click to show/hide spoilers
Chapter 1
In a nursery room, there sits a small child playing with his
hands and fingers, despite all the toys that litter the room. He mumbles
incoherent words to himself while his caretaker—a plain middle-aged woman with
a stern expression is silently reading a book in the corner, occasionally
sipping her tea. Although the child is seemingly playing with his hands and
fingers, he is actually moving small amounts of elemental Earth Essence around
his palms, making them dance.
At the tender age of 2, the small boy sits comfortably by himself every afternoon and plays with the
small orange lights, making them dance around his hand and then around his body.
As he moves the elemental Earth Essence further away from his body, he finds
out that the bright orange lights don’t respond to his thoughts as quickly.
When the small child realizes that if he puts forth all of his attention to
these bright orange lights he can move them further and further away from his
body, eventually having them dance around the whole room. It was at this time
that a young woman in her mid-30s came through the door.
The caretaker immediately sets her book down and stands and
with a slight bow of her head she says, “Good afternoon, my lady”.
With a look of concern on her face while she’s staring
blankly at her son; and the lady of the house responds, “How come Panax never
plays with his toys, I have never once seen him touch anything we’ve bought
him?”
“I don’t know my lady, he sits there all day just twiddling
his fingers, it must be that he has a very strong imagination that he doesn’t
even need the toys in this room,” the caretaker replies.
With a slight sigh the lady of the house says, “Alright,
thank you Agatha for your help. Go attend to your other duties, I’ll stay in
here and play with Panax today.”
Agatha doesn’t show her surprise and just responds with a
“Yes my lady,” and leaves the room. In the two years that Panax has been born,
the times that his mother would play with him could be counted on one hand.
While Panax is mumbling to himself, his mother—Gwen, gently
picks him up and tickles his nose and squeezes his cheeks. Although she does
not play with her son very often, it is not because she lacks the desire to do
so, but rather she has no time to spare. Because her husband is the Chief Strategist
to the king, her job as his wife is to ensure that the internal political
struggle is kept in check. Despite the constant need for her to ensure the
different factions under the kind don’t kill each other, she still manages to
sneak a peek at her son when he’s asleep—which has become one of her most
treasured routines.
Because she’s a water mage with a degree of talent, she can
use her [Seer] ability to uncover deceit and deception, and with her help a
king has never had more loyal subjects. Because the [Seer] ability is not
all-powerful there are still ways to avoid detection, and it is those people
that Gwen must expend her efforts to find.
While her mind was filled with the day’s work—rumors of an
unknown faction looking to overthrow the kind, she lets out a sigh and decides
to not worry about such things when she’s with her son.
As the days pass, Gwen’s visit became more and more scarce and
on a particularly ordinary day Agatha thinks to herself, (Young master does
seem quite unusual, I wonder why he’s so fascinated with this hands and
fingers. It’s like he’s so focused on something. Hmm, I wonder . . .)
Ever since Panax’s birth, he’s been able to see the motes of
earthen elemental essence that permeate throughout the whole world. To better
understand the extreme peculiarity of Panax’s circumstance one must understand
that the difference between two powerful magi is their sensitivity to the
elemental essences and their control over the essences. Powerful magi must
train for years to increase their sensitivity to the essences and their control,
it is equivalent to a swordsman training with a blindfold to better attune to
their hearing and touch. The more sensitive a magus is to the elements or more
attuned, the easier it is to control and manipulate large amounts of it.
With but a thought, Agatha puts down her usual book and sits
in front of Panax and observes him. She does notice that he is not idly
twiddling his fingers but is actually focused on something--- something she
cannot see or sense.
“Young master, what are you doing,” Agatha inquires.
“Playing,” Panax replies.
“What are you playing with, would you like to play with big
sister Agatha?”
“Okay,” Panax says while he grabs Agatha’s hand and turns
them palm-side up and starts to giggle.
Agatha looks at Panax expectedly wondering what game he
wants to play. After a while, when nothing happens, she asks, “Young master,
what game do you want to play?”
“Lights. Dance,” Panax replies. Since Agatha can’t see or
sense the elemental essences, she can’t see the marvelous earthen amber
essences that are dancing and twirling around on her palm.
“Young master, I don’t see any lights, can you concentrate a
bit more and make the lights come together, so I can see them?” Agatha says.
Agatha thinks to herself, (If these mysterious lights are elemental essences
and he can see them ...)
Hearing her words and without replying, Panax starts to
gather more and more amber motes together and tries to solidify them
instinctively. As he gathers more and more elemental essence on top of Agatha’s
hand, his body is getting more tired and weak, but there is something that
drives him to keep going—this natural feeling of coaxing these amber motes to
his will. And right before he’s able to pull the elemental essences into the
material plane and solidify them he suddenly coughs up a mouthful of blood and
faints.
With a shriek, Agatha calls for help.
Two years later.
“And the lord on bended-knee requests the farmer Liang to
become his Chief Strategist and is refused. Only after the third visit does the
lord succeed and so begins his journey. . . “Gwen stops reading and silently
sobs.
A soft knock is heard at the door, “Darling, you can’t keep
doing this to yourself. Panax is young and strong, he’ll recover quickly,”
Garrote—the lord of the manor, her husband, says.
“It has been two years! And still he has yet to wake.”
“Everything that can be done for Panax has been done. All we
can do now is wait for him to come back,” Garrote consoles. “Kyle and Lisa need
their mother as well, these past two years has been tough on them too.”
With the names of her two other children, Gwen realizes that
what Garrote says is true, she has been neglecting them these past two years.
With a sigh Gwen says, “I can’t stand to be away from him, not knowing if he’ll
ever wake up. You know, Agatha says that that day when Panax fainted, she was
certain that he was able to see elemental essences. I don’t know, maybe, if I
spent more time with him he wouldn’t have. . .” With red-puffy eyes, Gwen
closes the bedtime book leaves the room with her husband.
A few weeks later, it was finally Kyle’s 8th
birthday.
“Hey little bro, I hope you’re having good dreams. You know
I just had my First Rite today. It’s pretty exciting, we had all these random
people over which kinda sucked, but man, there was so much good food. Anyways,
the priest said that I have a pretty high water affinity, just like mom. I
wonder what Lisa’s and yours will be,” Kyle says.
“Brother,” Panax slowly replies.
. . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
“Ahh! Panax can you hear me?” Kyle shouts.
“Too loud.”
As Kyle jumps up off his chair and runs out of the room,
Panax can hear the faint screams of his brother, “MOM!! Panax is awake! He’s
awake!! MOM!”
“Alright, that ends today’s lesson. Go get something to eat
and rest before your next lesson,” Professor Damon said.
It has been a year since Panax woke from his coma and is 5
years-old. Like every other 5 year-old child in the kingdom, his formal
education in language and arithmetic started along with subjects fit for his
station; he’s learning etiquette, economics, science, history, and anything
else he shows a strong interest in. Although Panax had a cheerful and carefree
demeanor since waking from his coma, deep down he was quite the opposite. Ever
since he woke up, he hasn’t been able to sense the elemental essences that have
comforted him—like missing a limb that he didn’t know he had. He didn’t know
what the cause of this emptiness was, but he knows that there’s something
wrong, something missing, but he doesn’t know what it is.
While he ponders his emptiness for the millionth time, he
heads to the kitchen to fetch a snack. To his surprise, his mother and father
seated at the dining table with plates of fruits and cheeses. With a smile Gwen
says, “All done with your morning lessons, Panax? I imagine you could use a
snack, come sit with your father and me.”
Ever since his coma, without Panax realizing it, his mother
and father has been sneaking off from their duties any time they can to spend
as much time with him as possible—and it is quite rare for both of them to be
able to spend time with Panax at the same time.
In the presence of others, Panax puts on his cheerful smile
and approaches the table and immediately starts to eat. Without lifting up his
head from the bowl of fruit, Panax says, “Mom, dad, where are Lisa and Kyle?”
Although he asks where both of his siblings are, he already knows that Lisa is
finishing up her morning lessons as well, but his brother on the other
hand—after his Rite of Exploration, is always out-and-about.
During the Rite of Exploration, which is initiated on the 8th
birthday of every child in the kingdom, the child will learn if they have an
affinity to be a magus. If they do have an affinity, then the next four years
will be a time to find a suitable interest for the child to specialize towards
with respect to their affinity. If the child does not have an affinity to be a
magus, then they would still spend the next four years to learn all the various
crafts in the world to specialize in, such as: blacksmithing, carpentry,
tinkers, farmers, herbalists, doctors, coopers, fletcher, soldier, ranchers, sailors,
and many others.
It is because of this three-rite custom that the Kandarian
Kingdom has been the cornerstone of industry. While other kingdoms have adopted
the same three-rite system, none of them have the infrastructure to ensure
every child goes through the Rites. At best, the other countries could only
test one out of every ten children that are born; while other countries only
test nobility.
“Hmm, well your sister should be joining us soon. As for
your brother, I believe Sergeant Dullahan has taken Kyle fishing, to learn the
ways of the Sea Wardens.” Garrote replies.
“What does a Sea Warden do?” Panax asks
“Hmm, a Sea Warden ensures the balance of the oceans and
seas. They make sure all the shipping lanes are safe from storms, they also
help ensure that we don’t overfish, and they also meticulously study and
uncover any secrets we can learn from oceans and seas.” Gwen resolutely
responds. “Did you know, Panax, that your grandfather—my father, is one of the
most prodigious Sea Warden in our kingdom? With his work, we are able to access
a steady stream of fish to feed our people, and have access to safe trade-lanes
to ensure a bustling marketplace.”
Since his brother Kyle has an affinity as a water magus,
after his Rite of Exploration he’s been learning all the various ways to put
his innate talent to use, and this week Sergeant Dullahan is teaching him what
it means to be a Sea Warden. Panax, while hearing of the marvelous things Sea
Wardens can do, starts to brim with jealousy—unable to contain his desire to
grow up and go through his own Rite of Exploration. “Mom, what happens during
the First Rite if you don’t have an affinity to be a magus?”
“Oh, well I didn’t know you thought of such things. You
shouldn’t be concerned with it, it is quite rare for any children born of two
magus not to inherent some type of affinity,” reassured Gwen. “Although there
are many people in the world and even in our kingdom that don’t have an
affinity, and after their First Rite, most choose a craft to find to apprentice
under. If you don’t have an affinity then you’ll just have to find something
that drives you and pursue it to the best of your abilities.”
“Why do you ask, son,” Garrote inquires, “are you afraid
that you won’t be a magus?”
“Well, no particular reason. In my science lesson this
morning, Professor Damon said that long ago everyone was born with an affinity
for an element. But then when I asked why it has become more common for people to
be born without one, he said ‘It became disadvantageous to have an affinity, so
then the people without an affinity prospered’ I don’t understand what he meant
though.”
With a smile, Garrote replies, “Ah, that is actually a very
simple concept son. And I can probably sum it up in one word: Bloodlines.”
“Bloodlines? What do you mean father?”
Without waiting for her father to reply, Lisa strides into
the room and sits down and explains, “The ability to sense elemental essences
is passed on through our bloodlines. From everyone being able to sense the
elements to our current state is due to a shift, little brother. Being a magus
is hereditary—it means that traits and features will be passed on from parent
to child. The reason that Professor Damon said what he said is because he
didn’t want to teach you history.”
Smiling at her daughter’s sharp mind, Gwen continues
“thousands of years ago, when everyone was able to sense and manipulate
elemental essences, there was a plague. But this plague was special; it seemed
to only kill those with an affinity. And after it scoured the land, there were
only two types of people left in the world: those without an affinity and magi
with immunity to the plague. Since then, the bloodlines of magic have been
slowly building back to its former glory.”
“How long has it been since the plague? Shouldn’t the whole
population have an affinity at some point?” Panax asks.
“Well, let’s leave that lesson for Professor Hoff-Stand,”
Gwen replied, “your professors tell your father and me that you’ve been doing
quite well in your studies, even surpassing your sister when she was your age.
Even if you don’t have an affinity to be a magus, Panax, if you remain diligent
in your studies, there are a great many things that you can still pursue.”
Although Garrote and Gwen seemed supportive of Panax not
being a magus, in truth it is because the thought of him not having an affinity
never crossed their minds. At the age the age of 40 and 35, Garrote and Gwen
respectively are ten ranks higher than their peers as a magus. For these two
talented individuals to produce a child with no affinity was virtually
impossible.
As Panax’s mind starts to wonder—as it usually does, as to
why he feels so empty, Gwen says, “So, Panax are you excited about your
playdate this afternoon?”
“I don’t see why I have to pretend to like the third-prince,
when he comes over we always do things he wants to do, it’s stupid,” Panax
retorts.
“Son, as a host, you must always accommodate your guests,”
Garrote states.
With a sigh, Panax says, “I know, it’s just that when I go
to the palace and I’m the guest, we still do what he wants to do.”
“You know Panax, if you haven’t figured it out already, you
and the third-prince are bound by fate,” Lisa states.
“Bound by fate, what do you mean Lisa?”
With a sharp glare from her parents, Garrote and Gwen
resigned with a sigh and explained, “We didn’t want your relationship
influenced with the fact that you and the third-prince are cousins,” Garrote
says. “We are a branch of the imperial family; I’m the youngest of the king’s
brothers. It is customary for the branch family members to have the same amount
of children at the same age as the King’s heirs so that when the prince or
princesses grow up, they have strong supporters and protectors. One day, your
mother and I hoped that a real friendship and bond will form between you and
the third-prince—not one of servitude.”
Although Panax was shocked to find out that he shared the
same blood as the royal family, a rush of questions starts to flood his mind,
“How many brothers does the King have, father?”
With a slight smile, Garrote knows where this conversation
is going so he patiently answers his son, “I am the 5th and youngest
brother to the king.”
“Do all the king’s brothers have three children as well?”
“Yes, you are the youngest child of the youngest brother of
the king.”
“Why haven’t I seen my other three cousins?”
“Whenever possible, we try to not have all the members of a
generation meet together, in case an opportunist-assassin gets lucky. At least
until you all are strong enough to fend for yourselves.”
“Does that mean big brother Kyle is bound to the crown
prince?”
“Yes, as your sister is bound to the princess.”
“Wait, assassin? What is an assassin?”
With a stern glare from his wife, Garrote continues, “An
assassin is an agent of death, dispatched by a person or an organization to
kill people.”
Startled, Panax cries, “there are people who want to kill
me?”
With a resignation Garrote says, “Son, the imperial
family—which includes us, is the backbone of the kingdom. We are the people in
charge ensuring peace and prosperity runs throughout the kingdom. We must make
sure that the lives of our people are envied by all other countries. Because we
are the backbone of the kingdom, there will be those who will seek to eliminate
us to destabilize our country and with that invade our lands.”
In a daze, Panax slowly picks up a piece of fruit and lies
down on the nearby sofa.
With a sad look at seeing a piece of her son’s innocence lost,
Gwen says, “Alright, enough of this gloomy talk. Lisa are you excited about
your First Rite? It’s only a couple of months away.”
“YES! Are you and father going to attend?”
“Of course honey, the First Rite is too big of a deal to
miss. What kinds of food do you want?”
As Gwen and Lisa are talking about her First Rite, Garrote
gets up and walks over to his dazed son, “You know son, I’m sorry for brining
you in to a world where your life is constantly at risk.”
After a while, Panax realizes that someone is talking to him
and comes out of his stupor, “Huh?”
Looking at his son’s eyes coming into focus, Garrote
repeats, “I’m sorry son, for bringing you into the world where your life is constantly
in danger.”
“Oh, I understand father. From what Professor Hoff-Stand
says, there are many people in the world that live in constant danger,
primarily from starvation and bandits. So if I had to live a life of danger, I
much rather be in the imperial family.”
Surprised by his son’s outlook, Garrote asks, “Why do you look
so distracted?”
Without thinking about it any further, Panax just blurts
out, “I feel empty father. Sergeant Dullahan says that some of the soldiers in
the garrison, when they have their limbs cut off, they feel as if they can
still move and sense their missing limbs. I feel that way, as if something is
missing, I feel blind even though I can see. I feel like I can’t speak even
though I can talk. Something is wrong father, and I don’t know what it is.”
Shocked and startled, Garrote immediately feels a dreadful
pit growing in his stomach. The description his son just gave him about feeling
missing limbs is exactly the same symptoms of magi who have lost their affinity
to the elements from [Rebound]. “How long have you felt this way son?”
“Ever since you all told me I woke up from a coma.”
“Do you remember your old caretaker?”
“Yea, Pauline.”
“Ah, no. Your first caretaker was Agatha. We had her
executed because she induced your coma. From her words, she believed that you
had the ability to sense elemental essences when you were 2 years-old—which is
unheard of, and since we didn’t believe you were an innate magus we had her
beheaded.”
Shocked for the second time today, Panax asks, “Why are you
telling me this?”
“From what you’re telling me son, you suffered a [Rebound].
A lot of magi who suffer from a [Rebound] sometimes lose their ability to sense
elemental essences, and they describe the loss of their affinity to be like a
phantom limb.”
“Then, Agatha was right? I had the ability to sense
elemental essences?”
“It seems that way, if what you’re feeling is in fact due to
a [Rebound]. However, son, Agatha’s execution should not weigh on your
conscience. She was negligent, she encouraged you to manifest the essences at
too young of an age. It would have been inevitable for you to suffer a
[Rebound] and that negligence put you in danger.”
Slightly nodding to his father’s explanation, Panax asks,
“Am I forever to feel this way? Can I not recover my affinity?”
“I don’t know son, children usually gain the ability to sense
the elements during their First Rite, but you were able to do so before the
baptism—which hasn’t happened since the dawn of our kingdom.”
“Wait, how did people gain the ability to sense essences
before the founding of our kingdom?”
“Hmm, the first magus was someone like you, with innate
sensitivity—able to see the elements without the help of the ceremonial
baptism. There have been others throughout history that had an innate affinity,
but it’s so rare that it might as well be impossible.”
“Wait, so all I have to do is have the First Rite performed
on me to gain back my affinity? Can we do it earlier?”
“Well, this is uncharted waters son; theoretically the First
Rite might awaken your affinity again; also, there is a reason that the baptism
is performed on children at least 8 years-old—it is because their internal
energy lanes and gates are strong enough to withstand the baptism.”
With a long sigh, Panax’s urge to grow-up surges to new
peaks—with the thoughts of regaining his lost affinity. He also feels like his
burden lessened, now that he knows the source of his emptiness. With an
end-date of 3 more years until his emptiness is relieved, he starts to actually
cheer up and gets up to hug his father, “Alright, I feel better. I’m going to
get ready for my afternoon lessons.”
Later that afternoon.
“Professor Hoff-Stand, why does our kingdom have five
duchies?”
“Ah, good question Panax. Since the first king—King Kandar
the Founder, had 5 younger siblings with whom he assigned each to rule over a
duchy. Since then it has been precedence for the royal family to produce at
least six heirs so that five of them will be charged to rule over the duchies.
That lasted until about four hundred years ago, when Kandar XVIII had only two
children and refused to remarry after his wife passed and he decreed that
future kings don’t need to have any set minimum number of children.”
“So does that mean that the younger siblings of the kings
are entitled to rule over duchies?”
“You’re asking all the right questions today Panax, although
the duchies have been historically been given to the other princes, it was only
during our current King Kandar XXII that he granted the nobility of duke
outside the royal family. Before our King Kandar XXII’s reign, multiple duchies
have been ruled by a single duke if there weren’t enough princes or princesses.”
“Why do we have five duchies, why not just consolidate all
the duchies under the direct rule of the king?”
“Specialties! Specialties my boy, specialties. The kingdom
of Kandar is at the most western side of the continent, and our duchy—the Ashe
Duchy, was established solely to produce food for the entire kingdom through
our fishing industry. While two other
duchies were established to repel our neighbors to the north and south while
sharing borders to repel our eastern enemies, the last two duchies were
established to mine minerals and breed livestock. The central plains of the
kingdom are perfect for raising our cattle, goats, sheep, and most importantly
our war-horses. Slightly south-east of the central plains resides our mines
that extract iron and coals. It is because of these rich natural resources that
our kingdom—although the smallest on the continent, is able to stand toe-to-toe
with Talver and Santar’dun.”
“How do the ores in the mines not exhaust? We must have been
mining them for… forever”
“Ah, that is the realm of the Stone Wardens, they’re able to
replenish our mines—how they are able to do so, is outside of my scope.”
With a knock at the door, a maid comes in to inform the
teacher that Panax’s playdate has arrived and with a startled jump, Professor
Damon says, “Oh my! It’s already this late. Time flies when you’re learning, eh
Panax? Alright, you’re dismissed.”
Knowing that his sense of emptiness isn’t just some figment
of his imagination, Panax feels much more assured, not to mention that his
emptiness may be cured by his 8th birthday. After his afternoon
lessons, Panax waits in the foyer to receive the third-prince for his playdate.
Soon the receiving maids escorts three elder-looking men
followed by a small youth. Each of the men wore different colored robes. Panax
recognized the colors and the symbols embedded onto the robes from his history
lessons; they are all Elemental Wardens of at least the 80th rank.
The escort of the third-prince had an Earth Warden, most likely to ensure the
physical safety of the prince, a Water Warden to heal and support the prince if
he fell from an attack, and a Fire Warden to ensure that the attacks were met
with resistance.
These three 80th rank wardens could be compared
to a hundreds of elite knights on war-horses clad in the finest armors and
weapons. They obviously wore their most distinguishing warden robes to deter
any would-be assassin.
“Greeting elder wardens, third-prince Dante,” Panax cordially
says.
“All right ladies, will you please lead our guests to the
receiving room?” Thomas the head butler instructs.
As Panax and the guests are seated and served tea and cakes,
Panax asks the Earthen Warden, “Elder Collier, my tutor told me today that our
Earth Wardens are responsible for replenishing our iron mines, can you explain
how that is accomplished?”
As with most adults, the elder wardens are quite shocked at
Panax’s level of intelligence. Warden Collier replies, “Panax my boy, no need
for formalities, you can just call me ‘Uncle Collier’. You are quite sharp for
your age, anyone ever tell you that boy?”
With a slight blush, Panax says, “Yes, my mother says that I
get it from my father.”
With a smile, Collier says, “Well, to your question, replenishing
iron mines is no state-secret. Every Stone Warden—not Earth Warden mind you, in
every other kingdom can do it. Stone Wardens convert the common compounds of
the stone around the iron mine and merely copy its structure. The more iron
they have around mundane stone, the easier it is to copy the structure of iron
and imprint it on the stones.”
“Why doesn’t every kingdom just indefinitely replenish their
iron mines?”
“Can you recall the teachings of our Church, and why we even
perform the three-rites?” Collier says as he seemingly changes topics.
Panax recalling everything from his tutors, instantly
responds a passage from the Scripts, “To preserve, to balance, and to harmonize
is the will of God for all mankind. But what does the three-rites have to do
with the Church?”
“The three-rites are to ensure that we train and cultivate
the next generation of magi. Why are magi so important?”
“Because they personify the teachings of the Church.”
“Correct Panax! Magi have the ability to preserve, to
balance, and to harmonize with God. And do you know where God resides?”
“In the air we breathe, the seas we fish, the soil we walk
upon, the sun that shines, the rain that falls, God is everywhere.”
“Correct again Panax. Because of that, we have very strict
laws when it comes to extracting any natural resources. If an iron mine—when
fully extracted, can produce one million tons of iron, then a 70th
ranked Stone Warden would have the strength to only convert about 1 ton of iron
a year. Now let me ask you, how long would it take for all the Stone Wardens in
the world to produce one million tons of iron?”
“The amount of people that are above the 70th
rank is less than 20% of the magi population. It would take . . . I don’t know,
but far too long.”
“That’s right my boy, it’ll be more convenient to just fully
harvest the mine—which could be done in 5 or 10 years. But after the mine is
fully extracted, it will be impossible for any Stone Wardens to replenish the
iron, and when that happens, the natural resources of that mine is forever
lost.”
While deep in thought about the pros and cons of
replenishing mines or fully extracting them, Panax is started when the
third-prince Dante shouts, “I’m bored! Let’s go outside to play Panax.”
“Ah, yes. I’m sorry for neglecting you, my prince.” As the
two boys walk out of the room, the elder wardens look at each other and
chuckle. The fire warden, Toulen says, “If I were to close my eyes and just
listen to you and Panax talk, I would have imagined him to be an adult.”
Collier replies to Toulen with a nod of his head and says,
“It is quite amazing how smart and perceptive he is, he doesn’t talk like a 5
year-old boy. He really is just like his father when he was young, quite the
genius.”
“Oh, is that how you’ve thought of me, uncle?” said Garrote
as he strode into the room. Usually only one of the wardens were enough to
escort the third-prince from the palace, but Garrote has sent a message to
summon the “Three Uncles”, as they were known, to a meeting.
Although these Three Uncles were only 80th ranked
wardens, their true strength was how they synergized with each other. Since
they were kids, these three were inseparable. They traveled far and wide
fighting and adventuring, and through those years, they have developed a deep
understanding of each other. That understanding was put on display when they
teamed up to fight—although only 80th ranked, when combined they
could give anyone who has reached the 95th rank a good fight.
With a slight cough at being caught praising this rascal,
Collier says, “Well, let’s get on with it, what is it that you summoned us
for?”
As Garrote sat down he said, “As you know, my wife and I
have been trying to build a unified force to support eldest brother. A few
years ago, Gwen caught whiff of some news of some people trying to oppose the
king and a couple of days ago we discovered proof of their identity.”
Outside in the garden where the boys have decided to play,
Dante and Panax stop and lie down. Staring at the sky and allowing the cool
breeze to caress his face, Dante suddenly says, “I’m sorry Panax.”
Slightly startled from his reverie, Panax realized that the
third-prince actually said something and finally recalled that he just
apologized, confused Panax asked, “What are you apologizing for?”
“Today my father just told me that you and I are actually
cousins. I just wanted to apologize to you for treating you like a servant.”
“Oh, I see.” With a slight chuckle, Panax continues, “It’s
funny, my father just told me that you were my cousin today too.”
With a smile, Dante continues to lie there with his eyes
closed.
“What do you want to do today, Dante?” Panax asked. It felt
a lot more comfortable to call him by his name without any of the titles. It
seemed to Panax that before today, he never had this close familiar feeling
with the prince.
“Let’s just lie here for a bit longer. Lately, father
wouldn’t let me out of the palace, so I don’t get to really enjoy the sun
anymore.”
While the two boys were enjoying the warm sun, the cool
breeze, and the scent of earth a sudden rustling sound came from the bushes.
The two boys sat up straight as an arrow. After they turned their heads to look
at each other, a slight smile crept on both of their faces, and they focused
their attention on a single bush. As if they telepathically knew what the other
was saying, they both nodded and silently made their way to the edge of the
garden where the rustling sound came from.
With their tiny feet barely making any noise, the boys
finally made it to the single bush that they thought the sound came from, and
they silently waited. As the tension built and built, their bodies were firm
and sturdy as if a panther was waiting to strike. Just as the boys were about
to leap into the bush, a rabbit sprung from the bushes and charged in between
the two; causing the two boys to end up their butts. They both immediately
recovered and started chasing the rabbit around the garden.
As the afternoon passed, Garrote and the three elder wardens
came out to the garden to escort the third-prince back to the palace.
Panax and Dante were both sweaty and covered in dirt when
the wardens came. Heavily breathing and smiling, they shook hands and promised
each other that they’ll catch the rabbit next time for sure.