Chapter Four

An icy cold chill trembled through my body as I opened my eyes and quickly jumped up. I swung my feet over the side of the bed and sat there with my head buried in my hands. Mother's last words still echoing in my head. "Follow your own path, my dear." I trust my mother even if she might have been a ghost I built up in my mind. Shaking myself out of it, I stood up and changed into appropriate clothing for sitting in front of the citizens. Turning my head to look out the window, I nearly jumped out of my skin. The sun was almost at its highest peak, which means it's almost noon. I threw on a sweater and ran out the door, running past the maids and guards. I bolted over to the main throne room. I walked in the side door as I was trying to catch my breath, my father and brothers were already sitting in their golden and bronze thrones waiting for me to arrive.

"What took you so long? When did you start ignoring your responsibilities? get your priorities straight," Father barked.

"I am sorry father, I promise it won't happen again," I said while sitting on my throne next to Gabriel.

Father glared at me before dismissing me and waving his hand for the guards to open the doors to the public. They obeyed him and swung the doors open without hesitation as the citizens started to enter one by one. They spoke about their problems in the hopes that their king would do something about it instead of writing them all off. It was mostly the common problems, such as someone had been stealing food or someone had hit a wagon with another wagon causing damages. That was until the last person stood forward and spoke.

The room was nearly empty, only the guards, my family, and this one man remained. He was an older man with long white and grey hair, wearing the patched and worn clothing that a farmer from outside the walls would wear. He took short steps and put almost all his weight on his wooden cane. His legs and knees were shaking with every step as he slowly made his way toward the middle of the room. He balanced himself on his cane as he stood before father, making eye contact with only me as he spoke.

"My king, I know that I am old and useless to you but I have one request that I beg of you to consider" his words slightly slurred and shaky.

"What is this request of yours?" Father asked the man, resentment in his voice.

"War has been blazing fires through our fields outside the walls, soldiers are banging on doors and searching our homes and stealing our food... the ground is being burned to the point of no return and our people are going hungry... this war with the Elder kingdom has caused too much pain for us all, we have no chance of winning this war, I ask you to please consider ending this war peacefully before more innocent lives are lost," He said in a calm tone.

"Wise words from a poor, pathetic man, means nothing in this room or to this council" father said with an angered expression.

"I would rather be a wise, poor man who cares than a king with a broken soul waiting for the fire of the past to take him away, I see so much of your father in you," the man said while looking straight into my eyes before making his way out the doors.

Looking over at father who was rendered speechless by the man's words. For he has tried to end this war or more to win the war before the oldest was born. My brothers and I looked at our father waiting for him to speak. Only mother has ever dared to speak to the king like that and without raising his voice. Although he didn't look angry, he stood from his chair with great force and stormed out of the room. The guards closed the doors and placed a thick wooden plank over both doors, we all stood from our seats. My little brothers walked past me while laughing and punching each other in the arm.

"That was intense," Gabriel muttered to himself.

Gabriel and I locked eyes for a moment before making our way to the top of the east tower. We used to go up there to talk in private or to escape the youngsters for a few moments of silence. It was quite a place and no one ever goes up there. We both stayed silent until we were at the top and the door was closed before even saying a word.

"What did I miss in the few hours I was gone? I've never seen him so angry," I asked him.

"Father has been taking mothers death harder than we thought... he hasn't been eating, drinking, or thinking straight," he said.

A sad expression came over me as I responded "I know, it's hard... mother was the only thing keeping this family together and now we are all breaking but that is no excuse." He placed his hand on my shoulder as a tear-filled my eye, I shook it off and tried to think of something else.

"On a happier note, our new brother was given a name," he said.

"What is it?" I said, refusing to cry.

"Jeremiah, father actually decided to go with the one mother picked," he said, trying to sound happy.

I smiled for real and let out a little giggle, whipping the tear from my eye I looked back up at him.

"I picked that one a long time ago when we were talking about baby names," I said.

A loud bang on the door caused us to jump out of our skins a little bit. Before we could even react to a bang at the door, it swung open and one of the maids walked in.

"Sir, Madame, the king has requested your presence in the dining hall, he says it is urgent," she said while walking out.