Chapter 29: The Other Side
"When I was Prince, I ruled for over 500 years. The Empire, as I'm sure you know was different back then. You asked what your middle name was, and who your mother was, and that's going to take a whole lot of explaining. And I'm afraid you won't like it.
"Lilith and I . . . knew each other. She would come visit me in The Empire and I would visit her in the various places in Alembria. We were so, so young when it started. I was only 200 or so, and dear little Lilith couldn't have been a day past 75.
"One day she appeared in my room in the House of Edinite. I had only heard rumors of the Power family before seeing her on that blissful afternoon. But seeing her standing there, in a black lace bra, with a white shawl hanging loosely over her tan shoulders. Her black, brown hair spilling over her body in waves. Her crystal blue eyes smiling at me. Her smirk that told she knew a thousand secrets. The way she whispered my name 'Ahilian . . .' when we were in bed together. I fell in love, Duke, I fell so hard into love.
"The higher I built the walls around my heart, the harder I fell, when the moment came that she would tear them down.
"We kept what we had an absolute secret, no one knew. Lilith was meant to marry her brother Soren, as it was the Power's way. And I was meant to marry my sister, Ismiael, as I was in power, and that was the way. But there was no denying the love we had, I don't know when it happened, or even when it started, all that I knew was that Lilith was the first thing I thought of in the morning, and the last thing I thought of at night. She occupied my mind all day, everyday, and I started to live for those sacred moments when we were together.
"Falling in love like this, it wasn't something I planned. It just happened. It was a wonderful thing, but it was also a terrible thing. Because I knew that if Lilith ever just left me, ran like the wind and never came back, I knew that I would loose myself. I had put so much faith and love in her, and if she just took that and ripped it. I couldn't live with myself anymore.
"We continued to visit each other for the next few hundred years. Right toward the end of my reign I realized that my sister, Apollo, was infertile, meaning she couldn't have babies.
"Telling our parents, however, was certainly not an option. Duke, if you think the Powers are strict when it comes to the rules and regulations of being in power, the Partials are that much worse. My mother and father obeyed every rule in the book and then some. Off they found out that we could not continue our reign because Apollo was infertile, they'd go ballistic.
"So we kept quite, and didn't tell our parents. It was like a ticking time bomb though, because our parents were going to step down any year now, and we needed to have children to be the new Prince and Princess. So I did the only thing logical, the only thing I could think that might possibly work. I told Apollo about Lilith and I. And I told Lilith about Apollo's situation.
"And then—then I got Lilith . . . pregnant. And she gave birth, to a beautiful baby boy. The most beautiful baby boy I had ever seen. It was sort of magical, having a kid, a kid you knew that could be the better version of you. The kid you knew would make right your wrongdoing. Who could be you, as you could never be yourself.
"But then. Then everything went wrong. Everything went, so, so horribly wrong.
"Shortly thereafter, the Powers came to the Empire. And came to the House of Edinite, and killed my family. So they could come to Power. And the worst thing was. I saw Lilith that day, and she just laughed, and not her good laugh either: her evil, despicable, menacing laugh.
"And that's why I ran. Ran and never came back. Because I couldn't bare to face the fact, that my whole family was dead, because I had told Lilith all of our secrets: when our guards took there 5 minute breaks, that the lock on the far gate by the apple tree was a fake because the real one broke. I told her everything and now I think that it wasn't her betrayal that hurt so much, as the fact that I trusted her. I put all of me into her and it was scary how everything we had fell apart so easily.
"So I left and never came back. I had no time in the Empire anymore, after all I was no longer Ahilian, I was Lord Synth. I never forgot you though, Duke, I thought of you every single day and just the memory of you, was enough for me to never forget what a terrible person I was.
"I tried to forget though. I found a new wife, who gave me a new baby girl. And it was ok. On some days, I managed not to think about you, and Lilith, and the Empire, and that horrid night.
"But when I saw you wander into camp that one afternoon, when I heard you ask for Ahilian, of all people, it all came rushing back. But I couldn't admit to you, that this poor scrap of an old man was your father. I couldn't admit to you that Iw as the person that failed you. That left you in that horrid place, soulless and helpless. I thought it was best that you never, ever—"
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The Rise of The Powers vol. 1
Fantasy" . . . It seemed as if Saphara was no longer paying attention to me. I envied those who could get lost in their past, and forget about reality. Where as I had no past. Well, I did, but not one where I ever did anything; thought of my own free will...
