The King's Answer

"You are here again." Spoke a voice rather negligently. In the place covered by darkness and fog, the deep cold voice unwelcomingly echoed all around.

Although the voice did not mention any name, Kraos knew that it was talking to him. The thing was, he recognized this voice but he could not remember who it belonged to. He could vaguely remember being in a place like this before as well. He looked around in this mysterious place hoping that he would be able to see the owner of the voice. But even though the darkness was not enough to hinder Kraos' vision, the fog was too thick to see through. Even the nearest trees were hardly visible.

"Who is there? Show yourself." Kraos demanded. He started to walk through the thick fog towards the direction where the unknown voice came from when it spoke again.

"Urgh. Not again." The voice sounded exasperated. "Every time you come here, you ask me THAT DAMNED QUESTION. 'Who is there?' 'Who are you?' 'Is this a dream?' Don't you ever practice spiritual arts or what? Why don't you ever remember? Even when you wield that bracelet, your spirit is like that of a mere wanderer. You want to be a sage. But sagehood is not only about the divine, Kraos. You have to master your spirit as well. If you can't realize that, you can just say 'good bye' to sagehood."

"I will not become a sage."

"We shall see. And why will you not? Because you have to pass down your bracelet? Ha ha ha ha ha." The voice laughed. It's loud cackle echoed menacingly throughout the entire forest. "You humans are interesting creatures. You keep using gifts given by the deities and defy their will at the same time. The bracelets were not meant to be used like this. And who will you even pass your bracelet down to? Tell me, Kraos. Where is your family? Who will you pass it down to?"

"I will bring my family back from wherever they are."

"Even from death?"

Kraos was taken aback by the question. He couldn't get himself to reply.

"Or what if you end up dying before you get to pass it down to anyone?" The voice continued. "Sagehood is an honor granted by the deities. And you humans dishonor them by not even trying to attain it."

"But if I become a sage," Kraos wavered, "my family will perish after my death. We will no longer be royals."

"I feel like I am talking to a tree." The voice mockingly remarked. "But even trees understand if you know how to communicate with them. You don't see the truth of this world, Kraos. You have a lot more to learn. You are not ready yet."

"Ready for what?"

"Ready to be here. You are still chained by your own ideologies, Kraos. These conversations will mean nothing if you can't break free. Good bye. I am now sending you back to your world."

"What? No! I have so many questions." Kraos was desperate.

"Save the questions for when you are ready."

"And when will that be?"

"You will know."

"Then at least tell me who you are."

"I will not tell anyone about myself just to be forgotten. Good bye, Kraos. It was nice meeting you again." The voice slowly faded and the fog came rushing in and covered Kraos in pure blinding white but for a split moment before it did, Kraos could see a pair of big yellow eyes and that was the only thing he could remember of this weird confrontation after waking up.

After that, Kraos had a good dream which completely made him forget about what he had experienced. In this dream, he had a great time with his family in his home, the Ragnar household. In the dream, Cassandra had already given birth to their daughter; and Kraos and Cassandra were merrily playing with the child. The dream stopped abruptly when Kraos was woken up by Arion. He woke up shouting the name of his wife as he did not want to wake up at all.

"CASSANDRA!" Kraos jumped up from his bed and groaned as he felt pain all over his body. He bit his lips tightly. The brief warmth that he had felt in his heart till now was slowly being replaced by the coldness of this hospital room. Kraos could tell that it was a dream that his brain had fabricated to make him feel better. He tried to remember the dream. Even though it was a dream, it felt so vivid, so real. Kraos wanted to believe that the dream he saw was the actual reality but it was painfully obvious that it was not. He could also remember seeing a pair of big yellow eyes getting covered by a gust of thick white fog. Who did they belong to? Kraos could not remember.

"Cassandra…" He muttered again.

"Kraos."

Kraos turned his head to look at where the voice came from. "Brother Arion… Your majesty…"

The king of Arakzan, Aiden Edelweiss, was sitting on a chair just beside the bed. Lord Arion was standing just a little behind.

"I'm sorry that we had to disturb you, Kraos, waking you up from your slumber." The king spoke. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, your majesty."

"Had you been fine, Kraos, you would've been gone from this hospital already." The king chuckled.

"You have stationed four saints here to prevent that." Kraos mocked.

The king didn't take the remark offensively. "In your best condition, I believe you are capable enough to outmaneuver all of them."

"You flatter me, your majesty."

"I most certainly do not. In any case, let's not waste more time on useless chattering. I have important matters to attend to. Kraos, do you know why we were at war?"

"The Gurgon spiritwood forest." Kraos replied almost instantly.

Forests, more specifically, trees were a great source of spiritual energy. Forests, having a lot of trees, were naturally filled with it. For this reason, saints, mediums and shamans used forests to cultivate their spiritual strength. Later, it was discovered that around a few species of trees, spiritual energy was a lot denser. These trees were called the spiritwood trees, or simply, the spiritwoods. These trees did not grow everywhere but only in a few particular places. The Gurgon forest in Arakzan was such a place. It was full of spiritwood trees. The ownership of Gurgon had been a reason behind many little squabbles as it was situated right at the border of Arakzan. And this time, it was a full-blown war. Larakt was after the ownership of Gurgon for many years. So, it was easy to guess why the war had ensued.

"Yes. We have been attacked quite a few times by other nations because of it, haven't we? After all, one third of the spiritwoods all over the world grow here in the Gurgon alone." The king paused a little. "The Ragnar Household is fairly close to it, no?"

"So my house really was attacked." Kraos said as calmly as possible. He had already anticipated this much.

"You are a smart man, Kraos. You guessed correctly. Your house, indeed, was attacked." Kraos was going to ask something but the king raised his hand and gestured Kraos to stop. "Let me speak. I know what you want to know, Lord Kraos." Aiden spoke in a formal tone. "And now I am about to tell you about what happened to your family and I can assure you that these won't be so easy to hear. But I hope that you have prepared yourself by now after your little chat with Arion a while ago." The king took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Your house was attacked. Your father tried to protect his daughter-in-law and his soon-to-be-born grandchild with his own life but he failed. Lord Darius Ragnar died in combat and Lady Cassandra Violet Ragnar has been captured by Larakt."

Kraos felt a chill run through his entire body. Tears streamed down his face. Memories of his wife and late father flashed before his eyes. "How long has it been since this happened?"

"Six days."

A cold shiver ran down Kraos' spine. Thanks to Irin, he knew that it had been exactly six days since he had passed out on the battlefield due to extreme exhaustion. So, the very same day when he had been fighting against the three saints that his father had been killed and his wife had been abducted. "Was it after I had passed out… or before?" Kraos' lips trembled.

The king understood what Kraos meant. "Before."

"THEN WHY…" Kraos clenched his fists and twisted his face in pain, both physical and mental. "WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED ABOUT THIS?" He couldn't keep his voice down.

"I understand that it's hard for you but try to remain calm, Kraos."

"ONLY IF I KNEW…" Kraos continued without paying attention. "Only if I had been informed, I could at least save her… I could rescue Cassandra… I—"

"And that is exactly the reason why you were not informed, Kraos. You could rescue your wife, yes. But at what cost?"

Kraos looked at the king.

"Not every saint dares to take on more than one saint as his opponent. Not everyone survives. Even Araksha couldn't survive fighting two. But you…" The king pointed with his finger. "You survived fighting three of them. You killed them! That is not a feat most saints now-a-days are capable of! Don't you get it? You are an asset, Kraos. An irreplaceable asset. I'm sorry for your loss, I really am. But I had no other choice. Had you left the battlefield, we would've lost the war. So, I had to compromise."

Kraos listened and paused for a moment to think everything over. He wasn't that dumb to not understand what the king said. But he could not just consider his family's demise as collateral damage. He made up his mind. He would do anything in his power to get his family back. He did not have the power to resurrect the dead, but Cassandra was still alive. He would rescue Cassandra from enemy hands. He must! Kraos knew that there had to be something that Larakt wanted if they went so far as to capture someone from a royal family. "What is Larakt's demand?" He asked.

The king looked him in the eye. "Kraos Ragnar."