I always liked rereading this book...

One of my tutors said that a lot of it is based on real events, telling the actual history of our world. I think it was that very uncertainty, the fact that I didn't know which part is true and which is fiction, that made me return to it so often. It allowed my imagination to go wherever it wished, speculating endlessly about every single event.

"Our world has seen as many stories as it has seen lives...

Four great kingdoms reigned our realm since the oldest dragons can remember. Fiery Hagariath - the infinite desert with its tiny inhabitable specks of life, the territory of nurvaliind, the underground midgets. Bewitching Elirieth - the small, but flourishing land of elves, where the fertile Earth gives everything a soul could wish for to all its inhabitants. The magnificent continent of two kingdoms separated by the mighty Dragon Mountains: swampy Laixya - the land of humans who mastered survival amongst treacherous Waters, and Earlindon - the vast land of mages living alongside dragons, reigning the Winds hand in hand.

Peace among them seemed natural, easy, obvious... but every peace lasts only as long as there is no reason for conflict. Even if said reason only exists in the minds of the opposing sides... That reason came from the vast waters of the Endless Sea surrounding our world.

Eliphyas Neghith - Moon's Reflection, because that's what Earlindon's sailors thought it was upon first seeing it. An enormous crystal of pale blue, with an amount of magical energy stored in it that put any dragon hoard to shame. From the moment the very first word about it spread, first Earlindon, then all four kingdoms became familiar with the horrors of war...

The solution seemed simple enough, but only decades after, the most powerful mages were finally able to perform a spell that split up the crystal without it losing any of its power. On the wings of dragons, they carried the four shards to the four feud kingdoms along with an offering of peace and a call to rebuild the world to what it once was.

Thus they formed the Alliance of Elements.

Alas... many things have changed in the centuries between its establishing and today. Even with the Moonshard's power, Hagariath lost most of its already sparse livable space. The nurvaliinds' passion for mining disturbed the underground waters beyond revival... Only humans desperate and resilient enough now inhabit the dunes filled with scorching winds. Elirieth suffered a mysterious calamity which forced all elves out, now scattered among the other lands. Laixya remains quiet, it's swamps believed to be the hiding place of many fugitives, outlaws and mysterious individuals. And then there is Earlindon... long ago, mages invited humans to live among them. It wasn't right for such a huge land to waste away under the rule of beings who aged so slowly and waited two human lifetimes before feeling ready to have offspring. So they shared with humans who came from the unfriendly swamps of Laixya, allowing them to thrive and make good use of the land's resources, splitting the land west of the Dragon Mountains into humanity's Earlindon and mages' Earlindia.

The Alliance slowly crumbled away into centuries of silence... even so, the world seemed to have regained balance. But sometimes... one wound inflicted on an innocent heart is enough to start a cascade that cannot be stopped by even the mightiest..."

"Young master, your father is calling you."

I twitched, turning my gaze away from the page to glance down. Beneath the willow stood my friend, as always clad in her long, pale-red maid dress and snow-white apron. I gave her a small smile. "I'll be right there Kristya, I just want to finish this chapter..."

"The king said now," she cut me off, putting her fists on her slender waist in an 'angry wife' pose. "I'm not going to take a scolding because of your dragons again." It was kind of unnerving how quickly she forgot about the etiquette sometimes when there was something she wanted done.

I sighed and loudly closed the book, wanting to emphasize my annoyance. I knew though, that if I didn't obey now, she would be even worse than my father later. Not really caring about the considerable height, I jumped down and landed a little heavily in front of her. Something golden passed my field of vision and I saw a tiny leaf that I must have ripped from a twig on my way down, floating peacefully to the grass at Kristya's feet. Picking it up, I admired the vivid color for a moment and handed it to her with an apologetic smile before heading towards the castle.

As I walked along the row of tall windows that belonged to the throne room, I glanced at the pennants above the towers. They were hanging limply, as if tired of flapping in the late summer sun. I didn't like being called to him... Sure, I owed obedience and devotion to the king and father that he was, but... he wasn't much of the latter to me... I never had the courage to oppose him, but that didn't stop me from wondering why he seemed so cold and gruff most of the time... wondering if things would have been different if it weren't for that accident... Have I... changed so much because of it that he started to hate me? Was I so much different from the son he once knew? If so, what was I like before? How were our relations before the day I forgot his face and name...?

~

For what felt like an eternity, my whole world was one huge headache.

Numerous voices kept speaking up in my mind... some caused the pain to get unbearably worse, some didn't trigger any reaction at all... The former always seemed to be coming from somewhere very far away, or maybe from some very deep nooks of my own consciousness. I didn't know...

I had no idea how long it took until I suddenly saw something in front of me and realized I had opened my eyes. It was smooth... clean... way too white... Was it a ceiling...?

"He's awake..." a hushed voice, some agitated murmurs following it.

I turned my head to the right and instantly regretted it. Sharp pain shot through my skull, but among the white spots dancing in my field of vision I recognized an elderly woman, a middle-aged man and a young girl with a freckled face. Or rather... I didn't recognize them.

"Thank heavens... how are you feeling?" asked the woman, taking something away from my forehead. Probably a damp cloth, but strangely, my skin didn't seem capable of registering moisture yet.

"... terrible..." I managed to rasp out, even my own voice sounding strange to me.

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"You were unconscious for three days... we thought we lost you..."

"... what happened...?"

"You fell from your horse," the broad-shouldered man spoke up, his deep voice making the air in the room vibrate. "Unfortunately, onto a rock. You hit your head..."

I frowned. I didn't recall ever riding a horse, let alone one I would call my own... "... where am I...?"

"In the castle infirmary..."

I... what...?

"... castle...? The royal castle...? Why... and who are you...?"

The woman's already shaky confidence seemed to waver further at that question, her eyes wandering to the man standing next to her chair.

"You don't recognize any of us?" he asked.

"No... should I?"

The man gently pinched his chin between his thumb and index finger. "You lost your memory..." he threw at me out of the blue, as if he was casually commenting the weather.

Despite the warm and fluffy quilt surrounding my body, I felt a shiver crawl across it. The most terrifying thing about it was... that he was right. I couldn't recall a thing. Where I was or what I was doing before I woke up here, the faces and names of anyone my mind would identify as family or friends... even my own name...

"This is horrible, your majesty..." whispered the woman.

"Your majesty...?" I repeated dumbly.

The man nodded. "I am the current king of Earlindon, and you, my boy, are my son..."

My hands clenched the soft fabric of the luxurious bed sheets. "I'm... a prince...?"

"First and only in line to the throne... you really don't remember?"

I wanted to shake my head, but stopped myself just in time to avoid a disaster. "No..."

In the moment of silence that followed, I could almost taste the insecurity my answer caused. The king and the woman, who was probably a healer considering she seemed too old to be the king's wife and wore too simple clothing, exchanged looks. She then nodded slowly. "Don't worry, I'm sure it will all come back to you slowly... For now, you should rest. Your health is the most important right now..."

The healer stood up, groaning quietly as she put a hand to the base of her back. I immediately felt bad for causing trouble to this poor old woman. "Kristya, can you stay with the young master while I organize a nice meal for him?" she asked, turning to the girl that stayed behind them till now.

"Of course..." the freckled face bowed, the shoulder-length hair falling forward like a cinnamon cascade.

"I'll be back soon too," the king spoke up. "I need to consult this..."

The two left the bedroom, leaving me with the girl who now shyly stepped closer and took the healer's place in the chair. Her delicate hands came to rest on the apron that covered her lap.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you..." she spoke quietly, the compassion in her voice making me feel even worse.

"Kristya... was it...?"

"Yes..." she managed a pale smile.

"Who are you...?"

"A maid in the castle... and for a long time, I was your best friend..."

I didn't think the guilt could become deeper, but it did. Even though I was right there in front of her, she must have suddenly felt weirdly lonely... And seeing me in this state too... "I see... And the... my father... probably went to inform my mother...?"

Kristya's eyes dropped to her knees and stayed there, refusing to move even a little. "You... don't have a mother, young master... She died of pneumonia a few years ago..."

"Oh..." the pit in my stomach just kept growing. "And... judging by how father put it... I don't have siblings...?"

"You are an only child, young master..."

I sighed, closing my eyes. I was awake for a mere few minutes, yet already felt completely exhausted. "At least don't call me 'young master'... You said we're friends, right...? If you're not allowed to around other people, call me by my name when we're alone at least..." I paused, contemplating the ceiling for a few seconds. "What... even is my name by the way...?"

"Calthraval..." the tears that shone in Kristya's eyes seemed like they were caused by something more than just losing a friend, in a sense. "Your name is Calthraval..."

~

Already two years passed since then. It was so ironic that the day I remembered best now was the one when I realized that I forgot everything before it... And it all remained a deep blackness to this day... which made me feel alienated and completely out of place, even though this castle should have been like home to me...

Sometimes I felt like I was starting to remember things, some unrecognizable and yet familiar scenes rushed through my stirred mind. But despite all effort, I remained unable to catch any of the shreds of thoughts that whirled in my head, not even one... all I gained from that strain was always only a massive headache. And an unpleasant anxiety, sometimes fear, which felt incredibly stupid because I didn't even really know what I was fearing, couldn't name the feeling rising in my chest...

Drowned in those thoughts, I didn't even realize when I traversed a few of the castle's corridors and arrived at the massive throne room door. I shook my head slightly, took a deep breath and gave the dark, carved wood a knock. The two guards standing on either side of it never even looked at me.

"Come in," came the muffled voice from the other side.

I pushed one wing of the door just far enough to slip through and entered the vast chamber. The interior was well lit thanks to the windows that reached from the floor almost all the way up to the ceiling. It was pleasantly cool inside. The castle's walls were so thick that even the most intense summer sun didn't stand much chance.

On the opposite end of the room stood the sculptured throne, decorated with golden ornaments and a velvet seat. In it, tall and proud, clad in peacock blue and gold, sat king Yisral, his face almost emotionless if not for the hint of boredom. As I walked on the emerald green carpet, I noticed a considerable pile of parchment on a small table to his right, along with a golden goblet, it's stem shaped like an eagle's claws.

I stopped in front of the throne and straightened my back a little. "You wished to see me, father?"

"Indeed," the king graced me with a short glance before his eyes returned to the document he was holding. "The day of your birthday is approaching, Calthraval. Your seventeenth birthday."

I only nodded, so he continued, his voice echoing slightly below the far ceiling: "I think you should finally return to studying. Simply resting and being around familiar people doesn't seem to help your memory. Who knows, maybe learning will... though you might have to start from the beginning. You will be an adult soon, and you need to know how to handle this kingdom, not just rely on what you accidentally hear in this hall or while you're eavesdropping outside the conference room." I tried not to grin, but he instantly ruined my mood with his next words: "One day, Earlindon will fall under your rule and I don't want it to become a ruin after just a few months. Starting tomorrow, you will be attending daily lessons with my advisors. Make sure you arrive in the library right after breakfast tomorrow."

"But..."

"But?" the annoyance in his strong features made me immediately forget any objections I could have come up with.

I lowered my gaze, fixating it on the deep green of the carpet. "As you wish, father..."

After a dismissing gesture from him, I left the throne room, barely holding back the urge to slam the door behind me. I didn't mind learning. Even I stuck my nose into books that weren't stories about knights and dragons from time to time, trying to find anything that would help my damaged brain in more sense than one. What made me mad was the perspective of spending a lot of time with my father's advisors, particularly one of them. Chief counsel Orias may have been a well educated man, but in my eyes he was just an old, fat grump, who enjoyed nothing more than lecturing me about manners and my duties towards my father.

On the way to my chambers, I bumped into Kristya, carrying a basket of fruit. Sticking out of the pocket of her apron was the golden leaf. My mood lightened almost instantly, even if not completely.

"Kristya, would you be so kind and bring some tea to my room after you're done?" I asked, stealing a pear from the heap in her hands to reduce the weight for her. "We can have it together if you can manage a small break in your duties."

A smile bloomed on her cute, freckled face. "I'll be happy to." She bowed just enough to not spill the contents of the basket and continued on her way down the corridor, humming.