Becoming King

"Where are they?" Atlas seethed, shooting up from one of his custom designed chairs behind the study table. Ryoko walked in timidly and stood before him like a slave, "I checked the CCTV visuals of the hallways."

"And?"

"The camera hasn't been working for three days," Ryoko admitted, internally flinching as if making herself ready for his outburst. But it was quiet for a while so she looked up at him. All he did was lean back on his chair and let out an annoyed breath.

Her eyes fell on his hands which were curled into tight white fists. She could almost see the shape of the veins running along his right arm. The study clock ticked twice before Atlas grabbed the decorative statue and flung it across the room. Ryoko gasped and threw herself out of the way as a deafening crackle of glass whizzed around the room.

She stared in shock at the million pieces of the glass scattered on the black marble tiles. It almost looked pretty.

"And the jailbreak today? What are you going to blame that on?" the young prince snapped, his gaze deadlocking with Ryoko's frightened face. He flung his head around yelling, "LOOK AT ME! You witch!"

Ryoko met his raged his eyes because she had no choice. She wanted to fight back but his explosion left no space for her lamentations, "Why?" she spluttered, "Why do you care about those two boys so much?"

He stepped around the desk to tower himself above her, "Because, dammit, they are my only way out of me talking to my mom without dying myself!"

Confusion replaced fright and she shook her head ever so slightly, "I don't understand?" Every time he mentioned this 'talking to the dead' thing now, Ryoko's heart flipped halfway and she'd have to reach inside and put her heart back in its original place. What Atlas was trying to do was correct...trying to find the truth...that's good. Right?

Atlas sighed and ruffled his hair. Flopping on the desk, he took a breath to calm himself down and continued, "Ryoko, I trust you, okay?"

Ryoko nodded, slightly smiling. Little words like this, though not close to what she wished for, made her day. She could never stay mad at him for more than three seconds this way. He caught her shoulders and raised his eyebrows like he was going to share a secret. She listened.

"So listen. I found out where The Wheel came from and this-"

"What? Where did it come from?" she squealed in surprise. That really was an unknown secret.

"Mars. It came from Mars," Atlas answered, waiting for her to understand. He had always found it difficult to handle her questions most times. Atlas, why are you doing that? Atlas, where are you going? Atlas? Did you take your meds? Atlas! Why are you up so late?

He found it frustrating sometimes. But other times, when he felt lonely, Ryoko reminded him of Dad. He was doing all this for him anyway.

"Same place as the fever?" Ryko pressed on and Atlas nodded.

"The Wheel fell from Mars' bits when it transformed to a star many years ago and got washed up on land only during the flood. Do you know Ryoko? That stars, they have eternal life...that's why the Wheel gives out unlimited energy. It's the eternal life we are depending upon now. The fever was just a counter reaction because we used a lot of energy for war that year," Atlas explained as slowly as he could, so she wouldn't have to ask later.

"Oh...I never put those two pieces together...who would have guessed?" she thought out loud and sat on the study table's chair. Atlas turned his body around to face her, still sitting on the table.

"But," Ryoko continued, "How is this related to talking to the dead?"

Atlas's face lit up and leaned closer, "That's the thing, The Wheel is life. The dead has no life. So..." he pinched the air with his thumb and index finger, "if we took a little bit of life from The Wheel, and gave a little bit of it to the dead, we can talk to her!"

Ryoko was unfazed. She just stared dead-on, her gears clearly turning. Atlas's amused smile fell and he sighed, "Ryoko. What is it? What's wrong?"

She shook her head and leaned forward, "Then why not just bring the king back to life?"

Atlas smiled slightly, "Because he won't tell me why she killed him."

"Why not?"

Atlas stared past her at the huge glass windows that ran along one side of the study, showcasing a brilliant view of the Palace lake and the lights of Zyka main city in the distance.

When Atlas was five, he had always wanted to go to the city instead of roaming around the palace meadows. It was the age where curiosity bloomed and his father didn't want to diminish it in any way. Atlas remember even now, that huge smile, the line of his mustache curling up like a rainbow as he lifted his little boy and carried him on his shoulder, "Of course I'll take you!"

He had given the bodyguards the day off that day and kindly requested the workers and one of the maid's to give ordinary looking clothes for him and his baby.

"Look, lion, look at that!" The King had shouted, pointing to the crowded Sky Train as it whooshed above them to different parts of the heart of Zyka city. It was too late for them to return to the palace that day so they had slept in an ordinary hotel like ordinary people. It was the only day in Atlas' life where he didn't live like royalty.

It was the best day of his life.

"Why?" Ryoko asked when Atlas had been silent for too long. He grimaced as he truthfully declared, "Because he loved my mom too much. He would never reveal it. For her sake."

"What else are you not telling me, Atlas?" Ryoko asked. Go through this much trouble just to find out why his mom killed his father? That was fishing in a lake with no fish. In the three years Ryoko knew Atlas, she knew one thing. He never went halfway.

He smiled and sighed at the same time, "Ah. You know me so well," he admitted before pausing and saying, "Maybe when I talk to her, I'll get to cut her thread. Then it will be like she never existed."

Ryoko's jaw dropped slightly, "And if she never existed, your father never dies."

"Correct. I'll be born anyway because my life thread will still exist," Atlas clarified before Ryoko asked more. She had read a lot about life threads in the Lost Library. They exist in a fourth dimension. The dimension where those who aren't born and those who are dead exist.

"How do you cross ove-"

"What else are you not telling me?" Atlas interrupted, slicing her words short.

Ryoko gulped. What was he talking about? "I don't know Atlas, what am I not telling you?" She had worked so hard to keep it from him that she almost forgot that there was a monster out there killing innocent lives.

"Why the people hate me. Why the treaties with Zyka got cancelled," he listed before looking her deep in the eye, "Why almost half the staff resigned!"

It was not like they had any shortage of staff. They used to have so much staff that two people could be assigned to clean one ceramic plate. But still, it was a concerning matter.

"I'll tell you after you are King," Ryoko decided and got up to escape the fire he was kindling in front of her. Atlas held her by her arm, "Is that what you think of me? One day a prince, the next a King? A piece on the chessboard? Have you ever seen me as human?"

"Of course I have-"

"Get out."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"Get out, I'll figure this out myself, if you're not going to help. Sometimes I regret trusting you. Who can guess if you will choose yourself over the country one day?" Atlas spoke true his teeth, regretting each word the moment it left his parched, tense lips.

The door swung open and air rushed in before it was slammed shut by the secretary, cutting off the air and making Atlas feel trapped in his own words. He sat on his chair and rubbed his temples to cast away the oncoming headache.

"Ugh...why did I say that?" he muttered to himself before reaching for the glass of water on the table and gulping its entire content. Then, in a spur of the moment decision, he grabbed the phone in front of him and called the Chief of Army.

....

Prophecy 3426, New Mars Scrolls, Shelf 42 of the Lost Library.

Date written: Unknown

Oracle of prophecy: Unknown

Oracle's notes: 'this world will end. and when it does, another world will end too. nobody can stop it. what is to come will come and what is to go will go.'

Prophecy starts;

by the time the clock has struck

the beast.....celestial will crash

upon the doomed land's good luck

and upon the chosen his rebirth will clash

to build an empire bold and strong

to face the infant singing.....ong

the L.....may walk past thoroughfare

to find the forgotten princess in her lair

but doomed the land wil....ways be

and only doom the land will always see.