“Now that you are finally trusting me, what about this drug? I hope that it fades away with time, since I wasn’t conscious at first, then slowly I started awakening, hearing, and then speaking.”

“So that’s how the drugworks!” murmured they to themselves

“Wait…Wait, wait… you didn’t know how it actually works?! What if it never enables me to do anything but this? Am I forever stuck like this? I can’t even see, feel, or smell!”

“I thought you were a threat! A king must always trust his intuition!”

“False! a king is a man, and a man must consider his intuition, yes! But check if was worth the trust or not! Not trust it beforehand!”

“How dare you- “Oxen was then interrupted by the prince.

“-True, I demand your forgiveness, I- “

“Prince…” followed Olly.

“Prince, fret not, this shouldn’t be. I’ll go with my son and search for an antidote in the village where we got the poison. Latossa, prepare the horses and the food, for tomorrow, a travel is to be made!”

As he said that, Oxen and Bantobazanes went to sleep, leaving me with the company of Perses, Olly, and Wvi, Latossa went to do what she was ordered, but Perses...

This man, he drugged me to immobility, and if it wasn’t for the kid, he was going to slaughter me with his own hands, he’s impulsive, way too impulsive, problematic, but still, he’s very easy to manipulate nonetheless, and very useful will he be if managed rightly, which I’ll be glad to say that of that I am a master.

“Say Prince! What if they don’t manage to find an antidote! Look at what had become of me! You did this to me, Prince! I had plans, Prince! I had dreams! You took it all from me! Injustice! I say, Injustice!”

“Yes, I should recompensate you for all your time, suffering this morbid distress. If what says you was the case, what do you wish of me to grant you?”

“Become my legs and carry me, become my arms and work for me, grant me food, grant me shelter, and most importantly, grant me means of knowledge. Can you do that Prince?”

“If so, was you wish, then so it is.”

“Well then, for the time being, I am indeed in a time when I suffer that ‘morbid distress’, so our deal is on, and by coincidence, I seem to have some few questions in mind.”

“...”

“When we mentioned other land, why didn’t you seem surprised? You acknowledged and took it like natural, not the reaction I was expecting from a people who thought that ‘land outside’ was only a trick of an enemy.”

“... Aunt Olly, if you may. I can’t bring myself to-”

“Alright. Listen young man, this family had one more member in it, his name was Kisrus, he was the youngest of my children, as young as the young Prince, he, upon learning of our Prince’s history, was intrigued by the idea of another land, he was surely adventurous, challenging, courageous to a ridiculous level. He tried to build a vehicle to roam the sea, so he experimented and learned, and even ended up building a raft that was big enough to carry him, and was floating on the water, we begged him to cease, even threatened him that we would break his bones, but he didn’t care, he paid no mind to our words, we therefore knew that there was nothing we could do to stop him, he was the youngest and always had a soft spot in our hearts, and so did he what he promised, he disappeared out of sight. An-”

“And you thought that for some reason he was accompanying us, acquainted with us, that’s why you and your husband thoroughly searched the cadavers, hoping that you’ll find him and not noticing thus the prominent Akimaneods in your panic, fortunately or unfortunately for you, he wasn’t there, so you decided to look for survivors, maybe someone of them will know him, or know of him at least, and so you took all that mantle, travelling to the far hospital, to and fro, to save us, me and Wvi, this must have had been his room, I think that he’s a very joyful man. Well lady, no one ever came to our land, but that doesn’t mean he’s not alive, so don’t be sad.” 

“... You’re right. Look, I’ll describe him to you, in case you meet him, just in case. He got his look from me, he has flaming red hair, green eyes, and very fair skin, but he also, and this is his remarkable feature, has freckles in his right cheek, and none on the other, although last time I saw him was when he was 14 years ofage, he’ll still be pretty distinctive even after 5 years I suppose. If you by any chance met him, tell him that his family misses him, and that he’ll only end up killing himself in his stupid journey.”

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do about that.”

Perses was crying, I heard his weeping, then he followed:

“It’s Anthrozel’s wicked will!! Lingering all over the noble souls of us!! He is battling us even after his death!!”

Those words of his. Theyhave some sense in them...

“What is your relation to the Yenking family?”

“How did you- “

“If you want to hide it, tell your husband to keep his necklace thing hidden, some can read.”

“We don’t read, it’s a rare skill, but it was of heritage, that necklace, so that was what on it of those scribbles.”

“Well doesn’t that make me invaluable! Now answer my question.”

“Well, we’re long relatives to the prince.”

“...”

They left me to my way after I dismissed them.

Wvi got back to his bed, the kid is a life saver, this abnormal activity of his quite literally got me out of the choking hands of death, and I who thought about abandoning him, I was too soon to deem him useless.

“Wvi, I thank you.”

“I did what I had to do, Sir. How am I going to accompany you if you’re not alive?”

“I suppose you’re right, but tell me kid, what was your past like? For a kid like you to act as such in such a situation is...not normal.”

“I can hardly remember, but I was born to a man and a woman in typical fashion, I lived for some time with them, then something about my mother being with another man happened, and my father doubted that I was his kid or something, so he threw me outside saying that instead of being his ‘pride’, I hurt it. Thus, disowning me. For some reason, everyone avoided me, cringed at me, and even despised me, they said that I was an abomination or the like. I was hurt, I was starving, I thought I was about to die, then I met Her, well, I lived thanks to her, and I wanted her to be happy, I was helping herachieve her goal, I stole for her, I was beaten for her... Well, you know how that turned out in the end.”

“Let me tell you something kid, something important, this would my gratitude to you, the living doesn’t live to do things, the living does things to live, keep that in mind, you living now proves you did what you had to do in the right way, so try to keep winning, and be happy that you won.”

I honestly put no thought in what I said, I just found it as an opportunity to strengthen his ties with me.

“Yes, Sir.”

His obliviousness to the ways of ‘The Island’, for even with outcasts, that was too much of unusualness. Because his skin was dark after all, it was somewhat weird that he didn’t have some kind of superiority ideals against the fair-skinned, and even with all the events he saw, he didn’t exclaim about it, no rrage, he wasn’t affected by the Island at all…

But about Perses and the Yenkings...

In my theory about the history of ‘The Island’, there was an inconsistency in it, and that would manifest in the single question: Why did the slaves keep their masters’ names?

The slaves as I said gave up their slavery, what makes them keep their former masters’ name, when those names were the strongest mark of their so-hated-slavery? A single inconsistency, if they realized it, they would know that about something...

I lied.

It’s amazing what their values allowed me to do, they think that slavery is only natural, they were raised to do so, that, combined with my accurate story about their part, did the trick.

Those with corrupted minds are the hardest to analyse, but the easiest to manipulate.

The truth is, must bein this case- It’s all deduction-, that they did renounce their masters’ name, and made theirs the one to be passed on, there was no one from their lineage with Anthrozel as their name. Since the very beginning, it wasn’t a slave that Anthrozel gave to the king as a seal of trust, it was his kin, who was also himself, an Anthrozel.

It was Anthrozel’s kin who got on the ship with the king, it was him who designed the ‘Safina’, it was him who wanted to test it, Anthrozel cared for political power, so he devised a plan where he can use his kin’s invention to his whim, Anthrozel’s kin did become a slave himself, he was tortured, he was humiliated, he took the place of his relative, every piece of knowledge he had was either lost, stolen, hidden, or ridiculed into myths depending on what the elders wanted, but he had passed his will, and surely his name as well, despite whatever name his owner had had and given him.

It was him who Anthrozel feared...

My true name is indeed Periergeia Anthrozel...

I am an Anthrozel, for sure.