In the beginning there was time and space, our story starts long after the beginning but it is still nowhere near the end, and way shall it remain. May Lord protect us from all the hardships we must face and may He guide us with light, for a single flame can defeat any evil that comes our way.
Believe in the light.
Once upon a time, in a kingdom surrounded by mountains, there lived a boy, no other than the sun of king himself. Cursed by death this young boy was, death that decided to take his father not long after he sat on the throne after many years of yearning for it. The King, now his name long forgotten and his body rotten, came to rule quite late in his life, only after his own father had passed away. But the usual course of actions this was, so it is only by time The King's rule was doomed. Like all other kings, this was also his destiny. Perhaps it was a curse that doomed this royal blood line, but no records can be found to confirm such theory.
Married in rush this unfortunate king was, to the first woman that wanted him and was willing to give him children so late in life, preferably a boy, because only boys are ever born into this royal bloodline. Unlikely The King, this woman's name is still remembered by few, Cassandra The Queen Consort, young woman from the province, mother of this young boy who this story is about, died during childbirth. Painful and sorrowed death it was, a shadow of death that will always lurk over her son's head. It is best seen today, while he sits beside his father's bed and prays like he had never prayed before. Words so strong that they would certainly reach further from heaven's gate, directly to the gods themselves. Words so strong that when they reach them, it would be impossible for all of them not to listen and grant his wish. A wish for life, not a long one, no he is not that greedy, but rather a cure for illness that is killing his beloved father. The granting of his wish would give him a few more months, to prepare for duty that will be layed upon him. Yet he feels like no one is listening besides a doctor and a consult that are there with him, they are observing, waiting for King to take his final breath and stop turning the hourglass on his bed table, like he had been doing for days, always before the last grane of sand would fall he would turn it, always precisely on time. Rather then sleeping, eating or drinking water he would do that. Like the last grant of sand in the hourglass was his own life. Days pasted since he first started doing it.
Today, like any other day, in late hour of night where young boy prayed for hir father's life, King's his hand reached for the hourglass before even half the sand had run out, it actually called for his son to come closer. The boy shakenly reached for his father's hand and came closer to hear what The King had to say.
,,Today, you will marry." Said The King while his voice was giving out. ,,If you marry today, you will become the emperor and you will turn this kingdom into an empire. If you don't, we will be soon meeting in death." His grip tightened as his voice grew stronger with every word. The King's eyes, that remained closed ever since he could no longer walk and was bound to bed, we're now wide open and focused on his son's eyes. Dark like night, same as his.
,,Father, what are you saying? How am I to be married today?" The boy asked afraid to waste a second of this moment.
,,There is a girl that could help you achieve everything you could ever desire," said The King. ,,Bring her!" He commanded.
Doors of his chamber opened before his voice stopped echoing off the walls. First entered the royal guards and behind them the head house keeper of the Queen's palace where his mother once resided, holding a girl close to herself. She wore clothes of temple children, those for who only hope layed in walls of the holly temple and mercy of people taking care of them, priests most royal servants of gods. The girl before him was also an orphan. How lucky is she to be married into the royal family and be saved from hardships this cruel word prepared for her for her.
,,Marry them," ordered The King and pushed his son away from him.
The boy, in pure shock of this madness and trapped with fear for his father's death, realized this was the end of everything he had known and chose to obey. He kneeled before his father just as the girl was brought to him. Her hand he took in his and looked her in the eyes. His father's wish he will fulfill, he will marry, he will become an emperor, he will turn this kingdom into an empire, mightiest of them all, it didn't matter if that girl would truly help him or not, he will treasure her as she is his father's last gift to him.
The counsoult started the ceremony, marriage certificate already in his hands. ,,Do you Evan ll de Romanet take Thalia Burgundy to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish as long as you both shall live?" The consult spoke those words, fast and meaningless that echoed in the room waiting for the boy to answer.
,,I do." Answered the boy, his eyes for a moment glancing at the cross tied around the girls neck, before returning to her eyes that were looking at his.
,,Do you Thalia Burgundy take Evan ll de Romanet to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish as long as you both shall live?"
Her answer was sincerely more honest than his. ,,I do." She said.
,,By the power granted to me by the His Royal Highness The King, I pronounce you husband and wife." With does words, the last grand of sand ran out, King's body went cold as he released his final breath.
The room went quiet and prince Evan, to scared to turn his head and face the sight in front of him, kept looking at his new wife. Her eyes now closed, and her lips silently moving as she prayed. She was pure, purer than anyone ever was and shall be, that was a face of someone you shall never seen, not even in dreams. Like a image from a fresc on the temple wall. She was the holiness nobody had to present her as such, even with a quickest glance you could see it. Someone loyal, someone blessed. The reason she was picked is not random.
As witnesses, their marriage singed the head house keeper for the wife and The King himself for the husband, long before today.
Doctor closed The King's eyes that stayed open with his gaze fixed upon his son and cover his face with a cloth, pronouncing him officially dead. Word will spread fast, even before the official announcement.
Prince Evan cried, while still holding the girls hands as she prayed. From that moment onward his life was bound to change with every waking hour. To become king at sixteen years of age was a challenging task, becoming an emperor even a harder one.
There was war, there was poverty, there was fear, there was sickness, there was hunger and most importantly there was death. A little hope is still left in people of this kingdom, but it is quick to run out, their rulers death centrally wasn't going to make their hope raise and their spirits come alive, but somebody else could. The late king knew that very well.
In early hours of next day the late kings funeral was arranged, his casket stud quietly in a cold temple in front of a glorious altar, arranged specially to show favour of the worshipped gods that raised above them. Dark was the wood of the casket in which lies the late king, glorious was his last attire, yet it failed to hide the face of a man the sickness ate alive. His purple hands, pale colour of his face, hair dark and grey same as his beard.
Prince Evan looked just like his late father, even in his young age resemblance was like the one of a mirror. Both of them are laying in that casket and both of them are looking at it.
It was quiet at the temple, only the prince remained to wish his late father the final fervel, before they take him and put him in the ground. To join him in this moment deard only one. Quiet steps echoing through the temple, they belong to someone who possesses most power in the entire kingdom, but that is yet to be talked about.
Thalia Burgundy approached the mourning prince carrying the words he was only waiting to hear.
,,They say it is time to close the casket, Your Highness. " She said, her voice soft and dull, to not upset anybody in the temple. Her thin body, wrapped from head to toe, her hair covered with a scarf with only a few blond flyaways on her forehead. She holds a chaplet, beaded with dark wooden beads with a silver cross at the end, same as the gold one around her neck. She gives it to the prince, barely letting his bare hands cracked and bloody from the cold, touch hers in nice black gloves.
,,May angels guide your father to the heavenly gate." She says, she speaks with sincerity and with sympathy, a true one that is not often seen. Unfortunately, the truth is much different from her wishes.
He thought about it too, praying for his late father, but what is there left to pray for?
Who is there truly to listen and to grant him his wishes when death already took place?
Silence was far more comforting, what God was ever going to listen to him?
If they didn't in an hour when he begged them with all he got, they never will.
To tell the truth, hurtful for many but only right, prince Evan was right, his prayers never reached the heavens gate and they never will, there was none to listen to them and there never be. He is one and only angel-less soul.
,,Thank you for your prayers my lady, but I doubt my father will even the sight of the heavenly gate." The prince approached the dark casket once again, he placed the chaplet in his late father's hands. ,,He will need it more than I do." He said to woman behind him.
,,I am sorry for your lost Your Highness." She said once again.
,,Thank you, please tell them he is ready now." He was indeed ready, ready to face what's meant to happen next, yet he wants to stay here, inside the temple walls, where is cold and where is quiet, where there is no one except gods and him.
,,I will Your Highness. " The lady said before turning to leaving.
,,Before you go, " the prince stopped her. ,,I would like to ask you something. " She waited with her gaze set upon him. One can not lie inside holy walls, that is the greatest sin known to man kind.
,,Did you know about our marriage?"
,,I did not, that is all I know to tell you Your Highness. "
After a long time, prince smiled. ,,Then we are truly in this together, " he said. ,,I wish us all the best." A small smile appeared on her face, then she bowed and left, leaving only her presence behind like a scent of strong perfume.
In front of this very altar they will unite in marriage in less than a week. That almost seemed like a cure to this great misery, this future they shall share. A promise they would make and in the end, the only thing they have left, only them and nobody else.
So wedded they were, with their hands tide together in eternal bond in front of the Holy priest. Their future, now set as King Evan ll de Romanet and Queen Consort Thalia de Romanet. In truth they were wedded, and in truth they shall live for the rest of their lives. Yet celebrating this wonderful event wasn't the priority, with their kingdom in civil war there was no time or place for such celebration. Work is there to be done, war is to end, to escape death is the final goal no matter the circumstances. But where is war and where is sorrow there is still life.
At their young age, king and queen had two children, barely a year after they married. A boy was their first, like every other Romanet, a spitting image of his father. Iyan the queen named him, breaking every protocol there is when it comes to naming a child of royal blood. But it was no long after that the queen, beside her usual rule following persona, has quit a fierce character. Especially when it comes to her children.
Their next child, for the first time since the blood line came to existence, a girl was born, bearing the name Neftali.
With her came everything new and unheard of. Like from a tale, the war ended with a peace agreement and the royal family, in all it's glory, fulfilled late kings wish. The Arthenian Empire finally came to existence, late king was right after all. Like he said, this marriage led to victory and glory, without it nothing would have been possible.
That is how, in not even three year time, kingdom of Arthein became an empire, ruled by a family like no one had ever seen. Such an extraordinary family this was, and remembered like such should they remain.
Welcome to Arthein, empire ruled by the sun and the moon.