Chapter 18. The Friends Reunited

I stood there upon the steps, watching Alison and Navis leave through the entrance of the castle before slowly descending down the steps of the stairs that led to the upper levels of the castle. Alcides and Jeremy both looked at me with mildly worried look and I rubbed my eyes.

"You know Avorion, if you need us to watch over Axelon for a bit while you rest, just say so. You've been watching him like a hawk despite Axelon not going anywhere. I understand how obligated you are to Axelon and his safety. You can let the burden rest on us too, It just doesn't have to be all on you."

I looked over to Alcides after he spoke. Knowing they came from a genuine place of mixed duty and guilt since he had been drinking with the Axelon earlier that day, thus possibly contributing to the poor choice of our Lord made that day. I could see it in his eyes though, that this ate way at him more then it did myself. 

"My apologies for making you both worry about me, but I'm fine. If you wish to help then by all means, do make sure that Navis and Alison aren't interrupted."

 They both nod and start to head out after the girls, as I turned my back and proceeded to go to the lower levels of the castle to check on Prince Axelon. I had hate to admit Alcides was right though, I was getting exhausted the more I watched over our Liege. In truth I haven't had much sleep since my Prince's incident with Old King Haco, how could I not have been there to protect Axelon from making such a reckless choice. Surely if he had spoken to me about his intentions, I might've been able to sway him from conflict. However before I could mull over my thoughts any further I had entered the training room to find Axelon with his back facing the entrance. Just standing there as his blood trickled down from his knuckles, to his finger tips before dripping onto the floor. 

"I see you've finally exhausted yourself. Punching the wooden and metal dummy till your knuckles are finally raw and bleeding, I admit it's a bit much by my standards but to someone of your caliber...well who am I to judge. I've beaten myself up for mistakes as well, so I understand."

I looked to see my young Lord glancing at me through the corner of his eye has he turned his head just enough to look at me. I watched as he went through an array of emotions in a matter of moments, unsure of what to do I set my hand down on his shoulder and ask him.

"What's troubling you Axelon? This is most unlike you...is there something you're hiding? Whatever it is, I'm sure we can come to a solution...just let me in.."

Axelon held his position, refusing to face me still takes a deep breath and began to speak.

"I-I ate it...when we were travelling through that wasteland of ice and snow. One night I just couldn't get rid of this feeling in my stomach...sure it was a day or two since we last ate but on this night I saw a black serpent enter our cave. It just looked so good to me at the time, I went on my base instincts and attempted to grabbed it by it's neck but by then the snow made it scales sleek. It slipped a bit out of my grasp for a moment before it bit my hand. It was a new kind of pain that I wasn't used to feeling. It felt horrible at the time, the pain made my mind went blank at that moment, just recently I am able to recalled myself devour it. Shattering it's small skull between my teeth, taking time to chew on it thoroughly before sucking the rest of it down. Some nights i can't even sleep without remembering the crunching sensation of it's cartilage and meat between my teeth..." 

"A few days after ingesting the animal, I-I started to see another figure, at first it was far away, just far enough to for me to notice it was there but far away enough to where I couldn't make it's appearance out clearly. Then the same night we got here.  I had a dream about it looking just like me. It was a warped version but I wasn't able to deny that it did indeed have my appearance in mind. Finally when I refused to back down from the King Haco...it took over and barely saved my life. After I awoke, I found that I had gotten slightly stronger by some means and that my burns were already almost healed.. I felt so ashamed at my own weakness that I swore to never again succumb to it...So I've been training down here to hone this augmented body of mine, as well as my focus and hand to hand skills..."

I couldn't believe it and...so I chose not to. How foolish of me, choosing to close my eyes in new of this revelation. Knowing very well the web of possibilities that this could mean..

"Well I'm sure this false reflection of yourself, your seeing is just a manifestation of your own self doubt. In time I'm sure this'll blow over my Prince. However your Highness, while I'm glad to hear of your quick recovery; I can't help but wonder what caused that commotion in the first place. What made things get so...Intense?"

I saw that my lack of acknowledgment to Axelon's words made him a want to retract from the conversation, but when i asked about the conflict itself. He simply told me that "It was a matter about how things should be verses how they are and that King Haco believes that power is the ultimate way to set things to how one's liking." This made me question Haco as well with me saying. 

"When dealing with the uncivilized and uncultured, I would usually agree,  that he makes a point.  However I learned from your father that once a power is set up, to rule in such manner alone is what leads to ruin. Your father was a man that knew with great power requires on to have checks and balances, in place. These were put in place to try and correct the ruling figure or neutralize them if it comes down to it."

Axelon looks at me and asked. 

"So did I make the right decision?"

I nod slightly as a reply to his question. I couldn't deny that he was right in the moral side of the situation. However I didn't hold back my remarks in telling him that what he did is very rash and probably the most unwise thing he could've ever done. 

 "Who knows how the people and his troops are going to react to this Axelon! You not only have gotten yourself near death, but now you could be a menace to the people for fighting the King unprovoked, for no good reason in their eyes. Your heart was in the right place, but your mind wasn't. Tell me, what do you plan on doing if the people go up in arms about this huh?! Do you expect us to butcher these civilians as if they were mindless beasts?"

Axelon looks down at his feet, I knew it all too well during our training back home...he knew I made a good point but I also knew he was beating himself up inside about this whole thing as well. I sigh and gently rub the back of my head.

"We just can't afford to act so hastily anymore Axelon, we're not in Fortis Gelu anymore  so we need to be careful about how we handle things from here on out. So just relax and we'll see what happens.."

Axelon then turned his head and before walking past me and leaving the basement. For the rest of the day I was unable to find him around the castle. I was getting a bit worried, but that was until I heard a solider reporting to a man in a black cloak, saying how a boy with long hair stolen one of their wind sails and took off into the dessert. Upon closer inspection of the man, I noticed that his cloak bore the sigil of the royal guards. Within the same moment I saw his sigil, he turned his head and made on contact with him. This man was the very same guard who appeared beside Haco's grandson when we arrived here. The pressure this man gave off was akin to that of a fire itself, making the hot air itself seem like it was an inferno as my mouth quickly became dry. I knew he was coming and I was proven right. 

He lunged at me like wolf pack's leader making the first move to hunt down his pack's pray. Immediately step out of the way before looking up and noticing the other three loyal guardsmen were already on top of me with their blades drawn to kill me.  However I supper fate had other things in store for me as a green magical circle appeared underneath my feet. I then glace back at the captain of these men to see that he also had a circle underneath him.

"Good Grief.."

I utter aloud before me and this man were teleported to the middle of the changing savanna like dessert. I look around before hearing the man let out a battle roar before charging at me with at his speeds, before a man in a bright green cloak appeared before us and simply stopped the mad guard with a touch of his finger. Leaving the man bewildered as he just simply floated up in mid air for a bit before being crushed into sandy dirt by an unknown force. I had to admit that this man and I were on a very similar power level just based me gauging his mana.  Before I could utter a single word, the man in the green cloak looked towards me was the humid wings blew his hood down to reveal himself. 

What stood before me was a tall slender man with lightly tanned skin, with a light beard over his face, long black hair and bandages over his eyes. He wasn't heavily armored like us, in fact the man only wore a set of jade pauldrons on his shoulders with a fine gold finish. Then on his feet were a matching style of jade and gold sollerets. It was as if he was wearing the armor as an accessory to go in combination with the loose dark green vest he was wearing and black baggy pants. The loose pants were being tightened around his ankle area so they'd fit in the armor. 

I stood there composed as despite the bandages covering his eyes, I could feel his eyes locked on mine before speaking in a calm tone trying to mask his excitement. 

"Hey Avorion, been a couple hundred years hasn't it? It's good to see you. Oh and your brother wanted me to say hello for him since he is unable to make it to our reunion."

He then turns around to see the man that he slammed into the ground, slowly getting back up. The man playfully capped his hands together before speaking in a similar tone.

"Oh don't be too upset Jackal, I didn't forget you either. Just took me a minute to fully recognize you. What's this, your third of fifth generation you incarnated yourself into? I almost didn't recognize you there since your aura is quite different from before but looking at it with closer detail, that's when I knew it was you."

 "Jackal? Incarnation?! What kind of madness if this man spitting out."

I thought to myself I stood there in hot dessert was before I calmly summon my shining white armor upon my body. I took a small breath of relief as it's cool feeling helped deal with the combine heat of the other knight's aura still radiating off of him, and the heat of the dessert.  

"Now that's a lot better. This heat is already bad enough, don't need a heat stroke out here of all places.  More importantly, who is the man in jade. I can already tell he's from Arcana Verba. His armor gave that away plain as day, how-" 

The man in jade suddenly disrupted my inner thoughts as if reading my mind, as he then spoke. 

"C'mon Avorion....Bad enough to left us behind when you chose to abandon your home, now you don't even recognize us. As expected of you, you're just too cruel for words alone. How can you forget us...your best friends."

"We're suppose to be friends? I highly doubt that, allies are suppose to be equals. Hot, dark and brooding; and you? You're both too weak."

At that moment the two other men's aura erupted from their bodies and shot up into the heavens. Both of them had a single eye glow with their respective aura's color, in response to their outrage, I simply get into an unarmed fighting position. 

"Let's see how good my supposed friends are."