Marks of the New Era

Chapter 5- Hidden Truths

The next few days were very tense for everyone, especially for the royals.

Although Tai was able to survive, he received severe damage and he was unconscious with no reports of waking up, which only aggravated their worries.

Despite being very busy commanding the army, especially now since they would be entering the battlefield soon, Safiya always made time to check on her brother, wishing he would wake up.

Because of Tai's condition, the soldiers needed the princess more than ever, while the other members of the succession line were able to lead the guards, each of them was already responsible for their own armies, having to take care of another group would be almost impossible, and even if it wasn't, the situation would be too overwhelming for them, so Safiya was the only one who could lead the army to victory.

She had been thinking a lot about her role as ruler, while she still thought that the throne wasn't destined for her, the last days made her realize that leaving her brother as the sole heir wasn't the best idea, like the others, he could get easily overwhelmed and Safiya already knew what happened on those occasions.

Those thoughts were in her head as she walked towards the medical room, when she arrived she found her brother awake and taking notes on a paper.

"Tai!" She ran and hugged him "You're okay"

"Yeah I am" He hugged her back "Sorry for worrying you"

They talked for a while until the topic of Genzo came.

"I've been thinking about something lately" She started "While you were unconscious, I took care of your duties, and I realized that even if I was raised as a mercenary, I still conserve my basic ruling skills, but I found out that my strong point is in the battlefield"

"I think I already know where you're going" He continued "You say that you want us to divide our responsibilities, I would take care of the meetings, management and diplomatic aspects and you would take care of the army, battles and military job"

"Yeah, what do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea" He smiled at her "When I recover, we'll make a test to see if it works"

And let me tell you, it did work, in fact, it worked out so well they basically decided that, after the war, they would rule by this plan, both of them were doing what they knew best and the dynamic between them made the plans incredibly effective.

They were in Tai's office discussing their next move, after they were done, Safiya gathered the courage she needed to ask her brother the question that had been nagging her for a while.

"Tai, can I ask you something?"

"Sure"

"If it's okay with you, could you tell me what happened to dad?"

When his response was silence, Safiya thought she messed up and that Tai would get mad at her... but he didn't.

"You deserve to know" He said calmly "Both things" Then he walked towards his desk and grabbed a notebook that was on top of it.

"What do you mean by both things?"

"...I have only told my step-mother about it, but I feel comfortable enough to tell you" He handed her the notebook.

"Open it"

When she opened the first page she was shocked by what she saw, there was a drawing of him as a teenager but the most striking thing was that he was with his head on his knees while darkness surrounded him and on said darkness there were some phrases like *It's all your fault* or *You shouldn't be alive*.

Safiya immediately looked at her brother, hoping for an explanation, after letting out a nervous sigh he said "I was diagnosed with Survivors Guilt, it's usually developed when someone experiences an event in which they're the sole survivor, people with this syndrome usually believe that they should have died too"

"Besides the diagnosis, I also have nightmares and panic attacks constantly, these drawings are nothing but a visual representation of those thoughts" He explained as Safiya went through the pages of his notebook.

"Oh brother, I'm so sorry, I wish I was there to help you" She hugged him as a way of comfort.

"But, I don't get it, what does this have to do with dad?"

Tai knew that, as much as he wanted, words wouldn't come out of his mouth, so he did what he always did in those situations.

He turned a new page on his notebook, took a pencil and started drawing.