Chapter 63 - Shine eyes

The sphere embedded in the statue of the goddess continued to have a mystical mist of bright bluish color. Lucian looked from every possible angle and yet he saw nothing but the mist. Frustrated, Lucian looked up at the priest who was watching him silently.

"Blue?"

"Blue" Lucian answered by taking a few steps back "And do you see gray?"

"That's right, me and all the other priests who have access to this area. Hm... but we'd better take the evidence."

"Take the test? What do you mean... hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?"

The priest raised the heavy glass display with a ridiculous facility, which surprised Lucian. The absurdity of the situation also shocked him, after all Skyler held the sphere as if it were just an object and not a relic of excellent value for the temple. As soon as he removed the sphere from the sculpture, Skyler turned and extended the sphere to the prince.

"Hold this."

"Are you serious?"

"Pretty serious, hold this."

Lucian swallowed dry, hesitating to take the sphere. What would happen if he took it? Would something supernatural happen like having visions or acquiring some superpower? Or the sphere could shatter into thousands of fragments? Curiosity was his greatest sin.

Holding the icy sphere between his fingers, Lucian felt a shiver rise up his arms and spread all over his body. The mist within the sphere stirred like the clouds that precede a storm. Afraid to drop it, Lucian tightened his fingers around and brought it closer to his chest, frowning as he watched that relic react to him.

"As I thought, you're hiding something" Skyler murmured.

"What?"

"This sphere is reacting to you, and the fact that Your Highness sees a color that I, and the other priests, do not see, are proof enough that there is something special about you."

The prince frowned, trying his best to hide any sign that he had been caught. He did not know what implications it would have if Skyler found out that he was not the true eighth prince. A moment like that requires extreme attention and care not to make a wrong move and trigger the bad end of that story.

"Don't you think this may be a mistake, priest? I definitely do not hold any kind of power or ability that would make such a relic react this way."

"I already said that I feel something coming from you" Skyler sighed evaluating the prince from top to bottom, and finally he snapped his tongue "Let's take the evidence at once."

Skyler reached out and touched the top of the ball. He closed his eyes and seemed to mumble some words that made no sense to Lucian. Did it seem like he was praying? Exorcising? Lucian felt an aberration to let himself be taken by that absurd situation.

However, the supernatural arose when the priest suddenly opened his eyes. The dark color of his iris was no longer there, all his gaze was covered by a golden glow worthy of a poorly written fantasy. Lucian blinked a few times, amazed at what he thought he was seeing.

I mean, was he really seeing Skyler's eyes shine like the sun?

For a moment, Lucian's unbelief almost made him drop that ball and leave it to crash on the ground. However, the prince clenched his arms around the sphere preventing chaos from happening. Or maybe it was an unconscious movement of his body to prove that he was not seeing imaginary things or delusional, which haunted him even more.

Those bright, silent eyes were focused on Lucian. He felt the weight of that attention as a landslide burying and crushing every part of his body. If Lucian was smashed to the ground, would they find something in his remains? Skyler made it seem so just by staring at him silently.

It was simply... Lucian was maddening to remember that he was inside a story, and that he now saw — first hand — someone's eyes shine by touching an ancient relic of a fictitious goddess.

An absurdity!!

The pressure that Lucian felt soon began to make his legs tremble, the natural instinct of the true eighth prince who always cowered before the strongest. He was with his feet rooted in that cold ground, becoming a hostage of his own fear of being forced to watch Skyler quietly staring at him with those wide and bright eyes.

Was he going to be eaten?

"As I thought" Skyler muttered, causing Lucian to freak out and press the ball against his chest "You don't belong in this time."

The shiver intensified. Lucian's hands froze at the same instant.

"What... what? W-What do you mean?"

"Why is a dead person here?" Skyler continued whispering, his hand clutching the sphere that connected the two, and leaning towards Lucian "I can see... a small house... a story... a reflection that does not match the eighth prince who is in front of me."

He has seen!

Skyler saw Luciano!

Taking a step back, Lucian made Skyler drop the ball. The prince trembled as he looked down and swallowed it dry. Should not underestimate a character who never appeared in the story. The mysterious priest was too much for him to deal with.

"So, Your Highness?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Lucian raised his eyes of diamond to the priest and swallowed dry.

"What did you see, exactly?"

Lucian did not intend to give any information without first knowing what exactly Skyler was talking about. As much as he witnessed the most supernatural thing of that story, Lucian considered the priest's hypothesis just throw green to harvest ripe. Probably Skyler noticed his hesitation and mistrust, so he sighed low and avoided approaching the prince when he began to explain.

"I saw the scythe of the Goddess pointed at your neck, a distorted soul inside your body... a bluish-colored soul."

Is that why Lucian saw a blue mist in the sphere? Of course the goddess of death would be pointing her scythe at him, the eighth prince should have died originally. Was it not for this reason that Lucian kept having nightmares about his death?

"That says a lot" whispered the prince.

"Would you mind explaining? We are all destined to die, but you seem to play with the scythe of the Goddess."

Grimacing, Lucian pondered whether to count or not. Skyler seemed to be a good person, it was fun to talk with that lazy priest, but it did not mean that he could make his confidant. Even more to talk about something that could be a delusion. However, Skyler saw Luciano. And he was eager to find answers as to why he came into the story.

Perhaps he would find some way to return home.

Argh... would he have to tell the idea of having visions, just like he did with Magnus? That would be diving further into that ridiculous role.

"Ham... I have been constantly dreaming of my death in recent days. And when I arrived here, I dreamed of the statue of the goddess crying as she saw my death."

"Did you have... a vision with the Goddess?" Skyler widened his eyes.

"Yeah... something like that?"

Skyler squeezed the bridge of his nose, seeming to think something while sighing low. Lucian shrugged hoping that his little lie would not be discovered. After a few seconds, which seemed long minutes of anguish to the prince, Skyler raised his head and took the ball back to keep it in the display.

"All right. I can think about it later. For now let's focus on your purification ritual and make this marriage at once."

"Ham? But is this some kind of problem? I mean these visions."

"If you have had visions with the Goddess and the sphere has reacted to you, then it must mean one thing" Skyler said calmly looking over his shoulder "We may have found the new Saint."

After that afternoon, Skyler did not bring it up. He continued helping Lucian with the purification ritual, bathing him in that crystal clear water and praying in an ancient language. But the priest spent his free time studying the old books, leaving the prince aside in the meantime.

In a way it was a relief, Lucian didn't want any kind of trouble for now. In addition, the prince could rest and be momentarily free from thinking about the whole story of goddess and saint.

And then... the big day came.

Lucian did the last purification ritual during the day, following all the step by step of the other three days. At dusk, the lower-ranking priests came to help him prepare for the ceremony. Lucian was taken to a private room where he could bathe and dress. One of the priests even entered the room carrying a white box.

"Your Highness, I have been asked to deliver it to you."

Raising his head, Lucia opened the box and recognized the gift that Cassander had given him when they first met. A white tunic with a bird embroidered with blue threads.

"Ah... it's from the Imperial Consort" Lucian explained "He seems to want me to use it. Is there a problem?"

"No, since it is a beautiful clothes without being too fancy."

Lucian smiled lightly and, with the help of the priests, he put on his robe.

So soon, as the sun was beginning to set, the priests escorted the eighth prince through the corridors of the huge temple. The instant he stepped out of the room, Lucian noticed the intense movement that those walls received.

With each step taken by the prince, a look was attracted to him.

At one point in his long walk, Skyler waited for him, wearing formal robes of the priesthood: a silver robe with patterns that symbolized the figure of the goddess Kronosis. The priest just smiled at him and bowed respectfully.

"May the benevolence of the Goddess fall upon you. I will follow your last steps in this lonely life, so that it meets with your other part before the heart of the Goddess."

Said the words of protocol, and with a touch of blessing, Skyler took the front of that entourage, opening way for Lucian.

Now he was heading to the end that he himself would write for his character. In the end, he would find his beloved villain, accepting to have his future altered and saved from death.