The Heir Of Dreams And Curses

Where I find a creepy old diary

I hoped I looked regal and composed, as I was watching from a balcony the people gathered in the square.

The only familiar thing about it was that Edgar was there too, his hand in mine, proving that the two worlds, the one where I was an orphan who believed himself magicless and unwanted, and the one where I was a Prince, could collide.

"Why are you even here?" I whispered at him. "Why don't you escape from the divination, from everything?"

"You know that I love you," he replied.

"That surely can't be enough for you to stay," I said.

Edgar rolled his eyes. "Then you're a fool." I barely caught his words. The crowd of people I'd never seen before, those strangers who asked me pieces of me, were yelling down below.

"Silence!" I roared. 

"I know you wish me to get married, and perhaps you also hoped to steal a glance at me and see me for yourselves," I said. "I'm young, I know, but in desperate times political alliances have been made when Kings or Queens were only teenagers."

A man from the crowd shouted something I couldn't hear.

"As far as I'm aware, we're not in the midts of a crisis," I continued. "I only came to tell you how things are going to be. I am not going to get married right now, and surely to none of the suitors you could pick out for me!"

Now the crowd was gasping.

"If I were to get married," I added. "I'd choose for myself who to marry! My heart, in fact, is already taken by someone. I can't break this promise and be engaged to someone else!"

"Prince," Nia hissed. "Please, calm down."

But I did not reply. I simply returned to the castle, while many people in the crowd were booing at me.

After a while, I turned around to find Edgar staring at me.

"I ran after you," he explained. "You didn't look too well." I noticed Nia was at his side.

"What did you mean when you said you were already taken?" she asked softly. "Between the two of you... is it that serious already?"

"I've been in love with the same person so intensely, and for months," I replied. "I doubt I'll ever change my mind."

"I wasn't assuming you would," she replied. "Though I better set Edgar up in another room. You certainly don't need distractions..."

Edgar ignored this altogether. "I don't think words could explain to you how much I love him..." he added, to the knight. He was almost moved to tears.

"I think I know," she said gently. "When you chose your names in the common tongues, you chose it to mean the same thing. You wanted them to match, because you felt like you shared the same soul."

I was flabbergasted, because it was similar to Edgar and I having a blood bond in this world.

"What names did we choose?" Edgar asked, taking the lead.

"You chose Derry, and Edgar chose Armin. They both mean hero."

"Those are... great choices," I said.

"I know what you're really thinking. You did not think of yourself as a hero, but you wanted to be one. You wanted to be the King who abolished slavery, married a man and who was the first hybrid King in all history of the realm. You needed the name to give me strength. Derry is a Irish name, cut out for a Summer, since they are Irish in heritage. It does not mean hero exactly, but it's a name fit for one. While Armin is a Persian and German name and the kind of hero in the name is a soldier and a protector. At first, he was scared a servant could not choose a name such as this. Or that a servant could not choose a name that matched the Prince's. You told him it was the perfect name for him."