Emeral In Shadow

Prince Ewald the III[#3]

Prince Ewald the Third, because they couldn't care enough to give the third child of five an original name, awoke to a gentle shaking and a soft voice who he recognized as his friend, the young housemaid Amber.
    "Wake up, Prince. They're just about prepared with the morning feast and I don't think they'll wait for you."
Ewald rolled onto his side to face Amber, and opened one eye slowly. He felt entirely unrested and groggy,
    "What if I'm not hungry?" He asked her.
"What if I told you to get your royal hind out of bed and dressed?" Amber replied,
Ewald sat up on the edge of his bed, swinging his feet over the side and stretching. "If I were my father, I'd have your head on a spike for ordering me around." He stood up and faced Amber directly. He briefly looked over her, dirty-blonde hair, dark brown eyes. A pastel green housemaid uniform with black accents, as she always wore.
   "Good that you're not him then, huh?" Amber turned her back to him, and walked to a large elegantly carved armoire across the room from his bed. She opened it's doors and began picking out various pieces of clothes.
    Ewald waited for Amber. At first he insisted that she shouldn't have to pick out what he would wear for the day but after going to a Congress meeting looking like a court jester, he decided to let Amber take over. He looked over his room; A soft forest green carpet as was throughout the palace, blindingly white walls and a window with sheer white curtains, with his armoire to the left and his vanity table to the right. His bed sat in a nook beside the door and across from the armoire.
   Ewald walked up to his vanity table and looked into the mirror over it; Greasy rat's nest blonde hair, green eyes like trodden-over grass. He ran a hand over his face, his well defined though very square jawline.
    He was a spitting image of his father, and he hated it. He opened the vanity drawer and looked in at the contents; creams, powders, ointments... Scissors.
   Ewald pulled the scissors out and stared down at them in his hands, turning it over.
He looked back at the mirror, looking back at his face, and found himself slipping into a dark recess of thought.
'the pain would be temporary, it'd only take a few snips and...' He imagined himself taking the scissors and bringing it up to his chin, and start cutting...
   He felt a hand on his wrist, Amber's hand.
"Hey, you're bleeding." She said.
Ewald let the hand holding the scissors rest on the vanity table's surface, and saw that what he had cut his chin on the scissors. Just a little cut, nothing much.
    Ewald took a deep breath and laid the scissors on the vanity table,
"I'm okay." He said, exhaling. He turned to Amber, "My clothes?"
"Ready," She backed up, showing the armoire which had a set of clothes laid out for him; A muted dark green robe, and an olive shirt and pants.
   Ewald passed by her and grabbed the clothes gently. As he laid them on the vanity table.
He turned to her "If you could... you know." Ewald asked more awkwardly than a prince should ask things,
   Amber smiled mischievously, "What if I wanted to watch?" She asked.
    "Nope, out." He pointed to the door, and turned back to the vanity. Amber left, quietly closing the door shut.
    Ewald got changed quickly, pulling the robe over his body. He had combed his hair to cover as much as half of his face as he could. He left his room and headed down to the Main Hall, Amber following not far behind.
   Servants practically danced around the huge room, serving food to a long and hand-carved table is and cleaning up from the last week of partying.
Even though the official party ended the day after it started, people stayed all week until the king had to kick everyone out after they had eaten everything in the pantry. Ewald remembered the noise being so horrible it felt like his skull had cracked open by the end of it.
   Ewald took a seat near the end of the table, as far as possible from his parents who sat at the head of the table. Not that there was a choice; they had pulled enough chairs up to the table for everyone who was to eat and he had arrived last. Amber fretted over where to go for a moment, and then decided to linger behind Ewald's seat until someone told her to go do work somewhere.
  His father called out from his seat,
"In absence of a son of mine, let us eat!" He raised his glass in a toast "To long life!" But before anyone repeated the toast, Amber raised her voice, "Excuse me, but Ewald is present!".
  Every head turned to Amber, and in turn to Ewald. His father stood up from his seat, and opening his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud crash.
A servant had tripped, dropping a silver platter with a huge moist brisket onto the carpeted floor. Another servant stood right beside him, snickering at the fallen servant.
Ewald's father sighed audibly, and turned to the servants. He pointed at one, "Bring him to the gallows." A guard, who was on standby nearby, went to grab the fallen servant. The other servant seemed to be on the verge of breaking down laughing.
   But Ewald's father shook his head,
"The other one, he tripped him." The servant struggled and wailed as they were dragged out.
Ewald's father sat back down, and raised his glass once more "To long life!" and this time everyone repeated the toast. "And to obedient servants." Ewald's father added not-so-quietly afterwards.
   Ewald ate very little, a small bite of everything. He wanted to get this over with so he could go back to his own business.
  Ewald's father didn't look at Ewald, but spoke to him with his mouth full of food and while looking in a sharp straight line forward, "You need to keep your concub—" Ewald's mother gave him an icy glare, "Your housemaid in line, Ewald. I'd have her head by now if she acted like that!" He said it like a joke, something laughable.
An execution, a death; a joke.
    Ewald felt sick, he didn't want to be in the same room as his father for even a second longer.
   Ewald got up from the table, the feet of his chair making a loud screech against the floor. Heads turned to him once more.
   "Excuse me," He said, and everyone went back to their food and gossip.
He started walking back towards his room, he heard Amber behind him. He turned around abruptly,
  "Go do something else, maid!" He snapped at her. Amber opened her mouth to argue, but decided not to in front of the whole royal family. She went off to some other room, Ewald didn't really care where at the time.
   He was at the entrance to the hallway when he was stopped by a servant he barely recognized; choppy black hair and way too plump to be one that works hard.
"Hello, Prince Ewald. The Congress requires your presence as soon as possible." The servant said, making way more eye contact then Ewald needed.
   Congress was a group of a dozen or so men, put in place by popular vote of members of the inner city, as long as they weren't vetoed by the Emerals.
Ewald's father hated Congress, but due to a law that a past king put in Congress had a right to their seats of power.
They were known to be insufferable, stubborn, and silver-tongued.
   "Sorry, can't." He pushed past the boy, down the hallway.
  "Please consider my request! You know how they'll respond when I tell them I couldn't get you to come..." He grabbed the edge of Ewald's robe with a grubby hand.
  Ewald yanked his robe forward, and stopped to consider the boy. He remembered his father's words, '...have her head by now...'
   "....Fine, lead the way." Ewald follows the boy down the hallway, up two flights of stairs, and into a large courtroom, this was where the meetings between the Emeral Family and Congress met. He was lead past bare wooden chairs in rows, and up past a higher stage with a dozen more chairs, though these were padded.
   They reached a door, and the boy opened it up. Ewald stepped in with the boy, and looked at the room; small, about the size of a master bedroom. Twelve seats, adorned with golden thread and the softest padding known to man, were in a wide semicircle facing the door. A table sat beside each chair, with a platter of grapes and crackers and such. And on each chair sat a Congressman dressed in black robes, like little shadows of the King.
   "Ah, Ewald. Our little prince." Said the man in the middle of all the men, who Ewald recognized as Marcellus, considered the unofficial 'leader' of the Congress, although technically they were to have no ruler but the King.
  Ewald opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the man to Marcellus' left, "Not so little anymore, Marcellus; I'd say he's shaped up nicely." He said.
    Marcellus nodded in agreement, and laid his arms across each other, an emerald ring glinting on his hand.
The boy shut the door behind Ewald. Suddenly he felt trapped.
  "So, what did you call me for?" He asked looking around the room at each of the men as he said it. He focused on Marcellus, "If it's to put in a suggestion with my father, I'm not the one you'll want, Marcellus." He said.
   "No, you are right in that matter. Your father wouldn't even consider listening to you." Marcellus said, "And you can just call me Marcel."
Marcel stood up from his chair, and walked up to Ewald and placed a hand on his back,
   "Sit down, you won't find a more comfortable chair in the whole kingdom." Marcel said.
   Ewald sat down in the chair, and Marcel began pacing back and forth in front of him,
   "That father of yours, like a big sycamore. Gets in the way." He said, then stopping and  turning his head to face Ewald, "But what's that thing they say...? 'An unbending tree breaks in the wind,' " He made deep sound, almost laughing, like a "hmmp-hmmp".
  "You know, I've always admired how you have compassion on the needy, those secret little donations over the city walls to the slums. " Marcel said. Ewald's eyes widen, and Marcel added to his speech while winking, "We have friends everywhere, Ewald."
    Ewald felt worry build in his chest, Marcel shouldn't know about his heart for the poor farmers and slum-dwellers on the outer city. If his father learned he had been secretly sneaking money down to the slums... Well, it wouldn't be pleasant, to say the least.
   "Anyways, us here in the Congress sympathize with your feelings, and we've noticed how your own family  treats you..." Marcel walked up in front of Ewald and planted a friendly hand on his shoulder,   
   "We just wanted to let you know, we'll always support you, Prince Ewald." He stepped backwards, and the servant opened the door back open,
"We'll speak again soon; you may depart."

   Ewald did just that, but he didn't go to his room, except to grab his spyglass. He now felt sick and watched in the palace. He left outside the palace, waiving the guards aside and heading past the garden up to the guard houses posted on the large wall surrounding the inner city.
He had the guards let him up the tower, and he headed up the tower stairs. Soon he was walking out onto the top of the wall.
   Often when he felt lonely, or angry, or any other emotion he couldn't get out of his system, he came up here. The air was clearer, it let him think. No people, as the guards only looked on top of the wall if they were under attack. But best of all...
   Ewald opened up the spyglass, and looked down to the outer city. He had grown into a habit of watching a specific farm, though he hadn't actually learned it's name yet.
   More exactly, he watched a girl who worked in the fields, mostly all day. Watching her determination, the mastery of the scythe she wielded after years of farm work. And her rugged beauty... stained overalls... well-toned arms... her reddish-brown hair, hidden under the red-ribboned straw hat.
   He found he was in love with the girl, though it was mostly just a daydream; Unless he found an excuse to visit one day, which would be unlikely since he'd be forever disgrace or maybe even disowned if they learned he had visited the Outer City, even just speaking to her was out of reach.
  He kept watching the girl, and soon the day grew hot, and he shed his robe. The girl left for a break, as she always did.
He took a second to wait for her to come back and laid on his back, staring at the sky.
His mind drifted back to Amber, maybe he shouldn't have snapped at her, but he had to show his family he wasn't a pushover.
He considered that maybe it was just him snapping out at her in anger, but he didn't like the idea of that so he let the idea float away into the blue sky...
Which now was mingled with gray smoke.
   Ewald scrambled back over to the edge of the wall, and looked down at the farm through the spyglass. A fire had broke out in one of the fields.
This would been no big deal to Ewald, as surely they'd be able to put it out... But then he saw a man, shirtless, holding a torch.
Bandits.
   Ewald ran into the guard house, "All of you, I'm taking you and some horses out to the outer city! On the north side of the wall." He yelled out, practically flying down the stairs and into the stables.
   The guards complied, the kingdom walls were never attacked anyway, and went with the prince. They loaded their horse-packs and suited up in light armor.
Soon they were heading out the north-east city gate, and sprinting to the farm at full speed.

(longest chapter yet hahahaha
I'm gonna die from sleep deprivation.)

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Ewald Emeral the III concept art,
Made by me with DALL•E by Open.AI