Amara of Xeris

Chapter 43

Amara had expected to hit the floor by now. But she didn't, she felt an arm wrap around the back of her shoulder and another held her left hand. Victor had managed to catch her just in time. It was embarrassing, to be honest.

How their eyes met when Victor helped her up. That was a pretty shade of grey. Were they always that way? Ok, she was going crazy. Crazy as can be.

"Are you okay? What happened?", Victor asked, "We should hurry now." He looked around frantically, maybe to find the exit. Then, he quickly ran to the painting. It looked like the painting was a shortcut to the exit. Victor stood there, zoned out. Maybe he was trying to remember a spell.

******

Flashback-

Two boys run across the blue-carpeted hallways. The older boy has dark red hair and striking grey eyes. His brother's hair has a brighter hue of red and some blue in his grey eyes.

"Pax, stop running.", the older boy, Victor chastised, "You know you aren't supposed to run in here."

"I am not supposed to run anywhere in this place.", he complained, "When can we go outside?"

"We can go outside when Dad comes back.", Victor tried to soothe him, "I heard that the Nereians have been on a losing streak lately."

"It's been years since our father came back to us."

"You can't blame him for the war. It was in full swing years before I was even born.", Victor justified, "The most we can do is hope that it ends soon."

"Will it?", Pax asked, "It has been going on for eight years now."

"Fate is a cruel mistress, Pax.", Victor repeated his mother's words, "This war is another one of her daily acts."

"Why is fate so cruel?", Pax asked, "Does it enjoy seeing people suffer."

"Fate isn't cruel to everyone, sometimes she treats some people better. Like us."

"We can't go outside because of everything and Mom says that we are imprisoned for something I don't know about."

"We have a roof over our heads and enough to eat. That is more than what a lot of people can say. Especially in these times..", Victor explained, "Now, come back or we will be in trouble."

"Not now, I am almost there.", Pax continued running.

"Almost where?", Victor asked, "Where are you going?"

"I wanna see that portrait at the end of the hallway.", he picked up some more speed, "The boy king, whatever his name was."

"Joven?", Victor almost caught up, "Why do you want to see him now?"

"I heard the guards say they were going to remove the boy king. So, I decided to go see it for one last time."

"They were talking about Cato, the current Duke of Pervall, not the painting." Pax stopped in his tracks, almost falling on the blue carpet. The painting hung a few feet away from them.

"I mean, we're here, might as well see it", Pax replied sheepishly. Victor only gave him an annoyed stare in return and then, he turned to the painting. Might as well see it, he thought. He observed his brother looking at the painting with a slight smile.

"What are you laughing about?", Victor gave him a side-eye. Staring at the painting of the boy king, in all his childish, bunny-caped glory. He knew what his answer was going to be and truth be told, he did not find it amusing at all.

"The bunnies.", Pax giggled making Victor roll his eyes. It doesn't take much to make a three-year-old laugh, does it?

"Of course, you find that funny.", Victor sneered, "I can't believe how anyone let him wear that to his coronation."

"Do you know that you are the only one mad about it?", Pax mocked back, "You are the same age as him."

"I don't care how old he was, no one should be tarnishing the crown like that.", Victor fumed, "When you're given the weight of the crown, you bear it with utmost grace. That attire is unacceptable."

"Bold words to say for someone who is never going to be crowned.", Pax sneered again, "You are fifth-in-line."

"That doesn't mean I don't get to have a voice on how things should be.", Victor admonished, "Besides, even if I don't become the Emperor, I would still inherit our father's land and his title."

"Do I get anything?", Pax asked.

"No, in terms of our father's lands or title, but you would still inherit his wealth and influence.", Victor explained.

"I want something of my own.", he complained.

"Most people would kill to have as much wealth as you."

"I know that."

And so the argument continued for a long time.

*************

Back to the present-

"Victor, are you okay?", Amara nudged his arm. Ever since she met him, this was the first time she had seen him zone out. She could only wonder what was that painting to Victor to prompt such a reaction. "Are you listening?"

"I am fine. I just remembered something.", he replied. Amara again wondered what happened. A childhood memory and from his tone, it did not seem so bad. Yet, she couldn't imagine him laughing at the bunnies on the coronation cape.

Victor looked at the painting for one final look. The boy in the painting he had mocked so viciously as a child, now almost made him want to cry. Joven Freede, eight-year-old Emperor of Othrera, two years younger than Pax and three years older. than Rex. His reign was almost as long as his age when he ascended the throne, lasting for nine years.

The boy whose innocence once disgusted him, now made his heart heavy. The bunnies that he thought as frivolous now seemed tragic. The idea of a little boy born perfectly normal. There is nothing wrong with him except for the fact that all his uncles seem to hate him. He does not understand why because he is eight and plays with his toys.

One day someone gives him a cape sewed with a whole lot of white rabbits and he keeps it. One day, he becomes Emperor, he doesn't know what it is, except for the fact that there is a big ceremony about it. He wears his cape because aren't bunnies the greatest thing in the world? The uncles who once hated him now try to get close for a little bit of power. He still plays with his wooden toys all kept in a chest with rabbits carved into it.

Years pass and seasons change, the boy grows up but he never gets a taste of adulthood. At seventeen, one of his uncles decides that he doesn't need the boy king anymore.

And thus ends the story of Joven, the boy whose greatest love was his rabbits.