, Conrad could tell that he was aware. It was probably why he'd broken down like this.
Just the thought of all the pain he still had to endure should have been enough to shatter his resolve.
"Rest for a bit! We'll start again soon," Conrad announced, planting his lance firmly into the ground before walking out of the underground chamber.
In a waiting room outside the door, a pair of males sat on lush sofas, staring at nothing in particular, their faces depicting the troubling thoughts that ran through their minds. They lifted their eyes to face Conrad emerge from the underground chamber. His clothes were singed and he didn't seem to be bearing good news.
"How is he doing?" the older man asked, the crown on his head announcing his status among the phoenixes.
Conrad took a seat on the sofa and sighed deeply, burying his face in his hands. Shivers shook the man's body as he allowed his sobs to break through, "The prince is trying so hard… but the flames aren't showing any signs of yielding."
The king stared at the man, then back at the door, "Conrad, you know there is no other way to teach him. He's not like the others. He needs to learn… or else, god help us all, he'll be the end of us."
"His flames are unlike anything we've seen. What if we just forbid him from ever leaving the palace? The dragons cannot find him here," Conrad argued.
The king sighed deeply… tears staining his eyes as well, "I fear his flames might be too strong even for the Phoenix castle to hold. I know it's only a myth but I wouldn't be surprised if they were the flames of the fabled Phoenix of Calamity. And in that case, we'll all be in trouble unless he learns how to seal them once and for all."
And with that, Arthur's training continued spanning a period of years before he finally got the hang of keeping his flames sealed… along with the painful memories of the torment he endured during that time.