"That's not true." Felix looked at the body unearthed from the backyard of his annex. " This can't be... He.. he... can't be dead." His hands trembled and he crouched down to the familiar garment that the decaying body wore. His hand reached for the skeletal fingers.
The signet ring on the thumb made him realise that it was reality- not a dream nor a terrible joke.
His body trembled as his eyes caught sight of the blood stains on the tattered garment- the dagger, rusted and weary, but still intact.
One sight of the dagger and he knew who had killed him. He chose not to trust his eyes.
"Doesn't that belong to-" the woman started.
"It's a sham." Felix barked, low but frantic.
"But it-"
"That's a counterfeit!" Felix barked his hands trembling, his tone decreasing, "It..it has to be."
The woman couldn't believe her eyes nor understand what was going on.
"Where...where...is he?" His quavering voice asked.
"Who?" His butler looked in confusion.
"O..wen."
"Palace." The woman replied, "Said he had something to do there."
Felix looked from the dead man to the woman. His shaky legs barely stood up when he decided to move them.
Faster. Faster. Why are my legs not fast enough? He thought in a frenzied state of mind.
The events moved in a flash. He didn't remember anything that happened till he reached the main palace. His mind started working as he scurried through the white corridors searching.
"Owen?" He stopped on his tracks hearing his name?
"What have you done?" Felix searched where the voice came from. He slid past the man standing at the doorstep to see the one he was frantically searching for.
He stood next to a blonde man near the window towards the left of the full-length mirror. He was safe, unharmed- but the blood spilled on his face? It wasn't his nor of the man standing next to him.
It was of the man lying on the floor blood splattering out from his throat on the cold floor. The blonde man looked as shocked as the other two. But Owen?
His face was expressionless except for the cold dead eyes that seared through Felix's heart as he stared right into his. The sword in his hand was definitely of the emperor's.
That day was etched in Felix's mind. The bright sunny day without any clouds- a contrast to the tragic events that occurred.
"Owen?" The emperor repeated. "Of all the people in the world, you decided to adopt a boy named exactly as THE MAN who killed an emperor with the SAME name as mine?" His voice roared this time. "So what happens next? Are you plotting another massacre in Evimeria?"
"Your Majesty!" Rezef's tone was defensive. "How could you accuse us of such treachery?"
"Is it not possible?" The emperor inquired.
"But-"
"IS IT NOT POSSIBLE? YES OR NO?"
"If it was possible, wouldn't he be going around the nobles for approval of the adoption first and then to you?" Duke Bouvardia intervened.
"A fair point, your Majesty." Luna agreed, "Though, personally, I'm surprised by the name of the person, but this child is from a different generation and different place. This Owen and that Owen are two separate people."
"Man."
"Pardon?" Luna furrowed her eyebrows.
"He's a man not a child." Rezef corrected her.
"A man?" The trio asked in unison, disbelief heavy in their voices.
"Yes. About the same age as Marcus."
"Wait, wait, wait." Duke Bouvardia raised his hand, his index pointing towards Rezef, "Let me get this straight. You're adopting a person who's almost the same age as your little brother, Marcus, who's like THIRTY-FIVE, as your son?" He looked from Rezef to Luna and back again, "Does that make sense?"
"Adopting him into the Lily family doesn't necessarily mean he's to be adopted as my son." Rezef clarified his confusion, "Just givin' him the name."
The Emperor's rage was replaced with bewilderment, "How's that supposed to make him a part of your family? You do know that he has to be adopted as a son of someone to be registered in the family?"
"I do now." Rezef spoke carefree, although his eyes averted.
"How could you have not known that?" Luna was dumbfounded.
"Because we've never given the Lily name to anyone outside of the family." His eyes searched the ceiling and surrounding but not the faces of those who confronted him with the questions.
"Guess what? Neither did our families, and yet, we know." Luna exasperated. She twitched her brow all the while bit a corner of her lower lip as she calculated in the heavy silence. "Got another plan since you can't have him as your brother either?"
"And why can't I?"
"You can't ask a dead man to adopt him." Duke Bouvardia explained.
"Then I'll just have to ask my Great father to adopt him. He's the only elderly person alive." Rezef solved the issue with a snap of his fingers.
"Wouldn't that make this person your great, great grandfather of sorts?" Duke Bouvardia clicked his tongue.
"Another Owen whose father would be the same as that of the Owen from three centuries ago." The emperor scoffed at the idea.
"I won't allow it." The emperor was resolute in his decision.
Rezef sighed as the Emperor handed him the papers back. Luna sensed Rezef's drooping shoulders although his eyes remained firm.
"Can I see that?" She gestured towards the document. Rezef's eyes caught sight of his son, Gallahan- his eyes drooping and his shoulders sulken. He could see the lost hope in his eyes as he turned away.
Something stirred heavily in Rezef's chest as he saw his son's back facing him as he left the banquet hall.
"Can I see that?" Luna repeated as he saw him lost in thought. Rezef, alerted, gave it to her.
Luna read the paper all the while walking towards the table filled with delicacies from around the empire. She turned the paper around all the while pouring red wine in a glass. By the time she finished reading, she dipped her finger in the red wine and pressed a perfect oleander petal shape onto the document. With a few more wine-tipped taps, she completed the five-petaled flower, creating her crimson ducal seal.
Her wine dripping fingers were more than just enticing, especially when her fingers ran through her short silver hair.
"Do you perhaps have a pen?" She walked back to the three and looked straight at Rezef.
"Sorry? No, I currently don't have one." Rezef replied questioning her behaviour in hindsight.
"I do have one." Duke Bouvardia produced a pen from his coat. "Say, what do you need it for?"
Luna gracefully took the pen, opened its cap and signed her name on the place where she made an oleander with wine. "Giving myapproval for adoption."
"Do you think you can challenge my words with your mere approval?" The Emperor asked, furious.
"I don't think. I can do that." Luna's eyes sparkled with her daring words.
The emperor was taken aback. She continued, not looking at the emperor, but the nobles in the banquet hall, "By law, approval doesn't necessarily have to be given by the royal family- two third of the nobility's approval is sufficient for trivial matters such as these."
"Do you believe that you can get enough signatures for this approval?" The emperor was challenging her.
"I do." She accepted gracefully. "Duke Bouvardia?" She turned to face him with the pen and paper.
He signed. Seeing the two ducal families signing up, the other nobles first reluctantly, then boldly signed on the papers.
"I believe I won with only five families disapproving." Luna faced the emperor with a smile of victory.
"I can't wait to meet this Owen." She added, her eyes flickering with excitement.
"Why not? He just happens to have come to the banquet tonight." Rezef smiled at her.
"He just happens to have left ten minutes ago." A voice came from behind Rezef. He turned to see Hugo standing there arms crossed.
"Who might you be?" Luna asked politely.
"The brother of the person in question." Hugo replied, roughly moving his hand on his face. "Not actually brothers..but, you know, we'rebrothers."
Luna looked at him to explain. "Ah,...you see.." he scratched his head unsure of how to explain what he was saying. Luna giggled, amused by the rough looking man.
"Adopting him too?"
"Just his brother." Rezef answered.
Hugo went from confused to suddenly alert, grabbing his shirt. "I gotta go." He looked at Rezef and hastily left the two.
"What happened to him?"
"Beats me."
The festivities of the night began. All seemed to have just started to enjoy the night when one of the knights interrupted them followed by a cloaked man.
"Sire!" The knight asked for the Emperor's attention.
"Captain Lindsey! You are supposed to be guarding the premises of Mulberry Forest!" The emperor thundered at her, annoyed by the defiance of his subjects in the banquet, and to top it all, a captain left her designated post.
"Do forgive me, but I have an urgent message to deliver." She turned her head low.
"And what would that be?" He rumbled.
"An unknown beast left the premises of Mulberry Forest and left for the towns near it." She spoke shakily.
"WHAT?" The Emperor's veins bulged from his temples "How could it escape the barrier surrounding the damn Forest?"
"Because it was a high ranked beast, possibly with intelligence equal to humans." The man in the cloak responded.
"And who might you be?"
The man removed the cloak from his head revealing steel blue hair. The nobles gasped at the colour of his eyes.
"Golden?"
"Isn't that only of the royalty?"
"No look at his pupils. They're vertically slit!"
"That means he's a.."
"And what's a dragon doing here?" The emperor asked, looking straight into the eyes of the steel blue haired man, or rather, a dragon shape shifted into a human.
"August's the name." He responded, "Ice dragon." He took a few steps closer, "Was sleeping peacefully in my ice cave till I sensed a beast here that should be in Faerwyn. Gotta protect the humans- was the deal as guardian dragon."
Tension erupted in the banquet hall. A high ranked beast from Faerwyn, the beasts realm, had come to the human realm.