The King

The young prince, placing his blade upon his father's neck, claimed the kingdom as his own. Finally, Reinland was free from the corrupt king.

Cleo loved that line. She remembered reading it over and over again, relishing in the honor and glory of it all. It was such a perfect ending to the rebellion. Flipping through some old magic spell books, Cleo thought about Aegaeon, and how he was leading his rebellion in Reinland at the moment.

"Why did you do it?" She whispered to herself, reciting the words from the final conversation between the prince and his father.

"Why? You were not always like this! Why did you change?"

Aegaeon threw his sword on the floor, the clanking sound shaking the room as it reverberated. He stomped away from the humbled king.

"I don't understand. They all said that you would become a wise and just king."

The withered old man of a monarch looked down as the floor. So this was the sour taste of betrayal. The thing he had spent all those years running from, in fear of what it would do to him. "Power changes you, my son. Soon you will see for yourself."

He picked up the fallen sword. Closing his eyes, he brought the blade to his chest, and with one final apologetic look, he plunged the weapon into his chest. Everything faded away. All of the old king's fears, ideas, and obsessions. All merging into the murky blackness that was death. But a single shimmer of light glowed in the distance, lighting up the darkness.

Suddenly, he was a young prince again. He stood below his favorite tree in the palace courtyard, autumn leaves slowly falling to the ground. Reaching out a hand, he watched as a weak, crackly leaf fell into his hand. In another life, he would have closed his fist, crumpling the poor thing to dust. But he was no longer that man.

"Quinlan!" a voice called from the distant palace doors. A young woman ran out, waving her hand energetically. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!"

Oh, his beloved Aquamarine! How he had missed her in the long years she had been gone from his side. What could have possibly possessed him to let her go? Reaching out his arms, the late king swept her up in his arms, spinning her around as the tree shed its warm, autumn leaves.

This was the story of a little boy named Quinlan. This was the story about the troubles and complications he went through before he found peace. And now he could finally rest.

***

"I guess he did not value you very much," Aegaeon, now the new king of Reinland, said.

"I never wished for his love," Sierra replied, blowing her disheveled hair out of her face with a huff. "Nor did I ever wish to be valued or cherished."

"Then what did you want?"

"Power. It is as your father put it. Once you feel powerful, you will never want to let that feeling go."

Aegaeon stared at the woman, so different from each and every memory he had of her. She no longer looked perfect and shining. She no longer smelled of that one strongly-scented rose perfume that she seemed to always use. So this was the finale for the woman who had ruined young Aegaeon's life.

"I suppose now you'll have to kill me," she said, no longer fearful of her fate. "Perhaps I too shall find peace in the darkness at the end of the road."

The young king raised his hand, silvery wisps of magic flowing out of his fingertips. Sierra closed her eyes, waiting for the feeling of death to wash over her. She felt Aegaeon's magic seep into her, slowly pulling her mind apart from within, softly and silently, as if she was not going to die at all. She opened her eyes, taking one last look at this young man, soon to be the king of Reinland. Then she shut her eyes once more, and never to open again.

***

After the coronation, Aegaeon was searching the nearly deserted halls of the palace for the one he would make his queen. He found her, standing in a small, secluded corner of the gardens, looking out over the city. She turned around, wind blowing her hair around her face like some sort of magic, unique to only her.

"You did it," she said, giving Aegaeon a small smile. "Now the entire kingdom is yours."

"And yours as well," he replied. Walking up to her, he placed a rogue strand of her hair behind her ear. "Will you be my queen?"

She shook her head. She had already had enough of fighting for power and royal lineages. Finally, after seven long years of surviving the palace of Reinland, she was free. Why would she go back to that place, that prison where she had been imprisoned for so long?

"Please, Zenna. Be my queen."

How young and righteous Aegaeon sounded. So innocent to the horrors and sufferings of the world. But he would eventually grow to understand why his father had turned out the way he did, and how he would one day end up as the same person.

But Zenna could not turn him down.

He was her hero. He had been ever since she met him. But she knew him to be that happy little boy who had smiled at her and played with her each time she felt lonely. What would happen to that boy when he got a taste of real power? Unrelenting, true power. And what had happened to him already? Where had Aegaeon's happiness gone?

Zenna supposed that the only way to find out was to stay by his side. Maybe one day he would finally tell her all of his secrets. But before that, all she had to do was say yes.