The king's Trials

Prologue

TW: DEPICTIONS OF SELF HARM, AND DEATH

This morning my father, The king of Sequila announced that one of his 18 children was to become the incarnation of 'The deity of the plains and ruler of all things holy, the beautiful Hilishquar'. He explained that all of his children would have to participate in various trials to determine the incarnation of the holy Hilishquar. I shall place the rules for the trials in a list.

The kings trials

Rules (if not followed all participants will die together, none are worthy):

-You shall complete each trial within a day

-No more than one death per trial is permitted

-All of my children, whether married or infants must go through the trials

-Weapons are permitted

-Armor is permitted

-Handmaids are not permitted

-Knights are not permitted

-Slaves are permited

-No one else may enter these trials other than my legal children

-If one of my female children win (which won't happen), they get to choose the king of Sequila and take him as their husband

After reading this list I became increasingly worried. I was of course a legal descendant of my father but I was nowhere near the level of our deity. I expected that I would be judged as unfit the moment I stepped foot inside the trials... My wife already had two children, I couldn't leave them all alone. So the first thing I did was talk to my mother, she was a beautiful woman who had been chosen as a concubine of the king of Sequila after hearing tales of her beauty from people who visited the temple. She had green eyes and long black hair, which was quite rare in our Kingdom, she had a soft gentle face with long eyelashes, many said she looked similar to our god. She was also a priestess at the temple of Seq, I intended to know her stance on my father's prophecy. When I got to my mother she was already passed out on the ground, her handmaidens were trying and failing to help. I rushed over and carried her out, we saw a physician after waiting quite a while, apparently people were passing out quite a bit due to the sudden news, after having my mother seen by the physician, he assured me that nothing was wrong and she only needed a bit of rest and her recovery would only take a few hours, besides the shock of her husband's news of course. After waking up, my mother kept touching my face, I didn't know why but she kept muttering something, she always seemed to know something that others didn't. After fully waking up she yelled to get another physician, I'd never seen my mother yell before, it was strange it seemed as if someone else was in my mother's body. After a physician came she told him to give me a checkup, which I obviously found odd since she was the one who had fainted but, I obediently sat there and got diagnosed by the old man.

After a moment of back and forth, him asking me questions, my mother yelling things to him and me answering the two of them, he deduced that I was completely fine. My mother didn't seem relieved though, she seemed more anxious than anything. We headed back to the palace and slept. The trials were happening in 10 days and that was all the time I had to prepare for my impending doom. I talked to my mother but every time I tried to ask something she shooed me away, I decided to train instead of worrying her more.

While training I saw one of my half sisters, Catherine, through some bushes, she had dirty blond hair that only reached her ears, and brown eyes from our father, she always wore armor over her toga and was always angry about one thing or another, I was the eldest son in my family at the age of 27, and she was 5 years younger than me. She seemed more angry than usual and I could hear her muttering "Oh so they're placing bets are they? And That idiot Nadri is actually in the running?" I was surprised to hear my name come out of her mouth, I was even more surprised that people thought I had a chance. She continued " just cause, he kind of sort of looks like Hilishquar '' I remembered seeing statues of Hilishquar in the temple, I thought they looked more like my mother than me but, I have been told that I look strikingly similar to her. One of my other younger sister's came out after Catherine's last sentence, Bonalis. She was my favorite younger sister, she was born from my mother so I shared more of a bond with her, even though she had the angular face, brown eyes and red hair of our father. She was a much more mature daughter and, that is partially why she married a king from another country, named Kristan, she had to leave him and their children there while she fought in the trials and she didn't seem too thrilled. Catherine didn't even acknowledge her existence and continued ranting, "and my handmaiden's even heard that some men are doubting that the trials are even fair having woman participate apparently 'I'm too fragile' and 'we would all die in the first trial resulting my our brother's not being able to take the throne' maybe they should worry more about Markin, who should I remind you is 1 and a half!" She got even more heated at the end and destroyed a wooden training dummy. Bonalis calmed her down and they went up to have dinner. I became increasingly more worried. If my sister was already like this, I didn't know what was going to happen to people later on.

After waiting a little longer on the training grounds, I picked up my sword and left, not having swung it once... When I got back to the palace I was feeling sick, my stomach was hurting and my throat felt like it was swelling up, my mother rushed over to me the moment I got back and had a physician check on me. This time his face was much different, this time he seemed alarmed. He dragged me over to a water basin and started blood-letting. I screamed, this hurt so much, but it surprisingly made me not think so much about the issues that I was facing. I was surprisingly more at peace. My mother stood near me, her face seemed more pale than usual and she looked like she hadn't slept since the last I'd seen her.

After the blood-letting the physician told me and my mother that I had an illness that he presumed could never be treated, he said I would die, even before the trials began because I had too much bad blood running through me. I was ultimately shocked, my mother wailed, she yelled profanities and like she did after first waking up she kept muttering. After muttering for a good five minutes she clasped her hands together to pray, I'd never seen my mother pray in public. She always said it was good manners to pray at an altar of Hilishquar. This version of my mother seemed so frantic.

For my approximate five days living, my mother stayed awake, until she died of what was perceived as hysteria by court physicians. I was devastated, I went to her funeral with my wife and children, my two sisters Bonalis and Andrea. This was the first time I'd seen both of my sisters together since the incident. They seemed solemn, I was the eldest so I should've been the most mature but, I was the one who seemed the most heartbroken by my mother's death, I refrained from crying so as to not damage my image but, it was still a tragedy. I spent a day recuperating with my family and telling my good friend Patrick to look over my wife and children when I succumb to illness.

I suddenly remembered the blood-letting the physician did for me. All I wanted was to escape from this sadness caused by the loss of my mother. I wanted to feel the same way I did when that happened. Another day passed, there were only 4 days left until the trials, I still hadn't died. I had the physician check me again. He was unnerved, after he checked me again, he sighed and said that I was cured of my bad blood. He theorized that my mother had sacrificed herself to get rid of that blood. I was in disbelief, my mother, a priestess of the one true god, her only way of curing me was to kill herself. That wasn't possible. After hearing that I wailed, I cried all of the tears that I hadn't cried for her before. I did as many blood-letting sessions as I could to forget the pain of my mother's sacrifice. After a moment, I blanked, I was falling in the middle of another cutt. I could see my body below me, ah, I'm going to see my mother, I thought with tears rolling down my face.