Prince and the Pauper

EPILOGUE - Weavers of Fate

EPILOGUE – Weavers of Fate 

THE STENCH OF BLOOD stained the cool, night breeze.  Everywhere the man looked, he saw nothing but butchered corpses scattered throughout the land.  In this foreign land, only he was left alive.  He tried running away from the place, but no matter how far he ran the never scenery never changed.  He didn’t progress any farther.  

He stopped at the realization that he was forever stuck in that place.  He gave up and sat on a barrel.  He closed his eyes and desperately wished to get away from this land.  

As soon as the man opened his eyes, everything started to rotate around him quickly.  Scenes that he felt have happened to him before, although he can’t quite remember when or where fast-forwarded before him.  Everything was coming to him all too fast that he felt light-headed.  Voices of different people jumbled in his head.  Some he recognized, and some he didn’t.  But all felt familiar to him.  

“Now make a wish quickly.  It won’t be able to grant your wish if it shared the sky with another star.  Also, don’t tell anyone your wish.”  

“Stephen, do you love me?”  

“Will you stay with me forever, Stephen?”  

“We should take up this position and enter from this point…”  

“I’ve missed you.  Sorry for not being there when you were young.  Say thank you to your Father for giving you as my child, for me when you have the chance.  I love you.”  

“Please.  Don’t be so formal with me.  It gives off a heavy atmosphere.  Just call me Anthony.”  

“I would even if you don’t tell me to.  I’ve sworn my life to her the day we met.  I wouldn’t give her up for the world.”  

The voices grew louder and louder in his head, one overlapping the other.  His head throbbed amidst the pandemonium occurring in his mind.  He tightly clasped his hands against his ears as if that would block out the noise he was hearing.  

The noise gradually quieted down and he could finally hear himself think.  When he thought that all had calmed down, he saw a bright light flash before his very eyes.  A scene played vividly as if he were watching a movie.  

The sword he threw pierced through a woman.  Blood gushed out of her and she was soon losing her life.  When her body finally gave, her lips parted and moved as to say something, but not words came out.

Trying to make out what the woman said in the scene, the man narrowed his eyes.  

“I loved you. I still do, but I have found someone who needs my love more than you do.    Thank you for understanding,” the man lip read.  

And the woman fell to the ground.  

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The man quickly sat up disturbed from his dream.  He has been dreaming of those kind more frequently now than before.  Still, he had no idea what it meant or who those people were. 

As he tried to decipher what the dreams meant, a knock came through the door. 

“Who is it?”  He asked.  

A familiar voice answered him.  “It’s me.”  

“Oh, Antoine, please do come in.”  

The huge doors to his room creaked open and a man entered.  A woman carrying a child in her arms followed him from behind.  

“Zephaniah, I would like you to meet my wife, Florence.  And this is our son, Anthony Gevionne VII Von Bieafie.”  The man introduced.  

Zephaniah got up but the man stopped him, “Don’t force yourself to get up.  Just lie in bed and rest.  We won’t stay long here.  As you know, the king can never leave his palace for too long.”

It’s a shame I wasn’t able to go to your wedding celebration.  If only my body were stronger, I would’ve come and greeted you two myself.”  Zephaniah lowered his head in apology.  

“Please raise your head, Your Excellency.  We totally understand.  We will pray to the stars for your good health.”  The woman excused themselves and left.  

Zephaniah got up and walked over to his top-to-floor glass window and watched the royal family of Valor walk out of his palace grounds.  He remembered the dream he had and wondered about it.  Maybe I should ask Antoine about it the next we meet, he thought as he went out his room and went to his study.  As king of Karidia, he mustn’t forget his duty.