11 YEARS AGO
"Reficulus."
"Reficulus."
"Reficulus."
"Su Lucifer!"
He jumped awake and met the worried gaze of his brother staring down at him. He frowned at the pure blood Fey prince.
"Did you have to call me that?"
Frey smiled apologetically. "You were not answering when I called you. You know you don't have to be ashamed of the patronym -su added to your name."
He frowned at his brother. "That's not my name, it's my father's name."
Frey smiled and ruffled his head. "Well amongst all Feys a patronym is added to your father's name and given to you as your name."
He rolled his eyes at his brother. "That is not true with everyone though. Why are you not Su-Izanagi or Iganazius?"
"You know we all possess secondary names, Reficulus. What is my royal name?" Frey asked him.
"Iganazius," the young boy said, sulkily, making his elder brother laugh.
"That's right. You will get your own informal name, don't worry."
Reficulus wished that day would never come. His mother told him he shall earn his name. With the blood of billions of his hands, his body cloaked in the ashes of w thousand world razed nothingness, his aura bringing armies to their knees just by his mere presence—then the people shall look at him in fear and give him a name worthy of his might and reputation.
"Now, come with me, you missed breakfast. Let's make sure that only happen once," Frey said.
His brother blew a breath of air at him and Reficulus was refreshed like he'd just had a bath of spring water and fragrance. His breath was fresher than lemons and he felt fully awakened.
It was common for him with his brother, mornings like this.
"How do you expect me not to miss breakfast again when it's already over?" He asked, confused, as he stepped out of bed and followed his brother out of his room.
His brother's palace was built on an island that was a mountain of diamond. Everywhere one could look was a prismatic sparkle of rainbows as the light of the sun hit walls and pillars of diamond.
The whole realm was his brother's, won by the boons their mother had bestowed upon him.
His brother led him to the dining hall. Stepping into the hall, rainbows rained down on them from the diamond roof and the very ground which they walked on was of hard diamond.
Everything was diamond, even the tables spread across the hall.
Reficulus sniffed long and hard, frowning at the smell of fresh bakery. To his surprise sprites went about setting a table with a sumptuous breakfast, hot and fresh from the fire.
He looked at his brother. "How did you do it?"
A Fey was very attuned with their surroundings so he knew it was back to being morning, this was indeed what it appeared to be—breakfast.
"Mother has given me many great gifts. I just aligned your fate for today to make sure you will eat breakfast," Frey explained, smiling.
Sitting down beside his brother who watched him as he started to fill his plate. "So you indirectly reversed time itself by manipulating my fate," he said, and got a nod from the Fey prince.
He wondered why his brother hadn't just reversed time. He could, especially here in a realm that was his. So blessed was he by their mother.
"Why can't you just manipulate my fate to stop the dreams?"
His brother's expression became sad. His white hair seemed to lose its shine and his starlight eyes darkened, even his narrow jaw squared and his face narrowed.
His brother had aquillin features which were really pronounced either when he was sad or angry.
"I have no explanation for why mother keeps sending you dreams of the future and it saddens me." Reficulus already had an idea where this was going. He stuck a slice of ham in his mouth and began to chew. "But I'm sure she has her reasons. Mother can never be wrong, brother. You should take strength in my faith and be patient with her. I'm sure all this will be naught but a memory one day."
He looked at his brother sadly. No one was more powerful than Frey, not even their mother nowadays. Yet no one was also more foolish than him.
He believed he was going to be the greatest Fey for eternity, that was the destiny their mother had fed into his dreams. As the son of the greatest Fey King Izanagi, and the greatest Fey Queen, he felt his destiny was to become a god unto the Feys.
"No one loves her more than you," Reficulus said to his brother, making him beam at him with a dazzling smile.
"And that is a fact, Lan néma."
Reficulus froze while Frey rose to his feet joyfully and faced the door.
Standing there was her. Her hair reached down to her waist, as white as an angel's wing. Her starlight eyes were bright enough to light up a world at night.
She smiled brightly as she laid her eyes upon her sons. For Reficulus the expression was reminiscent of a sheathed dagger.
She approached in all her grace and charm, drawing awe from everyone in the room, prince and Sprite servants alike.
Her eldest approached her and they met in the middle of the hall. Frey pulled his mother close and enveloped her in a hug.
"Feyina," he breathed out like a man whose thirst had been quenched, calling her mother in Feyling.
"Lan Feysa," she responded, her beloved son.
But upon her utterance of the word son in Feyling, a weight fell upon the room. Reficulus, where he sat, felt his bond with her vibrate in terror.
Something was about to happen and even Frey sensed it, but the fool did not let his mother go.
"What is it mother?" The Fey Prince asked her.
"I have waited, thousands of years have gone by. The universe continues to stagnate," Titania said, holding her son tight, her gaze locked on Reficulus who could not look away, her words inscribing themselves into his head.
"Is it time?" Frey asked.
"Almost. The universe cannot be left to govern itself, Feysa."
"I will help you then. Everything I have is yours, anything you want I will give."
Reficulus shivered when she smiled and her arms tightened around the prince in a possessive manner.
"All that you are now, I made you. Everything you have I gave you. Power, via, glory, a name." At the last one she sent a mocking smile at Reficulus. "And now you promise to give me anything I ask?"
"I have attained even more power, Feyina. I have so much to give you, to make you set the universe aright."
She grinned and Reficulus knew she was going for the jugular.
"Frey," he called out, despairingly, but his mother made his word as silent as a shadow's whisper.
His brother still heard him though and made to turn but Titania held on to him and refused to let go.
"You will help me?" She asked, her voice breaking. "Give me everything? Even when your father, my destined love, refused me, mocked me?"
Frey's shoulders tightened and Reficulus knew it was over. The boy had finally been given a reason to prove to his mother that he was better than his father, that his father was the only Fey who loved her not.
To him this was the time to show her that she was cherished and should not fall to despair.
He sought to care for his mother, to worship her as it was her right to be, so the Fey Prince reiterated–
"Anything."
"Will you swear it?"
Immediately, Reficulus was on his feet. "Frey!"
His mother smiled at him as his brother spoke the word. "I swear it."
"Then I take everything you are and could have been."
Tears fell down his eyes as Reficulus watched his brother slowly start to dissolve into motes of light.
Titania began to chant as she held him close, sealed in an embrace, her gaze locked on her younger son's.
"I take your destiny."
"I take your blessings."
"I take your life."
"I take your existence."
"I take your nature."
"I take your powers."
"I take all that you are."
"Rest in oblivion, Lan Feysa."
And all that was the Fey Prince became sparks of light. The Fey Queen spread her arms wide and absorbed them into herself.
Reficulus watched, unable to lift a finger—petrified not from fear but pure, life altering shock.
All he could do was mourn, shed tears for the foolish prince.
For Frey his brother.