The Prince's Shadows

by Seoran Worg

“You do have a gift,” Prince Lex says matter of fact in his cold crisp voice.

  “Yes, your highness,” I still keep my eyes closed and keep my head bowing.

  Even with my diamond pendant, the prince is too strong. I dare not to see his eyes again.

  I hear steady footsteps, walking down the throne's stair, and then he stops in front of me.

  “Don’t hide,” I feel a strong hand on my chin, tilting my face. “You look different from your sister.”

  I just nod, for it is true we look nothing alike. My sister has oval face, big slanted eyes and small rounded nose, while I have an inverted-triangle face, roundish almond eyes and slightly upturned nose, and the most starling difference is our eyes’ color, hers eyes is very light while mine is very dark.

  “Open your eyes,” he commands softly.

  I follow his command. As slow as I can, I open my eyes again, and seeing straight to the prince’s eyes. But his eyes are light brown instead of silver now. Once again, I feel a strange pull. I see the change in his eyes, the silver and brown are fighting each other.

  Looking away, he breaks the eye contract.

  “I see that you are truly a Hallowed. A great gift but untutored yet. Tell your masters to be prepared. I will send one of my Shadows to train you. Before new year, you must be ready to handle me,” he says as he climbs the stair back to his throne.

  “Ryn,” he calls out. For the first time, I fully aware of the two Shadows who stand near the stair.

  “I left her to you,” the prince says.

  ***

  My encounter with the crown prince was only a few minutes, but it has lasting impression and hard to forget. I remember every details of it vividly in my mind even after I went back to Varan Castle.

  And now, few days later, I am still thinking back to that day, while looking at high ceiling above, trying to push myself into slumber.

  Is he really that man I met in Cursed Temple?

  The more I think about it the more likely that he is.

  But why is he there?

  Prince Lex seems so cold and it is scared me.

  I also noticed the resemblance of the prince and his Shadows is uncanny. In a glance, they look almost identical.

  Who are these shadows? Are they royal too? A half-royal maybe?

  I am glad that the Shadow, Ryn, is the one that will train me. He looks less scary and not as cold as the prince.

  This news of this training brings chaos to the masters, for it is uncommon to work directly with the Shadows or the prince. Other than the royal family, few of the Blessed and generals, no one is sure which one is the real prince among those three.

  In these last few days, the masters fed me with as many knowledge as they could.

  From the old scroll that had been found recently, they know that the Halloweds were important part of the empire’s army in the past. They multiply the others’ gift.

  With a Hallowed, the Blessed able to use the fire’s energy as far as Candia, a city in the north that once belong to the Varr’, but now lost to the Cryg Confederacy.

  In its peak, the Varr has almost a hundred Halloweds at one time. Back then, the Varr land starts from the South Sea to the Candia city in the north, more than a half of the continent. But now, only to the Shan River in the north remains, just less than a half from its former glory.

  The masters also teach me martial art. However, not much progress in that regard.

  Out of all these training, meditation is the most important. This meditation is to control the energy flow in my body. They said each type of the Blessed force has different kind of energy flow.

  Ice Blessed will direct their energy to the hand, Fire Blessed will direct to the center of their body, and Air Blessed will direct energy to upper part of the body. As for the Hallowed, the masters were not sure to where I should direct it. So, in the beginning, they decided I should try those three until yesterday, master Yan found another scroll that said I should direct it to the sole of my feet. Because it is where the earth is, and root of the mountain’s fire.

  I hear soft knock and the sound of hinge.

  Dela, my sole companion here, comes to my view, wearing a loose nightgown and a thick cloak on top of it.

  She brings noble family genealogy book. She climbs to my bed immediately.

  And we find out that we are some distant cousin, it is not uncommon, though, most of noble families are related by marriage if we trance few generation back.

  “You know. One thing that makes me happy being here,” Dela says with a smirk. “I can look down to my former fiancé now.”

  She seems still bitter about her broken betrothal, it is the opposite of me. I am glad Damien put an end to it. I hope General Rick Xurg won’t hate me like Dela does to hers.

  Dela sighs heavily, “I envy you. Tomorrow, you will train with a Shadow. I know, I am not supposed to ask. Do they look really handsome?”

  I nod curtly. “They are beautiful.”

  “They said Princess Larra is very beautiful. Have you met her?”

  “Really? All of them are beautiful, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, they are,” then she adds, “Do you know the story of empress’ first husband?”

  “He is some sort of cousin I think. A lesser branch of Varr family. The royals always married to their cousin.”

  Dela nods and says, “The empress husband’s father is a wanderer. He went to Westland for years. Royal family though he wouldn’t came back. And given him up as death. But one day he came back home with children in a tow. One is a boy which was the empress’ husband, the crown prince’s father.”

  “And his mother?”

  “Royal family said that she is a half-noble that live in the west,” she continues in whispered tone, “But some think that she is an outlander. At least it’s what the rebel said. Are you really don’t know about it?”

  The rebel is supporter of the late crown prince, the empress deceased nephew. They are still in hiding, outside the Walls, until now. They believe that the late crown prince, Prince Rhys Varr, was unjustly killed in the war nearly nineteen years ago.

  “No,” I say after thinking back, I add, “I only know he was her third cousin, the last male Varr from another family branch. And my father won’t talk such scandalous matter in front of me.”

  My father was one of the empress’ minister of law before the disgrace befallen our family. He always tries to keep me out of court and clan matters.

  The little thing I know, I heard it from Uncle Yezi, Zeta’s uncle. He is a merchant, and had visited many kingdoms from the west to the east. He is more lenient than my father but not by much. He is more than fifty years of age and has no children so Zeta and I are like daughters to him. My father often says that he spoils us rotten.

  “Oh, I forgot… your family is the empress royalist,” she says in apologetic tone.

  “Think nothing of it.”

  “I just wish the Varr stop killing each other. What will happen if none of them left? That thought do terrify me.”

  I have the same though too, what will happen then?

  ***

  Morning comes, the sun shining bright in cloudy blue sky, and today is the first day of my training. On my why down to the training room, I hear birds singing in the forest below.

  I open the door, and enter the small hall that was turned into a training ground. There, I am waiting for Ryn, the Shadow, to come.

  This room is made especially for us. They make over the small hall in the ground level in these last few days. This room has many windows with transparent glass on it. Through these windows, the morning light comes inside make a patched dusty path in the air.

  I walk crossing the room to the window, my footsteps muffled by sand that covering the ground. Near the wall on my right, I see stones in varying size are stacked. Not far from it, in the corner, they put water in clay basin. On the opposite wall, I see combat gear such us arrow, sword, spear and morning star, hanged
on.

  I walk there, and inspecting those tools when I hear soft footsteps on the sand.

  He, Ryn, finally arrives. He is all in black, his trouser, his blouse, his robe and his veil. Even with a veil, I know it is the Shadow. He has elegant and regal air about him, an effortless grace in the way he walks. He is tall too, my guess he is a few inches above six feet.

  “Are you ready, my lady?” He bows before he takes off his veil.

  I scold myself, it should be I the one bowing first so hastily I bow, “Yes of course, your highness,” I say.

  He straightens and says, “I am just a shadow, a no one, my lady. Just call me Ryn or Red.”

  “Red?”

  “Yes, I am his highness’ Fire Shadow. So, Red it is.”

  “So, you are the Blessed too?” I should’ve known.

  For a moment he pauses, look at me oddly. “Yes, my lady,” he says finally.

  It is a law that the Blessed rank arises above a noble and regarded the same as half-royal.

  Then why you call yourself a no one? A question I dare not to voice aloud.

  “Then why I feel nothing?” I ask instead. “When I look at your eyes, I mean,” I add quickly.

  “Everyone has different kind of power. Even the ones with same element. Mine just a weak, a mere brush of force. While his highness’ is a strong one,” he pauses and look at me solemnly, “Have you ever tried to give your power to others?”

  “Aside from the prince? I once ‘help’ Phil, he is a younger disciple, to set a fire. But it’s before the master give me this pendant.” I take the black diamond pendant that hidden between my breasts, and show it to him.

  He just looks at it briefly and nods.

  “Have you learnt how to control your energy flow?” He asks again.

  “Yes, I start it six days ago. Master Yan told me to direct it to the sole of my feet.”

  “Let’s try that.”

  He instructs me to direct my energy to the sole of my feet and then to him. It is sounds so simple, but I’ve tried for almost two hours with no success.

  I only able direct it to my feet, not even the sole of my feet. I do try but it is hard to concentrate under his watchful eyes, or simply it is just me that untalented.

  Maybe seeing my resigned face, Ryn says, “Maybe we should try another method.”

  I should fight his control he says, preventing the energy leaks out from my body through my eyes.

  I hope I can do better in this one. I take a stance, standing in the center of the room, facing him, only a foot apart.

  He tells me to regulate my breathing. I close my eyes and do what he tells me and when I am ready, I open my eyes and lift my gaze. Our gazes meet and locked.

  His eyes are so light.

  I start to feel energy being pulled out from my body. I try to concentrate in controlling my energy flow. But all I can see is his light eyes. It’s the color of freshly brewed tea, clear and luminous under the morning light. Its outer ring slightly darker, the colors are irregular with some only a touch darker and thicker, but hastily it change, the brownish red color crawling inside, turning the pale brown to brown tinged with red, and then, to dark red.

  The more I see, the stronger the pull, and more energy left my body, but I cannot look away, spelled bound to his eyes. It starts to affect my breath. It becomes ragged, short and irregular. My bone is mushy, weak and in the brink of collapse.

  In a flash, his eyes turn back to light brown, and immediately, my strength flowing back to my body, making me sputter. I gulp a healthy amount of air, and my breath slowly becomes steady again.

  “I am sorry,” I say softly.

  “Block it. Don’t let your energy flow to your eyes,” he touch a place just below my collarbone, “Here, stop it here.”

  We try again. I try to do what he advises me to do, to feel the flow. It is in my blood. It is in my breath, flowing through the meridian of my body. I have to concentrate and shut out my surrounding. I try all of that but it still the same. Really, it is so difficult. I do try but it is hard to master.

  He decides that I have to master blocking the flow first. After that, we will continue to learn how to direct the force. Hearing he says all of that, it seems so easy to summon and dismiss the energy at will. Maybe it is easy for him, certainly not for me.

  “It’s enough for today,” he says and adds kindly, “Don’t be discouraged, my lady. It’s takes years to master for most people.”

  He bows, and then, leaves. For several moments, I just stand in silent, looking at his retreating back.

  ***

  This morning the weather is perfect, not too warm or too cold. I want to go outside but I can’t, since now I am standing in front of Ryn, our eyes locked. I am trying my best to keep my energy inside and fight his control.

  I am glad it is him who teaches me. He is proven to be a patient teacher. He never wears me out over my endurance and let me rest whenever I start to feel weak, for that I am thankful too. Even he is as talkative as a dead cat, at least he is polite, overly so.

  Once in two days we train together. My progress is slow, in the first week, I could hold his gaze for ten minutes without out of breath.

  Now, two week after we started, I can do it for more than half hour. But so far I cannot block it completely.

  I staggered back, Ryn suddenly cut short his attempt to drain my energy.

  “We will try something else,” he says, steps forward, closing the distance between us. “Your pendant, may I?”

  I nod.

  Today, finally we will train without pendant. Will I turn weak like the last time? I hope not.

  He leans closer, hovering over me, ready to take my pendant. I close my eyes and my heart beat nervously.

  Will I be alright?

  He takes the pendant without even touching my skin. And I hold my breath and close my eyes tighter.

  Oh, gods. Am I ready?

  I hear faint muffled sound in the sand. He is walking further than his original place. Then I hear another muffled sound from my left side.

  He throws my pendant.

  “Open your eyes, my lady,” he says.

  I brace myself, and I open one of my eyes ever so slowly, afraid of sudden attack.

  Will I faint?

  I see him standing few feet ahead. His face is odd, I see the corner of his mouth twitching. Our gazes meet and nothing happen.

  “Why?” I ask him in wonder.

  “My lady?” I hear a hint amusement in his voice.

  He has strong power, hasn’t he?

  “Why? Why nothing happen?”

  “Oh…” he says, turning his face, hiding his twitching lips, I know it. He mocks me.

  It annoys me, I marching to him, and stands right in front of him, toe to toe.

  “Are you mocking me?” I ask, crossed.

  He turns his face, I have to tilts my face, he is just so tall.

  Now, his face somber again, no trace of smile in his lips and eyes. His face is in stony mask. I search his eyes. We are gazing each other, but still nothing happen.

  “No—” he says. But whatever he wants to say, it is left unfinished. In a flash, I see his eyes change colors

  I feel a swift, strong pull in the midst of my racing heartbeat. It is so sudden, my energy leaps to him, leaving me weak in the knees, and my breath starts to change.

  I feel my feet are starts to give out.

  I am going to fall.

  In a heartbeat, he takes my waist in his arm; my body hit his chest, our body glued to each other.

  Through our gaze, the energy path is created; our energy turn into one so is our heartbeat. I am growing weaker. But still I can’t take my eyes off him.

  I lose all sense of surrounding, like we are standing in vast empty field, void of voice and alone.

  My bones are ready to crumble, weightless and soft.

  Is this how I die?

  I raise my weak arm with the last ounce of my s
trength holding his tunic dearly, supporting my body more, and trying hard not to fall.

  His eyes, it is mixed of many odd colors. I feel the darkness creeping from the corner of my eyes. It starts so slow, blurring my vision. Suddenly, he snapping closes his eyes.

  I feel air back to my lung in vengeance. I staggered back from sudden rush of energy, but his arm secured me, tighter on my waist.

  I glance up, looking at his closed eyes, with ragged breath. I see, marveling how long his eyelashes are. Then, I realize how improperly close we are.

  As if catching fire, I retreat back wobbly, out from the safety of his arm. I feel blush creeping in my cheek.

  I take a shy peek to his face. His face is taut, and his eyes closed still. Then, he opens his eyes, it is back to light brown, piercing me with unfathomable stare.

  I see his expression slacken and his eyes mellowed, “Are you okay?” he asks.

  I nod, but swift blow of nausea sweeps me. I feel cold beads start to line in my forehead.

  Please no, I don’t want to faint now, not now.

  Ryn starts to take a step to me, but he catches himself, turning, and takes my pendant that lying half buried in the sand not far from him.

  Then, he comes to me, and gingerly put the pendant back to my neck.

  “I’m sorry,” he says softly, still hovering close to me. I can hear that he truly feel sorry from his voice.

  “Why are you sorry? It’s my own folly.”

  He cups my forehead with his palm, “You’re not well. I’ll take you to your room.”

  Then, he turns back and kneeling in front of me, beckoning me to ride his back.

  Oh, no I can’t. Even with my aching body, I can’t do that. It is not proper.

  He turns his face, and looks at me with raised eyebrow, “Prince Lex will be furious if he knows I make you faint.”

  Reluctantly, I drag my heavy feet and hop to his back.

  I do feel weak. My aunt will mortified if she see me now. But she's not here. And no one will know.

  He swiftly stands, and walking to the door.

  “Where is your room?”

  “Fifth floor.” I burry my face in his back when we cross path with startled servants.

  But Ryn just says in calm voice, “Please bring hot milk to Lady Ava’s room.”

  Even in my weak state, I feel my body flush with embarrassment. But his stride still stable, unfaltering.

  Through stairs we go round and round, up to my room.

  I must be very heavy. Oh, I want to die from embarrassment.

  “Is something wrong?” he asks concerned.