Prophecy of Power

01

"He, who claims weaknesses, achieves sovereignty."

When the hidden prophecy was heard, havoc inevitably happened. Interpreters were ordered to solve the riddle. Allies were gathered to have their loyalty sworn. Enemies planned sabotages. Citizens murmured about this.

All started thinking about one thing: the throne of the Crown Prince would be seized.

***

The thing Arthit hated the most about his current job was its abruptness. There wasn't any typical day in his life nowadays. No one was able to tell where he would be tomorrow night or even within the next two hours. Not even his own self.

That was also the case today. His phone beeped this morning, right when he was on his way to go to his best friend's house, signaling that he was expected to be on duty within three hours.

Cursing his Captain along his way back to his apartment, he texted his apology to the said best friend for failing to keep his promise for the umpteenth time. It's not that his friend wouldn't understand – it's his job as a VIP Flight Attendant after all, but Arthit himself knew that he might have ruined his friend's schedule too. And no one would be happy to have his schedule on weekend ruined by someone else.

Sometimes, Arthit thought that maybe moving from major airlines to this chartered jet service was a wrong decision — if not stupid. It paid much higher and other people might think that the job was quite glamorous, yet the time demand was just similar with what he had been through during the days of him still being the Reserve Flight Attendant. He had to be on-call 24/7, because some important people possibly rented his company's service at the most unexpected time. And there was no way he could say no to his duty, because unlike the flights from major airlines which usually had more than four Flight Attendants, there were only two Flight Attendants in his team including him.

So ten minutes later, arriving at his apartment, he went straight to his closet and fished out his Flight Attendant outfit. As he finished putting on his teal blue shirt and his black pants, he started wearing his dark grey tie while at the same time taking his cellphone to contact his partner. He put the cellphone between his right shoulder and ear — hands were busy working on his tie, and waited for the partner to pick up his call.

"Yes, P'Arthit?" a soft voice came through the phone.

"Alice, are we going to Milan? How many pax do we have today?" Arthit asked while calculating in his brain on how long it usually takes to fly to Milan using the jet.

"Wait, I have the detailed info written in my planner. Let me check," Alice sounded like she was rummaging inside her bag. "Here we go. Yep, it's a round trip to Malpensa, Milan. Return date is in two days, so we are going to just stay there before coming back with the entourage. It's fifteen-hour flight, two fuel stops required. We have 6 pax here, no crumb crunchers, asking for Ultra Luxury package. Local cuisine, with three-course meal, is preferred."

Arthit took a look at his watch, the private jet was ordered to depart at 2:00 pm so it was safe for the lunch. They were expected to arrive evening in Milan local time, so they only needed to prepare the dinner and supper according to Bangkok time for the main meals. "Any special notes?"

"For catering? Hmm.. Ah, bourbon! They asked for bourbon," Alice pointed out.

"Okay, then let's just split the job. You will take care of the catering menu for dinner and supper, with all the snacks and beverages. I suggest using the usual catering service. I will go look for the bourbon. I suppose I will arrive sooner than you, so I will clean the cabin and set everything there," Arthit said while putting on his black suit.