3- THE WORDS

His arms were tied to chains that stretched from the pillars and looping the hooks they bare , the chains stretched from them holding the arms of a man clinging on to life , the pillars of agony , there were plenty of them below just behind the back gate of the palace . These pillars were believed to carry the powers to bring out the truth from any set of teeth that lay chained to them or more precisely to say the whips the body faced , forced the words out or one could say the words the whip cracker wants to hear . His shabby dress threaded apart and beneath it lay the skin tears that gripped blood tightly enough to let him live longer than little . Despite the clots on his wrists and a barely awake body , the man who was chained spoke nothing . " You are a whisperer , aren't you ?" asked king Orion for the fifth time as he kept getting beaten . It seemed as though the man had made up his mind to rather let go of life than to speak , but then he spoke after the sixth round of blood stained whips , " bring the boy and I will tell the truth , to both you and him " with head too tired to raise .

Orion looked worried as always with droopy eyes and less charming face which seemed as though it hid his sadness , there he sat on his throne after finishing the boring daily routine with his ministers and their reports . moments later he stands up and begins walking towards his room , his walk seems dragged and his overly bright Cape hit his heels with a sense of disinterest . " father ! " called out Aeon as he walked towards Orion with a slightly faster pace but it did not seem as an anxious run which showed the kid was too matured for his age , it was eight months since his conversation with hakim and he had finally made up his mind to ask the king himself regarding the basis of hidden gates . Orion stopped near his room holding the handle as he replied " what is it son " . Aeon did not know how to put forth the question , he was struck , he wasn't an adult to drag around the matter before laying the doubt, so , he thought of bringing it as a later on topic after speaking of rather daily chatters to avoid the directly imposing , the seemingly tough question to which the answer probably will be a silence or rejection . So Aeon walks towards his still father , figuring in his head almost three to four questions regarding his afternoon meal, the assembly session , the meeting with ministers and so on . Aeon taking his steps in a suitable enough way to ready with questions reaches his father and opens his mouth , blank , the kid nature gave in to his attemted mature thoughts and spoke out " father , why would you not open the gates , why can't I go out " . shocked Orion's face turned furious, he bent down closing his face nearer to his kid's and asked " who told you this " . Aeon having an ill sensation of his wrongdoing, spoke " a friend in the town " and forced his eyes shut knowing that the matter was worser now . Orion without any reply turns his back and begins to walk rather roughly and reaches the hall and calls for a guard , and once the guard reaches for his majesty's service , Orion orders " I need the person who filled my son's head with all the nonsense " .

The next day there he was , Hakim chained to pillars and beaten up and for the sixth round calls for the presence of young Aeon . And as per the request Aeon was brought down aftr he was finished with his food . He came down the stairs , walked across the hall and entered a door that led to another small hall which was called the wine hall , it was a place used to rest the tired merchants who would be there to have their targets whipped and theh drank wine and laughed a lot till the job was done hence the name , right past it was an exit which led to the pillars . So he walks past the empty hall and as he walks nearer to the door he could see few people surrounding a man tied to chains , as he walks closer he sees his father standing before a blood soaked old man , things get clearer now , He recognises Hakim and rushes towards him while calling out his name , but he's stopped by a guard who pulls him and brings him to the side of king . Orion stares at his son , pulls him closer by his collar and says "he is not your friend , he is a whisperer " . Aeon whose attention was divided between his father and hakim seemed rather confused , he was trembling with anger and pity . "what is that" asks Aeon in an arrogant tone . sighing rather quaintly Orion replies " whisperers are the people who have unsolicited ability to make people do what they want . all they need to do is talk , they tell people to do something and it's done " he gives a small break and signals his guards go move away from hakim and continues speaking " look at that man , he's tricking you into things you do not know about , they are known for kidnapping childern as they can be easily manipulated , they use the kidnapped ones as slaves or Messengers or scapegoats or as anything they want , their kind was thrown away from the kingdom long time ago , I don't know how this one is still in ".

Aeon stood there staring at the ground and spoke on a low tone " is this true ".

Hakim breathing slowly like he was trying to search for words in the wind spoke up slowly " yes kid , it is true , whatever your father told about me being a whisperer is true , but I have never done the crimes my kind did orelse I wouldn't be a beggar , and about the outside .." . "Shut him up , uncahain him and throw him out the gates " yelled Orion without letting hakim complete . they hit some more so he stopped speaking and closed his eyes , chains were undone and as hakim was on his knees about to hit his face to the ground Aeon rushed and held the red man , though hakim never told him these , Aeon still cared enough . Aeon held kneeling hakim who seemed lifeless and weak with his head on his shoulder , the opportunity seemed right , hakim whisperers to Aeon " meet laurus " and goes to sleep . Guards rush to pull him off the kid and it seemed none of them noticed hakim speak . Orion grabs Aeon n takes him into the castle while guards carry the beggar to a cart and they head towards the gates .

"meet laurus " , these words kept repeating in aeons head while he was sent to his room , he had to clean up as his dress had blood stains , he walks to the balcony and sees a line of fire nearing the gates . aeon rushes to his parents' room after making sure his father was not in yet . He walks towards his mother and asks what the fire was . Serena fully aware of the incidents , felt sad for her child , she held his hand and walked him to her balcony which was bigger than his and had more brighter view of the kingdom , the lanterns from the homes looked like shy stars on the ground . she looked at the large length of fire and spoke " whenever a person is exiled , he is taken on a cart with atleast fifty soldiers around the scene to the gate , they do this so that the forest people don't try to attack as we open the gates " . Aeon just kept looking at the gates and he noticed the soldiers were coming back as the line of fire moved the other way now , he knew that hakim was dropped off now . Serena looked at her kid , ruffled his hair feeling forlorn and hoping things would change someday .

Aeon laying on his bed kept looking at the celing . it seemed as though a sickle were too blunt to gash the grass completely but could definitely have an impact that wouldn't be a still glory to the sharpness and defeat to the grass , such were the thoughts running in the kids mind , the words kept ringing in between the thoughts of betrayal he seemed to have faced , which had rather faint impact to say . He never thought of the old guy as a criminal and was more inclined towards his near death treatment , while the incidents lunghed at the kid's not so weak mind, laying a toll on his simple life so clearly he wasn't meant to have a simple one . " MEET LAURUS " ,Aeon was smart enough to understand that laurus had a plan for him , and Aeon was sure his father wouldn't let him go out of the castle again for a very long time , so he had to come up with something and all he could do is hope more people were on his side but the only person he knew that could help him was his mother so he kept the hopes on strings and thought to wait for a few more days before trying to contrive the situation , relived by his self supporting thoughts Aeon drowses off hoping for better days to come .