Treasures of Andalia Chronicles: Ring of Flames

Chapter Twenty Four: In the Middle, we Stood in a Vast Greenwood

SAEVEL

It has been three days since we escaped. We were all drained, starving, and drowsy, and yet no one even dared to voice their complaints out loud. We were in shock. Barely saying any words. We aimlessly walked through the forest, and took rests against tree roots in between.

We had no destination.

Father doesn't know whether our allies would help us since Valenris is a challenging opponent. Not to mention the fact that Caius decided to conspire with that Tellurian king.

Though our magic isn't corrupted, we have grown weak over the years. We no longer hold the original abilities our ancestors had received. All we had was the residue, something between pure and corruption. It truly shows how weak we've gotten. Most of us no longer had golden eyes and bright, glistening silver hair. Our original qualities were showing again. But that damn Aleiah still had hers. From the looks of it, those qualities will soon disappear in her descendant's time.

I gathered twigs and branches for firewood. It gets so cold at night that even a continuous flame couldn't expel it. Katya and I took turns fetching our needs. Now, it was my turn.

I couldn't fathom how a proud prince like me suddenly became a servant boy gathering firewood in just a matter of days. If I already felt displeased, I couldn't imagine how a benevolent king such as my father watch the kingdom he nurtured and cherished fall into ruins, ravaged by those warmonger beasts who wielded corrupted magic. When I returned to our camp. Katya was asleep next to my father, her head was slipping down, and I caught it just in time. I accidentally dropped a few branches when I knelt on one knee. I placed her head back to position again and took the fallen branches. I threw it on the ground, built a small pyre to give us heat. I muttered a spell under my breath, and my fingers caught fire. I directed it to the woods, and I stared at it as it caught on fire.

"Was I a horrible king?" Father suddenly asked.

I blew the flame on my finger and answered, "you're not to blame, father. It was King Orton who invaded our kingdom. He colluded with Caius."

"Then," he added. "Let me change the question. Was I a horrible father?"

I froze.

I didn't know how to answer that question.

He wasn't exactly a horrible father. However, he wasn't the best we could ask for either. He paid more attention to Aleiah as if she were the only child. We coped in our own way and grew without much love or attention from our father but we were still expected to act with dignity, honoring our parents and our family's name.

I glanced at him to see his expression. Suddenly, the man before me had aged so much in just a few days. I saw him in this same state before. It was when Aleiah fell off the cliff and was unconscious for a few days. He aged so quickly, and when she woke up, he suddenly obtained his youth back like it was never lost.

"You weren't a horrible father. Just an absent one," I confessed.

His head slowly turned, facing me. Looking right at me. He waited for me to continue.

I took a deep breath. "You always had your eyes on Aleiah. You always talk about her, but our names barely come out of your mouth. Whenever she was ill, you were always looking out for her. We were barely in the picture. The only moment your gaze is on us is when we've made a grave mistake or is actually dying. It put us in a difficult situation. We became estranged to Aleiah and even to you," I paused, and glanced back at him. "It was especially hard for Moryen, since you always had to compare her to Aleiah when in fact, they shouldn't be because they're completely different people. I had to watch her die a little every time she cried behind your backs. She was supposed to hate her but because of her kind nature, she can't hate the woman who brought her nothing but pain. She was still hoping to be friends with her. To be real sisters, and look where that got her." I sneered. "She's been captured by your traitorous son, and your beloved daughter has fled, leaving us all alone to die."