24. The Prince

24

THE PRINCE

H e drifted in a sea of darkness, his mind a jumbled mess of fragmented memories and half-formed thoughts. He couldn't tell where one ended and the other began, couldn't separate the dreams from the reality that once must have been his life.

Still, through the haze of confusion and uncertainty, one thing remained constant—the sound of her voice. It was a lifeline, a tether to hold onto in the endless expanse of nothingness that surrounded him.

He needed to find out who the female was and what language she spoke. He couldn't understand a single word. But her voice was a soothing melody that seemed to wrap around him like a warm embrace.

Sometimes, she sang, her voice rising and falling in a haunting cadence that stirred something deep within him. The songs differed each time, some joyful and uplifting, others sad and mournful. Some were passionate, filled with a yearning that he could feel deep in his soul, while others were light and playful, tunes that made him want to dance, laugh, and spin in circles even though he couldn't remember ever dancing.

He couldn't make out the words or decipher the meaning behind the melodies. But it didn't matter. Her voice was enough, a tether that kept him grounded in the void.

In the rare moments when the darkness receded and his mind cleared, he found himself grasping at the fragments of his past, trying to piece together the shattered remnants of his identity.

He saw flashes of a woman's face, who he knew was his mother. She was strong and brave, he knew that as well, and she did everything in her power to protect him and his sister, but she feared that even her formidable power would not be enough. She never said that, but he could see the fear in the shadows in her eyes.

"Your destiny awaits across the stars," she'd said. "The seer foretold your future. You will live, and you will thrive, and you will be safe."

He remembered the pain in his mother's eyes, the knowledge that she was sending them away and would never see them again.

The thought was too painful to cling to, so he drifted away, anchoring himself to that enchanting voice again. The female seemed to assume different roles as she spoke, sounding different with each switch.

It was so odd. Perhaps she was retelling tales of valor from days past, acting the parts of the heroes.

Time had lost all meaning.

He was trapped in the liminal space between life and death.

Gradually, though, ever so slowly, he began to feel a change. It started as a warmth in his chest, a tiny spark of life that grew and spread until it filled his entire being. It was like the first rays of dawn after an endless night, the promise of a new day and a new beginning. It was the feeling of blood flowing in his veins, of vitality returning, not in a torrent, but in a trickle.

The female was speaking to him again, her words a soothing murmur that washed over him like a gentle rain. He strained to listen, to make out the meaning behind the sounds. But it was like grasping at smoke, the syllables slipping through his fingers like sand.

And then, suddenly, something changed. The woman's voice shifted, the cadence of her words taking on a new pattern. It was as if a veil had been lifted, the sounds coalescing into something recognizable that he could almost understand.

It was a language he had never heard, the syllables strange and alien to his ears, soft, liquid, not guttural like his mother tongue. But somehow, he could make out the meaning behind the words, or perhaps he could feel the intent and the emotion conveyed through them.

He wanted to open his eyes and behold her, to reach out with his fingers and touch her, but the darkness was too strong and his weakness too profound. He slipped back into the void, back into the endless expanse of his mind. But even there, in the depths of his unconsciousness, he could still hear her voice, and he knew with a certainty that defied all logic and reason that she would be there when he finally managed to break to the surface of the murky waters under which he was submerged.