Emptiness

Chapter 07

Zeta Country

Gavero City:

Life was turning into living hell for Ziyou Raaga in the palace.

He felt like he could not breathe anymore with how suffocating it felt.

The crown on his head weighed him down every day.

It was getting harder for Ziyou Raaga to live in this place.

He had to look into more healing spells as the assassination attempts on him had increased. He has to be prepared for the future.

Just a few days before, he had seen the entrance of the death door when the fruit he was trying to eat was poisonous, and if not for his World Synch, he would have died that day.

His Egav had been tugging on him madly, unlike before, so he had given in to his intuition and left the fruit basket, only to find ants and bugs dead around the fruit basket in his room the next day.

They had reached his private room, which had clued him on that the two people who had that much authority were the King and the Queen.

The King wouldn’t hurt his precious son, but the Queen, his stepmother, would.

Ziyou didn’t know what he did to earn this much hate from three stepmothers of his.

Yes, he was a son from the third wife. But there were other children too. His stepmothers don’t hate them as they hate him.

What did he do?

If it was his rising popularity, then it was somewhat understandable of his stepmothers to hate him now, but they had hated him as long as Ziyou knew.

What was it?

Ziyou guessed it might be because of his mother.

His mother was a mystery.

Gracie Raaga…

Was her name even Gracie?

The only person who knew about her origin was his father, and getting information about his mother out of his father was next to impossible.

That slimy man was tightlipped even when Ziyou had used an emotional play and went so far as to beg to hear about his mother. His father remained silent, no matter what sort of acts he used.

It was not as if Ziyou loved his mother, nor did he hate her.

The only thing the King offered was to take Ziyou to his private quarters and had gone to the King’s private collection room among the many rooms in the King’s quarters.

Ziyou will never forget his mother’s portrait on the wall among many of the portraits in that room. Every portrait was collected personally by the King.

The woman, his mother in the portrait, looked unreal…

A beautiful woman…

It wasn’t that she was breathtaking; as he had seen many women in the palace and she was just as pretty as the concubines in his father’s harem. What made her stand out were her features.

She had silver hair….

And that explained why Ziyou’s hair was a lighter shade of black, a mix between his father’s and mother’s hair color, making Ziyou to have a lighter shade of black hair.

Her eyes were dark blue, the same color of the ring that separated Ziyou’s white Iris from the sclera.

She was like an ethereal being, not an ordinary girl with how different she looked.

Someone painted her, and the laughter in her eyes was true at the time the artist painted her. So, she must have been happy at one point.

What happened?

Was this portrait drawn before marriage or after marriage?

If she was not happy with the marriage life, why didn’t she run away?

No…

No one escaped the castle life even if they wanted to run away as the King will always bring them back.

Why did she marry him, or was hers a forced marriage?

Why did she live long enough to birth a child?

Why?

Why did she commit suicide?

Why give birth to him?

Why leave him alone in this place?

Ziyou sometimes wished he could escape the life of a Prince and live somewhere in the woods where none could reach him. It was acceptable compared to the hellish life he goes through every day in Vabaaga castle.

Ziyou knows that. Like his mother, he was trapped too in this castle.

He thought exposing his power years before to his father would make his life easy. And that was coming to bite back at him. His father will never let him go.

No, even if he didn’t have World Synch on this level, his father would drag him back or even probably kill him, which was preferable to his father than the rumors of a runaway Prince.

After all, why would anyone run away from the great and powerful Raaga family who ruled Vabaaga for centuries?

Thoughts of his mother depressed him.

So, he had immersed himself in training.

His father had gifted him a sword, manageable to his height and age, giving him the permission to train in sword fighting.

One shouldn’t always rely on their Egav as it will suck their energy slowly but will surely. One had to manage between Egav and their weapons in combat.

Training Egav and learning how to fight with weapons should both be given equal importance.

His stepmothers were envious that he had been gifted a sword by the King.

Silly women.

Why don’t they notice the numerous gifts their children receive from the King rather than get jealous when Ziyou gets gifted by the King, which happens only rarely?

And again, he didn’t know the reason behind their hate.

The steady rhythm of the carriage was calming.

Ziyou always wondered how the carriage could handle the Kogans. After all, a Kogan runs faster than the horse, and if you want to reach somewhere quickly, then one should go for any kind of carriage pulled by Zeta’s Kogans.

It might be because the carriage was coated with Egav, which he could sense. That was the reason it was withstanding the Kogan’s strength and speed.

Ziyou pulled the carriage’s window and looked at the trees passing by, enjoying the sight of nature as the light God, Mercos, was disappearing over the horizon.

Zeta was as fascinating as it was when he first visited.

Vabaaga, Zeta, and Harkon were the countries that had an alliance that lasted for many centuries.

It was amazing to see no conflict had arisen between the three countries for centuries. Maybe it was because they mostly intermarry between themselves to keep their relationship intact.

Zeta was closer to the capital of Vabaaga than Harkon country. So, they usually visit Zeta country on occasions like festivals. Not that he wanted to visit Zeta often.

It wasn’t as if Zeta wasn’t good or anything.

Ziyou never did like to mingle and be friendly with strangers.

The road took a turn to the village way, and Ziyou quickly shut the carriage’s window, not wanting people to recognize him.

He didn’t know how he became so recognizable and popular at this age.

What did he do?

He hadn’t gone to any war, nor had he invented anything. Why was Ziyou popular?

Ziyou lit an E-fire and kept it in a corner by making it hover, and he got comfortable with the leather seat.

He leaned against the seat and pulled the E-bag- an Egav bag not many could afford since it was very rare and expensive.

He usually keeps it in his pocket with how small its size is.

The E-bag could be brought by many if it was only expensive as royal people had plenty of money. Not many could afford it because it was made from the rarest animal, Calope.

Calope was a golden color snake that was only ever found in Vabaaga forests and had an Egav of its own that it could shrink to the size of an ant and evade capture.

Calope were rarely ever caught, and tribe people do catch them like one Calope in a century as it is very hard to spot it, let alone catch it. The tribal people make a bag out of it for the Egav the Calope usually has. The bag and the contents can shrink to the size of a small purse and expand to their original size when the owner taps the bag with their Egav.

Usually, Ziyou wouldn’t like the products made from animals, but this bag was centuries’ old, and when their father, Hagen Raaga, had brought the children to the treasure room of the Kings and Queens of Raagas and asked the children to pick one valuable treasure to use as a gift for being crowned as official Princes and Princesses of Vabaaga which was the tradition followed by Raagas for years.

The King, Hagen Raaga, shared a story of how he was brought here by the King’s father along with his brother and sister when they were crowned to pick a treasure among the ones in this room and how he had picked a sword which was the one he was still using.

Ziyou rolled his eyes when he had heard his father reminiscing about the story of his past and how Ziyou’s eldest brother Lehan Raaga went straight for the sword’s sections, wanting to impress their father.

His other brothers went towards the weapons section while his sisters went for the jewelry section while their mothers looked over with a proud smile.

Ziyou ignored them and wandered through the section of books, wanting to find something interesting.

Fools…

They can buy swords, weapons and make jewelry of their choice later. They should look for something valuable, immeasurable.

Ziyou had ignored the way something tugged at his Egav from the sword section.

He looked through the odd items, ignoring the chatter in the background that day. And when he saw the E-bag, he was very surprised by it. Because Ziyou never thought he would ever see one of them in his life.

If one bothered to go to the library and read the books, even the ones in the section allowed to him, you would learn a lot of things.

And he was shocked that he had the opportunity not only to see this E-bag but also to take it. When Ziyou chose this bag that day, his stepmothers snickered at him for choosing a bag of all things. They didn’t know the value of it, nor did he educate them about this, knowing if he told them the value of the bag, they would want him to give it to their children. The King just nodded, not giving the bag a second glance.

He had brought it to his room.

He had only seen a picture of it in a book, but he had doubts of whether he had picked the right one, and when the bag shrunk in size as he touched it with an Egav coated finger, he was very delighted.

Ziyou had immediately filled it with useful things. The bag can hold up to two kilograms. He filled them with essential things. He took small pouches of medicinal herbs, a dagger, a knife, a coin pouch, his notes on Egav, and the book he was now taking out of the bag.

He shrunk it again and kept it in the pocket of his tunic. The carriage was going steadily and he admired the smooth roads of Zeta.

Ziyou had opted for a simple dress as none can order him to wear extravagant clothes like they do in Vabaaga.

Before he started reading the book, he took the crown from his head and kept it aside.

The crown that had been custom made for Ziyou.

The crowning ceremony didn’t go as he wanted. As like always, it didn’t fail to make him stand out even though he wanted to fade out in the background.

The crowning ceremony had been the thing that had pushed his stepmothers to another level.

It was a few weeks before the crowning of Princes and Princesses happened, which had shocked him to no end.

It was a public event, where the ministers, captains, generals, and the people of nearby villages were all invited over the arena where the stage was set up with proper shield and protection.

When it was Ziyou’s turn to be crowned, God! The sound from the crowd was deafening, startling Ziyou.

The crown was a design chosen by him. It was a simple design of a snake in white gold circling around his head, while its tail and head met above his forehead.

When he was crowned by the King, there was a sudden silence as snakes out of nowhere appeared on the stage, scaring everyone. For some strange reason, the King ordered the Knights not to do anything as they were Raagas and they have a connection with snakes.

The snakes circled his legs before disappearing, leaving only one snake behind.

The snake that was left behind climbed upon his legs and moved to his head.

Ziyou hadn’t been afraid that day.

Everybody had been speechless when the snake disappeared after touching his crown in a red glow. He didn’t know why everyone was gaping at his crown. Later only, he came to know about how there were two red stones as eyes for the snake shape his crown was.

The crowd went crazy with the chants of Snake Prince, which had disturbed even his father. His stepmothers and his siblings were even more envious of him.

Why?

Why him?

He didn’t know why strange things happened around him.

There were Egav snakes and ordinary snakes. Egav snakes can use Egav to disappear, grow, shrink and make their poison more venomous. So it wasn’t a surprise that the snakes had the ability to disappear.

It was a surprise that they came out of nowhere, and none of the guards stopped them on the King’s orders. Why did his father let them? It was strange. The entire thing was strange, and Ziyou didn’t want to think about it.

He caressed the crown and the reddish glow on it as the eyes of the crown.

His second brother, Hedek, had wanted to try it on, which Ziyou couldn’t deny it at that time in front of the King. But as soon as Hedek wore it, the glow disappeared, and when Ziyou wore it, the glow came back.

His stepmothers envy, and hate knew no boundaries.

That was why the assassination attacks increased, and the King himself had to interfere. He asked Ziyou to visit Zeta and stay for a month or two so that things cool down.

Even though his father knew about the attacks on him, he didn’t do anything against his stepmothers.

What a wonderful father!

Ziyou had lost all the respect he had for his father long before, so it was nothing new to him.

Ziyou didn’t want to stay in Zeta. But he also wanted some peace, at least for a while. He had decided to stay a week or two before returning as he didn’t want to run away all the time whenever problems arose.

It has already been a week since he came to Zeta.

He had decided to visit the temples and look around Zeta after finishing his lunch, politely declining Prince Nolen’s offer to accompany him.

Ziyou hadn’t brought many guards as he knew Prince Nolen’s grandfather, Zengan Ura, wouldn’t compromise on his safety.

Ziyou also didn’t want to draw attention to himself by bringing many knights and giving away where he was. He had only brought four knights with him, and they were following him on a horse. People will just think of him as a royal member travelling in the Kogan carriage.

He hadn’t visited the temple, not wanting people to recognize him with his attire and crown, so he had just visited a secluded waterfall and spent the time training.

He cannot go in disguise here in Zeta as it would be inappropriate to his Host, Zengan Ura.

He hadn’t wanted to spend his day with Ura siblings.

God! They were annoying as hell with their constant desire to spend time with him.

Nolen was tolerable but his sister, Anaika was weirdly fascinated with him, probably drawn to his fame.

That was why he had gotten out of the palace.

Now he had to go to the castle they were in.

Until then, he will read….

The book he had brought from home, the one he had read multiple times.

The life of Bayron Raaga…

His ancestor, who was famous even after centuries and the person who pushed World Synch further than ever.

Ziyou wished he had more access to the library. There were age restrictions in the library even if he was a Prince of the country. This was the only book that had some details about Bayron Raaga’s life.

Because he can ignore the crown incident, but in the treasure room, the sword that had tugged at his Egav was the one that belonged to his ancestor, Bayron Raaga, which he cannot ignore. He wasn’t sure about the sword, but when he came back to look at the portrait of him, he found that the sword belonged to Bayron Raaga.

As the time passed by, and him reading nth time of Bayron Raaga’s story, looking for any sort of things he had missed, he didn’t realize how he got to the castle so fast.

Damn these Kogans!

He put the book back in his E-bag and got out, nodding at those who bowed at him.

He was going to request dinner in the room he stayed in as he really didn’t want to meet up with Ura siblings.

He took a right turn. As soon as he spotted Anaika Ura, he abandoned the path he was going to take.

Ugh!

Nolen was waiting for him near his room when he went in circles to reach his room.

He resigned to his fate when Nolen bounced towards him in excitement.

“You took so long, Prince Ziyou.”

“Sorry, I was lost in the nature of Zeta, Prince Nolen.”

Nolen had offered Ziyou to call him by his first name, but he politely refused, and he didn’t offer the same courtesy to Nolen even though Nolen was disappointed with it but, Ziyou didn’t want anyone to be that close to him.

“I’ve finished my training way early and was waiting for you to play a game of chess.”

Here it goes!

But, still, he tried.

“The dinner, Prince Nolen….”

“Don’t worry, Prince Ziyou. I thought you must be tired and would want to have a private dinner. So, I had brought dinner to your room.”

Ziyou sighed internally, giving into the fate that was hell-bent on ruining his plans for a quiet night.

It wasn’t as if he hated Nolen because that would be wrong, as Nolen had always gone out of his way to accommodate him.

It’s just Nolen didn’t know anything about him and was being friendly towards him only because he was famous. If not, he would mingle along with Ziyou’s siblings too. So, it displeased him to see one person trying to be close with him just because of his popularity and ridiculous stories about his powers and such.

As he heard the voice of Anaika, Ziyou quickly nodded at Nolen and invited him in, ordering the servants not to disturb them as they were going to play chess.

Nolen’s company was better than Anaika’s.

He removed his overcoat and put it on the chair, smiling at Nolen, who sat on the chair. He politely excused himself to use the restroom to freshen up and closed the door of the bathroom, leaning against it.

Well, he had to finish the game soon and go to sleep.

It was draining to be in Zeta.

He decided to leave Zeta within a week as he cannot take this anymore.

~~~~

Nolen sighed, feeling very tired.

Who said Princes had an easy life?

It was tiring to be a Prince and that too, a Prince-like him.

He had the entire Zeta’s weight on his shoulders.

There was no father, and he was the sole heir of Zeta, so it was tiring to be perfect all the time.

But this time, it was Nolen’s fault.

Nolen was the one who had ignored his duties and had spent all his time to be with his friend Ziyou.

Ziyou rarely ever visited Zeta, and to stay here for weeks had made Nolen very happy that he had forgotten his schedule of training and studying.

As the Crown Prince of Zeta, he had things to learn more than a common child of his age.

His Grandfather had been disappointed with him for skipping his classes to play with Ziyou.

But Nolen wasn’t bothered with his Grandfather’s disappointment for the first time.

He had wanted to know how Ziyou dealt with the weight of responsibilities on his shoulder and wanted to share their travel stories, being a Prince and all sorts of things with each other.

Ziyou had been polite and distant, but it was his nature like that. One day, Nolen will gain his trust, and Ziyou will be open with him.

The sound of throat-clearing did bring him back from his thoughts, and he realized that his Grandfather was glaring at him for getting lost in his thoughts again.

God!

That was the reason he was here in the first place, but he cannot help but think about the past few days he had spent with Ziyou.

But Ziyou had left Zeta four days before, saying that he had outstayed his welcome. Even though Nolen insisted it was fine, Ziyou had said that he could not ignore his studies and duties. His Grandfather had then let Ziyou go, wishing him a safe journey.

After that, his Grandfather had turned toward him with a glare of how he was skipping his training, studies, and duties by twisting his ear.

The book in front of him was a record of this month’s income and budget.

It was his Grandfather’s way of punishing Nolen.

Nolen doesn’t understand the head and tail of this, but he obediently looked through the book of how the crop production this month was back again to the level of how it was before the flood and the expense in the treasury to repair the damages of the flooded villages.

The number of Kogans brought to the stable and the numbers that died.

The salary of ministers and their expenses.

The overall summary of the salaries of maids and servants.

The number of guards and the people who have taken leave or changed to different duties and their respective pay regarding that.

The expense spent in kitchen and the things brought from other countries like spices and such.

The revenue of crops.

The loans offered to the farmers, whose land would take time to recover.

The import of products to the castle.

The export of their crops and food materials.

The number of mills opened newly and the number of mills that had problems.

The wells that were overflowing.

The wells that went dry.

The number of thieves and bandits.

The number of crimes increased in certain villages.

The expense of the military for a month.

The roads that were damaged by the flood and the money to repair them.

It was going on and on and on.

It really was tiring.

Nolen was nothing but a ten-year old child. He doesn’t have the brain capacity to understand all these. And, if he whined like this to his grandfather, he would whack the back of his head and would punish him by making him go through this for a week more.

Nolen had been going through this for over a week already. He was tired from the already brutal training he forced himself into. He had been learning fire element and how to control it. Fire was harder for him since his Egav was comfortable with land.

Granted, Nolen’s Egav doesn’t lean on fire, but he had to learn everything, at least to the extent of some level.

Mathematics was something Nolen wasn’t good at, and somehow, his Grandfather knew about his weakness.

Ugh! How come Grandfather knows everything?

And as a punishment, Nolen had to go through the economy record book, which detailed over a hundred pages for just a month. These hundred pages were like half a page in an E-book where the letters would shrink to fit in and expand as they read with Egav.

Why?

Oh, why did he have to spend his evenings like this?

His muscles were already aching.

He cannot do this.

The tapping of his Grandfather’s fingers on the table was like a warning to him.

Nolen will swallow his complaints and suffer silently. He would go through these painful and tiresome economies even if it made him sleepy, because the alternative was making his Grandfather angry and gaining a week more of this.