14 The Reed of Regret.

"I deserve to die," said the Prince, burying his face in his hands. He looked nothing like the ice cold, insufferably arrogant young man from before this trip, more like a child who had gone through more than he could handle.

Aidan saw yet again that pain had power to change people. At least temporarily.

"You need to rest," Aidan shook his head. He had no desire to play an armchair psychologist right now. If the guy just slept a bit more and maybe ate something, he'd probably get over whatever crisis this was. Physically he already looked much better – his face was a healthier color and he wasn't shivering anymore.

"Just lie down and I'll bring you some food later. Everything will be fine," said Aidan, as he left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He wasn't sure, if everything was going to be fine but that's what people said in such situations, right?

He slowly went downstairs, where he was confronted by the corpses yet again. Aidan sighed – something had to be done about those. But not before he got some liquid courage. He reasoned that nobody should do this kind of thing sober. After rummaging around for a bit he managed to find several bottles of "rum". There were probably more lying around somewhere else but Aidan wasn't that greedy.

After taking a big gulp he slipped the bottle into his boot and finally got to work. Aidan tried not to look at the puffy blue faces, as he took the bodies off the rail and carefully, one by one, placed them on the ground. At that moment he suddenly realized just how many graves he'd have to dig to bury every single person in this village.

"Even for my life that's a low point," he thought to himself. "Last thing I ever thought I'd be doing was digging mass graves."

Aidan took another big sip and decided that he at least needed to eat, before starting this hopelessly depressing endeavor, so he picked up the bread and the cheese he had foraged earlier at the nearby tavern. After making a couple of unsightly sandwiches he took them upstairs to share with His Highness.

However, as soon as Aidan entered the room, the dish fell out of his hands. The scene he witnessed made a heart-palpitating chill spread through all his limbs.

The Prince was tying up a noose, his face determined and somehow, in contrast to what he was doing, very serene.

Where did he even get the rope?

"What the hell are you doing...Your Highness?" Aidan asked, almost forgetting his manners from all the shock.

"Taking care of a problem," the Prince said. "It will be better for everybody, if I die."

"Why would you think that?" Aidan asked, carefully making his way towards the Prince. It felt a bit like talking somebody out of jumping from a high building. Another thing that Aidan never thought he'd be doing. He always imagined that he'd be on the other side of this dialogue.

"You'd hate me, if I told you," the Prince said, looking down.

"Try me," Aidan needed a couple more steps to reach the guy.

"I let my sister down... Not just once. Many many times," the Prince said with tears in his voice. "My little sister needed help... and all I did was look away."

"Even if it's the case, your sister probably wouldn't want you to die," Aidan made another step.

The Prince shook his head.

"She would prefer me dead. Hell, she would most likely want to join me. Before... you know, before all of this, she was such a happy little girl. So friendly, she always wanted to play with me. She would follow me around everywhere... And then I saw the spark in her eyes slowly disappear, till there was nothing left," the Prince laughed bitterly. "I knew what was going on. But I desperately didn't want to know. I thought, it wasn't my fight. And maybe... just a little... I blamed her for my mother's death. So I left her alone... to deal with that man."

"What man?" Aidan asked. One more step and he would be able to grab the noose.

"My uncle," the Prince sighed. "Do you hate me now?"

"You really should ask your sister that question, so how about you hand me that rope?" Aidan extended his hand towards the Prince. The guy immediately backed away.

"No. You tell me. Do you hate me?"

In all honestly, Aidan did hate the Prince as a concept – a monarch whose power resides solely on blood right was not something that Aidan, as a man from the 21st century, could accept. On the other hand, he couldn't bring himself to hate the Prince as a human. In this regard he could only sympathize with him- he obviously had to grow up very quickly and navigate his way through uneasy circumstances. Not to mention this crazy evil uncle of his. Aidan also didn't want to pass any judgment on him about the matter with his sister. He felt, it wasn't his place to comment on that.

"I don't hate you," Aidan said finally. "Give me the rope."

It seemed that the Prince was hesitating, so Aidan used this moment to grab the noose and push the Prince on the floor.

"Please, just let me do it," the guy cried.

"Not a chance," said Aidan, tossing the rope out the window. He then proceeded to take out the bottle of "rum" he had previously hidden in his boot. "Here, take a couple of sips. It'll make you feel better."

The Prince tried to push the bottle away but Aidan was very persistent and didn't give up until the guy had finally gulped down a big portion of the magic liquid.

"Well done, sunshine," Aidan smiled, as the Prince eventually stopped resisting and became very quiet. They shared the sandwiches which Aidan had dropped earlier and sat there on the floor for a while in complete silence.

"Why does it stink here so much?" the Prince asked suddenly.

"Oh, about that...," Aidan decided there was no better time than now to drop the news. He quickly recounted what he had witnessed in the village and took the Prince downstairs to see the corpses for himself.

"I've been thinking, it would make sense to take them all down and give them a proper burial," said Aidan, hoping that the Prince would be up for some manual labor therapy. In that case he wouldn't have to do all the digging alone.

The Prince paled and suddenly bolted outside.

"Wait! Where are you going, Your Highness?" Aidan followed him, confused.

Just how fragile was this guy's psyche?

Aidan found the Prince standing on the side of the road, holding a couple of long reeds.

"What is that for?" Aidan asked, annoyed and tired.

"I can't believe, I almost fell for it," the Prince said incredulously.

"Fell for what?"

"For this!" the guy shook the reeds in his face.

Aidan realized that the Prince had completely lost his mind. And now he had a crazy Emperor-to-be on his hands. What a great trip this was! If Aidan could, he would have rated it zero stars.

"Just put it down, and let's go inside," Aidan said, furrowing his brows.

"You don't understand," the Prince sighed. "This is the Reed of Regret."

"I don't care, even if it's the Mushroom of Misery! Drop it," at this moment Aidan was very close to losing it.

"Listen to me," the Prince said calmly. "This is the magic plant from the savage lands. It was planted here deliberately. With murderous intent."

"What?" Aidan narrowed his eyes.

"This plant produces spores that, once they are breathed in, amplify guilt feelings by tenfold. This usually results in people taking their own lives."

Oh, so this was the reason for the tragedy. Some kind of reed.

"Why would somebody plant it here?" Aidan asked.

The Prince shrugged:

"The only ones who could do something like that are the savages themselves. This is one of their weapons. You can't argue that it's not effective."

And this was the moment when Aidan finally understood why everyone in the Empire called these guys savages. This somehow seemed on par with dropping an atomic bomb on civilian cities for no other reason than just to show off your weapons.

"I've read that the savages use it on their criminals. This makes them confess to every single crime they have ever committed. And at the same time it saves everybody the effort of execution – the criminals just off themselves. Clean and quick. All you need – is a reed," the Prince said thoughtfully. "I have never expected that they would use it against us. But that was very naive of me. Why wouldn't they?"

"So this was why you wanted to kill yourself earlier?" Aidan asked.

The Prince nodded.

"Exactly. And I would have succeeded, if you hadn't intervened," he gave Aidan a long look. "How come it didn't affect you?"

As if Aidan knew the answer to that question! He thoughtfully touched the scars on his wrists that had reappeared earlier. Was he immune to the reed because he had already tried to get rid of himself before and failed? Or had the dull desire to die and overwhelming guilt become such an ingrained part of his personality that he didn't feel any different under the influence of the spores?"

"I don't know," Aidan answered honestly.

"Well, we need to burn this place down to the ground or the spores will eventually reach other places in the Empire," said the Prince. He took the horse and headed towards the gates.

Aidan had no other choice but to follow him.

Once they were outside, the Prince put his palm up, and a small blue light appeared on top of it. He then turned his palm and forcefully pushed it towards the gates. At that moment the little flame flew inside the village, setting everything in its path ablaze.

"It's nice to have my spiritual powers back," the Prince smiled, revealing the dimple on his left cheek.

Aidan was impressed by the show but then he thought of something:

"If you could do things like that before the savages kidnapped you, then how did they even manage to trap you in the first place?" he asked.

The Prince was looking at the rising flames, his expression suddenly somber.

"They made me see my father – I was fooled by an illusion. But this will not happen anymore, I've learned my lesson," he said with a sigh.

"Did your father die?"

"He might as well have."

"I'm sorry," Aidan said awkwardly.

"Don't be," the Prince said, his eyes turning cold. He looked at Aidan and suddenly smirked:

"Adnan, how come you keep saving my life over and over again?"

"If I let you die, the Regent will kill me, Your Highness," Aidan responded.

"Who are you kidding?" The Prince laughed. "You obviously don't care about my uncle and his threats."

Aidan didn't know what to say to that.

"And why after all of this do you still insist on calling me "Your Highness"?" the Prince asked, his voice sad and quiet.

"We can leave now, Kai," was all Aidan said in response, as he turned his back to what once was a very lively village.