Forbidden

-Chapter Five: The Weeping Willow Tree-

It was now three days from the day Ace started to anticipated the most; his 21st birthday. Ace knew deep inside of him that all the waiting, planning, and passing of his friends would be worth it because once he had more power to his name, he could start to make the real changes he's been looking forward to. He could start making the changes that could break this era of superstition and help bring to light the problems Findara is hiding. He could make amends with the kingdoms who share the same beliefs as him such as Asterin, Caspin, and Petrina. He could make improvements to the laws that allow a lot more freedom to the Findarians so they could live happily instead of fear and depression. Even though Ace's heart is screaming that everything will be fine in the end, his mind is yelling at him to be cautious. Ace hated playing along with his father, it made him hate himself. It made him feel just as bad as his father. No matter how much convincing it took for Chester or Persephone to make Ace think otherwise, he sometimes could not bear to look at himself in the mirror. He saw a monster. Just being a bystander alone makes him no better than the prejudicial followers of King Oliver.

Now that his birthday is rapidly approaching Ace is starting to feel like he's losing sight on his original plan. It was simple when he thought of it many years ago; become king and overthrow the past King, King Oliver. Things have very much changed since he thought of that plan when he was younger. He grew up and learned that it was just Findara that did the Burnings or that it wasn't as simple to be king and make laws. Ace knew very well that Oliver will not think twice about killing him if he does not find someone, more specifically a woman, to marry within a month after turning 21.

Ace thought about asking Persephone to pretend to be his wife just until King Oliver is no longer in ruling. This was the safest way possible but Ace would not only be risking his life, he would also be risking Persephone's as well. It's not like they were already risking their lives regardless. Just having the secret meetings and allowing the castle staff to sneak off to do mischievous activities together is putting an overwhelming amount of people in trouble.

Ace needed to shake his mind off from all this planning of his birthday, future battles, and secret meetings. He needed to see someone he knew that would be there for him when he saw the worst possible version of himself.

The bundle of flowers in Ace's hands were held tightly as he stood by a familiar willow tree. Ace felt the breeze of the wind play with his short, white hair as he sat down by a makeshift gravestone. He sighed heavily before a few tears fell down from his chocolate brown eyes. "Hey mom." Ace whispered softly, placing the flowers down by a makeshift gravestone that consisted of two large, smooth rocks sitting on top of each other and the name 'Aceline Winters' carved into the top stone. Of course, Ace was not expecting any answer back but he would like to imagine her response would be something sweet and caring that he's been deprived of like; what's wrong my sweet boy?

"I need to catch my breath from everything that's been going on and I have some free time before meeting everyone at the basement so I can't stay for long. I'm just hoping you are having a great day, wherever you are. Whenever I see a butterfly I always wonder if that's you coming to visit me, since you always talked about reincarnating into them. Anyways you must wonder why I'm really here, well I just wanted to run some things by you first before the meeting." Ace said sitting down by the stones.

Oliver does not know this but after the burning of his wife, Ace, who was eight at the time, stayed behind to collect her ashes. Persephone and Chester stood by his side as he cried out for his dear mother. The woman who brought him into the world, the one who held him during thunderstorms, the one who supported him in everything, and the one who loved him unconditionally. They knew at that moment Ace was their ally and at the same time Ace knew he needed to make changes to this horrible way of living.