A New Regime

The domineering sun shines brightly upon the bustling town of Shishai, a place that resides far off from the Eydo kingdom’s capital, but still very much within its reach. The graveyard marketplace, also known as Iboji-Oja, one of the main attractions of the town, remains the liveliest area during the day. Known for where things are auctioned from the corpses of the dead, people in large crowds continue to scream and push against each other in order to attain stolen wealth, and make it their own.

Sauntering through the crowd are two hooded individuals, seemingly uninterested in the aggressive auctions, and clearly uninterested in trying to stand out in any way.

“So this is the famous Shishai,” Kimiko whispers, as she glances around carefully, “Goodness… everything I’ve heard about this place was an understatement.”

“Seems pretty accurate to me,” Kayin responds..

“Not from what I was told. I mean, sure, it's certainly a marketplace like no other. But not one that demands so much blood and sweat just for wealth. I’m pretty sure I just saw someone offer up one of their limbs.”

“I”m pretty sure I just heard someone offer up their newborn child in exchange for a band of gold,”

“Seriously?! What’s the matter with these people?!”

Kayin laughs, “That’s nothing. A few years ago, I heard a man once offered up his entire bloodline, so the collectors sold his entire family into slavery, and cut off the man’s…bloodline capabilities…”

Kimiko kisses her teeth, and continues to inspect the marketplace.

Suddenly, a question pops into her mind as she glances back at Kayin.

“If you weren’t born into royalty, do you think you’d be just like them?”

Kayin glances around, and although he can’t see them, he can certainly imagine the faces of the people desperate to change their lives for the better. Many of them would have skin so flawlessly smooth you would think they were gods in disguise, while many others would have their skin practically melting into their bones, desperate for sustenance. Many would have eyes gleaming with hope and promise, while many others would have eyes already so full of despair.

An image of his sister on the throne pops into Kayin’s mind,

“...royalty. Commoner. Those are just titles.”

Images of his suffering for the past year flows through Kayin’s mind.

Especially the image of Oshé coming to his rescue.

“What you see around you is who we all truly are inside. People who are often far too obsessed with themselves.”

“So to answer your question…yes. Without a doubt in my mind.”

The two of them continue towards an area with a bar and an inn side by side, and Kimiko notices two distinct papyrus pages plastered onto the walls of each. After whispering calmly, the two then look at each other for a brief moment, nod their heads, and separate.

Kimiko walks towards the bar while groaning, but is in a much happier mood than she appears.

After three days of walking, it's about time I get a drink!

Kayin walks towards the inn while groaning, but is also much happier than he appears.

After a year of being stuck in that hell of a dungeon, I can finally get some good sleep!

The two walk up to the doors of each building, but stop in order to check the papyrus pages.

NEWS: A NEW REGIME! MAD TYRANT FLEES! HIDDEN PRINCESS BECOMES QUEEN!

Kimiko's eyes light up as she sees an image of the queen for the first time in her life, and grits her teeth in anger.

So it was you!

NEWS: TYRANT REMAINS AT LARGE! QUEEN WILL MARRY THE TYRANT’S SLAYER!

Kayin’s expression lights up as he reads the braille, and scrunches the papyrus page.

You would really go this far?!...

TEMI!

***

Kayin and Kimiko sit quietly in a room, contemplating the news they have just witnessed.

“So you were telling the truth…you really do have an older sister.”

“...my parents hid her from the world after I was born. They didn’t want the empire to be split about who deserved the throne.”

“That’s foolish. You’re the firstborn son.”

“My father once said that in times of amity, it is common for disputes to be dug up from nowhere…especially against common practices and laws. He called it…the ‘sin of peace’.”

“So they wanted to avoid a royal dispute! I get that! Yet, all that resulted from that was you being locked in a cell, your sister still ending up on the throne, and your parents now deep in their graves!”

“Watch your mouth!”

“You watch your own! Did you forget, that same grave is where all of my people ended up as well?! All because of this so-called ‘sin of peace’! A little royal dispute wouldn’t have ended up causing all this manipulation and destruction!”

“It was either the lives of your people or my own! I cannot fault my father for trying to protect his subjects from a potentially unnecessary civil war!”

“The day that your empire conquered us, we became his subjects as well!”

“Don’t you think I’m aware of that?! I can’t completely understand his decision, but you are the same one that wished for my father to remain on the throne, correct?! His decisions were to be written, and to be done! He has the final say! So why change your tune now?!”

“If all those few years of peace were only going to end in the extinction of my people, then I wish we were never your father’s subjects to begin with!!!”

Kayin grits his teeth. Tears run down softly from Kimiko's eyes, before she wipes them away and looks in the opposite direction from the silenced king. 

In Kayin's heart, he feels her pain; but in his mind, he can’t help but think dearly about his father.

“...I wasn’t raised alongside my sister. In fact, I didn’t even know I had a sister. Not until I was already a teenager.”

Kimiko’s attention returns to Kayin.

“It was usually just my father and I. For as long as I could remember. While for Temi, it was usually just my mother and her. For as long as she could remember.”

“The palace halls were large. From wall to wall, you could fit hundreds, if not thousands of people in each room. I would often sit on the throne, as if acting impatient to own it. My father would laugh a lot, promising me that one day, it would certainly be mine.”

“But the main lesson he tried to teach me is that the throne doesn’t only belong to me. It belongs to everyone under the empire’s rule. And everyone that is to come."

Kayin points to Kimiko, "That includes your people as well."

Kimiko scrunches her face. 

"My father always said that the throne represents the future. And it is the duty of the one who sits on it to protect it.”

Kayin pauses, and then sighs deeply, before continuing. 

“My father…he was a very wise and powerful man. Wielder of Thoth’s avatar. My mother was powerful too. Wielder of Isis’ avatar. The two of them were supposed to be a power couple-”

“Supposed to be?”

Kayin pauses for a brief moment, and swallows any ball of rage that could build up from the next few words he would speak.

“...my mother…betrayed my father. A year ago. She murdered him in his sleep…shortly before being murdered herself by the royal guards.”

Kimiko gasps.

“That was the true turning point. Before I ever ended up in the dungeon cell.”

“But you already admitted to killing your father?...”

“In a sense, I was the one who killed him. Both my mother and I were responsible for the death of my father.”

“I once had a childhood friend. The daughter of a servant in the palace. When she grew up, she was married off to one of the councilmen’s sons; and although I begged my father to abolish the ruling, he did not wish to stir up trouble between the council and myself. Since I was to be their ruler in the future, I was going to need them as allies, not enemies.”

“I mostly did it as an act of spite, but I wrote letters to her, hoping to remain in touch. I talked about how much I’ve loved her since we were kids, brought up our private intimate moments, and even joked around with the idea of finding a way to kill the councilman’s son, in order for the two of us to be together.”

“...you’re a sick man, you know that?” Kimiko responds with a concerned expression.

Kayin chuckles.

“So…did she tell you how she feels?”

Immediately, Kayin’s demeanor darkens. The rage he had swallowed has now clearly resurfaced across his face.

“...the letters never reached her.”

“...how come?”

Kayin chuckles again. But this time, it doesn’t sound like a genuine laugh.

“My mother was actually the one who inspired me to write those letters. She told me it would be a great way to release the emotions I had bottled up for years.”

“But later on, those letters…were found in my mother’s room. Planted openly for people to see.”

The hairs across Kimiko’s body rise up simultaneously, and she sits up in her chair with a shocked expression, as she begins to put together the puzzle.

“...so yes. I killed him. Inadvertently…I killed my father. Because of those letters, my father’s death became a reasonable solution…”

Veins pop out from Kayin’s forehead, as he lifts his head to face Kimiko. His face now squeezed tightly with pure rage and frustration, from the betrayal he has felt ever since that fateful day.

“...to enact my mother’s plan to put my sister on the throne!”