Chapter 4: The Prince Called Owain
"Hide your mana mark." Dion pointed towards Nicholas' right arm.
Mana Mark, that's what it was called. Nicholas had been trying to figure out what the glowing rod-like shape on his arm was called, just like many of his memories this one escaped him.
At first he was confused by what Dion meant by hiding the Mana Mark, then he had an inkling to find something in his room. Something hidden from the common eye.
As if by muscle memory, he walked towards his mirror and pulled it as if it were a door. Behind the mirror he found a box in the wall, it resembled a safe with several runes on its face.
"Have you forgotten the spell to open it?" Dion peered from his side.
"No, I got it." Nicholas closed his eyes and took a deep breath. In the darkness, images of four of the runes flashed in his mind.
Nicholas knew immediately what he had to do, he placed the tips of his fingers on them and willed the mana to flow.
Opening the safe was no easy task, a weaker mage would have passed out at the speed the enchanted safe took the mana from the wielder. It was clearly a safe made for truly powerful mages alone.
When the magic behind it had been satisfied, the safe door opened and inside were a set of thin bracelets with the crest of the Corporalis Mages. Another item in the safe was an earring with a single diamond.
"Your mana supressants." Dion reached into the safe and took out the bracelets.
He slipped them on each of Nicholas' wrists.
"Put that on too." Dion pointed at the earring, which Nicholas took out and placed on his earlobe.
As soon as he locked it from behind, Nicholas felt his mana drain from him until there was barely any left.
"If your highness is ready, we must make our way to the banquet hall. Your father will not be happy if you are late." Dion stood by the door as he waited for Nicholas to be ready
Dion accompanied Prince Nicholas out of his chambers.
Nicholas looked around the torch-lit castle walls as they passed. Along the hall hung paintings and tapestries hung every few meters from each other. They depicted war scenes and images of Princes, Princesses, and Kings.
They walked in silence as Nicholas feared anything he said would put them in danger.
"Just stay silent, even if your brothers pick on you as always remain silent. Do not lift your head-" Dion stopped in his tracks and so did Nicholas.
He looked up to see what had stopped his chief adviser, and before them stood an older version of Nicholas, his third older brother, Owain.
Nicholas frowned as he recalled his main tormentor among his siblings. Owain had little love for him and took every moment possible to push Nicholas down.
Owain was not alone, he was with several of his entourage and had stopped the moment he had noticed Nicholas and his lone companion in the hall.
Owain's blue eyes, a trademark sign of the Liber Mages of whom Owain's mother came from, shone with an air of mischief as he looked at his younger brother.
"Well, well, if it isn't King Alexander's favored and pitied son Nicholas. Did you finally deem us worthy of your presence?" Owain's tone was mocking and angry at the same time. He didn't even try to hide his distaste for his younger brother.
Nicholas felt his blood boil as his magic tried to come to the surface, for some unknown reason to Nicholas he wanted Owain to suffer. Maybe his memories held an explanation for his sudden anger towards his brother.
"His highness was ill." Dion answered for Nicholas, putting a hand on Nicholas' shoulder.
In his blinding rage, Nicholas had seemingly gone mute, making Owain think he was afraid. The truth could be no further from this as Nicholas wanted to tear through the man.
"Did I ask you?" Owain said in a cold tone as he looked down at Dion. "Has my little brother lost his voice?"
"No, Owain." Nicholas lifted his chin and looked his brother in the eyes, his voice stern and unmoving.
Owain was clearly not pleased that the weak Prince Nicholas had answered back to him. He promptly marched up to Nicholas and lifted him by the collar, a task that seemed to be all too easy to Owain.
"Your highnesses!" Dion and Owain's entourage began to panic, they knew the consequences that they would face if either prince was hurt.
Owain would suffer even more if the king found out he was beating up his weaker brother whom the king favored.
But Nicholas, who still didn't have all of his memories, assumed that it was because they would be late to the banquet and the king would not be happy to see it.
"My brother and I are having a discussion, stay out of our family matters!" Owain growled as he slammed Nicholas against a wall. Making the weaker prince cringe as his body was not able to cope with the impact.
Nicholas desperately wanted to call on his magic to hurt Owain, but he knew he had to hide his magic.
This time Owain's people began to panic even more, with one of them running away as if to call for help.
"Have I offended you, brother?" Nicholas spat the word brother out as if it were poison on his lips, angering Owain even more.
Owain was silent for a moment as he glared at Nicholas, lifting him higher from the ground. His elder brother was at least a foot taller than the scrawny Nicholas giving him an advantage in this confrontation.
"You are weak and are not worthy of the title Prince of Merlen, you embarrass us all!" Owain screamed at Nicholas as his people tried to get him to let go of Nicholas.
Unfortunately for them, the prince was stronger both in terms of physical and magical strength. There was nothing any of them could do but to wait and watch.
"Owain!" A woman shouted as she arrived running as one of Owain's entourage chased her across the palace hall. "You know the rules! What are you even doing here? This is far from your rooms or the banquet hall!"
The woman was quite fair with her long fiery red hair falling to her waist. Her bright blue eyes, just like Owain's, glistened with anger as she commanded the prince to drop his brother.
Nicholas recognized her to be Owain's mother, Peyra, the king's childhood love.
"Shouldn't you be at the banquet, father commanded all his wives to be there for that despicable woman's death anniversary." Owain spat in a poisonous tone.
"I should be, but I cannot let you break the law. You know that you cannot kill a Prince of Merlen before the king's death!" Peyra reminded her son.
Nicholas then remembered the rule of the land.
Only the King's surviving son, the one that survived the murderous bloodbath of siblings that gave them the right to rule could be crowned the next king of Merlen. Before then the brothers all needed to play nice, should one kill another he would forever forfeit his right to be king.
"Nuisance!" Owain hissed as he threw Nicholas to the ground.
Nicholas felt as some of his bones break and his vision started to blur, physically he was no match against his much larger brother Owain. But he knew that the magic he was keeping hidden was much stronger, it called to him, yearning to be used.
"You should have died long ago with your mother, you are clearly not worthy of being a prince. Are you even the king's son? Can you even command the energies and the shadows as we all can? Your mother was nothing but a whore that seduced my father, are you even his true son?!"
"Owain!" Peyra shouted once more, drawing her son's attention to her.
In his anger, Nicholas felt as his mana slowly drained, he could feel his magic leaving his body in an urge to defeat his enemies and defend his mother's name.
"Your highness, this is not the right time." Dion's hand on his back snapped Nicholas out of his power hungry trance. "Allow me to heal you, your highness."
Nicholas felt as a warm energy, mana, flowed from Dion to him, mending his broken bones, closing his wounds, and erasing the bruises from his skin.
"You are lucky father is still alive, the moment he passes from this world to the next I will come for you first!" Owain declared as he turned and marched towards the direction of the banquet hall.
Nicholas fought every desire in him to send his magic after Owain, he knew he could kill his brother within minutes. He felt as power buzzed through him, he had no idea how he had managed it, but he felt it.
He hated the fact that he was now febly crouched on the ground, pretending to be the weaker brother.
Nicholas laughed as soon as Owain and his people were out of earshot, earning him a curious glance from Dion.
"Your highness? Are you alright?" Dion helped Nicholas back up on his feet as he dusted the now dirty tunic that he wore.
"Owain is a fool." Nicholas' tone was oozing with confidence, catching DIon off guard. "He already tried to beat me up, he knows that I'm not all skin and bones under my oversized garments and yet he looks down at me."
"Prince Owain is not the smartest prince, your highness." Dion said with a slight chuckle. Laughing at a prince was still considered disrespectful.
"I felt my magic, Dion but. . ." Nichola's voice faded away as he was unsure of how to explain what had happened.
"Your highness almost killed both yourself and Prince Owain, I felt the air change when you triggered your magic, the shadows began to move." Dion's face carried an expression of worry, clearly what he had done was dangerous.
Dion's answer only made Nicholas question what had happened even more, but before he could ask, they heard people rushing towards them. Prompting Nicholas to remain silent and simply wait before he could get his answers.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone