Am I sure, really, that he deserves this?
...
I don’t know.
Am I sure I don’t see him... as my son?
...
I don’t know.
Am I sure, then, that he’s a ’bad’ person?
…
…
…
I squinted, staring at the door I was standing in front of.
I had to... go inside. But I couldn’t find the courage to do it.
The guards on both sides of the door were standing there, looking at with nervous expressions, but I didn’t care.
I was just... scared.
A king, a proud elf, yet scared.
Aiden Tenebra’s words hadn’t cald down or increased my anger many tis over. It just... confused , that’s all.
And as if that wasn’t enough, he didn’t say anything else, except the question he asked, before he left the room.
Are you sure?
Such... simple yet heavy words.
A question I couldn’t even answer at that, and also this, mont.
I narrowed my eyes even more, my gaze falling slightly from the door.
I had thought that as a king, I should be calm and approach this matter with complete logic before. Because I knew that this... was a decision that would affect the future of my nation. The fate of the Prince of Eshaware would greatly affect the fate of Eshaware itself.
But... I didn’t.
I found myself unable to.
No matter how hard I tried, the ’father’ in was overpowering the ’king’ more and more with each passing second.
I knew my real son was already dead. That his replacent... was actually a clone of him.
But... I just...
I just spent years with him.
Twelve years.
Twelve whole years with him, with my family.
A clone, maybe, yes.
But his intentions weren’t evil, he wasn’t trying to hurt us.
On the contrary... he was trying to protect us, his family.
Yet he also had his own desires, dreams, fears, and more. Ones that he had suppressed all this ti. Or, maybe, couldn’t at all.
Maybe he wasn’t Alith, but he was also him. He had inherited the body he had as a child, and... he had been raised by us, in essence.
I taught him.
I saw him cry.
I saw him proud of his success at school.
I saw him laugh and smile as he spent ti with his mother and sister.
I saw the effort he put into preparing for the ti when he would replace , the hard work he put into not letting down.
And in all of this... he was serious. He was genuine. He wasn’t fooling us. His words, his reactions, his feelings when he talked to Aiden Tenebra...
Wasn’t it clear?
Even if he wasn’t ’my son’... Wasn’t he also ’my son’?
My pride was colliding with my emotions, and as a result... it was slowly but steadily crumbling.
Every second I spent without an answer, without a conclusion, I was sinking further and further.
And that’s why I knew I couldn’t wait too much longer.
I raised my eyes and looked back at the door I was standing in front of.
That’s why I was here.
To choose between the two sides that were constantly colliding inside .
To make a decision.
Or rather... to get closer to a point where I could make a decision.
And so, in a different way than I usually do, I reached for the door myself, ignoring the presence of the two guards at the side.
But, then... even for a mont, I felt a surge of mana behind and I paused.
I turned around as fast as I could, back to the spot where I felt the surge of mana...
But there was nothing.
I frowned, slowly turning to the tense guards on either side of .
"Just now... the mana just behind fluctuated slightly."
The two of them looked at each other as if they didn’t understand what I was saying, then looked back at at the sa ti.
"No, Your Royal Highness. We didn’t feel anything."
They... didn’t?
I frowned even more.
"Increase the security a little."
Perhaps... having learned that Alith’s identity had been revealed, Saligia began to take action?
"No, triple it. Also, mix guards patrolling together, different people on each patrol with different people on watch. I want the frequency of reports down to ten minutes between guards."
They both quickly stood to attention.
"Understood, Your Royal Highness!"
And... that was it.
There was nothing else I could do, at least for now.
I could focus on the other things I needed to focus on.
And, with that... I turned back to the door in front of .
And I knocked gently on the door three tis.
...
...
...
But there was no answer.
On the contrary, the door slowly opened by itself. And it was a servant who greeted . Her eyes widened with every second she looked at , as she was faced with a situation she had not expected... or rather, had never thought would happen in her lifeti. But, nevertheless, being a special servant serving for the royal bloodline, she recovered quickly.
She opened the door wide and stepped aside, making a wide path for .
I entered with slow steps, into the beautiful room I was used to seeing.
There were flowers everywhere. Ivy had invaded the room. But... not in a bad way. It was deliberate, for an aesthetic look. Every single ivy, flower, plant, and more was carefully cultivated by one person. And because of the sa person’s preferences, unlike most rooms, there were no paintings, no ornants, no embroidery. There were only... plants.
I took a deep breath. The open window in the wall let in fresh air, so I could breathe in cool, fresh air. And at the sa ti... the fragrance of herbs and flowers. It was like a natural perfu.
"Faelan?"
And then... a gentle voice echoed in my ears, resembling the timbre of a pleasant lody, but at the sa ti with traces of fear.
I tore my eyes away from the flowers that still fascinated , even though I had seen them dozens of tis, and turned my gaze to the person watering a pot in a relative corner of the room.
She was wearing one of her favorite dresses today, a bright yellow one, the sa color as her hair. The blue eyes on her smooth face were as pretty as her hair and dress, but the fear in her voice, which she tried but failed to hide, was much clearer.
I spoke without taking my eyes off her.
"Everyone out of the room, no one enters without my permission."
The servant, who had opened the door personally, quickly nodded her head up and down and walked out of the room. There was no one else in the room but her, so when she closed the door, there was absolute silence. A very short one.
"Sothing... happened, didn’t it?"
Aranel, queen of the elves, my wife, set aside the watering can in her hand. Then she approached .
I couldn’t... say anything at first. But then, she raised her hands, grasped mine in hers, and looked into my eyes.
"What happened?"
She didn’t know anything yet. She was worried, she knew I was confused, and she was afraid of the reasons why. She had waited patiently until now, because she knew I would tell her eventually, but it wasn’t enough to suppress her feelings.
"Why... are you like this? What did that boy tell you in the eting?"
She didn’t even know Alith was in the dungeon.
We kept everything from her.
But... no more.
"It’s... Alith."
The mont the first word ca out of my mouth... the knot in my throat loosened. Slowly but steadily, I began to tell her everything. From the very... beginning. Without leaving out any detail.
The reason why I didn’t tell her anything, why I hid everything... was my fear. I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle it. She wasn’t soone who could suppress her emotions as much as I could. As much of a father as I was... she was several tis more of a mother.
And that’s exactly what happened.
She didn’t miraculously accept everything, on the contrary... she broke down even more with everything she heard. The tears flowed so much, didn’t stop, that sotis I had to wait for minutes without saying anything... just hug her.
Hours passed. Still, she never fully recovered. By the ti we got to the end of the whole story, to the present, her eyes were so red that she could hardly keep them open. Her legs were shaking so much that she couldn’t stand.
She couldn’t answer or help co to a decision, as I expected from the beginning. When I carried her to our room myself, she collapsed on the huge bed and fell asleep. Leaving only behind, unable to do more than think in silence.
Hours passed again.
Hours without her waking up, other hours in which she sotis cried from nothingness. Hours when I had no choice but to leave her... here.
It was the sa even when the next day began.
And... it was ti again for the postponed eting, the one about the fate of the Laute Bloodline.
Did I really need to think about it, though?
Adrian Caleo... or Laute... other things didn’t really matter as long as he could heal the World Tree. And he could do that, at least in the future. I was sure of that. I had seen his potential with my own eyes.
And I was the one who had to make the final decision. The whole point of the eting was... for them to convince , and for to decide what to do.
It didn’t really matter at this point. They just needed to work out certain details and announce the outco, that’s all.
So... I canceled the eting.
And I kept waiting.
The hours kept passing.
And slowly... it started to turn into days.
Days of not doing much, days filled with my thoughts.
Two days.
Days when, sotis... I kept feeling like I was being watched by soone, couldn’t find anything.
Four days...
Days of just… silence.
And in the end, seven days. A whole week.
A week in which Aiden Tenebra and the people he brought with him never left their room. A week in which Aranel never left her bed, almost refusing to eat. A week in which Phloria... never set foot outside the training rooms. A week Alith spent in the dungeon, chained like that.
But, at the end of that week... sothing happened.
I was in our bedroom again. I was standing in front of a table with a mirror, lost in my thoughts... trying to decide what I should do, but failing to do so.
At that mont, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a change in the image of the mirror in front of .
Aranel sat up in her bed, rubbed her eyes, and slowly turned to .
And then... her hoarse, slightly wheezing voice echoed in my ears.
"Take ..."
I turned as fast as I could, not to her image in the mirror, but to her. She coughed slightly to clear her throat and swallowed. Then she turned back to .
"Take to the dungeon."
I stood up, walked to her, and grabbed her hands, just like she had done to a week ago.
"Are you... sure? You can wait a little longer, try to recover more. It... it doesn’t matter."
But she simply shook her head from side to side.
"No. I... I want to see him."
I looked her up and down. Her trembling hands, the nervousness in her voice as she cleared her throat... There were so many signs indicating that she wasn’t ready for sothing like this. And so, I was about to open my mouth when... I saw her eyes.
Her blue eyes had lost their sparkle over the last week. But, this ti... they were a little more alive. They were still full of fear, nervous maybe... yes. But, nevertheless, they were also determined.
And that... made close my mouth, which I had opened involuntarily.
I stepped back, stood up again, and then took a deep breath.
"Okay... okay."
The ti... had finally co.
Today was the day when I could co to a decision, when we could finally reach a conclusion.
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