Kingdoms Divided

Chapter 18

Jiban doesn't move or speak after waking up, scared of everything to come. What will his father say? What will his father do? What will the kingdom say? What is going to happen to him? He lets himself rest and be taken care of by the servant in their castle. He doesn't leave his room, too anxious to see anyone he knows and has to lie about everything that has happened. Jiban slowly gains his strength back as days pass, and is back to being awake for longer periods of time. A nurse must have informed his father of this, because his father comes in after a few days with a scary bright smile on his face.

"My eldest son has returned!" The king cheers and hugs Jiban which makes him even more scared then if he were to yell at him. He doesn't know what it is, but being with his father now, makes him even more anxious than before. He is scared that his emotions may flip at any given moment. "Now listen, I know what you were thinking, but just because you were kidnapped doesn't mean you're weak. Just look at you! You somehow survived a year in a cell!" Jiban realizes what's going on, whoever saved him must've said how he was in the cell. "I guess your brother can do some things right."

"Jiro? Jiro saved me?" Jiban asks

"Oh I know- I was shocked too, but-" King Asterion begins, but Jiban interrupts, "Where is he?" Jiban questions frantically.

"Probably somewhere with Jezilina. I know they're here though, he's resting from battle." Jiban jolts up, and runs down the halls to try and find him. Jiban runs to the dinning hall, Jiro's room, the kitchen, but finally realizes where he will be. He runs to the second biggest room in the house, knocking on the door.

"Come in." A woman's voice says and he opens the door to see Jezilina, who looks as the tales tell. Her hair is more red than what he has heard, probably from being in the Northern Kingdom for over a year now. Her hair is not able to be naturally bleached by the sun. Her skin is fair and her eyes, you could not guess the color if you tried. They seemed to change with every glance, but they truly are beautiful.

"I'm looking for my brother." Jiban lets himself in and his brother comes into view, putting on his shirt.

"Would you mind my love? I think my brother and I have a lot to discuss." Jiro says and Jezilina leaves the room, shutting the door behind her for the two brothers to have some space to themselves. She shuts the door and Jiban doesn't wait a moment to say, "You saved me!?"

"If I'm being honest, I didn't mean to. We went there to kidnap the king's lover, but we couldn't even find the king so we went to the dungeon and found you." Jiro explains.

"Well, what made you go to the dungeon in the first place? It's not like they're known to keep our people hidden-" Jiban realizes what Jiro was there for. "You wanted to see if mom was really locked down there like the tales said. Didn't you?"

"Would you just shut up!? I saved you. The soldiers saw you passed out and immediately recognized you as our missing prince. I also thought- thought that maybe you were staying in that kingdom because mom was there." There's a silence where Jiro is sad, but he soon gets angry. "But once I started to connect the dots I realized that my big brother was just being another king's bitch."

Jiban walks over and punches Jiro across his face, almost continuing, but stops himself. He grabs his little brother by the collar of his shirt, "You know that's a low blow for a man who is seen as a god in this kingdom yet still can't stand up to their own father. I used to even be scared of you myself. You're bigger, stronger, but at least I know what I want in life and don't just do what daddy tells me to do." Jiro pushes Jiban off of him and they are both ready to fight one another. "Oh yeah- and one more thing.... Jezilina is waaay out of your league." They stare at each other for a moment before they both start kinda laughing with one another.