Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Gian

Kingdom of Howard

“Get out.” Gian commanded the prone woman who lay in his bed, there was no sense of emotion in his voice as he let out his voice. It was simply as if he was being forced to do so, there was no emotion, there was no love and all the feelings that had come from the night before died away in an instant.

“King Gian…” Ann had told him seductively, gnawing at him and caressing him as the woman stood up from the bed, “Let us do this again, shall we?”

“She’s easier to deal with than that bronze bitch from the west” Gian thought to himself as Ann left his room without a second thought, he remembered Eloisa being quite a problem as he commanded her to leave, but this harlot was easier.

As Ann left the prince’s quarters, Gian resigned himself to a hot shower, he was planning to talk to King Malik after this and bring down Colter further. He remembered his younger brother carrying around a sketch of a beautiful woman. He grinned as he thought about the time, he crumpled the said piece of paper and the younger prince had dived after it as if his life depended on it.

His inner voice had told him that the woman in the sketch was not an Ecanus like them, she was of a different race, hence her emanating beauty and aura as she stared into the piece of art his brother had created.

Suddenly, the thought of Samuel crossed his mind and the older prince grinned mischievously in the bath, Colter had already been gone for a while and the best he could do right now was to ruin his profile. The girl in the sketch was not an Ecanus, it was like one of those idiot mortals that Samuel fell in love with, a human.

“That fucking embarrassment!” Gian shouted in the bath as he finally put everything together, “That woman was not just the woman of his dreams, it was a HUMAN!”

He knew, should Colter fall in love and decide to live his life with a human, his stature as prince would be endangered. That brown-haired beauty Gian had crumpled was not of Ecanus breeding, she was of a different race and the older prince would tell their father about this.

These were the thoughts that crossed his mind, Gian grinned in the bath knowing that he had secured his path and his birth right. No one would get in his way now, Colter, champion of the peasants and the common folk, had succumbed to his own desires and left the kingdom when they needed him the most.

“It’s up to me” Gian thought salivating as he imagined everything that would happen, he thought of the common folk rallying to him and showing him their adoration as Colter had abandoned them. It was these thoughts that consumed the elder prince as he found himself busily finishing in the shower.

“Those birds are ugly, father” Gian commented, hours later as he stood in the vicinity of King Malik. They had been staring at these evil looking birds scattering themselves in the night sky for a few minutes now.

The king had grunted in a reply, not saying anything, just keeping his eyes squarely on the windows.

“Father” Colter then started sweetly as the vultures disappeared out of their view, “You seem to be in dire straits. Is the thought of Colter still bothering you?”

Malik turned to his older son with a grimace, sorrow seemed to fill the lines on his aged face as he replied “I try to understand, Gian” Malik said sadly, “It seems your brother had crossed the forbidden portal and committed a cardinal sin”

The evil in his thoughts took reign as Gian pretended to show sympathy, his eyes watered and his mouth was fixed in a frown as he said: “It seems that the woman he had been drawing has took over his very thoughts”

“Woman?!” Malik asked immediately, trying to find a reason why Colter would wholeheartedly abandon everything that the kingdom had given him.

Gian’s mind was now littered with pure malice, an evil grin plastered where the king could not see, as he retorted:

“Yes father, before Colter’s disappearance, I had seen him sketching a portrait of a woman who was not an Ecanus.”

“A portrait…?!” the king asked decisively, focusing and trusting Gian’s sudden confessions.

The older prince now feigned sorrow, his eyes watered and his mouth was fixed in a sad smile, “Aye, father.” He acknowledged, “It seems that Colter had been seeing visions of a woman, he had drawn her and as I checked it like the loyal brother that I am, it seems she was not Ecanus”

These words created doubt and anger once more in Malik’s thoughts, his fury and rage against the younger prince re-ignited itself. He had been used to Colter’s stubbornness, but to cross the line and jump into a portal for a mortal. It was a cardinal sin.

“A human…” Malik muttered mindlessly while Gian nodded in agreement, the King’s mind filled with various scenarios that would endanger their way of life, Gian had staged this properly in order to gain further favor with his father.

“The rules are clear and simple, the portal is forbidden and as for falling in love with a human, the sacred texts forbid this as humans are greedy and evil by nature.”

Gian simply nodded in agreement, his only way now was to get his father’s favor and destroy Colter’s. The greed of power had overtaken him, as a child he had always been skipped over Colter. He was more gifted, he had the powers that he always wanted and so they had preferred the younger prince over the next in line to the throne.

It was greed, plain greed that pushed this agenda forward. Had Gian cared about the kingdom, he would have given the information earlier instead of pushing it when his chance had come. He had wanted to destroy Colter’s credibility further in front of their father and solidify himself as the heir to the throne.

Unwarranted greed, followed by a lust for power.

Malik stared into the horizon with doubts and a frown, “Yet the artifact had given him the power of fire, it seemed prophetic at the time but what if the artifact itself had made a mistake?”

All this time, Gian had aimed to gain the power of fire. But he was simply given the power over nature. The Ecanus were always split into various groups:

Control over the wind, which were the Ánemos-Ecanus, a strand that focused their energies and essences in manipulating the wind and the gales that came with it.

The Neró-Ecanus, masterful mystics that had gained control over the water and everything related to it. They were a powerful group that had a ‘no nonsense attitude” they were always serious and by the book, Gian thought, remembering how Vergil had almost taken him down because he was defying Ecanus laws at the time.

Dásos-Ecanus, the controllers of the earth and the wild, a common grouping amongst various Ecanus, something that Gian himself was part of. They had total control over the forests and plants, the earth and whatever natural element they tagged themselves in. Yet in combat prowess, they were considered one of the weakest. Gian had detested this, as this was the very power his father decided to give him when he was born.

Lastly are the Fotiá-Ecanus, as rare as the Neró-Ecanus, if not rarer. These are beings that were given the avatar of fire. A trait so rare that one in a million Ecanus only wields this power, and Gian now knows of two. His younger brother and that idiot kid named Ravi. They were seen as the general protector of the kingdom, in ancient scriptures they were usually hailed as the heroes of prophecy.

Gian hated this, he was born with the base powers of the earth, while his brother was immediately granted the power of the flames. All these years they had existed, he simply wanted to to take over his brother’s powers and be a bearer of the fire. He wanted to be a hero in the citizen’s eyes, he always noticed how the common folk treated Colter with high respect and regard. It ate at him.

Had he himself passed by these small villages, he would have been met with disdain and aloofness. Treatments not fitting for a prince, had he the power he would have sentenced these peasants to death.

But now, as Colter stands missing, Gian found his opening to try and gain the power of fire that had been given to his younger brother.

King Malik sighed, turning away from the window and stared intently at Gian, who shook at the weight of his father’s eyes.

“You are the only son left here” Malik announced sadly, “It seems that the throne will now go to you when the time comes, Gian my son, I beg of thee, do not be a disappointment like how your brother was.”

Gian grinned inside maliciously, finally at the very moment he had craved for all his life, on the outside he smiled calmly and nodded.

“Indeed father, I will not let you down.”