For Eternity - Edited Version

Chapter Three - Your Highness

        Gilen led you through a number of endless corridors, all of which had red wall paper with designs of gold etched on. Every so often a marble column would appear attached to the wall to break up the two continuous colors. Even though much of what you assumed to be a moderately sized castle was red in one way or another, and you had to admit that whoever designed or remodeled the castle had some amazing interior decorating skills.

        You stopped at a peculiar painting that you nearly passed by without a second thought. From what you could tell it was an antique oil painting of an older man and two younger boys. The eldest male had dark auburn hair with soft waves and curls mingling. His hair wasn't terribly long or too short. His eyes were a reddish grey color but seemed to still have a gleam to them. His face was well chiseled, lips pursed. To the man's right stood a boy with blond hair, a strangle curl stuck out to the right of his head. His eyes were also a reddish grey color. On the other side of the man was the other boy, hair the same shade of auburn but with dark red highlights compared to the adult's hair, which now, upon closer inspection, had a slight purple tint to it in some spots. The second boy's hair also had a curl jutting out, this one swooping the opposite direction of the other boy's. His eyes were a red color, but they lacked the grey tint the others' eyes possessed. Both younger males looked to be the same height, so telling who was older was nearly impossible. Another stark difference between the boys was blond's bright smile in comparison to the auburn's deep frown.

        Gilen reappeared, rounding the corner he had vanished around moments prior. No longer hearing your footsteps in cadence with his own, he retraced his steps to the last place he saw you: the painting on the wall.

        He stood behind you, hands clasped at his back as he smiled. "I see you've found one of the many portraits of the royal family," he said. "Part of it anyway."

        You remained facing the painting but gave a nod to show that you acknowledged his comment. "I guess so, though I don't really know who they are. I mean, I could guess, but we don't exactly have pictures in our textbooks of them back home," you replied quietly, gazing hard at the elder male's figure.

        Gilen chuckled, head nodding. "I suppose you're right. Let me explain for you then. The man in the center was once our king, Romulus, and the grandfather of the two boys in the picture. The boys are the two princes."

        "Luciano and his older brother?"

        "Ja. I won't say who is who. I'll leave that as a surprise."

        "Gilen, please just tell me?"

        "Nein. You will find out soon enough."

        You let out a low groan, shoulders slumping in defeat. "What about the other royals then? You said that this painting only pictured a few of them."

        Gilen ushered you further down the hall, a hand placed on your lower back. He stopped in front of another portrait, this one in the same medium as the last and just as skillfully crafted. In it stood six figures. Three of them you recognized as Romulus, Luciano, and his brother. The other three, two females and a male, were foreign to your memories, though you vaguely felt like you had seen them before. Where, you weren't sure, but you decided upon once in a dream.

        The slightly older looking female had long blonde hair styled half up-half down. Her skin was tanned but not as darkly as Romulus'. Her eyes were a stunning shade of dark purple with flecks of what appeared to be a magenta color, conveying kindness and happiness, settling a feeling of ease upon your very soul. The other female, another blonde but with natural silvery blonde highlights mixed into her wavy mane of hair, had a similar complexion but bore forest green eyes, also gentle in comparison to the eldest of males in the picture. Finally, the male had a skin tone much closer to Romulus' and the same color hair. Although his hair had blondish highlights rather than a purple tone. His eyes were the same shade of purple as the first woman's but were complimented with specks of gray.