Eventually, there was a knock on the door. Firmi opened it for me and instructed me to stay back. He seemed to relax when he opened the door. From the door, Cyrus and another man came inside. Firmi closed the door behind them. Firmi and the man went to the side of the room and conversed with each other privately. Cyrus walked over to me. His eyes were blank. He seemed like a husk of himself. He must have heard about our father's death. He was hit harder by the news because he was closer to the king. He dragged his body toward me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He looked past me but his grip on my shoulder was tight. It was as if he felt he would lose sight of himself if he let go of me. Cyrus and the person accompanying them tried to settle themselves in. Firmi and the other man seemed to be in a heated conversation.

After conversing, Firmi seemed to be angry at the man who had come with Cyrus about something. I looked closer at the man's features. He had black hair and a defined jaw. Above all, his skin was very pristine. It had no blemishes. The man looked smugly at Firmi and turned around. He opened the door and he left. I would've asked Cyrus about the man's identity, but it didn't seem like a good time to ask him anything. Instead, I asked Firmi.

"Who was that?"

Firmi looked at me with mild annoyance. I don't think he was mad at me, but whatever the man had told him had left him in a bad mood.

"That was one of Cyrus' knights. Gemet. He just quit. He didn't want to be involved with the royal family at such a pressing time. Fucking swine. This is the time that we needed him. He is a capable man."

I noted the name. Gemet. Perhaps I would meet him again. More importantly, I remembered the st-

Suddenly, the door flung open. Gemet had returned within the minute. He ignored Firmi and I, he walked straight past us. He walked straight toward Cyrus. Firmi drew his blade. Still walking past him, Gemet's eyes narrowed, and only his pupils moved to face Firmi's stance. After he reached Cyrus, he did something. It was worth noting that Firmi had swung himself to the side of Cyrus. He stood alert by the crown prince. He was prepared to attack after any suspicious moves. I suppose if Gemet had quit, he should be considered an enemy.

"I want an apology," Gemet said to Cyrus. Immediately, Firmi was enraged. Despite Firmi's outburst, Cyrus bowed down his head with difficulty and said:

"I'm sorry." With those words, Gemet walked away. When Gemet closed the door behind him, he would never return.

"What are you doing!?" Firmi yelled to Cyrus. He could not understand.

"The real question is," Cyrus looked angrily at Firmi "What are YOU doing!?"

Firmi looked at the boy in front of him with hesitation.

"The relationship between Gemet and I... is a strange one. Do not butt in when you know nothing." With that, the question that was Gemet was buried. It would not be brought up again. I was quickly consumed by other thoughts.

"That feeling... could I call it forth now?" I stared deeply at my own hand. I tried to call forth the strange feeling that had saved me twice with all of being.

A voice interrupted me.

"What is he looking at?" The voice was clearly directed toward me. I looked around myself. Firmi looked disinterested and Cyrus still had that blank look on his face. I was unable to figure out the source of the sound. However, the voice was eerily familiar. It was a voice that I felt as if I should recognize but was unable to for some reason.

Looking for a while longer, I saw nobody. Firmi, who stood in front of me, looked confused.

"Why are you looking over there?" He asked me simply.

"I heard a voice," I told him. Firmi looked at me strangely. He hadn't been paying attention. He seemed unnerved that he had not heard the voice I had. It was not a pleasant thought to consider that someone had barged into the room without him noticing. After a quick scan of the room, he seemed to purge the possibility from his mind. Whatever it was, Firmi clearly could not locate it. Firmi was confident in his ability. If he could not sense the threat then he could confidently claim that it did not exist in reality. He relaxed because of his utmost trust in his own assessment of the situation. Nobody except us was here.

Who was that? I wondered aimlessly. I could not figure out who the voice was. An untraceable yet familiar voice that was not Cyrus or Firmi... it didn't make sense. I didn't deliberate much longer, though.

"Cyrus, you should go to bed. Get your mind off things." I told Cyrus. It might not work for him, but that was my way of dealing with emotions. Above all, sleep healed me.

Stolen story; please report.

He did not even look at me until he noticed me staring at him.

"Huh?" He said aloud. He seemed to have only just realized I was talking in his direction.

"I was talking to you," I clarified.

"Kyren?" Cyrus said my name. His brown eyes seemed to flash and his mouth stammered. He seemed to completely ignore what I was trying to say to him. He had something he wanted to say.

I wordlessly turned my eyes back to him. His eyes seemed to have found a clarity that was not there before.

"What exactly happened that day? What did you see?" He said this knowing that I knew nothing about his experience in the castle. I simply noticed that his door was closed tight. I assumed that his door was locked.

"I didn't see much, really," I said simply.

"You don't look normal," my eye twitched. How could he tell? I suppose it meant that Cyrus... was good at reading people.

"I killed Adam," I revealed.

Cyrus was silent. He seemed to understand why I had reacted the way I had and avoided the topic. He must have wanted to ask for more details, but he couldn't bring himself to force me to answer. I was thankful for that.

"I'm going to sleep," I told him. I took one side of the bed and made myself comfortable. I would later learn when I woke up, that Cyrus had rested on the other side of the bed. He must have been unable to feel safe if he was alone.

***

"Alexis," the man said to me.

I looked at him in confusion. Was he talking to me? My name was not Alexis. It was... huh? I realized something, I couldn't recall my name.

"Who is Alexis?" I cautiously asked him. His sky blue eyes were gentle. He seemed to understand my hesitance.

His face went wide. He seemed worried about me. Alexis... no matter how I thought about it, it sounded unfamiliar. The man in front of me seemed unsure of what to say to me. He adjusted the scarf that covered his neck and he looked at me seriously.

"You do not recall?" He seemed to be adamantly waiting for my response.

"I do not know who Alexis is."

His face looked strange for a moment. He seemed to be deep in thought. He looked up at me. He was silent for a moment.

"Do you remember nothing?" He asked gently.

I scrunched my eyebrows together and I thought about it. I let my mind wander. I slowly realized how ignorant I truly was. Family? Desires? Likes and Dislikes? Wait. I knew none of that! Where even was I? How did I get here? None of it made sense! Why don't I know!?

"W-where am I?" I stuttered while asking.

He placed a hand on my shoulder and I only looked at him.

"Relax." His eyes were serious. He seemed to have something important to say to me. He smiled at me and said, "I will fix you."

***

For a while, Cyrus, Firmi, and I participated in idle discussion. A few times the conversation steered toward the terrifying incident that Cyrus and I had just experienced. Firmi tried to avoid this topic and would bring up something unrelated to change the course of the conversation. Eventually, Cyrus said something worth saying.

"What now?" Cyrus said to me. For the most part, he had found his way again. He still seemed mentally wounded, but he seemed to regain the rationality I knew him for.

"I'm going to become a master archer," I told him. I meant it too. Archery was a hobby of mine that I enjoyed. When I had nothing else, the sport was appealing to me.

"You intend to forfeit your right to the throne?" He questioned.

I looked at him confrontationally. It was a stupid question. The answer was yes. If I was leaving the castle, forfeiting my right was given.

"Perfect," he shot back. His expression was unnaturally blank. He must be feeling smug inside his head. Cyrus was not one to lose a battle of words and mannerisms. If I wanted to best him, I would have to be physical with him. He would lose a brawl.

"So... what is your goal? What do you want to do?" I asked Cyrus.

Cyrus looked at me after turning his head slowly. His expression faltered. His demeanor started to shift into something else. Vengeance. That was the closest thing I could say his expression looked like. He wanted to murder those that killed his father, the king. I looked at him with a small bit of sadness. I asked him one more time.

"What is your goal?" My eyes begged him to reconsider. Revenge... was a tale as old as time. It was impossible to count the many tragedies that resulted from revenge.

"Retribution."

I considered slapping him for his stupidity, but then I looked at his face. Nothing I would do would change his mind. He had been consumed by his rage. I regretted. I shouldn't have asked him about his goal. His eyes were determined, strikingly so. I recalled Cyrus' age. He was ten months older than me. He was turning fifteen in two months. I was also fourteen, just like him. Even still, I wanted to slap him.

I didn't have to slap him. Firmi scolded Cyrus immediately. Cyrus flinched. Firmi's scolding seemed to have a strong effect on him. I relaxed. If Firmi was with him, Cyrus would never descend into such depths. A genuine smile came onto my face.

That following day, my brother and I... temporarily parted. We both invested time into getting closer to our goals. Cyrus succeeded his father as king. Miraculously, he was not killed by the time we met again. I had always feared it may happen. But me? I became an honorary disciple of a famed archery school. I did not have the qualification to enter, but they accepted me anyway because of my ability with the bow. It was strange. Qualification? I had never worried about it before. It turned out that separating myself from the throne made me a nobody. A famous and recognizable nobody, but a nobody nonetheless.

***

Two years had passed quickly. I was consumed by the art of archery. It was a beautiful art. I could never see the apex of archery. There was always something that I could improve. However, although the art of archery was vast and profound, I would never reach the true peak of archery. As such, as those two years came to a close, I realized that being the best was simply impossible. Even among the likes of other students at the Andaya Archery School, I was not the most talented. I was only following close behind. If anything good came out of it, I knew one thing now. I would never become a master archer.