A Dance with Darkness and Light: Re-Origination

5: The Eastern City

Darwinius' body trembled as he could barely control the raging flames inside of him. Yet, his instincts somehow told him to comply with the way of the prince. He was not sure why but felt a deep mysteriousness in this twelve-year-old prince he himself could not see through. He felt threatened too, but the pressure he felt was not the malice of oppression.

Did he lose face to a child prince of a middling kingdom? Yes!

Yet, with this kind of encounter, he was sure he had not the foresight nor status to make an executive decision on behalf of the Circle. Thus, he would rather ask for help with the higher-ups, possibly, as the prince wished - an original.

So, Darwinius and his entourage made their way out of the throne room.

"Master, are we really going to leave just like this? What about our mission?" One of his apprentices asked.

"Shut up! Do not speak to anyone about what happened here today, not even a letter, do not even make a sound!" He answered in a heavy and threatening tone as his eyes were locked into the distance, and so it seemed, was his mind.

They were making way to the Circle HQ in Ralun to use a portal to the Circle's central hub on the Ytolonian realm. Still, traveling back to Atlantis would take at least two months. Then came the procedure of finding an original that would bear a second of his time to look at a cryptic message from a twelve-year-old prince of a middling kingdom. All that would take, with luck, up to six months Darwinius thought.

Bazuul himself also estimated, depending on the rank and knowledge of the original, that it would take four to six months.

King Varanur had a complicated look on his face as he observed his son. Now, as a king, he had many sons, and sure, before Bazuul's death, the other three princes ranked higher in importance for the kingdom. Then came the royal tasks of leading a kingdom, considering it all, the king felt he had failed to see this son's latent talent before.

The way he controlled a situation in which he himself, the king, was at lower position whilst sitting on his own throne. Though still a little too rampant but clearly close to the demeanor of himself. For a twelve-year-old prince to be of a mind that could rival that of a king, unthinkable. Although King Varanur still looked like a middle-aged man, he was actually entering the latter half of his second century.

"Son, I must say, I'm impressed. I can see now; the heavens had their reason to give me back my child." The king said in a half-serious, half-comical fashion.

Bazuul looked this father of his in the eyes but remained silent.

King Varanur sighed and said: "Fortune and disaster truly go hand in hand."

Bazuul chuckled as he heard this familiar saying.

"Talking about fortune and disaster, father, I will go sightseeing the eastern city. Are there any special locations I should visit?"

The eastern city was the oldest part of the empire. For the ancient Ralunian people this city was the first step toward becoming an empire.

Historically it was a treasure and should have been kept like one. But, the reality was that as the empire progressed, the eastern city lost its strategic importance.

Nowadays the eastern city mostly bore harbor to the poor and criminals.

Varanur really didn't have much to pinpoint to beside the basic historical locations and one shop belonging to the royal court. Since he himself - apart from his initiation ceremony - never been to, and never bothered with the eastern city.