1 The Wayward Prince
1718 Words
Thunder boomed and rattled the walls of the castle. The sky above was a stark gray and the wind howled. In one of its dark and dingy chambers, the Prince was still awake. He couldn't sleep tonight, perhaps he never would. He had tried everything, and he failed, again and again. He would have felt shame and guilt at this very moment, but surprisingly he felt nothing at all.
He inspected the knife in his hands. It was Dwarven made -- the best that money could buy. Its steel -- which was sourced from the finest Goblin mines -- glistened in between flashes of lightning. This weapon was made to kill royalty, preferably by a stab in the back. He had smuggled it without anyone knowing, not even under the keen eyes of Master Darius. He always knew he would use it one day for its intended purpose.
But he never thought it would be this way.
He stared as the blade touched his skin. He stared as a thick liquid came pouring down from his wrist, and as the pain seared into his nerves he screamed and howled and cried. The screams would have reached each chamber of the castle walls, but it was drowned out by the roar of thunder outside, rumbling in tandem with the Prince's pain.
On a much different world, a young College Student was studying for his exams. He wasn't the brightest person in the class, but he gets by well enough. He worked to maintain his good grades while still having time to read his favorite novels. His mind raced when he read of fantasy worlds, of knights in shining armor and of Princesses with strange powers. He enjoyed stories of adventure and political intrigue. Already he was itching to read more, but Calculus was a particularly hard subject for him. Thunder shook the walls of his modest dormitory room, but he didn't notice any of it. He had headphones on, listening to lo-fi hiphop while he stared at his notes.
The Prince and the College Student didn't know each other. In fact, they were in completely separate worlds in a completely different time. Although there was one commonality they shared.
They had the same name.
The Prince lay face down on the stone floor. Scarlet liquid was slowly pooling below him. One of the servants who was working late that night had heard his screams, and she woke the steward of the castle. Alarmed by the Prince's demeanor earlier that night, Master Darius sped without hesitation to find the Prince. When they found him, he had lost a lot of blood. He was only kept alive by a faint heartbeat.
The College Student closed all of his books and checked his phone. There would be a new chapter upload from his favorite w*******l tonight. He decided to take a break from studying to take a quick look, but the story had gotten so convoluted that it was hard for him to follow. He was also very tired from studying all night, that he dosed off in the middle of reading. It probably didn't matter much, since he wouldn't be taking the test anytime soon.
No one can tell if the Prince really died that night, for the one who woke up that morning was a different person. The body was the same, but its consciousness was someone else's. When looking at the Multiverse as a whole, this wasn't an unusual occurrence. In fact -- it has been happening .
The College Student was in for a surprise.
#
Janus woke up with a weird feeling in his bones. His dream was very unusual. First of all, he was lying in a pool of blood. There were screams, loud and unbearable, it shook him to his core. None of it made any sense at all, just like dreams usually do. But there's something really personal with this dream. It was as if he lived in it. It was as if he was the Prince.
The rays of the early morning light shone upon Janus' face, and already he didn't feel like waking up. He wasn't looking forward to his Calculus exam at all, he thought it was the most unnecessary invention of man. What's the point in learning it all if I can just plug values in a computer? His thoughts of mathematics slowly waned as he realized that he was in an unfamiliar room.
He was lying in a four-poster bed, the walls the room were made of stone. His books were now gone, replaced by desks of a few odd looking pitchers and flasks. His head was ringing. He felt like fainting whenever he tried to sit up straight. What happened last night? The last thing he remembered was him reading a w*******l.
He remembered the dream again, like a ringing, howling sensation in his mind. Pain seared through his wrist. He inspected it and saw the bandages for the first time. A thick red stain that was slowly oozing out of the cloth. What happened? Where was he? Was there an accident while he was asleep?
The door opened, and a serving maid came in. She was dressed in a very curious attire. She wore a black dress embroidered with white lace. The kind of dress that Janus fantasized about, except it was in a slightly different cut and style. As if it were from another time period altogether. Was he in some cosplay cafe of some sort? Or the renaissance fair? Perhaps both?
His mind ached again, flashes of memory came slipping in. It was the same feeling as remembering where your keys were, except these were someone else's keys. He remembered the maid's name, it was Amys. One of the older serving maids of the castle.
Wait, what castle? Was he in a castle?
He looked around at the walls, it was made of wood and stone. There were no windows here, except for small slits where light to came in. Enough for an archer to peek through.
"Uhmm.." He tried to speak, but his throat was dry.
"Are you feeling well your highness? Madam Padmey says you'll have to rest some more. Please don't strain yourself." Amys said.
"Your Highness?" Janus asked exasperatedly.
"Yes, your Highness, Prince Janus of Galedon. Is there something wrong?" Amys looked concerned.
Another surge of memories flooded Janus' mind. The Prince was looking at a mirror. He looked exactly like him.
"I'm sorry... but where am I? Do you know what happened to me?" he managed to say, his voice was exactly the same, except he had a weird accent.
"Well, Mr. Darius and Sindra found you last night with a knife beside you. You lost a lot of blood. They said it was an accident, they're investigating it right now."
"Accident... right." Janus said, inspecting his wrist.
Something happened here, and he was starting to have suspicions. He had read so many novels to know where this was going. If he was right, he wasn't sure what he felt about it.
There was a throbbing feeling in the ring finger of his right hand. It was his first time seeing it, a gold band coiled around his finger in a tight grip. There was a huge stone at the center, it was red it blinked slightly. It looked like a gemstone at first glance, but right now it acted like an LED.
A voice rang in his head.
"Memories will come to you slowly. I suggest you pace yourself, or headaches may occur." Said a robotic yet soothing female voice.
"What? Who said that?" Janus asked.
"Your highness? Who said what?"
"You didn't hear anything? Just now?"
"No... are you okay sire? Shall I call Madam Padmey? She has a few tonics that could calm your nerves up. Get you back to sleep."
Janus was getting desperate, more memories of the Prince were now swirling in his mind. There were no concrete details, only emotions. A sense of dread, loneliness and hopelessness. Somehow he felt a slight sympathy. Living in a royal court had a lot of pressures, enough to drive a man insane, and apparently enough for someone to take his own life.
These feelings aren't enough though. Janus had to know more.
"Amys, can you stay and talk to me for a second? Please?"
There was a look in Amys' eye. Was that surprise? Her once wary look was now replaced with a tinge of a smile.
"Of course your highness, you can ask me anything. Although you have to calm down and pace yourself."
"Ohh I've heard that before."
"Sorry?"
"Nevermind. Forgive me, my memory has been failing me recently. So you're saying I'm a Prince of this castle?"
"Yes sire, third son of King Gregorius II."
"I'm sure you have to be discreet about the details, but this 'accident' isn't really an accident right? I tried to kill myself last night."
"Oh, I'm not sure about that. From what I heard it was an accident, you might have just slipped or something. There were rumors that the Dwarven dagger might have been cursed." Amys flustered.
"Right... but let's just say, hypothetically speaking. That I tried to kill myself last night. Would there be any reason as to why?" Janus said with careful deliberation.
"Hmm... well, there could be a lot of reasons. The King recently ordered you to stay locked up in the castle for the alleged murder of Deena, one of the servants close to Prince Anders---"
Janus would have interjected at this bombshell of a statement, but Amys kept going.
"And then there's the fact that you're third in line to the throne. Prince Marcus was recently promoted to the Arcanus Order as an Adept Mage and Prince Anders has been slowly gaining popularity as a member of the Crimson Blades. Rumors have been going on about you coveting the throne, but having no chance due to your supposed... lack of achievement." Amys turned red at that last statement.
A flood of information smacked Janus in the head. The ring in his finger was blinking again.
"Please pace yourself, overloading your mind can also cause nosebleeds." came the robotic voice.
Amys went on an outburst of apologies, for which Janus graciously told her that she had done well and asked her to leave him to his thoughts.
Janus drank a glass of water in one gulp. He'd been transported into a different world with a mess laid out in front of him. He had a lot of work to do.
- Writer
