MY THRONE

1. Unexpected

Mum's death was something nobody was expecting.

The day of her death started like any other normal day.

We had breakfast together with dad before leaving for our common study room to start with today's share of reports.

Time passed rapidly and it was already afternoon, that was when mum fell asleep.

That's not unusual either. Mum used to take short naps sometimes when she and dad stayed up doing late-night activities.

I even took a few of her reports and started doing them for her, to make her work a bit easier when she woke up.

A few hours later when Aunt June, my mum's mage secretary, started cursing her out for being lazy, that's when dad finally got up from his desk to go wake mum up.

'Choi,' he called in his usual sweet caring tone which he only used with our family, 'wake up', he caressed her cheek lightly.

Mum didn't wake up though.

And I still remember the way dad recited those same words till she was six feet under.

Only those words kept on getting more and more desperate every time he repeated them.

I had never seen dad so weak.

It was always mum who was like that.

She wasn't a mage, nor had any skills in swordsmanship. I always thought mum would never be able to protect herself when the time came, would always have to rely on others. In my eyes, she was powerless.

But yet, that day, she managed to get me on my knees without even opening her eyes.

Made me experience a pain not even thousands of sword wounds could give.

Just by sitting there, still.........not opening her eyes.
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The doctor said her death was natural.

No disease, no internal wounds, no stress, nothing.

It was like, her heart just stopped beating.

Like she just.....lived her life.

Aunt June didn't acknowledge that 'bullshit'. She refused to believe that her best friend (though she would never say that aloud), just died.

She left to find the resurrection gem, only known in myths, in the Rogue Forest near the borders of Peruka, another empire like our Obelia, though a bit smaller.

Aunt Choco, mother's adoptive sister and another amazing mage, also accompanied her.

'Your mother,' she had told me before leaving, 'had saved me. I believe I can do the same. This is the only way I can repay her.'

She had told to me keep the corpse of my dead mother unscathed till they come back with the gem.

The idea was plain foolish. Even Uncle Mari speculated that.

'The dead cannot be brought back', were his words as a lone tear escaped his eyes while looking at my mother's deceased body.

The gem has been lost for centuries, they would lose their lives in the darkness of the forest before they could get their hands on it.

But we were all too foolish and lost to see that.

As soon as we saw that tiny speck of hope, a hope that maybe...just maybe mum would come back, smile at us and crack her jokes like she always did.....we all rushed after that dot like fools.

Maybe....just maybe everything would go back to the way it was.
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Fred returned to the capital city of Obelia two days after mum's death.