Imperfection
After the prince had given the necessary instructions about Hogul's victims, which consisted in taking care of each of them with the necessary attention, then bringing them home for those who had family, and helping the rest to settle down and establish themselves for those who no longer had a home, he finally gave in and collapsed.
His loyal and powerful confidant arranged his transportation to the sacred lands of Nidron, where protected between steep rocky cliffs flowed the inexhaustible water of life of the witches of nature, capable of healing any wound. And as he saw with horror and in nameless agony the physical wounds of his prince, aggravated by terrible curses, he believed that his heart had also been cursed.
When he arrived above the deep waters, the prince was placed delicately and with great care on a huge rock bed engraved with various spells, effective, but very soft, that would help him to heal.
Beyrok reached out his hands and touched the young warrior's bluish locks, showing his infinite affection and devotion with all his being.
The latter opened his eyes and looked at his friend. He read on his face all the pain that his actions had brought him, and felt numb.
- Beyrok, don't be so sad. I beg you. You see, I am not dead.
- Ah prince what have you done?
- I fought against enemies. But this time I crossed paths with a terrible being whose magic matched my own.
His eyes shone again with excitement and nostalgia.
- It was phenomenal.
- A Deogel?
- No, nothing like that. More like a white creature that belongs to the darkness. It was sublime and incomparable. I almost died from its beauty.
- That's what I see. But I don't believe that the white creature is really the one of which you speak with such passion highness, despite all its power.
The prince laughed weakly, sardonically.
- You see so much yourself Beyrok. You see what is true and what is not, despite all the tricks, you always could.
- So have you.
- Yes. But if you only knew how much I would have wanted it not to be that way.
Beyrok laughed uncertainly.
- What is this strange empathy I feel coming from you? It's probably the first time I've felt you...like this.
- I guess so. The wounded young warrior admitted simply, without artifice. But I had no choice. This could only be a short moment stolen from the freedom of, Beyrok.
- Ah Prince, I always knew that deep down you were a romantic.
- Isn't that so? You can't imagine. She was so beautiful, with her dawn hair and her light blue morning irises. She must bewitch all men, and I could break her with one hand so fragile and light. But she received in her flesh the blade which was to transpierce me in order to save me.
- A brave and willing woman.
When the prince and his "patients" were finally able to leave the orbit of the planet of Hogul and return to space, he had decided first to fulfill the wish of the "princess", bringing her back to Venèzie, to join her friends, whom he discovered amused, as deeply asleep as she was under the effect of a spell, in a luxurious hotel room. To ensure the protection of this person who knew in an incomprehensible way, to touch his heart, he asked for the help of a friend for this delicate mission and inevitably dear to his being.
- So you want me to watch over her during her stay.
- Yes, please Azhewo, if she still decides to stay. Protect her in the shadows until she leaves your empire.
His friend looked at him with a surprised and thoughtful look. Like the warrior, he too was a fallen prince, sublime and endowed with unlimited power, and now he reigned in darkness over Venèzie, revered as a over-being.
He smiled at the prince with unbearable malice.
- Ah, look at you prince. You look totally damaged. You destroyed yourself for her. And I thought this day would never come.
- I know it wouldn't. But what do you want? It's a promise I made to her and I want to keep it. I can't imagine doing otherwise, nor asking anyone else to do it. Only you, I know, will understand.
- Of course I do. nodded his friend.
- I thank you Azhewo.
And the two fallen princes hugged each other. Both sharing the pain of a terrible destiny.
The star warrior smiled at this memory, and admired the starry sky above him.
- Yes. She will never know what she was to me. This terrible destiny of mine.
The prince turned to his faithful friend.
- For the first time I feel hatred directed towards myself.
Azhewo raised his eyebrows while the faithful Beyrok bit his lips before assuming.
- Young prince it is normal to feel this way. Everyone has experienced it.
- No doubt.
Then he lost his breath.
- It hurts.
Azhewo considered him for a moment, then asked.
- Ah yes, I wanted to ask you dear prince," he began mysteriously, "some of your survivors of the foul Hogul, refuse the help you give them.
- Why, the prince asked calmly, squinting his eyes, his facial expression softening, making anyone but Azhewo tremble.
- Because they went there more or less of their own free will. And infected by the black filth of that sordid existence into which that lost leader precipitated them, it seems that from their point of view, it suited them better, and they say they were made for the darkness.
The prince smiled mockingly, and let himself be completely exhausted.
- I see. Well, since they refuse of their own free will the help I give them, they have no more use for anything. And since I've wiped out the only person who ever mattered to them, that should be the end of it too.
Finally, he closed his eyes.
Beyrok gazed at his master, battered and unconscious on the bed of rock on which he was to lie. He was so young and yet strong, of extraordinary magnificence, destined to walk the imperial path of excellence, and doomed to carry a heavy burden, very heavy, and from which no one could probably ever free him.
He took his arm and kissed his hand, before letting him gently descend and dive into the sacred waters of Nidron, where he would stay for a long time in order to heal from these terrible wounds. Then he left to give the necessary orders to eliminate the unfaithful survivors who would never see the light again. In a way, their wishes will be granted.
***
Avine, sitting in a commercial ship, bound for Moriova, contemplated Venèzie one last time, saying goodbye in thought, and knowing that she would never be able to forget it like all the others. Then looking beyond its bright lights, radiating the unchanging night, she remembered the few days she had spent with the person who in a few moments had become the center of her life, and who for some incomprehensible and unforgivable reason left her without remorse and without any promise of reunion. During their short stay in the empire of nights, Avine still hoped that he would send her a letter, or any object that would prove to her that she counted at least a little in his life. But he never did. They were right. Love and hate were so close that sometimes you couldn't even tell the difference.
Then another sensation as sudden as intense seized the young woman. Like a reminiscence of a secret moment lost in space. It was so brief, but so unbearable that she pushed it away with all her being and made sure to erase it forever.
***