Blood fell from the sky, painting everything red.
Disfigured corpses surrounded him. Eyes hollowed, fingers cut into minuscule fragments, organs flayed out. Their numbers seemed infinite, piling to the height of a mountain that stretched to the end of his vision.
A scarlet red river of warm blood flowed from its top, gushing and oozing towards him.
"Liam."
His mother's voice called him from behind, using a name she shouldn't have known.
Liam jerked around to see her—Kiera von Everhart—holding a dagger aimed at his heart.
"Mother..." Aiden barely managed to speak. His enunciation was hardly coherent.
"I am not your Mother. I am Aiden's mother. You—"
"You are not him."
Aiden's breath hitched in his throat. He tried to reason, to beg, but words never came out. He wrapped his hands around his neck in panic, pleading for his vocal cords to utter a word.
"My people and I... We all died for a fake. A mask of a prince who fooled and betrayed everyone."
Another voice fell into his ears; his neck snapped towards it.
His father stood there with a gaping hole in his chest, blood running from his forehead to his lips. His greatsword, grasped firmly in his hands, pointed at him. It wobbled ever so slightly when he coughed up blood, which splattered onto Aiden's face.
Aiden's eyes trembled, dilated from the horror of seeing Aziel's condition. He wanted to move from his position and support him, but his legs felt like stone. They were petrified on the spot.
He, yet again, tried to speak, but the result was the same. His fingernails dug into his neck as he witnessed his father in that state, while the splattered blood fell from his eyebrows onto his cheek.
Drop.
Drop.
He felt useless. Hopeless. Futile.
"And I prioritized using my own life force to keep a fraud alive instead of protecting Their Majesties."
Yet another voice resounded in his ears, coming from right between his parents.
It was Elsie's.
Her eyes, which always carried unconditional love, were now laced with pure disgust and rage for him. Her daggers pointed towards him. Her body froze rapidly, her skin losing its color to frostbite.
Aiden hopelessly screamed, but no sound came out.
He tried again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
AND AGAIN.
Yet... Not a single word made it through his mouth. Tears, burning and heavy, flowed down his cheeks, mixing with the metallic taste of blood entering his mouth. His eyes stopped blinking, forcing him to watch the consequences of his actions play out.
"A masquerade of a fraud brought the whole Kingdom down. Thousands died, millions lost their loved ones, only because of you."
"I killed my husband, the King, who led the kingdom from the front. Got hated by countless, only because of you."
"I thought dying protecting His Highness was the purpose of my life, but instead, I died for a fake. How many lives would I have saved if not for you?"
All three voices swirled around in his head, a cacophony of condemnation.
He bit his tongue extremely hard, his fingers penetrating his neck. His eyes started bleeding. But nothing worked. He couldn't move.
He remained as useless as one could get. Worthless. Pathetic.
"It was all cause of you."
The three of them turned their weapons towards themselves.
"Only because of you."
And—
"Cause of you..."
—Sliced—
"Liam."
In unison, their heads were severed and fell directly in front of him with a wet thud.
Liam's eyes widened, his mouth opened wide, screaming into a void, his fingers clawing apart his neck.
NOOOOOOOOO—
**********
"NOOOOOOOOO—"
Aiden's eyes snapped open. He screamed, his nails digging into his neck, drawing a thin line of blood.
His breaths came in ragged, unnatural gasps. His eyes wandered around, taking a long, agonizing moment to realize he wasn't in Irin anymore.
"Haaah..."
"Haaah..."
Aiden covered his face with his hands as a huge wave of relief washed over him.
"It was... a nightmare..."
Tears spilled from his eyes, and he couldn't stop himself from sobbing. He sobbed hard. Snot ran from his nose, his face losing all of its princely charm, but he didn't care.
His cries grew louder with every passing second, eventually startling Zephy awake.
"What the—? What happened, kid?"
Zephy flew in a hurry to the front of Aiden, his voice carrying great concern, unlike his usual tone.
With delicate steps, Zephyrix trudged towards Aiden and, to the best of his efforts, tried to console the kid. He nudged Aiden with his feathers, but his tiny stature didn't help much.
He thought of enveloping Aiden in his feathers, but his mythical form was too huge to fit in the cave, and his little form too tiny. He thought of using one of his skills to forcefully calm the boy down, but... some words from the past stopped him.
"Damn it, that Alfred," Zephyrix cursed under his breath, barely audible.
One can't cry forever; eventually, their tears would run out. And when tears run out, consoling doesn't help a bit. At that point, it feels like taunts. So if you don't know what to do when someone is crying, let them be. Grief has to be let out, PP. You can't freeze it away.
Zephyrix, not accustomed to such situations, decided to follow Alfred's words. He waited, watching over the vulnerable kid like a guardian.
Sniffle!!
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Aiden, sniffing loudly, uncovered his face. The first thing he saw through the blur in his eyes was the silhouette of Zephy standing right in front of him.
"Let all the tears out? I'm surprised they didn't freeze this time around, huh." Zephy tried to act nonchalant, not wanting to ask the burning question—"what happened?"—straightforwardly.
However, he was terrible at acting. Aiden, trained to read body language, subtle cues, and nuances, caught it even before Zephy could finish his sentence.
The way he spoke without maintaining eye contact, combined with the fake preening of his feathers, gave him away. There were signs everywhere of how bad an actor he was.
Still, Aiden didn't point it out. He was glad Zephy didn't ask him anything and instead let him be. Because if he had... He wasn't sure what he would have said.
"Thank you," Aiden muttered under his breath, audible enough for the wind to carry it to Zephy. The bird shuddered for a moment before acting nonchalant again.
Acting badly nonchalant again. After spending almost a day or two with him, Aiden had a decent enough grasp of his character. He certainly didn't know all there was to know about him, but he felt like he understood him a bit better.
Pushing himself up with his hand, Aiden stood and cupped his palms. He manifested some water in the cup before splattering it onto his face. His pupils shook for a moment as he was reminded of the blood on his face in the nightmare, but he quickly wiped it off.
He repeated the gesture two more times to clean his face, which he imagined must have been a mess. He dusted off his clothes, his face regaining its usual charm.
Yet... if one paid close attention, his lips quivered, and his breath was a tad faster than usual. However, Zephy overlooked that. To him, the boy was back on his feet, ready and well.
Perhaps Aiden was equally as good an actor as Zephy was bad at it.
"Let's begin today's training... after eating something, of course," Aiden said to Zephy with a practiced smile, crawling out of the cave and gesturing for Zephy to follow him.
***********