Chapter Twelve: Memories of The Past

I never knew my mother. I had heard many stories from the servants in the castle. Some said she was beautiful others said she shy but what they all agreed on was how kind she was. 

Kindness was something my childhood sorely lacked. The servants treated me as if I was just some street urchins. The street urchins treated me as a snobby rich kid. The nobles all had a distain for me because of my half human-half elf heritage. My dad hated me the most for that. It seemed to be something that always had him in an ill mood. Maybe it was more than that maybe not either way the beatings never stopped.

"It's for your own good." "We will beat that elvish arrogance from you." "The beatings will Make you a man.'

Those were all things he would say in the rages. Was it for my own good? It didn't seem like it. Was I arrogant? Maybe I was. I've never met an elf before so how was I to know if they were arrogant or not. Certainly not more arrogant than most nobles. Did the beating make me a man? I think that was the only thing my father managed to achieve from the punches. 

I found solace in the libraries of the palace amidst the never ending rows of dusty books and tomes. Few ever bothered me there. I was one of the small handful that was allowed free access to all the books. Fewer still of the ones that bothered to actually read any of the books. 

Books were a funny thing in this world. They were so expensive and hard to make that they were a sign of wealth and nobility. Yet those very same nobles most often refused to read the books. So much knowledge had been gathered over the centuries just for all of it goes to waste in the libraries of the rich. It was a shame.

As the years went by I spent more and more time in that room. Dodging my tutors, avoiding my father, Ignoring the insults of nobles. Eventually I had started to sleep on the floor of the room. I must have read all the books in that room three times over. Histories of distant lands or long forgotten empires, the records of great conquerors and warriors, I even read old financial ledgers that were tossed in there.

I once found a spell book hidden behind a loose plank in a shelve. That one I had hidden in my room. Anything magical besides enchanted equipment or products bought from the mages guilds themselves were illegal to own. The mage's laws held supreme across all lands, peoples, and races to defy them would spell the doom of your entire bloodline. Such was the complete power they held monopoly on.

I was alright at the use of magic. Although I quickly stopped practicing when a mage visited the court claiming to be searching for an unsanctioned magic user. I don't know how they can sense that someone was using magics but they did so I had stopped. Although I still read the book front to back.

I met two important people in those days. First was Preacher Bryant. Bryant was perhaps the only adult I looked up to and trusted in those days. He was the personal preacher to my father and ran the local chapel. He was an older man whose age showed in all aspects of his life. He taught me many things I would use throughout my life. 

He taught me how to see people's real intentions and aims. He told me how no ruler has friends only followers. I remember when he let me sit in on confessions of the nobles when they came to admit to their perceived sins. They were too trusting of the old Preacher. Those confessions made me hate nobles more than almost any other time in my life.

Preacher Bryant was a father figure to me until the day he died. His death was swift and sudden. One day my father's men busted down the door to the library and dragged him out by his throat. Only a day later he was tried and hanged for treason against the country. He was selling the secrets of those nobles that confided in him to their rivals many of which were from different countries. I wasn't shocked of course I had known all along I was present for much of it. Still the day was a sad one.

The second person I met in those alleys of bookshelves was Balius Teyles the son of Darius Teyles; who happens to be the richest person in the empire. Balius grew up in the palace as a product of his father's bribes to the Emperor. 

I hadn't really known him until he started going to the library around the same time as me. At first we avoided each other but little by little we grew closer and closer. I agree with Bryant that a ruler can't have friends but Balius is the one person I consider close enough to call one. After a while we opened up to each other about the problems in our lives and our struggles. 

According to Balius he had come to the library to escape the same abuse I had. Where I was being groomed to rule he was bring groomed to take over all of his father's businesses as heir to the Teyles family business empire. Balius was very soft spoken and while I wouldn't say he was shy he certainly avoided most people. 

We spent hours every day debating the greatest conquerors through history or which empire had the greatest impact on history. I coached him on getting better at speech craft while he taught me economics. We confided in each other everything that bugged us or we hated. Balius is the only one that knows all of my plans for the future and the only one I trust to help me see them through to completion.

"Aug... .... .....augu"

I could hear something. Im not sure what or who it was. It is faint and distant.

"August!" 

The voice threatens to rip me from my memories. I don't fight it. There isn't anything worth remembering there anyway.