Forgotten Memory of a Lonely Prince

Edwoyn~~ Friday Night 10:48 PM – Guest Bedroom.

Solitude, exhaustion, darkness... All the perfect conditions for a long night of sleep. As my body sank into the mattress, it felt like I was sinking into a layer of whipped cream ganache. The quality of these sheets left much to be desired, but ever since I had experienced the inhospitality of a torture chair, I had come to appreciate having a bed as though it were a privilege. When you lose everything overnight, the smallest, most mundane things become precious moments to cherish. And these past two days, I had encountered a great many of those mundane things for the first time.

Some activities had been pleasant, while others sent shivers of disgust up my spine. I had really been through it since my kidnapping, enduring bad surprises and Aurora's blood-soaked threats. I’d even go so far as to say that girl was an adventure all on her own! She swept me away without a second thought, without caring what the next day might bring.

Adventure with a capital A... It was far more turbulent than I had anticipated. Though we were on the same path, our destinations were vastly different. At the end of mine, I would reunite with Mother and Eliott, while for Aurora... The only thing waiting for her was an early death. That's why I had to leave their organization as soon as possible. The longer I stayed with them, the harder it would be to see them for who they really were—mass murderers.

Time brought feelings, and the very thought of getting attached to such individuals terrified me. So let’s be clear: the Killer Wind was just a stopover on my journey. A stopover, but for how long? How do you negotiate debt reduction? Should I save their lives in return to settle the score? What kind of threats does one save assassins from?

No matter what I thought about, I always circled back to the same point. The questions. Thousands of questions overwhelmed my mind, reminding me just how vulnerable I was. They spun around like a broken record, preventing me from finding peace, despite the calm of the night.

I was exhausted, desperate to sleep, but it was impossible. And when I tried to forget my troubles, there was nothing to distract me—nothing but darkness, like that of the black dimension. I couldn’t distinguish it from the darkness behind my eyelids or even the night itself. That uniform blackness became a canvas for my imagination. I could paint on it my doubts, fears, and worries, never running out of creativity.

Could we really stand against the government? Just the three of us? What would happen if they found out I was still alive? And Aurora, should I agree to her cause? Did I even have a choice?

“N-”

What did the prohibited weapons look like? What was happening to Eliott? Would they let me go once I reunited with my family? Or would I be forced to bite the hand that had helped me?

“Na–?”

When would my first disastrous mission come? What am I? Defective? Cursed? Mad? Was I always just a puppet serving Father?

“Nathan!”

Those twisted voices again… I must be going mad, indeed.

Against my will, I began to spiral, just like during the duel where my magical malfunction had manifested. Madness was looming, determined to ruin my night. Without warning, the strange, distorted sound morphed into Aurora’s voice.

"Don’t spit on those who can teach you, ungrateful fool! I saved your life, so stop offending me. How can you hold such a grudge against me when I’m keeping you from dying a stupid death?"

Even though I knew it wasn’t really Aurora, hearing those accusations again hurt just as much.

"Leave me alone! I want nothing more to do with your void and your nightmares!" I snapped, clenching my fists.

"Listen, you and I want the same thing. Know this—you’re not the only one who has suffered. What I desperately lack right now is an ally who shares my motivations. Help me track down and make the m-mercenaries pay. Every one of them was a criminal, worse than I could ever be. They’re exactly the type who buy forbidden weapons."

No body, just those distant, discordant voices, crackling like a radio stuck between two stations.

Was its language limited? Was this thing communicating telepathically from outside? Could I escape using it?

I remembered each of its phrases. I had heard them all before—spoken by my own mouth, by the mercenaries, or by people close to me. This thing was trying to talk to me using fragments of my own memories, stitching together pieces of past conversations. What was I supposed to understand from this mess?

"Aurora? Who are you? Are you here to help me? Whose side are you on?" I asked cautiously.

"It’s a long story... if you knew, you’d wish you never heard it. You wouldn’t last a second under the weight of what it truly means."

The voices had chosen to imitate Justine and Aurora. They had responded to me—and worse, the answer made sense. Was this progress, or a very bad sign? Deep down, fear gripped me. The last time I heard those voices, they had trapped me in a nightmare. I didn’t want to go back to the black dimension, much less that filthy underground.

Pull yourself together, Nathan. This isn’t real. These voices don’t exist. You’re just sleep-deprived.

I drank the water from the glass on my bedside table and tossed around in the sheets a few times. By tomorrow, the voices would be gone. All I had to do was clear my head and think of nothing.

"No, I’m serious: Danéma! D-A-N-É-M-A! It’s not that hard to remember!"

Had this thing heard my thoughts?

"Dané... ma?"

That word wasn’t part of my vocabulary, nor my memories. It was the same phrase I had used to introduce my new name to Aurora, except that "Edwoyn" had been replaced by "Danéma." Was it a name? I had never heard it before in my life, and I had no idea what it could mean.

"Why don't you let me explain? Resisting will only make things more unpleasant for you. The only thing I can offer you is the strength to save her in exchange for your simple submission. Would you be so kind as to f-fr m-me from– free my ch-ch… Chains? This isn’t negotiable."

What? No, what chains? I don’t understand anything! Leave me alone, whatever you are! Stop probing my mind; it’s none of your business! If you really want to help, come back tomorrow with a better plan to get me out of this prison, I shot back.

"I must warn you: these are not details to be taken lightly. I pity you—you’re just one of their puppets. Your head is filled with all their elitist bullshit!"

I didn’t want to hear those baseless accusations anymore. They hurt too much. I started to wonder if this auditory hallucination was designed for that very purpose. It wasn’t impossible that these voices were the result of a malicious spell or a curse, even though Aurora dismissed those ideas.

Was this the same phenomenon affecting my family, driving them insane? Terrified that this could be the case, I buried my head in my pillow, pressing my ears until I drowned out all sound. Aurora was already poison enough on her own—I certainly didn’t need to hear her looping in my head.

It’ll pass, it’ll pass...

"The famous Killer Wind. They never trusted you. You’re just one of their puppets, you fool! They’re doing all this to control you! That’s exactly why you need to punish those selfish parasites corrupting our kingdom. Aurora. You must ki– you mu– kill her, and I’ll help you. If we want justice, we must take it ourselves. There’s nothing to regret, because without them, the world is better off. Got it?"

There was nothing I could do. Those words seeped into my mind like water leaking through a roof. But just when I thought the torture would last all night, calm finally returned. Had the voices gone quiet because they’d delivered their message? That I... should kill Aurora? Impossible! I wasn’t capable of killing her, even if I reached her level.

I... I wasn’t even sure what to think about her anymore. I had more reason to cooperate with her than to rebel, at least for now. I knew she’d crossed the line with me more than once, but now I realized that was her way of testing me. Since I had passed her test, she wouldn’t harm me anymore, and everything would go smoothly.

In the end, the mercenary wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. Every choice she made stemmed from good intentions. She had saved me instead of blindly following orders, just as she cared about protecting people from forbidden weapons. No, Aurora wasn’t my enemy. She was the ally who would help me defeat my true enemy: the Council of Ministers, who held Mother and Eliott as puppets.

“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but you’ll see for yourself soon enough. If you stay kind and naive, they’ll exploit you to the last drop. You need to understand—you can’t win the friendship of everyone you meet. Don’t even try. Run...”

The voices startled me again. Their intrusion into my mind left me feeling disturbingly exposed. Irritated by their persistence, I decided to listen. Maybe if I let them have their say, they would disappear faster. Run, they said? I would have loved to, but Aurora’s magic seal would kill me if I strayed more than a kilometer away. I had no doubt she was serious about that. She had been careful never to stray too far from me. A liar would’ve chosen less restrictive conditions to keep me in check.

“Shut up and do what I say. Rule number one: we must focus on eradicating the Killer Wind. Someone has to stop them before they go too fa– fall– down– d– d– d...”

Suddenly, a vibration interrupted my distorted exchange with the voices. My eardrums rang as if struck by a sudden bout of tinnitus. The ringing morphed into a deafening clap of thunder that reverberated through me from head to toe. A sharp pain coursed through my entire body, starting in my ribs and ending in my sinuses. I jolted upright, blinded by a diffuse light. Overcome with nausea, my first instinct was to cover my face.

W–what? Another nightmare from the black dimension? So... what I experienced before, were those not Aurora’s memories?

I was no longer lying in my bed but pressed against damp wood. I struggled to keep my eyes open. My limbs were bound by heavy chains covered in magical seals. As I adjusted to the daylight, I saw a man pulling his arm back through the bars of a cage. He had just touched me with what I recognized as a telescopic stick, a non-lethal weapon usually employed by peacekeepers to control city riots.

Was everything that happened with the Killer Wind just a dream? Had I still been kidnapped?

I was in a cage. A cage being transported down a country road. Fields stretched out as far as the eye could see. Why was I half-conscious in a cage?! Was I being taken to the gallows? Sold to the enemy? Other men, mounted on horses and equipped with the same weapon, surrounded me. I could hear the horses' hooves clattering against the rocky dirt and the continuous creaking of the cart.

What have I done? Where are we going? Release me! I’m not a criminal, I’m a prince!

Regaining some clarity, I began to thrash around. Each movement tugged at my stiffened muscles. I tried to speak, but a muzzle was strapped tightly around my mouth. Wait, what? A muzzle? Alright, I was in serious trouble. But why? How? Thinking beyond the obvious required immense effort. I was so tired, but I needed to understand, at least a little.

Is this reality?

No, it couldn’t be real. Yet, everything felt so real—the pain, the foul smells, the cold wind, and the jolts of the cart! And I was in the body... of a young girl? I was skin and bones, small like a child. I also noticed bluish strands of hair, matted with filth, scattered across the floor.

What if Nathan never existed? What if I made up that life in a dream?

Clumsily, I propped myself up on my scarred arms, covered in soot and burns that had yet to heal. I wore a thick, torn cloak and the pants of a military uniform. I didn’t bother trying to understand why. The chains that bound me were heavy, but they allowed me just enough slack to make small movements. I checked my collarbone—no silver magic seal. Instead, more soot-like marks covered my body. Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn’t dirt but a series of tattoos. I had seen these patterns before, during my nightmare in the underground. They resembled magical runes, but my vision was too blurred to decipher them. With all the noise and pain, focusing was nearly impossible. To make matters worse, a series of whimpers drew my attention to the back of the cage.

That’s when I saw other cages trailing behind mine. We were cargo, being transported in a caravan of carts through a desert of sleeping grasslands. Dawn was creeping in, enough to reveal the outlines of our surroundings. Other prisoners slumped in their own cages, suffering the same fate as me. There was a variety: humanoid creatures with the same tattoos as mine, a cage full of venomous creatures trying to fly, a baby dragon, and other deformed beings I didn’t recognize.

They had all been captured by hunters and torn from their natural habitats. Realizing this, I summoned every ounce of energy to scan our surroundings, searching for where we had come from. Just then, the men extinguished their magical lanterns as the sun began to rise.

How long had we been traveling? What is happening?

The immense forest behind us had become nothing more than a tiny green speck lost in the vast landscape. Knowing it was so far away made me furious. My attempts to lash out and growl did nothing but attract the attention of the poachers. I wanted nothing more than to tear them apart and take their lives. I don’t know why, but I craved it, drooled at the thought, just as they unfolded their electrified sticks.

I unhinged my jaw to scream until the strap of my leather muzzle threatened to rip apart. My display plunged the group of creatures into terror. The pain was so unbearable that I trembled. Black blood oozed from my wounds, covering the floor of my cage.

Black… blood?

“This one’s gonna fetch a fortune, ha ha! I should think about retiring in the sun, in the Republic of Éragnol. Can’t believe we caught one this powerful. Draconic-class, damn it!” My attacker barked in a burst of pride. “You’re not scaring anyone now, filthy monster!”

“What are you doing? Don’t kill it, it’s a royal order! His colleague stopped him before he could use his weapon again.”

‘A royal order?’ What is this? Which royalty? Why would I, a human, be thrown in with wild creatures?

No longer having the strength to fight the dizziness, I collapsed in one swift motion. Blood dripped down half my face, blurring my vision. I couldn’t move a muscle, not even my lips. The chaos around me became a peaceful silence, and the pain faded into a distant flicker. I knew that as soon as I closed my eyes, I was done for. I had only a few seconds left, during which I prayed internally for a miracle.

Help me... Aurora!!