Mate...
What was the significance of mate to these people? I often hear this term from Caleb and the twins, but I never fully understood it. The more I hear this term from them the more I wonder if I was just that to them.
My bangs swooshed to the side when an object came spiraling forward towards the sauntering Sevor, who instantaneously sensed that he was in harm's way. He twirled around and urgently dove to the ground to avoid dying at a young age.
Sevor's eyes pinned at the Reaper who was a foot away from me. The reaper, in response to the blame, pointed at me with sheer innocence glimmering in his deadly, piercing eyes.
"You blame Lucian for that?" Sevor grumbled.
I raised my hand. "Do not place the blame on him, I tripped him," I defended.
"And my hand slipped," the Reaper added.
'Oh how believable,' uncle's voice drearily applauded.
The dragon twin stood, breathing out to calm his nerves.
"I'll prepare your bath, Lucian. You must want one," he kindly offered and left.
If that was Slade, he would not let this slip easily without successfully tearing something apart. No forgiveness will be given even if apologies were already said. He will tear you like a maniac, salt your open flesh, and marinate you for the evening.
The night proceeded with the crickets softly serenading the children to a night of undisturbed sleep. Fenris was in front of the tent where we held Prince Frey captive. The werewolf must have been exhausted from worry as he fell asleep with an unresolved grudge in his heart.
He wanted to end the prince with his own hands and the frustration must have chipped him away into exhaustion. The Reaper was nowhere in sight.
Slade had fallen into a deep slumber underneath an Elm tree, with his back leaning against the thick trunk. His face was unusually calm and wrinkle-free that would make anyone believe that he would comfort you at your lowest, not knowing that he was the cause of your demise.
My body relished the feeling of the warm water that it was submerged into. Soap was lathered on my skin. Sevor traced random lines on my back while washing me so tenderly. I closed my eyes to the ticklish feeling and relaxed to his touch.
"These scars..." he trailed. "Why do you have them?"
The volume of his voice got louder with a noticeable tremble at the end.
"It is nothing for you to worry about. It happened a long time ago and the one who did it suffered a great deal of torment in return."
Lucius wasted no time avenging me. If I had not stopped him, Iltut would have been alive in screaming flesh up until this day.
"But you're a prince aren't you? Should you not be protected?"
I pulled my legs to my chest, causing water to spill outside of the wooden tub.
"I learned that people who are supposed to protect you end up hurting you the most."
Sevor stayed silent, listening to my every word.
"They make you think that you are safe. They make you hand over your identity, your dignity, and your innocence in the name of goodwill and good conscience. In the end...in the end...you are left broken and robbed, with no more face to offer to the world and no more dignity to prove your worth."
"Is that why you don't like being called 'Prince'?" he queried, pouring water over my head.
As soon as the warm liquid fully cascaded my form, Sevor gathered all the wet hair sticking on my forehead and eyes into one sweep backward.
"That is just one of the many reasons," I replied. "I merely desire to live my life as Lucian and not live by the many titles or labels people could give me."
He hummed in interest.
"Why not? Most titles are empowering. They give you authority and privileges. As a prince you can control those you reign," he peacefully argued.
"But I do not wish to control anyone. That is not my place. I have not earned it."
He lathered the soap on my hair, gently kneading my scalp.
"Living a life without a title and a label is simply dull, confusing, and chaotic. You have to know your place in life to proceed. Titles and labels are not at all evil. It is only evil when people use it for their selfish gains. I think you just grew up knowing that your title has no meaningful purpose for you."
The older twin poured water over my head to wash off the soap.
"So are you telling me to find my purpose for my title?" I asked as he helped me out of the tub.
My skin was pricked by the chilliness of the night breeze. He draped a towel over my shoulders.
"Yes, you will be the one giving meaning to your title and not the other way around. Live your life meaningfully and wisely," he advised.
I stared hard at him, who became uncomfortable under my intense gaze.
"What is it?" He asked.
"You remind me of my brother," I commented.
Sevor rubbed the back of his neck.
"Is that a good thing or—"
"Both," I deadpanned.
He chuckled. "That's the closest praise I can get from you, huh?"
"It should suffice for now."
Sevor and I parted ways after I got dressed. I woke Fenris so that we could sleep together inside one of the tents that Sevor fixed. The werewolf happily obliged. I thought about what he said to me and about my place as the Prince of Ancients—a title that brought me so many sufferings.
I shut my eyes peacefully with even breaths and a calm heart; the sound of crickets singing in my ears. I woke up with the screams of children booming, causing my heart to execute thundering beats, my breath being severed into a sharp gasp, and my eyes snapping open in surprise.
I clambered out of the tent. Fenris was already outside, growling and dragging back the child who was being hauled away by some charcoal-colored, flexible, and sticky matter. The entire lake of water became a body of tar. My eyes shot at the culprit.
The lilac-haired man— once setting his eyes upon me—smiled widely in relief, victory, and happiness.
The armored stratiotes stood behind him with spears ready to pierce into hearts. The twins engaged in a frenzied fight against the other stratiotes who were immune to fire.
"Hold on!" Crowley growled, pulling the children being sucked into depths of the lake of tar.
"Your Highness…" Segreth cooed. "It is such a relief that we finally caught up to you."
Ziru leaped, aiming his arrow at Segreth, but a limb of tar wrapped around him and yanked him with the other children.
"Onii! Onii!" a pixie child cried as she reached for me.
My hand reached for her. I grabbed the child and had the winds carry me a mere inch from the consuming tar. I pulled as hard as I could, not even recognizing any strain from my arms.
The young girl was already hurting from my attempt to save her. Her cries worsened this helpless feeling inside of me. I did the best that I could.
But she only continued to sink.
All of the elements that the ancients could muster came clamoring on us. The cries of children drowned me with them.
"No...no..." I whispered, watching her teary eyes look at me with so much fear.
"I'm scared… onii. Please don't let me drown. I don't want to die..." she sobbed.
No matter how hard I pulled her, the tar continued to consume her.
"On...onii-...help–help me..." a weak voice called.
I snapped my head to the source of the voice, finding Maru sinking. Blood oozed out his mouth. I frantically looked around, finding more of them around me— alive, half-alive, and already dead.
"Brother..."
"I'm scared..."
"I ca--can't breathe..."
"Bastard!" Rui furiously screamed.
His tail stretched towards Segreth who dodged the tip of his tail and grabbed the length before tossing him back.
Rui immediately hooked his tail to the ground and revolted to hit the soldiers who were nearest to him. Buck bit legs one after another and avoided getting kicked. Crowley was in the same state as I: helpless.
A simmering, pulsating, and consuming emotion poured inside of me like burning lava. My heart dropped once I felt the little girl's hand uncurl. Her head had fully sunken yet I held her hand, hoping that I could still save her.
"Don't leave, don't leave..." I pleaded.
"Your Highness, it is futile. Why do you care for these brats? They are nothing but filth in your presence," Segreth persuaded.
My jaw clenched, my vision distorting. I let my feet touch the tar and grasped the little girl's hand that was all that was left from her.
"Your Highness! Stay still, we will come and get you!" Segreth shouted when I began to sink. I caressed the child's hand and knelt.
"They aren't filth...They are my family..."
And they died because of me...
Because I was the prince of that dishonorable race.
Because I was the son of that self-serving monarch.
Two armored stratiotes flew to my aid but I emitted powerful zephyrs that blew them away. They ended up getting stuck in the tar with the rest of us.
"You are going to die, prince! What are you doing?!" Segreth shouted with rage.
Fenris howled to catch my attention; the twins growled my name.
More stratiotes came to get me, but they ended up in the same fate.
The heat consuming me further grew. My back ached.
When no more stratiotes came and half of my body was already submerged, it was now Segreth who attempted to retrieve me. His expression was that of great rage and disappointment as he pulled me up.
"When we get back, I will make sure to erase this world from you. They contaminated you with their lies and lifestyle. What a disgrace you have become," he seethed.
His hands extended to grasp me, but with just a mere second, he withdrew with a flinch because of the heat that surfaced to my skin that burned him. He looked at me in disbelief before his eyes held fear.
"Do not touch me... filth," I spat.
My voice was laced with the same voice that accompanied mine when we fought against Vincenzo. My skin paled as branches of black veins flourished on my paleness. Segreth watched in trembling terror as I sank and felt my consciousness get embraced by another.
The tar transitioned into another element and froze into ice. My body stilled in its freezing embrace, daring to keep me in place for a long time. The heat on my back became a penetrating and lacerating pain. Something pierced out from half of my back, breaking the surface of the ice while the other half became dormant.
A fist broke through the ice. I was hauled up by Sevor while Fenris and Slade engaged Segreth into a fight.
"Lucian..." Sevor gasped.
His eyes were pinned at something behind me that made me look back. There was a rotting wing flapping slowly.
It was a huge wing rich in darkness and rot, oozing with a decaying scent.
It snapped fear into the hearts of the many who were greatly familiarized with who this power usually belonged to. I gently took my arm from him, sauntering forward.
"Save the children," I ordered him.
I moved my hand from my chest then to the side. The floor of ice turned into a lake of contaminated water.
Fenris, Slade, Sevor, and Segreth, all unaware of my plans, fell into the grimy water. I floated to where I last saw Segreth and yanked his grime-covered form. I dragged him to the land and tossed him carelessly.
The children and the adults who survived, including Buck and Rui, stared at me in shock. The member of the Higher-order scrambled back, holding his arms up with shaking hands.
"Wait! Wait! Your Highness, my only mission was to retrieve you and eliminate anyone who would stand in my way. Please spare me!"
'Look at him, disgusting,' the charismatic voice degraded in my head.
"Onii...your wing looks...dead," Buck murmured worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"Take it back," I commanded Segreth, who became extremely puzzled.
'End him. I will end him for you.'
"Come again, Your Highness?"
"These people...They are not filth to me," I told him firmly. "They are my family. They are my lost treasures. It is what the monarch could never be."
'I will end anyone for you. I will end the world for you.'
Segreth, shaken to his very core, jostled to his knees and buried his head to the soil. The other knights who were clobbered by the twins, Caleb, and the capable children crawled towards me and paid their respect.
"Yes, of course, Your Highness! It is foolish of me to sully them in front of you. Forgive me, I am but your humble betrothed. Won't you spare your future half?"
'What a clown to both the living and the dead.'
My hand reached up to my crown, tugging it painfully. The crown was rooted deeply to my head. The further I pry it the more I felt the freeing pain.
"Your Highness!" Segreth chided in fright.
Blood dribbled down my forehead and even further down my cheeks. I watched them watch me with horror painted beautifully on their expression. Once the last root was plucked, I tossed the crown to the floor with my blood staining the flowers.
Everyone, especially Segreth and the knights, were equally overwhelmed and spurned.
"I renounce my royalty. I repudiate my bloodline. I am no longer your prince."
Segreth shakily picked up the crown, holding it up to his face. He placed a kiss of endearment.
"You have abandoned your people..." He said with eyes of grudge.
His body melted into that of his tar. The circle of his number expanded below his kneeling body. Tar connected the knights who did not want to be a part of this chaos anymore. They were forcefully molded into Segreth's molten form-like clay.
Screams erupted from the knights as they lost their autonomy for their bodies. Their forms contributed to the towering limbs of a monster.
"An unforgiving sin of a monarch. De Scarlet Austarch lebt timi bhitra...(The Scarlet Autocrat lives within you...)" he ridiculed.
An involuntary chuckle escaped my lips. Words which did not belong to me came out of my mouth.
"Yes I do, I do reside in him."