If someone just heard a sad story and a loved one's passing, what's the most normal response? Crying?

Eiden wondered about that and he didn't cry. He couldn't, for some reason his heart felt cold and hard. How many people have died because of him? He stared blankly at the First tree, feeling its ancient earthly magic clear and close to his heart.

They prepared to leave soon. His parents were busy trying to repair the unstable political situation that occurred ever since the empress's assassination. Eiden's recovery was the final thing they needed to establish the new empress's official position as the monarch, the Lady of the Dawn. Eiden felt nothing, neither happy nor sad as he let them assess his health and listen to them talking about future courses of action with no great interest.

“Thank you for everything, Eiden” Neina embraced him tight.

“Papa is gone because of me,” he mumbled.

“Eiden, you gave my father to see us for one last time, my father was happy.” Neina's eyes were misty.

“Eiden, his time was over, it's yours now.” She kissed his forehead again. He silently nodded and left.

Once again, Eiden found himself under tight security, as they started their journey back to the mainland. They planned to stop at Ivar's cottage. Ivar had received a couple of broken ribs and a deep gash into the abdominal cavity, but magical cleaning to remove dark magic was done soon after the injury, making it easier to heal later. Clade had to still wear a sling for his hand, but creature people heal faster, and he would be able to remove it soon.

“Oh, Eiden.”

All his friends embraced him at once. He even hugged Ivar who grumbled about bear hugs but smiled and ruffled his 'imperial hair' as his friends comically named his green curls. Before Eiden left, they had a picnic tea, which turned to a picnic feast under Ierma's capable hands in the front garden, watching the smoothly flowing waters in the fjord.

"Does it still hurt?“ Eiden checked Clade's sling.

"Mm..little bit, when I lift my hand, but it's ok" Clade answered and gave a reassuring pat to Eiden's hand.

"Are you alright, Kit?" Cissa held his shoulders and peeked into his eyes.

"Why shouldn't I?" Eiden shrugged as he pounced on his friend, with one fast move, pinning him to the ground. Cissa was always ready for a wrestling match, and soon the garden filled with hisses and growls and giggling and laughter.

Eiden's friends decided to stay around for a while. Nub wanted to stay with Ierma, learning some magic. But, it was obvious that there was something else going on as she blushed pink whenever Ivar smiled at her. Grandfather asked Clade if he liked to train his fighting techniques, and he readily agreed. Cissa was reluctant to leave for the Sangona alone. As he opted to stay with Clade, Eiden laughed, saying that Grandfather was going to have his hands full with Cissa's antics.

Eiden was sitting in Guru's living room, as he poured them freshly boiled herbal tea. They didn't talk about any horrible things that happened. Instead, Guru told them about his early traveling days long ago before Eiden and his parents were born, he listened with awe and his respect for Guru grew more and more.

The Amenser Palace was decorated for his arrival, and the lords, ministers, and Palace officials were gathered to toast for the young prince's good health and recovery. His new quarters were more elaborate and luxurious than before, and after a long day of empty smiles he had been giving to everyone, Eiden sighed as he sank to the silk covered soft mattress, and drank a sleeping aid he had kept hidden.

Even though Papa's magical transfer and Eiden's self-cleansing were supposed to have healed his wings, he firmly refused to unfurl them, adding another reason to the growing list of his parent's worries. The discoloration of scars had been erased, but the scars were still very visible as pale markings on the wing bases.

Eiden couldn't sleep. With healer's refusal to give him any sleeping aid potions, deep into the night, he lay awake, wondering if he actually burned the darkness or absorbed it, because inside him was filled with nothing but impenetrable blackness and unexplainable sharp, stinging, and heavy pain.

Eiden avoided the main inner courtyard like it was haunted by plague, and a few times hearing his guards wonder about his long detours to the main residence, growled at them to shut their mouths. Or he has to face another line of questions which he has no answers to offer. Weeks dragged by, and Eiden started to question his existence, as it was getting increasingly painful to wake up from shadowy nightmares to the living world.

Eiden had run away once under his uncle's very nose, and it wasn't difficult to do that again. That was how he found himself in the fallen city, Nerynth, in the dead of night, walking along an old, desolate road. He stared at the ruins of a large, broken castle and tried to remember where he'd seen it before. The dark magic hadn't vanished here, the crunching of dead grass under his boots was unusually loud, disturbing the deep, ironclad silence around him.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Suddenly, hearing a swish, Eiden knew someone had just teleported behind him. Drawing his sword, he turned around in half a second to face the person. Eiden had lowered his hood when he came to the city, he saw the stranger lowering his hood too. Eiden recognized him. But, he didn't lower his weapon, instead raised it in a battle stance.

"Eiden, what the hell, what are you doing here?"

Eiden was too angry to answer. He stepped forward, grinding his teeth in rage.

"We didn't finish our fight." His blade cackled with fire.

"Eiden, are you alone?"

"Why? Are you waiting for guards to stop us again?" Eiden laughed. His blade was dangerously swinging closer to his seemingly unwilling opponent.

And his blows were answered with a clang of another blade. Dark shadows of burnt pillars which stood still against the starry sky were illuminated hauntingly as the flaming swords met each other in mid-blow.

Eiden's boiling rage dissipated little by little with each blow. With another clang, swords met in the air, and flames died, as he dropped his blade. It hit the rubble with an echoing clink. Loudly swearing, his opponent pushed Eiden away from his sword which went down with a force to cut through even a bone as the resistance disappeared.

Without flames of anger to hide his pain, it came out, breaking dam after dam he built to keep it restrained, Eiden fell to his knees as violent sobs shook his body.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault, I'm sorry." He clutched his chest because his heart was shattering into a thousand pieces with excruciating pain that he had never experienced before.

Although, they had known each other their whole life, Eiden and Evan never hugged unless it was a wrestling fight defining between life and death. When Evan knelt beside him and hugged him tight, for this once, he didn't growl or spew scathing remarks like he used to do before. Probably, because he was busy sobbing his heart out, apologizing to everyone for it was all his fault.

Eiden didn't know how much time had passed, when he was finally able to breathe without gut-wrenching pain wracking through his body. He found himself in a luxuriously furnished living room, sitting on a sofa clinging to Evan, still with tears streaking down his face.

He pushed Evan away, and scrambled to the corner, hugging himself.

"Aww…"

"What were you doing in that blasted place alone?” Evan smacked his head and stood up.

"Nothing," Eiden mumbled.

"Go, wash that snotty face. Look, you ruined my shirt with snot all over." Evan grabbed him and dragged him out of the sofa not regarding Eiden's loud protests. He grumbled and muttered insults under his breath all the way to the bathroom and back.

A fire was burning and a large mug of hot chocolate and snacks were spread on the table, where Evan was sitting. Eiden pondered what he was doing here, when Evan pointed to the seat beside him. He sat and took a sip of a sweet hot drink that considerably warmed his insides.

"It's not your fault, Eiden," Evan said to his mug.

"If I didn't break the statue nothing would have happened," Eiden replied to his mug.

"I baited you to a fight, like always."

"Like always, I shouldn't have taken it."

"No one knew something bad was inside the statue."

"That's not an excuse to break it."

Eiden stopped talking to his mug of hot chocolate and looked at Evan.

"Why were we fighting?" he asked.

"Dunno, I can't remember," Evan shrugged.

They stared at each other. He finally cracked a smile and Evan did too.

"I'm sorry about Uncle and Esme." He said in a quiet and soft tone.

"Thank you for saving me from the shadow dimension," Evan said with an unmistakable genuine sincerity, hugging his words.

Eiden felt his heart was lighter than it was since he woke up after the long healing sleep. They drank hot chocolate in silence, with no more sympathies or thanks to exchange. Eiden had a hundred and one questions to ask Evan, but he felt the silence was comforting.

“How did Uncle know about the ancient city?” Eiden asked after a long while.

“Why do you want to know?” Evan made a face with a disgusted expression and sighed. He looked at Eiden questioningly.

“Nothing, it's..it's just us now.” Eiden stared blankly at the ground.

“A long story. I'll tell you another time.” The conversation dropped for a few more long and quiet minutes.

"Did you tell anyone where you were going?" Evan asked.

"No. Ran away," Eiden said, proudly straightening his back, with a mischievous rogue smile.

"Aww…" He got another loud smack on the head.

"Idiot. Aunt must be going crazy. Get your stuff. I'll take you home." Evan scowled, standing up, and threw Eiden's cloak at him.

"I can go alone," he protested, but he knew it was in vain because Evan would never back off if he could get Eiden into trouble.

It was almost dawn, and the Palace was already in chaos. Eiden had no idea how they discovered his absence this early. Even before the duo walked to the main residence, his mother came running. Eiden thought he was going to get slapped in some soft place really hard enough to see stars.

Instead, he was hugged so tight, that he had to push his mother away to save himself from suffocation. Then, Evan got the same treatment, making Eiden laugh at his red face. His father had gone out to search for him, and returned soon after their arrival.

But, then, Evan started telling how he found his cousin alone in the fallen city, near the dark magic-infested castle ruins which often crumble and fall with no warning. Eiden was lucky because the wards that Uncle Elvin had placed earlier were still active and alerted Evan, then he came quickly to get Eiden to safety. Eiden squirmed in his seat through the two long lectures from his parents as Evan sat smugly with an evil smile.

It was a long night.

Snuggling under the soft fleece blanket, Prince Eiden fell asleep, thinking to himself, by Azur, no more disastrous adventures again, because he felt it's time to take his responsibilities as the Grand Duke of Celiona and that's enough dangerous political games to play.

End.