Closer Than Brothers

Chapter 1: The Prince's Life

        Roman was the prince of Telos, yet to come of age. His father had died before he was born, and his mother left Roman soon enough after birth that he didn't remember her, so his cousins, Logan, Patton, and Virgil took care of him. It wasn't easy living under their care, though. They seldom even let him out of the castle, and he could never leave his kingdom.

Not to say that life in the palace was without its restrictions as well. The prince was allowed virtually free roam of the grounds, but there were a few rooms he could never enter. He would have snuck in already, but there was a special way to activate the doors that he didn't know yet, and there was no other way inside. His cousins could open them. They put their hand on the door, a small light flared a color, and the door slid aside. However he tried, Roman hadn't quite worked out how to replicate this, and none of the others had ever bothered to teach him.

They weren't usually around, either. At least, not anymore. When he was younger, at least one of them was there nearly all the time, but as he grew older, he didn't need them to do as much for him as they had previously. In fact, they'd sort of distanced themselves from him altogether, even Patton, with whom he'd been particularly close.

He stood out on the balcony that overlooked the city, resting on the banister. It wasn't remarkably poor, but it wasn't particularly decorative either. Really, it looked a little like something out of a fairy tale, except slightly modernized.

While the sunset tonight was magnificent, as many were here, Roman couldn't linger out there for long. He put his crown on a pedestal inside and changed into the clothes of the commoners to disguise himself as one of them. He couldn't let the citizens at the theater know who he really was, but he did have to get to rehearsal.

Roman was told that forms of entertainment such as plays were below royalty like him when he was four years old. When his cousins then let him explore his kingdom for some time the next day, he bought a ticket to a show, simply because it was supposedly forbidden. He was nearly caught, but that was the day that he fell in love with theater. The costumes, the characters, the story-live performance was the passion he wanted to pursue.

He knew he'd have to be more careful if he wanted to come back and perform, so he learned to sew, and made garments far less fancy than what he wore in the castle to disguise himself as a citizen. Since then, he'd spent many years serving in the theater. Sometimes he worked backstage, but he found he preferred being one of the actors - and if he didn't get a part, set design was always fun.

Roman was also known for bringing many new concepts to the table. He was the one who first introduced the idea of adding music to some shows, and ways to make the set look even more realistic.

This year, the prince had gotten the lead role in the play. He was happy in this life of performing. Usually. Lately, though, he'd been feeling something else. A feeling that something was missing, one he'd felt forever but noticed only recently. He tried to ignore it, but it's not the kind of thing that just goes away.

No matter. He'd just learn to live with it.

Before he left, he wrote a short letter to his brother. It had been a long time since they'd last seen each other, and Roman wanted to talk to him again. He tossed the letter in the fire pit by the door and let the green fire take it to its destination as he ran over to the theater.