Chapter 4 - Rebirth

'Who am I?'

'What am I?'

'When am I?' 

'Wait what? What weird questions. But why is it weird? I do not know.' I woke up thinking weird questions. I cannot even think straight right now. It is as if I suffered days of hunger and could not afford an ounce of energy to think.

'I feel like… no! I know what the weirdest thing is. It is the fact that I cannot feel anything right now,' more correctly I do not have the capability to feel anything. I cannot even feel the time itself. I do not know whether it has been one minute or one year since I regained consciousness. I feel no emotions. Even though I know the state I am in right now should make me feel fear and anxiety, I feel nothing. 

'I cannot sense anything,' it is like I am just a computer program that denied access to all kinds of input and output devices and sensors. I cannot sense my legs, arms, or even the thumping of my heart. I cannot see, hear, or touch. All I can do right now just to think. I need to find a way to sense something, I need it as an anchor. Otherwise, I know for sure that I will cease to exist. 

'Wait! Why do I know it for sure?' It is as if I lived that moment. And I somehow know how to sense something. I need to sense consciousness. I do not even know what this means, but I know how to do it.

I tried to sense them, and I succeeded. They are like stars, everywhere and nowhere. I can go near them in an instant no matter how far they are. 'All I need is to want it and bam… I am where and when I want to be.' They are all like little blobs of lights, like me, but I am bigger. I can sense it.

However, there is something I need to do. I need to be somewhere. I somehow know it. When I got there, I sensed a different space, and it sensed me back. There is something one more thing I need to do. It is to get close to a particular light blob in that space and stick to it. I did that.

However, after I did that, I felt something for the first time. I was being sucked deep into the space I am currently in. I started to lose control of my thoughts but before that, I dispersed the light in the blob that I am currently sticking to. I made sure to divide my consciousness into many parts and therefore I lost my consciousness. 

….

1st of January, in an ancient-looking city…

It was the morning, and the sun could not counteract the cold of the winter. Snow-blanketed houses stood row upon row in between the streets. With 700.000 population, this city is the biggest city on the continent and at the same time, it was the capital city of the oldest dynasty in the continent. Although occasionally people are walking on the streets, generally it was a quiet morning.

In the center of the city, there is a magnificent palace. It is the highest building in all of the city. In one of its big rooms, a man was reading a report on a desk. He was a broad-shouldered, tall, and middle-aged man. 

At that moment, a man came into the room and saluted the middle-aged man with a slight bow of his head.

"My King, there is news from the queen's side. She is in labor and about the give birth." Said the man respectfully.

The king looked at the man and said calmly "Okay let my retinue know. We are going to harem early today."

"Yes, my king" replied the man, saluted again, and walked back. 

After the man left the room the king's face changed from a calm one to an anxious one and thought to himself 'I hope there will be no accident'

After a couple of minutes, the king walked back to the harem where he and his queen resided. The road he walked back was all swept clean of the snow early this morning. It is a very tranquil morning with a clear sky and sun shining. It did not take long to go back. The king could not maintain his calm facade anymore and with a slight rush climbed up the stairs and heard the suppressed voice of his wife. When he got to the front of the room, he saw a couple of physicians standing. He asked, "What is the situation?"

physicians saluted the king and one of them said "The queen has good health, my king. And it has been just three hours. If nothing unexpected happens, the queen will be safe."

"What!!! Daniel, come here right now!" the king bellowed angrily. Daniel came forward with respect. It was the man who reported the king this morning in his office. 

"Daniel, I hope you have a good explanation for this. Why do I learn about my wife`s labor three hours later?" the king asked. 

"My king you were having morning assembly with your ministers at that moment and the queen instructed us to not disturb you during morning assembly. I am sorry if I made a mistake."

The king sighed. It was what he expected. Sophia is always like this. She does not like to disturb his work. With a slightly irritated tone told, "Okay, you can go back."

At that time voices coming out of the room increased and at the end, they all went quiet. The king knew his queen completed the birth because he experienced the same thing during his daughter's birth four years earlier. Without any delay, he stormed in and saw the scene inside. The midwife was holding a baby with an anxious face, but the baby was neither crying nor moving. His wife was looking at the baby with a pale face.