The King of Fyre Land, Pyrrhus Jasper was reading a letter. The more line in the letter he read, the more contorted his face became. By the end of the letter, his face resembled an erupting volcano.
"So the wedding dates are finally set. I don't believe this. If that Emperor brat wouldn't have stopped me, I would have dragged that wench by her hair back to the Castle. How dare... how dare she stand against me? She will pay for this... She will pay for this!" the King continued screaming.
"Bring the prisoners... and also call Lucius. He should see this and learn." he commanded his guards. The guards bowed and left.
After a while, the guards brought two prisoners to the King's private parlor. Both the men cried to spare their life.
"We don't know anything, Your Highness. When we went to retrieve the Princess, she had already left. When we checked her room, she was sleeping on the bed, so we didn't disturb her. We were not aware that it was only a puppet charmed by magic."
"Silence! who gave you permission to talk?" the King was seething with anger.
A guard outside the parlor announced the arrival of Prince Lucius. An evil smile formed on the King's face.
"Your Highness" Lucius made a light bow to the King.
"My Son, these are the guards who were on duty the day that wench ran away to the Aqua Land. Tell me what punishment will befit their crimes" the King said, stroking his pointed narrow beard.
Lucius slowly walked around the prisoners. He came besides the King and smirked.
"There is only one punishment Father. Anyone who goes against their King, loses their right to live." he took a deep breath and announced "Death"
The prisoners lost all hope even before the Prince said the word.
"Very well... hang them on the wall of the Castle. Let everyone know what price they would pay to go against the King." Pyrrhus ordered the guards.
The guards took the prisoners, who were now screaming for their life, and dragged them out of the room. Pyrrhus looked at his son with pride but the son looked scared. The initial smugness completely wiped out off his face.
"The one to fear is them, not us. You need not look scared. We are the ones with power here. Never forget that." he bored his eyes into his son's, making sure he understands everything.
"Yes Father" Lucius respectfully nodded.
"You are 12 years old this year. You should know this much" he patted Lucius's head and turned back to take his seat. "You may leave now". Lucius bowed and left the room.
"That useless child" the King snickered. "He was scared to death" he took his glass of wine and swirled the liquid.
"He is trying to prove himself, Your Majesty" said the butler, who was opening a new wine bottle. "Slowly, the master will learn to rule the Land".
"Haa.. rule you say? Why bother? As if I am going to give this throne to him. Bloody Useless!"
The thing that King Pyrrhus ever wanted was to rule this Land, spend life in luxury and thrash the one who would ever dream of snatching 'His Land' from him. That included both his children and the supporters of the former Queen, Ruby Calid. He spent fifteen years of his life to get the title of the King and has only enjoyed ten years or so after the death of the Queen. There is no way he will offer the Land easily to someone for at least the next hundred years.
After the Queens death, he worked on reducing her influence in the Court by slowly dismissing her loyal followers and filling the vacant seats with his puppets. He made sure that his daughter, the Crown Princess by right, stays devoid of any magic and plans to send his only son to the borders to take care of the regular monster invasion once he comes of age.
But, for some reason, things are not moving the way he wishes. His weak daughter eloped to another Land and will marry the King of the Land and his son is not showing any progress in swordsmanship. To top it all, the Emperor has asked him to lay low.
'What is that stupid Emperor planning? Why can't I bring my own daughter back? Whatever it is, he is just creating more delays.'
*****
The Calid Castle was built on a hill, in the midst of two concentric walls. The inner circle is where the Royal family stayed, was protected by a high wall and the direct relatives to the Royal family stayed in the area between high wall and low wall, surrounded by a deep moat. Outside the moat, the Castle was surrounded by the capital city.
Prince Lucius walked out of the King's parlor and let out a deep sigh. He quietly followed the guards, who were taking the prisoners to the outer wall. When they approached the inner high wall, he turned his way to the top of the wall, unlike the guards who kept walking towards the low wall.
By the time he reached the top, the guards were just at the foot of the outer wall. Even after being so far away, he could hear the scream of the prisoners. As the guards slowly approached the top of the wall, Lucius could feel his leg shaking, but he stayed on, tightly clutching the parapet.
Once the guards reached the top of the low wall and started preparing the hanging procedures, drummers started mercilessly beating their drums to attract attention from people, both inside and outside the Castle. They quickly yelled and declared the crimes of the prisoners along with the King's decision to hang them in public. When the declaration was done, the guards pushed the prisoners who were standing in the crenelation, one end of the rope tied to their neck and the other tied to the parapet.
Lucius couldn't see the people's reaction but he knew what they were thinking by their reaction. Many stumbled, few staggered, there were screams of shock and a few, especially children, covered their eyes. He felt the same thing, like someone pulled the land below his feet. He staggered but didn't let go of the parapet. His knuckles were white but still he carried on looking at the shock reactions of people and the smug smile on few of the guards, as if it was just another entertainment for them.
He was determined to prove to his father that he can be as cruel as him and for that he needs to be mentally strong first. Such sights are common for a King and should not deter him from his dream of replacing his father.
'I am mentally strong, I will replace my father' he said in his mind. He repeated the words in his mind a few more times before letting go of the parapet.
'I am mentally strong' he kept repeating as he staggered to the top landing of the stairs.
'I am mental -' as he placed his foot on the first stair to go down, his knees buckled and he rolled till the next landing, eventually losing consciousness.