“Your Highness!”  Leiyu screamed.  The actual Leiyu.

He hacked away at the obsidian cocoon with his sword to no avail. How much time had already passed?  A quarter shichen?  Half?  His body was covered in cold sweat and his arms were weary.

Feeling distraught, he threw his sword to the side and pounded against the barrier with his fists.

“Prince Thallios!” he screamed.

The cocoon shattered like glass.  Leiyu lost his balance and stumbled forward.  Tiny shards of obsidian bit into his hands as he landed, and he cursed under his breath.  Inhale, exhale.  His heart was pounding.  He looked up and saw Prince Thallios lying unconscious in the center of the column of light.

“Your Highness!” Leiyu ran over.  He dropped to his knees and put his hand near the prince’s nose.  A faint breath, still alive.  Leiyu slowly exhaled.  He gently placed his hand under the prince’s head and cradled him closely.  The prince’s skin felt cold and clammy, and his hair clung to his forehead.  Leiyu’s heart began to slow down, but worry still gnawed at him in the pit of his stomach.  He stared at the obsidian shards around them.  The Sword of Ages was nowhere to be seen.  What had happened in there?

Prince Thallios stirred and slowly opened his eyes.  Leiyu held his breath.  He wanted to smile, but kept it inside.

“Leiyu?” Prince Thallios whispered.

“Your Highness,” Leiyu whispered back.  “Are you all right?”

Prince Thallios sat up slowly and reached toward him.  “You’re alive…”  Tears brimmed in his eyes.  He collapsed against Leiyu’s chest.

Leiyu panicked.  “Your Highness!  Are you hurt?”

Prince Thallios clutched Leiyu’s cloak as tears rolled down his face.  “Thank the goddesses…you’re alive…”

Leiyu put his arms around Prince Thallios.  “It’s all right, Your Highness.  I’m right here.”

Prince Thallios trembled in Leiyu’s arms.  “I was so scared…I thought I had killed you…”

Leiyu froze.  His arms retreated and he leaned back.  “What do you mean?”

Prince Thallios looked like a lost, frightened child.  Tears continued to roll down his face.  “I didn’t mean to do it.  It made me fight you.  I didn’t know it was you…”  He broke into a sob, unable to continue.

It?  Leiyu furrowed his brow.  None of this was making sense.  But a magical cocoon swallowing up the prince and keeping him inside for who-knows-how-long also did not make any sense.  “What happened?  Who made you fight me?”  His heart sank as soon as his last words were uttered.  Having to fight the prince was his greatest fear.

Prince Thallios continued sobbing, curling up into fetal position.  Leiyu frowned solemnly.  He reached over and embraced the prince.  “It’s all right, Your Highness.  Please tell me what happened.”

Prince Thallios’ breaths eventually slowed down.  He wiped his eyes and looked up at Leiyu.  “Where are we?”

“We’re still in the cave, Your Highness.”

Prince Thallios gasped and stood up quickly.  “Leiyu, we must leave!  This place is cursed!”

Leiyu was taken aback.  “Are you all right, Your Highness?”  He looked around.  “What about the Sword of Ages?”

“Leave it!” Prince Thallios said, panic permeating his voice.  “It does not want to be taken!”

Leiyu stood up.  “I…I don’t understand, Your Highness.”

“I’ll explain later, when we’re far away from this place,” Prince Thallios said.  He began to shake, and grabbed Leiyu’s hand.  “Please, I beg you, we mustn’t stay here a moment longer.”

Prince Thallios led Leiyu toward the cave entrance, stopping briefly so that Leiyu could pick up his own sword from the ground.  They stepped over the threshold and were nearly blinded by the sudden transition into daylight.  Bakhat and the golden horse were still standing where they had left them.

It’s like he’s in a trance, Leiyu thought as he watched the prince silently walk over to his steed and climb onto the saddle, all while avoiding eye contact.  Leiyu climbed up onto Bakhat’s saddle and nudged the horse with his boots.  The two horses slowly trotted toward the narrow pathway leading down the mountain.  Neither person said a word during the journey.

Eventually the narrow pathway widened and they reached a clearing that overlooked a valley.  The mountain with the sword cave was far behind them.

“Do you want to stop here, Your Highness?” Leiyu asked as he turned around.  He saw the prince nod.

Leiyu dismounted and went over to help the prince off his horse.  Prince Thallios walked toward a pile of large rocks and sat down on one of them.

Leiyu sat down next to him.  “Do you want to tell me what happened, Your Highness?”

Prince Thallios turned towards him, face pale and eyes haunted.  He opened his mouth and began to recount all that happened after the cocoon swallowed him up.

***

Leiyu almost fell off the rock he was sitting on as Prince Thallios finished his story.  “You plunged the Sword of Ages through my heart?!”

Prince Thallios lips quivered, and he turned away.  “I’m so sorry…”

Leiyu tried to keep the panic from rising into his throat.  He softened his voice.  “It’s all right, Your Highness, it wasn’t the real me.  I’m still here.”

Prince Thallios looked at his boots.  “But it felt so real.  I’ve never felt that way before.  It was a frightening amount of power, right there in my hands.”  He wiped the tears from his eyes.  “And also the revelations about my parents.  And that other version of myself.  The sword said that I would bring about the destruction of the entire world.”  He looked up at Leiyu.  “It’s not true, is it?  Please tell me it’s not true.”

Leiyu’s heart sank into the abyss of his thoughts.  The other version of myself.  The golden-eyed one with the cryptic voice.  He had kept it all to himself while they were on the way to find the Sword of Ages, a burden that weighed heavily in his mind.  Perhaps there was no longer any need to keep the silence.  But saying the right thing was never his strong suit.

“Leiyu?  What’s wrong?”

“I…” Leiyu could bear it no longer.  “You said you saw yourself with glowing golden eyes?”

“Yes.”

“I…I’ve also seen you with glowing golden eyes before.”

“What?”  Now it was the prince’s turn to almost fall off his rock.  “When?”

Leiyu sighed sadly.  “At the palace, when we sparred, right before you knocked me into the wall.”  The prince gasped.  “At the shrine we found in the middle of the forest.  You also spoke in a strange way.  Your voice sounded like a woman’s.  And there was another time when we were in the forest surrounded by the ghost voices.  You also said some strange things in that same voice.”

“Mother of goddesses,” Prince Thallios said.  His face turned even paler.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Leiyu frowned.  “I…I didn’t want to scare you, and I didn’t want to interfere with your quest for the Sword of Ages.”  He saw the prince look downward again.  “But since we’ve abandoned the quest, I guess I can tell you now.  I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

“No, don’t be,” Prince Thallios said tearfully.  “Was that why you were so tense during the latter part of our journey?  Oh Leiyu, I wished you had told me sooner.  I’m so sorry, I really am a burden to you.”

Leiyu’s heart sank even further.  It really bothered him every time the prince called himself a burden, and he was not sure why.  “Your Highness, please don’t think that way-”

Prince Thallios stood up and started walking toward the edge of the clearing.

Did I say the wrong thing again?  Leiyu thought sadly.  I always say the wrong thing.  He trailed after the prince, who had stopped at the edge of the clearing and was now looking down at the valley.  “Your Highness-”

“Do not call me that anymore…” the prince said, voice barely audible.

Leiyu paused, confused.  “What do you mean, Your-”

The prince turned around.  Tears were streaming down his cheeks.  “Do not call me ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Prince’ anymore!”

Leiyu stepped back, body and mind both tense.

Prince Thallios’ breaths were strained.  “Do not refer to me as a prince anymore.  I don’t deserve it.  I have no kingdom…it’s gone…”  His voice began to break down.  “It’s never coming back…”  He covered his face with his hands and wept.

Leiyu did not know what to do.  Should he comfort him like he had done before or give him space?  “How…should I address you then?” he finally asked.

The slender hands went off to the side and amber eyes looked up at him.  “Just…Thallios…is fine…”

Leiyu walked up to him and knelt. “Thallios…” Thallios looked at him.  “I will still keep my promise…to protect you for the rest of my life…”

Thallios’ eyes widened and then filled with fresh tears.  He wiped them away.  Then he approached Leiyu and placed his hands on Leiyu’s shoulders.  “Leiyu, please stand.  You don’t have to kneel to me anymore.  We’re equals now.”

Leiyu stood up.  They faced each other silently.  A gust of wind blew past, and their hair strands danced across their faces.  Thallios shivered and leaned into Leiyu’s chest.  Leiyu embraced him, holding him close.

“Where shall we go now?” Thallios asked.  “We no longer have a goal to work towards, but we can’t go back.”

Leiyu stared at the sky.  He braced himself as another gust of wind came, and held Thallios closer.  He was reminded of someone he had said farewell to a while back.

Leiyu finally spoke.  “Let’s go to the North to visit my old friend…”