Dryads of the Stars

Chapter 1 : Twice upon Three times

I had heard rumors of the crown prince before, everyone had. If your ears had not caught sound of him, or if you did not know of him at all, you were obviously living under a significantly sized boulder.
All beings on that earth knew of his majesty, the crown prince of the greatest kingdom ever to exist, the first born and heir to the throne, the one who went missing a little before he turned eleven. The kingdom almost fell that day from the shock of his disappearance. All who had laid their eyes upon him spoke of his greatness even as a child. His beautiful features were like the gods had molded him themselves. He was rightfully called "the child of Gods".
The day he disappeared the whole kingdom fell in turmoil. Chaos. God's punishment, they said. God took him, they said. Many things were said, but the truth remained veiled for far too long. 

Others said that a goddess saw him under the moon's glittering white light and fell in love instantly, so she stole him away.
Others assumed a kidnapping by humans with an evil purpose. And that is what the royal family believed as well, as it was not just a baseless rumor.
Not long after the news of the incident, his mother fell ill while expecting her second child. Unable to withstand her child being taken from her, she went into early labor. The child - a boy - survived, while the queen passed away in her sorrow, cursing the one who stole her child with her last breath, God or human.

 The king moved heaven and earth to find him, but all was in vain. He might had not lost all hope but he had lost what was left of his heart and mind along with his queen's death. Although alive, he was now dead within. And so he remained for the next sixteen years that followed, as if he was waiting for his frail second child to grow, as well as his firstborn to return. Like a ghost without purpose, like a broken statue covered with mold, he remained in his throne, as if his duty was the thing that was replacing his lost soul.
He had given one last order when he saw the newborn young prince. 

"Protect him. Raise him a king and a man. Make him into what we could not be. What I failed to be when this little one needed me to. When his brother Miriam needed me..."

Those were his last words as a sane man. As a king and as a father.
The child did not receive a name from his parents.
The queen's attendants and the maids took the infant to her sister and her husband for the king had no other kin. They had left the palace long ago in search of a peaceful life, as they were simple and kind people. They returned when the prince had gone missing and so they took over the raising of the child. Mary and Grantham were their names. They gave the child the name Eris and they raised him in the palace, according to the king's last order. Until the prince was ready to be king, Mary and the king's four trusted generals took over the affairs of the kingdom as the prince's consultants. Thankfully the king, although in a comatose state, was still breathing so they didn't have to perform a coronation, or any other kind of ceremony for the young prince.

Eris was raised wise, kind, loving and caring toward his people and his family, but ruthless when it came to criminals and evil. 
Growing up and finding the truth about his family came with great sorrow. He never met his mother and only saw her in portraits in the palace. Her beauty was unrivaled. That held a few positives, like the fact that he never felt the pain of losing her since he never had her in the first place. He only felt something missing within. His father, on the other hand, he had met. Even as the old ghost that occasionally roamed the palace, he was still there.

But, when he turned sixteen and as if the gods wanted to make him suffer even more, his father passed away calling out his firstborn son's name with his last breath, choking on his own tears as if he had regained his soul for the first and last time in all those years.
" Miriam "

The kingdom felt the pain deeply and mourned for thirty nights and thirty days, not stopping for a moment as if they were bewitched. Eris was crowned king of the Sun not long after. There was opposition from most of the nobles as he was too young to take over, but the king had no other heirs or close relatives except him. The coronation was bitter and left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and so it ended quickly. When he settled down he began learning and assuming his duties more seriously. Many things run through his young mind at the time, but one thought governed them all. Even though he knew of the tragic event that took place sixteen years ago, he never really understood the details of the incident. He always thought there was more to it, than what the story he was told let on.